This thread is intended for people to post their strategies for the mod (any of the 3 scenarios)

I am going to kick off with the Brits, in the Europe 1936 scenario, with the Historically accurate verison.

This is still under construction, as i have only played three times so far.

First I like to build all the factories you can build in the major industrial cities, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Inverness, Plymouth and a couple in Canada.

It's also important to have at least one airbase in Britain (preferably London), The Middle East/Eygpt and one in Canada, you will see why later.

What units to build?
Once my cities have built the relavent factories then i build some units, we are afterall going to fight a war.
I have found that infantry are very weak and are worthless when fighting in Frnce and the Low Countries, unless you get to the tech that allows the improved verison, which takes time. therefore I concentrate building Light Tanks and Fighters. In Canada, because of the lack of oil I tend to build a combination of Infantry and artillery and send them off to the Middle-East to fight the Italians when they declare in June 1940.

Warfare:
Western Front
Sept 1939-May 1940
Not a lot you have to do here just move your army to France (unless you follow tactic 3 in the next phrase of the war), France should be able to hold it's own along it's border with Germany.

May 1940-June/July 1941
Germany is extremely powerful but it isn't impossible to hold them off, it's the italians that seem to swing the batle to the axis, I have tried three tactics with them once the low countries join the allies.

1) Defend north eastern France in the hope that Russia will enter the war before you collapse in France, accept the fact that Germany will take the low countries and hope France can hold it's own against the italians in the south This was the second most successful strategy, holding the axis until March 1941 before they broke France in the south and I was forced to do a Dunkirk! But most of my army survived and was ready to be used again and with a bit more luck, this tactic could last until the Russians enter the war.

2) Give them a powerful Left Hook though the low countries. With this tactic I managed to capture Breman, Kiel and nearly capture Essen. France managed to recapture Luxembourg and in Sept 1940, it look like Germany might be going under. However Germany managed to counter-attacked and by Jan 1941 France was broken. This tactic didn't really work as Germany was simply to powerful for an attck to be amounted against them.

3) Accept that France will fall and wait until the Russians enter the war. This was most successful because it allowed me to build a big enough army to realisticly challenged Germany when you conduct a cross channel invasion.

July 1941 onwards- Needs more research

Africa:
June 1940 to the invasion of Tripoli
Assuming you have kept a substantial navy presence (send some transport to Malta) in the region you should be alright. Use it to attack any potential invasion force coming from Italy.
Attack along the coast using the infantry and artillery that you have built up over the years in Canada. This campaign should be short and sweet.
Beyond that: Either use the force to defend the West Balkans (Greece mainly), or save it until the Russians declare war (the Italians don't matter but the Germans will quash any invasion of Italy). It may be worth invading Sicily but it will get pounded from emeny aircraft.

More will follow!

It's pretty much a cert that the Low Countries and France will fall.

My tactics with UK is to build heavily in subs (to complement the existing navy), transports, fighters and bombers in UK and Africa. In Canada I'll build my infantry and ship it to England.

When France falls, if Vichy forms then I'll attack through Morocco and Algiers into Libya, otherwise I'll sink the Italian fleet with subs and ship the infantry into Alexandria.

Once North Africa is secured I bomb the crap out of Germany to slow their production down till the Russians have them tied up. Then I invade the west. :)

Funny how history can be the best strategy eh?

I tried the third option, although I helped france as long as possible (airlifting my units away). And I managed to kick Italy out Africa and his islans pretty quick. Then I just had to wait for the Red Bear to wake up, or so I though. It's 1942 and Germany ha managed to capture Moscow and seperate the Sovjet Union in two. Any invasion on mainland Europe is met by a counterattack by a stack of about ten panzers, so Germany is impossible to invade. It looks like the only option might be to use the bomb.
I agree that it's very difficult to safe France, your infantry just isn't up to the job to stop all those panzers. Building lots of artillery might do the trick though.

Update: Tried again and it's now Nov 1940 and I have capture key German cities and they are on the run! Here's how! (This is noble difficulty)

At the start i built factories, but also workers and sent them to Canada to improve the land to make them very productive. My output of units is now at least double and with that I was able, by May 1940, to be substantially more powerful than Germany! When Germany declared war on the low countries I took back Brussels, i took Breman, and Essen as well as recapturing Luxembourg! Over the next few turns i took Kiel, then Stugart (can't spell sorry!:)) and then the Rhine. By Nov 1940 i had also captured Rostock and Hanover and ready to take Dresden, before a pincer move to Berlin!

seems like most people here play Europe

i play as the UK in pacific theatre!

im just moving my Infantry and Artillary to singerpore along with limited tank and air support and a naval detachment in the nearby seas

my bid is a absolute spactacular failure as i retreat most of them and surrender to the city to japan when 1941 rolls on!

dont worry, by 1944 my forces will mount a massive Para/amphibous attacks with naval support!

on a more serious note, the best tactic ive found is to defend the asian main land, at all costs, dont bother defending Islands under your control as its a waste of time when the japs start attacking, build factories earlier on and quickly try to raise inustry level by gaining through research so you build units faster!

also, Hong Kong always keeps making chinese revolts, however if you give the city to the 'inks, they start English/UK revolts, its rather weird!

