WW2-Global

[Rocoteh]

Hyperborean,

Thank you for the report.

"Well, I'm back. I'm pretty much done at the university now, I just have to wrap things up and collect my Masters degree in History and History of religion, and then I should have plenty of time to do more important things, like playing WW2-global."
Hyperborean

History and History of religion. That is a very good choice!

"Germany - Sid - Week 1, 1941


I quit just when the expected war between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia broke out, and it became a clash of epic proportions. I began by taking Odessa, and would have advanced from there. However, the Russians made peace with the Allies, and that freed up the massive Russian forces in Persia. So they sent hundreds of divisions through Anatolia and swarmed all over the Balkan. The invasion peaked a few weeks into the war when I counted to 105 tank divisions and 44 motorized infantry divisions."
Hyperborean

That is an impressing force.

"Naturally I had to focus on this threat, otherwise Eastern Europe would have been overrun. And I thought I could launch an invasion through Anatolia, what a fool I was. I had to use every fighting unit at my command to bring the Russian numbers down, and after eight weeks of hard fighting I finally won. They reached as far as Zagreb, but that's where the battle turned, and as soon as my troops hade rested for a couple of weeks I launched a successful counter-offensive into Ukraine."
Hyperborean

If AI could handle its naval forces with the same level of competence
it handles ground forces it would make a huge difference!

"I was in really big trouble there for a while, but fortunately the AI is not very persistent. When Bucharest was surrounded by Russian SODs I had 100 divisions in the city, plus all my bombers and artillery, this meant that I neglected other cities, and Thessaloniki was only lightly defended in comparison. I was down to four redlined German infantry divisions and two Bulgarian infantry divisions after a Russian tank-attack, but the AI chose not to use the approximately ten motorized infantry divisions next to the city, and moved them further inland instead. Had I played against a human player I would have lost"
Hyperborean

Yes, AI is not persistent enough. That is the main problem with regard
to ground combat.

"Here's a short overview of what happened for the rest of 1940:

Army Group Centre

After the battle for Balkan my panzers moved forth and took all of Ukraine. The artillery destroyed the fortresses in Sevastopol and Kiev before they moved north. I have just reached the vicinity of Stalingrad, and I could take the city if I wanted to. However, if I pressed further to the east right now my flanks would become even more exposed, and I would risk over-stretching, to avoid that I have decided to send my panzers north where I have had little or no progress so far. So, for logistical reasons I have to send my panzers to take Balticum and Belorussia where my infantry is currently bogged down. Several attempts to take Riga have failed without support from my panzers or the artillery."
Hyperborean

Overall good positions in the East.

Army Group North

"28 panzer divisions moved from Sweden via Finland into Soviet territory, where they have had a splendid success. It's very hard to fail with 28 panzers. I'm down to 21 panzers now, and Murmansk, Kem, Sosnovka and Arkhangelsk are mine. Currently 11 panzers stand ready to assault Petjora, the rest will attack Kotla after they have rested.
The AI is not offering much resistance. But even if it did, I'm sure it could only slow down my advance. My only problem in the north is whether I should move east or move south into the heartland of the Soviet Union and threaten Moscow from the north. If I proceed east I could take all the easily conquered cities of northern Siberia, and perhaps link up with the Japanese. However, I don't have enough troops to fend off any counter-attacks in the conquered cities. Going south would perhaps be more wise from a strategical point of view."
Hyperborean

I think moving south is a better idea. Siberia is huge!

"This army group is the smallest of the three, but on the other hand it's the most battle-hardened. It consists entirely of veteran and elite units from the Battle of Balkan. When Army Group Centre moved into Ukraine these units had to stay behind to heal, and watch for further attacks via Anatolia. When no such attack occurred I sent these units forth, and they quickly took most of the Soviet Republic previously known as Turkey."
Hyperborean

I wish there was a way to prevent Soviet-AI from attacking Turkey.

"Other units boarded the transports in Athens, and landed in Cyprus, Crete and Corsica. The invasion force in Cyprus proceeded to the mainland and took Damascus from the French."
Hyperborean

A good move.

"Future plans

Like I said I will send my panzers north now that all of Ukraine is mine. My artillery will assist in the conquest on their way to Leningrad, and then Moscow. A detachment of Army Group Centre will be sent south to reinforce Army Group South. Only Erzerum remains before I can move into the Caucasus.
I have decided to quit producing so many u-boats and concentrate on building Bismarcks to bring down all those annoying KGVs, not to mention the battleships the Americans have begun producing. They are sinking my precious u-boats! How dare they?"
Hyperborean

That is probably the most effective way to reduce the Allied
capital ships.

"I have also decided to form Deutsche Afrika Korps for an invasion of French North Africa. I have three panzers in Spain, and a few more on Corsica, and more are being built in the area. At the same time DAK invade Africa I plan to send Army Group South towards Suez. That should keep both the French and the British busy, and give me easy access to the Indian Ocean. I have sent some u-boats into the south Atlantic, but it will take a while before they reach South Africa."
Hyperborean

Considering the marginal production France have in North Africa
I guess you will overrun them fast.

"Japan has razed Bulgan and Ulan Bator in Mongolia. And they have, just as I suspected, crossed over the Himalayas and conquered Katmandu and Benares, and nearly cut British India in two halves. This should give the British something to think about. Britain has nearly 50 Matildas now, but I haven't seen them in action yet. I don't think this is going to affect the Japanese advance in India. It's a pity that the Japanese AI seems to ignore Indo-China in this version."
Hyperborean

Yes I agree.
I will see what I can do to change that.

"Here's an odd thing: France and Britain are allies, right? So why does my military advisor inform me that France has captured three British workers?"
Hyperborean

Very strange!

Comment on stats:

Very interesting stats.
My overall impression is that AI can produce to much units.
There will be changes with regard to power-plants in version 2.2.
However I do not want to make to large changes and maybe destroy
a working system.

Thank you for the report and welcome back.
I am looking forward to follow how this turns out!

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=159791

Zhis thread is about city razing. It is quiete interesting concerning the SOE system.

Adler

Adler,

Thank you for the info.

I will check it.

Rocoteh

 

[Hyperborean]

Germany - Sid - Week 10, 1941

There has been some hard fighting in Russia. I have taken several cities from the Russians, but none of the conquests have been easy. The captures of Vilnius and Riga were particularly costly. And after I took Minsk a huge stack of Russian tanks and motorized infantry appeared. Fortunately I had my panzers there so naturally I attacked. But it became one of the most frustrating battles I have ever fought. Even though the tanks were on a grassland tile my casualties were extremely high (considering my panzers are a lot better than his puny tanks). I was so frustrated by the outcome that I threw my elite reserves into the fray, and they were also having trouble. I simply ran out of units and the surviving Russian units escaped. The tank-battle ended in a draw. My losses were almost as high as the Russians, and now I wasted a large part of my reserves in a meaningless battle. Very frustrating.
Other battles were also very disappointing. I'm not sure what I did wrong. Perhaps I spread out my units too thin, or perhaps I'm just having a streak of bad luck. After the battle for Minsk my attacks on both Vitebsk and Smolensk were repelled. My assault on Tallinn also failed, despite the presence of almost all my artillery. At least Army Group Centre managed to capture Pskov and Novgorod.
Army Group South ran into trouble as well. The attack on Groznyj failed because I ran out of units. I was so close to capture the city, but I was forced to pull back since Russian reinforcements arrived.
Army Group North stands for the only real progress. They have captured Petjora, Kotlas, Vorkuta and Jaroslavl without losses. I have Moscow within sight!
I was a bit uncertain whether I should send them to take Tver or Gorki. If I take Tver Leningrad would become isolated, and if I take Gorki I would cut off the main road to Moscow for the Russians. However, I decided to move towards Perm since I want to have my back free before I proceed south.
A large British force appeared near Damascus, so I moved Luftwaffe there, and when I did they withdrew. So I moved my bombers back to the Russian front, and when I did they came back, so I sent Luftwaffe there again. And again they withdrew. This is very tiresome. I'm not going to move Luftwaffe there a third time.
While much of the fighting has moved to northern Russia the Russians have tried to assault Kharkov. But I have several German 88s there, so there's no risk that the city should fall, and Luftwaffe is back in town to bomb the Russians to tiny pieces.
In the west interesting things have happened. DAK, consisting of 22 panzers and one German and one Hungarian infantry divisions, invaded North Africa. Algiers was easily taken, and then also Tunis and In Salah (with some effort). However, the RAF presence in North Africa is huge. They nearly bombed my panzers into oblivion. And then the Matildas appeared and I tried to destroy them, but I quickly decided to quit because my panzers were in such a poor shape after the RAF bombings. So DAK is pretty much bogged down until the RAF has been eliminated. This, plus the gradual wearing out of Luftwaffe, has made me change my policy. Now I'm building fighters in almost every city. And I will send them to North Africa to protect my troops.
Another bad thing happened in the Mediterranean. A U.S. transport escorted by three battleships appeared, and since I don't attack battleships with my u-boats anymore I let them pass. However, had I known what would happen next I would have done everything in my power to sink those battleships. The British have sent transports to Sardinia since the beginning of the war without much success. But now the Americans managed to capture Sardinia, and then they attacked Corsica, and stole the island from me! That was unexpected. Apparently that single transport was full of marines. The British seems to only be able to load three units into each transport.
Well, I could always take back the island. I was going to give it to the Italians anyway; and now I have to take both Corsica and Sardinia. But I'm a bit curious on where the British and the Americans will attack next, so there is no rush to take it back.
I noticed that the Finnish are also able to load six units into a transport. They landed six tanks near Liepaja, and proceeded inland. Only two divisions remain, east of Novgorod I think.
My first Bismarcks have been built, but I'm going to wait until I send them against the Allies. There are some 20-30 battleships along the coasts of Spain and France, and they are bombarding La Coruna, Brest, and other cities. I need to build up a bigger fleet before I attack them.
My u-boats are now south of Madagascar, while another u-boat has made its way to the Pacific Ocean via the Northwest Passage. It encountered a couple of Yamatos outside Prudhoe Bay. I have encountered (and sunk) a couple of American subs west of Greenland. I sent a few destroyers to northern Russia to look for surviving Russian ships. I didn't find any, but the British came after me for some reason, and there was a destroyer-battle (with a few subs involved) west of Novaja Semlja. I have never had a battle in that area before.
And Japan has eliminated China.

The setbacks may be small, but put together they are pretty frustrating. I blame most of it on bad luck, and perhaps on a couple of poor decisions as well. But this will only make my revenge sweeter. Both Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine will gain much needed strength to help the Wehrmacht; and my plans will be fulfilled, it'll just take a bit longer to get there than I orginally anticipated.

Oh, and I think it's a good idea to reduce the production capacity of the power-plants. With so many cities it's too easy to quickly build up a large force of tanks.

One of the things I like is that the AI builds artillery in this version. It NEVER did that on the small map. As a matter of fact, for the first time ever I have just seen the AI use the artillery offensively. It happened when the Russians pushed me away from Vitebsk. Even though it was a setback for me I was overjoyed to see the AI use the artillery as it was supposed to be used.

 

[conquer_dude]

haha!! Pitty I just looked at this thread for the first time. This does look awesome and I would dload it if my cquest disc was working.

 

[warmwaffles]

@Conquer_dude

There are ways to not use a CD...I cannot discuss them in this forum because it is against the rules.
--------------------------------

Any how back to my original idea...here is my small report on where I am at in this mod.

WWII Global
Critic: Driveby
Country: Germany

Week 18, 1940
Because Japan in all there infinite wisdom attacked the Soviets I have been fighting a two front war. This war I have been trying to avoid because I can't gain land as quickly as I once had. I have taken over half of France and I am pretty sure they have NO chance of taking the cities back. I have concentrated more of my air attacks on the Soviets now because they are moving there tanks in. I am not threatened by there infirior tanks but I am threatened about the numbers of them. I have quality over quantity. However the Soviets have quantity over quality.

Now that I had signed a peace treaty with the Soviets I can focus my attacks on the rest of Europe and then I will set my eyes upon the Soviets and crush Asia.

Japan on the other hand is doing...okay...nothing has durastically changed. Right now I have traded Coal and Aluminum to all of my allies so they too can build stronger armies.

With the punding of British bombers is becoming annoying. The solution is to move Me-109's, German 88's, and Flak guns to all the towns near and or around Britan; cities such as Antwerp, Brussles, Amsterdam, Bremen, and Rotterdam.

Week 19, 1940
My stack of 26 panzer IIIe have taken the city of Lyon, combined with aircraft bombardment. The British and Americans have had a tough time in the Altantic because of my U-Boats sneak attacking all of the weak ships and hunting down all the transports to stop any attempts at an invasion.

 

[Sasebo]

I'm going to quote my own post to save typing.

Hyperborean: Interesting to compare your numbers with what I got on my week1, 1941(post 4756, page 238) Your UK is obviously getting nasty, and you didn't cut their sea legs early, that's going to cost some. UK air power is the single most aggravating thing I've had to deal with so far as AI goes, they are just vicious. Good luck with them having a lead now. They DO fill transports, trust me!

Rocoteh: numbers below are for 1942, even though they are quoted! Last years are on that older post I mentioned. Before you cut the AI production, make sure you note Hyperborean is on Sid level; that clearly makes a big difference. On to the report:

Current units report, Items in parenthesis are just the largest single type, or something I thought might be interesting.

.........Italy....................Japan.................Germany...............Total
Inf.....264(26Mtn).............496.......................107................= 867
Tank..22(15M11/41)..........125(2T95)..............116(PzIIIg)......= 263
Def....45(19 SFort)...........42.........................284(180 88Fk).= 371
Ftr. ...51.........................21........................53..................= 125
Bomb..55(33 Breda)...........35(23 D3AVal).........6...................= 96
L.navy.155(13 LC).............54........................38(U-boats).....= 247
Cap.sh.41(11 BBC2)...........38(24 Yamato)........9(Bismarck).....= 88
Worker.53........................63.........................46..................=162
Artillery.39........................7..........................8...................= 54
Trans....8.........................17.........................1...................= 26

Totals=704.......................781.......................668...............= 2,153

............UK..........US..........France..........China.........USSR........Total
Inf.......146..........374............20...............0..............367.......= 907
Tank....104..........95..............0................0..............113........= 312
Def......139..........11..............5................0..............46.........= 201
Ftr.......54...........43(22F4F)....0................0..............23.........= 120
Bomb....22...........27..............2................0...............1..........= 52
L.Navy..17...........3...............0.................0..............81.........= 101
Cap.sh..4-1CA2.....9...............0................0..............1...........= 14
Worker..88...........67.............4.................0..............76.........= 235
Artillery.13...........26.............0.................0..............36.........= 75
Trans....6............7...............0.................0..............1...........= 14

Total = 595..........674.........31...............0................747.......= 2,047

Notes: USSR has 60 T34/76 divs. UK has 51 Spitfires, still the class of the air. UK has 92 Matilda2, and US has 48 Marine1942,over and above their tanks! Axis workers do not include large numbers that have been captured-we may have as many as the Allies, total.

Axis dominate at sea,but US Fleet is building up captial class ships. Japan has built 5 Shokaku class CV, while I have 5 total now--3 CV class3s. We have passed the Allies in total numbers. Allied bombers are inflated with too many recon/paratroop planes built. Soviets building T34s is my biggest concern now.

Fronts are as follows: Sochi-Grozny-Krasnovodsk-Dusjanbe-Kisil Robat is my Southern USSR front. Persia-Mainami-Karachi-Bombay is East of that. I just started attacking Afghanistan, though I didn't want to, because the UK was using their roads and attacking all over the place on my Soviet front. The Med is secured. Dongala-Khartoum-Port Sudan taken in the east, and East Africa connected by road. Tekro-Bardia-Gao-Timbuktu-Bamaku-Abidjan- Accra are my north and West African front cities.

From that you can see I have put together 2 prongs in Africa, progress is slow, but steady. I have naval groups with CVs operating along both coasts. Much easier to advance by sea then by land. I'm feeling the pinch of not enough strength on all fronts. Takes a long time to get things to the fronts. Am using combined arms all the way, and lots of air power to weaken attackers. Currently targeting Sevastopol, the Afghan cities,a city east of Bombay, and a couple African cities.

Germany has advanced to the line Pskov- Novgorod- Vitebsk- Minsk-Gomel - Voronezh-Kursk -Kharkov - Rostov. They just lost Riga again for the second time. Other then razing the other Northern England UK city, the west front seems quiet but for air attacks. Finland holds it's original territory.

Japan has taken Amgu and Ulan Bator from USSR. Both Chinas and the Dutch are gone, and Mandalay, Colombo, and the city on Madagascar have fallen as well. Japan still holds all it's island conquests. I've been waiting for them to go after Austrailia or finish off the French in Vietnam, but no luck so far. They have either slowed,or stopped producing Yamatos, but their production overall seems very balanced for an AI. Probably near high water mark, unless I help them finish off India. That will probably take all of 42' even if things go our way. Where Japan AI would focus after that might be interesting.

Clearly, my attacks on the southern USSR have distracted them, cost them some units. The T34s have arrived and are rising in number, but it may not be enough to stop us. German AI does seem to have trouble with the forts in Russia overall. It was intersting to see Germany slash deep into the Ukraine, and cut off a large number of USSR cities from their resources, a good strategic pinscher plan! We met east of Rostov. I have a common border with Japan east of Kisil Robat;am now trying to get a road link to them, that would be really nice for resource trading!

USSR has been doing 20% research, while UK was going at 70%. Their slow going to T34s really cost them a lot of territory. US would be scary as heck if they had more transports; they are beginning to build up navy though. I do NOT want to see transports loaded with 42'Marines coming my way! I have a large navy group west of the Gibralter narrows and an airfield in the Azores watching for that. Sent a couple groups north to raid UK coasts with navy bombard and have done well with that, killed a few planes too. My African forces are small groups, but other then the UK not much resistance there. Distance is the biggest problem.

I know I want to clean up the Soviet fort cities(Odessa, Sevastopol, Riga to Leningrad), but I can't decide if I should push into Southern USSR more, and try to disrupt them even further, or push east and try to crush the UK out of India. I've hurt the USSR oil supplies so badly I think they are having to trade to get any in their main bloc of cities.

I built lots of infrastructure,and I got Air 1940 down to 17 turns, so research seems OK(I went min sci for two techs, which explains why I am so backward.). I think this one is in the bag, it's just going to take a looong time to finish them off. USSR could possibly stall us, but I don't think it's going to happen. German and Japan AI have done very well for me this game. Hurting the Allied navies early really opened up a lot of things for them.

