OT: Limited advice for my new game (WIF)

[Joseignacio]

Hello, It's the first time I really play the Axis, we just started a Fascist Tide scenario (Europe only), the other two players obviously can discuss strategies, but I don't have anyone.

I only played axis when I was learning like 12 or 15 years ago, and you can imagine those games were short and unfortunate for me, so I don't have real experience... I don`t want to play as a group or team up with somebody external, I just want to avoid stupid new player mistakes.

I hope they are not reading this and I ask them to be honest and tell me if they do.

First thing is that in the first turn the USSR claimed the borderlands, I rejected the claim and he declared war. All the USSR army except 2 divs and an ART are there. I went to the coast to avoid the effect of the ground artillery in surprise, and sent a German HQ from Poland, and later a div and a needed FTR.

Now I am thinking of changing the HQ for a corps and expand to defend better.

The thing is that USSR is empty , I could possibly break the Nazi soviet pact in jan-feb ¿or not?

These are the rules:

You may break a neutrality pact, any turn after the calendar year following its signing, provided you have at least a 2:1 garrison ratio on your common border. To work out your garrison ratio with the major power you want to attack:
1. Work out your units’ total garrison value.
2. Add your offensive entry marker total to it (see 13.2).
3. Work out the other major power’s (modified) garrison value and add its defensive entry marker total to it.
4. Compare your total to the other major power’s total.
5. If your total is at least twice the other major power’s, you can break the pact.

After the "calendar year" following it's signing. It means? 12 months after that? It was signed in August'39. Or I can break it in Jan39? I guess it's the first one.

Another thing that is more delicate cause it reallly is strategical advice (I have nobody to debate this and I don't want to ruin the game for us all doing some stupid rookie thing). Is it wise?

I think so, he can only get his reserves (face down) and what he can rail. But in Jan weather is terrible and if I wait till may/june he may bring back part of his units after taking Finland or being defeated (hopefully).

I think this is all by now...

[Ur_Vile_WEdge]

If I've been playing correctly (Which is no guarantee that this is right), you only pay attention to the year displayed. If you signed the neutrality pact in N/D 39, you could theoretically break it in J/F 40.

Now, as for the strategy.... If you haven't cleared out France, and I assume you haven't if you've by implication knocked over Poland to even consider attacking the Soviets, then I would seriously advise against a winter attack. The Soviets are providing you 7 resources a turn, and you need those; the second you declare war, they go away, and aside from Krivoy Rog, most of the resources you can capture from the USSR are deep in the hinterlands. You're going to lose a lot of BP, and open up the door for a flood of Soviet Mil, if you attack that early.

My recommendation. If he demanded the Finnish borderlands, the Soviets probably didn't do anything with Bessarabia. (Correct me if this assumption is incorrect). DoW Yugoslavia (possibly with the Italians) and use it to align Rumania, pre-empting any such demand of the borders. Either align or attack Hungary next, so you can access your new buddy. The Yugoslavians aren't that tough in 39, and even in the winter, you should be able to crush them. Furthermore, this gives you more frontage to attack in the vulnerable south against the USSR.

Watch how the Winter war goes (And don't forget, if he hasn't gotten out of the Borderlands, you can force a peace if you want.), and see if the Soviets bog down. If it looks like you can make the 40 barb work, go for it, and if it doesn't, transfer over to the French front and deal with them, and do the more "historic" attack.

[Centuur]

And don't forget: the USSR only looks empty... If the USSR reserves are placed, that's quite an army the USSR has got at his disposal. And with all USSR factories producing you may be getting an awful lot of land units to battle against in M/J 1940 (the first reasonable long turn)... Not advisable, even with all the minor countries aligned. The German army isn't all powerful at start. Sure, it has very nice units available to them, but if you have to devide them between the Eastern and Western front, you'll find that Germany is slowly, slowly being bled, while the allies slowly get stronger and stronger.

[Ur_Vile_WEdge]

Oh, IMO, if the Germans can pull off a 1940 attack on the USSR, they should. Don't DoW Belgium, leave about 8 corps (slow guys) and a couple of stukas and BF-109s, and you'll find it's very hard for the WAllies to mount a counterattack without DoWing Belgium and messing up USE, and even then, it's not hard to anchor behind the river lines and dare them to take their best shot.

Meanwhile, your small corps of arm, mech, and fast inf can advance at an amazing pace, given the low unit density.


But yeah, you want to attack when the mud dries, not before.

[Joseignacio]

There we go!

I just declared war to URSS. I saw UR post only, but I took his advice into account. Problem was he kept on sieging Helsinki even with all the reinforcements that were in the spiral including Zhukov. I knew that there were a lot of reserves for USSR and that's the only thing that could have stopped me from going all the wat to the Urals and Siberia (we are playing the Europe Map).

UNfortunately there were also like 4 divisional garisons, but speed bumps anyway if inside cities (somehow) and what is worse, an HQ form shitty Khaki in Flames, which I always disliked and I am starting to hate.

When I read UR advice the situation was complex. I had taken Holland for the resource, but I had not declared war to Belgium because I didn't want yet a frontier with France ... and because it had became more difficult to wipe all the belges in one attack since now they get one more unit.

