Slitherine

Normally I will not write guides for how to play the game since it more fun for the community finding out this themselves. But since Subs seem abit misunderstood I will post some ideas on how to get the most out of them.

Hints for Axis sub warfare:
- A good sub is a living sub. Do not overdo, do not use the Subs too early (wait until France falls), wait until you have numbers, TECH and use them in packs. Do not use them on the "water highways" near Britain unless you really have a stronger navy than the Allies have (quite unlikley but sometimes possible if they sent alot of navy to the Mediterranean). The golden age of Subs is probably in 1941-1943 so make sure you have not been doing prematurely fruitless attempts spoiling this opportunity.

- Use the Sub in combination with other threats because UK has a limited budget. After France surrender, pressuring UK by using air duels and bombing UK cities (will cost UK alot intercepting) combined with Italian naval action in the Mediterranean (might divert some UK navy there to help out near Egypt) and combined with a pack of 4-5 Axis subs showing up in some far west location attacking convoy means UK cannot afford doing all at once.

- Do not think you can fight the whole royal navy instead hit & move. Try to find a new place to hit again some turns later. Count UK Destroyers, if you see they have built destroyers then you know you need to be more cautious and await more tech and new subs to be strong enough. Often UK cannot afford building destroyers, investing in tech, replacing air casualties over Britain an help out Egypt at the same time so just be smart and do not overdo or kill yourself because if you mess up it will take the pressure off the UK

- There are 3 convoy routes and protecting them all means Allies need to use 1/3 of its navy while Axis can focus them all in one big pack. Use this to your advantage but do not stand too close to the large ant hill (=UK) because standing in the middle of the trail you will be attacked

- Use the Sub invisibility feature to your advantage. Remember as soon as you attack you become spottable to the enemy. Sometimes a large sub pack can even neglect attacking with all Subs just to leave some of them covering and doing a suprise attack on the first incoming ships that try to attack your newly spotted Subs. The turn after your attacks on convoys you can just move again and become invisible.

Where does the axis player get all those production points to build the subs and planes? My experience has the germans struggling to keep up with current losses, never mind building all the chrome units

After France is conquered, Axis have roughly one year to build up forces, conquer some valuable land and try to keep pressure on the increasingly outnumbered UK. In fact, Axis can delay barbarossa for a while going for a "late barbarossa strategy" which mean focusing more on pressuring UK before attacking USSR. That is what is nice with the turns being only 2 weeks, that you actually have 18 turns per year and have time to get some "work" done in the mid game.

But of course, if Axis conquer Paris very late then it will be very hard to have the time to invest in Subs.

the last point applied to me, an excellent allied defence in France resulted in Paris falling in early 1941!, leaving little time for conquering the balkans or building for barbarossa.

Just need some more practice, Dave!

Nice advices Johan Its true that I began to have some success wiht my UBoats when I started to use them in packs instead of isolated strikes.

Vyp: As of dave comments, I am alway amazed to see how people always complain: if the games is too easy they complain and if they have a good challenge they complain also!. I am honest enough to say that I lost my first campaign and I am happy about it. I like challenge!

syagrius wrote:Nice advices Johan Its true that I began to have some success wiht my UBoats when I started to use them in packs instead of isolated strikes.

Vyp: As of dave comments, I am alway amazed to see how people always complain: if the games is too easy they complain and if they have a good challenge they complain also!. I am honest enough to say that I lost my first campaign and I am happy about it. I like challenge!

I am not complaining, I am stating facts!

I believe the problem is I am talking about human v human play and everyone else is talking about AI play. A competent allied human player WILL delay your conquest of France and cause you large casualties in the process. This is historical as you could not get more inept than the actual French command.

It appears that the game may not be balanced for non AI play, if balance is what we are after?

Of course we don't know what the results of the beta tests revealed. i wonder how many head to head complete campaigns were played?

In my next TCPIP effort starting in 1941 might be better.

The game is screaming for a scenario editor

Ah ok, if your talking about multiplayer in this case I dont know, because I am only playing solo. True that a human player will make the conquest of France and low countries a lot more problematic.

No, I balanced it for TCP/IP or human vs. human more than for AI, though we did have to make some tweaks for the AI we tried keeping them neutral.

I would gladly play you as Axis and show you how to do it

Now that i would like to watch!