Global War - confessions of an armchair strategist

[Walker84]

In order to drive a traditional black cab in London drivers have to gain "the knowledge" - an intimate acquaintance with the myriad of streets in a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. It can take around three years of hard training, and many of those who embark on the course drop out. Taxi drivers given brain scans by scientists at University College London had a larger hippocampus compared with other people. This is a part of the brain associated with navigation in birds and animals. Spending the past few weeks immersed in trying to master this rich, complex and rewarding game has felt a bit like doing "the knowledge" at times, and some part of my brain feels like it just might possibly have expanded...

Having studied the basic mechanics via the Guadalcanal and Barbarossa scenarios, I decided I was ready to take the plunge and start Global War, the 'ultimate' campaign that I wanted above all else to play. Was I ready? Probably not, but I am far too impatient to learn the intricacies of US entry before I can start deploying and micromanaging my Ki-27s, Vickers Vildebeestes, Washington treaty cruisers, pocket battleships... I had also taken some annual leave over the festive season so the opportunity was too good to pass up!

Somebody else had also decided that a brilliant opportunity to get hold of something they wanted badly was too good to pass up...

[Walker84]

I will start by taking my hat off to the great, informative AARs that grace this site already (gentlemen, you know who you are!), which I have profited immensely from reading.

So, although I plan to discuss my strategies and experiences of gameplay, I won't be aiming to provide a blow-by-blow account of the campaign, more of a retrospective after each sequence of moves. If I'm honest, I often forget to take the screenshots in the heat of the moment and, besides, find it a tad distracting to break the play up in this way.

Set-up

Initial set-up took hours to complete yesterday but was enormous fun. I used to hugely enjoy the action of laying out the physical counters on the board in the old S&T days, and WIF provides the nearest equivalent to this venerable process that I have come across in an electronic wargame to date!

One enjoyable aspect is found in the requirement to select units from the pool so you have to compare stats etc while deciding whether your strategy requires fighters with more air-to-air or ground factors for example.

I'm a glutton for optional rules so ticked a lot of them. I then remembered to save this as a personal set-up for future reference.

Anyway, back to events in Poland where the Poles have based their set-up in the cities and woods in an attempt to avoid overruns and also to gain some basic defensive benefits. The Luftwaffe's first operational mission ends in ignominy as Goering's flyboys fail to dislodge the Polish cavalry corps dug in around Poznan.

[Walker84]

Nice to see Ju-86s in action even if they failed to achieve anything. I am playing with the optional pilots rule so they will go into the reserve at the next available opportunity. On the other hand, can't get enough Ju-87s!

[Walker84]

No strategic bombing on DoW impulse for the Allies as the Commonwealth have drawn shorter range bombers largely unfit for the purpose.

However, the French really want to show off their shiny new lend lease kit and, in a largely futile effort to distract Adolf, manage to disrupt a German unit on the Seigfried Line.

[Walker84]

Meanwhile, having patched up damaging inter-service rivalries for the time being, Imperial Japan sends Yamamoto overseas to reinforce the stalled China campaign. He lands at Shanghai just as the Army top brass renews its offensive against the Nationalists' Yellow River defensive positions with sustained air and artillery bombardment attacks on Chengchow.

[Walker84]

The Wehrmacht encircles and routs the disorganised defenders of Lodz. I think I made a mistake here in choosing the Blitzkreig CRT as the Allies should have chosen Assault which would have been more in their favour. Need to keep post-it notes beside you to remember the key house rules when you are playing solitaire...

On the positive side, good die rolls meant that the entire Polish navy managed to avoid being overrun and escaped to the UK, whilst the Polish Air Force in opting for internment in the Baltic released two pilots to the CW. Note - these plucky individuals would find themselves training on Blenheims and Albacores next turn in the absence of unassigned fighters.

[Walker84]

A well-coordinated attack pushes Chiang's forces out of Chengchow, although the disorganised attackers have to content themselves with taking the city as they are not in any position to exploit the breakthrough.

Later on I had the option to destroy a factory as a result of this action. I did not read up on this possibly being too impatient, and left the factory intact the reasoning being that it may be possible for Japan to start using the factory instead. I will look into it more fully during production

[Walker84]

The next screenshot shows the position in Central Europe during the Nov-Dec turn.

Poland fell without loss to the Wehrmacht, Russia invaded and then the bad weather set in. Germany DoW'd Denmark then realised that the invasion units near the frontier were themselves disorganised. Another post-it-note required...By the time a mech/armoured force had made its way across the Reich, Denmark had time to set up its fleet and the Copenhagen militia. Hitler was not best pleased with his generals' poor planning and warned them to be more prepared given the even more pressing timetable in 1940!

Overall, Germany has achieved what it set out to do in '39 and the Japanese are also on the move. The BEF has landed in France and the CW are also building up their convoy points and positioning their ASW escorts, anticipating the war at sea to be a crucial factor in the struggles ahead.

[warspite1]

Good one Walker84!

