My second AAR (again)

[yvesp]

As they were near Lille.

[yvesp]

In Belgium, the British were holding somewhat better, but the French custom officers refused the entry of the retreating forces, which were instead destroyed...

Note that there was a bug here. I had to replay all the combat to simulate the appropriate result (roll by hand a 21 and then anyway use Von Runstedt to reorganize.) I'll still have to destroy the Panzerjäger division in some way at some later point.

[yvesp]

In China, Tchiang could not resist the Japanese attack ; the southern front held now on very little. Would it pass the summer ?

[yvesp]

The commies did a better job at resisting in Chenchow. This was a rather bad turn of events for the Japanese. This stopped the offensive, and the city is strategic because it is an important railway station.

[yvesp]

The Chinese were weakened enough anyway, so that it was unlikely that they would try to play it smart by diverting troops in unlikely places...

[yvesp]

The French front was now broken, and the French would certianly be forced to retreat.
Note that the Germans never chose any shatter/breakthrough result : instead they converted all to retreat. While this makes for an apparent stronger front, it also results in the fact that retreated troops are now more and more problematic, preventing movement, weakening the hexes they are in, pushed aside the offensive. Indeed, a pocket of troops is slowly building in the east, behind the Maginot line.

[yvesp]

The Chinese retreat in the South, and stand quiet North.
A lone nationalist infantry is left unsupplied: it cannot move without risking destruction.

[yvesp]

Pursuing the retreating French units from the sky, the Stuka were again not very convinving.

[yvesp]

While an artillery division did hardly better.

[yvesp]

In China, despite bad weather, the Japanese tried to disrupt the Nationalist unit, which was a pain. A successful strike would lead to its destruction, but the weather isn't forgiving, and the Japanese bombers are definitely not copies of the German bombers...

[yvesp]

In France, Germany tried to close the pocket behind the Maginot line: all units traps would be war prisoners! The attack, helped by paratroopers, was not a complete success. Losing a motorized corps is not that good!

[yvesp]

But Lille fell easily enough.

[yvesp]

The British were now beginning to evacuate what they could from the Belgian coast. Gort would be the last, if he stood any chance...
Meanwhile, the French are almost broken: most of the french army is trapped east, few units stand to protect Paris, and only one garrison is coming the next turn as reinforcement!

[yvesp]

The losses were bad for the allies, and for Germnay too : but that last one was expected since an offensive on France never comes cheap!

Germany lost 30BP, counting the offensive and the Panzerjäger (which I forgot to remove with a mock attack...) This is three month of production.

The British lost 12BP, but more are coming: Gort will likely not escape so the real toll will likely climb up to 17BP, which is two months of production.

The French lost 12BP production, which represent more that three month of production. Moreover, most of their army is now unusable.

The Chinese lost 9BP, which is more than their production ; furthermore, their situation is rather weak now.

The only powers to get away are Japan, with but 5BP lost, and Italy which lost nothing.

[Courtenay]

ORIGINAL: yvesp

In France, Germany tried to close the pocket behind the Maginot line: all units traps would be war prisoners! The attack, helped by paratroopers, was not a complete success. Losing a panzer corps is not that good!

Why a panzer corps? The Germans could have killed the MOT corps instead.

When using the Blitz table, no matter who chose it, the attacker’s first loss must be MOT, MECH, ARM, or HQ-A if any of those attacked (even before winterized unit loss, but after ENG loss).

[yvesp]

Because I was always convinced that it was the unit responsible for the blitz table choice...
Seems I was mistaken!!! I also played like that on the boardgame. This is a real and deep oversight I had on the rules!

I will have to replay that part. Hopefully it's the last axis impulse and the auto saves are still there. There is not too much to replay.

[Courtenay]

Ah! No, I always try to include a MOT division in any non-automatic blitz attack. I don't always succeed, but I always try. The unit lost doesn't have to be a corps, after all, so I try to make any loss as cheap as possible.

[yvesp]

I usually do the same. But it is not always possible. In this case, it was impossible to use anything other than the involved units due to the angle the attack was done. But of course, the loss must involve the Mot corps, not the armored one. The die roll was not particularly lucky: the odds were good!

[yvesp]

Some minor Italian actions had been attempted in that spring, which did not lead to any specific report. Still, they are worth mentionning. First, Italy's submarines tried to raid the commonwealth convoys in the atlantic, but none was successful. Second, considering the US passivity and the fact that North Africa was deserted by French troops, Italy had declared war in France. This led to an easy conquest of Tunisia and forced France to move back a militia to Algier.

Russia was now considering with some interest the units produced by Germany: there were subs, a carrier, amphibious, naval planes, fighters, a marine unit... This was the second turn that such a pattern could be observed. It was becoming increasingly clear that Germany was heading west and not East. This would have some influence on the eastern affairs. While it was prematurate to envision a war with Japan, it was clear that the low profile kept up to now was not going to last.

[yvesp]

July begins with a pounding of the French lines by the Luftwaffe.
The performant Dewoitine fighters fail to prevent the Stukas raids.