WWIII - Game III

[GrumpyMel]

The baloon goes up over Europe for the 3rd time in a century. Once again touching off a global confrontation. America is called once more to come to the aid of thier age old allies in NATO. Unfortunately, the PDRC seizes upon the chaos of the moment to attack small neutral nations. The USA cannot let this stand... so we find ourselves at grips with 2 powerfull communist powers.

This AAR describes Grymme's excellent WWIII scenerio from the USA players perspective. The USA is a powerfull nation and it's main production base is well secured from enemy attack (at least initialy). However, it has alot of far flung commitments across the globe... so it really helps the USA player to go in with some overall sense of grand strategy in what he wants to accomplish, rather then run around haphazardly reacting to events. You can see the overall strategic situation here

[GrumpyMel]

I decide that my initial goals will be to focus on taking out Cuba early. Having an enemy base so close to my otherwise secure homeland will prove a serious annoyance if I don't do something about it. Fortunately it's isolated and easly taken out. Strat bombing to knock out supplies, followed up by tactical airstrikes to cut down the defenders and finally an amphibous invasion. A few turns and it should be done.

I'm also going to focus on heavy support for Israel when it enters the game on turn 2. It's got a pretty good shot against the Arab nations, and heavy US support should seal the deal. Having control of the Middle East allows for alot of felxibilty, as I can use it as a base from which to assist India when it comes into the game later on, or Pacific nations which are threatened... or deal with the PACT in the Med, if he makes advances there. It's also a somewaht reasonable bet that NATO may loose asiatic Turkey, so the Middle East might provide an opportunity to open a land front against the Soviets... which could prove very helpfull for NATO.

As far as Europe goes, I'm going to have to take a wait and see approach. From my experience, that battle can go either way. If NATO is doing well, they won't need much help from me there....and my opportunities to do so will be limited by geography anyway. However, if they are getting beat back I'm going to have to adjust and throw resources there. NATO doesn't have a very deep backfield, so if things turn sour for it, they are going to go down quickly. That's one thing I can't afford to let happen.

I'm not going to concentrate much on Asia initialy. My main focus there will be to knock out as much Chinese naval capabilty as possible and hold onto Japan and Australia. South Korea is a lost cause as are most of the Asian land nations (except possibly India). The PDRC tends to start out somewhat slow, which gives me a little breathing space. His land armies are strong though, so unless I'm prepaired to throw alot of resources into defending some very small nations...I'm not going to be able to hold him on land.... and If I do commit those resources, I won't have enough forces to use on other (more important) theatres that might need them. The Chinese also have the capacity to become a real naval power, however they don't start out nearly as strong navaly as I do.... so if I can neutralize thier naval capability I can minimize thier ability to project threat and retard thier growth.


Enough of the initial strategy. Now to the actual first turn. The USA goes last in turn order, so the other players have already had thier turn. You can see here (T1-Start.jpg) my initial casualties. Not bad at all.

[GrumpyMel]

A quick glance at the map tells me that NATO hasn't made any headway with thier turn of initiative in Central Europe and PACT has even grabbed a couple important road junctions in Southern Germany. I'll have to keep a close eye on this situation.

Reviewing the enemies turn, I can see that the Sandinista's seized the Panama Canal. That is a major annoyance, getting that opened up again will have to be the first order of business as I need to have easy transit between the Atlantic and Pacific. I decide to use the Marines and fleet in Hawaii rather then sending them into the Pacific, as well as the fleet in L.A. They can't reach the Canal this turn, but next turn I should be in position. The L.A. fleet manages to get in range with it's carrier for an air-strike, but it's to anemic to even bother mentioning.

I noted on his turn that the PACT player also sortied the Cuban submarine pack. I don't know where they went, but I decide to use my AWACS to see if they can spot it. They get lucky and catch site of it cruising far off the coast of Florida. I send the 2nd Fleet out of New York along with the Atlantic Convoy to hit this juicy target of opportunity. I want to try to minimize my losses, so I'm hoping for an air-strike to soften the subs up. I want to prep for an air attack on Cuba next turn too, it'll be difficult to do both. I move my West Coast air assets to New Orleans in preperation for the Cuba strike, but they aren't strong enough for my liking. I transfer the fighters out of the East Coast air group as well... making distinct Fighter and Bomber units in New Orleans. I like to split these air assets up, so that I can put the fighters on intercept without worrying about having my bombers scramble against enemy air as well. I was going to save the Tac Bombers to soften up the subs...but I note that the Strat Bombers once I've transfered thier fighter escorts out have a really long range. Even after I fly them to New Orleans, they have range to hit the PACT subs and they have decent naval attack values. So I need to use the Tac's after all. A good strike from the Strat bombers and a follow up naval attack from my ships sends the enemy subs to the bottom without any freindly losses.

