European Theatres of Operations

[GrumpyMel]

Yes, the Allied Minor War Footing card would raise Polands WF, along with any other nations that join the Allied side other then the big three: UK (+ CommonWealth & Canada), France (and her colonies) and the US. Whether it's worth it or not is up for debate. If the Allied Player is feeling like they never have enough production to spend PP's on everything they might want in the early game, then the scenerio is probably doing what I want it to [;)].
 
Poland is an interesting case, as your surmised correctly, they can't really win...but they CAN fight. Costing the Axis blood and time is probably what they are all about in the scenerio. It's an open question as to how much it's worth spending on helping them do that.
 
It sounds like your opponent used the Luftwaffe to knock out Warsaw's production and thus cut into your supply capacity which is a really cool tactic. Warsaw has better air defences then most of the other Polish cities so it's not a risk free move. Also, Poland does have other production sources...but if you've pulled back from those cities early with your army largely intact, then attacking your ability to supply that army is a really crafty move on Bomburs part.
 
It's interesting to see the different approaches the Axis player can take to takling Poland. In the test game I played against myself...I took a different tact with the Luftwaffe, I avoided hitting Warsaw at all...as I didn't want to risk any planes against it's air defences...and instead I concentrated on close support of my ground forces and attacks of opportunity against any Polish troops caught in the open without flak cover. It worked well enough...but I'd say Bombur's strategy of attacking your supply seems pretty solid too.
 
Ultimately though, this is just a warm up for the big shows to come later on in the West and the East.... so Poland is probably a place where a few mistakes won't hurt that much.
 
I'll be real interested to see how the naval campaign stacks up too... there is ALOT of ocean out there on this map (even if it's only the European Campaign).... so simply finding the enemy to engage them might be a bigger challenge then in many scenerio's. In real life, such a big part of the naval game was figuring out where the enemy fleets were... be nice if we are able to capture a bit of that feeling in this scenerio.
 

[Bombur]

Talking about navy....we are anxious to see the Bismarck in a future version...[:D]

[Bombur]

Don´t be fooled by 82nd trooper reports[:D]....he is playing a skilled defense and has significantly delayed the German advance, and even worse, inflicted us heavy casualties, ok, his troops are starving but the strategic bombing campaign against Warsaw costed me 2 He-111 and 1 Bf-110c. However, it probably avoided the loss of many German soldiers. The defenses around Warsaw are formidable and the units from East Prussia were decimated by Polish attacks, more than 50% of losses were suffered in this area. The Pz-IIC also proved a vulnerable vehicle and is being replaced by better tanks.
We believe more two turns will be necessary to take Warsaw, and, while infantry losses are covered by recruitment, the losses of heavy weapons are two times the replacement rates.
In this turn losses for the Polish increased, we hope they will be unable to launch counterattacks from Warsaw, but we could be wrong

[82ndtrooper]

This was the last gasp of the polish army, we where barely able to launch 2 counter attacks and will not be able to do it again. Warsaw will most likely fall next turn.

We ate the horses and to my surprise horse meat isn't bad when fried with chips and a big mug of ale.

this is the results from the turn and the totals. all in all we did inflict some decent loses on the Germans which is all we could really have hoped for. The German advance was fast,brutal and very well executed.

[82ndtrooper]

and this is a screen of the situation.

The poles fought well.

[82ndtrooper]

I am making 50 PP per turn with the allies but I am either going to have to reduce it some or slow down making units since my supply is slightly behind my needs and I am using up a little of my supply reserves each turn. I am not making many units at all really. Mostly staff still, its 5 turns into the game and I still have 5 HQ's in France very low on staff and that's with me making 40-50 staff per turn. I am producing a small amount of expensive units though so that has some bearing on the situation.
 Since I am getting most of my PP from England I am going to focus on raising its War footing for a few turns and see if that helps. Right now England's WF = 66 and France is at 36. I have spent two cards on each. I have not bought any of the lower nuetrality cards yet and I am curious to give them a try as soon as I can afford it.

Looking at the situation in France I have come to the conclusion that no matter what I do I will enter the war no where near as prepared as I would like to be. There is just too much that I need to produce and no production or time to get it all done. which is historically correct.

My current plan is to continue to raise England's war footing and build air units there and send what I can to help out France. While I build infantry, staff and any cheap armor units I can in France. Maybe I will be able to salvage some of those air units if France falls fast.

I am really enjoying all the different units available and there is a real opportunity to combine different units and make different effective forces. This is to me one of the best things about this scenario so far.  I cant wait to try out some of my unit combination's in combat.

[82ndtrooper]

Grumpy

you need to check the stats for the Alpine heavy infantry for the allies. As far as I can tell they have no bonus for mountians and all their stats appear to be identical to regular heavy infantry so right now I am only producing regular.

