Crossroads: Axis Perspective

[Chocolino]

June 24th, 1945

The US invaders in Ireland have now sufficient force to strike. Baghdad is approached and attrition battles take place at the East Front.

[Chocolino]

July 1st, 1945

Remnants of the formerly proud Axis fleet fight a hopeless battle in the Atlantic. Ireland is almost lost but we try to bring the entire Middle East under our control before more uprisings in favor of the Allies occur.

[Chocolino]

July 9th, 1945

A last German corps defends Cork in Ireland. Iraq will fall soon in our hands and we can destroy a USSR tank corps. Those expensive units are hard to replace and we hope it will delay the USSR advance.

[Chocolino]

July 16th, 1945

The US conquers the last Axis defended city in Ireland, Baghdad falls to the Axis and repair at the East Front.

[Chocolino]

July 24th, 1945

Iraq surrenders and we transfer freed up Italian troops to Jerusalem, the best spot to launch an attack on Saudi Arabia. In the East the USSR retreats a few hexes, probably to expose their units less to counter attack. We fill in the gap only too eagerly, grateful for every mile the front moves away from Berlin.

[Chocolino]

August 1st, 1945

We can destroy another dangerous USSR tank corps and move into position against Saudi Arabia.

[Chocolino]

August 16th, 1945

The campaign season of summer 1945 comes to a close and we approach fall and winter. Time seems to accelerate and that is exactly what we need now. We move into Saudi Arabia, the last pro-western country in the region. It is quiet elsewhere.

[Chocolino]

September 1st, 1945

The war is six years old and it is hard to believe that the Germans need to defend for one more year before war weariness will end the whole affair. The PP income is very unbalanced and our card house can quickly collapse. But given that this is a game without 50% increase for German production, we can be happy to still be here I guess.

The USA lands in Cornwall and will find England only lightly defended. We adopt the principle easy-come-easy-go here. Germany and its Axis-Allies need to focus on the defense of Continental Europe, and that will be hard enough. Defending England will require STP purchases well beyond our abilities while the USSR is knocking at our doors in Poland. The fall of the British isles and the transfer of income from Axis to Allies production will make things even harder.

But it looks we will soon obtain another VP from Saudi Arabia. This item is the only one reported on in the German evening news this week.

[gwgardner]

you should start to exit units off the eastern edge of the map to simulate taking India.

[cpdeyoung]

You are doing very well, and I know how tough it is. Here is what I think is an accurate list of VP cities. You can see which belong to Axis, Allied, Soviet, and Neutral.
[font="Courier New"]
Amsterdam : 1
Ankara : 2
Athens : 1
Baghdad : 1
Belgrade : 1
Berlin : 10
Bratislava : 1
Brussels : 1
Bucharest : 1
Budapest : 1
Cairo : 1
Copenhagen : 1
Danzig : 1
Dublin : 1
Helsinki : 1
Kaunas : 1
Lausanne : 1
Leningrad : 9
Lisbon : 1
London : 10
Luxembourg : 1
Madrid : 2
Magnitogorsk : 1
Marseilles : 1
Metz : 1
Moscow : 9
New York : 10
Orsk : 1
Oslo : 1
Paris : 5
Perm : 1
Reykjavik : 1
Riga : 1
Rome : 5
Sofia : 1
Split : 1
Stalingrad : 9
Stockholm : 1
Tabuk : 1
Tallin : 1
Teheran : 1
Turku : 1
Valetta : 1
Warsaw : 1
Zurich : 1
Total : 106[/font]

I am thinking you are doing very well.

[Chocolino]

Using this list I come to the following as of 9-1-45:

Axis: 47
COMINT: 36
W. Allies: 19
Neutral: 4

London and its 10 VP will of course go to the Western Allies soon and swing the count significantly. The Axis has the best chance on the remaining Neutral's though. But a year is a long time and this is counting chicken before they are hatched unfortunately.

[Chocolino]

September 16th, 1945

We take another VP at Tabuk and plan to transfer the rest of the Italians from Saudia Arabia to the defense of Europe. Southampton in southern England is still holding on. We assemble a small battle force to take Switzerland for both the VPs and the PPs.

[Chocolino]

October 1st, 1945

Saudia Arabia surrenders to the Axis forces, and the Swiss campaign has started. They forfeit their neutral status by involving themselves in dubious financial transactions with American funds. The Western Allies are already in south London and look across the Thames at the Victoria Embankment. The USSR withdraws a hex and clears its front line of a notorious trouble spot that has cost them many corps already.

[gwgardner]

I think if either one of you would pull your armor out of the front lines, concentrate it all with air support, you could break that front open.

[Chocolino]

I think the USSR has all armor concentrated near Kaunas. At least there are no other ones visible elsewhere for a while. I expect the USSR to get to L5 in armor at one point and then make more headway. It may be possible already now but I cannot speak for the plans of the USSR commander of course.

For my part, I use my armor only behind the front to punish possible breakthroughs or plug holes. I am happy with the situation as is and there are not many target VPs nearby (Kaunas being one of course). I could open the front a few times but did not want to venture any deeper. I don't have enough mobile forces left to create a encirclement of sufficient size. If it is just one or two Russian units, the USSR just strat-moves out. If I do a part circle, with concentrated effort, the USSR air force can annihilate the unit anchoring the breakthrough and all other units behind enemy lines will be lost. I also need to preserve my units and minimize losses. Even now, I can barely replace what I loose per turn. Almost all goes into air replacements. I am close to abandon my air force since it is ineffective at L2 against L3 Russian air attacks. (Yes, we cut some corners in research earlier. But even if I had L3 technology, I wouldn't have the PP for the actual upgrades.)

[Chocolino]

October 16th, 1945

London and Zurich fall. (That is a bad exchange for the Axis)

[Chocolino]

November 1st, 1945

The US makes rapid progress in England and Axis units move in on Lausanne. Nothing new elsewhere.

[Chocolino]

December 1st, 1945

For the Axis a tough year ends. Axis units in England are offering very little resistance and that will mean that the US forces there are soon available for other operations. The good news is that Germany has secured 20 units of factory capacity in Switzerland.

We defend the channel coast better than was previously necessary since the French cities there - after the fall of southern England - are now in range of Allied air strikes and possibly also paratroopers. The East Front sees the usual attrition battles.

[Chocolino]

January 1st, 1946

The international community is shocked and outraged. The US nukes Brest, a city of their former French allies. The French civil population will suffer the consequences of this cruel and selfish act. German news media immediately counter with the announcement of Wunderwaffen (but most employees of the German research labs wonder exactly where and what they are supposed to be).

The worst side effect of the nuclear strike is not the local destruction but a partial breakdown of the Axis economy since social unrest breaks out. Of the German workforce, 20% stay at home while in Allied countries it is still 10%. The government is doing everything to calm protests down but it is expected that the effects wear off only slowly. How long can Germany survive at around 80% of its usual production?

[Chocolino]

February 1st, 1946

The social unrest in Germany has decreased by only half a percent in a month. We have hoped for at least a full percent recovery. This will hurt us more in production than we have expected. Interestingly the nuclear strike had less of an effect on Italy - they are at 88%. The Axis is crumbling, especially since the Russians have introduced their new L5 armor models. We are starting to scavenge slowly stronger German units from the front in Bulgaria and Eastern Yugoslavia and transfer them north for the defense of Berlin while replacing them with lesser Italian units down south. In Scotland, Glasgow is holding for one more turn.