[GrumpyMel]

The 2nd Fleet still has range left over to reach Havanna and do a little bombardment to soften up the Cubans for next turns air caimpaign. The USA also has access to a very unique naval unit, a WWII vintage Battleship...the Iowa. It has great bombardment value. I send it along as well. The ships don't have many action points left over when they reach Cuba but they still manage to knockout 1 Cuban Tac Bomber and a couple infantry with thier big guns.

[GrumpyMel]

Next I setup my defence in Europe. Nothing exciting there. Just shifting a few units around and doing some reorganizing. Not really worth showing here.


I note the other major PACT activity for the turn, a combined air and ground strike against the Somali light armor outside Mogadishu. A pretty standard opening with fairly standard results...knocking out 1 of my tanks and a bunch of infantry and forcing me to retreat into the city proper. However I note that PACT left thier Horn of Africa Fleet, 5 subs and 2 frigates, parked off of Mogadishu. Perhaps he was trying to cut my supplies to the city, but it leaves a prime target of opportunity for my Diego Garcia navy. Being able to reduce enemy naval power early on is really nice for the US, so I'm not going to pass up the chance. I note that my shorter range aircraft in Diego Garcia are just out of range. So I create a couple new units in Mombasa and transfer them there. This allows me to fly CAP for my Sudanese units against any moves by the Soviet Advisor airforce in Ethiopia. My Strategic Bombers from Diego Gracia, unburdoned of thier short range escorts now are well within range. I send my own Millitary Advisor air-force in the Sudan along to join them in the strike just in case the Soviets are flying CAP themselves. It turns out they aren't but the strike result still winds up a bit disappointing. I loose 1 Strat bomber and only knock out 1 sub, but I do damage some of the enemy ships at least. I sortie the fleet out of Diego Garcia and the follow up naval strike goes much better, knocking out the entire enemy fleet at the loss 1 carrier air. I don't have the right forces in place to do much on the ground here yet. I start pulling the Sudanese forces on the Egyptian border back down south where they can do some good. That's pretty much it for Africa.

[GrumpyMel]

In the Middle-East I prepare for supporting Israel when it comes into the war. I establish a new HQ, CENTCOM, on Cyprus and tansfer a few troops and supplies into it. Eventualy I'll need to build up my naval transport capacity in the Atlantic, but that will have to wait for now as I don't have the production for it at the moment. I purchase 2 squadrons of stealth bombers with action cards. The stealths are expensive but they have fantastic range and can function as both passable fighters and good bombers. I fly these to cyprus, attach them to CENTCOM and put them on intercept. The Arabs will have a bit of a surprise waiting once the war with Israel starts

[GrumpyMel]

Now on to the Pacific. I note that on the PDRC turn, he activated Maoist rebeles in Burma. No attacks but he cut the road between Mandalay and Rangoon, cutting supply from reaching the Burmese HQ. I decide to recitfy this by moving the HQ to Mandalay along with my Burmese armor and about have the infantry from the unit in Rangoon. This means I won't be able to transfer in replacements into Burma.... but I'm not planning on any major commitment here anyway. This will be delaying action against the PDRC, using only the forces that are localy available. So the move makes sense.

