poll do axis need more oil

[Peter Stauffenberg]

It seems to me that people who run out of oil too early are too "trigger happy". They build lots of subs, air units, armor etc. and use them as often as possible. E. g. even when it's winter they use the air units to bombard enemy units just to inflict some damage.

If you do that you simply run out of oil. A clever player will rail the oil consuming units if it's possible, only attack if the attack serves a purpose (conquering a city etc.). When the weather is mud / winter then it's best to rest your oil consuming units unless the attack is very important. By being aware that oil is precious you can have decent oil levels to the very end.

It's also very important to protect the oil produced in Leuna, Scholven, Nagykanitsa and Ploesti. A good Allied player will bombard these resources as often as possible.

Some people build too many armor and mech units and move with them all the time. Then you simply run out of oil too soon. Most units should be corps units and mech / armor will be where your major spearheads are.

[BuddyGrant]

I have no doubt there are varying abilities of competence in the way different users play the game, and that the best Axis players will be able to keep most or all of their oil burning units functioning past 1942. Personally, I think dealing with the oil and manpower shortages is one of the most interesting area's of the game and something that I don't feel has ever been covered as well in any other strategic WW2 game.

That said, I doubt Germany was holding back units in 1939 and 1940 to conserve oil, and in CEAW GS you definitely have to hold back from what the axis did historically. Where that tipping point is for oil and/or manpower shortages is a design decision based on historic data and game parity - both sides absolutely need an equal chance to win the game. It does not matter to me what is in GS since I'm going to just edit the data anyway, but if you are seeing that the Allied side is winning a majority of the time then increasing axis oil is one area you at least have to consider.

Note: It sounds like there are some significant oil related changes in GS v2.0 so when this version is released perhaps the axis oil concern issue will be moot?

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Two of the bigger German weaknesses were low oil production and lower manpower reserves than e. g. USSR and also USA. Germany had high quality troops and equipment, but couldn't continue the war for very long without running out of good soldiers and oil to use their armor, air and naval units.

This is a fact and a good strategic WW2 game should have some kind of simulation of this. E. g. in WIFFE you have oil consumption and it limits what the Germans and even more the Japanese can do.

I think the main reason the real Germans didn't think of manpower and oil issues in 1939-1940 was because they didn't think the war would last so long so it would have become an issue. The German High Command hoped the British would make a peace agreement in 1940 after the fall of France and then Russia would be conquered in 1941. Germany would certainly have lasted this long.

In GS every Axis player knows the war will last till May 1945 and you must plan accordingly. It's very unlikely you can make a victory before 1942. So you can't compare a game (where we know quite a lot) and the real war (where they fighting sides knew very little of what would happen in the future).

[vakarr]

I think that rather than give the Germans more oil, the allies should be subject to ths same restriction, so if Russia loses the Caucausus and Britain loses the middle east they begin to have some oil supply problems. Withouth those two sources the Allies would be left with the USA and Venezuela as their only sources, and this would not be enough (particularly as different types of oil are sourced from different locations).