long time HOI2 player brand new AoD. couple of questions

[maximus323]

Hello everybody. I've put many hours into HOI2 but only recently began playing AoD. Still getting used to the mechanics and subtle differences.

My first question regards the total annihilation of entire armies by what seems to be simple bombing runs. I am playing as the SU and we are two months into the great patriotic war (even though the event hasn't fired yet). I am steadily retreating and attempting to keep my armies intact trading space for time against the powerful German onslaught. I don't mind when my armies get desetroyed because Im stupid enough to let htem get encircled but what I don't seem to understand is how entire armies can dissappear from the face of the earth while simply retreating into friendly territory. The germans like to bomb my reatreating armies which is a sound tactic especially since my fighter cover is sparse and limited, but have air attacks in AoD been so overpowered that groups of six divisions or more can completely dissappear? The strenght level of theses armies area are all above 90 percent though the ORG is low, and thus why I am retreating.
Do divisions get destroyed even though the strenght level is near its maximum but its ORg is low, when attacked by planes, or are there other forces at work here????

Regarding espionnage; I have invested heavily in espionnage in Germany to attempt at disrupting their research. thus far it has worked alright, but when I click on Germany in the intelligence tab it says "budget 19.5/4" Does this mean that I am missing 15.5 investment to be 100% efficient? What do these numbers mean lol?

regarding artillery bombardements: trying to find stats on this function for divisions equipped with artillery brigades. There seems to vbe no combat modifier (like naval shore bomnbardement for example) present in the battle feed when a division is bomnbarding an adjacent province with troops in battle. What is the efficiency of an artillery bombardement? worth it or simply go with the good ol' suppoert attack command?

thanx to all in advance.
cheers

 

[Pang Bingxun]

@Divs destroyed: This does nott sound normal. Air attack relativly weak in AoD.

@Espionage: Each Syp costs 0.5 $ a day. If spending is above current need(like 15.5 when 4.0 is needed) the number of you spy investend to increase over time. But 15.5 seems rather high.

@ArtBombardement: That very much depends on ESE. Art bombardement is most good against entrechend enemies and against fortificantions. Use it before the battle if you can afford it. Usually (support) attack is the better choice.

 

[Commander666]

.... but have air attacks in AoD been so overpowered that groups of six divisions or more can completely dissappear? The strenght level of theses armies area are all above 90 percent though the ORG is low, and thus why I am retreating.

This should not be happening, and neither have I ever seen it happen. In fact, the effect of ground attack in AoD is less than what it is in HoI. If your troops were being over-run and enemy takes the friendly province they retreating to first, then of course your units will perish when they reach there.

But as that is not what your very clear description says, I have no answer.

 

[Julle64]

What version of AoD are you playing? IIRC the early versions of the game had quite powerful air units.

 

[Epaminondas]

The strenght level of theses armies area are all above 90 percent though the ORG is low, and thus why I am retreating.

Julie's point is likely to be the issue here, max. Low org definitely makes your units vulnerable to attack, and once you get to very low org (especially if you hit zero) your divs are cats meat for aircraft on ground attack. But that said, you shouldn't be getting half-a-dozen 90% divisions wiped out in a single turn unless several massive airfleets are targeting them in overlapping raids.

 

[Pioniere]

You should try out the 1.8 patch for AOD and later one the 1.9 can be good thing to have a back up version of 1.9 if you feel not to ready for it.
Air attack more has effect on moving troops in the open so you should lose that much is safer positions unless you get a very low and retreating org. like Epaminondas say.

I assume you did get attacked by the Germans? or did something ahistorical happened.

 

[maximus323]

First off big thanx for the answers and glad to see that lots of people play and are present on the forum.

My version is 1.07 (MZJY), I got it on steam.

To be perfectly honest the front is constantly in movement and I'm barely surviving so keeping track of every single army ofrmation is tough, but I can say for sure that the org level of that one particular army of 6 divisions was pretty much rock bottom. That being said I am sure they did not get overrun(as in the enemy did not arrive in the province in which my army was retreating to). I have had a couple of successful air ground attack missions my self but nothing compared to what the germans are doing to me, and we have the same tech level Tac bombers, I've neutralized ftheir stuka fleets but that pretty much used up all my fighter cover and now their Tac bombers are running free, contested in one or two provinces only by weak squadrons. I will have to take a closer look to make sure but there is no denying that their air attacks are hurting me bad.
on a side note: what would be an optimal IC for SU prior to barbarossa. I built up my IC only minimally and I realize that Germany has over 100 IC more than I do. I figure I'd get them with manpower by trading space for time... my IC is barely 300. Not good enough eh?

As for my artillery bombardments; thanx Pang I will probably just continue with support attack and use arty bombard as a luxury. Not sure I can afford one jsut yet.
As for espionnage: my budget is set at 20.01 to be exact. Is that too high? I basically only take actions against Germany. just realized that my observation priority is only 1/3. How do I augment this to be at maximum efficiency?

