Hi,
I have started a game with the axis, but after 50 turns I am having a lot of problems with fuel consumption.
That's why I would like to know if you can change this option in the middle of a game and put unlimited consumption.
Is there a file in which this information can be edited?
Thanks a lot. Greetings.
Oil consumption
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jlghernandez
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Peter Stauffenberg
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Re: Oil consumption
This is stored in the save file as one of the options you make. Oil consumption is on by default. So turning that off means you need to start a new game. We can't edit save game settings because the save file is encrypted. This is actually a good thing or the game settings could be altered by one of the players and thus giving that player an advantage.
If you play with oil consumption you have to adapt your play style. Not only as the Axis, but all countries. E. g. don't upgrade all units at the first possible chance if that means they will use more oil. Don't build too many oil consuming units. Rest them between offensives and use rail movement to transport them to the next front area. Stockpile oil before offensives so you have enough to use on your tanks and airplanes through the entire period of good weather.
Also consider how you can increase the oil production. Focus on bumping industry to increase the multiplier and capture new oilfields. Some are in Russia and some in Iraq and Persia.
With a proper strategy you can manage oil as the Axis all the way till the end of the war. From 1943 and later you have to think twice about making attacks. Think if there is a purpose with the attack. E. g. destroying enemy units making bridgeheads across a river or beachheads after an invasion. If the purpose is to just weaken the enemy then abstaining the attack might be smarter. Then you have more oil later on for those critical attacks where the Allied enemy is about to roll up your defense line. Russian spearheads are important to deal with. That is where your oil consuming units should focus their attacks.
Remember that the race to the end is to get the Axis defense line until a critical minimum so it can't hold (even with retreats) anymore. The Allies are attacking relentlessly to weaken the Axis so they lose more steps per turn than they can replace. That is why strategic bombing is so important. From 1943 the Allies won't have shortages of units. It's more about getting fresh units to the front line so they can attack. Therefore it's a big Axis mistake to attack Allied units even at decent odds because you also deplete your own units in the process. The Allies can afford to replace their losses while you can't. So you help the Allies getting to the collapse of the Axis front line faster. I know it's sad to see a 2 step Russian infantry survive because you can't airstrike it to death. However, by doing so you need to commit a bomber and fighter escort and both these units could suffer hits. Not really worth it for just 2 infantry steps on a Russian enemy with many infantry units in reserve just waiting to replace their weakened comrade.
A big side effect of this strategy is that the Axis are using much less oil. Thus, you can expect to have some oil available every turn for defending and those critical attacks.
One thing I forgot is that it's probably smart to put your fighter air units on sentry mode when you don't want to challenge for air superiority so they won't intercept when the enemy is bombing your units. A nasty Allied strategy is to just use bombers to attack something within range of friendly fighters in non clear weather. The key is not to inflict damage, but to lure the German fighters to intercept. That burns oil and forces the Germans to spend precious PP's on repairing those depleted fighters.
Defend your resource producing centers. Especially those oil producing hexes. Placing a fighter unit there means the enemy can't strategically bombard the hex twice each turn. At some point your replacement points mostly have to go to replacing infantry units and at that time it's best to give up the air space and put all air units on sentry and not repair them. Withdraw with rail movement the air units near the front and get them closer to Germany for the end fight. Air unit can in a critical situation be used to fill gaps in the 2nd line after the front units. That prevents the front units from retreating if hit so there won't be a hole that can be exploited.
I personally think the game is much more fun playing with oil consumption because you get another level of strategy into the game. Playing without oil if you're new to the game can be fun because you learn faster how to attack to break defense lines and so on. However, you can learn a playing style that won't work with oil consumption so it's a twin edged sword doing that.
Anyway, CEAW - Grand Strategy is a wargame where the Axis most likely will reach its zenith in 1942-1943 and then crumble until you fight for Berlin in 1945. The victory conditions are made so that you get a reason to fight as the Axis until the very end. It's not the side who will have most capitals that will win in May 1945. The victory conditions are based upon the Axis losing their last capital in May 1945. So if you can force that to happen earlier than May 1945 as the Allies you get an Allied victory. The earlier the higher victory level. The Axis wins if they still hold any major power capitals at the end of May 1945. The more capitals means the higher victory levels. If all capitals are lost in May 1945 then the game is a draw.
Most wargames I've played will see one side quit once they can't win anymore. Victory is often calculated as the side with the most capitals. That means most GS games would have ended in 1943 and then we will never see how the Axis player can defend with dwindling oil capacity left. So the victory conditions will test the players in dealing with oil consumption. E. g. as mentioned above the Axis can overdo their counter attacks from 1943 and end up being without oil so the Allied can fight at will from some time in 1944. Then the front line will collapse even faster than before thus ensuring Axis defeat.
