How the War went: Cpuncher (Allies) vs Fafnir v1.07 Full Game

[Cpuncher]

IJN had to leave the Mediterranean, being driving out by the Allied Atlantic fleet, and were now being hunted by the Allied Pacific fleet.

[Cpuncher]

Nov 5, 1943: Manila was finally recovered!

[Cpuncher]

While Urumchi and Irkutsk were both in grave danger.

[Cpuncher]

Dec 31, 1943: An important date to be remembered.

Americans triumphantly entered Paris, with a very strong presence of forces in France. German Panzers began to arrive...

[Cpuncher]

While the Germans finally captured the snow covered city of Stalingrad! This, however, was the extent of Germans gains in Russia. They were to be rolled back rather quickly...

But a sneak attack by the Russians recovered Grozny. The American Strat Bs had been flying missions from Persia nonstop, and had kept the supply situation in the Grozny area very difficult. So the Germans simply pulled out of there.

[Cpuncher]

And IJN was to meet its end soon, off the coast of S Africa and near Antarctica.

[Cpuncher]

A look at the unit count at the time:

Axis looked still very strong on land, with Russia gradually got weaker. But the Americans had been growing stronger every turn, who would soon outnumber the Germans!

[Cpuncher]

And the loss board.

[Marcinos1985]

Have you saved data about MPP income for different nations? I am curious at around what date German economy got decisevely outmatched.

BTW, for the duration of entire game you seem a bit sceptic about your chances, e.g. mentioning that US could got kicked out of Spain, enabling prospects of Axis tactical victory. At the same time, this game really ilustrates well that at some point of time Axis just can't cover all angles. Punches are coming from all directions, foothold in Italy and Denmark etc. Everything of this demands an answer, paid in MPP's. Time comes when bill is too high to pay. It seems 1943 got already too expensive for Axis.

However, this jump from Rostov to Volga seems surprising. How those German units got supplied that well is a mystery, but also gives a hint why USSR is so weak in this game - Germany just doesn't have to seriously solve a huge problem (supply) which haunted them IRL. Perhaps HQ boosting mechanism is overtuned, that is also visible in NA.

Great read.

[Cpuncher]

ORIGINAL: Marcinos1985

Have you saved data about MPP income for different nations? I am curious at around what date German economy got decisevely outmatched.

BTW, for the duration of entire game you seem a bit sceptic about your chances, e.g. mentioning that US could got kicked out of Spain, enabling prospects of Axis tactical victory. At the same time, this game really ilustrates well that at some point of time Axis just can't cover all angles. Punches are coming from all directions, foothold in Italy and Denmark etc. Everything of this demands an answer, paid in MPP's. Time comes when bill is too high to pay. It seems 1943 got already too expensive for Axis.

However, this jump from Rostov to Volga seems surprising. How those German units got supplied that well is a mystery, but also gives a hint why USSR is so weak in this game - Germany just doesn't have to seriously solve a huge problem (supply) which haunted them IRL. Perhaps HQ boosting mechanism is overtuned, that is also visible in NA.

Great read.

Great question about MPP, which is the ultimate factor in this game. I did save MPP income data every turn. I shall post all nation's MPP graph at the war's end. In fact when Barbarossa began, and US joined war right after, Allies pretty much enjoyed 80% or more income than Axis throughout the game, with the US on Industry 5 already, and production 5 soon. Taken away research cost and other things, Allies could out-produce units more than 2 to 1 than Axis.

However, on land, Germany had superb NM, experience, HQ rating, and Tech lead, and thus was pretty much able to maintain a 1 to 2 loss ratio against Allied units. Everywhere when the Germans were determined to get what they wanted, they always got them. Fafnir is particularly keen on developing his super units. Often times his panzers could clean kill a full well entrenched enemy unit each turn without suffering any damage. This, I believe, actually need some balancing. That's why I suggest to limit unit experience to 2 stars, including HQs.

After taking Spain, US was still somewhat weak, with the supply in Spain not ideal. Once they got fully established in France in early 44 though, there would be no chance for the Axis to kick them out anymore, not even with everything Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe could throw at them.

Yes the jump from Rostov to Volga puzzled me too. I thought I would have 1 to 2 turns of breathing room. In fact I intentionally sacrificed a HQ to be within reach of his lead Panzer (I happened to not needing that HQ for quite some turns), knowing in the past he would pay anything to kill a HQ. See the image. I figured after taking my HQ this Panzer would be on low supply for sure. Well his panzer killed my HQ, and to my surprise, he was still on supply 5 (or 6?). I suppose he captured Rostov intact with no scorched earth. In fact I don't know the odds of scorched earth happening. It seems to me at least half of the time he captured Russian towns intact, with no scorched earth, and was able to push on immediately.

I agree the HQ boosting is a bit overtuned.

[Cpuncher]

Jan 28, 1944: Americans halt their advance and began digging in on a good defensive line in France, knowing the style of my opponent, that whenever he decided to deal with something, he always used maximum force. But now, the chance of him throwing the Americans out of France would be very slim.

[Cpuncher]

Meanwhile, Allies approached Alexandria and Cairo. With a large force landed behind the defenders, in Palestine, the situation had become impossible for the Germans there.

Allies also para dropped in Albania, landed in Istanbul, advanced up into Southern Italy, meeting no resistance. The situation in East Mediterranean was deteriorating quickly for the Axis. Now Turkey and other German minors were all being threatened.

[Elessar2]

Did my eyes deceive me up there, or did it show that the IJN had exactly TWO ships left!?

[Cpuncher]

ORIGINAL: Elessar2

Did my eyes deceive me up there, or did it show that the IJN had exactly TWO ships left!?

At the time, yes.

UK and US combined ship loss was 39 total, while Germany and Japan was 43 total. Considering the Axis never bought any ship, never spent much to even to repair the damaged ones, and Allies had twice the number of ships, this was a decent result for Axis.

Axis never had enough cash.

[Cpuncher]

Feb 25, 1944: Sad news from the Far East. Jap captured Urumch and China had surrendered. It's been a long struggle for the Chinese. They've been fighting the Japs since 1937. What's worse, Japan got a significant boost with a fairly sizable plunder, something close to 900 mpp. This might just gave the Axis some chance.

Before China's surrender, Allies had flown in several aircraft to occupy the resources that were still not in Jap hands yet (they have now flown away), to make sure the Japs couldn't advance quickly beyond Urumch. An Indian Corps and Tank were sent to recover Lhasa and beyond.

I thought China was non-cooperative. To my surprise, the Allied aircraft all received full supply from the Chinese resources (before China's surrender). So I wonder if Allied ground units would be treated the same. If so, then I'd have marched allied ground troops into China long ago, and could've possibly saved China. Wonder if anyone know about this.

Irkutsk also fell to the Japs at the same time.

This, however, was the darkness before the dawn. The tide would be completely turned from here on, very quickly.

Indians began putting pressure on Wanting, toward Kunming.

[Cpuncher]

Americans further strengthen their defensive postion in France.

[Cpuncher]

And the Russians began to advance on all fronts.



On the same day, the last IJN carrier Zuikaku was sunk by USS Arizona: See the very first picture of this thread.

[Cpuncher]

Now the lesson in China was a hard one. I lost China certainly faster than I had hoped. In the past, I've mostly played Axis and I don't believe I've ever played Allies past 41. What I learned here:

1. AA research should be a top priority, right after Inf Wep. Double chit as soon as you can (and you may even consider the 3rd chit), and buy the 2 AAs before anything else. In the past I've made the mistake of always put AA research behind Inf Warfare and C&C. Worse, in this game, with the pressure being higher, I even "forgot" AA research, before it's too late. Often times I could set up a fairly strong defense, only to have the Jap bombers shred them to pieces, once they developed higher level of GA Wep. The weather in China would be mostly good too. And don't forget to upgrade the resources' AA, when the units in there might be attacked. The Jap H Art would be a lesser threat, and there's not much you could do about it anyway. BTW, as Axis you should always attack with your Med Bomber first, and may choose to use your Tac Bomber sooner, or later, in the attack sequence, depends on the situation. I don't know why I often see players attack with Inf first, then Med Bomber and Tac.

2. Know when to trade space for time, and when, sometimes, trade lives for space. Don't pull back to the best defensive positions too quickly. Sometimes you have to sacrifice units, just to slow the Jap advance. The sooner the Japs could approach your best defensive position, the sooner they could crack it. The good thing about this game, having a unit destroyed on good supply is not a too bad thing . Now you could buy the unit and its upgrades all with discount. A badly damaged unit will not be much better than killed, as it will require many turns to recover its morale to be combat effective again. Of course it would be difficult to judge when to do what.

[Cpuncher]

Apr 21, 1944: Axis sent a mobile force to attack the southern end of the US line, destroying Bradley and his command, and a Canadian Corps which was entrenched in the mountain in front of him. A brilliant move by the Axis. However, this was not to shake the overall position of the Americans in France. A very strong line up of Armor with level 4 tanks, HT, and a couple ATs were deeply entrenched there.

[Cpuncher]

Meanwhile, in Russia, along the entire front, Axis defense was sporadic and unorganized. Konigsberg was captured, giving the Russians a significant morale boost.