I suspect steering a PZKW III through the streets of Warsaw while under enemy fire from all sides, and with the possibility of being hit by friendly fire from above, is a damn sight easier and less stressful than driving a taxi around London [:D]

[Orm]

Nice report. [:)]

Could I request a picture of the optional rules you play with?

[Klydon]

This looks like it will be fun to follow along.

One note on the initial turn for the Allies (France/CW). Since they declared war on the Germans, the Germans will not be able intercept any air missions in the west on the first Allied impulse. That means if you want to have a go at some German build points while thumbing your nose at some nearby ME-109 that can't do anything to you, feel free. [;)]

[Walker84]

Thanks Klydon, useful to know. I was tempted but I only had a bunch of Harrows that would have been flying at extended range. Given their ratings I think German schoolboys could probably have downed a few using peashooters.

[Walker84]

ORIGINAL: Orm

Nice report. [:)]

Could I request a picture of the optional rules you play with?

Sure, happy to oblige. I may have chosen too many advanced settings for a relative newbie but I am here to learn and have fun [:D]

[Walker84]

'The US can never declare war on Japan!' [X(]

This is an interesting one and came about after I failed to keep sufficient US convoy points (CPs) in the Hawaiian sea area to honour the US/Japan trade treaty. I know you can set your CPs to 'sentry' status to stop them returning to port but I realised too late that I had screwed up with a couple of vital CPs. The penalty seems a little draconian perhaps, especially as you only seem get a warning when it's too late to rectify the mistake.

If the US can never DoW Japan, surely the game will rely too much on Japan doing the (dis)honourable thing later in the war. As I'm only playing solitaire I won't have too much of an issue but is it too much of a potential game changer?

[Walker84]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Good one Walker84!

I suspect steering a PZKW III through the streets of Warsaw while under enemy fire from all sides, and with the possibility of being hit by friendly fire from above, is a damn sight easier and less stressful than driving a taxi around London [:D]

Hey Warspite,

Thanks for checking in - and speaking as a regular cyclist you're not far wrong about the London traffic these days!

[Zorachus99]

That is a pretty big deal, even with unrestricted naval combat.

No sane player allows this to happen, is this a setup mistake or a bug?

BTW: I did see a guy do it once, but the game was ruined by the maid, who saw the big mess in the back room, sometime in early '42.

[WarHunter]

So you were able to start the game with the convoy's in place, but moved some of them? I seem to remember you can't finish setup without the convoy's in place. But maybe that has changed with the patches?

As you pointed out, in a solo game you can "game" it, and still have a surprise attack to bring Japan and the USA into conflict. Good learning moment.

Of course, this is one of those mistakes that can end a multi-player game real fast. After everyone stops laughing at the USA player for being a noob. In a board game it is easily fixed. Not so easy to fix in MWiF. Sure you have save games. Identifying which save will fix it is the rub.

It ranks up there with the German player having no garrison in the east and the USSR DoW's Germany Jan/Feb 40. Which i have seen happen.

Not many Allied players will continue a game with such handicap in place. Most would ask for a mulligan or surrender.

Nice to know this can happen.

btw, Thanks for putting in the time to do an AAR for us to read along with.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: Walker84

'The US can never declare war on Japan!' [X(]

This is an interesting one and came about after I failed to keep sufficient US convoy points (CPs) in the Hawaiian sea area to honour the US/Japan trade treaty. I know you can set your CPs to 'sentry' status to stop them returning to port but I realised too late that I had screwed up with a couple of vital CPs. The penalty seems a little draconian perhaps, especially as you only seem get a warning when it's too late to rectify the mistake.

If the US can never DoW Japan, surely the game will rely too much on Japan doing the (dis)honourable thing later in the war. As I'm only playing solitaire I won't have too much of an issue but is it too much of a potential game changer?

There should be a warning to stop this from happening or a the game forcing sentry status on the CP that must be at sea to honour the treaty. The rule is forcing so you should not be able to voluntary break it.

But with that said there are a lot of things that has higher priority.

The draconian penalty is there because the players should do their outmost to honour the agreement. With less of a penalty then some players might misuse the system to gain an advantage. Japan would suffer a lot if it didn't get the US resources and oil at all so the penalty must be high.

As USSR I sometimes try to make Japan "dishonour" the pact and thereby get a couple of extra US entry chits as reward.

[Klydon]

I would look to back up to a saved game (or a auto save spot) and fix whatever caused a chit to be pulled out.

The US doesn't have to honor the treaty with Japan, but the result is chits are removed from the pool and especially early, this is essentially the result. (US can never declare war on Japan as penalty for not honoring the treaty).

The Russians have to watch the entry as well early or by occupying Poland and the Baltic states while also demanding territory from Rumania, they could remove enough chits so the US can never declare war on Germany/Italy.

[Braig]

As others have said, I would go back to your naval movement phase and see if your cp's are all there and they are set to sentry. it's kind of easy to pick them up during the return to base phase. If not, I'm afraid your game is badly tainted. It throws quite the monkey wrench in all of the US Entry actions.