Best Way to Win as Central Powers (Germany)

[donalddawkins]

Currently playing germany as the central powers and I'm really struggling to win.

First game as Germany I held the east at konigsburg, took belgium and started to grind my way to paris, but by 1917 the allies had artillery and tech supremacy and I lost a ton of National Morale on a big old Jutland.

Then I played as AH, won against italy but the german AI lost against France so ended as a stalemate.

So I played again as AH and focused entirely on Russia. I beat them all the way back to kiev and smolensk but they didnt surrender until 1917, which by that time the French had rushed through belgium and beaten the Germans.

So I AGAIN roll germany. This time I'ev really gone all out on tech and am slowly pushing into France in 1915, however I'm not sure whether to keep grinding foward or just kill the corps they send and let them re-occupy the tiles for me to grind them down with attrition. AH is losing badly to serbia and russia so I don't think I can afford to ignore that front, but I know the longer i let the french alone the harder they'll be later on to beat.

Quite simply, do i grind down the french units or keep trying to push to paris?

[Jaiyro]

A combination of both, I would play as both A-H and Germany, that way you can beat Servia if the AI seems unable too and do better vs Italy and Russia.

I haven't won as the CP but I am currently in late 17' with Russia just having surrendered, it might be a loss in the end but so far I've got a fair amount of reinforcements coming in from the East to deal with France, Britain, and America. I sometimes grind them down, but honestly I found it to be useless due to their numeric superiority, though better than not doing anything, if you do push make sure it's not creating a salient because then the AI will hit you HARD and likely destroy that unit.

[donalddawkins]

Aye i realised in my last game to either push two tiles deep either side to dodge salients or not push at all.

On on side of the coin i feel just destroying the enemy units on a tile then not occupying the tile itself is a better way to grind the enemy down while avoiding losses, but on the other hand i'm not sure whether or not this attrition strategy is valid as i'm not sure whether the enemy can just readily replace it's losses.

Either way, i'e gone back to playing AH for now and left the save state for germany alone; i just feel better being the dependant ally rather then leading force for victory!

[Jaiyro]

Originally posted by donalddawkins:

Aye i realised in my last game to either push two tiles deep either side to dodge salients or not push at all.

On on side of the coin i feel just destroying the enemy units on a tile then not occupying the tile itself is a better way to grind the enemy down while avoiding losses, but on the other hand i'm not sure whether or not this attrition strategy is valid as i'm not sure whether the enemy can just readily replace it's losses.

Either way, i'e gone back to playing AH for now and left the save state for germany alone; i just feel better being the dependant ally rather then leading force for victory!

I found destroying units and leaving the tile empty is better than occupying usually unless you have a full strength unit to do it and its not a salient. However, yeah I turned off fog of war once and the french had s ton of troops to replace any losses British included so it really seems hopeless at times.

[Thorin]

Germany has a few option at the start:
French first: Deploy everything in west, DOW belgium, and knock out Brussels and the fort with backrow infantry, the frontrow cav and inf goes as far as can, most of northern france is actually empty, take Lille and Reims, keep pushing, mop up Belgium with leftover inf, but sned the best and the can strongly in northern france, take everything and anything, if oyu are lucky and done it ell, you can reach paris and beyond before '15, and from the it is mostly mop up time. With France out of the picture, send everything to Russia to and win, probably before '16 It is a good idea to fold to the italians, even if it won't leave a good taste.

Both side: Deploy the art at west, all other on the east. Send the cav to east (after some strike if it is in good position), wait for DOW on Belgium by France, but keep (some) of the mobiliziation west to help out Belgium, slowly work your way through the slugfest, you have better morale, economy and leadership, so you can win most engagement and creep forward, engulf Verdun and the south fort, but can take the two in between frontally with some accepable losses. In East, with the extra units use your superior morale and leadership to win 1:3 in most fights, encicle when opportunity happens, but take what you can, the Russian army is vast, but spread out, you can achieve local superiority almost always and have better troops.

