Redrum68 (Allies) vs Lascar (Axis) - Lascar Welcome

[redrum68]

Hey all. This is my first PBEM game and my opponent, Lascar, has been kind enough to offer up some tips as we go along. This will primarily be an informational AAR where hopefully other newer players that are looking to get into PBEM can use to make that journey a bit easier. All tips and comments are welcome!

[redrum68]

Sept 1, 1939

And so the war begins with the swift German invasion of Poland and the British/French DoW on Germany. The Germans cut off all of the remaining units northwest of Warsaw with a pincer move. They look to setup to force a Polish surrender turn 2 by capturing the remaining Polish cities (Poznan, Krakow, Lodz, Warsaw).

Polish units move to defend their cities and where possible switch to garrison status to increase defense (+2 guns but less movement) and activate hold mode which requires 2 successful retreat checks but for potentially more losses. Ultimately, there is nothing the Poles can do to stop the Germans but they hope to inflict as many casualties as possible for the Allies cause!

[ncc1701e]

Great, good luck. Invest in BoA right now, build escorts and MMs.

[redrum68]

Sept 15, 1939 - Poland Surrenders

Poland surrenders and the Battle of the Atlantic (BoA) begins! Casualty wise, the Germans took 22 land hits and 11 air hits in the 2 turn blitzkrieg of Poland. I think this is about average compared to other AARs. Hats off to Lascar for a quick and efficient invasion!

[redrum68]

Battle of the Atlantic (BoA)

In the BoA, the Germans have 2 subs but the Allies guessed right and they are confronted with 10 escorts. This results in 1 sub hit and 1 MM sunk. This is a pretty good result for the Allies I think as in my experience each sub with early tech levels gets around 1-2 hits on average (so with 2 subs you'll often see an average around 3 but there is a lot of randomness) if they don't move more than 24 hexes (50% of that damage if they move 25+ hexes). Any sub hits will reduce their potential to sink MM in future turns until they repair and cost the Germans time/production to repair them.

My basic understanding is that the Allies want to try to put the max of 10 escorts in the convoy lanes they think the German subs will raid as this provides 100% efficiency so maximizes that chance of them getting hits on the subs (better to have 10 escorts in 1 convoy lane than 5 escorts each in 2 lanes). Anything less than the max of 10 will struggle to achieve hits as their efficiency will be much lower as each escort can only defend 5 MM and the main convoy lanes have 50+ MM but the max of 10 escorts will defend ALL of the MM in a convoy lane.

The other factor is putting Allied CVs and DDs on the convoy lines within 24 hexes of the German subs to provide a sub hunter bonus (2% for each CV, 1% for each DD). I'm not sure how effective this bonus is but the only trade off for the Allies is the oil they need to use for upkeep with the ships at sea. So my assumption at this point is as long as you have some oil stockpile and don't need the CVs/DDs for other tasks then might as well try to get the sub hunter bonus. I've found that the UK tends to have a pretty good amount of oil but if using the French navy much then the UK will probably have to send some to France as they have a very limited oil production.

[redrum68]

@ncc1701e - Thanks! And good tip. My understanding so far is you need to stay ahead of your MM and escort losses as it takes quite a while to produce these. I think focusing mostly on escorts early on is probably best since you have a pretty good starting cushion of MM and get some free ones through some of the early Allied surrenders. So using both UK and Canada to try to build up your escorts to say 20 then 30 with a few extras to handle losses would be great as that will allow the Allies to cover the main convoy routes with the max of 10 escorts to at least prevent any "free" raiding by German subs on undefended convoy lanes.

[Nirosi]

Thanks for the AAR. Can't wait to see it unfold over the turns...[:)]

[redrum68]

Sept 29, 1939 - Denmark Surrenders

The Germans invade Denmark and they surrender as Copenhagen falls in 1 turn with an amphibious landing to capture it once the defenders are overrun! This seems to be the standard play as my opponent confirmed. This is fairly ahistorical and would be nice to see some disincentive so that the Germans would usually wait til spring to execute this. The BoA is quiet with no losses for either side as the German subs reach the Pan America convoy lane that has no escorts.

The Germans and French prepare for a long winter of build up before the expected spring invasion of France. My plan is to try for a strong defense of France with significant BEF support to delay Italy's entrance into the war and limit the amount of time the Axis have for a North Africa campaign before a 1941 Barbarossa.

Since this is my first PBEM game, I want to see how effective this can be to understand the balance between Germany vs France/UK in 1940 though hope to avoid catastrophic UK losses as well as ensure I have enough defenses to prevent Sea Lion and ready to defend Egypt and potentially capture Syria once Italy joins the war.

France and the UK will try to build lots of infantry to bulk up the defenses in front of Paris to slow the Germans down as well as a few mobile units to provide a bit of counterattack threat to overextended panzers. The Allies expect a blitzkrieg through Belgium towards Paris to avoid France's strongest defenses along the Maginot Line.

[redrum68]

Oct 13, 1939

For the first time, the German surface fleet sails out to raid the convoy lanes with 1 battle and 2 cruiser groups. They sink just 1 MM and the Allies try to attack them with all available naval forces. But 4 surface attacks, 1 sub attack, and 1 CV attack all fail to engage the German surface fleet and just waste a bunch of oil achieving nothing. Maybe just unlucky? It seems a bit odd that the Germans would be able to raid convoy lanes that close to the UK and the entire combined British/French navy can't find them... I still don't really understand the best way to find and engage enemy fleets so any tips are welcome!

[redrum68]

Failed fleet engagements.

[redrum68]

Oct 27, 1939

The German surface fleet sails back to port as I guess they didn't want to tempt their luck. The 2 German subs make it all the way to the Caribbean convoy lane and sink 3 MM the best German result so far.

[redrum68]

Nov 10 & 24, 1939

Two quiet turns as the German subs have run out of fuel and need to sail back to Germany. The French are low on oil so the UK starts a convoy to send them some each turn so that the French navy can continue operating.

[redrum68]

Dec 8, 1939

A new German sub is deployed (3rd one) and sails out to start raiding the convoy lanes. It runs into 10 escorts but no losses for either side.

[redrum68]

Dec 22, 1939

The lone German sub continues raiding down the South Atlantic convoy lane (guess no Christmas truce) and again is met with 10 escorts but this time takes 1 hit while not sinking any MM.

[redrum68]

Jan 5, 1940

The new year begins and Allied escorts finally get some good luck and get 3 hits on the German sub! But the Allies do lose an escort and 2 MM.

[redrum68]

Jan 19 - Mar 15, 1940

A few quiet turns as the Germans sail back to port and repair their subs. The original 2 subs then begin raiding again. They run into just 5 escorts as the Allies guess wrong but with a significant number of CVs/DDs nearby for a +11% bonus. Unfortunately, its doesn't seem to matter as there are no hits on the subs but the Allies lose an escort and 1 MM. My experience so far is it doesn't really even seem worth having anything less than 10 escorts in a convoy lane as you end up losing more escorts than you get sub hits.

[redrum68]

Mar 29 & Apr 12, 1940

No convoy related losses the last week in March. Early April, the 2 German subs confront 10 escorts but no subs hits and just 1 MM sunk.

[redrum68]

The Battle of France approaches and here in early April is the first clear weather turn. But the German units don't invade as they must still be waiting on additional panzer/mech units to ensure they can blitzkrieg Belgium in a single turn. The Allies are glad they don't as they are still preparing and shuffling units into final positions.

[redrum68]

Apr 26, 1940 - Battle of France Begins

The Battle of France begins as the Germans execute a lightning fast invasion which causes Belgium to surrender within days. A dark day for the Allies and for democracy...

The Allied meteorologists are shocked with the 2nd clear weather turn in April as mother nature is an unpredictable as ever. This is pretty unlucky as there is only a 30% chance of clear weather in April so only a 9% chance of both turns being clear and usually we expect the invasion start in May.

French and British units move into position to try to defend France as best as they can against the coming onslaught. The BEF has made a considerable commitment to France with 1 HQ, 1 tank corps, and 6 small/large infantry corps in position with more on the way. The poor French units form the initial lines of defense across the border most put in garrison status to absorb the initial German thrust and the BEF form a second line at the Somme to try to protect Paris.

[redrum68]

Research

Here is a quick review of the Allies research at the start of the Battle of France. The biggest issues at the moment are the British are still waiting on Close Support 1940 for their bombers and the French are still waiting on both infantry 1940 upgrades and Interceptors 1940. The missing French infantry upgrades are particularly painful as those will be the units that see the most fighting in the upcoming turns and are already out classed by German experience and now will lack the upgraded equipment as well.

USA and USSR look pretty standard and have actually reached most of their initial advancements.