A musical global war AAR...

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The Manchurian Front:

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Turn ends (roll 3, 70% chance. 2 partisans appear in the USSR.

And now: Peter Igelhoff - Friedericke !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al26YXOeTqU

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I've again run into trouble with US entry. This time quite fatal. So this AAR is on hold until the bugs regarding the transfer of Northern Ireland to the US is fixed.

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November/December 1941, end of turn phases:

First, a very large destroyed pool for this turn. And the 15 lost convoy points by the CW and the US aren't even stated. The Axis lost about a turn production, the Allies about 1,5 turn of production...

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The US draws an entry chit in the German entry pools. There are currently 30 entry chits in that pool. The Japanese entry pool gets three additional chits drawn in it. There are currently 26 entry chits in that pool.

Lets listen to: Benny Goodman and His Orchestra - Perfidia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4PP7c6Va-U

After this, the CW and the Durch announce that they have reached an agreement allowing CW troops into the NEI. Two entry chits are moved to the tension pool for the Japanese.

The situation in Northern Ireland is getting out of control. More and more killings, uprisings and demonstrations take place. Catholics and protestants are fighting each other on the strees. Also, german rifles and handguns are being used by terrorists more and more. The Irish government speaks of “somewhat of a war zone”. In London, the general staff concludes that to keep the peace, a large controlling army is needed. In Washington and other large cities in the US, the Irish Americans demonstrate for the US to end the killing of their relatives in the home country. The US president invites the Irish and British government for a summit. The President promises a peace force in Northern Ireland and to use their influence on a peacefull solution for the territory after the war. All parties involved, even the IRA agree. Just 24 hours after the agreement is signed, the Northern Irish are amazed to see US ships entering the Port of Belfast and unloading US troops. The oil depot in Belfast changes hands to the US.

The German foreign ministry reacts furious and protest to the US. They claim that Northern Ireland is still British controlled. All ships and troops in the territory are considered to be enemy units, is written in an official complaint presented by the Geman Embassador in Washington. 1 entry chits moved to the tension pool for the Euroaxis. There are currently 7 chits in the Ge/It and 6 chits in the Japanese tension pool. Abwehr estimates that the US now has a 50% chance of a succesfull DoW on Germany. For Japan, this has now risen to somewhere between 50 and 70%, depending on the draw of the chits...

Germany produces 28 build points. All oil is saved. It uses 6 oil for reorganisation. 6 oil remain for future use. One cruiser is not reoganised. It produces 3 forts, pilot, 2 FTR2, SYNTH, MECH and 2 TERR.

Italy produces 10 build points. All oil is saved. It uses 3 oil for reorganisation. 6 oil remain for future use. The Littorio gets repaired. Italy produces a pilot, LND3 and an INF.

Japan produces 19 build points. All oil is saved. It uses 6 oil for reorganisaion. 10 oil remain for future use. It repairs the cruisers Akoa and Atago. Japan builds 2 pilots, 2 CVP, CP, SYNTH and MIL.
G
The US produces 29 build points. 1 oil is saved. It uses 1 oil for reorganisation. 11 oil remains for future use. It repairs the French cruisers Montcalm, Duquesne and Colbert. The Lexington II and the Intrepid are finished. 4 pilots, 4 CVP, TERR, ARM.

France produces nothing. It saves the oil it gets out of the US. No oil is used for reorganisation and 6 oil remain for future use.

The USSR produces 22 build points. It saves 6 oil and 1 oil is used for reoganisation. 39 oil remains for future use. It builds 2 pilots, 2 FTR2, 4 GAR, 2 INF.

The CW produces 17 build points. It saves 11 oil and uses 7 oil for reorganisation. 50 oil remains for future use. It builds 6CP, 2 pilots, CVP, FTR2, MIL and repairs the Nelson.

Papua, North Bornea, Sarawak, Brunei and the Territory of New Guinea are conquered by Japan.
British Somaliland was conquered by Italy.

Here is the only recording of the National Anthem of the Kindom of Sarawak which I could find. This one was in use during the war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnIgtQG_7XE

The other conquered nations didn't have a national anthem during the war.

January/February 1942, start of turn phases:

A lot of scrapping was done, because of the force pool additions. Obsolete plains and units were removed from the force pools.

Here are the reinforcements for this turn:

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Now, since we've entered a new year, time for some statistics.

Next a soldierssong: "Bomben auf Engeland" - Luftwaffenlied

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKeO_foFsM0

6 Allied attacks have been done during the war so far. To be exact a -3, 0, +1, +4, +13 and +17. This is pretty much what was to be expected, since it isn't good to attack, when you are on defense. Often the Allies in the first couple of years can't handle the worst result possible and that means: don't attack. This will stay so during 1942, but during 1943 the USSR in particular will make a lot of low odds attacks as an attrition warfare, since the Allies has got more build points available than the Axis has got.

