Lightning Tourney Rd1 Sandeman vs SGT Rice UV2.1

[SGT Rice]

ORIGINAL: Lebatron

SGT Rice, you have not made mention of any US strat moves during 1942. Have you been using them? Just as a reminder the US gets 1 strat move per turn starting in 1942. 

Shhh ... weahh hunting waaabbitts ...

[Sandeman]

Axis Fall'42

Pearl Harbor is blasted, netting 2 Heavy and 2 Light fleets destroyed. IJA pushes into Burma and the DEI. Low watermark of 71 VPs achieved this turn.
Germany gets ready for a major two front war, and shifts airpower west as the Brits were causing too much damage with their HBs

Turn sent to SGT Rice

[SGT Rice]

Allied Fall 42 - At long last the US enters the war. First sitrep is the Eastern Front ... the Wehrmacht has sat still for two seasons, launching air strikes to torch the Soviet rail network. Even stacks of 3 AA teched up to 7 are unable to protect the infrastructure. The Russians launch a small counteroffensive in the north; inching forward to see what's around Leningrad.

On the main front; three massive army groups stare at each other across a no man's land that used to be the Soviet industrial heartland. Large Russian forces are massing off screen in the Urals.

[SGT Rice]

Allied Fall 42 (cont.) - Action in the Far East; a large lend lease delivery from Russia allows the Chinese army to return to Chungking from their sojourn in the Yumen desert. Japan will need to find units from somewhere to defend against this threat.

Meanwhile the WA scramble to secure the oil fields of Java and Sumatra - left intact by the initial Japanese onslaught - and also to defend India against a powerful army that invaded Northern Burma from China. The Japanese will munch some tasty transports in this theatre, but hopefully the threat to India is contained.

[SGT Rice]

Allied Fall 42 (final) - On the Western Front, Goering's plan to reestablish German air superiority over France proves to be ill advised. In a massive replay of the first Air Battle for France, the Luftwaffe defenders (6 FTR, 2 STR) are attacked by everything the British can throw at them (5 FTR, 2 CAG, 5 STR, 3 TAC). Combat analyzer nailed it; the resulting casualties were within 1/2 point of the predicted values.

Unless the Germans have another big delivery of FTRs on the production spiral they may have to strip air cover from all the outlying theatres.

Turn sent to Sandeman.

[Sandeman]

Axis Win'43

Germany pushes east into Stalingrad under cover of winter...

Japan readjusts its strategy as the new transport rules are making things much more difficult to pull off old tricks [X(] We either need to build more transports or else make more short-sighted goals.

Turn sent to SGT Rice

[SGT Rice]

Allied Winter 43 - (screenies for start of German Spring 43)

Nice move by Sandeman; pushing a powerful phalanx of panzers and infantry between the weaker Russian armies in Grozny and Kazan. The Russians can't do much damage in the winter but the Germans will be able to attack either of the weaker forces with clear weather in the Spring. Russians retreat (gotta love those endless steppes).

[SGT Rice]

Allied Winter 43 (cont.)

Situation in SE Asia; WA puts more sacrificial transports in place to reinforce Java and Sumatra garrisons. Far East Air Command sets up shop in Eastern India. Japanese have withdrawn from Northern Burma to face the Chinese threat; Chinese mass in Chungking.

Nagumo's carrier strike group (all 7 CVs) are concentrated in the Java Sea. They're supply train was left in North Pacific 7 & 27 where TF 38 caught them; 4 trannies sunk & 1 LS damaged. ASW operations off the South American coast destroy a roaming Japanese SUB.

In Western Europe the Germans concentrate 6 FTRs in defense of Western Germany; the WA leaves this target alone with the prospect of winter and max range penalties on any attacks. P-51s destroy the German CAG in Norway; WA CAG sinks another German trannie in the Gulf of Finland, and a series of B-17/BB strikes damage the German ART in Norway.

Brazil joins the WA and immediately make themselves useful ... a Canadian infantry had staged to the Falklands in Fall 43 for an invasion of Axis Leaning Argentina. The Canucks take out the Argentine militia but suffer the dreaded autohit ... but the Brazilians are there to save the operation and occupy Argentina.

[SGT Rice]

Allied Winter 43 (final)

Summary shot of the Balance Of Power.

Sum key unit ratings:


Infantry (LA/EV)
Germany (7/7)
Japan (7/6)
Russia (7/7)
WA (7/7)
China (6/4)

Armor (LA/EV)
Germany (9/8)
Russia (8/8)
WA (7/7)

Artillery (LA)
Germany (8)
Japan (6)
Russia (8)
WA (7)

Anti Aircraft (AA)
Germany (8)
Japan (6)
Russia (7)
China (6)
WA (7)

Fighters (Spd/AA/EV)
Germany (2/7/7)
Japan (3/6/6)
Russia (3/7/7)
WA (3/7/8)

CAG (Spd/AA/EV)
Japan (3/5/6)
WA (3/6/7)

Strategic bombers (Spd/LA)
Germany (5/5)
Japan (4/4)
Russia (4/4)
WA (3/5)

Tactical bombers (Spd/LA)
Germany (3/5)
Japan (2/5)
Russia (3/6)
WA (2/6)

Turn sent to Sandeman.

[Sandeman]

Axis Spr'43

Well at this point I can't help but think I've done a pretty lousy job managing Japan in this version. The new transport rules make getting around a little more challenging. Case in point... due to my procrastinating trying to keep the U.S. out as long as possible, I ended up leaving 4 transports for SGT Rice to knock out because it took that many to shuttle supplies to my carrier group.

