Slitherine

pk867 wrote:Hi,
I have been reading the AAR ..... great action. I would like to point out, we did testing with random research turned off that is the normal setting for playing the old BJR mod, and the game starts in that setting. So hopefully you are getting good upgrades and not supermax.

I will cling onto that hope

PanzerGeneral,

I've noticed that the city and port names are not showing on your map. Do you manually apply the GS expansion or use the installer?

The city names are defined in the file ww2_city_eng.txt file in the data directory. Is that file there? Is it ok?

rkr1958 wrote:PanzerGeneral,

I've noticed that the city and port names are showing on your map. Do you manually apply the GS expansion or use the installer?

The city names are defined in the file ww2_city_eng.txt file in the data directory. Is that file there? Is it ok?

I manually applied the GS expansion, as I could not get the installer to apply the GS expansion on my CEAW Gold version.

The ww2_city_eng.txt is in the data directory. It looks ok (the port names are in it), so I assume that is why they are displayed.

19. January 1940, France is defending itself
The weather.


A Werhmacht mech korps has advanced into the French defences. My garrison units are unable to surround it. The French spend all their PPs on repairs. The Maginot line is evacuated. The troops are needed to defend Paris.

Supermax has sunk my French sub. I spot a lone German DD. I send in my French BB in attempt to sink it. Supermax has turned my sub strategy against me! The French BB run into a uboat where my French uboat was located.

The Brits use the RAF to attack the Luftwaffe and DD in order to make Supermax spend some energy on repairing resting the Luftwaffe before the next attack on France.

I think the city names have disappeare because you've toggled them off by mistake. If you look at your minimap you see some small icons above them. If you click on the star icon with the circle surrounding it then you will get the names back. The button is called Name Toggle and is number 2 from the right. The zoom spyglass is the rightmost one. Can you try this out?

Stauffenberg wrote:I think the city names have disappeare because you've toggled them off by mistake. If you look at your minimap you see some small icons above them. If you click on the star icon with the circle surrounding it then you will get the names back. The button is called Name Toggle and is number 2 from the right. The zoom spyglass is the rightmost one. Can you try this out?

You are correct Borger. I have suppressed the city names as they cluttered up my view.

8. February 1940, France is defending itself, the RAF attacks the Luftwaffe
The weather.


The British scientists work overtime.


Paris is about to get surrounded. The French have not enough PPs to repair all their units. The garrisons along the Maginot line attempt futile counterattacks in order to try to cause some German casualties. The attacks fail utterly. No Wehrmacht casualties observed, but heavy French casualties.

The Luftwaffe is under strength and my RAF spot a chance to inflict some damage. The RAF and the French air force attack. They suffer no casualties, but inflict just few casualties on the Luftwaffe.

PanzerGeneral,

Supermax's air is depleted. If he uses his air next turn against Paris he is going to take some losses.

Again if you don't mind would you post the German and UK (only) losses and the fall date of Paris. The UK (only) losses will exclude minor allied loses including Polish air losses. It's ok if you have to estimate it. We (the development team) want to collect more statistics on the fall of France now that the GS expansion has been released and we can get data from a larger group of players.

Also, one piece of advice that I can offer and which I've used in games that I've both lost and won (but mainly lost). That is, choose a course of action and stick to it. If you lose you lose. But, if you're constantly reacting to your opponents move and allowing them to set the terms of the game then you will lose. At least, if you follow a course of action that you set you'll have a chance and more fun along the way. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't adapt to surprises or changing game dynamics. You should, but I'm recommending that you don't overreact and give up on your strategies too soon. This advice and 50-cents will get you a cup of coffee.

The main thing is have fun and enjoy the game. It takes "courage" to post in an AAR for the world to see and comment on; especially when you have your hands full with a very good opponent. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

rkr1958 wrote:Also, one piece of advice that I can offer and which I've used in games that I've both lost and won (but mainly lost). That is, choose a course of action and stick to it. If you lose you lose. But, if you're constantly reacting to your opponents move and allowing them to set the terms of the game then you will lose. At least, if you follow a course of action that you set you'll have a chance and more fun along the way. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't adapt to surprises or changing game dynamics. You should, but I'm recommending that you don't overreact and give up on your strategies too soon. This advice and 50-cents will get you a cup of coffee.

I definitely second that advice. Supermax likes to set the tone of a game, and I can tell you from experience that if you don't take the initiative from him you won't beat him. That's much easier said than done though.

