Decline & Fall AAR v2

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Extraneous

ORIGINAL: composer99

French partisans.

Unless they are destroyed by the German forces in the woods just off screen to the north, these partisans will migrate to the southern coast and allow the French to debark there.

It should be Free French not French.

In the game once France is conquered it becomes either Vichy France or Free France.

This statement is untrue any units that co-operate with the Free French could debark not just the French.

At this point in the war, Vichy France no longer exists.

[composer99]

May/June 1944

With all the set up stuff done, it's time for initiative.

The Allies automatically begin with the initiative this turn, meaning they get to decide who goes first.

[composer99]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Allies decide to move first.

[composer99]

Allied Impulse 1

Because the Allies move first this turn, they check weather on their impulses.

The weather roll is 10 + 1 (the +1 to the roll is specified in the scenario rules), which ends up being fine weather across the map.

[composer99]

All the Allies except China get to choose if they want to declare war on anyone.

They don't see much reason to. Each major power has to make this decision, so since they all pass I will only show it once.

[composer99]

The US also has the option of aligning Mexico (changing its status from neutral to aligned minor power), and option it has had since going to war with all the Axis.

Mexico adds a few land units, a few naval units, a crappy fighter (which, however, is a serviceable fighter-bomber), and a pilot (probably the most valuable addition to US forces, as it can go into reserves and fill out a superior US air unit). More importantly, Mexico has a resource and factory and 2 oil resources.

However, if the US aligns both Mexico and Brazil (Brazil is currently aligned) it subtracts 1 from its victory total.

So if the US thinks adding 2 oil and some production is more valuable than one victory point, it will align Mexico. If not, it won't.

Also, the US gets to make this decision every Allied declaration of war phase (that is, at the start of every Allied impulse) so it can take its time to decide. Because I'm not sure how much oil the US will consume reorganizing its units, or how much progress the Allies will make seizing objective hexes, I'm likely going to wait until next turn to decide whether to align Mexico.

[composer99]

Action Choices

The Commonwealth, France, and the US all decide to take naval impulses, meaning they get unlimited naval moves and a handful of air moves this impulse. For brevity I will only show one action call. (Also, going forward, I won't post any more screen shots of declaring war, aligning, or action choice until the Allies actually do declare war on a minor, the US does align Mexico, or the first time someone uses an offensive chit.)

[composer99]

Perhaps slightly uncharacteristically, the USSR decides to call an air impulse, meaning it gets unlimited air moves, but no land or naval moves.

[composer99]

For its part, China chooses a land action.

[composer99]

Naval Air & Naval Movement

The Allies perform a bunch of naval air deployment and naval movement.

Here is the global map showing the result of all the movement.

[composer99]

Pacific Theatre

The CW sent some ships to guard convoys in the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Red Sea.

The US deployed fleets to support campaigns in the Coral Sea and the Solomons sea area. It has also left most of is fast carriers and battleships in reserve in Honolulu to react to deployment of the Japanese battle fleet.

Finally, the Allies all sent submarine units to the China and South China seas to harass and destroy Japanese shipping.

Here is the naval review details form showing the US fleet in Honolulu.

[composer99]

US fleets supporting activity around Truk, including blockading it against Japanese reinforcement or resupply.

[composer99]

US fleets supporting activity against Rabaul.

(The fleet in the Bismarck Sea in the above post is also in place to prevent Japanese re-supply/reinforcement of Rabaul as well as Truk.)

[composer99]

The naval review detail (NRD) form of the forces in the Marianas.

[composer99]

NRD of the forces in the Solomons sea area.

[composer99]

The forces on station in the Bismarck Sea. They are basically daring the Japanese fleet to "come & get 'em" - secure in the knowledge that a big fat fleet of Essex-class carriers has their back (bad search roll split notwithstanding).

[composer99]

The forces in the Coral Sea.

[composer99]

The submarines in place in the China Sea.

[composer99]

The submarines in the South China Sea.

[composer99]

The NRD for the China Sea, showing both sides' forces currently in place.