any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Gary Grigsby’s War in the West 1943-45 is the most ambitious and detailed computer wargame on the Western Front of World War II ever made. Starting with the Summer 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and proceeding through the invasions of France and the drive into Germany, War in the West brings you all the Allied campaigns in Western Europe and the capability to re-fight the Western Front according to your plan.

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mkeens
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any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by mkeens »

Hi.. Anyone got any advice on playing as axis in the full campaign?
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Jajusha
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

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AWGreif
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by AWGreif »

Having played mostly the Axis during the Beta testing, I take the liberty to give you my two cents worth of suggestions
To begin, some short advice (tip) valid whichever the adversary (AI or Human) and the difficulty settings.

Air War: distribute your Germany fighter units along the more probable path of bombers (typical early targets are Essen and Hamburg areas). I haven’t find useful to arrange Air Superiority missions, as the “automatic” intercept works in my experience better.
Keep the fighters nearer to the front “light”, i.e. no additional cannons; keep behind the heavy Bf-110 and Me-410, and single engine fighter that can have additional guns.
For night fighters the starting disposition is rather good, for those the additional cannons are a good choice.
As for the bombing units, depends much on the strategic choices, but is better not to sacrifice them too early.

Check at every turn the industry damages, and use the “priority repair” for those that are in worst conditions, specially oil and fuel; take care also of U-Boot initially and V-Weapons later on, as these mean VPs for the Allies if damaged.
Be *very* careful however with the consumption of Administrative points (AP): you get only 5 per turn, so it’s easy to run short of them.

Before any movement of ground units, check the Garrisoning level and take any step to avoid the heavy penalties that are issued in case of low garrisoning. Remember that the CV of your units can change overtime. If in emergency as no unit can reach in time the right area, adding Support to some units can save the day. Remember also the change of Garrisoning requirements in Sept43, March44 and May44: in the last two also some additional city requires garrisoning by a Security unit plus combat units for a total of 10 CV (check manual for the cities involved).

If you don’t have EF box active, check also the Reinforcements screen, specially the withdrawals that can hamper your garrisoning levels.

If on the contrary you play with the EF box option on (that I recommend) take special care with it: handled with care can help you endure beyond the historical end (May45) and gain precious VPs.
Be very careful with the HQs level; at the start of 43 Campaign you will be low of Corps HQs, so choose those with the lowest capability Generals ( at least 4) and send them immediately to Russia.
Always check the n. of divisions against the number of Corps HQs: adding a division to reach a total that can be exactly divided by 4 will give you a CV penalty; on the contrary sending West or disbanding a division to go below an exact multiple of 4 will increase your CV.
Keep in “refit” the units with lower CV: with time you will find the right compromise between CV requirements and the necessity to refit units.

As far as strategic choices, much depend whether playing against a Human opponent or the AI; in the latter case also the difficulty setting has much importance.

Hope to have time tomorrow for further suggestions.
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AWGreif
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by AWGreif »

Regarding Air War, forgot to mention: open the Air directive, go to the “pilots” tab and reduce the value of experience under which the pilot will fly training mission: this will reduce your air losses that are unfortunately high during training.
Check often the Air Groups under Commander’s Report: put in “Rest” those units that have high fatigue (over 12-15); and return to duty those that have recovered.

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marion61
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by marion61 »

Do you use the Luftwaffe to conduct strategic bombing of some sort? I played the WA's the most in beta and I'm glad you posted this.
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AWGreif
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by AWGreif »

Heh, in a test game (PBEM) night bombed UK Channel ports before D-Day reducing invasion capability, but thereafter flak and baloons were improved, so I would not recommend to try it again.
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cmunson
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by cmunson »

Good advice all. It is a matter of preference but I evacuate the channel islands turn 1. Hard to keep the units supplied and more useful on mainland.

Bring over your mountain divisions from Russia for Italy, swapping for regular infantry divisions (I never deplete EF, always a like unit in a swap).

You have a couple of stray bomber groups in the west with the stab and rest of the unit in EF, I move those plus some extra transport air units to EF to get a little CV boost.
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by carlkay58 »

I would caution about abandoning the Channel Islands. They make great aircraft carriers for the Allies. Even unsupplied they are very difficult for the Allies to capture, but when they do the additional amount of coastline that is suddenly under close support range is really daunting to the Axis - but great for the Allies.

I can't see the addition of two regiments would help out more than keeping the Allies from a freebie invasion (at brigade level invasion force it only requires three turns of prep and that is all that is needed if vacant).
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cmunson
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by cmunson »

Can you build airfields on the islands? Anyway, I only play against AI and it hasn't occupied them yet.

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marion61
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by marion61 »

You can build new airfields once you capture them. It would seem like a huge investment to take them and use them as the allies, but I may have to try it sometime.
carlkay58
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by carlkay58 »

It is a huge investment by the Allies IF the Axis continue to occupy them. It is a very small investment if they are abandoned and a great payout.
marion61
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RE: any Advice in playing axis - full campaign

Post by marion61 »

Thanks man, I love new ideas to try and confound my opponents. [8D]
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