Afrika Korps - Road to India

[Bartels]

I'm playing the campaign on middle settings and had hardly extra credit to buy stuff (except that 4000 prestige bonus somewhere in the middle of the fighting), but now in India things get really pathetic - UK HW infantry lurks in the jungle outside of empty cities and attacks every kind of unit including heavy tanks, my fighter units (2xBf-109K, 2xFw-109D and one italian flying best italo fighter) get literally broken in round 2 by multiple expert Tempest units (Tempests hardly flew at the time of D-Day in '44 and they were not at all that skilled) and finished off by freaking Meteors!, weather is mostly cloudy which limits visibility and makes one stumble onto mines, hidden units or forts… I mean OK, make it hard, but realistically hard, not like this!

I'm furious because if this was supposed to be the last British stand, how is it that all units are at least triple stars… army on the brink of collapse and defeat hardly consists from elite troops. Given the very very conservative prestige point algorithm where I get only points for captured flag cities, airports and not for destroyed units, it was impossible not to use 'green' replacement that dilute experience.

I will continue to thrust forward, but I have a very very bad feeling about it as it looks like my Afrika Korps will literally dissolve in this map like a cube of brown sugar in a cup of indian chai :/

All this is played on iPad and hence one question - any chance to allow for folders where one can save the mission progress? I'm not going to keep my current log from AF when I start playing Grand campaign, but I'd like to keep those files somewhere at least

[captainjack]

Road to India and the following scenario have a lot of close terrain to work through, so you probably want to review the composition of your forces. 43 HW infantry is very dangerous to tanks in close terrain. It's actually quite dangerous to almost everything, even when not in close terrain. More infantry to attack the entrenched units and more artillery to suppress the infantry (especially the HW) - fully suppressed HW can't hurt you. Note that my solution is almost always 'use more artillery', and there might be other ways.

I tend to race ahead and then wish I hadn't, but it pays to slow down a bit when you see a defensive wall. If there's a solid defence line, it's either a hard defensive crust with a bit more space behind so you can make up for lost time once through it (so you will want at least some tanks to exploit the breakthrough), or you've got a whole day of entrenchments so you might as well get used to it and get good at dealing with them (so you'll want at least some tanks to fill the holes in your line). I'll leave you to find out for yourself.

If you are suffering heavily from enemy aircraft bring in some AA to protect your artillery and tanks and use your fighters defensively for a few turns. The AA should be used to weaken enemy fighters before you hit them with your own. Which AA to use is a less clear - mobile AA is more versatile but does limited damage, the 88 and 128 have extra range. The 88 has its AT role and can be useful after you have some control of the skies but the 128 hits noticeably harder, especially when inexperienced.

If there is a superior enemy air force, remember - no aerial recon, no deep bombing raids and either keep your bombers at the airfields or don't deploy them for a few turns. Alternatively, if you are fielding green units as cannon fodder to weaken entrenched units without harming your long serving vets (I've been playing BNC's WW1 mod...), you can bring on the bombers after a few turns when the cannon fodder have been destroyed or disbanded (though there is no prestige for disbanding units in game).

Good luck!

[BAK72]

I'm playing through afrika korps for the second time now, and have completely revamped my strategy from the first attempt I made. Originally I adopted the same strategy that had been successful in panzer corps- heavy on fighters for defensive cover and also so I outnumbered enemy fighters and was able to pick them off slowly after they were weakened from attacking. Very light on tac bombers, just enough to pick off the occasional overmatched enemy tanks, which wasn't often. Very heavy on artillery, always upgraded as soon as possible, elite replacements, and over strength always. Never used AA at all, found it a complete waste with the strict number limits on core units, at least until the scenarios turned defensive. In afrika, I found my fighters completely overmatched by allied air power, and my tanks and fighters were easy pickings for them. So I've found that by utilizing mobile AA early, they can rapidly gain prestige and heros, and once I encountered the deadly allied fighters my AA provided terrific cover for my tanks, and also weakened enemy fighters to where my boys can take them out. My AA has taken on more importance in afrika than even my artillery, really. The artillery that was indispensable in panzer is less effective in the afrika scenarios because of the emphasis on armor. Which also has me carrying multiple tac bombers purchased early and prestiged up to the point they are absolute killing machines. I also don't use elite replacements for my bf fighters through afrika unless they get a major hero. Found I was better off just waiting until the fw was introduced and I could add to my core force rather than upgrading a bf and running short of the maximum core forces. I think one of the reasons I've enjoyed afrika so much is it challenged me to make adjustments and alter my style to adapt to a different environment than panzer.

