Kicked off a game of this vs @Nathangun over the festive season ... it's been an interesting contest.
Set it up with 2 human players and 2 AI-controlled nations just for flavour.
The AI's were at the west and east ends of the map respectively, with Nathangun's regime in the north and mine in the south.
Nathangun has the Old Imperium with "German" peoples, mine is the Middle Kingdom with "Chinese" peoples ... the western AI being "British", the eastern "Arab."
We started at our capital cities and the land and resource grab began and the AI's were quite sluggish at it and I managed to expand aggressively to the west, potentially vastly overstretching the territory I needed to control, but managing to capture a lot of resources... but in an odd twist, the AI's are not their usual aggressive nature at all and have not declared war -- leaving us to fight ourselves, with myself maintaining a holding front on the west (red dotted line) holding my breath ... (see map below -- yellow star, my capital, white star Nathangun's capital city)
Once hostilities began, I was focusing my efforts on the SE front, but launched a diversionary attack in the north, where Nathangun had advanced spearhead units beyond the northern lake, grabbing oil wells there -- turns out that the enemy units were relatively weak and I managed to develop that attack quite well through the hills and forests and now am threatening his capital and having just captured a major city, Rittersdorf.
(yellow arrows)
Having managed to grab more resources by now, I am managing to maintain an advantage as I don't need to fight any of the AI's and can focus on Nathangun's forces. (if the western AI decides to declare war and attack, I may be in deep doo-doo.)
Meanwhile, on the central lake, the Lake Flotilla's cruiser MKS Golden Fist is bombarding Wendelstein, hoping to cause some damage and loss of resource points.
Down in the south-east, some interesting fighting going on.
I was pushing hard towards the town of Sadiq Abad and the oil wells east of it, (dotted red line approx frontline reached), when Nathangun launched a brilliantly conceived counter-stroke (dark blue arrows) by crossing the river just next to the small lake at top of the pic, sweeping aside my light cavalry screen., and threatening the rear of my SE Army.
A rapid re-arrangement of the front was required (yellow arrow) to face this new advance.
Nathangun also launched several attacks on my other wing (light blue arrow), threatening the town of Mocha.
Fortunately for me, the Guards Mechanised Corps had just been forming up to the west and with some rapid rail movement was able to get into position for a swift counter attack (red arrow) into the flanks of the enemy advance.
Turns out not so swift, as the muddy/rainy season has kicked in and wheeled and artillery movement off the main roads/rail network is severely hampered and air support non-existent.
(which is partially good for me as Nathangun's dive bombers were starting to do considerable damage)
Still enjoy this game a lot ... some hard fighting ahead, but the Middle Kingdom may prevail.
(on a strategic note, looking at the overall map, I just I need to urgently build a second railway system (pink dotted lines) in case the western AI attacks, as all my N-S rail network is far too close to the front and if the western AI advances, my northern advance will die off for alck of supplies)
Set it up with 2 human players and 2 AI-controlled nations just for flavour.
The AI's were at the west and east ends of the map respectively, with Nathangun's regime in the north and mine in the south.
Nathangun has the Old Imperium with "German" peoples, mine is the Middle Kingdom with "Chinese" peoples ... the western AI being "British", the eastern "Arab."
We started at our capital cities and the land and resource grab began and the AI's were quite sluggish at it and I managed to expand aggressively to the west, potentially vastly overstretching the territory I needed to control, but managing to capture a lot of resources... but in an odd twist, the AI's are not their usual aggressive nature at all and have not declared war -- leaving us to fight ourselves, with myself maintaining a holding front on the west (red dotted line) holding my breath ... (see map below -- yellow star, my capital, white star Nathangun's capital city)
Once hostilities began, I was focusing my efforts on the SE front, but launched a diversionary attack in the north, where Nathangun had advanced spearhead units beyond the northern lake, grabbing oil wells there -- turns out that the enemy units were relatively weak and I managed to develop that attack quite well through the hills and forests and now am threatening his capital and having just captured a major city, Rittersdorf.
(yellow arrows)
Having managed to grab more resources by now, I am managing to maintain an advantage as I don't need to fight any of the AI's and can focus on Nathangun's forces. (if the western AI decides to declare war and attack, I may be in deep doo-doo.)
Meanwhile, on the central lake, the Lake Flotilla's cruiser MKS Golden Fist is bombarding Wendelstein, hoping to cause some damage and loss of resource points.
Down in the south-east, some interesting fighting going on.
I was pushing hard towards the town of Sadiq Abad and the oil wells east of it, (dotted red line approx frontline reached), when Nathangun launched a brilliantly conceived counter-stroke (dark blue arrows) by crossing the river just next to the small lake at top of the pic, sweeping aside my light cavalry screen., and threatening the rear of my SE Army.
A rapid re-arrangement of the front was required (yellow arrow) to face this new advance.
Nathangun also launched several attacks on my other wing (light blue arrow), threatening the town of Mocha.
Fortunately for me, the Guards Mechanised Corps had just been forming up to the west and with some rapid rail movement was able to get into position for a swift counter attack (red arrow) into the flanks of the enemy advance.
Turns out not so swift, as the muddy/rainy season has kicked in and wheeled and artillery movement off the main roads/rail network is severely hampered and air support non-existent.
(which is partially good for me as Nathangun's dive bombers were starting to do considerable damage)
Still enjoy this game a lot ... some hard fighting ahead, but the Middle Kingdom may prevail.
(on a strategic note, looking at the overall map, I just I need to urgently build a second railway system (pink dotted lines) in case the western AI attacks, as all my N-S rail network is far too close to the front and if the western AI advances, my northern advance will die off for alck of supplies)
