A musical global war AAR...

[Centuur]

There hasn't been any attack made on USSR soil by the Axis forces. Also the Finns leave the Borderlands. This means that there aren't any Axis units on USSR soil too. This action means that the USSR production multipier is now 0,5...

Time for some music out of... Cuba, but recorded in 1938 in Germany: Lecuona Cuban Boys "La Conga de Jaruco"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoU9Kk3UhCE

During air rebase, German planes arrive at the frontlines, especially the ones in the Ukraine. The Soviet FTR's are spend. Here is the Ukrainian Front:

[Centuur]

The turn doesn't end. And here is the weather report for the next couple of impulses:

[Centuur]

Now, for the calculators among us... Should the Allies pass and take the chance that the turn will end (50%), in which case there will probably appear some USSR partisans in Karelia and the USSR will get a production multiplier of 0,5...

Or should the Allies continue this turn (30% chance turn ends), which might give the Wehrmacht the opportunity to start killing Soviet units (or not, if they decline to enter the USSR proper...) at the cost of an USSR production multiplier of 1... Decisions, decisions...

[Centuur]

May/June 1941, Allied impulse number 9:

Did you do your calculations. Conclusion: why end the turn as the Allies and get that drop in the production multiple of the USSR? Also, there are always improvements the USSR can make on the frontlines. So, the allies decide not to pass.

Now, I made a horrible mistake. I forgot to give you the national anthem of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M00lMa06DRE

The USSR takes a combined action! Why not. It's summer and there are some juicy German convoy points waiting to get slammed on by the Soviet Navy in the Black Sea. If the German fleet and NAV's are all around the Med., this gives the Baltic fleet the chance to kill German merchantman full with Swedish Iron...

The CW takes a land action and the other Allied countries pass.

Hitler isn't amused when he hears of the losses the Soviet Navy passes on to the Merchantmen. Not amused at all. He orders Goering and Raeder to fix things at once: “Wo ist die Luftwaffe und die Kriegsmarine? Das ist ein Skandal!” He of course did forget that he ordered the Luftwaffe to attack the USSR and the Kriegsmarine to eradicate Allied shipping in the Cape Verde Bassin...

[Centuur]

A white print GAR is railed out of Leningrad towards the Ukraine. During the movement phase, Zhukov realises that he is now within range of a plane capable to ground strike him. Now, he doesn't want that to happen, so he decides to start up the engines of his tanks and move away. Timoshenko also retreats slowly further to the east. However, he can't get out of range of the Luftwaffe. Zhukov decides to reorganise a FTR and an INF:

In Italian Somaliland, Wavell's tanks race along the coast towards Mogadishu. And there aren't any Italian units in sight to stop him.

The turn doesn't end...

[composer99]

The magic question is would the turn have ended if the Allies had passed?

[Centuur]

To answer that question: no, it wouldn't have ended...

May/June 1941, Axis impulse number 10:

What is the most important thing in World in Flames? It's economics! The loss of build points in the game should be as small as possible to any nation in this game. This also means that when a convoy chain is broken, one should try to fix things as soon as possible. For Germany, this means that a naval action has to be taken. Japan and Italy both take land actions.

Let's listen to: Ein Leutnant und Zehn Mann:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWnKpu9KXxw

The Luftwaffe moves a Me110 in the 0m box of the Baltic sea. During naval movement, the Finnish BB's enter the Baltic and convoy points sail out into the Baltic too.

Of course, Germany doesn't want to initiate combat in the Baltic. But the USSR doesn't agree on this. They decide to search for the enemy. Both sides roll a 2, resulting in a damaged Finnish battleship...

[Centuur]

and an aborted Soviet cruiser:

[Centuur]

Both sides decide to stay and again both sides find eachother:

[Centuur]

This time it results in a Finnish Battleship aborting:

[Centuur]

Both sides again decide to stay. This time, the Soviet BB's catch the convoys:

[Centuur]

However, Messerschmidts 110 decend on the Soviet Battleships, who's puny anti air guns can't seem to get the pilots from not attacking the two BB's (no effect). However, the same can be said for the bombs of the Messerschmidts:

[Centuur]

Both sides again stay and take the risk of a bad die roll (both sides need more surprise points to either end the combat or to harm the enemy). This time, both sides fail to find the enemy (rolls were 10 for the Allies and 5 for the Axis). The precious German convoys are save... for now. An Italian Flying boat rebases to the Baltic Sea coast. A German Flying boat rebases out of Egypt towards the North to. It lands in Yugoslavia.

