Supply dramas in North Africa

[gothimyes]

In my first game I transported 3 infantry and 1 German tank units across to North Africa (this was before I realised that there was an event that fired later in the game to create the Afrika Corp).

Once I had this host of units, I couldnt keep them in supply. I eventually had an Italian and German HQ, but I couldnt keep anything in decent supply. Morale and readiness dropped to virtually nothing. I thought having the HQ's around increased the supply status, but the HQ's only produced a maximum of 5 supply.

North Africa seems not to be worth attacking as the Axis. I tried upgrading ports along the cost, but couldn't do it. I'd pushed the UK navy out of the med by this time too.

So in closing, how do you avoid the supply snarl and take Egypt?

[FlashXAron ☕ (Alex)]

You have to conquer Malta and at least two HQ (Italy and German) ...

for Malta you need ALL BOMBERS and BATTLESHIPS (from Italy) . You even need all ships from Italy as you have to surround the island with ships after that bomb it with the BS to reduce moral etc. ... now kill the AA with all your bombers and drop after that the parachute unit there ...
even with malta gone you need to stay close to the HQ to refresh your units !

Now I am closing in on Alexandria ... already destroyed all British ships and starving egypt to death (even not possible as you are not able to seal the south side)


https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/294143245544325121/323980565818769408/unknown.png

[Mantis]

*This is assuming you are playing against the AI*

You don't have to sacrifice the Italian navy to take Malta. You do need almost all of your air, you can skip a fighter or two. You also need to creep most (all) of the Italian navy into ports as close to Malta as you can get.

When you have good weather at the start of your turn, smash Malta with the bombers. (You may find that the medium bomber takes less damage some of the time - ymmv - I like to use this as my first strike if all battle odds are equal for all bombers). You also need to place 2 ships adjacent to the ports and the ports will be blockaded, and will lose 1 strength point each turn with no fighting. (I believe they lose a point on the AI's turn as well!) At the end, if your fighters are healthy and the combat odds predict zero casualties, you can use them *after* all the bombers have gone.

Malta unit will still be alive, and will reinforce, but his morale and readiness are now shot, and the ports dropping in size stop him from reinforcing to max. (You can hasten this by bombarding the ports to get them to zero faster, but the losses are very expensive on the Italian battleships and *totally* not required, so I never do this any longer).

On the next turn, you will do more damage to the unit, and likely destroy it. On the third turn it dies regardless. It stops mattering how high the unit can reinforce by the time you get to the third round, as every bomber will hit for 3 or so and you'll wipe the enemy out. (And this is why you hopefully didn't sacrifice your Italian battleships!)

Here is where your timing comes into play, as it takes an amphibious transport* a while to get there, and when it ends the turn adjacent to the now-empty Malta, you will want to surround it with the Italian navy to ensure its survival. (Do this to the north of the island - smaller area to protect). This is why you moved your navy close to the island, but safely in ports - you need to be ready to pounce if the Brits send the Med fleet after you - you can sorty out and also use bombers if required to destroy the Royal Navy.

* - You can also use the paratroops, but they can take some work to get in position as well.

[Mantis]

I was going to mention how helpful it is to have an extra tac bomber built as the Germans, or have a breakthrough already with bomber tech research etc, but it is totally not required either. All you need to do is make sure you are pretty much in full health when you start, and you will win - it's just a matter of how many rounds you take.

Once you do this once or twice, your timing will be fantastic as you'll have the amphibious unit ready to land the same/next turn the Malta AA unit dies.

For evern greater fun in mastering 'perfect timing', I encourage you to try the following, it's a blast:

Everyone knows if you take Paris (and have wiped out a good chunk of the French army) they will surrender and Vichy France will be created. However, you can say 'NO' to Vichy, and then France will fight on - you won't get her money, even if you take every inch of France herself. You need to take Algeria to make them surrender (and get their money!) in this case, and the French get a free handful of units around Algeria to give them some real defence once this option is chosen.

Now, that is crazy - by the time you get down there and manage that, you'll be at war with Russia, so it's a no-go.

Unless you planned ahead for this...

