Courtenay's solitaire AAR

[Courtenay]

M/J 42 Allied #1:
US Naval, CW Comb, Fr Naval, SU, China, Land.

The Allies are very grateful they are moving first.

The US puts a Wildcat into the three box of the Western Med, while the CW puts a Mosquito and a Beaufighter into the three box of Cape St. Vincent, a Beaufighter into the three box of the Western Med, and the Buffalo into the three box of the Bay of Bengal. The Buffalo is going to be kept flying until it is destroyed, which is inevitable sooner or later.

The US puts its speed four subs into the Bay of Bengal, under the Buffalo, and its faster subs into the South China Sea, leaving the China Sea alone. The US sails two transports loaded with FTRS into Cisneros, another TRS with a fighter to Cape St. Vincent, two empty TRS from Australia to the Austral (Australia to Austral; where else? [:)] ) Saratoga, with a new air group, Cowpens, and Indiana sail into Pearl. Two TRS take a Brazilian INF and a US white print INF to the Western Med. The CW moves Alexander on the Netherlands TRS to Cape St. Vincent, escorted by . Six CW battleships, all three French BBs, and the Maryland, escorted by Implacable and Eagle, join North Carolina in the three box of the Western Med. The CW moves Alexander to Cape St Vincent, escorted by Ramilles, a US CL and a CW CL. The French put Duguay Trouin in the 4 box of Cape St. Vincent. ASW patrols are made in most sea areas, but only CW units could reach the four box of the Faroes, so nothing is sent there.

The US tries for naval actions in both the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. The Japanese react NAVs into both zero boxes, and a Zero into the three box of the Bay of Bengal. In the Bay of Bengal, both sides roll sevens, for no combat. In the South China Sea, the US rolls a 4, finding the Japanese with three SUBS, while the Japanese roll a nine. With 8 surprise points, the US picks a submarine combat, and then lowers the Japanese response two columns, to a single A. The Americans put the A on their toughest submarine, with a 6 point damage rating, and it saves. The Americans inflict 2Ds and an A, sinking two CPs and sending one to Singapore. The US reduced the Japanese damage because an increase of one column would have caused 1 X and an A, which has the same effect, and another column adds one D. The Americans thought that reduction a D and 2 A to single A was the better choice, as it takes a long time to get a submarine back into combat -- not just the two turns of rebuilding, but several turns of transit time. The second round of combat, the Americans rolled a 10 and the Japanese a 7, for no combat. These are the first convoy points the Japanese have lost out of their main convoy routes, and the Japanese are happy that they finally have a reserve.

[Courtenay]

The US and CW each ground strike Graziani's hex with a bomber, and the US throws in its ART. The 5-3 INF was unaffected, but the Alpine XX was flipped. This reduces the defense strength of the stack by three.

The Chinese retreat from their "offensive"; the Kunming warlord flips itself doing so. The Communist Chinese pull back from Ichang, but send their CAV XX forward.

The CW has three land moves. All are important. One adds a Canadian INF to the attack on Graziani. The 16th Indian XXX surges forward to take the oil resource at Yenangyaung, Burma, before the newly built Burmese TERR in Mandalay can occupy the place. This flipped the Indian XXX, but there is no reasonable way for the Japanese to supply an attack on it, so the CW feels very safe in having done this. In a future game, the CW will try and get a corps into Mandalay before the Japanese attack Burma; unless the Japanese commit an HQ to Burma, this will guarantee that the CW holds the oil. Lastly, Alexander disembarks onto the forest between Casablanca and Rabat.

The CW declares an attack on Graziani. The Germans could send their Condors to intervene, but the CW carriers give air cover, and the Condors are too valuable. All the British battleships provide shore bombardment; the Americans and the French just watch, as otherwise Allied combat friction would apply. Montgomery provides HQ support. The attack goes in at 54-15, +11.700. Fractional odds fail; the Allies roll a nine. The CW loses their 6-1 GAR, and Graziani, a 5-3 INF, and the 2-3 MTN XX are all destroyed. The Canadian INF is flipped; Montgomery and a MOT advance to the coast, where they can be picked up by naval transports or rail out, as the Allies think appropriate. The Axis is annoyed; they had hopes of saving some of those units.

The US lands the P38 from Cape St. Vincent on top of Alexander, and puts a CVP on Cowpens (in the other order, otherwise it doesn't work.) The Chinese rebase their FTR so that it covers all of the Nationalist factories. The Communists will have to take their lumps.

Nimitz reorganizes the three ships that just sailed into Pearl. One of the TRS in the Austral reorganizes Chicago, which sailed into Mangareva, ready to sail the division there out.

Here is the combat report from Graziani's demise:

[composer99]

Obviously, the Algerian assault that led to the destruction/surrender of the Italian forces succeeded because of the Canadians. [:D]

[Courtenay]

M/J Axis #2:
Ge Air, It, Ja Land

The Japanese take a land to take advantage of the good weather in the Northern Moonsoon; it is not likely to stay good. At some point they will have to take a naval, but not yet.

The Germans look for long range FTRs, and at first miss their range 6 FTR in Spain. This FTR is critical to the proper conduct of Naval air operations. Eventually, I find it. The Germans put a 6 pt FTR and A Ju-88C into the two box of Cape St. Vincent. The Germans initiate air combat. Four Italian air units and a Condor and another Ju-88C fly to the two box; three US planes, one of them a 7 pt Hellcat, and one CW plane fly to the zero box. The search results are the usual: Germans roll a 6, and the Allies roll a 10. Nobody finds anybody.

The Germans ground strike Gibraltar and Tangier, sending a 6 point and a 5 point Stuka to both places. The CW fires AA at both targets, and gets a two point reduction on each 6 point Stuka. At this point the Germans proceed to roll six rolls in a row of four or less, flipping all six units in Gibraltar and Tangier. There will be an attack on Gibraltar this turn.

The Japanese move to attack a retreating Chinese unit. Also, the Japanese high command suddenly realizes that Macao is still held by the Allies. They order to the Taihoku MIL in Canton to march into and back out of Macao.

The Japanese attack a Chinese corps from many directions. They get a +8, and decide to use Yamamoto in support, for a +10. The Chinese look at the tables, and choose Blitzkrieg. It doesn't make any difference what they choose, as the Japanese roll a 13, for a 23, obliterating the Chinese without loss or disorganization, except Yamamoto. MWiF is, if not smarter than me, sometimes more observant. It noticed that there was a river between hexes 90, 133 and 89, 133. As it was covered up by the units in 89, 133, I didn't.

The Germans use Rommel and Von Leeb to reorganize the newly arrived 6 point FTR and and Rudel and the four Stukas that conducted the successful ground strike.

The Japanese fly their new range 22 NAV to Hong Kong, and their new FTF flies to the Philippines, which is as far west as it could get. The Germans fly a range 5 FTR and a Condor to La Spezia. The Italians fly a NAV back towards the Western Med.

[Courtenay]

M/J Allied #3: Weather 5: F, F, F, R, F, F, Imp advance 1, no modifier

CW naval, US combined, Fr Naval, SU land, China Land

The CW flies a FTR to the two box of Bay of Bengal, as it had nothing better to do. The US and CW fly in two more FTRs to the three box of Cape St. Vincent. The CW adds 3 battleships to the three box of Cape St Vincent, and another battleship to the Eastern and to the Western Med. The newly built Australian TRS heads for South Africa, escorted by a US cruiser. A CW TRS heads for Newark, to transport US units next turn. The Faroes Gap gets some cruisers in the four box. The CW decides to sends Argus to the zero box of Cape St. Vincent -- that one point addition to the search number of the zero box might be important. The CW adds submarines to both the South China Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The Chicago takes the division from Mangereva and takes it into the South Pacific. A CW cruiser picks up the US division in Oran, and takes it into the Western Med.