[GrumpyMel]

In Korea, the PDRC used air strikes against the US armored unit outside Seoul. He did a decent amount of damage...no surprise there. I've pulled it back into Seoul, where I've also created a new HQ. I expect that the PDRC will cut the supply lines between Korea and Japan, so I want the forces dedicated to Korea being supplied out of Seoul. I don't expect I'll hold Korea for long after North Korea activates on turn 3, but it's worth the 5 PP's not to worry about supplies and production from Seuol getting ganked until then. Not unexpectedly I note that the PDRC has station 2 units of Yuan subs in the Gulf of Korea....probably trying to interupt supply/troops going to Korea. Since one of my main goals in Asia is to reduce PDRC naval strength, this presents a good opportunity. The 7th Fleet is in Taiwan, but I want to try an air strike first. I want to avoid suffering naval losses in the Pacific as much as possible, especialy because for now, the 7th Fleet is opperating all on it's own. My planes in Okinawa are just out of range, but by bringing them to Seoul I am able to use them all in the strike. I can always fly them out next turn, before North Korea activates. I throw in the plains from Taiwan and Nagasaki just in case the PDRC is flying CAP. It turns out he isn't, although the subs are covered by 1 land based AA.

[GrumpyMel]

Not exactly the results I was hoping for as I only manage to sink on Yuan although I damage a few more. I'll have to risk the 7th Fleet in a follow up naval attack. The results are pretty good, killing 2 more Yuans at no loss. I still have movement left with the 7th and I could try to sink the last 2 Yuans or go against the other sub group, but I don't want to risk leaving the 7th sitting in the middle of the gulf of Korea for the PDRC to pounce on during his turn...and I spy he has plenty of capital ships at anchor in nearby ports just waiting for such opportunity. I pull the 7th back to Nagasaki and move an artillery unit from Tokyo in there as well. Now it is in port under cover of both air and artillery and should be pretty safe from attack. It's naval air group still has range to strike the 2nd Sub group, so I send them and they get lucky knocking out 4 out of 5 Yuans. I'm feeling pretty good about the first turns naval activity in Asia. I use naval transfers to get some more fighters into my Fighter group in Nagasaki from Australia and Hawaii. I move some units around Japan to give a little better protection to my cities...and reorganize my air forces so that I have distinct fighter and bomber groups and I put the fighters on intercept. I think I should have pretty good air defence for Japan and Korea at the moment

[Grymme]

Great AAR. Really impressive for just one turn. If this wont sell the scenario i dont know what will

[GrumpyMel]

Turn 2 of the Scenerio and the opening screen shows my losses and last turns Production. As you can see, I mostly concentrated on building PP's as I want to get to Ship II fairly soon. This scenerio brings home why the US has historicaly concentrated so much on naval power. We have interests/forces flung all over the world which we need to support, mostly in coastal areas....and we can insure the safety of our home areas from invasion, by controling the seas. So building up naval tech seems kind of a no brainer here. Plus, we aren't as much under immediate pressure as say, NATO, to throw forces into the frontline...so we can afford to invest a bit in tech.

My losses really aren't bad, I was expecting more given that this turn the Arab-Israeli conflict becomes a hot war. Particulary pleasing are the kills of enemy air assets. More in that in a moment...

[GrumpyMel]

Reviewing the moves from the other players turns, I see both the expected and the unexpected. NATO's situation in Europe seems to be stabilizing a bit, not quite as good as I would hope...but not bad either. I'll still have to monitor what is going on up there...as that situation can change rapidly. In the Horn of Africa the Ethiopians took out Mogadiscu with a concentric attack... I pretty much had expected that. I was surprised that the PACT used his small naval and air forces to strike at my fleets blockading Havanna. He got lucky and knocked out a frigate and one carrier air while only loosing 3 fighters in return and no ships. Although that severely diminished his air defence.. the loss of the frigate was unfortunate...given the odds I had expected an attack on my fleet would be a totaly one sided encounter. In Afghanistan the Soviets moved thier armor upto the border and did a paradrop into the clear hex east of Kabul. I hadn't really expected that move either, it's bold...I'll have to watch out for the PACT player. Seems like he wants to try to push into
Afghanistan. The most surprising PACT move of the turn was in the Middle-East however. The Arabs have initiative here and get to move before Israel. I had
expected that they would have done an all out initial attack to try and get some momentem and kill some Israeli forces before the IDF can overwhelm them. Instead both the Syrians and Egyptians are passive, making no attacks and generaly seeming to hold thier positions. This is a real boon for Israel as it can start operations with it's forces and territory intact.

In Asia, the PDRC did some air and artillery strikes against the Burmese border forces, but they are largely ineffective and don't result in any losses. China also looses a few border guards in a futile attack against the Afghan troops holding the eastern border. The PDRC's main activity for the turn appears to be a series of piecemeal air strikes against Taiwan. These do about 600 sturctural damage to Taipei and kill a few ground troops and one freindly fighter but cost the PDRC a total of 4 Fighters and 1 Strategic bomber. Using air piecemeal like that can be very costly if the enemy still has effective air defenses. You can see one of the strikes pictured below.

[GrumpyMel]

For my turn, I start out with the important task of retaking the Panama Canal from the Sandinistas which have overrun it. The canal is a vitaly important link between the Pacific and the Atlantic for the US and one can easly see why so much effort was put into it's creation. The 3rd and 4th Fleets move into range and conduct shore bombardments and air strikes with thier carrier air groups. These kill half the Sandinistas outright and badly damage the others. The 4th Fleet is carrying 2 Marine birgades from Hawaii. After the bombardment the 1st Marines conduct an amphibious assault on the Canal. Fairly good performance for a difficult mission... I loose 4 marines but take out the 6 remaining Sandinistas and the Canal is back in freindly hands.

[GrumpyMel]

The next order of business is reducing Havanna to a smoldering slag heap. The Cubans have reasonable ground defence but Havanna is thier only reliable source of supply. If I can knock out it's production, I can basicaly starve Cuba into submission. Cuba's air defence isn't terrible, but no match for the combined air power of the continental U.S. Furthermore, the Cubans lost 3 of thier 4 fighters in the strike against my blockade. Last turn I shifted all domestic air forces into New Orleans in preperation for this operation. Now it's time to bring them into use. First I'll use the guns of the Iowa and 2nd Fleet to soften up the defences a little with shore bombardment. Then I launch a massive strategic bombing raid against Havanna. A total of 18 Fighters, 4 Carrier Air, 12 Strategic Bombers and 12 Tactical Bombers darken the skies over Havanna. Against this massive air armada, the Cubans can throw 1 fighter, 3 tactical bombers, 2 SAM batteries and the anti-air of thier remaining destroyer and frigate. I could have split the bombardment up more into a strategic and ground
attack component, but I really wanted to overwhelm Cuba's air defences, so everything goes in one massive wave. The attack achieves it's desired results, pretty much knocking out Havanna's production and taking out a tactical bomber as well...but the cost is not insigificant with 3 of my own tactical bombers being lost. I can begin making preperations for the ground component of the operation, readying troops in New Orleans...although I will wait a little bit until I've had a chance to weaken the ground defenses more.

[GrumpyMel]

We now move to East Africa and we are going to try a similar tactic on the Ethiopians. Although thier ground forces are probably superior to my Sudanese, thier only reliable source of supply is Addis Abeba and I've got local air superiority and a decent wing of strategic bombers stationed at Diego Garcia. I order the Diego Garcia bombers to strategic bomb the city and send all of my planes from Mombasa along as escorts. Once again I want to overwhelm the enemy air defences and minimize my own air losses. The attack was quite effective as I almost entirely knock out Ethiopias production and down 1 fighter and 2 tactical bombers at the cost of only 1 carrier air. I don't do much on the ground at this point except move the Sudanese into the best positions possible and start building some support weapons for them. I'm basicaly waiting for my air assets to weaken them before engaging.

[GrumpyMel]

Israel is a major priorty for me at the moment. Since the Arabs made no opening moves against my forces, my options are fairly open. Things can be a little dicey for Israel at the start since they have good but somewhat limited forces and they have to face both Syria and Egypt coming from opposite directions so if they commit to heavly against one on the ground, they risk being overrun by the other. My plan is to use the IDF ground forces against Syria, since thier production center of Damascus is only a few hexes away from my starting position. In order to buy myself some safety, I'm going to use my Stealths in a startegic bombing raid against Cairo. If I can cut down Egypts supply production I can somewhat limit thier potential for offensive operations. This is a bit risky as Egypt does have some air defences and Stealths are very expensive planes... but they are perfect for the mission as they can function as both fighters and bombers. This is exactly why I purchased 2 squadrons of them and stationed them in Cyprus. I send the 8 stealths against Cairo which puts up 2 fighters, 2 tactical bombers and 2 SAM batteries in defence. I only knock out about 1000 production from Cairo and 1 tactical bomber, but I am lucky that I
loose no stealths. It could have been much worse.


