BuckeyeMC
Chieftain
For the past few days, I have been trying to play this scenario as the allies. I have come up with a new idea for the west, which is not historically accurate, but may turn out to be benificial in the long run. Once I built up a decent force in Gibraltar, I attacked Spain. Here are my thoughts:
1) Having troops just sitting around seems to be a waste. Obviously with no transports, there is nothing for them to do. At least in fighting the Spanish they are gaining valuable experience for when they do cross into North Africa. Spain is relatively weak at the start, Cadiz is easy to defend (on a river) and I have found that the British will station a bomber or two in your cities and attack the advancing Spanish troops, and bomb their mines at the same time. It may be the most helpful thing I have seen the AI do in the game.
2) Trying to get Spain to join my cause has been futile at best. As the Allies you don't really have much to bribe them with to get in good political favor. Giving them money might be an option, but at least for the Americans it is money you get from the British or Free French. If you research a tech you have to give it to them since they never have any cash to pay for it, and I have never got them to the point of even offering an Open Borders agreement.
3) There is a lot of good land up there to build cottages on, and some cities suited for production. That will be extremely helpful once you are able to attack North Africa. In the past I have been able to take cities such as Oran and Tangiers, but the 5 million or so artillery that the Vichy French seem to have lying around make it very hard to advance. With more cities besides Gibraltar producing units it will be easier to fight off the Artillery charge.
4) This is an idea I have not tried yet, but I want to run this out there to see if will work: Build the intelligence center in Gibraltar. Use it to make spies to send into the interior of Africa, to see where all that damn artillery is coming from. If the spies are able to cut some roads, it may slow up the arty enough that some B-17s or Avro Lancasters (bombers with really good range) can pound them down enough that they don't cut all the tanks to shreds by the time they get to counter-attack. Has anyone else ever tried this?
Also, anyone else build a worker right at the start in Cairo? There is a lot of land there that needs improved, esp. cottages and lumbermills.
I would appreciate any feedback/advice on this scenario. Thanks!
1) Having troops just sitting around seems to be a waste. Obviously with no transports, there is nothing for them to do. At least in fighting the Spanish they are gaining valuable experience for when they do cross into North Africa. Spain is relatively weak at the start, Cadiz is easy to defend (on a river) and I have found that the British will station a bomber or two in your cities and attack the advancing Spanish troops, and bomb their mines at the same time. It may be the most helpful thing I have seen the AI do in the game.
2) Trying to get Spain to join my cause has been futile at best. As the Allies you don't really have much to bribe them with to get in good political favor. Giving them money might be an option, but at least for the Americans it is money you get from the British or Free French. If you research a tech you have to give it to them since they never have any cash to pay for it, and I have never got them to the point of even offering an Open Borders agreement.
3) There is a lot of good land up there to build cottages on, and some cities suited for production. That will be extremely helpful once you are able to attack North Africa. In the past I have been able to take cities such as Oran and Tangiers, but the 5 million or so artillery that the Vichy French seem to have lying around make it very hard to advance. With more cities besides Gibraltar producing units it will be easier to fight off the Artillery charge.
4) This is an idea I have not tried yet, but I want to run this out there to see if will work: Build the intelligence center in Gibraltar. Use it to make spies to send into the interior of Africa, to see where all that damn artillery is coming from. If the spies are able to cut some roads, it may slow up the arty enough that some B-17s or Avro Lancasters (bombers with really good range) can pound them down enough that they don't cut all the tanks to shreds by the time they get to counter-attack. Has anyone else ever tried this?
Also, anyone else build a worker right at the start in Cairo? There is a lot of land there that needs improved, esp. cottages and lumbermills.
I would appreciate any feedback/advice on this scenario. Thanks!
