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[Japo]

This game is just great, it's the best and most serious military strategy wargame I've ever seen. I achieved a major victory in Norway, capturing 20 flags, without any troop losses! :brain: Well I lost plenty of ships but they were auxiliary so I don't care. Here's the casualties report for the battle:

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This game actually encourages you to play a battle over again if you didn't get a major victory, that way you learn most, and it doesn't get repetitive. I also achieved major victories in both polish battles. In the first battle I purchased two artillery batteries, and one cheap Panzer I tank. The Panzer I are nearly worthless but good enough to take care of those annoying polish cavalrymen out in the open, and besides the sooner you purchase and start to use a unit, the sooner it'll start to gain experience which it will keep when upgraded. The first battle is really easy if you've read the game manual, and you can easily take all cities except Ozorkow and Brzeziny to maximize your prestige.

For the second battle I upgraded my two Panzer I and my one Panzer II to Panzer 3, and I also upgraded my best motorized infantry to engineers. Engineers are kickass assault troops, they don't even need artillery support, not only they've got better attack and defence, also rugged defence can't be put up against them, and they've got higer initiative --in this game shooting first is a matter of life or death. Pioneers are just like that but engineers can in addition build temporary bridges. Precisely in this battle for Warzaw the best option is crossing the Vistula west of Modlin with a small detachment to kill the artillery deployed just NW of Modlin and place an infantry unit in its place so that the Poles can't recruit from that city. If you attack Modlin from the SE after Warzaw, you'll lose much more time and they'll have crucial artillery support.

The key to capturing Siedice in time for a major victory was sending one tank and one motorized infantry as soon as possible. In this battle the Poles have a crappy fighter and you must purchase air units, I bought two fighters and two bombers. The bombers are the key to take with small detachments distant cities where the artillery can't make it in time, such as Siedice, or Namsos in the following scenario.

Finally for Norway I upgraded my four tanks to Panzer IV and my three artillery batteries. I also bought two more fighters and two more bombers. This battle is a pain in the behind for air superiority, and sea superiority is something the enemy will have, but after some very hard days around Trondheim I finally got air superiority once I sent the fighters north. My strategy was the following. My tanks started to operate independent of my main assault groups, there isn't much useful support they can lend in the beginning anyway. Two of them were deployed in the Norwegian Sea off the shores of Alesund and Molde, and the other two in the Skagerrak (straits between Norway and Denmark) off Kristiansand and Arendal. They can capture that undefended cities during the first turns, and then move on to take other cities like Bergen, Andalsnes and Kongsberg --some air or sea support should be lent since those cities are defended.

There were two main assault groups: one for Oslo and one for Trondheim. I deployed one fighter and one bomber in Stavanger, the same for Trondheim. The only land troops I used to take Stavanger was one artillery that afterwards raced to join the Oslo group, and the two auxiliary paratrooper units. The two main groups along with the tanks were to converge on Lillehammer once their objectives were accomplished, and all the cities west of the Lagen river can be taken easily.

Your naval units in the Norwegian Sea must defeat the enemy ships over there and then sacrifice themlselves --you don't lose anything since they're auxiliary-- putting up a fight against the ones coming from the east. You could retreat them westwards so they could join the rest of your ships to get better chances but that would take forever and if you don't let the enemy ships massacre them, they'll massacre your troops at Trondheim instead and you just can't let that happen. Actually once I took Trondheim and my northern flotilla was no more, the enemy fleet started to pound my units near the coast. I was forced to purchase the cheapest auxiliary troops available (anti-tank) and place them in Trondheim so they pounded it instead as my core units headed south towards Lillehammer. For some stupid reason most of your fleet is where you don't need it and it's too far from the critical area off Trondheim. Also air units are ineffective against ships, contrarily to what I thought they should be, so my plans of gaining sea superiority through air superiority didn't work.

Were it not for this problem you could consider performing an amphibious assault agaisnt the final objective in Namsos, but because of this your sea transports would be blasted by the enemy fleet. So the best option is to embark the paratroopers as soon as they've taken Stavanger and send them against Namsos with proper fighter escort. You need air support to take the city but there's an air defence unit precisely in Namsos. The best option is to disregard casualties now that you're near the end, even if your bombers are damaged it's very important that they lower the garrison infantry's entrenchment level and if possible deal some damage.

And with that, you'll have a major victory in Norway.

[laiocfar]

Why you sent Trondheim invasion force to Lillehammer instead of attacking Narvik?

I was doing some replaying so also got a major victory at Norway

I deployed my veteran tanks on the landing point at north, my green tanks on the landing port near Stravenger/Bergen and my foot troops in Oslo, also i upgrade 2 of my light infantry divisions to paratroopers.

Green tanks quickly captured their objetives in the peninsula and jointed infantry assaulting Oslo. They performed well but too slow due bad weather so the battle for them was over in the town behind Lillehammer.