So far my first few games in road to war is as China in the '36 pacific scenario. I tried it twice, the first time failing miserably after some quick initial gains in manchuria. The second time I did much better and right now am pushing through manchuria with little resistance and have complete air superiority over mainland china. Here's what I did.

1. Initially focus research towards raising industry level to at least 2 before summer of '37.

2. Switch all city productions to the various factories and then barracks. You want to raise production as quickly as possible early on. Most of your high production cities will be able to complete all the infrastructure buildings before the end of '36. Use excess cash to rush factories in the lower production cities to give them a jump start, afterwards they should be able to keep up on their own.

3. Upgrade all tiles at the manchurian (northeast) border with japan to railroads before the start of the war. You want to be able to make quick counterattacks with tanks and then be able to retreat to a defensible location to heal in the same turn.

4. Tile improvements should be focused on instant results, meaning focus on watermills, windmills, mines, workshops, woodmills rather then cottages. Since the war starts for you in summer of '37 (historically or semi-historically) you need the benefits as soon as possible. In addition, I feel China's strength is in a war of attrition rather then trying to win by out-teching the Japanese. Focus on ramping up production.

5. After cities are done building factories and barracks, start on building fighters, infantry and artillery. You want at least 3-5 artillery minimum in each of the border cities and a couple in any coastal cities as well. These are great for bombarding troops that siege your cities as well as any ships that try to blockade your ports. You will eventually want tanks and bombers for your offensive into manchuria but first you need to secure your position. Infantry is important for this as tanks do not get a defensive bonus in this mod, they are also cheaper then tanks and as china you can build tons of them. Bombers are pretty much useless until you gain air superiority, at least the early bomber you start with, as they get shot down very quickly. Tank production can wait until the war starts and you are feeling secure about blunting the the japanese offensive.

6. Base as many fighters as you can at your border cities and keep them on intercept. Once the war starts, the japanese will do their best to bomb you with everything they've got including their own fighters. Hopefully your interceptors will shoot most of them down. You'll need to build some replacements occasionally, but pretty soon, within a few months, most of their air force in Manchuria will be decimated. This is the cue to start building bombers.

7. Keep relatively large stacks of infantry and artillery in your border cities, once the japanese start their attack, you will lose some infantry to their attacking tanks, make sure to build some replacements. On the following turn, bombard their surviving attacking stack with your artillery. Then counterattack with any tanks or calvary you have. I kept my counterattacking tanks behind the lines as I don't want them getting destroyed defending the cities, thats what the infantry are for. You should be able to level up a nice stack of tanks relatively quickly this way.

8. Any ships that come to blockade your coastal cities, bombard with artillery and then counter attack with your ships if the bombardment gave you enough of an advantage. You begin with a smallish but not too shabby fleet. The goal is to preserve your navy while slowly wearing down theirs. At the very least you'll send them home to repair.

9. Once their attacking armies start dieing down to a trickle and you've accumulated a nice stack of tanks, go on the offensive. Make sure you bring artillery and infantry with your tank stack for support. Use your artillery to bombard city defenses as well as weaken the units within. Use the bombard feature, don't send them suicide charging into cities (imo this is how artillery/siege should work in vannilla civ, not the suicide charging that it is now). Keep producing and moving infantry up to the front to defend cities you've taken.

Whew, that was quite a lot more then I expected to write. One thing I did notice up to this point is that the japanese ai haven't really tried any amphibious assaults on my relatively exposed coast. Consequentially, I've been able to leave most of the rest of my cities minimally protected.

So far my first few games in road to war is as China in the '36 pacific scenario. I tried it twice, the first time failing miserably after some quick initial gains in manchuria. The second time I did much better and right now am pushing through manchuria with little resistance and have complete air superiority over mainland china. Here's what I did.

1. Initially focus research towards raising industry level to at least 2 before summer of '37.

2. Switch all city productions to the various factories and then barracks. You want to raise production as quickly as possible early on. Most of your high production cities will be able to complete all the infrastructure buildings before the end of '36. Use excess cash to rush factories in the lower production cities to give them a jump start, afterwards they should be able to keep up on their own.

3. Upgrade all tiles at the manchurian (northeast) border with japan to railroads before the start of the war. You want to be able to make quick counterattacks with tanks and then be able to retreat to a defensible location to heal in the same turn.

4. Tile improvements should be focused on instant results, meaning focus on watermills, windmills, mines, workshops, woodmills rather then cottages. Since the war starts for you in summer of '37 (historically or semi-historically) you need the benefits as soon as possible. In addition, I feel China's strength is in a war of attrition rather then trying to win by out-teching the Japanese. Focus on ramping up production.