I use the IDF airforce in a ground strike against Damascus as I note that the Syrian armor is positioned there, Syria's own airforce is strangely absent. The strike takes out a Syrian medium tank but nothing more. On the ground I use the IDF 1st Armor and 1st Infantry to attack the Syrian 5th Infanty from the Golan Heights. It's a head on attack but the Syrians are in open terrain and I have armor. We destroy about 2/3rds of the 5th Infantry and push the rest back at the cost of only 3 IDF troops. I advance and send the IDF 2nd Infantry on an end run east of the heights. Along with an IDF Brigade and 1st Armored and 1st Infantry, the 2nd sets up a nice concentric attack on the Syrian 6th Infantry in open terrain South of Damascus. We destroy most of the 6th and force the rest to retreat, although I loose about a dozen assorted IDF ground troops in the battle...still a decisive victory. I then move the IDF 2nd Armored up from Aqaba and along with 1st Infantry, use it's remaining movement points to strike 2 PLO Brigades West of Damascus. Again, the results are good, the IDF decimates the PLO for only 5 casualties. I Hold off advancing though....and most of my IDF forces don't have much movement left. I'm fully satisfied with
the IDF's opening offensive....and I'll spend the rest of this turn positioning the Israeli's in the best situation to defend and await next turns attack. Note very importantly that I begin using naval transport capacity from my Supreme HQ in the US to ship men and material (supplies) to Tel Aviv. This is a criticaly important lifeline for the IDF at this stage of the campaign.

Finally I take a little bit of a risk and move the 5th Fleet from it's position off of the coast of Somalia into the Red Sea and up to bombard Cairo. This is bit risky as the Red Sea is narrow and the 5th operating on it's own could get bottled up in here and destroyed. However, I want to put as much pressure on Egypt as possible so that the IDF is free to concentrate on Syria. Furthermore, I destroyed the Soviet Advisor naval force in Ethiopia last turn...so there probably aren't too many other hostile forces operating close by. Sometimes you have to take risks in war.

[GrumpyMel]

You can see the final disposition of IDF forces here.

[GrumpyMel]

In Afghanistan, the Soviets landed an Airborne Division next to Kabul during thier turn. This makes me nervous enough to pull Muhajadin guarding the Pakistan border into Kabul just in case. I also pull the unit guarding against the PDRC in eastern Afghanistan back west. If the Chinese want to advance, let them. They'll run into supply problems if they do. I won't make any offensive moves against the paratroopers yet. It's too risky for my troops and I don't want them to loose thier dug in bonus in case the Soviets start attacking from the North. For now the Soviets will have to supply thier paratroops from the air or what them starve. Hopefully my AA will get a chance to down a transport plane on a supply run. You can see the Soviet Paradrop pictured below.

[GrumpyMel]

In Burma, we do some air and ground strikes against Maoist partisans to reopen the road between Rangoon and Mandalay, but other then that, we hold our positions and hope to delay the main PDRC forces pushing through the mountain passes.

In Japan and Korea, I decide to sortie the 7th Fleet out of Nagasaki to do some scouting. It spots 2 badly damaged PDRC subs in the Gulf of Korea, a target too tempting to pass up. A quick attack sinks both Yuans and the 7th high tails it back to the safety of Nagasaki. The 7th is a strong fleet, but if I loose it I'm in trouble...so I don't want to take too many chances with it. I reposition my air forces in Seoul back to Japan before the storm breaks in Korea next turn. On it's sortie the 7th also spotted one strong PDRC army stack on the coast in open terrain north of the Korean border, they have flak and might have air cover as well...although it looks like the PDRC might have spread his fighters out in pennny packets. There are some good artillery in that stack... it makes for a good target of opportunity. I decide to send the entire air force based in Japan after it...save I hold back my naval air. It turns out the PDRC isn't flying intercept and the concentrated air strike pays off heavly as we knock out 2 flak, 3 artillery and alot of infantry and don't loose any planes. I decide to use my 2nd naval air group in Japan to do a little recon looking for enemy subs...unfortunately the run into a Soviet air patrol and loose 2 planes. Other then that I just reposition my forces in Japan and wait for the storm to break in Korea next turn.

[Tagwyn]

GM:  What about the Strategic Air Command?  Does it just gather dust?  Or, what?  T