The fleet was ordered to regroup so all unit make full speed to joint with the little flotilla at north. Submarines attacking capital ships and capital ships attacking destroyers resulted in royal navy total defeat.

Auxiliary paratroopers landed northeast of narvik and captured an small town and from there with new antitank auxiliary units attacked narvik. Even when the attack was a total failure, with most of troops killed and the small town lost; it diverted royal navy from bombing landing party at Trondheim and core army paratroops. BTW my core paratroopers jumped on the town between Narvik and Trondheim, where the forest result in a narrow pass for tanks and motoricied units.

Veteran tanks moved sneakly, most of time in rought terrain inland and attacked Trondheim capturing airfield in first turn assaulting. The following 3 turns where a pain, royal airforce still got the carrier and the Narvik airfield so they stayed until auxiliary troops put Narvik in risk. Also a light cruiser stayed behind main navy force bombing my tanks from the sea. Well, nightmare was over when auxliary troops began to die. Also the assault of the core partroopers give to my expereinced tanks an speedway to Narvik once they get refited.

Air battle was easy, i dont build bombers until Low Countries so with 4 fighters it was easy to defeat Norway´s air force near Oslo and british when the antiair near Trondheim was killed. Why so many fighters? Its simple, i dont tolerate to dont have air control (play the laters campaings and you will known why they called flying fortress), and for de-entrench enemy units its the same. Anyway, a friend of mine prefers to build the stukas first so later in the game, when they are at full experience, he can bomb air defences and get few loses killing anti-air with tactical bombers. Or even, i saw stukas(tactical bomber surname) killing a mig-3

[Japo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(laiocfar @ Jun 25 2007, 02:03 AM) [snapback]296179[/snapback]</div>

Why you sent Trondheim invasion force to Lillehammer instead of attacking Narvik?[/b]

I agree that one assault group is enough to take Lillehammer but there was nothing better the Trondheim group had to do besides taking Dombas and coverging on Lillehammer to speed its conquest. Narvik is not an objective and too far away, there is no way any troops could make it there before I ended the battle and they would have been severely punished by the enemy fleet. Consider that I lost no units and I took all objectives well in time, in the days it took the paratroopers to: get to Stavanger in the first day; paradrop; take the city and airfield; get replacements if necessary; embark again; fly to Namsos; paradrop; and take the city. That's just around 10 days plus a possible short delay caused by unforeseen events, and the paratroopers are enough to take Namsos but not to hold it, and also because of the enemy ships over there, there's just no point in prolonging the battle. Narvik is definitely not worth it, it's preferable to take other easier and closer cities for the same prestige, even the ones across the Lagen (Hamar and Elverun) with the Oslo group while Lillehammer is taken by the Trondheim group which so gets out of the enemy fleet's gun range. All flags south of Namsos can be taken but the rest are just not worth the effort and they're not easy to get without losses or wasting prestige in auxiliary units. Of course you can play differently if you're just playing the scenario instead of a campaign where you'd have to save not only your core units but also as much prestige as possible for later, once you've purchased all the core units you're allowed. I spent some prestige in elite replacements for the artillery at Trondheim that had got pounded by ship fire when landing, and for the engineers who got bad luck and lost one initiative roll at the beginning.

I like to mix veteran and green units together when possible, that way the veteran ones can take care of the most difficult targets whereas the green ones gain experience with easier targets or finishing targets crippled by the veteran units. Consider that experience adds to initiative and this is very important. However although some of my tanks have greater experience that others --I divided my two most veteran tanks between north and south coast and alike for the other not so experienced two--, all have been with me since the first polish battle. The sooner you get crucial units the more experienced they'll be, the sooner.

I also had 4 fighter units for this battle and I would by no means recommend less. Ask any army officer and he'll tell you that air superiority decides battles. It's either you domineering the skies and dealing death from above with impunity, or the enemy doing it, that's a difference impossible to work against, not to mention that without air superiority you can't use paratroopers because they will get slaughtered airborne. In addition to 4 fighters I also had purchased 4 bombers with the prestige earned in Poland, the only land troops I've purchased so far are one tank and two artillery batteries, and you don't even need all that. The thing that pissed me off about the Norway scenario is that I planned to amend the unbalance at sea through tactical bombings of the enemy ships, but in this game bombers are ineffective against ships --I hope that'll change once they're experienced however. I don't understand why, everything I've read about warfare of the time and this precise battle says that tactical bombing changed sea warfare, the era of the battleships was over precisely at WWII, and fleets are led by carriers ever since while other ships' role is to escort the carriers, and even these ships are mostly devised for anti-air duties.

I've read something about this battle and apparently it was nothing like in the game, although here it was more challenging and fun. Historically there were six assault groups for Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansand and Oslo. They succeeded outright with very small numbers relying on utter surprise, all assault troops were airborne or hidden in merchant ships and even some Norwegian nazis lent support. So there wasn't as much strategic grandeur as here.