 

[Rocoteh]

Hyperborean,

Thank you for the report.

"There has been some hard fighting in Russia. I have taken several cities from the Russians, but none of the conquests have been easy. The captures of Vilnius and Riga were particularly costly. And after I took Minsk a huge stack of Russian tanks and motorized infantry appeared. Fortunately I had my panzers there so naturally I attacked. But it became one of the most frustrating battles I have ever fought. Even though the tanks were on a grassland tile my casualties were extremely high (considering my panzers are a lot better than his puny tanks). I was so frustrated by the outcome that I threw my elite reserves into the fray, and they were also having trouble. I simply ran out of units and the surviving Russian units escaped. The tank-battle ended in a draw. My losses were almost as high as the Russians, and now I wasted a large part of my reserves in a meaningless battle. Very frustrating."
Hyperborean

I guess more air-support would have made a great difference.
Sometimes it can be of crucial value.

"Other battles were also very disappointing. I'm not sure what I did wrong. Perhaps I spread out my units too thin, or perhaps I'm just having a streak of bad luck. After the battle for Minsk my attacks on both Vitebsk and Smolensk were repelled. My assault on Tallinn also failed, despite the presence of almost all my artillery. At least Army Group Centre managed to capture Pskov and Novgorod.
Army Group South ran into trouble as well. The attack on Groznyj failed because I ran out of units. I was so close to capture the city, but I was forced to pull back since Russian reinforcements arrived."
Hyperborean

I know you mentioned that the airforce have had low priority with
regard to building new units.
Probably the War in the East is hard to win without massive air-superiority.

"Army Group North stands for the only real progress. They have captured Petjora, Kotlas, Vorkuta and Jaroslavl without losses. I have Moscow within sight!"
Hyperborean

That is good!

"A large British force appeared near Damascus, so I moved Luftwaffe there, and when I did they withdrew. So I moved my bombers back to the Russian front, and when I did they came back, so I sent Luftwaffe there again. And again they withdrew. This is very tiresome. I'm not going to move Luftwaffe there a third time."
Hyperborean

Strange moves by AI!

"In the west interesting things have happened. DAK, consisting of 22 panzers and one German and one Hungarian infantry divisions, invaded North Africa. Algiers was easily taken, and then also Tunis and In Salah (with some effort). However, the RAF presence in North Africa is huge. They nearly bombed my panzers into oblivion."
Hyperborean

That is a real surprise.

"And then the Matildas appeared and I tried to destroy them, but I quickly decided to quit because my panzers were in such a poor shape after the RAF bombings. So DAK is pretty much bogged down until the RAF has been eliminated. This, plus the gradual wearing out of Luftwaffe, has made me change my policy. Now I'm building fighters in almost every city. And I will send them to North Africa to protect my troops."
Hyperborean

Again: I am surprised by the fact that AI sometimes manage
to counterstrike in the way you describe above.

"Another bad thing happened in the Mediterranean. A U.S. transport escorted by three battleships appeared, and since I don't attack battleships with my u-boats anymore I let them pass. However, had I known what would happen next I would have done everything in my power to sink those battleships. The British have sent transports to Sardinia since the beginning of the war without much success. But now the Americans managed to capture Sardinia, and then they attacked Corsica, and stole the island from me! That was unexpected. Apparently that single transport was full of marines. The British seems to only be able to load three units into each transport."
Hyperborean

An interesting move from AI.

"My first Bismarcks have been built, but I'm going to wait until I send them against the Allies. There are some 20-30 battleships along the coasts of Spain and France, and they are bombarding La Coruna, Brest, and other cities. I need to build up a bigger fleet before I attack them."
Hyperborean

One can wonder how AI should handle these ships if shore bombardment
not was allowed.

"I sent a few destroyers to northern Russia to look for surviving Russian ships. I didn't find any, but the British came after me for some reason, and there was a destroyer-battle (with a few subs involved) west of Novaja Semlja. I have never had a battle in that area before."
Hyperborean

In version 2.2 tundra have been added to prevent naval moves
north of Siberia.

"And Japan has eliminated China."
Hyperborean

Sometimes I consider to unite China again. The current solution is
more realistic though. However its possible a united China would mean
better playbalance.

"The setbacks may be small, but put together they are pretty frustrating. I blame most of it on bad luck, and perhaps on a couple of poor decisions as well. But this will only make my revenge sweeter. Both Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine will gain much needed strength to help the Wehrmacht; and my plans will be fulfilled, it'll just take a bit longer to get there than I orginally anticipated."
Hyperborean

Overall I think you have established very good positions.

"Oh, and I think it's a good idea to reduce the production capacity of the power-plants. With so many cities it's too easy to quickly build up a large force of tanks."
Hyperborean

Yes, I will implement it in version 2.2.

"One of the things I like is that the AI builds artillery in this version. It NEVER did that on the small map. As a matter of fact, for the first time ever I have just seen the AI use the artillery offensively. It happened when the Russians pushed me away from Vitebsk. Even though it was a setback for me I was overjoyed to see the AI use the artillery as it was supposed to be used."
Hyperborean

That is very positive!

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

haha!! Pitty I just looked at this thread for the first time. This does look awesome and I would dload it if my cquest disc was working.

conquer_dude,

I hope you will return to this thread when that
problem have been fixed.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Drivebymaster,

Thank you for the report.

"Week 18, 1940
Because Japan in all there infinite wisdom attacked the Soviets I have been fighting a two front war. This war I have been trying to avoid because I can't gain land as quickly as I once had. I have taken over half of France and I am pretty sure they have NO chance of taking the cities back. I have concentrated more of my air attacks on the Soviets now because they are moving there tanks in. I am not threatened by there infirior tanks but I am threatened about the numbers of them. I have quality over quantity. However the Soviets have quantity over quality."
Drivebymaster

Fighting Soviet early in the scenario is very hard.

"Now that I had signed a peace treaty with the Soviets I can focus my attacks on the rest of Europe and then I will set my eyes upon the Soviets and crush Asia."
Drivebymaster

A very good decision.

"Japan on the other hand is doing...okay...nothing has durastically changed. Right now I have traded Coal and Aluminum to all of my allies so they too can build stronger armies."
Drivbymaster

Again: A very good move.