The Allies try to initiate combat in both the South China Sea and the Bay of Bengal. All search rolls by both sides fail. In Cape St. Vincent, the Germans try and find the Allies. They roll a one. "At last!", the Axis exults. The Allies then roll. They roll a one. Because of the CV in the zero box, everybody finds everyone. The Axis is speechless. They are down by -6 on the air to air table. The Axis is appalled. In air to air combat, though, the Allies roll a 10, clearing an Italian NAV through. The Germans roll a 5, aborting the front Allied FTR. The combat odds are still -4, though, so the Axis decides to abort the combat. Allied AA fire negates the Axis bomber. I actually lower this to let one point of bombing strength through, and then make all the attacks saves, to avoid the premature termination of naval combat when a bomber gets through and doesn't bomb. This leaves the Axis still in the sea area, and they try for another round. The US sends in a replacement FTR into the zero box. No one finds anyone, 7 to 6. That was anti-climatic. The CW gives an award to air crew of the Argus.

In China, I discover Umezu, and thus all of Central China, is out of supply. This surprise me, as I though he should be in supply. He can't trace supply to a primary supply source, because it is too far away in rain. I knew this, but thought it was possible to trace supply by rail to another HQ. It is not; rail can only be used to trace supply to primary supply sources, not secondary ones like HQs. Thus MWiF was right, and I was wrong.

The French could have moved their Yugoslav partisan into the resource hex, at the cost of flipping itself. The French feel they will have to deal with a strong attack, though, and prefer to defend, unflipped, in Skopje. The fact that the partisan is French, and not CW, is a bug.

The Chinese try to take advantage of the out of supply Japanese, and use their ART to bombard an adjacent INF. The ART rolls an eight and misses.

The US rails a GAR to Perth.

The US ARM corps wheels around Tripoli to take Homs. The Chinese Communists move their ART forward, onto their partisan.

The US disembarks an INF into Homs. The US division in the Western Med invades Ajaccio, Corsica, in an automatic attack.

The last US land move is to move a MOT XX stuck in the middle of nowhere, Spanish Morrocco.

The US rebases a lot of NAVs forward in the Pacific. The CW rebases the Blenheim from Egypt to Sardinia, in range of Tripoli.

Alexander expends himself reorganizing one unit: the 7 pt range 12 US Hellcat. Alexander personally fired the previous commander; he hopes the new one does better.

[Courtenay]

M/J 42 Axis #4:
Ge Land O-chit, Ja Naval, It Combined
The Germans decide to go for it.

The Germans put a FTR 6 and the Italians a 4 FTR into the two box of the Western Med. The Italians also fly their last NAV into the two box.

The Italians put their whole fleet into the two box of the Western Med, picking up a GAR from Tripoli onto their newly rebuilt TRS, and also picking up two German divisions from the Spanish coast. (By the way, I am firmly against unlimited breakdown.) The Japanese move an escorted TRS from Japan to Singapore carrying a 7-3 white print INF, while the TRS in Singapore, with escort, takes the 6-6 Mech to the South China Sea. A cruiser from Ceylon picks up the INF XX in the Maldive Islands, and returns it to Ceylon. A cruiser picks up a division and goes to the four box of the South China Sea. Strong reinforcements go to the South China Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Four CPs are added to the South China Sea and one to the China Sea. The Japanese submarines go out to low boxes around Pearl. They are not really expected to accomplish much; the point was to get then out of Tokyo and into to some place where they can strike next turn. The usual convoy escorts are sent to areas around Truk and Rabaul. I make the discovery that the Japanese have never taken the CW territories on the north coast of Borneo. I had completely forgotten the existence of these places. The Japanese send a couple of divisions on cruisers to into the four box of the China Sea to deal with them. Lastly, in the hopes that the Germans might cut the supply through Cape St. Vincent, a couple of cruisers are sent to the Azanian Sea.

