Game 487124 Craizy74 Constructive critisism

EAGER TO LEARN!!

I set about trying to balance my economy, did what I could with my sliders.

I built recruitment centres in every province, I built railways in coal provinces, factories in provinces where I needed more of a material.

I attacked Caucasus and got absolutely humped!! (chasing the oil !).

By this point I had limited resources of any type had very few troops (approx. 25 moveable). My economy was balanced and I was positive producing on all fronts.

I still had some Caucasus provinces to defend against and was aware of Arabia amassing troops at my border. I contacted Arabia to ally, and if that failed I had contacted Russia as I now had borders with them. I fortified the Arabian border as well in the meantime.

Russia accepted so I took it. In the meantime Arabia said they would ally but only if I had no other... I stalled, waiting to see what would happen and they attacked. I never asked Russia for assistance, their troops were too far away or engaged in battle, so at that point had accepted my fate, that it was game over.

I had learnt that Arabia and Egypt were allies so had used GM to reveal their armies, with this knowledge I placed troops in the water ready to move to an arabian province further down or to attack Egypt as they had roughly the same size of army at that time. (I had about 50 troops and 1 arty by this time)

West Libya were closing in on Egypt, so I asked to ally with them and leaked all the GM info I had to hopefully sway them.

Arabia stopped their attack and we became allies (I informed Arabia about the info given to West Libya).

I advised Egypt and Arabia to retreat and fortify as I could not add anything to the mix, even with our combined force we were out numbered and out gunned.

I started fortifying and building arty and BB, constantly chasing my tail for resources. By the time the trio got to me I had 5 BB 8 Arty 1 bomber and about 175 troops. I don't know how many times I thought about putting troops in the water and attacking from the rear, but kept changing my mind.

At one point I had 2 sets of 24 troops in the water ready to rush (morocco) 2 BB and had a triangle of arty set up incase the BB came in. They left.

At one point I had 60 troops in the water, the intent was to attack west Libya from behind as they had limited or no troops there.... but there was a BB around somewhere so changed my mind.

I know I messed up early on in the game with Caucasus loosing too many troops. Should I have committed my troops with Egypt and Arabia (even though it was pointless)?? Should I have risked flanking and attacking from behind at ANY point during the invasion?? Or was it all pointless because I lost too many troops against Caucasus??

ALL INPUT APPRECIATED!!!

Ok...never attack a 10 province AI without artillery, sure you might take it but the cost is too high. Once you get artillery follow my example in " Attacking AIs" section.
I'm not going to tell you not too, but try to stay away from shore assaults. Any experienced player will keep their rear guard protected. I don't know if you are aware but shore defenses are devastating, 20 troops can probably hold off around 75. Also unless you are piggy backing with a BB you will lose morale at day change. If you had of, or ever do, attack me by shore you will be crushed.
A political error was to allow Arabia to have your province. It's harboring an enemy and immediately makes you the enemy. I know it's an alliance game but if it wasn't there would be no chance of a peaceful agreement between parties. The thing that should have been done was for him to give you his mechs and resign.
Don't put your mechs in a position where they are not protected when under attack. We went after your artillery and BBs with no regard to our losses. He with the biggest toys win...lol
Here's a tip, and it may seem like over kill, read "Sun Tzu's", "Art of War". You can get it for nearly nothing and it will help you master every strategy war game out there.

Yeah, I learnt the hard way with Caucasus (10 prov AI).... won't make that mistake again!!

I try to avoid going in the water, as I am aware of how weak you are... but have had success in other games, but they had no fort and little or no troops to meet me when dis embarking... this would have been the case with West Libya, it was coastal, no fort, no troops to talk of, was sending 60 troops and an arty..... main objective would have been to land grab and cause disruption.

Had success with this tactic in a previous game, a load of provinces with no forts and 1 or 2 troops, just sent 3 cells of 20 to various points spread out. At one point the guy outnumbered me 3 to 1!! I won that game!!

Thanks for the input, keep it coming!

Small tip i use also, if your morale is slightly low move troops into a province with the highest morale for a day. It will boost the troops a little. Also when i attack i usually keep my forward forts full i.e. 10 troops, and as you already know try stay in the green with all resources. If you can't at least try keep your food in the Green. So basically the more troops you have stacked with high morale the more damage you'll do to your opponents, and always try attacks his lowest morale divisions with your higher ones. As Gen Pain already stated never launch an attack with troops only across the sea, unless its maybe Greenland to Iceland for example.
Sorry for the ramble lol

Ok some advance tips...
This is for serious players who want to play with the big dogs.
From day one try to determine these things about your immediate enemies.
1. Look at their service records and determine what kind of player they are. If they have a lot of loses in a particular weapon there's a good chance that is their weapon of choice. If they have a high percentage of province loses to provinces taken this could mean that a).they don't know how play that well b). they are not that attentive to the game or c). they are over aggressive. You will have to judge by how many medals they've taken and the amount of active kills etc. I even go so far (if I think the player is a threat) to look at their other games and read the paper from the beginning to see their method of play.
2. If an enemy doesn't build any workshops early on it tells you that they are not concerned with autos and a smart player will capitalize on this early. I normally build around 3 early in the game even if it's to hide that fact.
3. Try to determine what time zone the enemy is in so that you hit them when they are not available. I prefer to hit them early in the week as they have to rest for work/school...lol You can watch the paper to help you with this as well as troop movements. Factories take 2 days and fortresses take one so study the paper and see when they are active.
Remember...knowledge is power.

Out of curiosity, what does my service record tell you?? Is it good, bad, indifferent??

You like the shorter games. You are pretty balanced on your choice of weapons, though I wouldn't build so many railguns. You haven't played a lot of games that last for months so you have very little experience in massive battles with large numbers of weapons. You haven't lost a lot of provinces so it tells me that you are very active. Your favorite weapons are the artillery, battleship and tank. Right now I would see you as a threat with potential.

The shorter games get me the GM, that helps me out of sticky situations, speed up a BB or the like.

I find the Arty most useful, don't really bother with the cars (although I know some people swear by them). Went through a wee phase with tanks, but cost and materials lead me to think I was better of with Arty? (although I can see the allure of the tank)

BB for penetrating over sea, I try to get 2 to 1 on BB to stay dominant in the sea, so that's probably why so many!! When I attack I try to close gaps to avoid attacks from the sea, I control the coast, no one can build BB any more, there fore free reign at sea.

I used to think RG was be all and end all, they scare the sh*t out of a newbie (well they sure used to scare me), but after watching an ally rush various RG in a game and win I became less dependant on them and confident I could beat them. Taking into account they inflict damage every hour (learnt here!!) I can gauge roughly what force I need to attack.

Only recently got some Air games... so still to learn! Same with the other Navel stuff..... liking these light cruisers, building in 3's, same strength (6) as BB but cheaper and less resources to produce.... or am I missing something?? Attack strength... i'll look it up!!

I am VERY active!! Student/Stay at home dad.... study takes me away 2 days.... so there is only a max of 2 nights that i'm not up at day change and constantly check through the day.... especially if I have started a battle!!

Long story short I would say you were spot on with your assesment, and I am more than happy with the grade you gave me (threat with potential), however I am under no illusion I have a LOT to learn!!

Tanks are good against R.art, and if you like a speedy result you should invest in more of them as they are much faster. As you say though between resources and production time they can be a pain. However nothing better that having a large tank battalion ; )