"With the punding of British bombers is becoming annoying. The solution is to move Me-109's, German 88's, and Flak guns to all the towns near and or around Britan; cities such as Antwerp, Brussles, Amsterdam, Bremen, and Rotterdam."
Drivebymaster

Yes the RAF bombing campaigns will create much damage if not
countered.

"Week 19, 1940
My stack of 26 panzer IIIe have taken the city of Lyon, combined with aircraft bombardment. The British and Americans have had a tough time in the Altantic because of my U-Boats sneak attacking all of the weak ships and hunting down all the transports to stop any attempts at an invasion."
Drivebymaster

France should fall within some weeks now.

Thank you for the report and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Sasebo,

Thank you for the report.

"Rocoteh: numbers below are for 1942, even though they are quoted! Last years are on that older post I mentioned. Before you cut the AI production, make sure you note Hyperborean is on Sid level; that clearly makes a big difference. On to the report:"
Sasebo

Very interesting stats!
For some reason it seems like AI avoid to build non-capital ships.
How AI build-strategy works is still unclear.
Also: Low production of bombers by AI.

Its my impression from many reports that AI-production is to high.
Reducing the impact of power-plants should work well.

"Axis dominate at sea,but US Fleet is building up captial class ships. Japan has built 5 Shokaku class CV, while I have 5 total now--3 CV class3s. We have passed the Allies in total numbers. Allied bombers are inflated with too many recon/paratroop planes built. Soviets building T34s is my biggest concern now."
Sasebo

Recon planes will not be present in version 2.2.

"Fronts are as follows: Sochi-Grozny-Krasnovodsk-Dusjanbe-Kisil Robat is my Southern USSR front. Persia-Mainami-Karachi-Bombay is East of that. I just started attacking Afghanistan, though I didn't want to, because the UK was using their roads and attacking all over the place on my Soviet front. The Med is secured. Dongala-Khartoum-Port Sudan taken in the east, and East Africa connected by road. Tekro-Bardia-Gao-Timbuktu-Bamaku-Abidjan- Accra are my north and West African front cities."
Sasebo

I think this is very good, since playing Italy is for sure hard!

"From that you can see I have put together 2 prongs in Africa, progress is slow, but steady. I have naval groups with CVs operating along both coasts. Much easier to advance by sea then by land. I'm feeling the pinch of not enough strength on all fronts. Takes a long time to get things to the fronts. Am using combined arms all the way, and lots of air power to weaken attackers. Currently targeting Sevastopol, the Afghan cities,a city east of Bombay, and a couple African cities."
Sasebo

Yes, the infrastructure in most of these areas are weak.

"Germany has advanced to the line Pskov- Novgorod- Vitebsk- Minsk-Gomel - Voronezh-Kursk -Kharkov - Rostov. They just lost Riga again for the second time. Other then razing the other Northern England UK city, the west front seems quiet but for air attacks. Finland holds it's original territory."
Sasebo

Considering its AI I think this is rather good.

"Japan has taken Amgu and Ulan Bator from USSR. Both Chinas and the Dutch are gone, and Mandalay, Colombo, and the city on Madagascar have fallen as well. Japan still holds all it's island conquests. I've been waiting for them to go after Austrailia or finish off the French in Vietnam, but no luck so far. They have either slowed,or stopped producing Yamatos, but their production overall seems very balanced for an AI. Probably near high water mark, unless I help them finish off India. That will probably take all of 42' even if things go our way. Where Japan AI would focus after that might be interesting."
Sasebo

Its possible that I will place more victory point locations in Australia.
Hopefully that will have impact on AI.

"Clearly, my attacks on the southern USSR have distracted them, cost them some units. The T34s have arrived and are rising in number, but it may not be enough to stop us. German AI does seem to have trouble with the forts in Russia overall. It was intersting to see Germany slash deep into the Ukraine, and cut off a large number of USSR cities from their resources, a good strategic pinscher plan! We met east of Rostov. I have a common border with Japan east of Kisil Robat;am now trying to get a road link to them, that would be really nice for resource trading!"
Sasebo

Agree!

"USSR has been doing 20% research, while UK was going at 70%. Their slow going to T34s really cost them a lot of territory. US would be scary as heck if they had more transports; they are beginning to build up navy though. I do NOT want to see transports loaded with 42'Marines coming my way! I have a large navy group west of the Gibralter narrows and an airfield in the Azores watching for that. Sent a couple groups north to raid UK coasts with navy bombard and have done well with that, killed a few planes too. My African forces are small groups, but other then the UK not much resistance there. Distance is the biggest problem"
Sasebo

Maybe building up the airforce is a good idea, since it can be shifted
fast between the fronts.

"I know I want to clean up the Soviet fort cities(Odessa, Sevastopol, Riga to Leningrad), but I can't decide if I should push into Southern USSR more, and try to disrupt them even further, or push east and try to crush the UK out of India. I've hurt the USSR oil supplies so badly I think they are having to trade to get any in their main bloc of cities."
Sasebo

That is very good. However I think I would go for India now.

"I built lots of infrastructure,and I got Air 1940 down to 17 turns, so research seems OK(I went min sci for two techs, which explains why I am so backward.). I think this one is in the bag, it's just going to take a looong time to finish them off. USSR could possibly stall us, but I don't think it's going to happen. German and Japan AI have done very well for me this game. Hurting the Allied navies early really opened up a lot of things for them."
Sasebo

Yes, I can see from the stats that the Allied naval forces are in
a very bad shape!

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[warmwaffles]

WWII Global
Critic: Drivebymaster
Country: Germany

Week 29, 1940
After the signing of the 3rd peace treaty with the Soviets and Germans I have taken France by storm. The Soviets asked to sign a treaty because they probably got tired of losing stacks and stacks of tanks before they ever had a chance to strike a city. It helps when you have a Luftwaffe pounding away at Russian positions to gain the upper hand.

Switzerland is no longer around. I crushed them in less than one full turn.

Here is my current military stats as of Week 29, 1940

------------------------------------------
35......Workers
3.......Marines
3.......Paratroopers
2.......Bismarck C
12......1939 Destroyers
22......Germany 1939 Destroyers
12......German Artillery HQ's
66......German Infantry
4.......U-Boat Type VII
6.......Light Cruisers
24......Ju-88s
19......German 88's
6.......Panzer II's
78......Panzer IIIe's
47......Me-109's
8.......Heinkel-111's
3.......Fortress's
10......JU-87B's
2.......SS Infantry
3.......Combat Engineer's
4.......Slovakian Infantry
10......German Security Division's
24......Garrison's
3.......Light Division's
5.......Flak
2.......Heavy Cruiser's
3.......U-boat Type IX
34......Minefield's
12......Special Fortress's
14......Hungary Infantry
2.......Gneisenau Class
21......Romanian Infantry
1.......Deutschland Class
7.......DO-17
11......Bulgarian Infantry
3.......S-Boat Flotilla
1.......Special Transport
2.......German Predreadnought
2.......German Motorized Infantry Div
------------------------------------------
490.....Troops Total
755.....Allowed Units

As of now France only has 2 Cities in Europe and those should fall within 4-5 weeks....(reason is the amount of time for me to mobilize to that area for a swift and easy victory)

 

[Rocoteh]

Drivebymaster,

Thank you for the report.

"WWII Global
Critic: Drivebymaster
Country: Germany

Week 29, 1940
After the signing of the 3rd peace treaty with the Soviets and Germans I have taken France by storm. The Soviets asked to sign a treaty because they probably got tired of losing stacks and stacks of tanks before they ever had a chance to strike a city. It helps when you have a Luftwaffe pounding away at Russian positions to gain the upper hand.

Switzerland is no longer around. I crushed them in less than one full turn."
Drivebymaster

This playtest is close to the historical timeline.
That is interesting and indicating that this scenario works well despite
the limits of the game-engine.

Comments on unit-stats:

I notice that you (like most other players) abstain from building
destroyers and cruisers.
Its possible that these units are not worth the cost to build them.
Anyway its hard to give them a relevant role since the game-engine
simplifies naval combat.


Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Morphling]

I've a problem here,if i go to the link wehe to download,it says it wants to downlead version 1.4 but i shuold download version 2.1,shouldn't it? and if i attempt to download this its stops at 85 and does nothing.and try to make it understandable for me,a german

 

[Rocoteh]

I've a problem here,if i go to the link wehe to download,it says it wants to downlead version 1.4 but i shuold download version 2.1,shouldn't it? and if i attempt to download this its stops at 85 and does nothing.and try to make it understandable for me,a german

Morphling,

You shall download the 134 MB folder (called version 1.4)
and the file: version 2.1.

With regard to 2.1 there have been no reports on problem with
download earlier. Thus I have no solution.

Rocoteh

 

[Hyperborean]

Sasebo, I realize now that Britain is a severe threat, and I'm beginning to regret not invading Britain early. Maybe I'll do that in the next version, unless Rocoteh fills the coast with fortresses. Britain is far more productive now than it was on the smaller map. I have not yet adjusted to that fact. It wouldn't surprise me if London's production is greater than Berlin's. It certainly feels that way.

USSR has been doing 20% research, while UK was going at 70%.

How can you tell what research rates the AI has?

I notice that you (like most other players) abstain from building
destroyers and cruisers.
Its possible that these units are not worth the cost to build them.
Anyway its hard to give them a relevant role since the game-engine
simplifies naval combat.

Rocoteh, regarding cruisers and destroyers, I think the main reason there are so few of them is because most of us play as Germany, and the Germans have limited use of cruisers and destroyers (at least in the beginning). I would have use of destroyers as scout-ships and cruisers as escort-ships, but right now I'm not building any because I need battleships to break the Allied domination of the seas. Maybe I may have the luxury to be more selective in what kind of ships I want to build later on, but not right now. I need really big and strong ships, and lots of them.

Regarding air power, I think you're right. I haven't been using it right. Mentally, I'm still playing on the smaller map where my advance in the East sometimes was so quick that there was no need for air-support. When the Wehrmacht attacked one section of the front, Luftwaffe was stationed elsewhere to mercilessly bomb any Russian attacks on other sections of the front. And the same thing for the artillery, they supported some weaker forces instead of the main force. This doesn't quite work on a larger map with a far more aggressive AI. I need to rethink my strategy, and perhaps open for more diverse army groups. There are other units than panzers after all.

But lack of air support doesn't explain my poor combat results lately. It feels like every enemy I fight stand in a fortress on a mountain top. The results are not going my way at all. For instance, on more than one occasion my Panzer IIIe with an attack value of 21 has failed to destroy the Soviet tanks with a defense value of 5 on grasslands. It feels like I almost always need two units to take out one enemy unit. Or perhaps I'm just a bit paranoid. On one occasion I made a mistake. I attacked a Russian infantry division with what I thought was a German infantry division, and I was surprised when my unit was destroyed. It took me a minute to figure that I had attacked with a Slovakian infantry division. They look the same, so I mistook it for a German. Is it possible to change the colour or something to avoid this kind of mistakes?

Here's my latest report of failures in chronological order (more or less):

Germany - Sid - Week 15, 1941

Vitebsk taken on fourth attempt. This time I attacked from Novgorod, and was successful.
Smolensk taken on second attempt.
Leningrad taken on first attempt. Compared to the other cities this was an easy conquest. My artillery pounded the city for one week, than my panzers moved in (I didn't even have to use all my artillery to destroy the defenders). I wish all my conquests were this easy.
Tallinn taken on the sixth attempt. This was after the fall of Leningrad, and the attack came from the east this time.
Rabat taken on second attempt. When 12 panzers failed to take the city in the first attempt I was forced to send additional panzers, and eventually the city fell.
First attempt to take Kindal failed. All four panzers destroyed by French infantry.
Baku taken on first attempt.
Second attack on Groznyj failed. Several panzers destroyed by counter-attacking Soviet infantry.
First attempt to take Perm failed. Surviving panzers from Army Group North was forced to retreat to Kotlas when Jaroslavl was reclaimed by the Soviet forces.
Corsica taken from the Americans on the third attempt.
Crete taken by the British.

