My second AAR (again)

[brian brian]

"Germany" and "withdrawal" in the same sentence. I wonder who got shot?

[yvesp]

ORIGINAL: brian brian
"Germany" and "withdrawal" in the same sentence. I wonder who got shot?

Good point!

One of these days, I intend to play a game with special rules that actually applied in the war. Such as:
* Paris as an open city
* Allies allowed to disembark a div in Narvik without war with Norway (tricky to do!)
* German troops forbidden to retreat (die roll necessary to succeed)
* USSR must claim the Finish Borderlands, then Bessarabia
* ...
Just to try and "replay" once the real war... Not sure I'll have the patience to lay down all the necessary additional rules ; not sure i'll find a way to use them in MWIF...

Yves

[yvesp]

While the American Fleet is roaming west, the Japanese continue their attack on the american coast. In San Diego, they catch unprotected ships. That will certainly give something to thik about to the USA. Maybe their fleet should just stay in Honolulu to protect America, as long as their are not enough fighters to protect the country from such raids ?

[yvesp]

Having succeeded in their retreat, and little else to do on land, the Germans launch their UBoats in the Atlantic.

On the West cost, a Catalina is watching closely.
But it fails in repelling the sub.

[yvesp]

Germany has no reason to cease the attack, but this time the Catalina damages it.

[yvesp]

Even though stung, the sub is relentless.

[yvesp]

But it is destroyed... Not without taking with it some convoys.

[yvesp]

Another pair of subs is operating in the relatively weakly protected North Atlantic.

[yvesp]

The sub has to leave

[yvesp]

But not without doing its job

[yvesp]

Its companion then goes into action

[yvesp]

And succeeds in interrupting totaly the convoy chain in the North Atlantic.
The allied damage is high.

[yvesp]

In the meantime, the Italians finally get rid of a strong yugoslavian partisan group, not without a cost.

[yvesp]

As the turn ends, Germnay sees that the USSR are closer than ever to declaring war. They have even brought Zhukov back from Siberia, replaced there by Koniev.

[yvesp]

Germnay suffered the most losses. But most are naval, which doesn't move Hitler.

Italy suffered also, with two lost corps... That's expesive for her.

The Japanese did not had any losses, while most of the american losses, being naval, are not shown.

The same goes for the commonwealth which lost 6 convoys.

[yvesp]

The plugin crashed, so I lost all info about production...
I also had to replay the whole return to base phase when some Japanese convoys decided to abort... There should be some way to ensure that used convoys stay at sea by default (somehow, the sentry flag got away.) ; and this is a difficult phase, with non cooperation problems: there is a Netherland transport, a Spanish transport, an American transport bringing Mexican troops... Name it, I have it...

But the axis is being badly over produced now.

The US fleet rebases to Rabaul after thinking this over a long time.
This is a dangerous place to stay in. And this leaves the west coast vulnerable.
The US count that Japan cannot afford to move their fleet away if the US fleet is too close.
A US marine lands in Guadalcanal.

The turn was costly in oil for the allies: 5 for the Commonwealth, 6 for the USA who had to cut production.

[yvesp]

Germany builds: 1 Inf, 2 Mot, 1 Mech, 1 Armor, 2 Ftr (2), 1 Land Air (2), 3 pilots, 1 sub ; They keep 1 BP.

Italy builds: 1 Inf, 1 Ftr (2), 2 pilots

Japan builds: 1 Mech, 1 carrier air (1), 2 pilots, repairs one cruiser

China builds: 1 Fighter (P40F Kittyhawk), 1 pilot, 1 Mech, 1 Cav div

The Commonwealth produces: 1 Armored HQ (Montgomery), 1 Garrison, 1 Para, 1 Mech, 1 Battleship (Thunderer, 2nd round), 4 convoys, 3 pilots, 2 carrier air, 2 Ftr (2), 1 Land Air (4)

Note that producing its first heavy bomber, the Commonwealth marks a shift from defense to offense.

The USA build: 1 armor, 1 mech, 1 mot, 1 militia, 1 garrison, 1 inf, 4 pilots, 1 Ftr (2), 1 air transport, 1 Land air (3), 1 transport (round 2, was bottomed by the Japanese), 1 battleship (Missouri), 3 carrier air (1), 1 battleship (round 1), 1 sub (repair for the French), 1 transport (round 1),

Somehow, I wante to build ahead carriers, but there must be a bug because they're not showing. They keep 3 BP. Two of which will go to the French in the next turn.

The Russian build: 2 mot, 2 militias, 1 mech div, 3 pilots, 2 land air (2), 1 Ftr (2), 1 artillery.



The production for this turn is dense. Mostly expensive units are arriving. 3 armored HQ for exemple, 6 HQ in total. Curiously, there are no pilots nor air units: I suspect a bug here!

[yvesp]

The allied succeed in taking the initiative in the September turn.

This was absolutely crucial for the Britany invasion: the US forces were extremely stretched, with Eisenhower alone in Nantes, Nimitz alone north of it, and a single line unit closing the line north. With unsufficient air support and no naval support, not getting initiative would likely have let Germany blow the invasion away, at a sore cost!

The British play a naval move, while the USA use a much necessary combined.

As for months now, the British try to deal with the remains of the German naval force in france, but they fail.

The fllowing naval move will be the most difficult I ever had to play. I took me more than three hours, with numerous reloads. Many problems came from resource transportation:
* The british lend the USA 2 oil. For some very interesting reasons that only the game knows about, it insisted in handling the Kuwait synth oil and the Birmany oil. Certainly the best choice to overload the convoys!
* The game also insisted in sending the Philipino resource through the atlantic, rather than using the yet unbroken convoy chain to the USA.
* There were other too numerous resource allocation problems...
In the end, I had to manually reset all resources to idle, then allocate each one by one to the appropriate factory.
* I also would like to lend 2 BP from the USA to France. I should be able to do this by directly using the Brazil factories (2 sea areas), but the game doesn't want that. Instead, it seems to insist on transporting saved build points (otherwise, it doesn't even honor the trade!) from the USA (where they can be saved) ; this makes an overuse of at least 4 convoys. And what if I did not use the saved BP option ?

The final result is almost OK, except that by some magic, one British oil is not sent to the USA...

Anyway, on the military side, the USA took a deep breath, and sent their fastest ships in the China sea, hoping to disrupt the Japanese trade. If it had succeeded, any losses to the fleet would then be covered. But it failed to find anything... On the other hand, it threatens the Japanese coast and the Japanese fleet might well have to reply in kind or risk be struck in port.

[yvesp]

At the start of the axis turn, the situation looks locked almost everywhere.

In France, the recent US reinforcements combined with the rain and the lack of reserves make a German counterattack a lucky affair.

In Spain, the Germans have retreated on the Pyreaneans, on an almost impossible to break position.

[yvesp]

Russi is preparing itself to the assault, which is sure to begin in 43 meanwhile, Germany can enjoy peace.