5. After cities are done building factories and barracks, start on building fighters, infantry and artillery. You want at least 3-5 artillery minimum in each of the border cities and a couple in any coastal cities as well. These are great for bombarding troops that siege your cities as well as any ships that try to blockade your ports. You will eventually want tanks and bombers for your offensive into manchuria but first you need to secure your position. Infantry is important for this as tanks do not get a defensive bonus in this mod, they are also cheaper then tanks and as china you can build tons of them. Bombers are pretty much useless until you gain air superiority, at least the early bomber you start with, as they get shot down very quickly. Tank production can wait until the war starts and you are feeling secure about blunting the the japanese offensive.

6. Base as many fighters as you can at your border cities and keep them on intercept. Once the war starts, the japanese will do their best to bomb you with everything they've got including their own fighters. Hopefully your interceptors will shoot most of them down. You'll need to build some replacements occasionally, but pretty soon, within a few months, most of their air force in Manchuria will be decimated. This is the cue to start building bombers.

7. Keep relatively large stacks of infantry and artillery in your border cities, once the japanese start their attack, you will lose some infantry to their attacking tanks, make sure to build some replacements. On the following turn, bombard their surviving attacking stack with your artillery. Then counterattack with any tanks or calvary you have. I kept my counterattacking tanks behind the lines as I don't want them getting destroyed defending the cities, thats what the infantry are for. You should be able to level up a nice stack of tanks relatively quickly this way.

8. Any ships that come to blockade your coastal cities, bombard with artillery and then counter attack with your ships if the bombardment gave you enough of an advantage. You begin with a smallish but not too shabby fleet. The goal is to preserve your navy while slowly wearing down theirs. At the very least you'll send them home to repair.

9. Once their attacking armies start dieing down to a trickle and you've accumulated a nice stack of tanks, go on the offensive. Make sure you bring artillery and infantry with your tank stack for support. Use your artillery to bombard city defenses as well as weaken the units within. Use the bombard feature, don't send them suicide charging into cities (imo this is how artillery/siege should work in vannilla civ, not the suicide charging that it is now). Keep producing and moving infantry up to the front to defend cities you've taken.

Whew, that was quite a lot more then I expected to write. One thing I did notice up to this point is that the japanese ai haven't really tried any amphibious assaults on my relatively exposed coast. Consequentially, I've been able to leave most of the rest of my cities minimally protected.

china is AI on my game, but they are useful, while the chinese are in severe fighting with the Japanese, i send troops and tanks up on the far left single square pass from the British interests into china, past the mountains, i then scout around until i find a chinese force thats been fighting with japanese and mop up weakened jap forces, helping the 'inks by mopping up the japs and assisting them lets the chinese do more useful fighting and takes the stress off me, however Hong Kong always falls straight away, as it produces extremely slow, is always having chinese uprising as they dont wanna be a crown colony and generally the ungreatful cantonese arseholes arent worth defending, unlike singerpore, and ive actually managed to defend singerpore quite well!

Don't get me wrong, I think that the Road to War scenario is good. In terms of the flow of the military campaign it is excellent. But having just won a conquest victory as the Germans in August 1940 on Immortal diffifculty, it made me reflect on just how very poorly equipped the AI is for a wargame scenario.

Victory in civilization wars turns on how you attack and counterattack cities. Basically, if you attack and fall short then you get slaughtered on the counterattack. If you attack and succeed then you open up new transport options to bring through a second wave of units to move further into the enemy territory.

Human opponents realise this. They choose objectives, cities, that they think they can capture and they move all of the necessary resources (artillery, ships, air power, and army) into position ahead of time, then strike, succeed and press home the advantage.

The computer doesn't. It attacks a city, fails to capture the city and its units get slaughtered on the counterattack. As an example, the only meaningful attack against my cities during the RtW game came with a French amphibious landing near Kiel. At least two full transports of tanks etc landing right next to my cities. But the attack failed because it came suppported by only two cruisers (which I sank en route along with two other troop transports) and no air support. With air and naval support they could have got close enough to my cities for an amphibious landing into cities whose defenses were already obliterated. But the units landing on dry land without support were easy for me to pick off.

The AI sucks similarly, though not quite so terminally, on defense. For example, a human realises that being under attack is the ideal time to whomp on the enemy. The movement and healing bonuses of fighting in your own territory make it the easiest combat you'll ever fight. One implication is that, should you lose a city, the time to counterattack is now! You now have a stack of wounded enemy units sitting in a city that is in revolt (so provides no defensive advantage, and slows enemy healing) in the middle of your own cultural zone (so that it is difficult for the enemy to relieve these troops with reinforcements). If the revolt ends then the advantage is lost, so the human defender throws everything they have into an immediate counterattack. But the computer opponent doesn't do this. Yes, it will pick off the odd injured unit, but it can't conceive of the idea that there is a very juicy city with a stack full of enemy just waiting to be annihilated if it counterattacked en masse.