The game also tries to emulate the Allied counteroffensive some days later mixing both battles together. The British army high command wanted to land in Trondheim whereas the First Lord of the Admiralty (Winston Churchill at the time) preferred distant Narvik, and finally the massive Allied forces were divided to attack both points as a compromise. So some forces landed at Namsos and Andalsnes and tried to take Trondheim but failed and finally evacuated despite their huge numbers, under the recently gained German air superiority. The forces landed in Narvik finally conquered the city greatly outnumbering the Germans, but they were eventually evacuated after the French disaster. At sea both sides suffered significant and similar losses, but for the Allies it was easy to make up for them while the German losses hampered the possibilities of success later in England.

I SO should be doing other things. LOL

[laiocfar]

My mistake.... in last post i refered Namsos as Narvik. D´ouh

[Japo]

Ah okay I was wondering why you were so interested to take an impregnable city over 68º N latitude. :P As for Namsos the paratroopers did the job faster and without getting slaughtered by the enemy ships, like I said. Remember that one single infantry unit is enough to take any hex --even if it's not enough to defend it-- provided it gets enough artillery or air or naval support.

Damn I've got real life things to do, because I can't wait to invade France. "Knock, knock." "Alo qui est-ce?" "FEUER!" LOL

[laiocfar]

Right now i am on Moscow... and an unexpected armored counter attack smashed my veteran light infantry. About France, border resistance of experience britain troops and french army will not last; but if you dont divide your troops properly, you will fail to make it in time. Watch out for french B1-bis tanks as the british matilda II, its strong enough to hold their ground to most of your ground troops.

[gregor]

air defence has nice attack against fighters. so to tak eit along unpack it an dwait for their firghters to come close.... boom... soften them up then they are easy pray even for less experienced fighters.

for ships i think you need to use level bombers (if you want efficiency)and tactical bombers for submarines.

[laiocfar]

Even when air defence is more for defensives campaings, it gives you the chance of build only tactical bombers.... in 1943 you get a design that can rule the sky with low bombing stats but high enough if your crews are elite. I prefer to use stukas for bombing and real fighters.

Better kill enemy subs with destroyers, think that a tactical bomber is one of your best offensive units and a destroyer is a unit useless but to kill subs.

Hi guys,

I am reading and reading for the last 3 days those superb post about this great game. For about one week ago i start to play again this game and i have a questions for you. I achieved major victory in the first 4 scenario's (2 mission in Poland, Norway and Low Countries) but i have problems in France where i get only the minor victory.

I have a very good air-force (5 fighters + 3 tactical bombers + 1 Level Bomber...my core units) and several more units get for reinforce. I have 4 tanks division (2 Panzer IIIE and 2 Panzer IV) and 7 bridge engineering and pioneer's infantry, with a lot of experience. Could anyone post some strategic tips for this scenario.

Thanks in advance !!

[laiocfar]

Your army is small and without motoriced transport is hopeless in a big and quick map as France.... but you can do it. Firstly you should resolve the border skirmish, the divide your troops and seize objetives as quick as possible.

In the west, the british army with their trained units (100 exp), use Panzer IV with air support, your infantry can be in danger here since they will attack them with land artilley, naval bombings and reliable soft attack units; send your level bombers here to kill the navy unit.

In the centre, the french main army, they are all rockies and are easy to kill with infantry when you take out their artillery by placing your own artillery in range (you will move first).

In the east, the french armor division, even when they are green they can be dangerous; use the Panzer III who got the best hard attack values avaible.

Then, reinforce your panzers with soldiers, leave the artillery in the centre. The assault tactic will be: in the wings, the panzers take out enemy artillery and leave, then the infantry enters to do the house-to-house fighting; in the center, emplace your artillery to support infantry avance.

The first step in the invasion: The west front should move to Rouen and target Le Havre and Caen. The east front should move through Troyes and target Montargis. Army group center should seize Paris.

The second one: Normally west wing takes to long to seize Caen since there are few roads to get in and lot of forest and bocage where enemy can entrench himself. But if west front is doing too well, divert some forces to Le Mans. East group can advance quickly since they move in a single speedway without worring of flank attacks, but with the aid of a single unit of army group center; they can attack Orleans from two sides and do a really quick capture. Then, east front should move to the thougest objetive, Tours; the units around Tours are easy to kill since they are on river but when you try to enter in the city, you are attacking an entreched unit from a river hex. Advice: use engineers or attack from the forest at NE of city. The army group center should move to Le Mans via Chartes, but after Chartes you can divert some forces to Tours. Remember that near Le Mans are plenty of rough terrain and forest, so maybe frenchs want to put up some defences there.

I love to use paratroopers to capture Le Mans. Since they will got around 15 turns to siege the city, they can take their time to capture the airport, surround the city killing anybody on the riversides and later assault from the NE forest.