We introduced some new unit types to the game. Those are well worth looking into. E. g. cavalry units can be worth buying for the Axis instead of just motorized units. They have about the same capabilities, i. e. 5 movement instead of 4, but the cavalry units won't burn any oil. Mechanized corps can be a good alternative to panzer corps. They hit hard and defend better in cities. Initially having a healthy panzer corps is great because of need to quickly break through the enemy lines with hard punches. Like 1941 Barbarossa. However, I never build more than 8-10 panzers as the Germans. Later on they are in the reserve behind the double defense line (away from enemy bomber range). Their job is to destroy spearheadss so the front line can be restored. If the front line can't be restored then a general retreat in the front area is needed. This way the panzers become like ghost armies. The Russians know they're there, but rarely get in contact with them.
I forgot to remember that even uboats burn oil so the Axis player will need some kind of strategy to save oil. Moving each sub every turn will drain the Axis oil supply and not recommended. Instead it's better to focus on e. g. 2 convoy areas and just get the subs there so they can spot not far from the spawn points. One far to the north, one in the center near New York and one far to the south. Then you just lurk there waiting for a convoy to move within range. If you place the subs correctly you can cover a big area and still have the chance to let each sub get a shot at the convoy. If the convoy is heavily escorted you simply leave the convoy or attack a destroyer at one corner in the defense triangle around the convoy so you can get subs attacking the convoy which can't be hit by the other destroyers. At some point in the game the Allied player will have so many escorts it's futile to attack the convoys. Then you move the subs to ports in e. g. France. Then they can lurk waiting for transports to appear near them. Also remember that subs can repair one step per turn if they don't move or attack. That is a cheap way of getting slightly depleted subs back to full strength without moving them to port for repairs. That saves quite a bit of oil as well.
I agree that it feels like each measure you do to save oil doesn't feel like much, but the combined measures will make wonders for the Axis player. It's also normal for the Axis player to be almost out of oil at the end of a Summer offensive, but you stockpile during the Winter for the next offensive. However, just going after the juicy panthers, tigers, FW-190s and so on means you will run out of oil during the offensive and that's not good. So I usually upgrade some of my panzers and keep some at slightly lower levels. The upgraded ones are the ones I use to kill Soviet tanks and the less upgraded ones I use against infantry. This is similar to the real war. The Germans still used Pz III's and Pz IV's when they have Panthers and Tigers in their formations.
As you see oil consumption has a HUGE role to play in how you play the game. Playing without it will remove so many fun parts of the game that I recommend not doing so unless you're just learning the game mechanisms.
If you play with oil consumption you have to adapt your play style. Not only as the Axis, but all countries. E. g. don't upgrade all units at the first possible chance if that means they will use more oil. Don't build too many oil consuming units. Rest them between offensives and use rail movement to transport them to the next front area. Stockpile oil before offensives so you have enough to use on your tanks and airplanes through the entire period of good weather.
Also consider how you can increase the oil production. Focus on bumping industry to increase the multiplier and capture new oilfields. Some are in Russia and some in Iraq and Persia.
With a proper strategy you can manage oil as the Axis all the way till the end of the war. From 1943 and later you have to think twice about making attacks. Think if there is a purpose with the attack. E. g. destroying enemy units making bridgeheads across a river or beachheads after an invasion. If the purpose is to just weaken the enemy then abstaining the attack might be smarter. Then you have more oil later on for those critical attacks where the Allied enemy is about to roll up your defense line. Russian spearheads are important to deal with. That is where your oil consuming units should focus their attacks.
Remember that the race to the end is to get the Axis defense line until a critical minimum so it can't hold (even with retreats) anymore. The Allies are attacking relentlessly to weaken the Axis so they lose more steps per turn than they can replace. That is why strategic bombing is so important. From 1943 the Allies won't have shortages of units. It's more about getting fresh units to the front line so they can attack. Therefore it's a big Axis mistake to attack Allied units even at decent odds because you also deplete your own units in the process. The Allies can afford to replace their losses while you can't. So you help the Allies getting to the collapse of the Axis front line faster. I know it's sad to see a 2 step Russian infantry survive because you can't airstrike it to death. However, by doing so you need to commit a bomber and fighter escort and both these units could suffer hits. Not really worth it for just 2 infantry steps on a Russian enemy with many infantry units in reserve just waiting to replace their weakened comrade.
A big side effect of this strategy is that the Axis are using much less oil. Thus, you can expect to have some oil available every turn for defending and those critical attacks.