Now that Leningrad is mine the road to Moscow lies open, but it's not the traditional route, instead I can take an U-shaped road my workers have built from Leningrad to Moscow via Arkhangelsk. My artillery, several infantry divisions and a few panzers have already begun moving to Kotlas where the remnants of Army Group North is regrouping. When everything is in place I will attack Jaroslavl for a second time, and then proceed directly to Moscow (As you may have noticed, this is not a very historical campaign ).
Meanwhile Army Group Centre is regrouping in Smolensk after a Russian counter-attack on the city failed. They will advance towards Tula. But they will not attack Moscow, instead they will swing south and attack Voronezh and Kursk to cut off all roads to Moscow.
And speaking of cutting off, I destroyed the road between Groznyj and Astrachan to prevent the Russians from sending reinforcements to Caucasus. This should make it easier for me to take Groznyj. And Luftwaffe has destroyed the roads in Libya to slow down any British attacks from that direction.
After Luftwaffe had arrived in North Africa the skies became peaceful. RAF is refusing to attack me there. Instead they have begun bombing Athens and Damascus, while the Americans attack Spain. I have to move some fighters there to stop these attacks.
After they took Corsica and Sardinia the Americans have become very aggressive in the Mediterranean. Taking Corsica back was tough, and taking back Sardinia is going to get even tougher. The British have Matildas on the island as well. And now Crete is also in Allied hands. But worst of all is that they have destroyed my Mediterranean fleet. I have lost Gneisenau, Schlesien, Schleswig-Holstein, my two cruisers, one destroyer, one Bismarck and one transport. I only have one destroyer and three transports left. I really have to do something about the situation. For this reason I have increased the production of Bismarcks even further. Almost every city-port is now building Bismarcks. Seven have been built, and at least 20 are in production.

 

[warmwaffles]

@Rocotech

The only cruisers I am considering building are Light AA or something around that area...

My thought would be to dissable the ability (if enabled) that allows other ships to see subs EXCEPT...of course destroyers that are able to hunt down the German Uboats..

EDIT:
My current plan is to stay out of Africa and keep everything within reach of my empire which means I am only going to attack the countries that border me.

Plus I have a stack of about 35 workers that are dedicated to building railroads to make my military movements MUCH quicker...I just hope the AI doesn't get smart enough to bomb them...

A question:
Why do each of the cities have a wonder? is that to avoid the AI from razing them?

 

[Rocoteh]

Hyperborean,

Thank you for the report.

"Sasebo, I realize now that Britain is a severe threat, and I'm beginning to regret not invading Britain early. Maybe I'll do that in the next version, unless Rocoteh fills the coast with fortresses. Britain is far more productive now than it was on the smaller map. I have not yet adjusted to that fact. It wouldn't surprise me if London's production is greater than Berlin's. It certainly feels that way."
Hyperborean

I want more reports and feedback before I change Britains
initial Order of Battle.

"Rocoteh, regarding cruisers and destroyers, I think the main reason there are so few of them is because most of us play as Germany, and the Germans have limited use of cruisers and destroyers (at least in the beginning). I would have use of destroyers as scout-ships and cruisers as escort-ships, but right now I'm not building any because I need battleships to break the Allied domination of the seas. Maybe I may have the luxury to be more selective in what kind of ships I want to build later on, but not right now. I need really big and strong ships, and lots of them."
Hyperborean

Yes, with regard to how the game-engine works its probably best to build a
strong force of capital ships first.

"Regarding air power, I think you're right. I haven't been using it right. Mentally, I'm still playing on the smaller map where my advance in the East sometimes was so quick that there was no need for air-support. When the Wehrmacht attacked one section of the front, Luftwaffe was stationed elsewhere to mercilessly bomb any Russian attacks on other sections of the front. And the same thing for the artillery, they supported some weaker forces instead of the main force. This doesn't quite work on a larger map with a far more aggressive AI. I need to rethink my strategy, and perhaps open for more diverse army groups. There are other units than panzers after all."
Hyperborean

In general I think the huge map is superior to the previous small maps.

"But lack of air support doesn't explain my poor combat results lately. It feels like every enemy I fight stand in a fortress on a mountain top. The results are not going my way at all. For instance, on more than one occasion my Panzer IIIe with an attack value of 21 has failed to destroy the Soviet tanks with a defense value of 5 on grasslands. It feels like I almost always need two units to take out one enemy unit. Or perhaps I'm just a bit paranoid. On one occasion I made a mistake. I attacked a Russian infantry division with what I thought was a German infantry division, and I was surprised when my unit was destroyed. It took me a minute to figure that I had attacked with a Slovakian infantry division. They look the same, so I mistook it for a German. Is it possible to change the colour or something to avoid this kind of mistakes?"
Hyperborean

Yes it is. I will have it in mind should there be a graphic update.

"Germany - Sid - Week 15, 1941

Vitebsk taken on fourth attempt. This time I attacked from Novgorod, and was successful.
Smolensk taken on second attempt.
Leningrad taken on first attempt. Compared to the other cities this was an easy conquest. My artillery pounded the city for one week, than my panzers moved in (I didn't even have to use all my artillery to destroy the defenders). I wish all my conquests were this easy.
Tallinn taken on the sixth attempt. This was after the fall of Leningrad, and the attack came from the east this time."
Hyperborean

Not so far away from the historical timeline, although Leningrad
was never occupied of course.

"Rabat taken on second attempt. When 12 panzers failed to take the city in the first attempt I was forced to send additional panzers, and eventually the city fell.
First attempt to take Kindal failed. All four panzers destroyed by French infantry.
Baku taken on first attempt.
Second attack on Groznyj failed. Several panzers destroyed by counter-attacking Soviet infantry.
First attempt to take Perm failed. Surviving panzers from Army Group North was forced to retreat to Kotlas when Jaroslavl was reclaimed by the Soviet forces.
Corsica taken from the Americans on the third attempt.
Crete taken by the British."
Hyperborean

Stronger French forces in North Africa then one could expect.

"Now that Leningrad is mine the road to Moscow lies open, but it's not the traditional route, instead I can take an U-shaped road my workers have built from Leningrad to Moscow via Arkhangelsk. My artillery, several infantry divisions and a few panzers have already begun moving to Kotlas where the remnants of Army Group North is regrouping. When everything is in place I will attack Jaroslavl for a second time, and then proceed directly to Moscow (As you may have noticed, this is not a very historical campaign ).
Meanwhile Army Group Centre is regrouping in Smolensk after a Russian counter-attack on the city failed. They will advance towards Tula. But they will not attack Moscow, instead they will swing south and attack Voronezh and Kursk to cut off all roads to Moscow.
And speaking of cutting off, I destroyed the road between Groznyj and Astrachan to prevent the Russians from sending reinforcements to Caucasus. This should make it easier for me to take Groznyj."
Hyperborean

I guess the Russian forces soon will collapse. Probably within
10-15 turns.

