AAR. Letters of our never ending war.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

“When we raise the frontier barrier the first of September we thought everything will end soon never we were more mistaken”

Hi! This is my first AAR so I apologize for my faults and my bad English. I´ll report not in detail turns just general strategies, great battles and brief summaries of the game.
The game is an extended Global War, playing in a hotseat mode. I rule the axis side and my friend Pepe rules the allies. Here is the optional checks.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

1939

Europe. The game began without nothing surprising. My first objective was fast conquest of Poland to invade Yugoslavia but bad weather changed my plans to a standard strategy, attacking Denmark, Netherland and Belgium. These are some pictures at the end of the year.

Asia. My original plan was mastering the seas so I deployed my forces in China in a defensive way, just fighting for the easy resources not so far the coast in south front. These are some pictures at the end of the year.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

These are some pictures at the end of the year. France South.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

These are some pictures at the end of the year. North China

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

These are some pictures at the end of the year. south china

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

1940

Europe. German forces invaded Netherland in the first turn of the year. Sturdy Adolf left the English took Roterdam, was intentional because my OKW planned to destroy France and UK before attacking Russia and master Mediterranean Sea. It was a risky business like we will see soon. In march / april panzers went to Belgium lefting in the north flank the well trenched and reinforced BEF. Well, well my plan was working, UK heavy commitment in the continent.

Picture of the Belgium deployment.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

Luck was on my side and the invasion of Belgium was a complete success. The French army could not help them and more important the BEF was isolated in the coasts.

Picture after Belgium disaster.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

In the south Italy pretended an inminent invasion of Greece forcing more dispersion of the CW forces

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

Asia. Japan forces in the south advanced with slow pace minimizing the risks. In the north we trenched.

Pictures of the North Front.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

Picture of the South China Front

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

Jul / Ago 1940. “Fall Gelb” Part 1

Europe.

Good weather and good rolls, panzers roaring against poor French defenses. No necessary the use of OC. The offensive is a new version of Schlieffen plan but this time there is not Marne miracle. Soon, german forces reach the Seine and the gatesof Paris but not all is ok, the BEF keeps controling the coasts of the channel menacing the long north german flank. Adolf order to stop advancing and assure the flank. The german generals are frustrated. Reichsmarshall Goring assures that Luftwaffe can neutralize the brits but after suffer heavy casualties the brits keep on standing. After the Luftwaffe failure, I had to decide if I kept the pressure against French army or if I took a very risky decision, attack to BEF, supported by their powerful fleet, and send them to hell. Adolf was shouting with rage in my head.

Picture of the France Front in this critical point.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

Jul / Ago 1940. “Fall Gelb” Part 2

Go my braves, go! Finally I decided to attack in both fronts, typical Adolf all or nothing strategy. I launched one two hexes attack to take Paris (3 to 1 odds) and two attacks to BEF (3 to 1 blizt and 2 to 1 assault!). Naturally, spending an offensive chit. Alea Jacta Est!
The attack in Paris was wonderful, the defenders fled away like rats in a sinking boat! But the BEF could resist with some casualties, so the victory was uncertain. Gladly for me, Winnie had fear (maybe my naval builds had frightened him ). The BEF was withdraw to England. Never a “Dynamo Operation” was more celebrated by the OKW. Now, France stand alone and needed to recover a heavy defended Paris. French forces tried to expel us from their capital but were repelled with fury and death.

Picture of the France front after german offensive.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

The french army leaves their positions against Italians trying to to stop the german advance.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

The fall of France.

With Paris on my hands I had to decide again, Vichy or not Vichy? … that was the question!. Accord to my original grand strategy I needed Spain and Gibraltar but the heavy air loses, the pyrric victory against BEF and my poor advance in France were not the best position to conquer France. The French army trenched behind the Seine would be a very hard bone to break. So, I had to declare Vichy and forget my original plans. One more time, Wif drove me where I did not want [:@] a 1941 Barbarossa.

Asia. Nothing important happened in China. China was weak to attack and Japan concentrated his efforts in naval buildings.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

Last turns of 1940.

Europe:

After “victory” in France OKW was doubtful. Adolf insisted in preparing the attack to Russia but OKW didn´t want to let Mediterranean Sea in English hands. The original armaments program (remember, to destroy CW) gave good weapons (air naval, marines, paras…) to fight there. So, after hard argumentations with myself, the next objectives were pointed: Malta, Alexandria, Greece, even a very audacious Felix operation to take Gibraltar. The logistic problems, lack of land units and the bad weather made me understand that 1941 Barbarossa was not possible too. The new plan was assure the central and east Mediterranean, conquer Middle Orient and 1942 two pronged attack to Russia. At the end of the year the things were not marching very well. Winnie was very cautious, reinforced all my objectives and an strange “phoney war” happened.

Picture of central Mediterranean.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

Picture of East Mediterranean

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

Asia:

The Mikado took positions to take control of French Indochina and trenched in the south China coasts. In the north front, nothing important happened.

Picture of the North China Front.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

Picture of the south China Front.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

1941

“In the beginning of 1941, we were happy. France had fallen and Italy had joined us in the fight. The brits stood alone and every of us though the peace was at the reach of our fingers but the truth was that the shadows of the death were covering us.”

Europe.

My general strategy was conquer the Mediterranean and take positions to Barbarossa 1942.

Objectives:
1) Malta.
2) Greece and aligns Yugoslavia.
3) Suez.
4) If there was a chance, take Gibraltar.

Distraction Operations.
1) False Sea lion.
2) False Atlantic Battle.

Asia.

Japanese prepared their forces to attack south east Asia.
1) Combined Task force Truk to attack Rabaul.
2) Combined Task Force Japan to attack Philipines
3) Combined Task Force Canton to attack Batavia.
4) Land Force to attack Burma.
5) Land Force to attack Malaysia.

Opportunity Actions.
1) Port Attack over USA fleet.
2) Australia Invasion.

Note: A virus bomber (possibly launched from North Korea Government) destroyed my secret files about this year so the pictures are operational displays. Next follow a brief summary of the main operations happened along the year.

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

Operation Herkules .The battle for Malta. Part I. March/April 1941

German Italian Forces.
The Italian Fleet was based in La Spezia with german land invasion forces.
Another group including paratroopers were based in Sicily.

British Forces.
Two land corps, one white, one black and one fighter and naturally the Royal Fleet based in Gibraltar and Suez.

The Plan.
Ground Strike Malta defenses.
Blockade the island, with the fleet and air naval forces.
Launch sea invasion.
Launch a second invasion with paras if was necessary.

The battle. Part One.
After a furious air naval fight in the west Mediterranean, the English fleet had to withdraw but in the east Mediterranean, the combined german-italian air naval force were destroyed so Malta forces were not unsupplied notwithstanding I proceed with the amphibious assault. This assault wasn´t successful but eliminated the white defender unit. Sudden end of turn prevented the para invasion.

An operational map: