Matrix Games Forums

September 1st, 1939.

As a neutral bystander the Pravda will comment on and analyze recent military events in central Europe where Germany punished Poland for continuous and ongoing border violations. We sympathize completely with the German nation since we had similar experiences with the Poles recently. The decadent western nations of France and the UK will not stop the worker classes represented by the Arbeiterpartei in Germany and ourselves in the USSR from achieving our goals even though these weak capitalist nations declared war on Germany. But will they actually act? Meanwhile our foreign ministers work hard on achieving a deal with Nazi Germany on a peaceful and prosperous cooperation as future neighbors.

Please be aware that publications issued by other news agencies on the same topic will be hardly representing the facts but are mere propaganda. Trust entirely the Pravda for reliable war news - here the name of the publication is a promise. We will only publish the guaranteed faithful and trustworthy officially authorized version of history as edited by our benevolent leader comrade Stalin.

The only issue clouding the recent news is the shocking recognition that both Germany and England possess economists that are capable of running the war economy at a 50% higher rate. We look with envy at those nations and will compensate our shortcomings by the virtues of the common Russian laborer.

(Note: This is a three player V1.3 PBEM game with Germany and the UK receiving a 50% economic bonus to balance the game).

September 16th to November 1st, 1939

Comrade Stalin has discouraged us strongly from being influenced by the corrupted foreign press (we don't read the opponents AARs). So we can follow the tides of war only by following yellow lines crossing the land at a fast pace. The Soviet leadership watches with consternation how fast Germany could attack France. Tenacious Poland seems to still hold and we anxiously await the time when we learn whether or not Germany will honor the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and whether the Axis forces exclusively pay attention to their western business for the time being. Our future strategy will hinge on it. If we are given more time, we will engage in a minor war elsewhere in order to boost our war economy early on. Otherwise, we have different kind of worries....

December 1st, 1939

Comrade Stalin is both baffled and furious at the same time. Why is the 50% overpowered German army not taking Poland? Earlier wargames and General staff studies have shown that this should be accomplished by around November 1st. Having no first hand information from the battlefield, we can only guess at the reasons. Either, the Germans pursue a devilish plan to deprive us from our much needed 20% economic boost after the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact by just idling in front of the Polish capital or they are already too much occupied with their attack on France and took the conquest of Poland for granted.

We have decided to wait no more and take matters in our own hands. We declared war on both Finland and Estonia. We hope that this mobilizes our inactive, frozen units from their apathy caused by the recent general staff "rejuvenation" that comrade Stalin insisted upon. More importantly we hope to boost our current miserable (45%) war economy by engaging actively in warfare. We expect it takes another month until units can be moved into an attack position, so active military steps could not be taken so far.

January 1st, 1940

We start out attack on Finland and move to enter Estonia.

February 1st, 1940

Most shocking news reach us via unofficial channels. The Germans have surrendered to the French. In light of this new situation, a continuation of the war against Finnland and Estonia seems pointless and comrade Stalin also stops benignly all hostilities.

LOL shortest aar ever? Or can you continue playing against the Allies?

If the Germans had been properly eliminated, that would have been a normal course of action I assume - and yes the game allows for it.

But since the Axis did just surrender politically and were not formally conquered, the question arises if it is a lot of fun to continue to play on with an AI controlled Germany against the Allies. It can be done I assume but nobody was eager to do it. We also wanted to try a three player game which this would have been not.

Congratulations to the always excellent French (especially when under Chucks command). And many thanks to Gary for agreeing to this game. Reading his AAR now after the fact, I understand his motivation for this bold move. He wanted to leave the beaten path and try something new but there is of course a certain risk involved. In my opinion he was very close to pulling it off.

Oh, I agree, very close indeed, but with the Axis one must never make a mistake and let someone slip behind. This is the ruling consideration for the Axis. Encirclement is death.

The British had pulled out and only when I saw the encirclement did I rush forces back to France. I also pushed the RAF to the fore, where they seem to have done very fine work. I also sent France a huge PP convoy. This encirclement was a major game changer.

Chuck