VR Designs

Flak is what you should buy if you have lost air supremacy. Flak is also what you should buy if your still fighting for air superiority. In the first case you will need flak to protect your panzers and artillery. In this case flak will be your only hope to have some chance of successfully going on the offensive. In the second case you will be smart to add some flak guns to your airfields since it will help you win the battle for air supremacy.

Flak in range of a hex under air attack is always used in defense. Flak I and Flak II have a range of 1 hex (so they provide cover for their neighbor hexes as well), but Flak III has a range of 2 and Flak IV even a range of 3. When you have lost air superiority it is much advised to research all the way to flak III. The extended range will really make a huge difference as overlapping fields of fire will emerge.

Flak stationed outside the hex under attack cannot be destroyed, but only fights at 50% of its regular strength as a trade off. Flak stationed in the hex under attack can be destroyed and often will be.

When your enemy is employing strategic bombers you might want to put some flak in your vital locations to protect them from the worst effects of bombing.

Flak is not that lethal to enemy aircraft and mostly causes readiness damage and retreat-hits. However it is when flak defense is combined with fighter intercepts that flak really shines. By diminishing the readiness of enemy aircraft they make them easy targets for the defending fighters.

A side-advantage of flak is that is has also some value in an AT-Gun role, they are not an 88 Flak Gun, but they do have a little punch.

This also concludes the first season of ATG college. I will bundle all lessons in a small booklet in the comming month. I think this booklet will be a very welcome companion to the existing manual, especially for players new to ATG!

Thank you all so very much for your attention! And for hanging in there throughout all these lessons!

Best Regards,
Vic

The engineer is a specialized troop type. It fights at only half the strength of rifle infantry. Its important to realize that engineers are not combat-engineers. Engineers are your construction troops! They can perform a wide variety of tasks, that only they can perform. They can build roads and bridges, the can demolish bridges and locations and they can construct a variety of locations including ports, airfields, fortifications and factories/shipyards. They can also upgrade resource locations.

The answer to the question if you need engineers depends strongly on the scenario you are playing. Lets discuss the four most prominent reasons to get engineers…

First of all if resources are scarce in your game world then you must try to upgrade your oil wells and mines as soon as possible. For upgrading resource locations you need some raw materials, but also you need an engineer unit on the actual hex to provide the EP (engineer points) necessary to make the upgrade.

Secondly if the map contains several continents or islands and requires you to make amphibious invasions into enemy territory in order to win the game you should definitely build some engineer units to go with the first or second wave of your invasion. This because in all likelihood you will not be able to capture a port town immediately and thus land at a weaker defended stretch of coast. When doing so you will run into supply problems since supply does not easily flow from sea to land without the help of a port. Use an engineers to quickly build a port on a just conquered coastal hex. (like for example the Mulberries during Normandy landings)

Thirdly if the map you are playing is lacking roads you should build engineers to construct them. Without an adequate road network your empire will have serious supply, transfer and production deliveries. Although it is possible to play and organize your empire in a sort of decentralized fashion it is not recommended.

Fourthly if the map does not contain that many towns and you want to keep your troops under air cover then you should get some engineers to build yourself some airfields. Keep in mind that level I fighters provide an air umbrella maximum 5 hexes away, check the amount of hexes between towns on the map to see if you’ll troops will run out of air cover or not.

A good size for an engineer unit used for road building is 20-30 engineers. 20-30 engineers generate 40-60 EP a turn. Enough to build 2-3 road hexes a turn or after 1 turn of waiting to upgrade a level I resource hex. A good size for a engineer unit used in repairing bridges and building fortifications is 40-50 engineers. For using engineers to help amphibious invasion I would use at least 60 engineers to make sure you have the required 100 EP as quick as possible. I would recommend issuing trucks to your engineer units to give the some radius to move them quickly to a spot of need.