GD 1938 v 2, testgame

[Twotribes]

4 days with no progress, disappointed.

[ernieschwitz]

Yeah me too... Apparently the turn is stuck somewhere between the USA and Brazil...

[Twotribes]

With the appropriate tweaks ETO is playable, you should investigate and do the tweaks for the Soviets.

[Bombur]

-Reports these turn were censored. The Chinese are losing badly, as the Japanese renewed their offensive. Some counterattacks gained some ground and destroyed an entire Japanese armoured division, but Chinese losses were much higher. On the other hand, there is a hope in the Pacific...

[Jeffrey H.]

The Mediterranean heats up, (lame pun intended) with Italian and British and vestige French units tangle on land and sea. About the only area where the British are confident of victory at this time is the East African theater, where the italians are isolated and being ground down.

In North Africa, the Italians are enoying a pause in ground operations while the British "tidy" things up. The decisive naval engagement has yet to happen as both sides seem to be unwilling to have it out. The Italians hold the air in Southern Italy but are being challenged from Malta and areas surrounding.

The remnants of the british night bomber command struck Berlin, scuffed up a few buildings and streets and ran home.

[ernieschwitz]

Ah, yes those Berlin bombings.

Goebbels made a whole speech on that subject, demanding the unconditional surrender of the British if they keep it up. He was very adamant, and the speech was very long. Goering on the other hand was much redfaced, as he had promised that the Germans could call him by some other name ("Mads" if you must know) if the British ever bombed Berlin. He tried to hide away for a whole week, but that is hard when you are a minister that is part of the cabinet. Not to mention being of his size and frame...

It seems there was hardly any damage though to Berlin itself, but an airfield was hit, causing some 20 bombers to be lost. Must have been an off target hit... Or maybe the British were actually aiming at that airfield. At night who can tell?

[Jeffrey H.]

More of the same from the British in turn 28. The failure to stop or reduce the U-boat threat now causes problems as the USA tries to ramp up lend lease activities. Although cut off and essentially doomed, there were a lot more Italians in East Africa than I initially expected. In North Africa, there are still sizeable armies formed around Tripoli, they will be dealt with "soon". Other theaters are essentially quiet.

[ernieschwitz]

I thought I would write up a more detailed AAR this turn, but before I do that, i want to show what my submarines are capable of. They have been running unchecked at least for 5 months now, so this portion of the map, is something that has been spliced together from multiple images. Oh and i had to reduce it in size so i could upload it.

15+ different wolfpacks, of 5 subs aech are out there, making sure nothing gets through from Norway to Equatorial Guniea.

Don´t worry too much about the amount of supply i am sinking, just look at how impressive the overall picture looks.

[ernieschwitz]

Date is march 4th 1940. (German Turn).

Ok, so we will start this detailed overview of what is going on with what is happening in Scandinavia. Below is a map where the action can be seen. German troops are marching on Stockholm, after defeating a stack of Swedish SMGs. First the stack was bombed, the trusty old He-111Es where used for this job, some 12 of them, they had fighter escorts, but nobody tried to intercept.

Here is the map.

[ernieschwitz]

Lets move to the Northern front in the Soviet Union.

Forgive me for not showing the units, but just describing what I am seeing in the following. Below is a picture of the situation. The Soviets have dug in, in Vilnius and Riga, with units approaching a total of 20 artillery pieces each. Since we are playing with counterbattery fire (something that will be removed in the next published version of the game), these strongpoints have been impossible for me to break. I am now content at simply bombing them with my bombers. But before i go about doing that my recon planes fly around, showing me where his fighters are, if I can locate any that is.

This turn I located a big stack of them in the Airbase between Minsk and Riga. So i sent as many planes as i could over there to shoot down their fighters. A rather large air engagement ensued, in which the soviets lost many planes, whereas the german losses were replaced immediately. The main planes involved in these airial dogfights were BF109Es vs. Yak 1s.

Then I hit Riga, with not too impressive results, and the same goes for Vilnius that I hit straight after. I had some planes to spare, at an undisclosed airbase, and hit the airbase near Vilnius too, where a few battered remains of Soviet Airpower had hidden. They gave a good account of themselves, but best of all, the Soviets lost some 20 Divebomber IIIs. So i don´t need to worry about those.

As for the Action of the turn, the Soviet Units that had just entered Kaipeda (or is it spelled Klaipeda) just got a dosage of artillery, and then infantry followed up and hit them, until they retreated. Both Kaipeda and Kaunas, the capitol of Lithuania, at the time, are reduced to rubble, and change hands frequently. Apart from that, there is little action on this front.

[ernieschwitz]

Moving on, to the Southern front in the Soviet Union.

I bombed Kiev, with what I had left of my bomber fleet. Then let my artillery bombard the city as best i could. It is only defended with ordinary troops, a sizable HQ, filled with Staff, and single artillery unit, of some 3-4 artillery pieces. I was attacking with 3 times that number of artillery. So I wasn´t too worried about counterbattery fire. However, it did prove that i lost some readiness on some of the pieces. I attacked from 2 hexsides, with amoung other things 2 panzer divisions, and 4 infantry divisions. The result was a near victory... only the enemy staff units prevented me from taking the city. I destroyed the Artillery unit, and the infantry there was badly beaten.

In the south, near Odessa, some Hungarian units defeated a Soviet Infantry formation, that i had softened up with air attacks from CAS planes, that also came from Axis Minors. The unit retreated, and I moved forward with a fast unit, that attempted to form a spearhead towards the forts at Sevastopol. Odessa itself is not going to fall, at least 10 artillery pieces there that are dug in with infantry, defend the city, and shatter any and all units that come near it. Again, i don´t dare touch it cause of counterbattery fire.

Also, there was a raid preformed by some BF-109Es on the port of Sevastopol. Here a few obsolete fighters were shot down, and some naval bombers also were destroyed. Here is the accompanying screenshot of that.

[lion_of_judah]

........NEWS FLASH.......

Japanese forces from the Northern and Southern front have now joined fronts and are making more breakthroughs against Chinese front lines. Chinese forces are now threatened with encirclement or withdraw, their choice. The war against China is now entering what our General Staff is now calling " the end phase"

On the naval front, it appears that the Americans are now deploying their level 3 subs against our forces. Our naval forces have had too withdraw temporarily and regroup.

[lion_of_judah]

.....NEWS FLASH......

The Chinese front is at the point now, that they must either surrender with honor or be crushed as it is only a matter of time before China is defeated. the Philippines are holding out longer than expected but their time is also up. more naval fighters are being produced at this time, as well as torpedo bombers.

a struggle between the army and navy is ensuing on which war material to produce and so this is causing political problems. It appears that this will have to be settled by the Emperor. There is a portion of the government who are trying to get the Emperor to reach out to the Americans for peace talks, but that was squashed by the Army High Command. There is even some talk among the High Command about bring Brazil over to our side, which would be a huge win for us so only time will tell.....

[Jeffrey H.]

Caught a few Uboat groups off the coast of Norway this round. One was destroyed completely and another is trapped, hopefully will remain so. In the Med the Italian fleet tangled with the French fleet, outcome more or less draw. Losses on both sides heavy. The English moved in to place to cover the next round, the Italians stayed at sea this time.

For now the airwar over Malta seems to be going to the Anglo-French. Most of Southern Italy seems to have been abandoned of aircraft. We turned some of our attention to the Tripoli area where dug in Italian ground forces sit waiting for the Anglo Arab forces to come at them.

East Africa is going to be a tough slog, time will tell on that one. Forces can be brought in to the area and are.

A fighter sweep was launched North of Antwerp to see what the opposition was like, massive air battle took place, the English mustered a mixed force of Spitfire I's and Hurricanes and were very effective, heavy losses on both sides. Encouraging at least since the dark days of defeat several turns ago.

Lend lease is tricking in to secret locations, making it's presence felt in North Africa. Logisitcs is the main bottlenect at this time. Until the Italians are defeated at sea it will likely remain this way, unless the American Navy can bring forces into the Med.

[ernieschwitz]

Game turn 30, date April 1, 1940, Germany

Today in the news.

[lion_of_judah]

Soooo where is Bombur and his ARR?????

[lion_of_judah]

.......NEWS FLASH.....Japanese Imperial HQ

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IS NOW REPORTED ON CENTRAL CHINESE FRONT.......

the Central front has now collapsed for the Chinese forces, at this moment major Japanese armored and infantry forces are pouring through this huge gap encircling major Chinese formations as we speak. the entire southern portion of the Chinese front is now in danger of complete collapse. By the American silence here of late, this in our opinion shows that the Americans know defeat in China is now at hand.......



On the naval front, not much action has occurred as naval forces have had to fall back and regroup due to U.S. sub forces.

Philippine front- all quiet this turn, nothing much has happened.

[lion_of_judah]

what is up with this, no one posting AAR's......come on guys......

[Jeffrey H.]

France piddles along with it's old colonial outposts. A French fleet helped clear the Med of the Italian Navy last round.

GB has turned Spain into an ally, and probably will regret it soon enough. For now, Spanish cities are bracing for war and a stack of Italian units was spotted near Barcelona. Having Spain on board has eased the logisitcal situation in Africa. Heavy fighting in East Africa has reduced the Italian garrison there to HQ staff, (which fight like cornered rats - a flaw in the game IMO). Attacks on Tripoli have begun, Italian resistance is proving to be stiff. Air battles over Southern Italy have once again gone in favor of the British and French, slowly, British airpower is winning the day. It's been a bad series of turns for the German Uboats, in the last two turns, losses have approached 15 to 20 subs, many thanks to the Russian intel services.

Rumor has it that the War in the East has turned bloody, but no specifics exist at this time.

[Bombur]

Honolulu 15th April 1940

Admiral Halsey: I say you´re a coward!
Admiral Nimtiz: And you´re an idiot!
Admiral King: C´mon guys, the nemey is in the other side of the Pacific.
Admiral Halsey: Exactly, and instead of fighting the Japanese, we´re wasting our time and the taxpayer´s money. Meanwhile, China is about to fall.
Admiral King: You should be patient, you will sail with your carriers soon, the replacement of fighters will be over in a few days.
Admiral Halsey: Fuck the fighters, what is wrong with a Buffalo? You´re fearing a few Japanese carriers?
Admiral Nimitz: Naval crews and carriers took some time to be replaced, if we make a poorly planned attack against the Japanese carriers, and we lose, it will take 3-4 years until we´re ready again.
Admiral King: I agree with your plan of using submarines to weaken the Japanese forces, but the whole thing is slow, and the recent news of a disastrous Chinese attempt of a counteroffensive makes believe we lack the time to implement it.
Admiral Nimitz: We are about to release our carriers and battleships, I told you. Our Wildcats replaced the Buffalos in all carriers, now we stand a chance against Japanese forces, and don´t forget the heavy losses we inflicted on Japan last month with aour subs.
Admiral Halsey: Heavy losses? Five destroyers, most of them obsolete, and one Gunboat! Maybe we will be still fighting Japan by 1970!
Admiral King: You forget that our submarines were able to call the attention of the Japanese Navy and we could reinforce Manila with 3000 troops
Admiral Halsey: While we lost other 9000 in the attempt!
Admiral King: There is enough, Halsey, prepare to depart with your carriers in three days. You will be given the opportunity you want!