Decline & Fall AAR v2

[paulderynck]

I vote for picking a target.

[Ur_Vile_WEdge]

I'd be for hanging back, if the German bomber somehow makes it through, bumping him down with your surprise moves an X against your fleet (assuming the AA knocks off exactly one factor) to a pair of D, thus insuring you don't lose anyone on a TRS.

If the likely happens though, and you either chase away or kill the German nav? You've got, what? 15 air to sea? There isn't *that* much of a quality difference among the German subs, they're all fast. I'd probably just move up a column on your own air to sea.

[composer99]

The German naval air is, unsurprisingly, shot down, although because it is a low roll the pilot survives.

[composer99]

Finally, the U-boats, trying to sneak into the Channel to attack the Allied amphibious landing craft, are sitting ducks for the carrier planes constantly patrolling the skies.

Two squadrons are completely destroyed, one suffers heavy losses (unit damaged), and still more are forced by various minor damages to return to Kiel. Only one U-boat squadron remains at large in the North Sea after the combat.

Incidentally, this seems rather close to what actually happened to the U-boats that were sent into the Channel and environs to try to disrupt Allied operations in the spring of 1944.

[composer99]

The above rounds out the Axis-initiated naval combats.

In WiF & MWiF, the non-phasing side (that is, the side who is not taking its turn/impulse) can initiate naval combats in sea areas that the phasing side has moved air or naval units into, as long as the phasing side did not itself initiate a naval combat.

As such, the US gets the chance to initiate naval combats in the sea areas where the Japanese flew their fighter pickets. But without any fighter cover of its own, the US elects not to.

[composer99]

The Japanese are out of air missions, so they have no more to choose from.

The Germans, in the meantime, have to get on with their other air missions.

They choose not to do any strategic bombing. But ground strikes? That's an interesting question. If it could stop an attack on the Eastern Front it might be worth it...

Edit: Indeed, the Germans might have an opportunity to launch a half-decent attack in Eastern Poland, just the sort of sharp riposte it needs to inflict upon the Red Army at this stage.

[Numdydar]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets


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[composer99]

Ground Strikes

The Germans use artillery and their fearsome Stukas across the line of the Red Army's Ukraine Front.

[composer99]

The mighty German fighter squadrons easily brush aside the inferior Soviet fighters, though they do not inflict significant damage on them.

[composer99]

The Red Army's anti-air batteries attempt to quell the situation.

Edit: But with getting to pick the lowest 1 roll of 5, it doesn't get very far.

[composer99]

And this groundstrike phase shows why the Germans are still the best in the business, despite their losing position.

In the northernmost of the three hexes attacked, the field artillery hits both armies. Since the AA gun is firing this phase, that leaves the entire stack disorganized.

[composer99]

The Stukas do their thing, disorganizing the entire stack in the centre.

[composer99]

The Hummel self-propelled artillery firing on the southern stack also has a field day, hitting the ARM army and the anti-tank division.

(I forgot to take a screenshot of the ground strike result form for this particular strike.)

The end result is that the USSR line is almost completely disorganized.

[composer99]

Land Movement

Japan
The Imperial Japanese Army shuffles around.

In Thailand, the erstwhile defenders of Burma return to Bangkok. Their destinations are more critical objective hexes.

[composer99]

In the south of China, the Japanese move to smack down the Nationalist motorized division.

[composer99]

In the central sector, the Japanese reinforce Nanking and move a unit to take its place. Now they need to fill a corps or two in Shanghai.

[composer99]

In the north, the Japanese move to set up to take out the partisan. This, unfortunately, will be a process requiring disproportionate force, unless the Japanese want to risk heavy losses on a low roll.

Further north, which I won't bother showing, the Japanese move HQ Terauchi and the MECH army in Manchuria to Changchun, the capital city.

[composer99]

Germany

With the astounding success of the German ground strikes, the Germans now find themselves in a bit of a dilemma. Do they make land moves to prepare for the impending invasion of France, or do they adjust their lines to try and give the Russian Bear a bloody nose? The latter involves some risk, as it entails bringing HQ Manstein into the front line in order to call blitz combats. But because the combat would take place in East Poland there would be no production bump to the USSR.

But oh, the opportunities.

I may have to sleep on it (one slight advantage of solitaire WiF is that you can do that sort of thing).

[composer99]

What will tip the balance, I think, against launching attacks is the amount of Soviet ground support that could be brought to bear. Also, the lack of division-sized losses: a bad roll could cost a MOT corps, which would really hurt right now.

Anyway, until the USSR throws down an offensive chit on Zhukov (which could be as early as next impulse) it won't be reorganizing that line, so the Germans have bought some time, even if they don't take a shot.

[Neilster]

When one reads WW2 histories, often by this point in the war the authors describe the Axis position as hopeless and it was all mostly a mopping up operation but this AAR gives a good idea of the territory (and resources) they still controlled and the fighting power they stilled possessed. It's no walkover.

In fact, historically, it was really only late-ish March 1945 before Germany's frontier defences in the west really collapsed. Until then her integrity was somewhat intact. Japan was starved of resources but something similar was true for her. As not many WiF games get this far, this is an extremely valuable exercise.

Cheers, Neilster