I had divided my forces sending like 2/3 to the russian border, to press on the russian and reach a peace agreement in Finland, but have enough units to take Belgium in March/april, rail the units in Poland and attack France in summer. But he did not. He didn't want to take his claws off Finland, peacekeepers or not.

Besides, preventing my possible attack in may/jun, he started producing INF, so it had to be that impulse or not attack URSS in 1940, and let him take FInland.

So I decided to declare war. I counted as usual with the Romanian HQ but it was not posible, it was labelled 1940 so it will arrive next turn.So now I have 1 HQ close to Belgium with some units I can rail to URSS, for next impulse, another in URSS and the one in Finland that I will move to URSS too. So I only have two effective HQs in URSS this turn although next I can have 4.

But this is the one that counts. Now is when I can exploit my advantage. Besides I think I can block all the Urss army in Finlandfrom returning through Leningrad, and if I am lucky I might even leave it unsupplied cutting off also their lines to Lappland (I believe).

I couldn't do otherwise cause not attacking USSR would have meant railing everybody back to the belge border, losing the opportunity to attcak when he isn't ready, and letting him take Finland.

This is going to be a strange game.

[Ur_Vile_WEdge]

Well, if you're at war, you're at war. My recommendation at this point is to not step into actual Soviet territory until May/June.

Align your minors, and overrun Eastern Poland, and maybe even spread into the Baltic States (did the Soviets annex them?), and set up a nice big hammer in Rumania.

If you don't go into his turf, he won't get the production bonuses, but he'll still have 15 BP a turn if he's not using much oil. Be careful, I doubt the Germans are producing much more than that. With a little luck, you should still be able to sweep him off the edge of the board, and if you can do that, it's pretty much a guaranteed win.

[Joseignacio]

Hehe.

The Soviet did not annex them. The fact that I declared war in mar/apr, found him unprepared. He probably wanted to crush my resistance in Finland with Zhukov and 3 powerful stacks that were most (and the best) of the USSR army, and he was buying 6 inf for next turn.

The pros:

- He did not claim the Baltic States, and now he cannot. This was a strong point in my decision. These cities and lands can hold you for several impulses if well defended, usually you can make a line of defense along the river to Minsk. Now there is only Minsk there and few more. He will rail a couple of Inf to Minsk but I guess I can blow them without problems, using offensive points if necessary.

- I can take all of East Poland in one blow. Unfortunately he sent one garrison to Brest-Litvosk in the last minutes, to try or avoid war through increasing the garrison, he miscalculated. I can blow that unit and still try to reach Minsk with most of my North Front units on the second impulse provided it's a clear one, like the first is. On the south, only a CAV in a city (maybe Krakow?) and behind it an Eng and one Art stacked are the only bumps on the way to Kiev. My Romanian units are ready to take Odessa (obviously factory not railed), and if in this partially non-arctic area the weather is fine 2 impulses we´ll be close to Kiev, 3 and I take (probably) Kiev.

- In Finland, through two invasions (in my own Finnish land and with surprise, defense = 0, reinforced with debarked corps the same impulse) I can unsupply the USSR main army with Zhukov, cutting it's way back to USSR by rail as well as there is a slight opportunity that I may destroy one of his stacks if I am crazy lucky after bombing it with a sh*tty 2 factor (x2 in surprise) Finnish bomber, cause those units would be worth 1 each. And the only way he can get supply again later on the turn (necessary to try to attack anything) is through his only ship active (three are deactivated), and I am sending my Naval to see if I am lucky.

- Leningrad is only defended by a militia, but if I had crazy good luck ( like 4 arctic good weather impulses, it would be f*cked, I would reach from Minsk and from the previously invading units in Finland.

Next turn he will have the reserves (those not dead the previous turn) and the 6 inf. But I should be on the verge of Kiev and further than Minsk and most of my own Belgian border units ( set there to make him think I wouldn't attack) would be back to USSR while his may still be stacked in Finland and dispersed in different and rather distant USSR cities...

The cons;

- I depend on climate to exploit my turn.
- I have very few HQs (2 will be in Poland and 1 in Finland), I will have 2 more next turn.
- I will for sure need to spend a lot of off points, and now it's much more expensive than it was with O chits, IMO.

[Centuur]

If you take Kiev, consider using an Offensive chit to get Ukraine alive. This gives you the whole of the area in one go, including all resources and Sebastopol too. It's worth it, because in 1940 you don't have a lot of SS units on the map and it's a tremendous boost and prevents the USSR from railing out any more factories out of the Ukraine.

[Joseignacio]

True, and I was thinking of that.

Problem is I will probably need all my O points (1 old Ochit= 3 new Ochits= 15 Opoints) for a land+naval or maybe moving extra naval units in a Land... (according to new rules, both options are possible)...

+ make easier attacks that, if unlucky, could result in flipping most of my units. My opponent is extremely lucky usually (said by all players). Only ground battle roll till now, in Finland, 3D10 he got two 10 and a 4. [:@] Previously bombing with 1s, to disorganize that unit, he got a 1, I called for a reroll (we are playing with Intelligence rules), and he got another 1, probability 1%.

Of course, I would create Ukraine, but what about the factories out of my control, if I recall well, he cannot rail them can he? They become another colour, no? If so, a double reason for declaring Ukraine ASAP.

[Centuur]

Yes. He can't rail them, because they aren't in the USSR home country anymore...