Bob Flemin's MWIF AARse

[warspite1]

Turn: Mar/Apr 1941
Impulse: Building time!

China:

Pilot
Land Air

Commonwealth:

Carrier
Land Air
2 x Pilot
2 x Carrier Air
Infantry HQ
Infantry
Transport

USA:

Battleship
Carrier
Anti-Aircraft
Carrier Air

USSR:

Infantry HQ
Mechanised
Paratroop Div
Infantry Div

[brian brian]

When playing the CW through the first half of the war, the Hampdens are my favorite bomber. I often wonder if the historical RAF felt the same.

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: Reinforcement

Commonwealth:

20-range Sunderland [:)] a carrier air and two cruisers, an AA and an Indian Infantry

USA:

Washington and North Carolina + a Marine Corps

USSR:

A Pe-2, 2 x Inf, 1 x Para, 1 x Arm an 1 x Motorised

China:

Cav, Inf, Inf Div and Art (all Communist)

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: Reinforcement

Germany:

Armour HQ, Infantry and Motorised

Italy:

Garrison

Japan:

2 x Light Carriers, 2 x Cruisers, Infantry and Mechanised Div

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: Initiative and Weather

The Axis wins the initiative and will go first. The weather is mostly fine, although rainy in Southern China.

Germany aligns Bulgaria and Japan aligns Siam.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: brian brian

When playing the CW through the first half of the war, the Hampdens are my favorite bomber. I often wonder if the historical RAF felt the same.

warspite1

Not my specialist subject sorry [&:]

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 1

The Italians put a submarine to sea in the Western Mediterranean, but the search for enemy convoys proves no more successful than the CW attempts...

In China, the Japanese attempt to ground strike the hex west of Kweillin. The Chinese decide not to intercept given that there is a 5-quality Zero in the vicinity.

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 1

Wow! Wonders will never cease - the Japanese air force has hit something!!

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 1

Not great odds but Japan decides to go for the attack anyway....

..and its a rubbish result. The Japanese lose a unit and the other is disorganised.. China is a nightmare. Should have waited for the Mechanised unit...

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 1

Meanwhile in the Med, Force H sail for the Italian coast. They must first try and avoid the Italian sub that seeks to intercept.

The sub spots the fleet. The Royal Navy will attempt to fight through and takes us position in the 0 Section of the seabox (to protect the convoys).

The Regia Aeronautica flies in support of the navy and sets up two fighters in the 0 section.

The CW fail to find the enemy so the Italians will have surprise on their side

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 1

The Italians use the rest of their surprise points to lower the CW chances of hitting the sub... but to no avail, the sub is destroyed.

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 1

Not sure what happened there? [&:] The Italian sub didn't get a throw...

Force H continues on its merry way and takes up station in the Italian Coast. The cruisers Southampton and Belfast take up position in the 4 Section as usual.

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 1

At last the Royal Navy switch their few radar sets on and actually find a convoy!

The Royal Navy choose a surface combat and despatch the heavy cruisers Cumberland and Berwick to deploy their 8-inchers against the heavily laden convoy...

Its no contest and the convoy is sunk.

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 1

Next the CW continue to take advantage of the lack of German aircraft and launch further Hampden raids against factories in the Ruhr....but both miss this time...

[brian brian]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 1

Not sure what happened there? [&:] The Italian sub didn't get a throw...

Force H continues on its merry way and takes up station in the Italian Coast. The cruisers Southampton and Belfast take up position in the 4 Section as usual.

That's a bit of a puzzle, but I think was correct. Were there Allied Convoy Points in the West Med? They would not have been included in an interception combat, unless activated by a search roll, but that can never happen for Convoy Points in the 0 box unless a NAV or a CV with a long range plane is already present in the 0 box with the convoys, separate from the moving group. Confused yet?

So it looks like the Italians first used 4 surprise points to pick a SUB combat, but there were no convoy points included in the combat. Interception combats of still moving forces are handled differently than regular combats.

The SUB Combat rule states: Losses inflicted by the SUB side can only be taken on convoys (unless someone spends 3 surprise points to inflict them on another target).

So if the Italians had used their remaining 3 surprise points to pick a target, such as a CV, they would have one result to select, which with a 4 factor SUB on the "0-1" targets row, would have been a Damage result. Either way the Italian SUB was generally toast, taking on such a large enemy force with only a single counter. If they had picked a Surface combat first they would have added an Abort result to what the CW had to absorb.


In general in World in Flames, SUBs aren't usually very good at hitting enemy Carriers, which are all presumed to have ASW planes, equipment, and aircrews trained in ASW combat on-board, which is all one of the playability trade-offs the game makes. In the real war, I think a dozen carriers were sunk by submarines, but you generally won't see that in a game of WiF. In WiF, carrier air assets generally drive off enemy SUBs. A SUB can get lucky on the search dice and sink one, but that is rare; usually the SUBs lose such battles at a steady rate.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: brian brian

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 1

Not sure what happened there? [&:] The Italian sub didn't get a throw...

Force H continues on its merry way and takes up station in the Italian Coast. The cruisers Southampton and Belfast take up position in the 4 Section as usual.

That's a bit of a puzzle, but I think was correct. Were there Allied Convoy Points in the West Med? They would not have been included in an interception combat, unless activated by a search roll, but that can never happen for Convoy Points in the 0 box unless a NAV or a CV with a long range plane is already present in the 0 box with the convoys, separate from the moving group. Confused yet?

So it looks like the Italians first used 4 surprise points to pick a SUB combat, but there were no convoy points included in the combat. Interception combats of still moving forces are handled differently than regular combats.

The SUB Combat rule states: Losses inflicted by the SUB side can only be taken on convoys (unless someone spends 3 surprise points to inflict them on another target).

So if the Italians had used their remaining 3 surprise points to pick a target, such as a CV, they would have one result to select, which with a 4 factor SUB on the "0-1" targets row, would have been a Damage result. Either way the Italian SUB was generally toast, taking on such a large enemy force with only a single counter. If they had picked a Surface combat first they would have added an Abort result to what the CW had to absorb.


In general in World in Flames, SUBs aren't usually very good at hitting enemy Carriers, which are all presumed to have ASW planes, equipment, and aircrews trained in ASW combat on-board, which is all one of the playability trade-offs the game makes. In the real war, I think a dozen carriers were sunk by submarines, but you generally won't see that in a game of WiF. In WiF, carrier air assets generally drive off enemy SUBs. A SUB can get lucky on the search dice and sink one, but that is rare; usually the SUBs lose such battles at a steady rate.

warspite1

Okay thanks brian brian - I will see what happens next time that arises.

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 3

There is a potential opening for the Italians. There are a number of CW convoys in the Western Mediterranean that are just asking to be destroyed. The trouble is, there is a large RN fleet still unused in Malta. If the Italians lose their fleet then mainland Italy falling will be only a matter of time.

Discretion is the batter part of valour - the RM stay at home...

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 3

The Japanese try a ground strike against the fighter west of the their target hex. The Chinese do not contest it, and they were right - the attack had no effect...

The Japanese go for the attack - they just need their luck to change....

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1941
Impulse: 3

The Chinese choose the Assault table to try an inflict yet more losses on the Japanese Army.....

...and its disaster! Both Japanese units destroyed for the loss of one cavalry division....

[Klydon]

Bad, bad attack there. You essentially went 3-1 on the assault table straight up and the defenders had a division to give up in case of loss while you had a white print infantry and a mech unit. Can't do that type of stuff, especially in China with the new map.

Even on the regular assault table, you have a 60% chance of losing at least 1 unit as the Japanese while having a 30% chance of having the Chinese lose no units, 40% chance to lose 1 unit (the cav) and only a 30% chance of bagging both units.