Cohen vs Enrico - AAR nr. 2

[AlbertN]

Cohen vs Enrico - Game nr.2


Here the Optional Rules we play with.

Also we have a few house rules, one among them emulates the "En Route Interception" that we use for Carpet / Strategic bombing.

[Jagdtiger14]

I always liked En-route interception.

Why Cruisers in Flames?...its highly pro-Allied...will there be compensation for the Axis?

Glad you are playing with 2d10.

[AlbertN]

We usually tend not to balance the game via optional rules, but we tend to play with what we deem reasonable and historical.
Cruiser in Flames mirrors units which were there - yes it is Pro-Allied, amen to that. That is the least of my concerns truth be told in terms of balance. Bombers teleporting on target is much worse for the Germans.

[AlbertN]

After one Impulse of Axis - Jan / Feb 1940

This time the Axis gambled and deployed heavy to deal with France first and a screening force to claim Poland.

Admittedly we did once the first turn and then restarted - as I played too reckless with the Japanese, on the other hand the French gambit was going much better - having claimed Lille and the Maginot in Sept / Oct 39.

Anyhow we restarted - and the "Surprise Impulse" is a real problem for this opener, as the Brits and the French bomb with no disruption your troops, there is only the AA that can do something.

And the Allied bombers were excellent! Especially the pesky Harrow, which rolling on 1 (due to target in woods) disrupted both a Ju88 and 1 INF-HQ, hitting both intended targets.
The German flak gunned a bit but not enough, and other units were disrupted.

The UK ships the BEF too in France.

The weather though was a blessing - fair weather in the second impulse. As the forces for Belgium got bombed, Holland suddenly because the first target; the Axis spent both Von Bock and Rundstedt to reorganize units meanwhile Holland fell.
Also Strasbourg was assaulted, with the Sturm-Pioniere leading the assault (and perishing into it).

The French yawn, reorganize their line a bit and sit there.
3rd Impulse it's Belgium time. Weather is fine, the Axis is terribly short of forces to push in France as well. Only the Belgian forces were smashed.

UK merrily adjusts convoys with the new ones aquired by their allies, Belgium and Holland.
On the other hand the Dutch fleet got bombed the day of the war opening, and suffered a grim fate.
The Danish fleet escaped almost intact, losing a single unit, it was a bloodless occupation.

The French then opt to withdraw behind the Seine (Allied 3rd Impulse of Sept / Oct - but it was Impulse #10 of the turn), leaving behind an amount of disrupted forces and their already spent airforce.

The turn ends, and my opponent dances - if I had that extra impulse, an amount of troops would have been melted away.

In the end of 1939 (Nov / Dec) the Axis maintain the initiative, clearing the upfront french forces, and moving in for the kill - against the snow.

France braces for impact, lined up behind the Seine and with 3 units in Paris.

The French fleet escapes France proper and seek refuge in colonial ports.

The weather improves, it's fair and clear.
Rundstedt commands offensive, Paris is stormed meanwhile the panzers march south to crush infantries defending the link between the Rhone and the Seine.
Von Bock oversee (without giving its support but takes part!) in the attack at Metz, that was left in French hands and surrounded.
Von Leeb rails to Poland.

All the attacks succeed; and then the turn ends again after the Allied impulse of Nov / Dec.

In the opening of 1940 (The first Impulse) the lands are covered by snow, and the Axis advances, but has only a single fight in the north where the French deployed to screen the BEF on the way to be evacuated.
Another French corp was destroyed at the cost of a German INF-Div.

Until now Germany has suffered little losses, 1 ENG, 1 INF-Div and 1 O-Chit used. 20 BPs, not bad.
Germany has refused Vichy.

[AlbertN]

The Fall of Poland - by NOV / DEC 1939.

Germany originally planned to only screen Poland and seize their resources.

Though the Poles deployed in a defensive way (not wanting to give extra production to Germany).

The Germany slowly grinded through - with the support of 2 LND3, and a fighter that never got to be used, funnily enough as the Germans in NOV / DEC deploy their Heinkel fighter, the Poles withdraw their planes so that UK can recycle pilots.

Poznan is left undefended, and seized. Katowice has the weakest of the Poland corps, to slow the Germans - and gets butchered the first impulse.
The bombers fail to disrupt anything in Krakow and only one unit is pinned in Lodz.
Danzig is left empty and the Germans march into it at the music of drums and trumpets.

The second Impulse, Krakow is attacked. It's only a +6.8, the Poland airforce intervenes to support! 38:10, a 4:1 almost in City and all! (Well, not all, there is not else.).
But whoever is the German force commander does an astonishing job (Rolling 20!) and vanquishes the defenders.