99 Axis attacks have been done. Of those 27 were +8 or less. I consider +9 to be somewhat of a turning point, when using the 2D10. If you go below this, the chance of considerable losses is a lot higher. 26 attacks were between +13 and +20. Every attack from +13 onwards I consider to be an attack which has a high chance to succeed. This is because the dreaded 14 result is out when making attacks.. Finally, the Axis made 16 automatic victory attacks (+21 or more).

So far so good. However, if you look carefully at the oil situation, the problems are slowly growing for the Axis. Already they have more units fighting, sailing and flying that they have oil for. This is an ongoing concern. So the tactics for the Euroaxis is pretty clear: get the Caucasian and Persian oil fields. Apart from that, the Axis will slowly start thinking more defensive from now. After all, the game is about being in the war at the end of the J/A 1945 turn for the Axis, not about killing of more Allied major powers (how nice it looks, the USSR is still pretty strong and the Axis are not going to be able to defeat the Russian bear. Sure, they will make spectacular advances in 1942, but the Euroaxis should preserve forces, not fritter them away.) Japan will take on the US early 1942 and take the Philippines, but after that, they will rely on defense first, and offense later.

Looking at the production figures, the Allies produce now 68 to 57 for the Axis. This is a normal situation end of 1941 and therefore, the Axis should become somewhat more carefull and not lose a lot of units for a long, long time. The losses for last turn were already very high and those kind of losses can only be allowed, for as long as the Axis kills 1,5 times more than the Axis own losses. That is pretty difficult to do, especially with the US in the war.

How is the world looking...

Let's start in West-Africa. Here, there is a nasty Italian TERR, acting like the terrorists in places like Mali, Nigeria and Central Africa today. That nasty Italian fellow keeps threathening to capture Free French countries. The CW MECH should have finished that one around Bamako already. However, I ran into a problem here. Apparently I didn't know the rules good enough. Well, anyone here that has played the boardgame and starts MWIF, will get some nasty surprises, regarding the rule book. Problem is that the CW and France need to get rid of the basterd. How? Thats the big question here...

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Now, we go to the Horn of Africa. Here, the build up for an attack on the Italian possessions has started. Slowly, the CW will try to put more land units into this area to get Ethiopia back and start moving towards Egypt again:

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The Middle East.

Italian swing: Trio Aurora. Corri cavallino

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY6DL5Qgvmo

Here, the Euroaxis are trying to grab the Persian and Caucasian oil fields. 1942 shall see a lot of fighting in this region, since it's the most important region for the Axis to control. The Turks will enter the war next turn, giving the Germans more units to attack the Baku area and the Italians will be freed to mop up the remaining Soviet units in Persia:

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Italy is empty. With the Med an Axis lake, there is no reason to put a garrison in the place. The Italian airforce is slowly becoming quite strong. Mussolini is a happy man with the closest enemy being a long, long way from Rome...

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Spain. A Italian naval task force is in Lisbon and a German one in Gibraltar.

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Germany and France. The coast defenses are in place. The CW has got an AMPH and the Royal Marines on the board. However, there is no mobile defense force in place in Western Europe at the moment. The Euroaxis needs this force there before the summer of 1943.

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The British Isles. Slowly, this is becoming an airbase and naval base...

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The Eastern part of the United States.

Here's: Bing Crosby - You and I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ndV80n7CFA

Notice that Canada has become a huge oil depot. The CW can do without US oil for a long, long time when the US enters the war. The US carriers are almost filled with planes. They are in the East Coast, because there is always the odd chance of a Japanese air attack on the West Coast ports in the surprise impulse. So why invite any trouble...

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The West Coast, with the fleet in Long Beach:

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The Pacific and the fleet in Pearl Harbor:

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At Pago Pago, Mac Arthur has set up shop. In Brisbane there is a CW task force:

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The Japanese fleet in Rabaul. Well, it looks like I put the cursor over the wrong port here. Sorry about that. There are a couple of BB's and cruisers with TRS in Rabaul.

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And the Carrier fleet in Truk:

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The NEI

A Japanese March: ＜軍歌＞君が代行進曲（Kimi ga yo March）

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQuwr6NBwBw

Notice that East Timor is still Allied controlled. That's something which isn't good at all for the Axis. Japan hopes that it will still have some time to attack the place, before the Allies can use it...

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Singapore and the Japanese fleet there: