My Historical Global War AAR #3.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Reinforcements. The Balkans.

64. Guderian's HQ and an 8-4 motorized corps are deployed to Austria to form an army with the Hungarians, and of course led by Guderian, to deal with Yugoslavia if/when it aligns with the CW. Not only does this take resources away for the final push to conquer France but it weakens the German garrison needed to convince the Stalin to live up to his side of the Nazi-Soviet pact.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Reinforcements. Japan.

64. Japan now has an organic oil production capability with the completion of its first synth oil plant.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Country Trade Agreements.

65. Two changes from the last report. The first change is that the USA is now only sending Japan two resources instead of three. These two resources must still be oil. The second change is that the USA up the amount of oil it's sending to Canada (i.e., the CW) from 4 to 5.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Initiative.

1. First Roll. The axis lose the first roll 7 to 10. Neither side had a modifier and both sides could choose to re-roll. Since the allies moved first last turn, the axis win ties. The axis (Germans) choose to re-roll. This allies have +1 modifier in the re-roll.

2. The axis roll a 10!!! So it looks like Germany is moving first and hoping that the weather if fine. While the Wehrmacht is checking the weather report, the allies roll a 10. No problem since the axis win ties. Wait a second. The allies have a +1 modifier which gives them a modified roll of 11 against the axis 10. The choose to move first and the axis have lost 6 initiative rolls in a row.

Weather.

3. The weather is fine worldwide. The RAF and French air forces will be throw at the Germans stacks adjacent to Paris in the hopes of disorganization and breaking up the planned German assault on the city. If CW and French can accomplish this and the weather cooperates by turning to rain, or better storms, in the north temperate (i.e., Western Front), then France could survive this turn. But I'm definitely getting way ahead of myself.

4. Needless to say, the CW will devote what resources it can to trying to save France. However, the CW will add two more corps to Greece in order to align Yugoslavia next impulse.

5. For me, even playing solitary, this is one exciting game. I've never seen such much intrigue in a strategic WW2 game before the fall of France. It seems to me that things could either go very good or very bad for either the CW or Germany. Both countries are over committed but at this point I don't know which one is at the most risk.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

Jul/Aug 1940. Eastern Europe.

61. German garrison levels are getting a bit low there. However, I don't see them getting much better, if any, given that Germany needs to finish off France, run CW out of France, take care of Greece and then deal with the impending CW alignment of Yugoslavia. What a mess!

Germany has two corps in Poland that are to far from the border to be counted and one Hungarian unit is to far away in Hungary. That is three units that easily could increase the garrison ratio. It is not that they fulfil any important duties further back at this point.

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: Orm
Germany has two corps in Poland that are to far from the border to be counted and one Hungarian unit is to far away in Hungary. That is three units that easily could increase the garrison ratio. It is not that they fulfil any important duties further back at this point.

Maybe it's my paranoia, or my misunderstanding of the rules, but I have those units there to protect against Polish partisans springing up and capturing the adjacent Polish cities and / or resources. Is that unnecessary?

[Centuur]

There are two things important in Poland. First, there is the garrison ratio with the USSR. Every unit within 3 hexes of the German-USSR border counts for that.

Second, there is the Partisan garrison. You can do both with the same unit. It's just that a couple of your units do not count for German-USSR neutrality pact at the moment. And it's always wise to make those units count for both.

Anyway: a partisan will not pop up in Poland if you've got more than 6 garrison points in Poland. And you've got enough units there to make sure that they don't pop up.

[Orm]

Here is a table where you can see the garrison number needed for guaranteeing that no partisans can appear. This is the number beneath the country name.

So it is only if you have less units in garrison than shown on this table that you need to guard resources against partisans. And, as Peter mentioned, you have a lot more than 6 in garrison number in Poland.

[rkr1958]

Thanks guys! It's these fine details that I'm now trying to learn in order to play the game better. Again, I guess that's one advantage of having to learn this game the old fashion way when you played with paper and cardboard. Thanks for your patience, it's really helping me learn these finer points.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Allied #1.

6. The CW takes a combined to get more air missions and to land the two additional CW corps in Greece that will allow them to align Yugoslavia next impulse. France and China take a land and the USSR and USA take a combine.

Eastern Med.

7. The CW puts strong naval forces out into the East Med, which includes the two corps that will be disembarked latter this turn.

8. Feeling that they have the upper hand in the East, the CW goes looking for the Italian RM there.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Allied #1. Eastern Med. Naval Combat Round 1.

9. The Italians add a TAC bomber and another fighter unit to the East Med. While the RN might have an overwhelming advantage in surface ships the Italians have 2 fighters and 1 TAC to lone air wing of the RN CV Courageous.

10. The RN wins and surprises the Italians in the first round. But it's the Italians that comes out ahead. Courageous air unit is shot down while the Italians only see their opposing fighter unit aborted. The loss of the RN air unit means that the RN has no air cover for their ships in the Eastern Med while the Italians still have a fighter and TAC unit (in box 0) there. I hope RN commanders will learn from this that naval power NOT backed by air power is useless in the face of an enemy that does have air power.

11. The RN without the benefit of air cover has no choice but to stay.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Allied #1. Eastern Med. Naval Combat Round 2.

12. The RN again surprises the RM and this time has enough points to avoid combat, which they do. Their plan is to disembark the two corps in Greece, giving them 4 there, and bring in more carriers next impulse to rectify the lack of air cover.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Allied #1. Eastern Med. Greece and FTC.

13. Oh my goodness!!!! The Greeks are refusing to let the 3-2 CW Egyptian territorial land in their country. Something about foreign troop commitment (FTC) agreements.

14. So in the East Med this impulse the CW has seemingly snatched defeat from victory. It's now going to take some work for the CW to get the fourth corps to Greece this turn. It can be done, but whether or not the CW can take the necessary actions with all going on in France is another story indeed.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Allied #1. France. Allied Ground Strikes.

15. The RAF commits all five of the bomber units in England to ground strikes against two stacks of German units. The RAF performs miserably losing a Blenheim bomber and pilot and not disorganizing a single unit.

16. The French fighter-bomber unit Potez 6311, however, carries out an effective strike disorganizing a German 7-3 infantry and 8-6 mech corps that's adjacent to Paris.

17. Only 1 Luftwaffe fighter unit was in intercept range of the three air strikes. It opposed the strike with the most bombers which was one of the two RAF ground strikes.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Allied #1. Reorg.

18. Georges is used to reorganize the French air unit used in the ground strike. The French now have this air unit and a fighter only air unit based in Paris. This gives the French two fighter units to oppose the ground strikes expected from the Luftwaffe next impulse.

[composer99]

Looks like the Germans will win in France for sure if they get 2, maybe 3 fine weather impulses (although a nice long, summery turn would be good to polish off affairs in the Balkans and put the boots to the BEF in France).

They'll be in trouble if they get anything less, although a late-turn assault in the rain is probably a must-do.

[rkr1958]

Just updated to the public beta version 1.4.0 of MWiF.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Axis #2.

19. All three axis take a land option.

20. The Germans have a tough decision to make which is to go directly at Paris this turn or wait until they can bring up more air power and reorganize a couple of key units adjacent to Paris. Also, the French have two organized fighter units and the Germans only have a couple of air units within range. So the Germans make what is maybe a controversial decision and that is to get after the stack with Alexander and hit a small French stack south of Paris. They are able to ground strike this stack with 2 TAC units. The ground strike is a complete and utter failure. Both units remain organize.

Land Combat. France[54,28].

21. The Germans proceed with a Blitz attack against the CW stack and use their engineering unit to help the 9-4 infantry corps. The roll is average, which is not what the Germans needed. They lose the engineer and a second unit and do not take the hex. The CW loses a 6-6 mech corps. Alexander remains organized.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Axis #2. Land Combat. Greece [71,48].

22. In Greece, the Germans and Italians combine on a low odds attack against the stubborn Greek mountain corps. This attack was proceeded by a ground strike from an Italian TAC and artillery division. The ground strike was ineffective and the land combat didn't go well either. Again, the axis needed a high roll but didn't get it.

[rkr1958]

Sep/Oct 1940. Axis #2. China.

22. In China, the Japanese start the impulse off with a strategic bombing raid on the factories in Chenatu, China. The raid is a failure. The Chinese roll a 1.

Land Combat. Kweiyang, China.

23. The Japanese attack on Kwiyang, China was proceed by a ground strike that failed to disorganized any units. However, the land combat odds were good and the Japanese roll decently. Kweiyang falls to the Japanese and the US does NOT react.