WITE Campaign Game, ver 1.09

[Gris]

Looking at the threads, there are several who are more experienced than I, I've just finished my first long campaign as German against the Soviet AI.  Thought I'd just share a couple of "strategic" observations, since it seems it's fairly uncommon for someone to complete the entire campaign.

Until about June of '44 I though surely I'd get a major victory; I never thought I'd get a decisive victory.  Sometime between June '44 and the Spring of '45 it became clear I'd do well to hold onto a minor victory.  In the event, I dropped to 126 points by game end, resulting in a draw.  On move 250, Soviets were moving forward inexorably, but weren't within striking distance of Berlin; had just taken Budapest, Rumania and Hungary were out of the war, but Koenigsberg and other German cities were well protected.  Eventually, Ivan would have cleared the map, but when?  Maybe 1946...

The early game was fun, I could have done a lot better, but finally took Moscow and Leningrad, sometime in '42 I think....never got close to Stalingrad, but took Rostov, and launched slightly down into the Caucasus just to shake up the AI.  Couldn't take the Crimea, though.  So basically I cleared out Finland, past Moscow for maybe 50 or 100 miles, and down past Rostov.  As mid '44 approached I was feeling pretty smug.  Then things started to unravel.

The Soviet force buildup was surprisingly strong in '44, considering they'd lost their major cities.  I haven't played from the Russian side, so don't know exactly what happened, but I awoke after a few turns with huge portions of my armies surrounded/isolated.  A few very limited air supply/rescues worked, but for the most part, it was hopeless.  I lost a LOT more divisions captured and destroyed, than the Russians, and still managed to draw.  I kept feeding new units into the line, and dropping back.....sometime in early '45 I finally got the hang of reading the signals of an imminent Kessel, and began to drop back in time....this made all the difference, and allowed me to put up resistance in most places, but not before Rumania and Hungary dropped out.  Rumania's departure caught me by surprise, I read the applicable rules after it happened; should have read them before it happened!  On the bright side, my AF had a small degree of air superiority until the end. Love those late-war ME 262's! 

Based on this, I should easily beat the Soviet AI if I play it again....don't know that I will, though, the time investment was huge, I am hankering now for a human opponent.  But first I'll play against the German AI, at least a bit, as the Russian.

Currahee,

Great write up. my experience has been similar, in HTH also (experience gained) where your experience snowballs massively in the subsequent games. I am far better at the Soviets than the Axis because I have played them more. The Soviets in 44 become very powerful. In my experience taking a large amount of manpower centers and holding on to them as long as possible seems to work best to slow the Soviets down. I always felt like you can't stop them from taking Berlin, it is more a matter of delay. As you noted, avoiding a "Destruction of AGC" is paramount. 

I always have to go back and read the rules on campaign starts and surrenders because as you stated the game takes so long to play it is 6 months to a year sometimes before you do it again, you forget!  I started my current HTH (as Soviets) mid last year and we are in March 42 still, so I will have to go back and brush up on the swap.   

Like most games, HTH is quite different than the AI. I feel the top priority is finding an opponent with similar experience and play style (causal or macro player vs micro player). It is such a huge time investment as you stated. You actually have a lot of experience. I believe the same as you stated, few players complete a campaign. It seems to me most games end in 41/42 with a concession. 

For any new players wanting to give it a go, try the following "Road To" scenarios first if you want to gain experience as Axis opening moves and practice for HTH in 41/44 as Soviets. Against the Axis AI you want to set the AI to Challenging which is an unofficial default. 

For opening moves:
Road to Kiev
Road to Leningrad
Road to Minsk

Weather experience:
Operation Typhoon

Soviet Steam Roller:
Operation Bagration (Lost Battles)

If you (or anyone in the Blitz) are interested, PM your email and I have compiled a few guides to help out new Soviets players. It is a collection of things that should help get you going if you are interested.

Congratulations, completing an entire campaign is quite a task! It is very helpful to have a gauge and reference point to compare to, greatly appreciated. Well done, great post!