The Italians search for the Allies in Cape St. Vincent. The US reacts the newly reorganized Hellcat to the zero box. The Axis rolls a three. Incredibly, the Allies roll another 1! This time, the odds are even worse for the German, as there is one more Allied FTR in the fight. The Germans decide to put a twin engine fighter in front. This time, numbers tell, as the Allies roll a 6, shooting down the front German FTR. The Germans roll well, a 16, but they are so far to left of the Air to Air combat chart that even that doesn't do anything. The Germans abort the air-to-air fight. The Allies at this point think they have the advantage in air to air combat, and react a Sunderland into the three box, to get the +1 search. The Axis rolls a 4, exactly finding the Allies; the Allies also roll a four, finding the Axis. The Sunderland pays for itself, here. The first round of air combat, the Allies roll a four, shooting down the FW 190. The Germans roll a 19, and have to make a decision: Kill the Sunderland or the Mosquito? They decide that the Sunderland is not really doing very much, while the Mosquito can shoot down German planes, and the Mosquito and its pilot die. The next round of combat, the Allies get an AA, and abort the last German FTR. The Germans clear the Sunderland through. The Germans then abort the air-to-air combat. The Sunderland bombing nothing seems to trigger a bug, as the naval combat ends, with neither side given a chance to have another round of combat. I redo the combat, giving the Germans a NE, and have both sides abort the combat. This allows the combat to continue. The Germans fly a Bf-109 into the 1 box; 20% of the time, this will give them fighter cover. Both sides roll a 6; no one finds anyone.

Nobody finds anybody in the Azanian Sea. The Japanese initiate a search in the Bay of Bengal. The CW rolls a 3, the Japanese an 9. The CW decides to fight a naval air battle over the zero box, hoping to destroy the Japanese NAV. Instead, the NAV and the Buffalo abort each other. The Japanese continue the combat; the Allies do not include their subs, (the didn't the first round, either), and the Allies roll a two and the Japanese an eight. The CW FTR engages the zero; the Zero is aborted, the FTR stays. In the third round, the Allies take leave of their senses, and commit their subs. They roll a three to the Japanese six, and destroy the Japanese convoy point. At some point, the Japanese will roll well on search, but they aren't holding their breath. The next round nobody finds anybody, which is a relief, as neither side has units capable of damaging the other side, given that the Allies don't commit their subs. The Japanese try to find the Americans in Mendocino. Nobody finds anybody. There is a Japanese sub in the two box of the Hawaiian Islands; they look at the cruiser in the four box and the NAV at Ford Island, and decide not to start anything.

The Allies search in the Western Med. The Germans, Italians and US each fly a NAV into the area. Nobody finds anybody.

[Courtenay]

The Japanese have an ART next to Stilwell; the ART is in rain, but Stilwell is in clear weather. The Japanese decide to try to flip him, to cause the Chinese problems with oil consumption. The ART misses both units in the hex.

The Germans rail an INF into Lisbon and a MECH to Poland. The Italians rail an INF all the way from Venice to Trieste. (The Italians are looking at severe action limit problems, so this rail move is equivalent to getting an extra land move.)

The Germans move an 8-6 MECH towards the French partisan in Skopje. I also start to move an additional Bulgarian from Bulgaria towards it too, before I remember that the Bulgarians already have as many units outside their country as they can. The Germans reorganize their coastal defense of Europe, making sure they have a white print unit in Calais, to prevent accidents caused by CW marine that they see will be arriving next turn.

The Italians debark the GAR in Cartegena.

In Spain, the big attack goes in. The two INF divisions land in Gibraltar. The Germans double all five attacking units and one of the adjacent ART units; there is enough artillery and air power to double the attack. The Allies through in every available point of NGS and an adjacent ART -- 24 points. The attack goes in at 84:64. The Germans use von Bock rather than Guderian to attack with because while von Bock is only a +1.5 as opposed to Guderian's +2, using von Bock avoids the -1 from the AA gun, and the AA gun is only double for the mountain, not quadrupled for mountain and attacking armor. It works out to a +9 1/8th attack, which is about a 56% attack. The fractional odds roll isn't close. The Germans roll an 8, and fail, although they do kill the CW MECH at the cost of the two invading INF divisions. I hate critical 50-50 attacks. It feels as though they succeed about one time in four.

The Japanese rebase a Zero from China to Singapore, and their range 19 NAV from Rangoon, where it is suddenly out of supply, to Singapore. These actions are to protect the fleet in the Bay of Biscay from Allied carriers.