[captainjack]

Allied fighter superiority in AK in combination with the improved performance of experienced AA in version 1.2 make AA a better choice than it used to be. There's some uncertainty over exactly how units gain prestige, but what I understand is that it has some connection with your cost vs enemy cost, so the cheap mobile AA shooting expensive planes does OK. It's a bit of a toss up between the lightweight fast AA which can attack often and the slower one that hits harder - I think that early on the ability to get into position to provide cover for other units is the better option, especially as defensive fire causes more damage than a direct attack (I think it's the low altitude attack penalty on defence when planes attack ground troops). However, the increased ability to get close enough to enemy aircraft to weaken them before your fighters attack is also good. You should gain experience quite well because you are fighting more often, even if you do less damage in each fight.

The 88 is good in AK because unit slots are limited and it provides both AA and AT capability - nice to see unit choice reflecting some of the real life issues. The 88 with a move 2 is almost as useful as the slower mobile AA units - so much so that if I get a move hero on a mobile AA I' convert it to an 88. I do the same with artillery - converting mobiles with move hero to 2-move towed artillery.

Your fighter strategy sounds an interesting way of managing limited prestige, though experience gain of +2 aerial attack per star for fighters and the initiative and defence gains are probably worth trying to preserve experience. At the moment I prefer to minimise overstrength to strength 11 unless I have a good reason for using more (eg Defence hero +3 or better will make it less likely you lose the overstrength).

[captainjack]

There's some uncertainty over exactly how units gain prestige

I meant 'experience' not 'prestige'.

[Bartels]

Thanks Captainjack! I actually overlooked requirements for Decisive victory on that map and after I took 10 objectives it was over… however if I had to destroy all units and take all objectives I would not succeed - even after I somehow managed to get through the jungle and kill lurking engineer units, my units (especially artillery) started getting decimating fire from Brits Navy and because weather became cloudy my 5* level & dive bombers needed more turns to take care of them then what was available.

I still don't think the map is balanced, I mean if Brits were loosing war how could they afford to send 3 stars units with very capable weapons to bloody India? I mean where would they get that experience at all? What I still don't get is how AI get's prestige on defense and buys expensive weapons, while I hardly can resupply and can't afford to buy or upgrade anything during a mission. I really believe there should be some points for destroying units too, not much, but definitely some.

I'm off to Grand campaign from '39, this time I'm going to get my claws on the Eastern front … damn this game is addictive, but good thing it's still cheaper than coke

[captainjack]

I bought the East scenarios when they came out and I still haven't got past 44 East! I think that there's a fault with the general...

[Dragoon.]

I still don't think the map is balanced, I mean if Brits were loosing war how could they afford to send 3 stars units with very capable weapons to bloody India? I mean where would they get that experience at all? What I still don't get is how AI get's prestige on defense and buys expensive weapons, while I hardly can resupply and can't afford to buy or upgrade anything during a mission. I really believe there should be some points for destroying units too, not much, but definitely some.

I'm off to Grand campaign from '39, this time I'm going to get my claws on the Eastern front … damn this game is addictive, but good thing it's still cheaper than coke

The indian army was very battle experienced at the outbreak of the WWII. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Arm ... rld_War_II

[bebro]

Regardless of history - I assume the main reason for those Brit units (numbersa nd xp setup) is simply to keep later scns challenging.