Korut Zelva vs Taxman66: Battle of the newbie

[KorutZelva]

Your friendly neighbourhood Korut Zelva here. Taxman66 answered the call for some newbie pbem action.

First pbem match for either of us. So hold your laugh.

I'm playing the bad guys for this contest.

Turn 2

French navy sighted making it way to central med...
Situation under control in Poland. It should fall next turn.



Korut strategy becomes apparent when he gets his first diplo hit on spain...

I'll try a couple of non-cookie cutter stuff if I'm getting over confident. :0)

[Taxman66]

Poland:
Held for 3 turns.

Made Germany kill everything except 1 air unit (the FTR) at 3 STR. Almost every single killed unit on the last turn caused a casualty; hopefully that counters the extra experience.

Not sure if it was worthwhile to replace the Warsaw GAR with an Army.
I did like Operating the far North East GAR into Modin after the Modin GAR was killed but Jerry failed to take it. That was worth a point or two of damage.

Possible first mistake was to reinforce the Polish Fighter.
Pro: Doing so meant at least 3 more damage to German Fighters & Bombers.
Con: If I'd save the MPP, I would've been able to max reinforce the Army in Warsaw to 10 instead of 7.

USSR:
Moved into Poland (duh)
Started Finnish/winter war

West:
Banned the French Commie party.
Took the Irish ports.

The French complete the Maginot Shuffle.
A variant of the Curly Shuffle; Nyuk, nyuk nyuk.

[KorutZelva]

I gave a thought in operating everything back for an autumn offensive but that's sinking a lot of money for maybe a 50% proposition of good weather.

Banning the commies means my opponent wants to make a good account of himself in France so I decided to play it more conservative and ordered my army to walk to french border.

Germany decided to stick to the original terms of the molotov ribbentrop pact. Lithuania will be in our sphere of influence.

[BillRunacre]

It'll be interesting to see how this goes, good luck to you both! [:)]

[Taxman66]

ORIGINAL: KorutZelva

I gave a thought in operating everything back for an autumn offensive but that's sinking a lot of money for maybe a 50% proposition of good weather.

Banning the commies means my opponent wants to make a good account of himself in France so I decided to play it more conservative and ordered my army to walk to french border.

Germany decided to stick to the original terms of the molotov ribbentrop pact. Lithuania will be in our sphere of influence.

This gave me a bit of shock when I read it.
I've never played a game with a soft cap on Strategic/Rail Movement. It seems a little silly to think the whole German army could rail back and/or forth in a week or two's time.
However, I agree with KorutZelva's assessment. It would likely all but throw the game in one or other's favor on a few weather rolls. Might as well play craps instead. [:D]

----
Thanks Bill.

[KorutZelva]

It was a staple of the SC of old. It seems way more risky to pull off in this iteration.

However it's still a plan to keep in the bag if:

-The French don't crack down the commies
-You notice UK and France going heavy on diplo or tech
-Poland falls in two turns

or combination of

Based on the weather so far it's been a good call, I would have taken the low countries but then winter would have saved the French armies.

[Taxman66]

Paris Soir
French bakers are all delirious with new pastry recipe.
Ladies, it's boots and fur season, this year try some color to compliment.
In other news, we are still at war with Germany.

The London Free Press News
Some in Admiralty concerned about the lack of Germany U-boat activity.

Moskovskaya Pravda
Stalin says to "...use less butter, bread should be softened with soup. We need guns instead."

The Washington Post
Editorial: Franco is a Putz.

[KorutZelva]

gotta save those juicy juicy naval assets for... something...

As 1939 draws to a close, germany's army are amassed by the low country's borders poised to strike when the weather permits. In the meanwhile, the OKW oked extanded furlough to troops to make up the long forced march the army just undertaken.

[KorutZelva]

Weather's muddy but close enough! War starts for real!



An unfortunatly placed Netherlands army saves the country from instant defeat. In the baltic, War is declared vs Denmark and a paradrop takes copenhagen. I don't need no stinking decision to conquer that.

Constant harrassment of norvegian shipping by the UK bring the country closer and closer to the Axis fold...

[Taxman66]

Allied turn: April 4, 1939

The weather has cleared up far too soon.

Having said that Jerry's early launch into the mud has caused him some extra damage.

A couple of weeks earlier, Bomber Command got lost in heavy cloud cover and found themselves over northern Germany (i.e a miss click) and fought and engagement with some Me109s.
Weakened a bit they had returned home, but they did shoot some of the fighters down.
Now in early April they were flying a Recon mission near Maastricht and were escorted by the brave Dutch Fighter pilots seeking a measure of revenge, whose airfield was left untouched by the advancing Germans.
Another air battle was fought, and some more Bombers were lost. The Dutch fighters were quickly refueled and used the gathered intelligence to strike an airfield full of Stukas.
More Me109s intercepted them, but several strafing runs were made at the parked JU-87s.
The surviving pilots (only 40%) were told to don civilian clothes and head to small towns and farms. Leaving the airfield and beat up planes abandoned and disabled for the Germans.

Not to be outdone by the flyboys, the Van Galen cruised along the north German coast looking for trouble. They spotted U-32 on the surface near the mouth of the Kiel canal and engaged her. Each scored a hit, with surface guns no less, before the sub disappeared under the waves.
However Van Galen had singled the French Destroyer flotilla lead by Terrible who were able to arrive on the scene and cover the area with depth charges. Minor debris indicated more damage to U-32 but not enough to claim her sunk. U-32 had slipped away.

