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

[DQ2004]

It can hardly have escaped anyone's notice that the Jul/Aug turn was a bad one for my opponent in the USSR.
Here's the large-view GIF showing the larger picture of what happened during the 11 impulses that occurred during the turn.
As you can see the Soviets were very lucky the turn ended when it did, as Moscow was in more trouble than Speed Gordon.
If only I'd had one more clear impulse in the previous turn, it might have been different!
Of course the Jul/Aug turn is almost always a bad one for the Russians, if it isn't, the German player isn't doing their job properly!

You can also see from this one that the front has now gone past the view of the previous GIFs - so for the next turn I'll have to come up with some new 'standard' views to show the front as it progresses.

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This very small GIF shows what happened on the Moscow Front at the very end of the Jul/Aug turn, with most of Guderian's Southern Front moving north to seize Ryazan.

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The losses for the Jul/Aug 1941 turn.
The German XLV INF was destroyed at Ryazan (the previous GIFs don't show that properly as it wasn't screenshotted at the time, so I had to re-play it to get the screenshots, and the exact result didn't happen again).
The German He-115 was shot down over the North Sea trying to intercept a British CONV.

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Global control at the end of the Jul/Aug 1941 turn in grey:

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Global control at the end of the Jul/Aug 1941 turn in colour:

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This image requires nothing further to be said.

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And that answers the question. He did.

[DQ2004]

Songs about yellow submarines come to mind.
What the hell are we going to do with this?!?

The mind boggles.

In relation to the decision to surrender China, whilst I'm not certain if my opponent has made the right move, I think I would have done the same.
In favour of the No Surrender; China could have lasted at least two or maybe three more turns, with the Nationalists holding out around Kunming in the mountains. This could have cost Japan further casualties. They would also have had to maintain a blockade around the Communists, who could have launched some counterattacks that may also have cost Japan a casualty or two. Furthermore, surrendering means that the US Entry effect is halved.

In favour of the Yes Surrender; China now had no production, although the Commonwealth could have lent them one resource to Kunming, there was only one unit that they could actually build with one production (a Cavalry DIV).
Furthermore it probably wouldn't have been long before the Japanese actually physically cut the Burma road connection and thus no resource would have gotten to Kunming anyway. Also whilst the US entry effect of conquest is much better (for the Allies), the problem was that it was likely to happen in two or three turns - and it was probably better to have half the effect now than twice the effect later, when it was too late.
But crucially, the Japanese are now neutral. They can only do combined impulses until they declare war. This makes the Japanese planning and moves for attacking the Western Allies much more lethargic and slow. It really does make it more difficult for Japan. If the Chinese hadn't surrendered, they could have destroyed the Chinese around Kunming but not actually taken the city until they were ready (which I probably would have done, to be honest). You can 'game' this by declaring war on say Free France - but the US entry penalty goes with it, and you don't have long before you have to attack them anyway.
Finally of course, the Japanese reserves and militia have to return to the Reserve pool. Which by now for me in this game, is a LOT of units (screenshot of that to follow later).

[DQ2004]

Reinforcements for the Sep/Oct 1941 turn:

Note that this screenshot is before the conquest phase when China surrendered - and it is also before production, so a couple of militia were purchased which obviously aren't here yet.
Note that the captured Dutch cruiser De Ruyter has been re-named Mainz. Of course.
Maximising the Soviets problems is that their huge losses from the Jul/Aug turn are not even half replaced. At least they get an HQ! As you can see a few of the factories moved in the first turn of the war are now arriving at their new locations.

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Here are the Japanese Reserve Armies as of the start of Sep/Oct 1941.
As you can see I'd managed to build almost all of the available militia units and consequently there are a whopping 13 units here.
So they'll come in handy when Japan comes to take its revenge on the western imperialist powers ... for being, well, western imperialists I guess.

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With the turn ending after the Axis' impulse in Jul/Aug, the iniative marker was moved to the +1 box.
Then I rolled abysmally. So I re-rolled, hoping to get more clear weather and two turns in a row. I rolled a 10.
...so did the Allies. [:@]

And then the weather was also a 10! [&:] WTF

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The Eastern Front after the Soviets had moved.
Naturally they didn't launch any attacks in this lousy weather. The last blue factory in Moscow was railed out. Dowh. So close.

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A closer view of the Moscow Front.
There is one plane in Moscow as well as two INF units, one being the famed Moscow Militia.
If the weather had been clear I could have surrounded the lot of them. But then my opponent might have done things differently too!

[DQ2004]

Surprisingly (to me), the bulk of the Soviet reinforcements for Sep/Oct 1941, such as they were, Bomber Harris placed in the south, at Stavropol and so on.
From there they moved back across the Don River and set up a new defence line in front of the two Romanian corps.

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My opponent appears to have virtually abandoned the Finnish front with more units moving through Leningrad to the south.

[DQ2004]

Moving back to the Mediterranean theatre, Bomber Harris moved a new convoy into the Eastern Med, along with a large portion of the Royal Navy.
They successfully found and destroyed the Italian CONV there, instantly putting the Axis' African armies out of supply.
There was no further combat round in this impulse.
(And yes, this did happen before the Russian moves).

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The transports that were at Malta also left, moving the Whirlwinds to Egypt, and leaving just a single Spitfire unit guarding the island from air attack.

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With the weather absolutely lousy, the Germans elect to send out their ships. Strangely, the enemy has not bothered to send out many escorts. It is time to make him pay for this mistake.
The Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and the Graf Spee head into the North Atlantic, completely unguarded.
They find the convoys. The result is devastation.
Three CONV are destroyed, and three more aborted.

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Then disaster is piled upon disaster for the British; the German squadron finds the remaining convoys for a second round.
More merchant ships are sunk and aborted. Britain's lifeline has just taken a massive beating.
Thankfully for the United Kingdom, the German squadron does not find the remaining five CONV.

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The Axis aircraft line up against the Commonwealth's fleet in the Eastern Med.