[GrumpyMel]

ORIGINAL: 82ndtrooper

Grumpy

you need to check the stats for the Alpine heavy infantry for the allies. As far as I can tell they have no bonus for mountians and all their stats appear to be identical to regular heavy infantry so right now I am only producing regular.

I'll double check that, thanks for the heads up. They should have a combat bonus in Low and High Mountains as well as a movement type that allows them better movement in difficult terrain. Maybe I FUBAR'D that up somehow.

[GrumpyMel]

ORIGINAL: GrumpyMel

ORIGINAL: 82ndtrooper

Grumpy

you need to check the stats for the Alpine heavy infantry for the allies. As far as I can tell they have no bonus for mountians and all their stats appear to be identical to regular heavy infantry so right now I am only producing regular.

I'll double check that, thanks for the heads up. They should have a combat bonus in Low and High Mountains as well as a movement type that allows them better movement in difficult terrain. Maybe I FUBAR'D that up somehow.

Ok, fixed Alpine Hvy Weapons. They had the right movement type but I had overlooked giving them the terrain bonus. I corrected that to match the same bonus for Alpine Infantry. Thanks for the heads up 82ndTrooper. Fix will be in the next version I push up, along with whatever else I can catch....and whatever else I can add....going to wait a little bit before I push anything up though...as I want to see what else turns up that i need to change....and it shouldn't be a game breaker.

[82ndtrooper]

its cool I can use the regular and besides they are way cheaper

[Bombur]

Warsaw finally falls, the last battle was relatively easy, with Polish troops too tired and poorly supplied. However, we lost 5 PzII´s. Total losses of this tank were 13 SF´s, and the production was immediately phased out, with all Light divisions being upgraded to Pz III and Pz IV ASAP (btw...I miss the Pz35t and the Pz38t...)
As you can see, the Polish campaign was no cakewalk, German losses were heavy, and we took 6 turns to defeat Poland (I actually don´t know if they are really defeated..as they still hold Lublin) instead o the historical three. Hitler is shocked by the fierce resistance of the inferior Slavic races (he will be even more shocked latter...)

Now, some questions
1-I miss the naval aircraft, like the Fw-200, the He-115, the Anson, the Sunderland and others, they would be a nice addition, since naval war is to play an important role in the game.
2-It´s possible to the allied to declare war on minor nations (like Denmark or Norway)????

[Bombur]

Forgot to post a screenshot....

[GrumpyMel]

ORIGINAL: Bombur

Warsaw finally falls, the last battle was relatively easy, with Polish troops too tired and poorly supplied. However, we lost 5 PzII´s. Total losses of this tank were 13 SF´s, and the production was immediately phased out, with all Light divisions being upgraded to Pz III and Pz IV ASAP (btw...I miss the Pz35t and the Pz38t...)
As you can see, the Polish campaign was no cakewalk, German losses were heavy, and we took 6 turns to defeat Poland (I actually don´t know if they are really defeated..as they still hold Lublin) instead o the historical three. Hitler is shocked by the fierce resistance of the inferior Slavic races (he will be even more shocked latter...)

Now, some questions
1-I miss the naval aircraft, like the Fw-200, the He-115, the Anson, the Sunderland and others, they would be a nice addition, since naval war is to play an important role in the game.
2-It´s possible to the allied to declare war on minor nations (like Denmark or Norway)????

1) I'll see about adding some more naval aircraft in, particularly for the Axis...not as versed in Axis naval aviation as I should be. I was under the impression that they used mostly the same sort of planes as the did for land operations (Ju-88's and Ju-87's and SM-79's for the Italians) but if you want to put a list of the ones you want added, I'll try to get the ones that I can in.

2) No the Allies can't declare war on minor nations....kinda that pesky whole being a democracy thing. They actualy have to respect neutrality of non-aligned nations.

[82ndtrooper]

yup Poland is a gonner, very well played by Bombur

grats Bro !!

Not much I can do atm with the rest of the allies so my turns will be very quick for the next few anyway.

One thing I am surprised by. That lone Gloster Gladiator survived all those air attacks and only went down when Warsaw was taken. Not bad for a BI-plane

[Bombur]

1) I'll see about adding some more naval aircraft in, particularly for the Axis...not as versed in Axis naval aviation as I should be. I was under the impression that they used mostly the same sort of planes as the did for land operations (Ju-88's and Ju-87's and SM-79's for the Italians) but if you want to put a list of the ones you want added, I'll try to get the ones that I can in.

-It would be important to place these planes to allow ASW warfare (for the allies) and anticonvoy warfare (for the Germans)
-Here is the wishlist

-Germany
Do-24
He-115
Fw-200
Ju-290
-UK
Sunderland
Avro Anson
-USA
PBY Catalina
PBM Mariner
PB4Y Privateer
-Italy
CANT Z.506
-Soviet Union
Beriev MBR-2
Beriev Be-6
-France
Breguet 521
Latecoere 298

[Bombur]

Hitler is dismayed by the Polish refusal to surrender after the fall of Warsaw....operations go on, but now the Polish army is unable to offer any resistance. We also did some bombardment against the Maginot line.

Btw: I found a small anomaly. The Bf-110C is too vulnerable against bombers. It shouldn´t happen because the plane was a good interceptor and was expected to be airborne when attacked by bombers. It seems to happen because the Bf-110C is rated as strike aircraft. Maybe it should be rated as fighter (it was actually used as a long range escort, it was only after the BoB that the plane was shifted to night fighter and ground attack duties)

[82ndtrooper]

nothing going on for the allies at the moment just changing production to supply for the winter.

Grumpy I have found a few things in the costs of units that you may want to take a look at such as in the medium bombers you have the price of the bloc-210 (i think thats the name) the same as the other medium bombers and its stats are horrible compared to them it is by far the worst of the bombers so the price is too high. There is no reason to ever produce this unit, I would think you meant for it to be the cheapest. in fact there is a bomber that cost 30% less that is far superior.

Also the bren carrier is the same way, it cost the same as the M1A3 scoutcar and its stats are worse. it only carries 10 and the scoutcar carries 15  Also the scoutcar's combat stats and HP are superior. so there is no reason to build this unit.

would you like for me to just make a list of things like this and send it to you at a later date ?

[Bombur]

Trying to survive the winter and also bombarding the Maginot line for fun.....
GrumpyMel, you should rework aircraft weight in order to allow carriers to work properly, as it is, carriers can carry any plane. You should set aircraft weight for non carrier aircraft to 200 and carry aircraft should weigh 40-50. As a plane SF unit has 30-60 planes, a carrier could carry 1-3 planes instead of 5 (a light carrier could carry one one plane)

[82ndtrooper]

Limiting the carrier to 5 planes is fine I think and remember carriers could launch some bombers as demonstrated in Doolittle's raid on Tokyo. But we can make a house rule if you want that we only put fighters and strike aircraft on the carriers. Since while you could launch bombers you couldnt land them.

As it is right now I am very interested to see how the carriers work out. will 2 fighters and 3 strike planes be the right way to go or will 3 fighters and 2 strike planes be the way to go. Can just 3 strike planes sink a BB ?  does carrier II carry more planes ?

But you are right it could be very interesting if only certain planes where allowed on carriers. But the thing to remember is that almost any fighter/strike plane could be modified to be carrier based, the navy looked at a lot of factors when deciding which planes to purchase among them size, maintenance, parts availability, cost, as well as what armaments each plane could carry.

We cant worry too much about being historically correct with the fighters and strike planes , if we do then we need to remember that historically Germany never even had a aircraft carrier and neither did Italy. So  would we then want to  make it so neither could produce carriers ?  Also since they never had carriers how would we decide which German and Italian planes to allow to be placed on carriers ? 

I do agree that no level bombers should be allowed on them though.

[Bombur]

Limiting the carrier to 5 planes is fine I think and remember carriers could launch some bombers as demonstrated in Doolittle's raid on Tokyo.

-Yes, but they couldn´t return to carriers....and they were B-25´s, not B-17´s

But we can make a house rule if you want that we only put fighters and strike aircraft on the carriers. Since while you could launch bombers you couldnt land them.

-That is ok. with me, I would just add that only one engine planes should be allowed...

As it is right now I am very interested to see how the carriers work out. will 2 fighters and 3 strike planes be the right way to go or will 3 fighters and 2 strike planes be the way to go. Can just 3 strike planes sink a BB ?  does carrier II carry more planes ?

-Those are good questions. I my Bombur mod, each aircraft represents 20 planes, so a CV can carry from 1-5 planes (1 for CVE´s, 2 for CVL´s and 3-5 to big carriers)

But you are right it could be very interesting if only certain planes where allowed on carriers. But the thing to remember is that almost any fighter/strike plane could be modified to be carrier based, the navy looked at a lot of factors when deciding which planes to purchase among them size, maintenance, parts availability, cost, as well as what armaments each plane could carry.

-Correct, but not all planes were actually used in carriers

We cant worry too much about being historically correct with the fighters and strike planes , if we do then we need to remember that historically Germany never even had a aircraft carrier and neither did Italy. So  would we then want to  make it so neither could produce carriers ?  Also since they never had carriers how would we decide which German and Italian planes to allow to be placed on carriers ? 

-Good point, but the Germans actually had CV based planes (the Bf-109T, the Fi-167 and the Ju-87C). For latter planes there should be "what is if" planes or we could assume the production of Japanese licensed planes. There was even a planned torpedo bomber version of the Fw-190. The Italian were planning to use the Re2001 on their carrier...both German and Italian carriers were eventually cancelled.