PanzerGeneral,

I also noticed that the French fighter is within reach of the German fighter airbases. Do lose the opportunity to take advantage of that if it looks like France is about to fall.

Also, one other thing you can do if it looks like France is about to fall is fly the two UK fighters and UK strategic bomber to three French coastal cities on Atlantic west coast. On the turn that Supermax captures Paris move them back and the UK now controls those three cities. And the only way he can capture them is overland.

You should have bought some french corps and not only garrisons. The french forces are not only for delalying german offensive. They have a little chance (only a little) to be sucessful against the germans and this means these ones take Paris anyway but at a higher price.

Supermax will take Paris next turn. You now have a golden opportunity to really hurt him. Use your 2 British fighters and French fighter to attack the German airbases. Go for the tac bomber bases with your strongest fighters. This way you get both fighter interceptions and bomber attacks. You can severely hurt his airforce before you lose France and that means he must spend a lot of PP's and also time to repair losses.

Make sure you use ALL 3 fighters asap for these attacks. It will be too late soon. His fighters are so depleted so he should take more losses than you. Counter attack with French forces still remaining against depleted German units just to inflict some extra steps.

Can you post the German and British losses when Paris falls? It will be interesting to see. I have a feeling Supermax has paid a heavy price to take Paris early. Actually he didn't take Paris so early. I managed to take Paris in April against Ronnie when I attacked in February and I probably lost a lot less steps than he did. But we will find out when you post the losses stats when Paris falls.

joerock22 wrote:

rkr1958 wrote:Also, one piece of advice that I can offer and which I've used in games that I've both lost and won (but mainly lost). That is, choose a course of action and stick to it. If you lose you lose. But, if you're constantly reacting to your opponents move and allowing them to set the terms of the game then you will lose. At least, if you follow a course of action that you set you'll have a chance and more fun along the way. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't adapt to surprises or changing game dynamics. You should, but I'm recommending that you don't overreact and give up on your strategies too soon. This advice and 50-cents will get you a cup of coffee.

I definitely second that advice. Supermax likes to set the tone of a game, and I can tell you from experience that if you don't take the initiative from him you won't beat him. That's much easier said than done though.

Yep, it is easier said than done. Right now all I can do is roll with his punches.
Supermax beat up the Royal navy which I had to pull back. Right now the allied air force is my strongest bet to inflict some Luftwaffe casualties.

leridano wrote:You should have bought some french corps and not only garrisons. The french forces are not only for delalying german offensive. They have a little chance (only a little) to be sucessful against the germans and this means these ones take Paris anyway but at a higher price.

I agree but the problem is that Supermax is an aggressive brute
He attacked Holland on the second turn and then had the fortune of a very nice autumn weather and continued through Belgium and then straight to France. France never had the opportunity to purcahse new units, as I spent some PPs on shipping garrisons from North Africa to France the first couple of turns. When the Germans attacked France early on, all PPs have been spent on repairs.

If he had applied the sitzkrieg strategy I would have had some time to buy more units. The French have had an average income of 15 PPs per turn, thus not very much for purchasing.

Stauffenberg wrote:I have a feeling Supermax has paid a heavy price to take Paris early. Actually he didn't take Paris so early. I managed to take Paris in April against Ronnie when I attacked in February and I probably lost a lot less steps than he did. But we will find out when you post the losses stats when Paris falls.

Sure! Go ahead and rub it in.

Stauffenberg wrote:Supermax will take Paris next turn. You now have a golden opportunity to really hurt him. Use your 2 British fighters and French fighter to attack the German airbases. Go for the tac bomber bases with your strongest fighters. This way you get both fighter interceptions and bomber attacks. You can severely hurt his airforce before you lose France and that means he must spend a lot of PP's and also time to repair losses.

Make sure you use ALL 3 fighters asap for these attacks. It will be too late soon. His fighters are so depleted so he should take more losses than you. Counter attack with French forces still remaining against depleted German units just to inflict some extra steps.

Panzergeneral, Ignore my advice to take the French coastal cities. I'd follow Borger's advice above to attack the German airbases. You can also use your strategic bomber to hit a German ground unit not in a city and after your fighter attacks.

When it comes to advice, Borger outranks me.

