ORIGINAL: JanSorensen
True, but not really important in terms of WaW. Its not like moving in and out of Leningrad with naval units during winter is a crucial part of any tactics.
Mmm ... maybe. However Russian fleets / subs in Leningrad should not
be able to (nor were they able to) disrupt the Sweden / Genmany baltic
convoy route in Winter.
ORIGINAL: JanSorensen
* Not sure what this whole invading Gibraltar via spain thing is. The
spaniards have been trying it since 1805. It can't be done, the stretch
of land is too small, precipitous, and too heavily fortified. Treat
Gibraltar like an island, really.
When did Spain ever mount an attack on Gibraltar? What do you think would happen if Gibraltar was cut off from supply/reinforcements and shelled endlessly by artillery and Stukas? Sorry, but I believe you are way off if you think Gibraltar could not be taken.
Google maps to the rescue. Go have a look at maps.google.com and zoom in on the southern corner of spain, containing Cadiz, Gibraltar, etc. There are reasonable quality satellite maps.
Gibraltar is essentially a "rock". It's a heavily fortified isthmus connected only via a small sand spit to the spanish mainland. Also, if you're looking at it at ground level, it's very steep sided.
You could take it amphibiously, no question about that, as you'd have sea access to the port area. Or even just with superior naval force -- knock out the defending fleets. The Dutch have done it twice.
Trying to hit it with artillery or stukas would be no more successful than taking Mt Everest by the same method. It's just one big lump of granite.
Perhaps you should go there some time?
Spain, incidentally, has on several occasions mounted attempted attacks on Gibraltar since 1704. 1713 was the one where they finally gave up and handed over sovreignity.
ORIGINAL: JanSorensen
I havent been in that area personally so I cannot dispute that. I would like to see some actual proof though as I have to admit that I find the claim a bit unlikely.
Again, I suggest you check out google maps. Tarifa is the closest point but it's fairly low lying, floods regularly, and muddy. You could mount small artillery there or build up the area with major earthworks but the island is relatively easily avoided.
ORIGINAL: JanSorensen
* The kerch straits -- not really crossable unless you have support from
the Black Sea fleet. The Germans never managed it in several years of
trying. So you can't just stick a big army in Sevastopol and march it
to the Caucasus, again a matter of a small stretch of (swampy, treacherous)
land.
I do not understand what you mean by this. In WaW you cannot cross from Sevastrapol to Grozny unless you already control both areas. So, please elaborate.
OK, I can (as the Russians) move troops back and forth, so I assumed the Germans could do the same. My misunderstanding of the map symbols.
ORIGINAL: JanSorensen
* The bit about spain being a frozen ally of Germany (covered in Francos
alliance) and the bit about how scotland can be invaded on the first turn
before the allies get to move have been covered elsewhere.
Spain is handled differently in A World Divided - hopefully you will like that better. Scotland has also become much harder to invade for several reasons so again I hope thats more to your liking.
I am not sure how you manage to invade Scotland during the first turn in WaW though - unless you mean by replaying the first turn over and over till you get some amazingly lucky dice rolls. Would you care to explain how its done?
Yes, by replaying the first turn over and over until you get the necessary dice rolls. The German player can easily do this because discarding the game and re-starting doesn't show up as a reload.
I've now seen this in 2 PBEM games -- both players sent me a start position with Scotland occupied -- twice out of two attempts. Since there isn't any real in-game mechanism to stop that I guess we can assume it's going to continue to happen.
Similarly I'd like to see a way of the Russians stopping the Germans from capturing Leningrad on the first turn of Barbarossa, however that's after the first turn of the game so I guess it's possible.
Del
