Brief DAIM AAR

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Had a very frustrating H/A game as SU over the weekend - had to give up in '42.

I decided to roleplay SU under Stalin - rather than use all that manpower kept the army small and manageable while working on an offensive arm of paras and tanks. Essentially wanted to have a semi-historical start to Barbarossa.

Unfortunately events took a different turn:

Hitler failed to press the Sudetenland claim, and the czechs were never touched subsequently. (odd - Yugo and Greece both got hit in 40)

Despite Hitler's restraint USA had Gearing up for War events from '38 onwards that gave it 200+ divs by '41. Did nothing with them.

Japan lost China and Korea entirely to Nats, DOW'd USA anyway. Survived into mid-42 ok though.

Germany failed to launch Barbarossa in '41 or '42, despite massing on the border. (Lack of czech IC, huge US army dissuaded them? Soviet army was small but good quality)

Italy and UK had same front line at El Alamein for two years.

Essentially I'd have to take the offensive, go through Turkey and the Bulgary to hit Axis in the flank, and roll them up. Just can't be bothered. I suspect any more belligerence (I have Finland and Persia) will have US and UK coming in against me. So despite having DAIM I still ended up in a Cold War ;-(

Not complaining but thought it was sufficiently weird to mention

 

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Brief AAR from Germany

Playing H/A Germany with bigpack installed.

Got as far as Barbarossa in May '41, only for it to fail because DAIM Soviets had large stacks everywhere (as expected) but far more important, had better encryption and decryption tech. My armoured spearheads were cut off by superior forces and pocketed. Embarrassing. (NB I'd put a lot of effort into air doctrines, only for the Luftwaffe to 'disappear' into the vastness of Russia and the vast stacks therein).

Kudos for prioritising the computer/crypt tech - makes a big difference for the soviets to have maskirovka working early on.

Only 'bugs' in the behaviour -

DAIM British failed to garrison Gibraltar (left it to the Republican Spanish I was invading), Crete and Alexandria. Responded well to an invasion of Palestine, though I still managed to annex Vichy France in '40. (Should DAIM British have an interest in garrisoning Casablanca, Damascus and Crete in order to prevent annexation of allied minors?) Possibly questionable use of assets, but Gibraltar remains a critical location whether you have a Spanish army 'protecting' it or not.

 

[e-stab]

Sounds like you had a nice game after all, thanks for your report!
The cryptography techs are not overly emphasized for the Soviet, but he's told to research one of them from time to time, yes. Seems like this time he really wanted those techs, the greedy bastard!
British garrison behaviour is a fragile thing indeed, in your case he probably didn't garrison Gibraltar (although told to do so in general) because the neighbour Republican Spain was considered friendly and the AI didn't react fast enough when things changed. Maybe the AI shouldn't care about who the neighbour is at all, seeing the important provinces uncovered is always a nuisance.
The Allies will do little to protect Vichy as it usually is an enemy, not an ally. We didn't anticipate ahistorical moves from the player as there are too many possibilities.

 

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Guarding VP locations

Apologies for my ignorance - I'm not clear on how the AI decides what to defend.

Gibraltar: understandable error on the part of the AI in the sense that there was the entire Republican army between me and Gibraltar. I don't think we can get the AI to assess the value of that army so yes, you'd have to boost Gibraltar's value.

Damascus & Casablanca: I hit mainland Vichy France early, prior to taking Spain.(ie Vichy France was an ally for ~six months prior to annexation) Despite that there were no UK troops in Palestine, or seaborne reinforcement of Casablanca. I only got a (very strong) response when my marines began to threaten Suez. Could it be that the UK was short of transports? I was deliberately not challenging for naval supremacy nor using the naval bomber exploit. I would expect the UK to make some use of its being Queen of the Seas...but maybe DAIM can't help that.

 

[Spocky]

Maybe I could tweak the front AI against Vichy a little bit. The change for Vichy being an enemy ( SMEP user ?) of the UK is high so maybe this should be a feature.

Spocky