"After they took Corsica and Sardinia the Americans have become very aggressive in the Mediterranean. Taking Corsica back was tough, and taking back Sardinia is going to get even tougher. The British have Matildas on the island as well. And now Crete is also in Allied hands. But worst of all is that they have destroyed my Mediterranean fleet. I have lost Gneisenau, Schlesien, Schleswig-Holstein, my two cruisers, one destroyer, one Bismarck and one transport. I only have one destroyer and three transports left. I really have to do something about the situation. For this reason I have increased the production of Bismarcks even further. Almost every city-port is now building Bismarcks. Seven have been built, and at least 20 are in production."
Hyperborean

That should turn the naval war in your favour!

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Drivebymaster,

"The only cruisers I am considering building are Light AA or something around that area...

My thought would be to dissable the ability (if enabled) that allows other ships to see subs EXCEPT...of course destroyers that are able to hunt down the German Uboats.."
Drivebymaster

The problem is that you can for example see subs with only one
destroyer present and then attack them with three battleships that can not
see subs! Given a better naval system in Civ 3 cruisers and battleships
should not be able to attack submarines at all.
In WW2-Global only destroyers can see submarines.

"EDIT:
My current plan is to stay out of Africa and keep everything within reach of my empire which means I am only going to attack the countries that border me."
Drivebymaster

Looking forward to hear how that turns out.

"Plus I have a stack of about 35 workers that are dedicated to building railroads to make my military movements MUCH quicker...I just hope the AI doesn't get smart enough to bomb them..."
Drivebymaster

For sure that could result in severe damage!

"A question:
Why do each of the cities have a wonder? is that to avoid the AI from razing them?"
Drivebymaster

Yes you are right. This is the only effective (95%) way to stop
AI from razing cities.

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Hyperborean]

In general I think the huge map is superior to the previous small maps.

Indeed. It's far more challenging. And I also think that the size affects the AI behaviour. It's far more aggressive now, and it uses the units in a slightly more rational way (at least I would like to think that there is some logic behind the AI moves).

Germany - Sid - Week 20, 1941

Cities taken: Jaroslavl and Agadir. Fairly easy conquests. Perhaps I have worn them down. The results are still not going my way, but at least they are not going hideously wrong anymore. I have destroyed lots of Soviet units in the last few weeks: fighters, tanks, infantry, motorized infantry, artillery, and so on. The Russian production is still very high, but I keep on pressing them, and their numbers are dwindling. With a weakened Soviet Union my main enemy is now Britain. The British are becoming increasingly powerful; they have over 150 Matildas. I have noticed that they have already researched land, sea and air 1941 while I still have land and air 1940 left to research. Their bombers have an increased range, and the cities of Oslo, Stettin and Nürnberg have already felt this.
And on the eastern front Britain has a large number of tanks, as well as other kinds of units. The British are more dangerous than the Russians now. They have more units and a higher production capacity. And this is the reason why I consider Britain to be my main enemy.
The British AI managed to surprise me. I have watched the British ships go back and forth along the coasts of Spain since I occupied the country, but suddenly La Coruna, Lissabon and Corsica were attacked simultaneously. The attack on Lissabon surprised me the most since I had no indication of an imminent attack there. The war with the Soviet Union has drained the area of reserves, so the garrison in Lissabon was only nominal (a couple of Security divisions I think). The British landed both tanks and marines. Fortunately I had two fully loaded transports waiting in Barcelona, so I sent twelve panzers against Lissabon and took the city back. The newly constructed railroad from Lissabon to Madrid also made it easy to act quickly. I managed to save all workers in the area while the panzers rolled in to destroy the enemy. Despite the fleet bombardment I managed to hold La Coruna, but the Matildas were hard to get rid of. My loss of Corsica is not much to argue about. I had some panzers there, but the British seems to have learned how to fill a transport now. The British AI is really giving me a hard time. More transports are approaching Spain, but my fleet of Bismarcks have finally left the Baltic Sea, and are now in the English Channel. This is going to be fun.

 

[Rocoteh]

Hyperborean,

Thank you for the report.

"Cities taken: Jaroslavl and Agadir. Fairly easy conquests. Perhaps I have worn them down. The results are still not going my way, but at least they are not going hideously wrong anymore. I have destroyed lots of Soviet units in the last few weeks: fighters, tanks, infantry, motorized infantry, artillery, and so on. The Russian production is still very high, but I keep on pressing them, and their numbers are dwindling. With a weakened Soviet Union my main enemy is now Britain. The British are becoming increasingly powerful; they have over 150 Matildas. I have noticed that they have already researched land, sea and air 1941 while I still have land and air 1940 left to research. Their bombers have an increased range, and the cities of Oslo, Stettin and Nürnberg have already felt this."
Hyperborean

I think its very positive that AI use this aggressive air-strategy.

"And on the eastern front Britain has a large number of tanks, as well as other kinds of units. The British are more dangerous than the Russians now. They have more units and a higher production capacity. And this is the reason why I consider Britain to be my main enemy."
Hyperborean

Yes, I do not think you will have much trouble with Russia.

"The British AI managed to surprise me. I have watched the British ships go back and forth along the coasts of Spain since I occupied the country, but suddenly La Coruna, Lissabon and Corsica were attacked simultaneously. The attack on Lissabon surprised me the most since I had no indication of an imminent attack there."
Hyperborean

Sometimes AI plays quite good!

"The British landed both tanks and marines. Fortunately I had two fully loaded transports waiting in Barcelona, so I sent twelve panzers against Lissabon and took the city back. The newly constructed railroad from Lissabon to Madrid also made it easy to act quickly. I managed to save all workers in the area while the panzers rolled in to destroy the enemy. Despite the fleet bombardment I managed to hold La Coruna, but the Matildas were hard to get rid of. My loss of Corsica is not much to argue about. I had some panzers there, but the British seems to have learned how to fill a transport now. The British AI is really giving me a hard time. More transports are approaching Spain, but my fleet of Bismarcks have finally left the Baltic Sea, and are now in the English Channel. This is going to be fun."
Hyperborean

A very interesting playtest that I am looking forward to follow!

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh