Bob Flemin's MWIF AARse III The Return

[warspite1]

Having had a lengthy bug imposed break from the last game I now find I am struggling to get back into it - I have completely lost the thread of what was going on.

I am therefore going to start another AAR and will endeavour to make this more of a step by step, Janet and John approach (which will at least force me to read the rules).

For optionals I will remove the same as the last AAR, namely:

Synthetic Oil Plants
Fortifications
2D10 Land CRT
Carpet Bombing
Limited Overseas Supply
Limited Supply Across Straits
Oil Rules
Saving Oil Resources & Build Points
Food In Flames
Extended Game Length

Based on experience and other peoples comments I will also remove:

Construction Engineers
Unlimited Breakdown

But add:

Saving Build Points

[warspite1]

The game plan will be as previously i.e. for countries to try and act in line with their leader's goals in the real war (without necessarily mirroring their actions).

[Klydon]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

The game plan will be as previously i.e. for countries to try and act in line with their leader's goals in the real war (without necessarily mirroring their actions).

Of course, you realize that this means you will have to use loaded Italian dice.. [:D]

[warspite1]

The first choice to be made is Lend Lease. This gives certain countries the ability to build aircraft sourced from another country. In return, the country removes the aircraft from its own pool.

I choose not to take advantage of this at this time.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Klydon

ORIGINAL: warspite1

The game plan will be as previously i.e. for countries to try and act in line with their leader's goals in the real war (without necessarily mirroring their actions).

Of course, you realize that this means you will have to use loaded Italian dice.. [:D]

warspite1

Yes I have special dice for the Italian Army - six sides, all with 1 on each

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

The game plan will be as previously i.e. for countries to try and act in line with their leader's goals in the real war (without necessarily mirroring their actions).

I think you should make plans for the different nations this time. I think you should make a Grand Strategy for each nations leader. Then you can act on that.

Edit: I think you will have more fun this way as well.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: warspite1

The game plan will be as previously i.e. for countries to try and act in line with their leader's goals in the real war (without necessarily mirroring their actions).

I think you should make plans for the different nations this time. I think you should make a Grand Strategy for each nations leader. Then you can act on that.

Edit: I think you will have more fun this way as well.

warspite1

Okay - as per the above and with Orm's variant:

Germany: Lebensraum. The plan will be to attack the Soviet Union as soon as is practical. Will take action elsewhere as required, but Barbarossa is the overriding goal.

Japan: Attack China as hard as possible but NOT at the expense of building forces that will enable the capture of a defensive ring in the Pacific. Australia and India are NOT targets unless there is a total collapse in the Allied play. No interest in annoying my Soviet neighbours.

Italy: Italy will only enter the war if it looks like its almost won i.e. France are on the verge of collapse. Thereafter its a case of building a Roman Empire in North and East Africa and possibly being totally stoopid in Greece or Yugoslavia.

Commonwealth: To keep France in the game as long as possible. If France is beaten then assume that the Germans will try and invade the UK. Do nothing to antagonise the Italians.

USSR: Enjoy the fruits of the Nazi-Soviet pact and gain territory in the west and then sit back and watch those idiots in the west (Britain, France and Germany) exhaust themselves. No interest whatsoever in attacking Japan.

USA: Stay the hell out of Europe's war - unless Hitler looks like winning, in which case Roosevelt will have to start taking this seriously.... The US do not intend to let Japan have a free hand and will be building her navy accordingly.

France: Merde! 1870, 1914..not again. Screw you Germany.

China: Whatever the Chinese is for Merde! Try and keep the Japanese from conquering the country.

[Orm]

Looks good.

But I think that Italy should consider what to do while neutral. Maybe a campaign in Greece should be considered? And not being stupid while doing so would help.

[warspite1]

Right.

US Entry comes up next. The US gets to pick three chits. Please see link below for a far better explanation of US entry than I can give.

tm.asp?m=3485002&mpage=1�

In the last two games I have made a total Horlicks of US Entry so I will pay a bit more attention this time. In the manual (Volume 1) it states that normally 2 or 3 of the initial chits are allocated to Germany (because of the high Allied activity in Europe in the early war). Please see Klydon's comment in Post 17 too.

Okay - I will pick all three for the Ge-It entry box. I will need to read and explain more on this as we go along as it is important to get Tension right.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Orm

Looks good.