So why doesn't the AI work this way? Why does it move units individually to achieve individual ends rather than choosing objectives and moving the necessary units to attain those objectives? Why can't Firaxis program an AI that can identify and capture objectives (Cities)?

For my money the weak war AI also undermines the epic game. I read stories about how people win cultural or space race victories. But frankly I always struggle. It is difficult to even keep up with the AI on >=Monarch difficulty in empire building, but in war I can easily win 5-10 casualties to 1. Call it a moral failing if you will, but I find I just can't resist those odds. Roll on the conquest/domination victories...

Jon

(P.S. For those interested in strategy, yes attacking Poland and the Maginot line and mainland England (northern bit is more defensible for an invader) and Canada all in September 1939 was hard, but in the long run it seems easier than attacking these opponents sequentially against increasingly well prepared defenses. The only truly hard part of the sceario is finding the cash to keep the armies in the field ... the Italians entering the war is a god-send in that regard!)

Once I played as America and on real historical play, and China was completely dead before I could even go to war... Then shortly after Japan took all on continental Asia, I had the sea, but their hordes of tanks just seemed too much. Maybe it was just luck, I had it on monarch difficulty, but I thought the Chinese could hold a little better than that.

It's pretty much a cert that the Low Countries and France will fall.

Bright day
Not if they get improved infantry. Especially if France is played by a human, he could make 5exp infantry with Great General so graciously provided by suicidal Germans.

In my first game I tried Europe 1939 as Russia with semi-historical events. Unfortunately I didn't prepare myself well enough and Germany steamrolled me with its tanks.

I tried again wiser from my defeat with the same settings. However something strange happened. I think the event where the axis invades the USSR happened too early and a bunch a stuff never happened. Germany never invaded Poland nor did it invade France, Italy never joined the Axis and the USA never entered the war.

It's actually making things easier as Germany could only invade me through the East Balkans so I could just amass my forces there and stop their assault. Plus I don't have to worry about Italy either. I've taken down the East Balkans and Finland and have started to take out Germany city by city.

After like 3 games with poland I realised it is totally impossible to win, at least with historical events. In my 3rd try I killed 74 panzer IVs and 24 russian t 34s in 2 months before retiring with 3 cities and nearly 0 forces left. If this is a divisional level game then that is totally impossible. I'm very curious to see if anyone can survive this. I was on prince skill level by the way.

It's pretty much a cert that the Low Countries and France will fall.
How come in my Noble game as the French I have the low countries secured, and Northern Italy is French? ;)

I started with factories, then built airplanes until I got better inf & tanks. The Inf is holding the low countries while the tanks are slowly taking Italy. The huge airforce I built up has been very helpful though.

I want to add my own tactic as UK against the Germans.

In the early game, produce artillery and send every available infantry unit to attack the german city of Rhine, This place will be the excellent place to defend against the germans to draw heat from other fronts. It is in hills and is bordered by a river. The same strategy can be applied in Lviv.


My first post here :)

I need some help guys.

I am playing single player as UK on monarch difficulty on The road to war 1939, the Russians have only two cities left and the date is fourth night 2, october 1944. The axis are ahead in techs and my allies USA and Norway is producing wealth instead of military units in most cities. France fell in late 1941, Poland has one city, and Greece has two.

The Germans are so superior, they have hundreds of tanks and airplanes attacking my airlift defended cities of primarily Lvov but also Athens. I have managed to survive in Lvov because of having 19 artillery units and 31 super promoted infantry units healed by a general level 3 medic unit in this mountain city circled by a river from where they are attacking. The massive amount of units attacking me brings my up-to-date-computer to its knees on enemy turns and the savefile is 657kB.

Every round those two cities are attacked by hundreds! of bomber airplanes, and my anti aircraft units and 12 - 15 fighters are never intercepting them. The fighters did intercept in the early game but since the first round I built an AA unit no intercepting has been done.

---

I have some questions to be answered.

First, when and how does Italy surrender? I can divert recources for an amphibious attack on Rome and maybe keep it if I give up Athens. I could thereafter possibly attack and keep the south of the Italian peninsula if only a small garrison is required in each city.

If this is accomplished, and Italy surrenders. I could send my fleet to Oslo and bomb all German-Baltic resource improvements. And maybe hold out on the defensive until I reach industry level 4.

How do I make the Americans and Norwegians launch an amphibious assault or at least build a navy instead of producing wealth?

Does the improved AA gun unlike the normal one intercept air units?

---

Here are some pictures.

The first picture shows how superior the germans are.
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7050/namnlsjd5.th.jpg (http://img72.imageshack.us/my.php?image=namnlsjd5.jpg)

The second picture shows the German Kiev army about to attack me, only one of several german armies. This one has 14 heavy artillery, 28 advanced infantry, 31 medium tanks, 20 heavy tanks and atleast 22 bomber aircraft. I will defeat this army ultimately, but a bigger one will take its place.
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/4348/armyyz6.th.jpg (http://img260.imageshack.us/my.php?image=armyyz6.jpg)

The third picture shows the land area I control. I´ve pointed out where my two armies are.
http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/7980/mapnl2.th.jpg (http://img74.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mapnl2.jpg)

regards

Entrecote:

Sounds like a bit of a problem. :)

BTW, do you have add-on pack 1 beta? It has a fix in it for the AA units not interceting. I've also noticed an increase in US activity, they're more inclined to invade north Africa and western France if Vichy forms in the add-on.

