It Takes A Village to Raze a Village

[amandkm]

One more thing, Italy is vulnerable to what some of us call 'gamey' tactics given the combination of France's short expected life, their own late entry into the war, and their very brittle morale.

So:

1) Keep your navy sheltered in port, heading into 1940. There's a chance of a pre-emptive strike by the French navy, who have little to lose, and would happily trade ships with you.

2) Keep your national morale cities garrisoned. A sneak AV or AVL might otherwise get past, and hurt your morale. Even if you destroy it in short order, the morale is still gone

3) Be wary of allies in the Adriatic. They can accelerate your mobilization level and you may find yourself at war far sooner than you'd planned.

[rkr1958]

Field Marshalls Lone Runner & Amandkm, or is it Admirals?

Your advice is much appreciated and helpful as you shall see for my next turn.

General (Admiral) amandkm, follow up question please.

ORIGINAL: amandkm

A sneak AV or AVL might otherwise get past, and hurt your

What is a AV or AVL?

[amandkm]

Those are amphibious assault vehicles and assault vehicles- long range. You need them to make naval invasions. A transport can only land in a friendly port. AV's and AVL's can land on hostile ground, and in any non-occupied hex.

[LoneRunner]

I'm more of a private in World at War. I still haven't figured out how to "quote" in a forum, so I'll just use copy/paste for your question.

What is a AV or AVL?

AV is Amphibious Transport and AVL is Amphibious Transport Long Range. Yeah, it seems like they should be AT and ATL, but those are the letters on the unit counter. Besides AT typically is short for anti-tank.

Amandkm: 2) Keep your national morale cities garrisoned. A sneak AV or AVL might otherwise get past, and hurt your morale. Even if you destroy it in short order, the morale is still gone

Amandkm, I didn't realize the loss of morale was permanent. Is there nothing you can do to regain the lost morale? That does lead to some interesting suicide tactics on Italy.
Lone

[amandkm]

Winning battles gets you some, so does destroying naval units. Even doing damage gives you some, I believe. The problem with cities is that morale lost there outweighs what the defenders can get back by eliminating the invaders.

[LoneRunner]

Whoops, I got the AV and AVL mixed up with transports. Amandkm is correct. Sorry for the error.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Asian Front: Manchuria, Korea and Northern China.

1. Japanese XVII corps in Seoul forced marched to Mukden.
2. 4th Gar in Jehol forced, which is ordered to Hsinking, forced marched to hex NW of Mukden.
3. Terauchi HQ, SW of Mukden and ordered to Peking, moves SE of Jehol.
4. 1st Gar moved 1 hex south to Tsingyuean.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Japanese Research. Infantry Weapons.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Japanese Builds.

Japan purchased 2 garrisons (10th & 11th) for 100 MPPs.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Asian Front: North & Central China.

Static.

[amandkm]

As Japan, (and my play here tends to be pretty weak, so take this with a grain of salt), I want to be forcing China to spend most of it's MPP on reinforcements or replacements, rather than tech or new units. Thise corps in and around Changshi are pretty exposed. You can usually do good damage on them without risking much, if any loss on those overstrength armies you have there.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Asian Front: Southern China (Nanning Sector).

This is where the action/combat was.

1. 21st naval bombers hit the IV Chinese corps in Nanning.
2. 17th Korean army unloaded.
3. Kaga, Agaki, Soryu CVs and Zuiho CVL screened by BB Fusi, CA Furutaka and DD Fubuki take up station, or on their way to take up station, in the Gulf of Tokin.
4. Kaga, Agaki and Soryu air groups (1st air division) hit the IV Chinese corps in Nanning.
5. 1st Japanese and 17th Korean army attack IV Chinese corps, losing 1 step (total) for no losses inflicted.
6. 21st naval bomber flotilla rebases adjacent to Canton.
7. 5th Gar army in Amoy is ordered to relieve the 21st Japanese army currently in Canton and moves 1 hex SW to start his journey to this end.
8. XIX corps in Taipan is transported to and unloaded in Amoy.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Germany. Poland. Start of Turn.

This screen cap was (almost) taken at the beginning of the turn showing the situation in Poland after Jim's move.

The almost part is that I didn't think to take this screen cap until after the Luftwaffe bomber group NE of Brno finished off a 1-strength Polish infantry unit SW of Krakow.

Otherwise, this is the situation in Poland at the beginning of my turn.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Germany. Poland. End of Turn.

1. The Wehrmacht support by the Luftwaffe manages to capture Warsaw and finish off most of the Polish army and all of their air force.
2. Proper ZOC locks (I hope) were kept/put in place to keep the surviving Polish units out of too much mischief if Poland doesn't surrender.
3. Also, von Kuchler HQ was kept behind just in case Poland doesn't surrender. I think I've done enough for Poland to surrender but not sure enough not to guard against potential mischief if they don't.
4. Led by von Bock (2 hexes east of Berlin) and von Rundstedt (NE Dresden), the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe units not needed to capture Warsaw or ZOC-lock surviving Polish units begin their trek to the Western Front.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Germany/Italy. The Western Front.

1. Live and learn. On the first turn I didn't move a Germany unit into the SAAR. Jim did on his turn. He marched the French II corps into the SAAR in a odd reversal of history.
2. I did this turn close my border; i.e., the German border to France by moving XII corps NE of Luxemburg.
3. Also, the Wehrmacht 1st infantry army took 2 steps off of the cheeky French II corps at a loss of 1-step.
4. Expected losses were -1:0 in the French favor for the other Wehrmacht corps, so they did not attack.

Italian-Franco Border.
1. Italian III corps moved to the border adjacent to the Alps.
2. Italian 1st army moved to the border on the Med coast.
3. 1st Med bomber and 1st Fighter groups rebased to the area.

Italian RM. All ships remain safely in port. Crews doing a lot of marching, paint and scrubbing decks.

Is this enough, not enough, too much for Italy to discourage any French Mischief?

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Germany. Research.

German spends 175 MPPs to research Advance Tanks.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Italian Research.

Unfortunately, Italy's wartime budge was to anemic (51 MPPs) to even remotely invest in Infantry weapons (175 MPPs), which is their next research priority.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Italy. North Africa.

1. Ariet tanks transported and unloaded in Tobruk.
2. Guzzoni HQ is next, but again, Italy didn't have the MPPs left to get him there this turn.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Battle of the Atlantic.

1. U-30 on the hunt and probably heading up through the Gulf of St. Lawrence for the hunting groups off Canadian coast (i.e., red cross hatch area).
2. German u-boats and surface raiders will respect and not enter the USN keep out zone.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. Axis. Battle of the Atlantic. Part 2.