One thing I forgot is that it's probably smart to put your fighter air units on sentry mode when you don't want to challenge for air superiority so they won't intercept when the enemy is bombing your units. A nasty Allied strategy is to just use bombers to attack something within range of friendly fighters in non clear weather. The key is not to inflict damage, but to lure the German fighters to intercept. That burns oil and forces the Germans to spend precious PP's on repairing those depleted fighters.
Defend your resource producing centers. Especially those oil producing hexes. Placing a fighter unit there means the enemy can't strategically bombard the hex twice each turn. At some point your replacement points mostly have to go to replacing infantry units and at that time it's best to give up the air space and put all air units on sentry and not repair them. Withdraw with rail movement the air units near the front and get them closer to Germany for the end fight. Air unit can in a critical situation be used to fill gaps in the 2nd line after the front units. That prevents the front units from retreating if hit so there won't be a hole that can be exploited.
I personally think the game is much more fun playing with oil consumption because you get another level of strategy into the game. Playing without oil if you're new to the game can be fun because you learn faster how to attack to break defense lines and so on. However, you can learn a playing style that won't work with oil consumption so it's a twin edged sword doing that.
Anyway, CEAW - Grand Strategy is a wargame where the Axis most likely will reach its zenith in 1942-1943 and then crumble until you fight for Berlin in 1945. The victory conditions are made so that you get a reason to fight as the Axis until the very end. It's not the side who will have most capitals that will win in May 1945. The victory conditions are based upon the Axis losing their last capital in May 1945. So if you can force that to happen earlier than May 1945 as the Allies you get an Allied victory. The earlier the higher victory level. The Axis wins if they still hold any major power capitals at the end of May 1945. The more capitals means the higher victory levels. If all capitals are lost in May 1945 then the game is a draw.
Most wargames I've played will see one side quit once they can't win anymore. Victory is often calculated as the side with the most capitals. That means most GS games would have ended in 1943 and then we will never see how the Axis player can defend with dwindling oil capacity left. So the victory conditions will test the players in dealing with oil consumption. E. g. as mentioned above the Axis can overdo their counter attacks from 1943 and end up being without oil so the Allied can fight at will from some time in 1944. Then the front line will collapse even faster than before thus ensuring Axis defeat.
We introduced some new unit types to the game. Those are well worth looking into. E. g. cavalry units can be worth buying for the Axis instead of just motorized units. They have about the same capabilities, i. e. 5 movement instead of 4, but the cavalry units won't burn any oil. Mechanized corps can be a good alternative to panzer corps. They hit hard and defend better in cities. Initially having a healthy panzer corps is great because of need to quickly break through the enemy lines with hard punches. Like 1941 Barbarossa. However, I never build more than 8-10 panzers as the Germans. Later on they are in the reserve behind the double defense line (away from enemy bomber range). Their job is to destroy spearheadss so the front line can be restored. If the front line can't be restored then a general retreat in the front area is needed. This way the panzers become like ghost armies. The Russians know they're there, but rarely get in contact with them.
I forgot to remember that even uboats burn oil so the Axis player will need some kind of strategy to save oil. Moving each sub every turn will drain the Axis oil supply and not recommended. Instead it's better to focus on e. g. 2 convoy areas and just get the subs there so they can spot not far from the spawn points. One far to the north, one in the center near New York and one far to the south. Then you just lurk there waiting for a convoy to move within range. If you place the subs correctly you can cover a big area and still have the chance to let each sub get a shot at the convoy. If the convoy is heavily escorted you simply leave the convoy or attack a destroyer at one corner in the defense triangle around the convoy so you can get subs attacking the convoy which can't be hit by the other destroyers. At some point in the game the Allied player will have so many escorts it's futile to attack the convoys. Then you move the subs to ports in e. g. France. Then they can lurk waiting for transports to appear near them. Also remember that subs can repair one step per turn if they don't move or attack. That is a cheap way of getting slightly depleted subs back to full strength without moving them to port for repairs. That saves quite a bit of oil as well.
I agree that it feels like each measure you do to save oil doesn't feel like much, but the combined measures will make wonders for the Axis player. It's also normal for the Axis player to be almost out of oil at the end of a Summer offensive, but you stockpile during the Winter for the next offensive. However, just going after the juicy panthers, tigers, FW-190s and so on means you will run out of oil during the offensive and that's not good. So I usually upgrade some of my panzers and keep some at slightly lower levels. The upgraded ones are the ones I use to kill Soviet tanks and the less upgraded ones I use against infantry. This is similar to the real war. The Germans still used Pz III's and Pz IV's when they have Panthers and Tigers in their formations.
As you see oil consumption has a HUGE role to play in how you play the game. Playing without it will remove so many fun parts of the game that I recommend not doing so unless you're just learning the game mechanisms.