It really sounds like the war is lost for you. :( The Germans will out-produce you totally now. With the complete loss of USSR, the German-Italian weight will be out of reach now.

I forgot to patch to the latest release, but I will finish this game first and put more pressure early on the Germans next time, in loyalty to history I did not want to defeat them enough before June -41. Next time I will harass them more from the Baltic and defeat the Italians in 1942.

I think I have a chance by defeating Italy, going for industry level 4 and launching assaults through the Baltic.

Without the patch, as the Germans on Noble (the most historical option) I have taken France, Poland, the low countries, and the British isles by the end of 1940. I didn't take the Magniot line, but 2 turns after I invaded the low countries, France fell. :rolleyes: I should steamroll the USSR and I will have many transports near America for the invasion. After Denmark, I totally ignore Norway. I will probably take them after the USSR. The USSR is the definite research powerhouse, and I am falling slightly behind... not that it matters with hundreds of tanks...

Without the patch, as the Germans on Noble (the most historical option) I have taken France, Poland, the low countries, and the British isles by the end of 1940. I didn't take the Magniot line, but 2 turns after I invaded the low countries, France fell. :rolleyes: I should steamroll the USSR and I will have many transports near America for the invasion. After Denmark, I totally ignore Norway. I will probably take them after the USSR. The USSR is the definite research powerhouse, and I am falling slightly behind... not that it matters with hundreds of tanks...

It is to easy to win with the germans on single player. As soon as you get a French North sea port you can move a transport vessel there, from there on you can take London. And you can destroy huge UK naval fleets in port while capturing cities. I did take London before Paris, and I did not wait for june 1940, as I could bypass the Maginot by landing a North Sea Amphibious assault.

Every time I played as Germany, Russia could not put up a fight, and I let Finland, Italy and Hungary fight them after I crippled Stalin. I think this was on prince difficulty

not that it matters with hundreds of tanks...
I think I've fixed this problem in my RtW SF&B (still under development) by adding 1 extra support cost for all tanks and aircraft. Works pretty nicely, and it also adds more sensibility to infantry as they don't cost any extra gpt.

I am playing my first time now with the Patch 1936 Europe as the Germans. Before the Patch I encountered an AI Soviet Army larger then Italy and Germany combined and the invasion in 41 was one of Germany.

I was told that to curb the soviet build up I needed to destroy the oil with spies. However I could never do it. I was building spies constantly and sending them in. I had all 4 or 5 (can't remember how many i can build) moving in constantly. The closest I got was 2 of the 4 oil wells. and they would be fixed by the time I got back. I had 20% of my income going to espionage and Stalin is the only guy on my hitlist. And I couldn't kill their oil they don't have troops sitting on the oil but they must be spending like crazy against me because my spies are sucking big time!. So far I haven't seen these walk over Soviets everyone is talking about.

I am playing my first time now with the Patch 1936 Europe as the Germans. Before the Patch I encountered an AI Soviet Army larger then Italy and Germany combined and the invasion in 41 was one of Germany.

I was told that to curb the soviet build up I needed to destroy the oil with spies. However I could never do it. I was building spies constantly and sending them in. I had all 4 or 5 (can't remember how many i can build) moving in constantly. The closest I got was 2 of the 4 oil wells. and they would be fixed by the time I got back. I had 20% of my income going to espionage and Stalin is the only guy on my hitlist. And I couldn't kill their oil they don't have troops sitting on the oil but they must be spending like crazy against me because my spies are sucking big time!. So far I haven't seen these walk over Soviets everyone is talking about.

I'm not sure if you play historical or not. On Emperor, I went freestyle and at first opportunity invaded Poland, and swung down capturing most of West Balkans and all of East.

I was building up (all cities making goods factories, then specializing into different roles with some tank, some infantry, and some air, and a few non-military cities that I had spread Fascism around). Then Italy declared on France. France asked me for help. I laughed. Italy later asked for help. I said okay and together we captured all but Metz, after which I sued for peace because Uncle Joe suddenly DoW, forcing me to ship everything out east while Italy continued to suppress France in Africa until they finally sued for peace many turns later.

I already had some stuff out east just to suppress revolts from Russian culture, so Uncle Joe didn't capture anything, though I had to keep airlifting stuff into the eastern front. From that point on it was a standard fighter/bomber softening up, tanks mop up, infantry hold ground gained, kind of game. I had 4 main production centers, 2 air, 1 tank, 1 infantry, each got its own settled great general to get 2 promos out of the gate. Several other cities helped out but they didn't have GG's settled and eventually I had them generate Wealth and put my science as high as I could go on the slider without my going into bankruptcy (around 40-50%; I also had 10% espionage for a long time).

