[Strategy] Best utilization of German AA guns? [Alpha+3]

[Zhukov44]

The best utility for the guns seems to be defending capitals and major factories.  But naturally you want to spread them around somewhat in defense of stacks.

[Cow]

Depends for me. I usually bring 3 east.

[Mallery29]

This is more for any AA gun…I currently have 6 in W. Germany (was a primary defense w/2inf until last turn, where I had to make it beefy), and the 4 in Italy.  Obviously I would sack a lot of the AA guns if attacked, but say in a W. Germany defense the attackers only get 6 to 7 hits…would you leave an AA gun or two for the next wave of attacks (assuming more planes on the way)?

[Stalingradski]

I like to bring 3 to France, 3 toward the Russian front… the 3 in France will end up in Normandy or 2 in Normandy/1 in S France, to make things a little tougher for the Allies.

Although I could see the charm in sending all 6 to the East.

[ozimek1]

@Stalingradski:

I like to bring 3 to France, 3 toward the Russian front… the 3 in France will end up in Normandy or 2 in Normandy/1 in S France, to make things a little tougher for the Allies.

Although I could see the charm in sending all 6 to the East.

So I take you are stationing infantry along the coast as well? Otherwise the Allies can just land 1 inf, and take out your AA guns automatically. Does that strategy work for you?

[Kreuzfeld]

just put about half of them in w germany and the other half in east germany, they are the perfect defensive unit there (better than inf), and back them up with inf. that way you can kill planes, and have a great lossprofile if the allies attack, I would guess you get about equvilant to 4-5 IPC value for them like that. (meaning, if you didn’t have them, you would prolly need to use 4-5 more IPC per AA on inf)

[Gargantua]

In my current game against cow, those 6 AA guns have basically SAVED europes backside,  It’s been the primary defense of my stack (just the hits) take a look.

[Guest]

I sometimes ship a AAgun to Norway instead of a inf r1 and use it to shield norway,finland and karelia against airattacks.
So that leaves me 3AAgun vs Russia, 2 in Europe +4Italian ones that I keep in north Italy or Wger (so they can move north and south ) and one in Scandinavia (strange how it sometimes ends up beeing needed there)

[ozimek1]

I realize that the AA guns are more effective when definding in the west against Allied “liberation” attempts. The big question is whether the tempo gain of bringing them east is worth it, and ultimately more efficient.

What I mean is: Yes, an AA-gun is better at defending a stationary stack than advancing with the aim of possibly taking some very random pot-shots at enemy planes. That is pretty obvious.  BUT they happen to start on the board in round one, and they typically won’t be needed in the west for the first several rounds. Bringing them east from the beginning will add some momentum to Barbarossa, but at the cost of a less attractive puchase mix during the mid-game if they are to be replaced by newly purchased AA-guns or their equivalent in infantry. Is the boost worth that downside?

[Kreuzfeld]

if you don’t bring the AAs to the east, you can afford to buy 4-7  more mechs to send east in round 3, they will catch up with the stack in round 5-6.

[Zhukov44]

@ozimek1:

I realize that the AA guns are more effective when definding in the west against Allied “liberation” attempts. The big question is whether the tempo gain of bringing them east is worth it, and ultimately more efficient.

What I mean is: Yes, an AA-gun is better at defending a stationary stack than advancing with the aim of possibly taking some very random pot-shots at enemy planes. That is pretty obvious. � BUT they happen to start on the board in round one, and they typically won’t be needed in the west for the first several rounds. Bringing them east from the beginning will add some momentum to Barbarossa, but at the cost of a less attractive puchase mix during the mid-game if they are to be replaced by newly purchased AA-guns or their equivalent in infantry. Is the boost worth that downside?

There’s no yes or no answer to that.  Even on G1, where I move the aa guns depends on what went down on G1.  I’ll still be making those choices on G2-G3, depending on how the game is playing out.  The aa guns in the East have limited utility because they have no attack value–their utility is to lessen Russia’s odds of a successful counter-attack.  Whether Germany needs them out there depends on what Germany and Russia are doing.

I would avoid buying new aa guns mid-game as Germany.  With that in mind, I’d keep half the aa guns back, barring exceptional circumstances.  There’s the possibility of moving east until G3, and then turning back, in time to protect Berlin.