Russia First: Send everything to the east, rt can be deployed as you wish, or sent to the AH to help against the serbs. Send most of the extra units from mobilization to east too, as well as the extra cavs and maybe even some inf. You need only one line and a few extra, two full lines at best. Entrench, and let them come, only attack when it is clearly favoureable, but reinforce and rotate the troops. In the east you have more and better troops, send deep penetration units to encircly the entire polish area, and then go deepre with the front unist, while the rest mops up and clears the "pocket." Russian will be unable to fight from almost day one, and will be out in early '15, than if you did well, the french will be a walkover, since you have extra troops, you can take out Italy too with this. Oh, be prepread for the Belgian attack from france, save the Belgian troops, and decide on the fort, it is a great grinder position, but could easily be a source of many lost units for you too. Belgian units will fight after surrender, but you cannot replace them, guard them well

[Bobjr]

I just finished a central powers campaign, ending in mid 1917. Honestly I can't really see any other plan than focusing Russia working out, mostly because the front is too narrow in France for any sort of early-game push towards Paris. Now that's not saying it's impossible, just very hard and requires some luck and a lot of skill. What I did instead was invade Belgium and go into France, cutting off their fortresses along the border (Like Verdun) and then establishing a solid front where I wasn't getting destroyed. That means placing units in a way that they never have multiple hexes against them. What I did then was simply grind the French down over the years by destroying any infantry unit stupid enough to place itself into one of the hexes where I had numerical superiorty. I would simply rotate my units back and forth annihilating 1-3 French corps a turn.

Then, I took all my extra units and defeated Serrbia first, then focused Russia. Now the issue here is that with Austria Hungary being rather weak, you could lose a bunch of territory in Galicia, but the smart strategist will keep his forces holding narrow fronts focused around the fortress cities in Galicia, which offer great cover and can withstand being attacked by up to 4 corps a turn. In the early game the artillery is not as powerful, so it won't be an issue. After defeating Serbia (and Montenegro/Albania), start focusing on Russia. Cut off their forces whereever possible, especially in places where the AI decides to focus on holding. Places like Warsaw, where you can easily cut off Warsaw and any troops defending it. It won't be a blitzkreig, but with solid strategy you can have the Ruskies out of the fight by mid 1916. Be weary of logistical issues on the steppe. Also at some point, the Russians will not have enough troops to guard the entire front, so keep exploring and move any cavalry you have to the Russian front.

I would also recommend turning Bulgaria to your side ASAP, as it gives you a nice Balkan ally that can respond to Greek or Romanian incursions.

The Ottoman situation is a mess, and in my game I barely stopped the British from storming out of the Iraqi area in 1916. The problem is logistics, and pushing your forces into Egypt or too far down the Euphrates will leave your troops extremely exposed. Along all fronts, I would advise simply digging in and distracting the British from deploying troops elsewhere. Same in the Caucasus, where only the most insane general would waste manpower in offensive movement. Hold the Russians back, divert them from other fronts.

There is an important change in the game starting in early 1916, and that is the artillery becoming super powerful. I've had entire corps that stood outside fortifications get wiped out in one turn to just regular artillery. When you start meeting resistance anywhere in the game after 1914, bring an artillery unit with you. Any offensive should be complemented with artillery, and research into artillery should be your highest priority. To give an example, I managed to destroy a unit hold Paris in 1917 in one turn, simply by using an artillery piece and two infantry (and a tank, but it could've honestly been replaced with an infantry corp, as it only took 1 strength off the garrison). Mind you, Paris can be extremely fortified and being able to take it fast and without giving the AI a chance to shuffle units in and out is extremely important. So bring artillery with you wherever you go.

I didn't have much of a problem fighting the Italians, generally you want to start that war by staying on the defensive unless you for some reason have a huge force advantage, which if you do you have clearly not focused your troops in the right places. Keep your infantry dug in along the mountain range and just wait out the Italian assaults until the AI decides it is not prudent to keep pushing. Then eventually you should be able to build up an advantage in artillery and infantry (especially after Russia falls) which you can use to push past Venice. To be honest though, use the infantry freed up from Russia in France and the Ottoman areas instead, as breaking France and forcing a surrender ends the game, whereas spending a bunch of time in Italy only diverts you from winning the war before the Americans arrive and break your morale.

[donalddawkins]

i think the mistake i make is giving the ai control of germany and austria hungary

The german ai dies from attrition and blockade while the ottomemes get steam rolled by the russians and the british.

Even when i mass push the russians, refuse support from germany and concede territory to the italians the ai central powers just can't hold on it's own and loses by 1917.

In future I either have to play A-H and dedicate half my army to propping up the ottomemes or just take control of the entire central powers.

Thanks for the advice anyway though, next game i plan to either play the ottomans or roll A-H and:
A) rush serbia
B)concede italy (i only do this so the ai germany doesnt waste troops occupying italian border which I already do with my own men. I have won against the italians before and gotten a 1918 stalemate but the by luck; the british and french had wiped most of the german army and were "a hudred days'ing it through the german territory).
C) send the troops that have taken the balkans to the ottomans and divide them between the the russian front and the iraqi theatre

hopefully that'll stope the ottomans folding and stop the russian morale buffs/ german and austria hungarian morale penalties for their "allys" collapse

[Sir Clavius]

I dont finished the campaign as Central Powers, but i think doing good fight vs allies:

In the start of the game i started to fight and push in the all frontlines.

Now im in the 1915 november.

In 1915 september 18th, I captured the Paris. Soon enough Spain joined Central Powers and now im using Spain forces to push into France (backstabbing) and into North Africa. Its matter of time when now France will defeated. And soon enough i get free hands to start making plans to invade UK.

Serbia/Albania/Montenegro is defeated. Germany,Bulgaria and Austria pushing eastern front and holding the frontline against italy. I have hopes that Switzerland going to join Central Powers.

Everything looks very good.... Central Powers can start drinking.

But Ottomons are mess :D Im just trying to hold with them russians and british armies.

[SilentDeath777]

Ive just now won it on Normal as the central powers but damn was that the buttclenching Victory ive ever had. On September 21 1918 the British were pulling out of the War due to too high Attrition were the last 1 % dropped to 0%. Ive won first via the Victory's against Montenegro and Serbia wich then when the Russiasn were too weakened made them surrender also. With this came the Brest Litoswk treaty and Warshaw had to be occupied by about 12 units in order to feed my populations in safeguarding the Ukrainian food supply.
With thes ive focused with Turkey towards the Egyptian channel however it was a blody attrition there, at the same time ive retook basra and other locations. Unfortunately i could not kill enough arabs rebels around Medina still had some units fighting there.
Ive also ensured Naval Supperiority against the Ententes Fleet where only the Americans ship remained at sea but was unable to reach Britain and only succeded with a few units to france but is was too late to do any fightings. And the battle for me was that the French invaded Belgium and the Netherlands. Ive successfully stopped them but could only barely regain Belgium. At which the Brits had the most losses despite being the Most modern army.
And the tanks can be killed with a 10 Arty barrage.
They in return Stalled my counter attack via Elite Artillery unfortunately even though i took out at least 3 of them but there were too many units to saveguard them.
Ive felt like at times they cheated when their units were greyed out and still then made the Dig ins.(Which i can't)
Ah one more thing Italy was at 4 % close to defeat and the French at 6% to defeat. (each one an objective away from defeat. Still when the Brits withdrew from the War it was My Mayor victory on Literaly almost last day of the War.
My Strategy was to crank up the Industrial Power early in order to spam Units at higher rates and attack relentlessly and any units not entreched were attacked and any in the Trenches were 10 Arty barraged. Attacks at their headquartes were extremely rare and i wasn't so lucky.
Edit1: (Im too tired now to do the Spelling checks so anyone who finds them can tell me and i try to correct it later.)
Edit2: Ive controlled every Faction on my own but it is time consuming so be aware that one can fatigue here.