It's now spring of 1942. I just finished off the last Russian city and am massing near Turkey to take Turkey and eliminate all Middle Eastern oil, but not before building more stuff out west to counter any UK amphibious assaults.

One thing that really surprised me is the ease of air superiority. All you need to do to completely control the skies is build only fighters planes (no bombers) and some other mixed units (infantry, tanks, ect.), once war is upon you and your fighters are intercepting enemy planes regularly, start building bombers...

The AI will recklessly use all of its planes, even using crappy fighters to bomb area's where I literally have 20 -30 planes intercepting the area. Basically by 1940 no country had more than 10 planes besides me, the Allies had a combined 0 planes by mid 1940, by 1941, the game was basically already over, (playing as germany on monarch), Vichy France formed instantly when I took Paris (next turn), wow, I must say England was a joke to conquer, basically put about 10 bombers in range and about 10 paratroopers later, England was no more. After that you have yourself a 1 front war, and its just a matter of time.

Its kinda an odd mod to be honest. If I play on noble or prince levels, no matter what, its way to easy... Playing on monarch it seems better, but it really depends on which civ you are... Emperor you can just forget it, almost completely impossible unless your a major civ (probably only germany or ussr is winnable)... It just seems like overall balance is not there, maybe due to the lack of lighthouses, food resources, and other miscellaneous items that could be used to balance game (i.e. Los Angeles maxing out at pop 4? due to lighthouses not existing and zero water food resources on the entire mod) btw whats up with that? Choosing to have zero water food resources did not lower min. requirements fyi.

One thing that really surprised me is the ease of air superiority. All you need to do to completely control the skies is build only fighters planes (no bombers) and some other mixed units (infantry, tanks, ect.), once war is upon you and your fighters are intercepting enemy planes regularly, start building bombers...

The AI will recklessly use all of its planes, even using crappy fighters to bomb area's where I literally have 20 -30 planes intercepting the area. Basically by 1940 no country had more than 10 planes besides me, the Allies had a combined 0 planes by mid 1940, by 1941, the game was basically already over, (playing as germany on monarch), Vichy France formed instantly when I took Paris (next turn), wow, I must say England was a joke to conquer, basically put about 10 bombers in range and about 10 paratroopers later, England was no more. After that you have yourself a 1 front war, and its just a matter of time.

Its kinda an odd mod to be honest. If I play on noble or prince levels, no matter what, its way to easy... Playing on monarch it seems better, but it really depends on which civ you are... Emperor you can just forget it, almost completely impossible unless your a major civ (probably only germany or ussr is winnable)... It just seems like overall balance is not there, maybe due to the lack of lighthouses, food resources, and other miscellaneous items that could be used to balance game (i.e. Los Angeles maxing out at pop 4? due to lighthouses not existing and zero water food resources on the entire mod) btw whats up with that? Choosing to have zero water food resources did not lower min. requirements fyi.

Not zero, Gibraltar has some seafood. :lol:

I agree with you about the air superiority. I didn't bother playing out my freestyle Emperor game since it was obvious that I'd win easily.

So I went Germany again (since UK has a bug where they have no oil, supposedly this is fixed in the upcoming patch), historical, Emperor, and beelined improved fighters, and I'm going for advanced infantry next. I don't really need better tanks; with enough air power, ANYTHING with blitz and drill promos are uber-powerful as it is. I want advanced infantry to act as better city garrisons and stack defenders, is all. I also used the bomb civil and factory stuff on the southern UK, along with destroying pretty much every farm and mine that I could reach, so my upcoming invasion of the UK ought to be a breeze. If the historical accuracy is correct, I'm supposed to declare war on USSR in fortnight 2, June 1941. I'll be waiting with a raft of air power safely ensconced behind the front lines. With enough aircraft, the USSR can't get anything with full health near my cities, and a half-dead tank next to my city is just asking to be Blitz/Drilled to death.

You NEED the better tanks as Germany, its just one tech for a 4 move unit and it increases strength by 5.

You NEED the better tanks as Germany, its just one tech for a 4 move unit and it increases strength by 5.

Nah. UK died easily.. they had oil though, I wonder why as a human playing the UK you can't get it. Maybe they traded for it?

I had mass bombers, fighters, and improved fighters with medium tanks. London was VERY heavily garrisoned, so I went for Liverpool instead and airlifted 4 tanks and a Medic-II improved infantry on over. London fell after that, 5 more troops airlifted, etc. and a few turns later my transport--excuse me, landing craft--shoved a tank (amphibious assault) into Belfast's half-dead marine to secure the British Isles. I doubt the USSR will be able to do much against my ever-increasing air force. I only have 2 air unit cities, 1 tank city, 1 infantry city, and 2 cities that I am pumping out emergency crappy-quality (no attached Great General) infantry for garrison/happiness reasons whose troops will never see combat action if I can help it.

