AAR – Ronnie vs. Dan (GSv2.01.32) (The War is Over).

[rkr1958]

Introduction.

My reputation among those that I play often is that of one who plays cautiously and sometimes too cautiously. I typically try to follow more or less the “historical” strategy whether or not I’m playing the axis or allies. I will be playing the axis against Dan in this AAR and as the axis I generally find that one more or less has a control over how historical is the game flow. While game experience has, and still is, teaching me to be more aggressive and less cautious it has more importantly taught me to be less rigid in my strategy as the game unfolds. For example, my historical strategy as the axis includes the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece. I use to rigidly adhere to this even if that put me behind launching Barbarossa. However; now I will forgo these conquests if that’s the situation because I have found launching Barbarossa on time or, better yet, early is generally more helpful to the axis war effort than the conquest of the Balkans.

This game is being started with the GSv2.01.32 beta. With betas I especially like to try to follow the historical strategy in order to test how the game plays for the “normal” strategy. I’ll leave testing the edge of the envelop, which is very important but is not my cup of tea, to the more aggressive and unorthodox players like Max, Tor (i.e., Metolius), Morris and others.

Strategy Outline.

• Blitz of Poland – Expected 2 turn conquest. (~5% chance of 1-turn conquest).
• Sitzkrieg – winter 39/40.
• 1939 Lab’s (5 total =>Air, Armor, Infantry, Naval->sub & General->Industry).
• Case Yellow Builds – air leader, fighter & tactical bomber.
• Blitz Holland & Belgium – first fair weather turn of 1940.
• Efficient (i.e., low cost) conquest of France by July 1940.
• 1940 Labs - 2nd labs (Air, Armor, Infantry, Naval->sub & General ->Industry).
• July/August invasion and conquest of Denmark & Norway.
• German Mech w/leader, 2 infantry corps & 2 fighters reinforcement of Libya (1940 - 1941) – Defense only.
• 6 subs (3 additional builds) hunting allied convoys.
• 1940 fair weather invasion of Yugoslavia.
• Late 1940 or early 1941 conquest of Greece.
• June 2, 1941 (Turn 33) Invasion of Russia (Barbarossa).

The outline I present here is only that. It is not a detailed strategy but a general outline that I hope to follow. However; I will adapt as the game unfolds.

Scoring.

I will fill in this table as the game progresses to score myself against the historical record. I did this once against the AI using the historical invasion dates (or as close as I could get to them). However; in this AAR I will not constrain myself to those dates or to even all the countries invaded. I am not familiar with Dan’s style and this will definitely be a learning experience for me. Also, I hope this AAR to be a vehicle for discussion and feedback on game balance under “normal” conditions. I am looking forward to this AAR and hope you are too.

[Cybvep]

Very interesting. I will definitely follow this one .

Good luck!

[rkr1958]

The Polish Campaign

Polish Blitz Attack Plan

My Polish Blitz strategy is a derivate of the one that I presented in: viewtopic.php?p=185183#185183 , which is no longer a valid strategy due to the following change that will be included in the upcoming patch and that’s in the current beta. “90. A ground unit can’t attack if it ends it move adjacent to a previously unspotted unit.”

The objective of my Polish Blitz is a two turn and low loss conquest of Poland. The objective on turn 1 is to attack the infantry corps in Warsaw with 1 tactical bomber and 2 armor corps. To-date, I’ve been able to accomplish that 14 out of 16 trials (87.5%) and have achieved, on average, leaving the corps in Warsaw at 3.8-steps. I’ve yet to achieve a 1-turn conquest but this is consistent with the prior estimate of 5 to 6% and only 16 samples. I did however have the poor luck of taking three turns in one trial (6%); but luckily this was a hotseat game.



(1) The first attack is on the infantry corps two hexes southwest of Danzig. The objective of this attack is to force the corps to retreat towards Danzig. To that end, DO NOT move the garrison two hexes northwest of Danzig and capture the city. If you do, then the corps if it retreats will retreat in the wrong direction. The Polish corps is first hit by a fighter airstrike followed by an infantry attack. This has resulted in a retreat in 14 of the 16 trials or 88% of the time.



(2) The second attack is on the garrison that’ 3 hexes directly south of Danzig. This garrison is hidden at the DOW. The objective of this attack is to destroy the garrison by tactical bomber airstirke and ground attacks by a mech and then infantry corps.



(3) The third attack is the destruction of the infantry corps on the Polish border and two hexes southwest of Lodz. This is often accomplished by three German infantry corps but may require a fourth.



(4) The fourth attack is the destruction of the garrison in and the capture of the city Lodz. A fighter airstrike is first used to soften up the defenders followed by an armor corps crossing the Wartz and attacking from the same side of the river. The remaining attacks will be made across the river by two or three infantry corps and a mech. Note the infantry corps in blue. If you can accomplish all these attacks without using this corps then it can be moved southeast of Lodz across the Warta and will provide flank protection of the units used in this attack and of the attack of Warsaw.



(5) If all has gone well then you will be able to attack the infantry corps in Warsaw with a tactical bomber and two armor corps. The airstike should go first, followed by an armor corps attacking the city from the northwest and then the southwest. This will minimize exposure of your armor corps to counterattacks. Assuming no 1-turn knockout of Poland I’ve highlighted additional moves in blue that provide rear and flank protection.



Case White – Opening Days.

