Wars in Africa

[Nukoolamukmuk]

Just making a thread to talk about the battles in Africa. Feel free to post your own battle stories and screenshots as you like.

Here is a video about some of the nice fighting that occurred in Africa. Let's hope more wars like this can happen in the future. There is an ad at the start you need to skip over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XuRsZGmC9o

[cor.man]

RodentDung was curious about how to beat Tanzania with Uganda in the 1978 scenario.

I usually play with maxed AI and FoW, and my trick is always the same: kick Tanzania with all you got on turn 1, conquer the Kagera salient, play the related card, and farm fast VP before Tanzania bulds strength enough to push all of your units out of the salient.

Here's how it works in pictures:
https://imgur.com/a/6HGfgvg

There may be small differences between one play and the next, but I played this strategy to success several times.

[Nukoolamukmuk]

Amazingly your strategy is identical to mine when I played as Uganda twice. (I even wrote up a review for that dlc to show off that delightful jungle and the stylish African tanks). We start out by squeezing Tanzania into the southwest corner until they get angry and counterattack with immense numbers of troops and tanks against which even the brutal Dada can no longer win against.

You can see my review of Uganda if you want. I am thinking I will do a review for Rhodesia after I get owned in that battle as the weak rebels.

[Nukoolamukmuk]

In Rhodesia as the rebels, I didn't cross the river cause I think my weak troops would have been steamrolled by the Rhodesian army. Instead I set up a gravy train of troops through the jungle like Ho Chi Min style. It is working but I am not able to flag the enemy provinces my troops move into.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2604867607

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2604861913

Here you can see I got a ZINLA army group all the way into Fort Victoria but the provinces stay Rhodesian with their supply still in tact and I got no victory points. Is there a way to flag the provinces for our side? I have a follow-up Zippa infantry group on the way too but might not continue if they can't re-flag provinces.

[cor.man]

You have to turn your guerrillas on the visible side before moving them into the province you'd like to capture, then move them. That way you capture the province. If you do it this way, you can turn back to the invisbile side after moving, thus limiting the chances of retaliation.

You can also move while invisbile and then turn visible to capture, but if you do it like this, you'll be easily spotted and destroyed (as you can't revert back to invisible).

Basically it is a game of infiltration. Also remember you can move through enemy occupied areas while invisible. You have a chance to get caught, but isn't that much of a chance and it's definitely worth the risk (guerrillas are cheap). You can also recruit replacements in the green areas within Rodhesia once you conquer them.

Military strength had to be used seldom and carefully, just to conquer and hold cities when they're unprotected. Confrontation had to be escaped most other times (unless stumbling on a weak Rhodesian stack).

Last but not least: the acronyms are ZIPRA and ZANLA, repectively the fighting arms of ZAPU and ZANU.

[Nukoolamukmuk]

Okay. How do you turn invisible on and off? That is amazing you can sneak past enemy armies. It sounds like you separated the armies into single companies to spam them out all over. I guess that brings you more victory points at the cost of some getting picked off.

[cor.man]

When you select a unit (or a stack) there are icons in the lower-left corner allowing you for specific unit-related actions. There is an eye icon for that.

[Nukoolamukmuk]

Thanks. I will continue it tomorrow and try that.

[cor.man]

Should work ok! I'll post some screens too maybe later today.

[cor.man]

Ok, here's a typical playthrough when I am using the rebels.

Step 1: infiltrate.
Push the concealed rebels past the enemy lines. Conquest provices, make Rhodesian morale fall, gain victory, cut supply lines and accumulate reinforcements.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2605212407
Step 2: attack the cities.
When the rebels have 1 (or 2) strong stacks they can dare attack cities when those are not defended. Here's the fall of Salisbury early in the game, taking out an airbase and supply centre for the enemy.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2605216411
Step 3: rinse and repeat.
Attack when ready, hide at the other times, keeping the rebels on the move. The whole country will fall, eventually.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2605216888
I love this scenario, is so asymmetrical and different to play depending on which side a player takes. Extra fun played both ways!

[Nukoolamukmuk]

Golly you are like Sun Tzu at this game using attack & fade tactics.
I guess you also used the cards that give -VP to the enemy when their morale goes down cause the South Africans are getting on planes to leave.
I think your main weapon is cutting off all the supply which must be catastrophic for the bamboozled enemy. Did you know this scenario is over 8 years of time? I wonder how this turned out historically. I guess they finally left. I will try again this evening. Very unusual battle with guerrilla tactics.

[cor.man]

Thank you! :)

Although really I'm not like Sun Tzu, just trying to use what I have to the max effect. As a rule of thumb I play all the cards that can favor me, so definitely the Whites leaving is in the bunch. However it wasn't in my hand in this particular playthrough if I recall right.

If you're interested to know more about this conflict, besides of the standard wikipedia path there is a good Osprey book (focusing on the military aspect) and you can also play a solitaire board game called the White Tribe (that's on Rhodesia side only, but shows a lot about the underlying political and diplomatic aspects which led to the final outcome).

[Donald]

Love this thread! We need more such in depth look at the scenarios of this great game!

[cor.man]

Agreed! The idea was RodentDung's and it is a good idea, as the scenarios are very varied and interesting.

[Nukoolamukmuk]

We should do more threads about the more complex battles. I think the Byzantine battle and Punic war could both use a thread each.

I need to restart this scenario. I screwed up very badly by revealing my infiltrated group in Fort Victoria and was only allowed 1 round of combat to try and take the province. We damaged the defending unit but our leader was wounded and then our group dispersed I think cause we were supposed to retreat but had no flagged province to move back into so the troops defected and escaped into the shrubbery. Next time I need to create a line of flagged provinces leading into Fort Victoria so we can fade back out of there again and still remain on the board. And I will do a more effective move next time.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2606795348

Side note: in the instructions it says ZIPRA and ZANLA units cannot mingle together in one group but it seems they can. To keep it real, I deliberately kept the two teams seperate. I wonder if the scenario needs a tweak to prevent mingling of the rival groups. We don't want a squabble between Chinese and Russian backed rebels to spark a war between the two strongest armies in the world.

[Nukoolamukmuk]

Illrylia 229 BC scenario is slightly similar to this Rhodesia one cause the pirates are causing havoc while avoiding the beefy Roman armies trying to stomp them out.

A really complex and hard scenario for me was Franches-Comte cause I tried it as the Franches side but the French were overwhelmingly strong. I talked to the creator about this and he says the scenario is balanced. He spent months making this and was very proud of it.