Best overall Axis strategy

Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: The German-Soviet War 1941-1945 is a turn-based World War II strategy game stretching across the entire Eastern Front. Gamers can engage in an epic campaign, including division-sized battles with realistic and historical terrain, weather, orders of battle, logistics and combat results.

The critically and fan-acclaimed Eastern Front mega-game Gary Grigsby’s War in the East just got bigger and better with Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: Don to the Danube! This expansion to the award-winning War in the East comes with a wide array of later war scenarios ranging from short but intense 6 turn bouts like the Battle for Kharkov (1942) to immense 37-turn engagements taking place across multiple nations like Drama on the Danube (Summer 1944 – Spring 1945).

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spinecruncher
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Best overall Axis strategy

Post by spinecruncher »

Can anyone sum up the most successful overall strategy? Should the Army Groups move along a broader front, or punch together and leave swathes of land un-occupied? Should the Alied units at the beginning be attacked head on, or bypassed and there rail and communications cut off? IS AGS large enough to gain the valuable oil in the south, or
should it join with AGC for the taking of Moscow? Also should we cot move up the airbases to keep up with Axis advances?
William Shirer wrote that there were very poor conditions to move the airbases forward and at the beginning at least the advance units lost contact with their air units. But in this game it appears we are able to willy-nilly move our air bases wherever we want.
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Champagne
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by Champagne »

In sum, the Axis overall strategy must maximize the Soviet POW count. How? By pocketing and eliminating Isolated Soviet units. Isolated units surrender when beaten. Routed units merely run away to fight another day.
Only the dead have seen the end of War.

-- Plato
spinecruncher
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by spinecruncher »

Thanks but that does not answer very much. Once the Allied units are bi-passed, it takes time to attack them from the rear, time which can be used to advance toward ultimate objectives. How should the Axis C&C deal with this consideration?
hfarrish
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by hfarrish »

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Ketza
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by Ketza »

The best overall Axis approach is to manage your army and its morale and create depth between the Soviet Leviathan and Berlin. Against an average to good Soviet player (which most are)it is your best bet. Against good Soviet play you will not hurt the Soviet war machine in the conquest of territory and factories. You wont be able to do so against average or better Soviets period.

Part of managing this is POWs. They help your army survive long term. Capture as many as possible early in the game.

Part of the process is careful management of your fighters and fighter bombers.

Part of the process is always look for ways to improve morale with counter attacks. If the Soviet gives you a gift of a lone weak unit pile up on it with as many units as you can so they can all benefit from the win.

From 1943 on keep track of how many hexes it is to Berlin and defend smartly. Pelton has a very good strategy on this.

I could go on and on but with 1.08 all of this may be changed so I will stop typing now.
swkuh
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by swkuh »

Best overall Axis strategy is to kill der Fuehrer, drop weapons in place, and sue for peace.

Axis victory can only be in terms of delaying fall of Berlin, collecting Soviet casualties while diminishing Axis casualties. What can one achieve?

Or, failing all that play a Soviet commander that doesn't have a clue.
Wheat
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by Wheat »

Best overall axis strategy.....have Gamesaurus Rex as the Soviet commander.
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by Wheat »

Ok, a serious answer, as the others said, in 41 drive east as hard as you can, pocket as much as you can for the POW's, and take whatever factories you can. You must decide where to drive and concentrate your tanks so you can make the pockets. Try and see what the Soviet is offering, and take that. If he fights really hard for Moscow, consider a different axis of advance, etc.

In 42, imo, its all about pocketing. You can forget factories as they are gone. So, capture as many Russians as you can, get further east, and prepare where you will defend. Remember, in summer 42 the soviets can start making infantry corps. This is a slow process, but eventually, your attack will slow.

43 on, you will be on the defensive.
hfarrish
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by hfarrish »

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hfarrish
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by hfarrish »

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GamesaurusRex
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by GamesaurusRex »

ORIGINAL: Wheat

Best overall axis strategy.....have Gamesaurus Rex as the Soviet commander.


No, actually your best German strategy is to do what Wheat did in our game.
First, you must find a Russian opponent that has no familiarity with the gross bugs in the earlier versions of the game.
Second, you must use a version of the game no later than 1.07.11... preferably before that, like we did in our first game.
Third, you exploit the morale bug which exists in those versions by insisting that you use initial morale settings of G105/R97.

Voila ! Your entire German Army and it's allies will be pegged at morale 100 and the German army will be taking the Urals, while the Italian Army is mopping up Stalingrad by 1943 !

There you have it... enjoy !
"Real Life" is a game... THIS is war !
charlie0311
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by charlie0311 »

Hi Ballyh,

Lots of good advice IMO. To be more specific you should become an absolute maestro at axis turn one.

GR and Wheat are the resident comedians. I mean that in a fun way...
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parusski
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by parusski »

ORIGINAL: Wheat

Best overall axis strategy.....have Gamesaurus Rex as the Soviet commander.