But I think that Italy should consider what to do while neutral. Maybe a campaign in Greece should be considered? And not being stupid while doing so would help.

warspite1

Sorry Orm I said I wanted to reflect real life. Ergo and theretofore, Italy HAS to be stoopid because they have that strutting porcine pillock Mussolini in charge [:)].

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Orm

Looks good.

But I think that Italy should consider what to do while neutral. Maybe a campaign in Greece should be considered? And not being stupid while doing so would help.

warspite1

Sorry Orm I said I wanted to reflect real life. Ergo and theretofore, Italy HAS to be stoopid because they have that strutting porcine pillock Mussolini in charge [:)].

Yes. And Mussolini might do something dumb like declare war on Greece and then Italo Balbo might actually fight an effective campaign in Greece. He has, after all, not been lost yet. [:D]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Orm

Looks good.

But I think that Italy should consider what to do while neutral. Maybe a campaign in Greece should be considered? And not being stupid while doing so would help.

warspite1

Sorry Orm I said I wanted to reflect real life. Ergo and theretofore, Italy HAS to be stoopid because they have that strutting porcine pillock Mussolini in charge [:)].

Yes. And Mussolini might do something dumb like declare war on Greece and then Italo Balbo might actually fight an effective campaign in Greece. He has, after all, not been lost yet. [:D]

warspite1

Yes, the Italian AA gunners have been told to take a tea break everytime Balbo takes to the skies....

[warspite1]

The Americans pick a 2, 2 and 4 - not brilliant. This puts the Ge/It entry level at 12 and the Japanese at 4.

This is 1.5 x the value in the Ge/It pool (rounded up) and the Japanese get 0.5x the value in the Ge/It pool (rounded up).

I decide to choose no entry options at this stage as there are none I can choose (thank-you Orm [;)]).

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

I decide to choose no entry options at this stage.

That is good since you can't pick any options now. [:)]

[warspite1]

Next up is unit scrapping for the US. I scrap all the US aircraft available - a 2-strength fighter and five rubbish carrier aircraft.

I scrap the 2-range TRS and AMPH

Finally I scrap the 2 x 4-3 Infantry and the 3-1 Garrison.

[Orm]

Nice to see some serious scrapping. That motorized should have been gone as well. But that can be remedied later.

[Klydon]

One of the reasons you dump all the entry chits on the German-Italian side of the ledger is the Russians will likely be busy annoying the US by occupying Poland, threatening various neighbors for territory, etc. In addition, the pool is very likely to take a hit when the CW/France declare war on Adolph. Not having enough chits in the pool may mean Uncle Joe can't occupy Eastern Poland if it could potentially mean the US would never declare war on Germany/Italy.

[warspite1]

On to US set up now.

East Coast: The Atlantic Fleet is based in Norfolk (thank-you Courtenay) along with the infantry division. This port has the benefit of straddling two sea areas.

West Coast: The Pacific Fleet are based in San Diego

United States: I put two transports on the west coast and two on the east. The US will be building more TRS and AMPH and I will ensure that the east and west coast are given appropriate amounts of TRS and AMPH each. These are vital and must not be neglected in the build program.

All three submarines are placed in San Diego.

IMPORTANT: The 5-strength Convoy (CP) goes in the West Coast to meet the set-up requirements. Of the remainder:
1 is placed in the Gulf of Alaska (to transport the resource from Fairbanks)
3 are placed in the Carribean (to transport the three Venezualan resources)
3 "spares" are placed in Norfolk.

Nimitz, and Engineer and an AA are placed in San Diego. Nimitz and the AA will be heading for Hawaii.

I place the AT in Norfolk.

Both fighters are placed in San Diego.

I do not place the four available carrier air units on the carriers at this stage - plenty of time to sort these out. The Catalina is placed on the West Coast and the Boston bomber on the East Coast.

Hawaii: IMPORTANT: The three 5-strength CP are placed in Mendocino, the Central Pacific and the Hawaiian Islands to meet the set up requirements.

Manilla: MacArthur is placed in the Philippine capital.

[warspite1]

The USSR next.

I scrap one of the two fighters and the 2-range TRS. The 2-1 and 3-1 Garrisons go as do the three 3-3 INF.

If you click on a unit e.g. the first fighter, at the top of the form it states:

Unit type - how many are needed and how many are in the force pool. I need 6 and there are 7 in the force pool so I should only scrap one.

[warspite1]

I got a message to say Fighter Cost = 2 Not available - I don't know what that means [&:]

I have amended post 19 which covers the explanation for this - overscrapping.