The Germans fly the 6 point range four FTR to Lisbon. They move a bad range 5 fighter down to Naples to cover Taranto. This leaves Munich undefended, but Munich can only be hit by extended range planes, while Taranto is in range of normal range planes.

Rommel reorganizes the two units adjacent to Gibraltar, and the four point ART. They can get a +5 attack on Gibraltar, which has a 21% chance of taking the hex. The question then arrises of when to make the attack; if they can do it just before turn end, they have a chance at a double move, and a better attack next turn. The Axis is grasping at straws here.

[Courtenay]

In an earlier post, I said I used Rommel this turn to reorganize air units. That was incorrect; I used Guderian. Rommel was used this impulse. Rommel is good, but not that good! [:)]

Here is the situation in China/Burma at the end of the Axis move:

[Courtenay]

M/J Allied #5: Weather 5, F, F, F, R, F, F, imp advance 1, no modifier
US combined, CW naval, Fr naval, Ch land, SU land

The Allies had a quandary: Tripoli or the Japanese fleet. Tripoli isn't going anywhere. The Japanese fleet will be. The CW chooses a naval action.

The Allies put four CVs, 2 BBs and a cruiser into the Bay of Bengal. They add a cruiser to the four box and a couple to the zero box in the Azanian sea. All ships in Malta sail the three box of the Western Med, as does the remaining French cruiser. A transport picks Wavell off the coast, leaving him in the zero box of the Eastern Med. The US sorties a short ranges submarine from Pearl into the vacant Solomon Islands. The US figures it will take two more turns for it to get to someplace useful, but doesn't have anything better to do with the naval move. (Actually, it did. It should have moved escorts to Mendocino, but forgot.)

The Germans react two more FTRS into the one box of Cape St. Vincent.
Search rolls; 1 Axis, 3 Allied Cape St. Vincent
First round: Axis +1; 10 DC, Allies 16 AA, Allies abort BF 109, Sunderland cleared through
Second round: Axis +0; 13, NE, Allies 15, AA, Allies abort other Bf 109
Third round: Axis -2; 15, DA, Allies 10; P-40E aborted, Gabbiano cleard through
Fourth round: Axis 7, DA Allies 15 AA; P-40a aborted; last BF 109 aborted.
A Beaufighter is the only FTR that remains in the sea area. The Germans abort the air combat, not wanting to see their NAVS slaughtered. The Allies AA only inflicts a one point reduction on the Italian NAV. At this point I run into a bug -- the fact that the Sunderland has no legal targets causes the whole combat to be aborted. Not only does the Italian NAV not get its attack, but no more search roles are made.

I quit the program, and reran the combat, except that I do a NE rather than clear the Sunderland through, and I abort both sides of the air action. This works; the Italians only get one A, and try and send the Augusta home, since it has the best AA rating, but the Augusta rolls an 8 and stays. This was a lot of work for nothing; both sides roll an 8 in the subsequent search, ending the combat.

[Courtenay]

In the Western Med, the Allies make a Nimrod a fighter, to get themselves an even .5 air-to-air value. In retrospect, they would have done better to make the Albacore a fighter, also. The search rolls are 1 Allied, 3 Axis (3 surprise points); shift Axis air to air down.

First round: Axis +0, 15, AA; Allies -1; 11; DC, Condor cleared through, US FTR aborts.
The Allies are somewhat desperate now, as they are severely outgunned in the air.
Second round: Axis +2 11; DC, Catalina cleared through, Allies -3 4 DX, Ju-87R shot down (pilot survived).
Third round: Axis +2 8; DA, Swordfish aborted, Allies -3, 5 AA, German FTR aborted
Fourth round: Axis -1, 14, DA Albacore aborted, Allies +0; 6 AA, Italian FTR aborted, all Allied bombers clear through.
Fifth round: Axis -2; 7 DA, abort Gladiator, Allies +2; 15; AA; Italian Sparviero aborted.

This was a very lucky combat for the Allies, once they lost their front fighter. The Gladiator pilots earned themselves several medals. Another US fighter commmander earned himself a sacking.

The Germans get 3 points of AA fire; 10 Allied air points get through, for an X, 2D, and 2A. The Allies apply the X to the TRS, and damage it. The Italians apply the first D to the Eugenio Di Savoia, which is damaged, and the Allies apply the second D to the TRS, sinking it. The two As send to cruisers home, which does not matter, as the Italians leave the sea area after this round. The Allies, rolling 1d10 for AA, manage to roll a 1 against the Condor, which gets a D and 2 As. The D goes on the Furious, damaging it. The Allies apply the first A to the Furious, of course, which sticks around. The Germans apply the second A to the Revenge, hoping to reduce the Allies NGS at Gibraltar, but the Revenge saves. The Axis sees no reason to have their Condor try and fight a Beaufighter, which was backing up the Albacore, so the Axis leaves the sea area.

[Courtenay]

Here is the damage inflicted on the Allies in the above battle. The picture is interesting mainly because of the Allied forces displayed at the top; there was a fair amount of Allied naval combat power in the sea zone. Note the slider is slid over to the right; there are aircraft to the left of the display.

[Courtenay]

In the Bay of Bengal, the Axis reacts a Zero and their range 19 Flying Boat to the three box. The Allies roll a 3, the Japanese a 6. The Allies decide that they are not going to fight the Zero, and instead bomb three cruisers in the 0 and 2 boxes. They use surprise points to reduce the Japanese AA to ineffectiveness. They get an X, a D, and 3 A. The Allies try and sink the Kitakame, and fail, as it rolls a 10 and is damaged. The Sendai is damaged by the D, and the Kitakame goes home. The next round of combat no one finds anyone.

In the Coral Sea, the Allies roll another one. The Japanese roll a 5. The Americans decide to engage the Japanese FTR, shifting its combat value down two and the US up two. The Japanese roll a two in air to air combat. They kill the Hudson. The Americans roll an 18, killing the Japanese FTR and the pilot.

Stuttgart and Munich are the targets of CW bombers at extended range; neither has fighter cover. Without enemy planes to follow, the RAF has no clue where the cities are, rolling a 2 and a 3, for clean misses.

The US rails the New York MIL to Gibraltar.

[Courtenay]

M/J 42 Axis #6:
Ge, Ja land, Italian combined.

I have been on a trip, posting using other people's computers. Now I am back, and will resume this disaster.

The Japanese have two things to do -- reestablish supply to Ceylon, and invade Borneo. One requires a land, the other a naval. The Americans made a mistake, and forgot to reinforce Mendicino, so the Japanese will pick a naval, and hope the turn continues. The Italian combined is so that the Axis can initiate air combat in Cape St Vincent.

The Germans fly out a the newly arrived 6 pt FTR to the two box of Cape St. Vincent.

The Japanese try and move the only CP that can reach the West Indian Ocean, a CP produced in Siam, through the South China Sea. The Allies flip their last organized submarine to intercept. They succeed, rolling a three. The Japanese now have a problem -- fight through, or not. If they fight through, 40% of the time their NAV finds the Allies, and they will inflict significant losses on the Allied submarine force. 60% of the time, the get a CP point killed for no gain. I just rolled a die by hand. Amazingly, 2 times out of 5 the Japanese found the Allies! [:)] That is not a help. The Japanese decide that the benefits of a succesful roll are more than 50% greater than the cost of losing one CP. However, they then notice that a missed search roll might not cost them a CP, but if the Japanese roll an eight or higher, the Allies could choose to include the zero box, choose a surface action, and target either the Ryujo or the TRS carrying a MECH with an X. The Japanese have had enough disasters, and choose not to fight through. The Japanese are annoyed; their great naval action comes to very little.

