Bob Flemin's MWIF AARse IV - Nice AArse

[composer99]

The Allies can never have enough TRS units. The CW can probably get away with 2 AMPH, and the US 4 to 6. But there's no such thing as too many TRS.

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

The Kriegsmarine sorties for the first time, taking up station in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Latvia.

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

Benito Mussolini: What do you mean the Kriegsmarine has sailed?!
Inigo Campioni: Practically the whole fleet has sailed into the Baltic.
BM: What, including the new shiny battleships?
IC: Er.. yes including Bismarck and Tirpitz.
BM: Then why haven't we sailed? We have shiny new battleships too!
IC: Yes but we have no air cover for our shin...I mean our battleships.
BM: Order the fleet to sail anyway - the Mediterranean is our sea and we can do what we want - I demand a stunning victory off the coast of Greece. [Looks at the map and points] There! order the fleet to Cape Matapan, we will fight the British there....

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

With heavy heart, a sense of deep foreboding, but pride in his men and his navy, Admiral Campioni sails for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Axis throw a 1 for naval search
The CW throw a 3.

Not sure what is happening here so I'll just roll with it. The CW are asked if they want a naval air combat. They naturally say yes, although I would have thought the Italians would have the choice??

Anyway, all aircraft fly as bombers due to the lack of Regia Aeronautica in the sky.

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

We move onto the AA phase.

The Italians role 3,1,5 and 2. The lowest 2 points give damage points of 3. The Sunderland and Nimrod are effectively rendered bombless [is there such a word? [:)]]

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

The remaining aircraft go to work...

[Courtenay]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Axis throw a 1 for naval search
The CW throw a 3.

Not sure what is happening here so I'll just roll with it. The CW are asked if they want a naval air combat. They naturally say yes, although I would have thought the Italians would have the choice??

THE CHOICE
Both sides will fight the same type of combat. You make the choice according to this priority:
1. You can choose the combat type if you spend 4 surprise points. You can even choose a combat type not normally allowed (e.g. SUB combat even if no enemy convoy points are included);

2. You can choose to make it a naval air combat (active side decides first) if you have an aircraft unit or undamaged CV (CVPiF/SiF option 56: with a carrier plane) included and the weather in the sea area is neither storm nor blizzard;

3. If it is not a naval air combat, you can choose to make it a submarine combat (active side decides first) if you have a SUB included and your opponent has any convoy points included; or

4. If it is neither a naval air combat nor a submarine combat, it is a surface combat.

Neither side has four surprise points, so "1" does not happen. The Italians don't have any aircraft, so they are not asked if they want to make it a naval air combat. The CW does, so they are asked. They said yes, so "3" and "4" don't happen.

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

The Italians still have superiority in surface vessels. They decide to stick around...

The Axis roll a 2
The Allies roll a 5

The RM get the choice of which CW units to include - they choose those in the 2 and 4 sea box sections only.

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

This could hurt! The Regia Marina do what they failed to do in the real war - they have got at the British convoys with their surface ships.

The Royal Navy cruisers bravely keep between the transports (in other words the CW get to choose the targets) and for the loss of one ship sunk (HMS Manchester), two damaged (Sussex and Liverpool) and two aborted (Gloucester and Birmingham) the Transport is untouched.

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

The Italian cruisers did a fine job of shielding their battleships (in other words the Italians also had the choice) and lost Colleoni (sunk) and Diaz (aborted) in the process.

Both sides stay around but the naval searches are pathetic - 8 and 9 respectively. The fighting comes to a close.

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

Back to the Russian Front. There is just one ground strike. The order has gone out from the very top. Take Riga!!

The ground strike is 50% successful.

[composer99]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

With heavy heart, a sense of deep foreboding, but pride in his men and his navy, Admiral Campioni sails for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Axis throw a 1 for naval search
The CW throw a 3.

Not sure what is happening here so I'll just roll with it. The CW are asked if they want a naval air combat. They naturally say yes, although I would have thought the Italians would have the choice??

Anyway, all aircraft fly as bombers due to the lack of Regia Aeronautica in the sky.

The choice of combat goes to the side with air unit in the combat. So if both sides had them, they would both have had the opportunity to call it (I can't recall in which order).

The Italians would only get to force the combat to be a surface battle if they had enough surprise points, which I doubt they did.

[warspite1]

Thanks Composer and Courtenay for your responses.

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

There will be two land attacks - Riga and Odessa.

In the north the Kriegsmarine lay down a barrage of steel against the Latvian capital, taking the odds up to 5:1. Zhukov tries for defensive HQ support - which again fails. Zhukov and Yamamoto must have the same HQ Support coach...

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

The attack on Riga is carried out first. The odds are 5:1 +1 on the Assault table...

.......its an 8(9) and Riga falls for no loss or disorganisation.

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

At Odessa the odds are 3:1 no modifiers on the Assault table....

...its an 8. The Soviets lose a unit and the survivors are Shattered. I do not convert and so all three units are destroyed as there is nowhere to retreat to.

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

But then disaster!! The Axis role a 1 and the turn ends. THAT is a piggin' disaster!

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: Production

Germany:
Offensive Chit
GARR
MOT
MECH
2 x NAV
3 x Pilot

Italy:
Roma (Repair)
INF
LND

Japan:
2 x CARR AIR
INF
FTR
Pilot
MECH

Vichy France:
TERR

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: Production

China:
MECH DIV
CAV

Commonwealth:
HMS Liverpool (Repair)
HMS Sussex (Repair)
AMPH (Build)
2 x CARR AIR
FTR
NAV
LND
5 x pilots

USA:
SUB (Repair for CW)
4 x Essex-class (build)
INF
MAR
NAV
FTR
Pilot
ARM
ART

USSR:
4 x INF
ARM
AT
3 x FTR
4 x Pilot
LND

[warspite1]

May/Jun 1942
Impulse: End of Turn

Germany liberate Lithuania and Latvia