Round 1 2vs2 Polonthi/Tica vs MrQuiet/Avatar47

[Petiloup]

ORIGINAL: Avatar47

I could have sworn I had 4 fighters, 2 tacs and 1 cag defending the lower north sea along with 3 HFs... I am definitely caught off guard here. Hopefully I can buy a little more time for russia.

You had something like that but I had not much choices. My production was aimed at a normal France defense and not this... Juggernaut and... well I had CAGS so what the hell better use them.

The ratio to attack E France was 16 losses to the Attacker and 18 to the Defender. Trying that would ruin a possible Barbarossa. Attacking TLC was an opening for a grand style counterattack for which you did upgrade your INF and ART attack value.

This can still doom Germany as well but at least it's... interesting.

Game comment: Not sure how anyone feel about this but to defend France, England seems to have stripped bared everything else everywhere which wouldn't surely be a military sound decision in a real WW2 as no-one was sure Italy would enter the war at which time. By the way they didn't enter the war after the creation of Vichy but before it when they saw how successfull the Blitzkrieg was. As in AWD there is no such possibility it's of course a sound decision from Avatar47 to do so. In my sense I would think Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt, Africa in general, and India should be frozen till Italy enter the war. or at least for where there are troops. Keep the factories unfrozen in India by creating 1 MIL there when Italy enter the war if wished for but the idea would be that those assets are there to defend vital interests against a potential ennemy that no one knows for sure when or where he will attack.

[WanderingHead]

ORIGINAL: Polonthi
Italy ... didn't enter the war after the creation of Vichy but before it when they saw how successfull the Blitzkrieg was.

In game terms, the creation of Vichy and "seeing how successful the Blitzkrieg was" are really simultaneous results. Italy entered when it was obvious France would fall. In AWD, Italy can enter __immediately__ upon the creation of Vichy (no delay until the next turn), which is essentially the same thing.

BTW - typically, Germany can take TLC in Winter and not worry too much about counter attack (the winter penalties, the surperiority of German forces, and the fact that W Germany is a fortress all help with this). I think that you've seen an extraordinary defense of France precisely because you didn't take TLC, which made the defense feasible. Also, generally even if a counter strike aganist TLC is successful, it would require the maximum commitment of all troops on the continent, so the British are then stuck there and wiped out and France in the end is left exposed anyway.

But I think you've played it better .

[tcart]

Japan Sp 40
In celebration of our German ally's master stroke in the West the Japanese air force torches a Chinese factory. Little else to report.

[Petiloup]

ORIGINAL: WanderingHead

BTW - typically, Germany can take TLC in Winter and not worry too much about counter attack (the winter penalties, the surperiority of German forces, and the fact that W Germany is a fortress all help with this). I think that you've seen an extraordinary defense of France precisely because you didn't take TLC, which made the defense feasible.

I know, huge mistake on my part but didn't expect Spring to be locked that way on the Western Front. Seeing that I wanted to kick myself hard.

And about playing better well I think I was hugely lucky on that one. Taking out the TAC in Scotland was easy but hitting the CAGS was an attempt on pure luck. Sinking the carrier was one of those moments you dream of.

So about playing better I think Avatar is well ahead of me in that part but taking risks sometimes leads to unexpected results... good one in this case.

[a511]

Game comment: Not sure how anyone feel about this but to defend France, England seems to have stripped bared everything else everywhere which wouldn't surely be a military sound decision in a real WW2 as no-one was sure Italy would enter the war at which time. By the way they didn't enter the war after the creation of Vichy but before it when they saw how successfull the Blitzkrieg was. As in AWD there is no such possibility it's of course a sound decision from Avatar47 to do so. In my sense I would think Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt, Africa in general, and India should be frozen till Italy enter the war. or at least for where there are troops. Keep the factories unfrozen in India by creating 1 MIL there when Italy enter the war if wished for but the idea would be that those assets are there to defend vital interests against a potential ennemy that no one knows for sure when or where he will attack.
[/quote]

i think Polonthi has raised an interesting pt above on the game and sth i have in mind.
i found it pretty std for WA to block central_Med with tons of HFs BEFORE italy DOW. and in certain successful cases, that move really block the DAK from landing their feet on the north africa desert.

just wonder what really happened historically? and how exactly it can be put in the game to make it more realistic. ie, at least to give GER the fair chance to land the DAK in north africa as they did historically.

i think making central Med frozen until italy DOW can be a possible change as the WA should but i would love to know u guys' views.

a511

[MrQuiet]

Spring 1940

Russia watches in amazement as Scotland falls under the Axis Fist.
It is pretty clear no one within range of the Ruthless Germans is safe from there wrath.

The German player did not mention that he also hit Yugo and all the minors joined Germany includeing Italy.
Looks like the Med will get active, can nothing stop them??

Turn sent to WA (avatar47)

[WanderingHead]

ORIGINAL: a511
i found it pretty std for WA to block central_Med with tons of HFs BEFORE italy DOW. and in certain successful cases, that move really block the DAK from landing their feet on the north africa desert.

just wonder what really happened historically? and how exactly it can be put in the game to make it more realistic. ie, at least to give GER the fair chance to land the DAK in north africa as they did historically.

i think making central Med frozen until italy DOW can be a possible change as the WA should but i would love to know u guys' views.

I think that you have a good point, but I'm not fond of addressing these things by freezing (i.e. further limiting choices).

IMO, the value of naval assets in preventing an invasion of England is hugely underrepresented in this game, and that is part of this issue. The Brits can block the Med with their whole navy precisely because that navy is not very useful, in game terms, for defending the home islands.

[Petiloup]

ORIGINAL: MrQuiet

The German player did not mention that he also hit Yugo and all the minors joined Germany includeing Italy.

I begin to feel that Russia is spying on me??? first reporting my fleets building in the Baltic, now this. [:-]

Maybe Stalin is forgetting we are friends. This shows some treacherous mind and we will begin to investigate closely if any preemptive action should be considered to correct this issue.

[Petiloup]

ORIGINAL: WanderingHead

IMO, the value of naval assets in preventing an invasion of England is hugely underrepresented in this game, and that is part of this issue. The Brits can block the Med with their whole navy precisely because that navy is not very useful, in game terms, for defending the home islands.

Agreed, my move to Scotland might be nice in game terms but would it need to be a real simulation then it's totally unfeasible. First the Nazi War machine would never have been able to reach Scotland with landing craft for any sizeable force (D-Day had a far larger force that what GE could dream of and Normandy was still a gamble in Eisenhower idea). Secondly the British fleet in the North Sea wouldn't stay there looking at my invasion fleet in awe. They would have sinked it. The OPP fire with CAGS is nice but maybe an OPP FIRE with anything (carriers, HVY & Light Fleets) if in a sea zone (not ports) against moving transports or troops along a convoy link (only) would prevent this.

Something else is not well represented it's the land based air power against fleets. The British navy never did concentrate ships around Malta to stop the convoys to Lybia because even for what it worths the Italian airforce was more than able to hurt ships badly. One option would be to allow multiple strikes from land based air force against ships if they have the range for it for example. Or to give a bonus for TAC and HVY bombers depending on the distance they cover before attacking a fleet. Move -0- used (from Sicily for example to Central Med) and get a +2 attack bonus, if -1- move point used then a +1 bonus, after that attack is normal.

That would also represents that for GE the only c hance for SeaLion was to achieve air superiority over the Channel.

Anyway AWD works quite nicely as it is and any major changes could create other issues.

Freezing the Med for the British navy would also creates an opportunity for the Italian navy to invade Egypt with a landing which they were not ready to do either.

[Petiloup]

Back to the game:

Summer 1940:

Germany:

After freeing Scotland from England oppression Germany looked at... "what next?"

It was decided to avoid the Maginot line and bring TLC into the greater Reich. A small mistake from the Kriegsmarine enables the Light Fleet to escape [:(]

The Luftwaffe and our superiors panzers divisionen did a blitzkrieg showcase in Western France and refreezes the unfrozen regions of what's now Vichy. Luck is definitely on Germany side.

It was then needed to deal with England. The Scotland forces had about 40%+ to go on a parade into London and bring the Queen in her new London Tower quarters. Again our superior soldiers did the difference and even loosing 3 ART in the process is a small price for such a success. Seeing the survivors fleeing to Canada we just wonder what would have happened if the Kriegsmarine would have taken some risks to cut the Atlantic convoys. Heads will roll .

Italy tried to show what their airforce could do and they manage to do as much losses to the ennemy that what they suffer. Nothing to nothing, for Italy it's still quite a victory[;)]

At last some moves from our navy but the Elite submarine was hit in the process.

The land war in the West in now over, time to think of new horizons.

[Avatar47]

Not looking good for the Allies here.... that lost carrier was key. I had 4 fighters defending it, but somehow those 2 CAGs and 1 TB from germany got through. The 1st CAG had 26 suppression points and was destroyed when it attacked... but only got a -1 from the suppression when it used it's torpedoes, and hit the carrier exactly on the mark. The 2nd CAG managed to destroy the carrier with an autohit. As was already said, that carrier was blocking the way to Scotland, so as it was sunk, there was nothing blocking the way.
 
This turn, I thought I managed to place the troops in WFrance and England enough so that he would have a low or non-existant chance to take either, but as we see, I apparently miscalculated . I had 9 ground units incl. 3 art + 3 inf + 3 mil (plus 7 of my air units) against his 5 inf + 4 art in Scotland. W France had 13 ground units against his 7 panzers (no parachutist was in range), so I am suprised he managed to take it. Seems I'm doing worse than the AI would hehe. Live and learn.
 
A lot will depend on the SU now, because it will be awhile before the WAllies gather strength again.

[tcart]

Japan - Summer 1940
The Emperor bows Westward in a gesture of respect and admiration towards our German allies. We bomb another Chinese factory and make a note to have our scientists finish their long-overdue screen capture technology.
 
Those strat points in the South Pacific start to look very juicy indeed.

[MrQuiet]

Ouch!
Dark Days indeed for the Allies.


The following screen shot is not a very pretty picture, but we will persevere and eventually extinguish the Axis players from the game with our future thriving wartime production[X(]

Turn sent to the Western Allies (avatar47)

[a511]

well, the screen shot above is nothing exceptional as I believe many of us must have somehow done that before in other pbems [8D]
what makes it really exceptional (and is excluded from the screen shot above) is the fact that its only Su'40 [X(]
 
i shall stay tune with this AAR to see how the WA can turnaround the situation or at least prevent the axis from getting AV b4 US DOW ...
 
btw, how things going in the Med?
 
a511

[Petiloup]

ORIGINAL: a511

btw, how things going in the Med?

Italy just did an airstrike against the Fleet around Malta with no results. No attempt for a sortie with the Navy as the odds didn't look good with 4HVY ships + a few Light facing me and that's too bad as there seems to be nothing much anywhere as a land defense but not sure.

GE needed all the air assets for the West campaign so Fall 1940 would be quiet as well especially if more of the British navy goes there now that UK as fallen.

Any major assault there would need reassurance that Russia is not a threat... anymore [;)]

[Avatar47]

The WAllies start licking their wounds, and send whatever reinforcements available to India/MidEast/Australia in the hopes of holding 2 out of the 3 theaters against a determined Jap/German attack....
 
The bright note here is that the entire Kriegsmarine was damaged, and only 1 german transport is remaining, meaning that moving supplies/troops to and from England will be slow, giving our Russia friends more time to prepare their mighty defences. Seems that Germany also didn't move any transports prior to their attack on London, and repaired no Factories either, so of the 5 artillery damaged, all are lost. Carriers have been ordered into construction on the East coast of the USA, hopefully to allow us a counter-attack somewhere on in Western Europe/Africa come 42/43. USA will now bear a heavy heavy burden....

[Petiloup]

ORIGINAL: Avatar47

Seems that Germany also didn't move any transports prior to their attack on London, and repaired no Factories either, so of the 5 artillery damaged, all are lost. 

Did indeed rush too fast to attack but as 3 were already destroyed only 1 got from damaged to destroyed. Again we notice the huge distortion of the Capitalist propaganda machine while our first duty is the truth, always the truth [:D]

The Kriegsmarine is indeed under repair and our shipping lanes a bit weak but London factories are being retooled with Krupps machinery [8|]

Always strange to notice that taking London is somehow helping Russia in the very short term.

Fall 1940:

Germany:

Gibraltar being undefended surely due to manpower shortage was refitted into a GE beach resort. Spain approves highly.

The British navy did flee Central Med with very light losses from OPP Fire (1 transport damaged).

After getting an ultimatum from Norway we did make them see reason and Finland is pleased that we secures their Western borders. The world is barely noticing.

[tcart]

Japan Fall 1940
Plan, what plan? Yamamoto reclines in a beach chair at a Thai resort sipping mai tais, flirting with scantily clad female tourists and occasionally reading newspaper clippings re the latest German conquests. He half-listens to reports of another Chinese factory biting the dust, then heads out for a massage. If only war were always this easy.
 
 

[MrQuiet]

Rusia/China Fall1940

The known world is crumbling and falling to pieces.
Armageden must be near.

Turn sent to WA

Screenshot shows a German Fettish for Paratroops.

[Avatar47]

USA rebuilds some units that were damaged in UK... all avaiable troops will most likely be sent throughout the Empire's colonies. Iceland was slightly reinforced as well.