Vengeance: A Global War AAR (DQ2004 AAR#3)

[DQ2004]

But it is to no avail - plenty of Japanese aircraft push home their attacks - and once again, choose transports as their prime target.

[DQ2004]

A quick recap (found the saved game) of the losses from Jan/Feb 42.
A dismal start to Japan's campaign, for sure.

542-01 Losses Jan-Feb 42.png (118.05 KiB) Viewed 1141 times

[DQ2004]

In Russia, Bomber Harris had withdrawn from Moscow to avoid encirclement. And now, with not enough forces, the Germans could only chase them, and the weather was not conducive to launching attacks.

542-02 Northern Russia end of Jan-Feb 42.png (1.13 MiB) Viewed 1140 times

[DQ2004]

In the South, the Germans advanced almost to Stalingrad, but in Jan/Feb 42, my opponent placed most of his reinforcements in the North Caucasus, creating a big bulge that poked towards Stalingrad (but of course, didn't get there...!)
And if you think this doesn't look good, well ... you're right

542-03 Southern Russia end of Jan-Feb 42.png (1.52 MiB) Viewed 1138 times

[DQ2004]

Continuing the re-cap, here's Egypt at the end of Jan/Feb 1942

542-04 Egypt at end of Jan-Feb 42.png (1.19 MiB) Viewed 1137 times

[DQ2004]

In the past few turns the Germans had been assembling forces in Romania to take them out. Finally there were sufficient units and Bulgaria was attacked. But the weather was abysmal.

611 Bulgaria.png (1.91 MiB) Viewed 1136 times

[DQ2004]

In Malaya Yamashita was busy organising the conquest of Singapore, with reinforcements rushing to deal with the pesky Indian INF corps there.

612 Malaya.png (1.35 MiB) Viewed 1133 times

[DQ2004]

The Japanese divisions had also taken Rabual and Port Moresby

613 Papua.png (1.53 MiB) Viewed 1131 times

[DQ2004]

In Mar/Apr 42 the Japanese siezed well-located Port Vila in the South Pacific

[DQ2004]

I'm afraid due to the lengthy time between the game being played and me reporting it to you (the initial posts were not too far behind the actual game), I've lost track of some things and a few of these recent posts are a bit out of order sorry.
If I get the chance I'll delete and re-do the ones that are out of place.
Anyway it seems that not a whole lot happened in Mar/Apr 42, as there were in fact NO losses, according to the saved game.
I should mention as well - that whilst comments are more than welcome - I must warn you that trying to give advice to either myself as the Axis player, or my opponent as the Allied player, is completely superfluous - the game is long since played out to its end, and you will be just wasting time. Towards the end you'll certainly be able to say "Well, we can see where he went wrong" and thats fine.
More updates soon.
At the end of Mar/Apr 1942 the global control looked like this;

615 End of Mar-Apr 42.png (47.04 KiB) Viewed 1114 times

[DQ2004]

The Counter-Offensive at Rostov and the Don Bend

This was the big one. The moment where I realised I'd over-stretched and was over-confident.
Bomber Harris (and Koniev) counter-attacked at two critical points. It was still a risk - he only had +9B for the attack near Rostov (we were using the 2D table). Plus there was a German bomber unit nearby. There was also an attack in the Crimea. If even one succeeded it would put the Germans on the back foot and they hadn't even started their Summer Campaign!
It was Impulse #2 (Axis had the initiative but hadn't launched attacks with rain in the north).

651 Jair's counter-offensive in the South.png (1.03 MiB) Viewed 1076 times

[DQ2004]

Before we get to the (predictable) result from above
Here's the situation in French North Africa, with the foolish decision of the Germans to collapse Vichy coming home to roost. US forces were quickly landed in the country and are advancing towards Tunisia.
The fall of Malta has caused the evacuation of British ships from the Med, which is fully Axis controlled.

652 French North Africa.png (1.06 MiB) Viewed 1073 times

[DQ2004]

So where is the RN?
Well, Bomber Harris had almost the entire RN off the French coast in the Bay of Biscay, where they'd been launching strikes against the German fleet at Brest.
These strikes have now largely been successful, with most of the key German capital ships damaged (a couple sunk). The Kriegsmarine's efforts in the Atlantic will now likely concentrate on the use of their U-boats, which have done considerable damage already to the Allied convoy chains.

653 Bay of Biscay.png (978.2 KiB) Viewed 1072 times

[DQ2004]

The situation in Egypt as of the 2nd impulse of May-Jun 42 is something of a stalemate, with both sides fairly equal conducting a watching brief from a distance. But the fall of Malta has altered the balance - this area will heat up soon.

654 Egypt May-Jun 42 Imp #2.png (972.26 KiB) Viewed 1071 times