Also, I think the only mistake you've made so far is losing part of the RN; especially your CV. I think you've played everything else very well. Though Supermax will take Paris earlier than the average the cost he's going to pay in losses will be very high. This game is not over by a long shot. You just need to be careful as you're about to enter the most dangerous and "lonely" time for the Allies. That is, when the UK stands alone against the mighty German war machine.

joerock22 wrote:

rkr1958 wrote:Also, one piece of advice that I can offer and which I've used in games that I've both lost and won (but mainly lost). That is, choose a course of action and stick to it. If you lose you lose. But, if you're constantly reacting to your opponents move and allowing them to set the terms of the game then you will lose. At least, if you follow a course of action that you set you'll have a chance and more fun along the way. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't adapt to surprises or changing game dynamics. You should, but I'm recommending that you don't overreact and give up on your strategies too soon. This advice and 50-cents will get you a cup of coffee.

I definitely second that advice. Supermax likes to set the tone of a game, and I can tell you from experience that if you don't take the initiative from him you won't beat him. That's much easier said than done though.

So true. Ironically, similar advice helped PanzerGeneral prevail in his game against you and Ike99.

I have a feeling Supermax is a player who expects to keep the iniative and that if he's aggressive enough his opponent will feel that defending is the only option. That plays into Supermax'es hands.

If you go after the Axis airbases then you might actually kill the 3 step fighter and seriously deplete the 2 tac bombers. It will cost a fortune to repair these losses and it will delay the time Sealion (if it happens) can start. Supermax also has a lot of land force losses (armor etc.). It won't be cheap to repair these losses.

He might do it quickly if he has ignored building 2 labs in every area, but then you will get a tech advantage later in the game. I think his playing style is risky and it can easily backfire against a great opponent who won't panic after seeing such aggressive Axis play.

Remember that the game will be decided in Russia. If Supermax is burning a lot of energy in the west and maybe even continue with attacks upon England then he won't have the strength to blitz Russia in 1941. Your main task until the initiative changes is to deny him access to more oil. That means defending Egypt and even more Iraq is more important than defending the British Isles. In Russia you need to defend the south at all cost. Deny Supermax access to more oil and his offensive will eventually run out of steam. Since he's so aggressive I also sense that he will get manpower issues faster than most Axis players.

So this game is only lost if the Allied player believes he's losing.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

The plan for the RAF is to stay in England and deliver some punches to the Luftwaffe. Hopefully knocking of some steps and force Supermax to spend his valuable PPs on repairs, and delay Sealion for a couple of turns. With the expected early fall of France, I assume that Sealion will occur this summer. If Supermax wants to go for England I am willing to sacrifice it, and fight a delaying action and save the RAF and Royal navy to fight another day. Sealion should shift his focus from the Middle East and that suits me fine. As Borger mentioned the name of the game is oil. Sealion will force Supermax to burn a lot of oil, which means less oil for his adventures in Russia. And I assume that he won't do Sealion and the Middle East before Barbarossa.

My strategy for England is to start to save up on PPs. The plan is to use them on infantry for coastal defenses. I will probably go for garrisons as I can get most defense for my PPs. As of now I have not yet decided on my strategy. Should I wait before I buy and deploy my defences along the English coast? Without any visible defense, England should be a very tempting target. Hopefully the RAF will spot when Supermax sends the Wehrmacht over the English Channel. This should give me just enough time to buy and deploy my defenses. I feel that this strategy is a bit risky, the coastal defenses will not have enough time to entrench and will I spot the invasion force in time. But if Supermax suddenly spots that my garrisons are popping up along the English coast he might get second thoughts and send his invasion force back to France! The other strategy is just to start investing in infantry and deploy them one by one, and shift them towards the expected invasion area when Supermax launches Sealion.

I wouldn't get cute if I were you. Cover the invasion beaches within fighter range of the French coast as fast as you can.

28. February 1940, The end is near in France, the RAF attacks the Luftwaffe again
The weather.


The British scientists work overtime again.


Paris is almost surrounded. All available French PPs are used to repair the corps in Paris. I order the rest of the French army for a general attack. All army units attack the Wehrmacht. The French suffer very heavy casualties for very few German losses.

The French air force and the RAF attack the Luftwaffe and inflict a few casualties.

I do not expect Paris to hold out any more.


The Brits get a convoy through (25 PPs). They buy a General lab and a garrison unit.

The convoy with troops from Canada will arrive in England shortly.