Case White is the code name for the German invasion of Poland. There’s an old saying in war that one’s battleplan will last up to the first contact with the enemy. My attack against Poland proved that out. My first attack against the Polish corps 2-hexes southwest of Danzig went nothing like expected. The designated airstrike and corps attack failed to force the corps to retreat. This meant that I needed to totally destroy it. After attacks by a garrison and a second corps the Polish corps still survived at 1-step. It took a second fighter airstrike, which was originally assigned to the Lodz attack (4), to finally finish it off. This left only the tactical bomber and mechanized corps to take care of the Polish garrison 2 hexes northwest of Warsaw (2). Though I haven’t explicitly capture data on this attack my estimate is that attack with a bomber and mech will eliminate the garrison 20 to 25% of the time. I still had a chance to salvage my plan. Of course, it didn’t work and the garrison survived at 2 or 3-steps. I was required to modify my original plan during the heat of the battle.



I was able to get a tact and 1 armor corps attack against Warsaw, which only manage to knock off 3-steps. The last screen cap shows my situation at the end of my first turn. Though things didn’t go as plan the final situation wasn’t that bad.



Case White – Finals Days.

Poland was finished off without incident in my second turn. I’ve included a summary of my losses and cost in both PP’s and manpower. I’ve also include the same data from two other games that I’m currently playing. Note that my conquest of Poland was better than the historical date scoring me a green in that column.

With Case White successfully concluded the focus is now on redeploying my ground and air forces to the West and waiting for the first fair weather turn in 1940 to launch Case Yellow. These forces will be rested, repaired and reinforced with an air leader, airborne division, fighter and tactical bomber units before then.





The German sub fleet; however will go convoy hunting. Sub flotilla 2 ambushed an allied convoy this turn in the North Atlantic near the northeast coast of Canada. Flotillas 1 and 3 have left the Baltic via Kiel and are currently off the coast of Norway heading for the Atlantic.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. October 11, 1939 Axis.

Sitzkrieg except for a bit of air and sub action. Interesting ... Dan hit Colonge with the RAF SAC bomber unescorted. He got the worst of the encounter losing 3 steps to 1. However; if he continues to be this aggressive with allied air then I will need to build two new fighters versus one new fighter and tac bomber for Case Yellow.

[rkr1958]

Turn 4. October 31, 1939 Axis.

Sitzkrieg.

[Cybvep]

All is quiet on the Western Front.

I think that your choice of a sea hex was risky. You might have attacked the convoy in two possible hexes and there was the possibility of wasting a move by appearing "on" convoy, while if you moved one hex west, you might have been able to attack the convoy in THREE possible hexes and there would be no risk of wasting a move. Not that it mattered in this case, but still...

[rkr1958]

All is quiet on the Western Front.

I think that your choice of a sea hex was risky. You might have attacked the convoy in two possible hexes and there was the possibility of wasting a move by appearing "on" convoy, while if you moved one hex west, you might have been able to attack the convoy in THREE possible hexes and there would be no risk of wasting a move. Not that it mattered in this case, but still...

Yeah, I miscounted. It wasn't until I was doing the graphic for this AAR that I saw I could have chosen a more optimum hex. I'm not so sure my choice of hex was dangerous. Though, anytime you move a sub into an unspotted hex there's a chance that you'll "surface" in the middle of allied escorts.

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. November 20, 1939 Axis.

The Phoney War.





I've never played Dan or seen any games from him so I don't know if he's going to bring a strong BEF to France or not. Interesting though, there's a little bit of banter going on between us about this.

Nothing to report other than swarms of British troops swarming into France, drinking wine and enjoying the damoiselles.

Good. That'll make invading England all the more easier.

[Cybvep]

Where do you plan to use the paratroopers? Norway?

[richardsd]

Dan mostly follows the 'norm' in the game, he is however more aggressive than you might expect.

So helpful

cheers

[rkr1958]

Where do you plan to use the paratroopers? Norway?

I generally use them in France.

Dan mostly follows the 'norm' in the game, he is however more aggressive than you might expect.

So helpful

cheers

Thanks. Nice G-2.

[rkr1958]

Turn 7. December 30, 1939 Axis.

The phoney war continues. Historically, the winter of 1939 in Western Europe was one of the coldest on record, which interfered with France's attempt to build additional defensive fortifications. Though France's and Britain's mobilization produce impressive numbers of troops for most of these troops their hearts wasn't in it and they longed for this madness to be over and for home. For the French solider this madness would be over by early summer but not in the way they expected.

[Schnurri]

Always been wondering how the historical accounts of weather compare to historical records, versus anecdotes. if you go to:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/giste ... 00&pol=reg

you can see a map for the Northern Hemisphere cold season (Nov. - Apr.) and it ranks as relatively warm relative to the 1951-1980 base period.

this map shows Dec. - Feb. and it is also somewhat warmer.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/giste ... 00&pol=reg

[rkr1958]

Turn 8. February 8, 1940 Axis. Case Yellow!

No more phoney war. An early thaw and fair weather returns to Central Europe. Case Yellow is launch and Holland and Belgium are easily dispatched. Note that I did use the German airborne this turn. I decided not to advance the forward infantry corps that finished of the Brussels defenders. Instead, I used the German airborne to capture an empty city.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. February 28, 1940 Axis.

Mud! Dagumit! It would be a cruel joke of the weather gods to give me fair weather on Feb 8 but poor weather on the following two turns. Well see next turn.

[rkr1958]

Turn 11. March 19, 1940 Axis.

Mud/rain!

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. April 8, 1940 Axis.

[Cybvep]

It's good that paratroopers are cheap.

Your overall advance looks good. I expect that the French will withdraw behind the river.

[Plaid]

Whats the point droping para like this anyway?
Even if not intercepted very likely to be destroyed during allied turn, as both french mechs are green and full strength.

[rkr1958]

Turn 13. April 28, 1940 Axis.

It was a good turn!