Also I am playing historic for the first time... I didn't know that you can coordinate research to research stuff faster. The game is almost too easy now. Maybe the AI can put up half a fight on Deity?

Update: Stalin had a scary number of tanks in his border cities, but I jumped all over the central one with my surviving dozen Fockes, about 20 Stukas, and a dozen Me-109s, with tanks racing in to deliver damage and then retreating back to the safety of my heavily garrisoned city. Four movement points is so abusive...

I don't have enough planes to do much else on that first round, but I do have some spare bombers. And the Baltics just got conquered by Russia, so there is a colossal number of Russian units up there waiting for the cities to come out of anarchy. So my remaining bombers hurt that stack to prevent it from attacking my border city.

After a few rounds of this, where his units are helplessly brought to half-death and get picked off by my drill-promoted tanks, while his northern stack is stuck trying to heal and getting hit by some tanks I sent up there to do hit-and-runs, I capture the first of what will be many Russian cities. My bombers also bombed the factories and improvements of several faraway Russian cities to hamper Red Army reinforcements. I told all of my allies to hit Sevastopol and Italy was the one that managed to capture it. Italy and E Balkans also got huge air support from me to capture W Balkans, while I was in between my UK and Russian campaigns.

Life is good!

Deity as Axis is not as easy but isn't that hard once Italy joins. I tried to follow history to the letter--even invading Norway on schedule. I spent virtually all game at maximum gold, going just enough culture to cover most war weariness. So it took me much longer than on Emperor to get Improved Fighters, my first tech goal.

Poland died easily of course.

Norway took a while to capture and would sap away critical strength that I could have used in the Low Countries. I shipped several tanks and airlifted some infantry to hold captured cities. My first GG settled in my infantry city to produce medic-II improved infantry.

The Low Countries took four turns to conquer due to heavy anti-aircraft in the region, plus I lost half my tanks to the Norway campaign.

France took a while to march through for the same reason, and I kept losing, but replacing, Stuka dive bombers. I only got 3 cities and Italy got Nice, when France turned Vichy. Doh, I could have used some more French cities.

The invasion of the UK was highly bloody. I shipped a stack of tanks with Medic II infantry and reinforced it the following turn with more tanks and infantry, but artillery and tank rushes killed some of my troops despite my bombers' attempts to suppress enemy troop movement by damaging them. I sent more reinforcements there in a third wave. After I concentrated enough bomber fire on London, I hit it with tank fire. In hindsight I should have landed on a forested hill or forest or at least a hill somewhere in the UK, first, and then marched to a city.

The UK and Norway campaigns were wrapping up when "we" declared war on the W Balkans. I knew this would happen and I had a few units nearby to capture the nearest W Balkans city after a bomber wave. I also captured another city but gifted it to Italy immediately. I bombed the rest of the W Balkans cities for my allies but that was it--I was rushing my troops out east in preparation for war with Russia.

Russia--ouch. Many of my best tanks were still stuck out west or in Norway, so I stalled for several turns by bombing enemy stacks, as I requested Italy (and E Balkans and Vichy France) to attack Sevastopol. What I had not noticed was that Italy and E Balkans and to a lesser extent Vichy France (which in hindsight I should have given oil to--I also should have asked for Gems from Italy much earlier but I didn't know there were Gems on the map!) were very strong by this point due to AI bonuses.

After losing some tanks and infantry and many of my aircraft--but no cities--in several months of war with Russia, my reinforcements all arrived, but by then the area between myself and Russia was Battlefields and I could not do hit-and-run actions. Also, using all of my bombers on Minsk did only enough damage to lower a typical Russian T-34 tank to 20 strength or so--that's how huge their stack there was, not to mention other huge stacks. Even after other Axis broke through Russia's southern flank and kept pressing east all the way to the edge of the map, those stubborn northern stacks did not budge. I eventually captured Riga after massing enough tanks in Königsberg, and in the meantime I kept adding air power. In fact I didn't want to attack but I had to as my gold reserves were nearing zero despite most of my cities producing Wealth and 80% gold, 0% science, 20% culture (to combat war weariness, which is frightening on Deity due to low initial happiness levels).

By now Russia's back was broken and I captured only one other Russian city, though I bombed many others to help Finland take them. Finland wasn't exactly an ally, but better them than Russia, and I wanted Russia to die FAST to get rid of my insane war weariness levels.

Once Russia died completely, I was back in the money and airlifted many troops to Italy-controlled North Africa. My Afrika Korps succeeded in capturing 3 British cities before the rest of the non-island ones fell from Axis forces that had swung east, then south, around Turkey and into Baghdad and the rest of the Middle East.

I spent the next several months massing an invasion fleet of battleships, cruisers, landing craft, tanks, a few healer infantry, aircraft carriers, subs, and destroyers, while pushing towards Improved Bombers (which actually completed sometime during the beginning of the Russian campaign) and Heavy Tanks. I built more AFB's and started putting troops there in preparation for mass airlifts.