[Courtenay]

The Japanese move another CP out to the Bismark sea, where it can return to base in Java, to be used next turn. They have another choice to make -- move out the carriers from Truk to the engage the Allied fleet in the Bay of Bengal, or not. The scary part is that in the air, against the Allies second best fleet, it is a fairly even action. However, if the Japanese gets lucky, the could completely trash the Allies in a surface action. They have no hope of doing what the Allies did to them in the storm; if a storm comes, they expect the Allies to leave. However, this gives the Japanese a hope: have a storm come, have the Allies leave, and the Japanese move their carriers out for a port strike. It's a plan. Maybe not a good plan, but a plan. Going for the fleet in the Bay of Bengal does not seem like a winning strategy -- it's likely result is attrition for both sides, and it would leave the American fleet at Pearl free to do what it wants.

[Courtenay]

In Cape St. Vincent, the Axis rolls a 3, the Allies a 7. Finally, a good result! However, the Germans take a look at the zero box, and recoil -- even with 6 surprise points, there are just too many Allied FTRs there. They only include the three box. The only Allied plane is a Beaufighter. The only Axis plane is the 6 pt He 100. The Germans decide to save their surprise for later. The air combat goes relatively well for the Allies. It goes disastrously for the game, as the Sunderland is cleared through in the first round of combat, activating the "No target for a bomber bug." I go back to the "Choose naval combat" step, and replay the combat, giving a NE to the Sunderland. I accidentally include the Allies zero box, and have to redo the combat a third time. The first round of combat, the Allies roll a 15, the Germans a 10. The second, a 14 to an 11. The third round, a 15 to a 9. All of this clears the Sunderland through, and has no other effect. The third round, the Allies roll a 19, the Germans an 8. An Italian NAV and pilot are shot down, while the Beaufighter is sent home. Finally, the Axis NAVs break through. The Axis decides to reduce the Allies AA fire. The Allies roll a 1 and an 8. If the Germans had known that the Allies would roll their lower number first, the Germans would have increased their column, instead. The Germans get an X, two Ds, and 2 As. They decide to put the X on Repulse, as being the high value ship most likely to be sunk. However, Repulse saves. The Allies put the D on the Prince of Wales, relying on its armor to save it from damage; indeed, the Prince of wales saves easily, and goes home. The Germans then try and sink the Repulse, but it again saves. The Allies pick the Berwick to take an A, and it saves. The Germans then try to send the Duguay Trouin home, the only Allied ship in the four box. The Duguay Trounin rolls another 8, but this sends it home. At this point, the naval combat bug bites -- the combat is aborted, and neither side is given a chance to continue. This is the most serious bug that I am aware of still in the game. I redo the combat, taking several tries as I do stupidities like including all Allied Sea boxes. Eventually, I manage to reproduce the results, except that I apply only NEs to the Sunderland, and then abort the Allied planes. (I hope that this bug has been fixed in the latest release.)

[Courtenay]

The next round, the Germans roll a five, the Allies a 1. The Allies could have aborted the combat here, and in retrospect, should have. However, they want to shoot down an Axis bomber here. However, the Americans roll a 10, clearing a bomber through. The Germans clear the Sunderland through, but I adjust the combat result to NE, so as not to trigger the bomber bug. The Allied AA fire takes the bombing strength of the German bomber to zero; again, I adjust this by hand to one, which produces some aborts; I make sure that these have no effect. The third round of combat, the Axis rolls a 2, the Allies a 10. Oops. In air to air combat, though, the Sunderland aborts the He 100, while being cleared through itself. This will end the combat after this round, as there is no way to avoid the bomber bug. The Axis reduces the Allied AA by two columns, which is good, as the Allies roll a 6, a 10 and 2. The final surprise points are used to adjust the attacking column up, to 2 X and a D. The Augusta and the Miguel de Cervates are sunk, and the Mauritius is damaged.

[Courtenay]

The Japanese try their luck in Mendocino; nobody finds anybody.

The Italians rail their MTN to La Spezia, and move a GAR and an INF that attacked the French partisan.

The Germans rail Manstein and Rundstedt back to Spain. They want the ability to reorganize air units. Some reshuffling in Poland, and an ARM gets close to the French partisan in Skopje. The Germans decide to not attack Gibraltar this impulse; they are hoping to pull of a double move.