The first thing is obvious, you'll want to get some units ready to head towards Algeria as soon as possible in the game - that's a no-brainer.

You can't get German units in to Tripoli until Italy enters the war* and this happens as you approach Paris. If you get close to Paris faster, the Italians are in faster, you can then operate units to the Italian ports in southern Italy, and they'll board transports (and land in Tripoli!) on their next turn. This way you can start advancing on Algiers when you haven't even taken Paris yet. The Italians can help if you need them, and have a couple of extra units for support. *MAKE SURE TO HAVE AT LEAST ONE HQ!* Once you play through this a few times you'll find the optimum type and amount of units, I don't want to spoil all the fun!

*(Or you do something crazy...)

There is also something else that can be considered... If you ponder the forces you are going to face in Africa, is there a way to improve the odds in your favor?


The key is that the Algeria forces are not deployed until you refuse to create Vivhy France. You get the Vichy question once you've captured Paris, so therefore....

...don't take Paris yet? Wait until Algeria is captured and THEN take Paris - now you don't face those extra units. Easy meat!!

You'll find that this leaves a bunch of Axis units with not much to do in France as you wait for the African theatre to sort itself out. They can start marching east, or there's another opportunity to work with timing - can you invade France with less units or a little later than normal and take out Yugo/Greece early? If you do, you'll have ports in the Med even faster, etc.

(I prefer to try and avoid gamey-ness so I try hard to keep the Germans busy and time the falls of Paris and Algiers so I'm not gaming the system quite so blatantly when I do this).

As for the 'Why would I want to do this in the first place?' question, here are some of the benefits:

- The value/production of the French territory you occupy is higher (more money is a good thing!)

- No Vichy France. (The Allies can't use diplomacy on her and suddenly you are sharing France with hostile armies. Not to mention additional naval units joining the enemy...)

- SPAIN WILL OFFER TO JOIN YOU. No huge investment in diplomacy (which can easily fail), no '50% of the time' roll (which I always seem to fail), just some cold, hard, cash. (And a bit of territory in Africa). You say yes, they join you with a good sized army (in need of upgrade/reinforcement), some naval units, an HQ, etc. You now have new ports on the Atlantic to refuel your uboats away from Allied bombers. You are earning even more production every turn.

- Spain = Gibraltar.

- Gibraltar = an untold amount of options unfolding before you. Did you also make a big push and take the Suez Canal? Now the Med is a giant Axis lake, and no Allied units can enter it. Did you choose to build the Axis aircraft carriers? You can potentially link the fleets and form a mega-fleet in the Atlantic. Maybe you timed the whole thing to coincide with launching Operation Seelowe (Sealion) at the same time!

This game is awesome for grognards, and wargame-lite/newcomes to the genre alike.

[gothimyes]

Thanks for the answers gents. So If the Axis want to engage NA, they really need to build up the Italian airforce.

Say Malta is knocked out, how much better is the supply situation in NA?

[Mantis]

No - you don't need to build *any* aircraft to win Malta every single time. All you need to do, is take ALL your air, German and Italian, and put it ALL down there. It's mostly the Germans that get it done. As a matter of fact sometimes I haven't even repaired the Italian air by the time I do this so I don't use them. Just wipe them out with the Germans if required.

But all this said, adding in a tac bombers (as the Germans) is not a bad idea if it fits in with your overall strategy.

I believe the supply change is quite significant, but as I like to chain my HQs for high suply, I don't really notice the lack too much prior, except for units that get outside of the HQ's range.

I would also highly recommend going to the Matrix forum and reading over some of the threads in there as well if you are interested. That's the developers main forum and most of the content that exists (so far - Steam release hopefully changes that) is to be found there. Lots of questions get answered, lots of people share their tips, help others with problems, etc.

VERY experienced players there. Many (like me) have played all the games in the series which goes back quite a few games (and too many years lol)

[gothimyes]

Thanks again. Slowly getting a handle on the supply rules.

[Mantis]

Quick tip - Press 'S' and you will see current supply levels. Pressing 'S' a second time will show you what supply levels will be *next turn*. I believe it is a supply value of 7 (or higher) that is required to allow a unit to reinforce back to full strength (10).