Slitherine

I've yet to win a game as axis in PBEM, but in one game in particular I am getting soundly thrashed. I intend to soldier on to the end, but am feeling a bit chagrined. So I'm looking for some moral support. Anyone care to share your worst experience playing as axis?

Here is mine.

After failing to take Paris till October 1939, I focused exclusively on the strongest Barbarossa I could muster. Hit my opponent hard in early June 1941, crossed the Dneiper in strength in three places (something I had not accomplished in previous PBEMs so was feeling pretty confident) and wounded his Russian generals four times. Also killed a few of his better offensive units. But...since I was doing so well I kept rolling along after September and when severe winter hit I got clobbered. He apparently adopted the pell mell retreat for Russia and fell back well behind the Dnieper into the woods near Moscow, unbeknownst to me.

It is now May 1942 and my worthy foe has encircled 14! of my units south of those woods with little hope of my rescuing them, and the way is open to Warsaw I did manage to repulse his invasion of France, and am holding him to the toe of Italy but there is cold comfort in that.

Back to school for me. No complaints, but humbled nonetheless.

BTW, I feel better now

From the statistics of the number of 'ultimate victories' scored by Allied players, I'd say your experience is pretty typical, actually.

The Axis war machine is a beast, but if things start getting a little out of alignment, the wheels come off pretty quick. It is really easy to run out of oil, men and/or PPs, even without making any enormous blunders.

Of course, the Allies can still make a hash of it – invading Europe too early, or something – and the Germans can be pretty strong on defense. But as the stats show, the odds are strongly in favor of the Allies at that point.

I'm giving a great player like Joerock a fight to the very end being the Axis. We're in January 1945 and still we can't tell who will be the eventual winner. The game can actually end with a draw. So it's not like the Axis side has no chance and the game will end with a strategic or better Allied victory if both sides are equal.

I agree that playing the Axis is quite challenging and if you make a big mistake you will be severely punished. You have to be good both on the offensive and the defensive. Many Axis players know how to attack, but fail to defend properly to delay the inevitable, i. e. the fall of Berlin.

Some Axis players like Supermax seems to be able to get to Omsk in 1942 and win a strategic or ultimate Axis victory. So a good player will win against an inferior player regardless of the side he's playing.

You have to know about the weaknesses of the Axis and make sure won't run out of oil and drop the manpower level too fast.

Hmm, quickest way to lose as the Axis?

This reminds me of my first game playing CEAW (Vanilla version). I was playing Allies and I decided to send a large British force to France to try to make it last as long as possible. My opponent who had played a few times observed this and launched Sea Lion without waiting for France to fall in mid-1940. I desperately sold off all my research and dug in along the Thames and formed a line with mostly garrisons and infantry. I thought I was doomed for sure, but he landed without air support (didn't have secured territory in France in range for his Stukas) and so I was able to basicly hold the line as he had no air support and no ports for supply). Since he sent most of his armor to England (which I hit as best as I could with the RAF before it landed), his offensive in France slowed to a crawl. France did not fall until early 1941. I had managed to reduce his front line troops in England to relatively low strengths through attrition so he could not launch good attacks. Unfortunately for him, he continued to build land units and land them behind his front line such that he couldn't move damaged units from the front line. Fighting raged in GB until the US and the SU entered the war. He had not managed to take a port. He had London cut off once and reduced to 2 steps but it held out. Soon thereafter he did secure a port but had to withdraw what troops he had left to attempt to shore up his virtually non-existent eastern front from the onrushing Soviet steamroller. The game ended in December 1942.

As crazy as the game was, we both learned a lot from it. I think the important thing to know is that small mistakes as the Axis can lead to dramatic and quick collapses elsewhere. It doesn't mean you are a terrible player, just that you might want to rethink your tactics/strategies for the next war...

TotalerKrieg wrote:As crazy as the game was, we both learned a lot from it. I think the important thing to know is that small mistakes as the Axis can lead to dramatic and quick collapses elsewhere. It doesn't mean you are a terrible player, just that you might want to rethink your tactics/strategies for the next war...

Now that's what I'm talkin' about. Thankfully, the end comes mercifully quick if you really blow it. And yes, much to learn in defeat, maybe more so than in victory.

Nobody else has a tale of woe to share?

*Get into a big naval fight.
*Put research before getting new units.
*Make the main attack through Finland.

Sure fire way to lose as the Axis! I held out until a month after the real life surrender but my opponent was useless.

Is it really wrong to get research before new units? I always do that (against AI only so far).

patton wrote:Is it really wrong to get research before new units? I always do that (against AI only so far).

In GS as the axis my strategy is to buy one research lab in each area, which I do by the end of 1939. Then, I build a fighter and a tactical bomber. After that, I'll buy my second lab in each area (except for naval, which I have focus in subs). As the allies, I try to build as many labs as possible and keep them max'ed out as early as possible.

Yeah, that's what I do. Get all the labs up to one each in the '39, then up to 2 in '40. That gives me time for some air units. I do get 2 in navy. Perhaps I don't need to as subs scale up very fast even with one.