Another question: Does a division get completely annihilated if, while attacking an adjacent province, it gets attacked from another direction and gets defeated in that battle? Edit: or if advancing into another province while getting attacked and org reaches 0 before arriving in the said province. In other words if a division gets caught in a battle and reaches 0 org while performing another task ie. attacking or moving, does it get completely desdtroyed, this seems to be happening consistently


sorry for the way my questions are jumbled up, and thanks in advance for all the helpful hints

Final edit: @pioniere; I heard patching or modding gamnes on steam was somewhat of a hastle re the 1.8 patch. everything seems to have played out perfectly historically, which is no problem for me just too bad I was too sucky to prevent the disaster that is happening at the moment. Only Moscow and Leningrad hold and the Germans are already at Stalingrad. It is september 1941. I have lost SO many troops lol man I love this game though

cheers

 

[Epaminondas]

In other words if a division gets caught in a battle and reaches 0 org while performing another task ie. attacking or moving, does it get completely desdtroyed, this seems to be happening consistently

It shouldn't as long as it began the battle with reasonable strength. Again I'm assuming that we're talking about the loss of the division(s) within a single turn, and I can't remember that happening to me without other factors (e.g. blocked line of retreat, persistent air attack) applying.

One thing that you might want to look at is whether the destroyed divisions were part of larger formations or not. If a division within a larger formation has its org reduced to zero what tends to happen is that then most, if not all, of the hits taken by that formation get clocked up against the lame duck - with predictable consequences.

 

[Pang Bingxun]

As for espionnage: my budget is set at 20.01 to be exact. Is that too high? I basically only take actions against Germany. just realized that my observation priority is only 1/3. How do I augment this to be at maximum efficiency?

Your total spending is divided by the porportions set in the espionage menu. For each country you set priorty between 0 and 10. So if sum of priorities over all countries is 8 and 6 are allocated to soviet union the spies in soviet union will get 20.01/8 x 6 $.

 

[Sten]

What you can do to save yourself some grief in regards to updates.

1. Create a new directory for instance C:\PI
2. Inside that directory create another directory AODbase <-- this becomes your base directory for the game you do not play from it or modify it.
3. Copy the contents from your Steam AOD directory into your AODbase directory
4. Create another directory AOD108 or AOD109 copy the contents from your base directory into this new one.
5. In the new directory apply the patches or mods you get from this forum that appeal to you. They should be safe and virus free.
6. Create a shortcut on your desktop C:\PI\AOD109\AODGame.exe this is the one I use to play AOD on my windows 8 machine.

I can play or modify to my hearts content and break or improve anything I want in game. Since I have my base directory with which to restore to with whenever I choose. You avoid the UAC in windows this way from popping up or annoying you as well.

 

[froglegs]

I suspect that the retreating divisions are attacked again by advancing attacking enemy units into the province retreated into and surrender because of no organization/morale. Attacking planes may have contributed to this situation but are not likely the direct cause of the annihliation. Were you attacked by faster moving ground units? That is my expectation.

 

[Epaminondas]

That would do it. Nice thinking.

 

[maximus323]

Pang: Thank you!

Sten: That does it nicely for me thank you.

Froglegs: Yup|! pretty sure that is what happened. My six division army was in a planes and attacked by tanks. CLearly got completely runover before they could retreat. After a couple more hours played The Soviet Union is pretty much beat... or is it? Moscow, Leningrad, and Stalingrad are still mine, but I'm about to lose Stalingrad and I lost 21 divisions in Kharkov. There is a HUGE gape between just north of Stalingrad all the way through Moscow. I still hold the Caucasus and the Finns are held at the border. The Germans are just pouring thourhg the hole though and I can't check that in any way. I'll probably lose my Industrial base soon but I do have a couple of units on the way very soon. Will they have the chance to perhaps save the situation!?

I see more clearly now the importance of really being ready for Barbarossa. I got owned, not gonna lie.

cheers

 

[maximus323]

What you can do to save yourself some grief in regards to updates.

1. Create a new directory for instance C:\PI
2. Inside that directory create another directory AODbase <-- this becomes your base directory for the game you do not play from it or modify it.
3. Copy the contents from your Steam AOD directory into your AODbase directory
4. Create another directory AOD108 or AOD109 copy the contents from your base directory into this new one.
5. In the new directory apply the patches or mods you get from this forum that appeal to you. They should be safe and virus free.
6. Create a shortcut on your desktop C:\PI\AOD109\AODGame.exe this is the one I use to play AOD on my windows 8 machine.

I can play or modify to my hearts content and break or improve anything I want in game. Since I have my base directory with which to restore to with whenever I choose. You avoid the UAC in windows this way from popping up or annoying you as well.

I've done exactly this but yet even before adding patches or mods of any kind I tested to see if the game started, and it doesn't. Any ideas?

Steam error pops up (I'm not starting from steam) "application load error 5:0000 34 something something