3rd Report
Hello there,
I'm still playing my game with Canada, untill August '43 now and I have a lot of observations to share with you, hoping this can be usefull somehow to somebody and I'm not just talking to myself......
As I wish to submit you many things I will probably type this report in more than one time, editing this post or creating a new one if needed.
So come back to check for more datas and comments.
Btw if you need numbers or close-up figure just ask me.
PACIFIC FRONT
I had finished my previous report (Mar.'42) by saying:
"Oh btw JAP is performing REALLY bad against Allies..."
I was
wrong, really
wrong !
Actually JAP attacked USA in early Jan.'42 and the first encounter went bad for them, also it was quite
'fixed' in China and it seemed to me to be too passive.
Well, things changes ! ( and AI-change too I guess
) after a few monthes it took up the fight, attacking in all directions and succesfully too.
In July '43 they landed in Kawai and now they're attacking Pearl Harbour !
On the sea they are succesfully denying the Allies the transport of troops making impossible for them to defend their possession or reinforce their allies.
In China on the other hand JAP is doomed !
Half of the northern conquests are lost, and in the south is controlling only a strip of the southernmost provinces between Canton and Vietnam. ( well is facing 400+ chinese divisions
)
All in all a good performance except for the China-front ( JAP never took Nanking for istance )
some data from the ledger,
Ships lost in Pacific Front (Aug. 1st '43):
TAG----capitals----screens----subs-----transports
JAP---------2-----------6---------4---------3
USA--------0----------11---------8--------48
ENG--------4-----------0---------0---------12
RUSSIAN FRONT
After hardly reaching a 2 provinces-depth ( Odessa, Kiev, Minsk, Riga were never been lost !)
GER invasion stalled and the front freezed until June'43, with the exception of FIN ( it was with Axes before Barbarossa ) which has been conquered by SOV in Oct.'42 and it's now a soviet Puppet; as I've not followed this operation I can't judge it, but I don't remember have seen so many SOV forces up there....
Anyway they (FIN) are a
very passive puppet, all of their divisions (17) are piled in Helsinki.
Now I don't think they should be eager to fight for SOV (there is an active front in North Lapland) but they should at least guard their own beaches and maybe send a couple of
volunteers division to their new master.
this is the tipical AI behaviour ,or better lack of it, an human player can easily exploit
In June '43 SOV has started a general offensive all along the front and is pushing back GER by 1 province everywhere....
some data from the ledger,
Land divisions on Russian Front (Aug. 1st '43):
TAG----Inf----Cav----Mot---LArm/Arm---Mount---Para---HQs----Garr----Totals
SOV---200-----4-------84--------60----------11-----0------1--------0------360
GER*---72-----1-------34--------67-----------7------2-----12------19------270**
*(total German land forces)
**(all Axis land forces on eastern front)
WESTERN FRONT
After the end of France invasion, GER started an effective
Battle of Britain storming South ENG with her squadrons of Int. & Fght. putting a very hard pressure on RAF and
de facto gaining Air Superiority until Jan'42 but they
never bombed it, not even once !
Why ?
As I've already reported ENG failed to guard her home-beaches until the Axis'
balkanic adventures and GER never attempted to land in Britain...
My feeling is that this period of WWII need to be better covered.
On sea GER was very passive initially, then starting from spring '40 german u-boat finally appeared in North Atlantic with not so much effect indeed (can't give precise figure) I had 1 single convoy sinked and my trade with european country was never in danger...
Anyway they took quite an heavy toll (14 GER-Subs sinked) for very little effect if any, oh well they sinked an ENG CVL, and now they sit idle in baltic ports.
On the other hand ENG (& HOL too) lost a lot of convoys, I suspect mostly due to JAP surface raiders.
Yet ENG has many others problems:
1) since Dec'42
ENG has no more oil in stock ! Zero, nada !
(by July'42 she had 5200, Oct'42 1800)
I was thinking this is due to USA Airforce drinking it up without supplying but I was wrong.
USA is sending 20 oil/day and using 14, FRA is sending 21 oil/day, BEL & NZL are sending 8 oil/day
ENG herself produce 7.8 oil/day by synthese and purchaise 13 oil/day from Spain.
On top of this, she convoys in 92-112 oil/day from her colonies.
I checked 5 different saves from Jan'42 to Aug'43 but I can't figure out what reasons are there
Consequences are heavy, all main fleets are stuck in port in Britain and ITA navy is dominating the Mediterranean Sea blocking it for all convoying purpose, thus making even harder for ENG to supply herself
2)
ENG doesn't properly research Land and Naval Doctrines !!
(she does research Air doctrines correctly, ie on time)
She is stuck with '38-'39 doctrines, ie the starting ones !
I finally got bored to waiting for and after research them myself and giving her
Blueprints
she started reseaching those '40 Tech in late '43 !
Of course this is a major drawback but it need to be confirmed by somebody else
3)
ENG doesn't produce convoys and radar-sites
Actually convoys (and escorts) are in producing cue since half '42 but they are not properly prioritized so none of them come in service.
Radars are properly researched but aren't put in prodution until June '43 when finally they appears (4 x 2) but then they are just useless. (GER has 5 provinces with size 2 radars by then)
Finally since some monthes ENG isn't producing anything at all cause most of her IC (142 ) are diverted too supplies-production,even if does have 6800 supplies in stock at July '43
*update: as of Sept. 1st '43 building restarted (42 IC ) ENG has 8700 supplies in stock now.
Once more I cannot figure any reason for explaining these observations of mine and they need to be confirmed.
I have some more general observations ( and questions ) about convoying but I guess this are not
beta-patch related so I won't post them here.
some data from the ledger,
Allied Air divisions in Britain (Aug. 1st '43):
TAG-----Ftr----Int----Cas----Str---Tac---Nav---Total
USA-----17------0------0-----13----32-----0-------62
ENG------6------3------0-------0-----5-----6-------20
minors-----------1--------------------1---------------2
ITALIAN FRONT
In previous report I was talking about the (relative) good performances of ITA AI, putting a lot of pressure on Allied forces in North African Front while garrisoning all of her beaches....
Now after
Balkan campaign and some (too manies ?) attempt to land in Palestine-Sinai,
ITA was starting loosing
momentum...
First she lost Sardinia to ENG (in autumn '42) then Sicily (in winter '42). At that time ENG fleets disappeared (because struck by oil depletion) at ITA retook Sardina.
Then I changed my game from passive watcher to limited active role (it's then when I discovered about ENG oil-troubles), thus I sent my small but modern fleet in Meditarrean and landed some Arm + Mot in Sicily.
ITA fleets put up a nice fight making my life really hard...
Thus I observed a few things:
1) I couldn't move from
Palermo to
Reggio Calabria even when having my fleet in
Gulf of Salerno seazone & no Italian ship being seen !?
I will try to give it a new run later in game and post a confirmation of this possible bug.
UPDATE forget about this point ! Made test with
nofog cheat and I see everything is fine.
2) when trying to land in
Napoli the seazone for beach is set to be
Gulf of Genova (ie the same that
Anzio & Firenze)
this is wrong ! It should be
Gulf of Salerno !
Btw please correct also once for all
Reggio Calabria landscape, it isn't
plain but
mountain (which peacks range from 1925 m. to 2250 m. )
3) after landing in
Napoli I couldn't supplies my troups there cause I was needing 99+ convoys !
ie as western seazones where under ITA control, the routing was calculated from Canada through Suez (51 convoys needed) and then as eastern seazones where under ITA control too, somehow this value was doubled.
At least I guess so
Please check this !!
In general convoy-routing is at least disappointing
( imho of course
)
4) after landing in
Napoli I mouved south unopposed, Italian divisions around mine where totally passive, conquered
Reggio Calabria and left Italy. It took 2 1/2 monthes to ITA to move a division in
Napoli (there where 2-3 around at start, then 4-5 ) and after 4 monthes still not moving in
Calabria !
ITA AI need to have the highest priority in defending homeland ! No need to defend Egean isles or Greek coast when homeland is under enemy attack !
By August '43 ITA has no more MP ( 2 left) and seems really lethargic...
5)
ITA doesn't properly research Land and Naval Doctrines !!
The same that ENG, a very worrying trend !
Even worst when you think ITA didn't research '39 Naval Doctrines for which it has
Blueprints !!!
For me this is a topmost problem and a game breacking one !!!
some data from the ledger,
Italian Land divisions (Aug. 1st '43):
Inf----Cav----Mnt---Gar---Mil---Total
18------0-------1------8-----2------29
Final thoughts and general observations
Another possible serious misbehaviour is that
AI seems not to upgrade her production cues or not doing that enough !!!! Others players have reported this too.
So in August '43 ENG & GER are still producing Inf '39 and SOV is producing B7m for istances
Technology cost/time seems to have been raised (possible not beta-patch related), Major countries correctly research as a priority Industrial tech, then more modern units, but somehow seems to fail in Land & Naval Doctrine (not Air)
I would
slightly reduce cost/time of research (and/or raising
Blueprints effect )
USA as been quite passive until now (except for Air battles) only 5 Inf in
Port Moresby and 3 Inf in
Malta but is building sh*tloads of modern units....
I really enjoyed Naval battles: fast, short and brutal, I didn't liked the too little experience my naval units get from combat (not beta-patch related)
SOV seems to be a really hard nut to crack with the new changes made.
I got some ideas about how to solve this without returning to the old GDE-exploit, at least I hope so !
I will create a separate thread about this topic.
I had few CTDs ( 2 ) and freezes ( 5 ) while playing at
very fast, but could not reproduce them.
Thanks for reading this
short report of mine.
Hope this can help you in your task....
Best regards, Amadeus