Not only that but I should've just taken Chungking when I had the chance, and not bothered trying to threaten India. Now I won't be taking either, after the Chinese put up a heroic stand beating the combat odds pretty handily.

However, Germany is as strong as ever... the Soviets refuse to commit to battle and will face a tough challenge expelling us from their land.

[SGT Rice]

Allied Spring 43 - Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill all send their congratulations (but no lend lease!) to Chiang (or do they have Mao to thank?).

Eastern Front: The Germans detach several corps from Army Group South to reinforce Leningrad. The Red Army repairs rails and transfers their own reinforcements north, with heavy air cover from their new Yak-9 fighters. Sturmovik strikes get 3 rail hits in southern Russia.

On the Western/Northern Front the Germans evacuate the survivors of their Norway garrison; a WA invasion force of 1 ARM, 3 INF, 2 ART, 1 AA follows on their heels. WA airstrikes in France get 2 rail hits, 1 resource hit ... the Germans have their AA up to 8 anti-air now, making the bombers rather less effective.

[SGT Rice]

Allied Spring 43 (cont)

In the Far East not much movement ... the major force concentrations shown here. B-17 strikes from India get 2 rail hits in central China. In the southern Indian Ocean the second Japanese sub is caught and destroyed by veterans of the Hunt for Gold October.

[SGT Rice]

Allied Spring 43 (final)

Force totals after Spring 43 production. The Russians are starting to feel a little like there old selves again ... the long road to Berlin awaits, but time is short.

Turn sent to Sandeman.

[Sandeman]

Axis Sum'43

Japan seizes Celebes and Papua to attain 77VPs and the second watermark. In China we've withdrawn the army to our new Fort Changsha.

The wallies move into Norway as I had abandoned it last turn under heavy air bombardment. Hopefully Scandinavia will turn into a frozen deathtrap for them.
The luftwaffe feels the strain of two front war and cannot stop many of the air strikes against our infrastructure (partly due to us still being at range 2 with our more expensive fighters). However, with the new suppression rules I can see that highly teched Flak will prove very useful in warding off bombers.

Also of note is that Allied aggression in South America has caused Turkey to become sympathetic to our cause...[:-]

[SGT Rice]

Allied Summer 43 -

On the Eastern Front the Russians finally rumble forward from their defensive lines in the Caucasus and the Urals. More troops are railed to reinforce the armies of the Northern Front facing Leningrad. Sturmovik strikes score 3 rail hits and damage the Rumanian trannie in the Black Sea.

[SGT Rice]

Allied Summer 43 (cont)

The Eighth Air Force and Bomber Command finally have sufficient striking power to fly to Berlin. I was really torn between which target to go after, the Luftwaffe or the factories. Both predicted similar losses from the combat analyzer, but I finally chose to attack the airfields, since the heavy concentration of range 5 bombers would have been all over my shipping during German Fall 43. Opposing air strengths, predicted/actual losses displayed in screen shot, along with a secondary strike by 4 TAC against rail targets in Eastern France.

WA follows this up with an attack on Sweden - removing its 3 resources from the Axis economy - and heavy reinforcements (2 ARM, 4 INF, 2 ART) into Norway. Stalin promises Red Army support should the Germans try to make good on their 'frozen deathtrap' threats.[;)]

[SGT Rice]

Allied Summer 43 (final)

For the big finale we move to the Pacific. Nagumo's strike force of 7 CV groups (representing perhaps 20 heavy/light carriers with 8-900 aircraft!) has been parked in the Java Sea for several turns. In Spring 43 TF 38 (also with 7 CVs) ended the turn in North Pacific 17 off of Midway Island.

The American CAGs launch from N. Pacific 4 (Truk) at range 4, thereby precluding any counterstrike from the Japanese CAGs. Combat results shown in the screen shot. Due to the -3 max range penalty the American CAGs weren't quite as dominant as their superior tech ratings would have allowed otherwise, but Halsey thought it was worth it to spare the American CVs any exposure to the 5 torpedo rating of the Japanese CAGs.

On the asian mainland the Burma road is reopened by joint Chinese/British maneuvers, a Japanese resource is destroyed and one Japanese FTR damaged.

File sent to Sandeman.

[Sandeman]

Axis Fall'43

Shame on me for not noticing the Wallies were at CAG range 4. They had a nice summer turn indeed, and Germany upgrades the luftwaffe's FTR strength in both quality and quantity in response. Since the Russians have traded space for time, now it is our turn. It is a long way to Berlin from central Russia with nothing but scorched earth in between.

Finland is abandoned, it's garrison moving to the better defensible Leningrad. Denmark is also heavily reinforced to keep the Wallies out of the Baltic.

Turn sent to SGT Rice

[SGT Rice]

Allied Fall 43

The Madagascar event finally triggers. Wallies have had 2 INF waiting in East Africa for this moment ... the Vichy uprising is quickly defeated.

[SGT Rice]

Allied Fall 43 (cont)

On the Eastern Front the Red Army reoccupies Rostov and Stalingrad. Airstrikes have mixed success; several complete misses, but 2 rail hits on the main German concentration in Kursk and a German trannie sunk in the Gulf of Finland. Sandeman is quite right; it's a long way to Berlin and not much time to get there.

Main troop concentrations shown at start of Axis Winter 44.