The Japanese rebase a FTR forward from the Philippines to the Spratly Islands, and fly a 6 pt FTR down from China to protect the fleet at Singapore.

[Courtenay]

On a beta release the very frustrating bug that caused naval combat to prematurely end when a bomber got through and there were no targets has been fixed, so I have resumed playing this game, although I am very tempted to try Zartacla's everyone at instant war scenario.

M/J 42 Allied imputse #7: Weather 3, R, F, F, St, R, F, imp advance 1, no modifier.
US, CW combined, Fr naval, Ch, SU land.

The US and CW move their fleet out of the Bay of Bengal. They don't want the Japanese doing to them in the storm what they did to the Japanese. The French reinforce the Carribean, which is also affected by the storm. Why don't the Allies evacuate from the higher boxes of Cape St. Vincent? Because the units there are flipped from shore bombarding Gibraltar.

The CW tries to strat bomb Munich again, rolling a 5, missing.

The US moves an ARM XX into Oran, where it is stacked with a MOT XX. The CW gets Gort out of the interior of Algieria into Algiers. Three US corps move up adjacent to Tripoli.

The CW debarks Wavell and a MOT division adjacent to Tripoli.

The US and the CW jointly attack Tripoli. The KGV adds gunnery support. The attack goes in at +19, the Allies roll a twelve, and Tripoli falls. The Allies are careful to make sure that more US combat strength enters the hex than CW, so that Tripoli becomes US owned.

The British rebase a Sunderland to the Azores, and the Boomerang from Brisbane to one hex west, where it can reach the thee box. The Americans rebases a Mariner to the same hex, as it can't quite reach Brisbane, and a Hudson to Palmerston, Cook Islands.

[Courtenay]

M/J Axis #8
Ge, It Combined, Ja Naval
The Japanese plan to invade Borneo fails owing to the weather. The Germans and Italians are going to launch their submarines into areas with storms.

The German put another Bf-109 into the one box of Cape St. Vincent.

The Japanese put a CP into the Bay of Bengal, an incercept attempt in the South China Sea failing.

The Axis is tired of inclusive submarine actions, and launch every submarine they own into the Cape Verde Basin.

Search rolls: Cape St. Vincent Axis 3, Allies 5. To avoid the bomber with no target bug, I change this to a 1 and a 5, have the Germans get NE in air to air combat (as do the Allies), and then have the Allies abort. I do not use the two surprise points the Axis gets. The Allies roll a 5 and 9, aborting an Italian LND. The Germans sink the Vincennes; the Allies put a D on the Queen Elizabeth, which is damaged; the Axis tries to sink her, but she saves, and is aborted. Second round both sides roll fives, ending the combat.

Cape Verde Basin: Axis 2, Allies 5. Axis picks only five box. Gets 7 surprise points, uses all of them to completely negate Allied counterfire. Germany gets X, 2D, 2A, leaving one CW convoy in the sea zone. The next round, both sides roll a 10.

[Courtenay]

In the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea, the Allies initiate combat.

In the Bay of Bengal, the Allies roll a 7, the Japanese a 2. The Japanese decide to fight, and shift the Allied down one, two 2A, and the Axis up 2, to X, D, A. Hagura is aborted, Kumano saves. A British 2 point 4-2 sub sinks, but both American subs roll a 9, saving, although one goes home. The Americans decide to press the attack with their one remaining sub. Nobody finds anybody.

Finally, the Axis is getting some good naval rolls.

In the South China Sea, the Allies roll a 1, the Axis a 10. Oops. I spoke too soon.

The Allies have a lot of choice here: A loaded troop transport, a carrier, or the convoy points. The submarines know what they are for, though. They pick a sub combat, lower the Japanese column by one, and increase the Allied column by no less than 5, to 2X, D, 2A, emptying the South China Sea of CPs. Two Allied Subs are aborted, which makes little difference, as all Allied Sub in the sea area are out of torpedos. (All Allied subs in area are flipped.) The surviving Japanese convoy points return to Truk, where Yamashita will reorganize them.

This is the first turn that submarine warfare has been really effective, and was so for both sides.