----
I'll take my early minor victories where I can get them. Having the weather clear up in early April is disparaging.
Getting a Fighter attack on grounded bombers is always fun. Hopefully they did well, but it's free (ok nearly free given the hit on the Hvy Bombers) damage as I won't be keeping the Dutch units.

I was sorely tempted to push the line forward. I could've shrunk it by 2 hexes and better yet taken a pot shot at the wounded panzers. I decided not to as I didn't want to give up my entrenchment and give the Germans a prepared (i.e. before movement) attack bonus.
Especially if the weather stays clear on his turn (which I expect with my luck).

[KorutZelva]

Sorry folk I forgot to take a screen cap this time.

I was wondering if my opponent was going to show some élan and go for the str 6 panzer. I was sort of hoping he did because of the reason he mentioned, no more entranchement on those juicy juicy targets.

The weakened panzer was unit swapped for a refit with another fresh tank in Antwerp. (Bad roll on the previous turn on the poor panzer, two consecutive 3:1 odds battle that converted 3:2)

Punctured the line in two spots and pushed south enough of Brussels to trigger the 'Maginot line is flanked'. With French morale collapsing, OKW hopes casualty rate will drop. The Anglo-french forces had enough bodies to man a complete line but Churchill must be wiring Gamelin about the presence of strategic reserve as we speak.

[nnason]

I have to admit I am enjoying your commentary both real and fanciful.

[OxfordGuy3]

Enjoying this, but could you state the dates for each turn, I've lost track of where you've got to e.g don't know when you invaded the Netherlands

[KorutZelva]

Heh we've got a crowd! I guess I'll have to put a bit more efforts into this.

The initial attack was launched march 23rd 1940. So I assume my next turn will be early may.

[OxfordGuy3]

Thanks. BTW it's possible to export a file which contains all the turn start dates (along with which faction plays on that date) for each of the campaigns from the campaign editor - I found this very useful to do!

[Taxman66]

Allied Turn: April 25, 1939

The Terrible and her flotilla makes their way to the entrance of the Baltic Sea and encounters another pack of U-boats North of the Denmark islands, engages it in combat (Sub 2 dmg, DD 1 dmg).
Just as important she spots an airfield of He-111's and Do-17's in northern Denmark.
>Sorry didn't save this portion of the screen shot before I ended my turn.<

French air and ground forces counter attack the lead German Infantry corps approaching Reims, weakening it somewhat. The damage to the French air force from interceptors and
ground fire is rather significant. Replacement planes and pilots are becoming scarce.

Portions of the Maginot line between the major cities are abandoned as holes and worse yet anticipated future holes need plugging.
Recruits, half trained, are rushed to the badly damaged 8th Army (previously at 2 strength) north of Reims. They heroically held their ground, but little hope is expected of it's continuing to do so. Perhaps it can stall the Germans a little while longer,
or absorb the shock of two or hopefully three more attacks.

[KorutZelva]

ORIGINAL: Taxman66

Allied Turn: Place Holder

Victory speech: Place Holder

[:D][:D][:D]

[Taxman66]

I'm wondering if we should open a sister thread for sidebar discussion.

I'm thinking your pride in wanting to not use the DE for Denmark and Norway are going to cost you more MPP in the long run.
If you had the bombers and Para, the Dutch wouldn't have survived. That would've saved you 3 Sub damage and ? Luftwaffe damage.
As for Norway, presuming I don't provoke them into joining you (which according the manual seems awfully hard to do by myself), that will either cost you a Declaration of War, or some Diplo chits. In either case it will likely mean building and shipping defenders too.

[KorutZelva]

Possibly... but sometimes you have to stick to your principles! I do get the plunder I wouldn't normally get though from using the decision (I think!).

I thought (167,59) was both a land and sea square (like some straits are), it looks like a sea square only. Well so much for an airborne invasion! This is all your fault Bill (and or Hubert)! Norway is at 25% (starting at 0%) and the war has barely started so maybe I can just wait it out. I think the check to disgruntle them is made on both my turn and your turn. Defenders will appear no matter how you conquer norway, it's not tied to the decisions AFAIK. If they diplomatically join, well they have their own garrisons.

May 6, 1940



Panzer strike south of the Ardennes, and achieve in a couple of weeks what they couldn't in an entire war: Verdun falls! Last turn to operate everything to Paris! In the north, first contact made with the UK expeditionary force at calais. Will the perfidious albions high-tail it before a gunshot is even fired?

Cropping those things make you think a lot more about what your enemy can see. I screwed up in a couple of places and was too lazy to fix it but I'll get the hang of it eventually.

[OxfordGuy3]

ORIGINAL: KorutZelva

Possibly... but sometimes you have to stick to your principles! I do get the plunder I wouldn't normally get though from using the decision (I think!).

You do indeed get plunder for Denmark and Norway (I think), if conquering in the regular way, rather than through decision - you certainly do for Denmark, at least.

ORIGINAL: KorutZelva
I thought (167,59) was both a land and sea square (like some straits are), it looks like a sea square only. Well so much for an airborne invasion! This is all your fault Bill (and or Hubert)! Norway is at 25% (starting at 0%) and the war has barely started so maybe I can just wait it out. I think the check to disgruntle them is made on both my turn and your turn. Defenders will appear no matter how you conquer norway, it's not tied to the decisions AFAIK. If they diplomatically join, well they have their own garrisons.

I didn't know that the German defenders will appear, no matter how you conquer Norway, that's interesting to know!