Better strategy: Don't invade Russia.
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
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WingedIncubus
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by WingedIncubus »

ORIGINAL: parusski

ORIGINAL: Wheat

Best overall axis strategy.....have Gamesaurus Rex as the Soviet commander.

Better strategy: Don't invade Russia.

In other words, the only way to win is not to play.

Makes for a very poor game. [:D]
caliJP
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by caliJP »

Ballyhoo, this thread has gone sideways a bit :) but I'll put in my two cents on the original question:

In 1941, top priority is to pocket and get at least one of: Leningrad, Moscow, Stalino area. That would put you on a decent footing for 1942
If you get none, you are in trouble.
If you get two, you are likely in a strong position
If you get three, there is no reason you can't win outright and conquer all of mother Russia in 1942

In 1942, early on it's all about pocketing. Ignore any geographical goal, focus on where the Red Army is weak, and concentrate your effort there. As you keep pocketing, two things happen: 1) the Red Army has to weaken other spots to plug the hole, weakening other spots and potential creating other pocket opportunities. 2) In the area of your pocket, likely you have destroyed all lines of forts, and so even if your opponent rushes units there, they won't be in forts right away, thus be vulnerable to more attacks. This may also start creating bulges that are threatening to areas next door, forcing the Red Army to retreat some more, and so on. Truth is any military strategy book will always tell you: the best chances of success come with surprise and local superiority of forces creating a break point which then snowballs. Most battle wins in history occurred when one specific action put one side off-balance, usually when the attacker was able to create local superiority of forces and the defender was put on the back foot because of that. So I certainly did not invent this strategy!

At the very least, you will slow the build-up of the Red Army and increase your chances later in the game. But if you can keep pocketing at a good clip, eventually the Red Army is on the run and then that's when you start really gaining some territory and VPs towards a victory.
Of course 1942 results can be heavily influenced by 1941 results, specially in extreme cases.

Have fun!
JP
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STEF78
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by STEF78 »

From my experience

1) Create pockets and get a lot of POW
2) Keep the momentum in 1941, don't let the russians create a wall of iron (especially north of Kaluga). Take at least Leningrad.
3) Adapt your gameplay to your opponent. Some are agressive counterattacker, others flee rapidly...
4) Be prepared for the blizzard (use cities/towns as anchors)
5) Get the initiative back as soon as possible in 1942
6) If you don't win in 1942, you will face a long retreat. Counterattack as much as possible in 1943. Keep your morale as high as possible!
7) Don't hesitate to give ground in 1944. Encirclements kill your army
8) No advice for 1945, it's hard time

And have fun!!
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swkuh
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by swkuh »

You can learn a lot by playing vs. AI, trying the various strategies you're contemplating.

CaliJP, STEF78, & others answer well; just don't play Soviet commander that has read this thread. Such an opponent will:

Avoid pockets, create a "wall of steel," hold at least Moscow, prepare solid defense in '42, become aggressive in '43 and then employ killing encirclements when appropriate.

Soviet side has problem of managing its force structure, integrating that with strategy. Better Soviet players have mastered this and such players will force the outcome.



Numdydar
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by Numdydar »

Of course when 1.8 is released, then all the above may change slightly [:D]
spinecruncher
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by spinecruncher »

Thank you guys! A few of you had some useful info.

So, as the Axis, I am playing Campaign, first few turns now. I have had this game several years and until now only played around. I
am fascinated by the history, of the world's greatest conflict ever known. So back to some advise: How do the Axis handle the supply issues? Do I need to be constantly administrating and checking supply as well as changing leaders around? What happens if a unit gets far from its HQ? For example, the 291st infantry division, is about three hexes outside of its supply line and is now red. Will this be a big problem, or can I just get them closer together on the next turn?
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cmunson
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RE: Best overall Axis strategy

Post by cmunson »

Units can move past their supply lines and generally supply will catch up in a turn or two. Keep them within five hexes though of their HQ's. Supply is crucial in 1941 and needs constant monitoring. It matters much less once the rail net is repaired behind your units. Hopefully you are using your manually controlled RR repair units to repair railroads on your main axis of advance. Transfer some of the construction units from your corps and armies up to the Army Groups. Higher level HQ's can deploy construction units over more of the map. These automatic repair units will connect the lines you've manually repaired to each other. Without that, one partisan attack can put an entire army group out of supply.

You will have to periodically slow or stop your advance to let supplies catch up. That is not necessarily bad as units that move near maximum every turn become very fatigued and lose effectiveness. It is hard sometimes to discipline yourself to not advance when you have momentum but it is necessary. Use air supply as needed to help keep things going at the tip of the spear.

There are only so many CP's available in 1941. I would not worry about changing more than a couple of commanders in 1941. Use the points to redistribute support units and construction units. Many players also build fort units to start entrenching early before the Soviet winter attacks. Remove the forts before winter to avoid extra attrition.

I like to go hard for Leningrad as it is almost impossible to capture after 1941. You also free up a lot of troops for a 1942 summer offensive and release the Finns.
Chris
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