War in the East II

[Con]

I have 1000 hours into WitE. I get ocd playing the smaller scenarios over and over. Road to Smolensk is my personal cross to bear. Never got the moxie to start a grand campaign. I started learning WITW and then gave up since it was too different with the sir phase etc from WitE.

WitE is a first day buy for me. With hopefully the added benefit of making me learn how to play WITW

Con

[-budd-]

Road to Leningrad for me. So many times one hex short of victory, then i see others do it with ease.....maybe i just suck.

[sandman2575]

Never managed to beat Road to Leningrad.  Road to Minsk, yes, but if you can't win that, then you may as well give up.

So WitE2 will be incorporating WitW's Air Directive mechanic -- hopefully with some refinements as it's a bit clunky. But presumably the turns will be split the same way, with air phase first, then ground phase -- or maybe they've dreamed up something new in WitE2...?

[Ian C]

If I could impart some hard-won advice -- Sicily will be considerably easier than it was historically for the Allies, whereas the Italian peninsula will be considerably harder than it was historically. The Axis AI seems to assume that Sicily is a lost cause from the very start (...which it is), and so will try to evacuate the Herman Goering Div. across the strait to the mainland without using it to really engage your forces in Sicily. It will then try to strongly hold Reggio Calabria to prevent your own crossing the strait (this did not happen historically and it has the potential to set back your timetable in Italy significantly). If the Germans manage to establish a line across the peninsula along the parallel of Monte Cassino, get ready for World War One. Stalemate, futile assaults against strongly held positions. Kiss Rome goodbye.

The other piece of advice:  do NOT try to recreate the Normandy landing. It's a trap! Bocage hexes are death, and the Germans will reinforce it with their best Waffen SS divs. If I were to do it again, I would definitely try what the Germans thought the Allies were actually trying to do:  take Calais!  Or possibly Le Harve.

Thank you for arming me with this foreknowledge. Did you play the air campaign using the AI or did you micromanage a strategy? I'm wondering if air power could have played a more decisive role.

It also sets me to ponder whether a combined airborne and amphibious operation on the Italian peninsula to outflank any Axis defensive line might be helpful.

[sandman2575]

I manually controlled the Air Directives. The auto AD feature is OK, but if you're like me, you'll see what the AI creates and then think, No, that's not quite right, and start tweaking everything, at which point you realize you should just control it all yourself...  :)

It's a good idea to fly/ship some fighter-bombers / tactical bombers -- maybe some longer range fighters like the P-38s -- that are sitting idly in Britain down to the Mediterranean. The Luftwaffe forces in Italy / Sicily in '43 are still capable, though you unquestionably have a major advantage over them with your own air forces. But they're not negligible, as unescorted bombers will soon discover.

Given that Husky is a relative push-over, I've tried resetting strategy on Turn 1 of the GC -- taking some of the forces devoted to Husky to land instead on the 'tip of the boot' to cut off the German forces retreat - the US and British airborne supported by some British armor. It's harder to pull off than it sounds. You don't really have the capacity to get solid air and naval interdiction far north-east of Sicily. The German armored units that are in Sicily and Southern Italy are very tough nuts to crack, the HG Div. and 16th(??)Panzergrenadier Div., also the Fallschirmjaeger div. They can't stop your landings, but they can make progress very, very difficult. And the more time you waste in Sicily, the more time the Germans have to reinforce and dig in in Italy.

I'd definitely recommend some creative thinking on Turn 1. I do think if you try to follow the historical Allied timeline and landings, you may find yourself completely thwarted in Italy. Of course, Italy is supposed to be a slog, but it's very easy to find yourself well short of Rome come June 6 '44. And keep in mind that you'll have to ship some good divisons out of the Mediterranean back to Britian to prepare for Overlord.

It ain't easy! But it's a lot of fun. I've found WitW much more engaging than WitE, myself.

[ArizonaTank]

Really looking forward to WitE II...

[Ian C]

It ain't easy! But it's a lot of fun. I've found WitW much more engaging than WitE, myself.

Thanks for the info. It's given me some ideas for an altered strategy. I'm looking forward to embarking on the GC.

[Destraex]

Will it be WEGO? I think the turns were a week long in wite, that's a long time for your enemy to never have carried out any plans. Basically whoever goes first is inside the OODA loop.

[Geezer]

I was an alpha tester for a while before real life caught up with me and I had to drop out.  It was not WEGO while I was testing and I saw no reason to think that would have changed since then.

[Destraex]

Thanks Geezer. I do wonder what exactly will justify the upgrade to two then.

[Geezer]

I'm sure Matrix will have a lot more to say on that as testing progresses and the game gets closer to launch.