It Takes A Village to Raze a Village

[rkr1958]

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

1. The Graf Spee raiding as she goes is headed for the hunting grounds (i.e., red hatched areas) off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. End of Turn. Nationalist and CCP.

1. Apparently there was a bit of scuffle between Chaing's Nationalist and Mao's CCP forces at the end of turn.
2. This is fine with me (i.e., Japan). Japan has no intention of starting a war with Mao's CCP forces and will heed the necessary advice to kept the peace.

[rkr1958]

Turn 3. September 3, 1939. End of Turn. Axis. MPPs.

Also:

1. Germany agrees to honor their agreement to split Poland with the Soviets.
2. German u-boats and surface raiders do some damage but didn't catch the exact amount.
3. Poland surrenders.

Also (more):

1. I definitely had a blast playing through my second turn!
2. I can see how this game can become very addictive.
3. I know I'm going slow ... I spent 2 hours playing my second turn and then another (one) hour capturing and posting for the AAR.
4. Again (more & more), I'm having a blast!

[amandkm]

OK, a little more advice to you. You are not committed to your pregame research priorities. You can sell any projects back for 50% of cost. (Probably don't want to do that now, as you've actually made progress in the techs you had preselected, but handy to know for the future.).

Also, Italian armies are few and far between. You might want to consider moving the one in Tripoli to the east. You can either swap a garrison for it, or naval transport a corps from the mainland while you're still at peace.

[Aussiematto]

Hi everyone, thanks so much for sharing your experiences and here's some thoughts and advice

This might have been covered above but, when you attempted to move the Japanese transport into the newly-taken port of Pakhoi (southern China), and could not unload, that is because the port needs to be at level 5. When you take it, offensively, it reduces to 2 (I am unsure if this is a fixed amount or variable, but your new city/settlement/port is always damaged somewhat?).

It took me a while to realise this, and, also, that a key naval tactic (especially in the med) is to sit 2 ships outside a port. At the end of that turn it goes down to 4, then 3, etc. You can also bombard the port which will damage it further (BB and CA and CC do this, with BB especially effective). YOu can also bombard the city itself which reduces (more often than not) its supply value.

So, put simply, just as HQs are essential for supply and readiness, so too are cities/ports etc. You may find, in the Middle East and East Africa, this is an essential tip!

(OH, and amandkm is totally right... you have to build Italian Level 1 inf weapons and warfare ASAP. Cash in (even at 50% loss) the three techs you are building. Forget naval until later in the war. This is a lesson HARD LEARNED through brutal defeats at the hands of experts!)

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Military Action Summary.

[Jim/Allied] Nice bush-whack on my carrier btw! You don’t need lessons 😝

But as you shall see later the RN extracts their revenge U35 and CA Deutschland.

Question: Is there a way to clear/hide comments that show in the upper-left?

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Africa Korps.

I do plan to accept the proposal for the Africa Korps.

Questions: Do I need the 500 MPPs on hand when it's offered? What happens if I don't?

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Japan.

11th & 12th garrison units are deployed to Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

I did learn something new, which was that units can't be used on the turn they're deployed.

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Japanese. Research.

Japan invests 175 MPPs in Advance Fighters.

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Japanese. Production.

Japan pays 100 MPPs for 13th & 14th garrisons to arrive on the Nov 24, 1939.

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Japan. Nanning Sector.

1. Two sectors in China saw active combat this turn (Nanning and Central China).
2. 25th Naval Flotilla hits Nationalist II corps north of Nanning and manages to knock off 1-step.
3. 21st Naval Flotilla and KB CV air groups hit the Nationalist IV corps holding Nanning. All together they only manage to knock off 1 step. In fact, the KB carrier air groups didn't inflict any step losses but I assume they soften up the Nationalist corps for the ground attacks to come.
4. Japanese I & II corps and Korean 17th army then attack the Nationalist IV corps and manage to inflict 4 more steps of loss for a total of 2 lost for all three attacking units.
5. 1st Kure SNLF in Osaka is loaded and transported to Pakhoi, which at 3-steps can't support unloading the Japanese marines.
6. 21st army in Canton is forced marched towards the action near Nanning.
7. XIX corps relieves the 21st army in Canton and assumes their garrison duties there.
8. 5th gar moves (back) to Amoy to garrison that port.
9. More air rebasing.

Question: The 25th naval air flotilla south of Canton isn't within the command of the Okamura HQ. Is that because of range from the HQ or the number of units the HQ can command?

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Japan. Central China Sector.

1. Following the recommendation of General Assiematto, the Japanese in central China launch four attractional attacks against the Nationalist XIV corps (2 hexes east of Changsha).
2. These four attacks not only manage to knock off step but manages to shatter the corps.
3. One of the participating attacking units, the Central Exp Army also manages to establish a bridgehead across the river directly south of the hex held by the shattered Nationalist corps.
4. I assume that none of the attacking unit could advance in the newly vacated hex because of ZOC. This correct?

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Japan. Northern China & Manchuria.

1. These two sectors, which saw no combat, both did see a bit of movement.
2. The 1st Kwantang Army, which was holding Hsinking, was forced marched 1 hex NW of Port Arthur and will be redeployed to the Nanning Sector.
3. The 4th garrison is forced marched to Hsinking to relieve the 1st Kwantang Army and take over their garrison duties there.
4. Terauchi HQ is moved to Jehol on his (slow) journey to Peking.
5. The 12th garrison currently in Peking will be moved to Jehol to guard against pesky partisan activity.

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Italian Research.

Italy sells back her chits in Naval Warfare and Logistics research in order to have the 175 MPPs necessary to buy a chit for Infantry Weapons research.

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Italian Production.

Nothing new. After investing in an Infantry Weapons research chit, Italy didn't have enough MPPs left over to buy or transport any units.

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. Italy. Libya.

1. 4th Garr is moved SE of Sirte.
2. 5th army in Tripoli is ordered to make the long trek to the Egyptian border once a garrison replacement can be found.

Question(s): To replace the 5th army in Tripoli, will the 4th Garr SE of Sirte suffice? Or is it critical to also garrison Sirte? If, so then a new garrison build is needed?

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. German. Research.

German invests 175 MPPs x 2 (350 MPPs total) in Ground Attack Weapons & Infantry Weapons chits.

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. German. Mobilization West & Production.

The Western Front.
1. Apparently I forgot to take, or maybe save, a screen cap of the Western Front.
2. With the exception of 2 units left within 6-hexes of Warsaw, Germany forced marched, marched and flew their ground and air forces towards the French, Belgium and Dutch borders in the West.
3. The French corps holding the SAAR moved out and Germany this time marched backed in with their 1st Army.
4. XII, XXVII, XXX and VI corps setup in the West were all reinforced from 8 to 10 steps at a total cost of 56 MPPs.

Production.
1. Germany buys a garrison (10th) to free up one of the corps opposite the French Maginot line.

[rkr1958]

Turn 5. Oct 27, 1939. Axis. German. Battle of the Atlantic.

1. U35 manages (I believe) to knock 5-steps off an CV. In return it losses 3-steps to RN counter-attacks. U35 is put on silent mode and will be moved back to Keil for reinforcement and upgraded.
2. The CA Deutschland is also hammered by an RN force of 6 ships. It's definitely in trouble but flees north and then west in the hopes of confusing and escaping its RN pursures.

[amandkm]

I would say that Sirte is not critical, in that it is not a port. It would be annoying to have an AV drop a unit there, but they won't have enough supply to take any real action against Italian holdings.

Generally, Italy has enough power to make a credible threat in any one place. That could be mustering near Tunisia to move upon Algiers so that France has to fully surrender instead of forming Vichy, or a move on Egypt, or trying to clear the British from East Africa.

Less common, but still done occasionally is a major incursion into France, focusing on the Balkans, or sending your navy into the Atlantic to attrit the Royal Navy.

Some scattering of resources makes sense, of course, but try not to be too much in too many places. You only end up disapppating yourself and not attaining any objectives.

Also, the Afrika Corps is paid off in installments, not in one 500 MPP lump. I think (from memory, so not sure) it is spread over 10 turns.

One more thing, don't overdo force marches. There is a steep morale cost that often isn't worth the extra hexes. It costs MPP, but if you're on a rail line, it is often better to make operational moves of units.