I am now just 2 turns removed from invading Canada, and I have a tiny naval group back home that I am building to capture the island fortresses of W Balkans and the UK, though I'll need much more than that to break the insanely-garrisoned Gibraltar. I also just finished researching Heavy Tanks.

EDIT: US attempted to invade the UK or other Axis areas, but I either sunk their fleets at sea or airlifted and bombed/killed their stacks once they landed. No cities lost.

Also, I have killed all but Gibraltar, and whittled away at it with bombers, battleships, and some tanks so that it should fall next turn... about time, that process took FOREVER. Canada sucked up most of my resources as I fought major UK and US tank formations there. But that broke, I bombed US's oil supplies, and then captured NYC outright in my march south. Game should be over in 10 turns or so.

I hope this was helpful to players and to Dale if he wanted to rebalance things. It's been a fun game on Deity, especially as I followed history closely... I probably would have had an easier time in France and thus captured more than 3 French cities, had I not sent so many troops to Norway, but whatever.

After looking at the unit Stats. Armor is your best defending unit due to its high strength.

Im playing as Germany from 1936, and had the advantage of knowing when war will come with total freedom of the armies not to be forced west to prevent france from invading. Im upto Fortnight 1 of June 1940 and my only comment for Dale is Paratroopers low strength.


Log of events

Fortnight 1 September 39

Captured Krakow
Captured Warsaw
Captured Danzig

Fortnight 2 September 39

Captured Rzeszow

Fortnight 1 October 39

Captured Pinsk
Captured Vilnius

Fortnight 2 October 39

Captured L'viv

--- Phony War ---

Fortnight 1 April 40

Captured Copenhagen
Captured Oslo

Fortnight 2 April 40
Fortnight 1 May 40

Captured Amsterdam
Captured Luxemburg
Captured Brussells
Captured Calais
Captured Paris

-Calais Lost (French Counter-attack)

Fortnight 2 May 40

Captured Calais
Captured Dijon
Captured Le Havre
Captured Bergen

-Le Havre Lost (French Counter-Attack)

Fortnight 1 June 40

France is Destroyed
De Gaulle sets up Free French


Casulaty List

23 Improved German Infantry
12 Paratroopers
8 Artillery
5 Submarines
5 Panzer IVs
4 Stukas
2 Cruisers
2 Foke 190
1 Destroyer


Kill List (long haha)

71 Artillery
54 Improved Infantry
53 Bataille B1's
36 Improved French Infantry
26 Light Tanks
24 Infantry
12 Landing craft
10 Amoit 143
8 Cruisers
8 Wellington Bombers
7 Bombers
6 Submarines
5 MS 406 Fighters
4 Fighters
3 Battleships
3 Hawker Hurricanes
1 Destroyer

I just want to say, that after 18 tries, i finally won as poland on noble. If playing accurate, then it is difficult, and i will admit i got lucky on a few battles. It is preaty easy on open since all you have to do is send all your troops at germany as soon as you can and simply pillage like crazy.

Still 18 tries for accurate history was kinda pathetic. Game just does not seem very accurate. BTW this is before patch.

hahaha I just read your last line 'Game just does not seem very accurate'

Accuracy is the part were Poland lost. Thats your historical acuracy.

My best strategy as the Germans was to give the captured cities to Norway. Kinda cheating since I know the history, but still within the rules of the game.

I research Medium Tanks early and slowly build up tanks and fighters and a few paratroopers as I research improved fighters. I make sure that improved fighters will be done researching by Fortnight 1 of August 1939, and that I'd have enough money to upgrade the fighters.

Poland was pretty easy to take over since you have so many tanks and fighters. You can take over Danzig, Krakow and Warsaw within the first turn. And that's almost enough to get you a great general. After you end turn, it's almost without a doubt that the French would have troops in the hill just pass the Maginot Line. There you can air strike and finish them off with paratroopers, then garrison them. By then you should have a Great General.

I join the great general in a city and start pumping out more paratroopers. If the French sends another wave, I'll do the same air strike and attack so I can give enough experience to my initial paratroopers to gain the paratrooper promotion.

After they're promoted and healed, I do air strikes and bombardments on one of their plain cities and land my paratroopers there. Once one takes over a city, I'll give it to Norway so I don't have to garrison it and the French can't take it back. Do this with all but one of the cities you can get within air drop range. That final city, you'd need to secure and garrison so you can mount your attacks from there. All this can be done within the first 15 turns of war.

I told all of my allies to hit Sevastopol and Italy was the one that managed to capture it.


Hey, how did you manage to do this? I've never beeen able to get any of the AI to attack a specific target. In my games it would be great if America would actually commit forces and the russians seem to be happy just building up forces and never using them.

So far i'm the only entity that has taken german and italian cities (and hold them only for a turn or so). I've probably missed something glaringly obvious, but any advice would be appreciated.