Here's: Trio Lescano - Tulipan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YktS9LsGAA

The Japanese rail Umezu into Manchuria.

Italian land units slowly move further into Syria:

[Centuur]

The turn doesn't end (9 rolled). And here is the weather for the next couple of impulses:

[Klydon]

Bad timing for once on the weather from the Axis point of view. If they had good weather in the Med, they could have continued to advance in Syria to up the pressure on the Russians. The German convoys are probably pretty happy however as they won't likely be found in that muck in the Baltic.

Allies should easily be able to all pass and get the turn over with if that is their desire.

[Centuur]

The Soviets can't attack the German convoys this turn due to the snow. The SUB's in Leningard can't sail due to the snow. Also: the two BB's will have to stay at sea if the turn ends, since the only port they can rebase to is Liepaja, which will get conquered by the Axis during the conquest/liberation phase. Now, I think I won't pass with all the allies. Bad weather means no German attacks...

[Centuur]

May/June 1941, Allied impulse number 11:

If all major powers pass, there is a 70% chance that the turn will end. I've changed my mind. Since there is one port available to the Soviet BB's if the turn ends (Liepaja), the Allies decide to try to end the turn:

[Centuur]

Admiral Raeder makes a personal visit to von Brauchitsch, asking very politely if it might be possible to capture the port of Liepaja this Axis impulse, since that could mean the automatic destruction of the Soviet BB's...
Von Brauchitsch puts on one of his records and rings for a bottle of good French wine: “Aber natürlich”. Theo Reuter with “Wolgawellen” sounds through the halls of the OKH:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOmpfWrGkeU

[Klydon]

Oh, the Russians have some other issues too. The hex to the NE of Riga, which is normally swamp, is now forest. That should let the Germans outflank the northern part of the line. Most likely, the Russians will pull back the milita if they get the chance, but the Germans will have some good options from there and be able to get into Estonia far faster than the Russians planned for.

This is exactly what the Germans need to do to a point and that is stretch the Russian line to make it weak some place where they can start getting some good attacks on it.

[Centuur]

In a normal Barbarossa, you would be right. Problem is, that this isn't a normal Barbarossa. There are quite a lot of units tied up for anti partisan duty in places like Spain and for guarding against invasions (and with the CW having an AMPH, that is a possibility) around Morocco and Portugal too. Normally, the Germans should have an advantage in the number of units they have on the front and of a Luftwaffe and army which is build for Barbarossa. However, Germany lacks good ARM, MECH and long range LND3 bombers. The build points needed for those were put into NAV and MAR/PARA and send to Italy to support the close the Med strategy. The only place where the Axis have an advantage is in the Middle East. Guderian really has the best troops at his disposable that are available for the Germans. If you look at the way things are going, it will probably be the Middle East which will become the place for the Axis to try to get things rolling. The USSR can't ignore that part of the map and it hasn't got good units in there at the moment...

May/June 1941, Axis impulse number 13:

All Axis powers take land actions. For a short moment, I considered an attack by the Finns on Leningrad. Using winterised units, this would end up to be a “0” attack. Since this would mean that the hex will be taken on a die roll of 19 or 20, this plan is discarded.

So lets listen to the “Russland Lied”, which really gives you the way German propaganda was made...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYVFI7cfM7k

The Yugoslavian MTN is railed into Gibraltar. The CAV rails to Essen and Prince Paul rails into Latvia. The Tokyo MIL is railed out of Vladivostok into Canton.

The German forces close in to the border of the USSR, but don't cross it. Even an attack on the MIL in Latvia isn't an option since there aren't any Axis FTR's in the region and the USSR can support this attack with bombardment from an adjacent ART and two bombers. This would make this attack no more than a +4 (due to the snow...). That's something you don't want to do on a front at which both sides are at about the same strength...

Turn ends (5 rolled). No partisans appear.

Here is the Belorussian Front: