How is German AI?

[76mm]

People have said that the AI for this game is good, but is that only when playing as German against the Sov AI, or does the German AI put up a good fight as well?

No need to post that "it is better to play a human player"--I know that...but does the German AI put up a decent fight?

[elmo3]

Played against the Germain AI on Normal/Slow my first game and got my butt kicked. My entire Southern Front was decimated. Playing again on Normal/Normal and it's a good fight so far. I'm worried about the Axis not taking enough losses. Will wait until I have some good numbers but it feels like the attacker (mostly the Axis side) is not suffering enough casualties on offense.

[76mm]

Ok, thanks, will give it a try

[Flaviusx]

German AI is good, but I believe I've got it figured out on my second game, which is now in October and I've pretty much shut it down across the whole front. This is on fully historical settings, with difficulty slightly in favor of the German AI. 102 I believe.

8 dead Axis divisions, too.

Great game. May have to get some PBEM action on this. Love the design.

It's harder on the Germans than the Sovs imo. I tried one game as the Germans so far and made a hash of my logistics. AGS Panzers need lots of TLC. And the Soviet AI doesn't seem anywhere nears as constrained by PPs as I am when playing it, it can drop garrisons on Minsk and Riga almost immediately. I sure can't do that playing the Soviets.

[Flaviusx]

Recommended Soviet decisions based on limited experience:

1. Send Kruschev north to put a bullet through Voroshilov's head. You'll a much better Marshal this way, albeit with high threat.

2. Set focus to center.

3. Send Zhukov south. You'll need to move him to Army commands eventually to blow bridges near Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk.

Save PPs for lowering defensive posture costs to zero, and then switch to improving Soviet command.

You'll get several paranoid episodes from Stalin this way. I've had 4 or so. Ride those out and anticipate them, try to zero out the PP pool when threat gets high, you'll lose whatever is in the kitty.

New armies arrive set on neutral posture, which is fine. Starting ones start off on offensive posture, which is not good. I try to gradually shift these to neutral, but PPs are really scarce. A lot of those early armies will die anyways. By late summer you'll be in position to set everybody to defensive posture.

Counterattack aggressively when opportunities present themselves. I've killed off an entire PG equivalent this way in my most recent game, 8 divisions, all motorized or panzer. The center can be turned into a deathtrap for panzers.

Force preservation is key, try not to lose too may regulars early on. The conscripts arriving later on just don't have as much punch.

[76mm]

Hey FlaviusX, good to see you and thanks for the tips!

[Speedysteve]

Yup. Good to see you playing this Flav

[elmo3]

Hi Flavio. Nice to see you are still on the Eastern Front. [:)]

Would love to see an AAR of your game. Do you use the garrison cards for the major cities? I am trying to use them but they get very expensive very fast.

In my current game I set every front to 100% retreat to bleed the Germans dry, but it does not appear to be working. I don't think the Axis casualties are high enough on the attack compared to history, but it's still early.

[76mm]

I'm a few turns into a game vs the German AI; it is certainly a credible opponent (with Normal/Slow setting), but it plays in the "meat-grinder" style rather than an "encirclement" style, so any lessons learned might not help much against an opponent with a different style...

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: elmo3

Hi Flavio. Nice to see you are still on the Eastern Front. [:)]

Would love to see an AAR of your game. Do you use the garrison cards for the major cities? I am trying to use them but they get very expensive very fast.

In my current game I set every front to 100% retreat to bleed the Germans dry, but it does not appear to be working. I don't think the Axis casualties are high enough on the attack compared to history, but it's still early.

I saved my garrison cards for later because I felt early on my main priority was trying to increase Soviet command abilities. Although this means Odessa falls early.

They are very expensive. I dropped mine on places like Kharkov and Rostov later on.

Axis casualties seem fine to me. You have to mix it up with counterattacks. I'm on the eve of blizzard now and the Axis deadpile is up to 10 divisions and I've already shattered AGC and surrounded chunks of it. AGS just surrounded Kharkov and is knocking on the door of Voronezh and Rostov, but too little too late. AGN stalled early on for me at the Luga line and I've just ignored that front for month now, indeed could easily strip it of 2-3 armies.

I left the retreat settings on default, that's 50% right?

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: 76mm

I'm a few turns into a game vs the German AI; it is certainly a credible opponent (with Normal/Slow setting), but it plays in the "meat-grinder" style rather than an "encirclement" style, so any lessons learned might not help much against an opponent with a different style...

Quite likely I'm learning things that will blow up in my face in PBEM here, yeah. So it goes.

[elmo3]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

I saved my garrison cards for later because I felt early on my main priority was trying to increase Soviet command abilities. Although this means Odessa falls early.

They are very expensive. I dropped mine on places like Kharkov and Rostov later on.

Axis casualties seem fine to me. You have to mix it up with counterattacks. I'm on the eve of blizzard now and the Axis deadpile is up to 10 divisions and I've already shattered AGC and surrounded chunks of it. AGS just surrounded Kharkov and is knocking on the door of Voronezh and Rostov, but too little too late. AGN stalled early on for me at the Luga line and I've just ignored that front for month now, indeed could easily strip it of 2-3 armies.

I've been playing the major garrison cards early, but it only delays the inevitable a few turns at best and really cripples my command and control with all the PP's they cost. Guess I'll just live with more paranoia episodes.

Speaking of which, both Riga and Minsk fell on the 24 July turn in my current game and Stalin's chance of paranoia jumped to 97%. In my part of the turn the roll was 99! [:D] Khrushchev is going to shoot the Central Front commander for losing Minsk to reduce the paranoia level for next turn, but I'm also not leaving any PP's in the bank!

[Flaviusx]

Honestly, Stalin going paranoid here and there is not so terrible if you work around it. It's almost impossible to avoid it happening near as I can tell, at least the way I'm playing it.

[elmo3]

Yeah and sometimes he cleans out the dead wood so that actually helps.

What are you doing with retreat percentages? In my current game a lot of them are set to 100% hoping to grind down the Axis but I don't see that happening, hence my concern about the casualty rate. Maybe early on most should be set to 25% so units retreat quicker and live to fight another day.

[Flaviusx]

I left the retreat settings on default, more by accident than design. It didn't even occur to me to fiddle with them. Not seeing a reason to at this point.

[elmo3]

OK. I may be doing more harm than good fiddling with them. [:)]