The German sets eyes on Lodz, where there is a disrupted unit still.
As the 3rd Impulse of September is still fair, an attack is attempted at Lodz as well - there were some cheap garrisons in the area, so why not. The Poles though suffer some losses and are shattered, the German forces still intact. Their HQ support proved futile.

I start to grow the suspect my "screening" force was too strong - as I was short constantly of troops in France and could never hit all the targets with the punch I wanted (So that at some point in Belgium, I used the Bf109s as bombers as they double up anyhow, to get some extra + on the battle rolls).

In November / December the same fine weather that was in France was in Poland.
With no more airplanes to worry about the Luftwaffe bombers took off, hit the target and returned home unschated. Out of 3 units, only the Poland HQ was remaining operational, and took direct control of the battle (HQ support).

The Germans had to rail Von Leeb there to provide supply to the southern branch of operating troops, and rain was hitting the east side of Warsaw.
This final attack was a success as well, finalizing the conquest of Poland before 1940 hit.

In 1940 the Germans started to rebase their planes toward France, where they'll be badly needed!

[AlbertN]

Mussolini's Roman Empire - The Med.

Albeit advocated by his advisors to not go to war, the Duce decided to jump in the Axis bandwagon immediately!

But wisely opted to not involve himself and his nation with the gargantuan presence of the Commonwealth, and kicking in the side France.

Decision Making Reasoning: Is it wiser to risk 2 Us Entry Chits and declare war in different times to France and CW, or is it better to declare war to them at once?
I personally quite value the Surprise effect, and to take Malta or Ciprus unopposed is nice. Due to Italian limits I cannot do that and at the same time claim a hex closeby Algier, and port strike the French Fleet (which my opponent favor to deploy in the Med.). I agree some ships could go to Brest, like their Carrier, and intervene after.
But the point is - do you want to possibly force the UK to declare war on you later on? At the moment the Italian fleet can move out of Gibraltar upon need (Need to be sure to have Brest as port first though!), and can operate quite safely without the terror of a ton of carriers from the UK.
Also once massed enough NAVs (mid 40 usually!) a fleet of 3 NAVs can be the terror of UK fleet docked anywhere in a surprise impulse.

Nonetheless the Italians invaded Algeria and Tunisia at the opener of the hostilities, and are marching toward Marocco - where strong French forces have dug in (They got the 6-4 corp in there! I think it would have been much more useful in France proper, but ... decisions.).

In the while the French submarine force sank Italian shipping, and the Italian submarines reaching past Gibraltar sank French shipping (1 CP each was lost).

It is worth of note that the UK has opted to evacuate Egypt, leaving only territorials there.
Wavell is now sitting in Chittagong - India.

The Italian Regia Marina remained at sea to not spend oil, now sitting in the 2 BOX to escort convoys shipping troops back and forth to Afrika.

Decision Making Notes: The previous game deeply influenced this one, from the W.Allied standpoint at least, or the Allied in general.
Besides claiming Poland and Baltics, the Soviets are not risking any other possible action to piss off the USA - not even Bessarabia, not even Finland. - To have got in NOV / DEC 1941 the first Gear Up for Production must have left a scar.
Also the evacuation of Egypt is mainly dictated by how the Japanese fleet in the earlier of their war with USA and UK can easily sever the supply lane to Egypt.
With the BEF also being evacuated as soon as the situation is somehow bad - it is quite clear the Allied play of this game seems conservative for their units. Anyhow the Axis pace of game is usually dictated from what they can buy and afford and with or without delaying factors the main event - Barbarossa - tends to happen in 1942.

[AlbertN]

The Japan Hazard - Russia

I like BPs, and to have a fat production.
And Russia has quite some resources just in nice reach. And Vladivostock is a VP.

To have Japan attack Russia though is another heavy gamble. A gamble that is easier though if you know your opponent is playing conservative - and deploys to protect Chita and not all the rest. I am not really sure what is the Russian plan, because with 3-4 less resources there, and with a full trade with the Axis in Europe ... their resource amount will be quite low compared to what it should be!

On the other hand they can act freely, build cheap Militias and whatnot ... with a honest thought there are extras to that.
A Soviet which defends cannot be conquered and its resources are preserved, but

House Rule & Notes: As we play here due to the map, that Soviets cannot DoW Japan of their own accord - for gameplay Balance, a House Rule but to put it simple, the Soviets can focus on the Japanese and "force" a Barbarossa '41, that sort of defeat the game itself where the Axis in the early openings should dictate the rhythm of the game and choose its grand strategy.
The main issue that triggers that is the limited Japanese force pool, and the land fronts it would have to keep busy with; stacked up with the expanded map. It is understood the map was expanded most probably because of coding necessities: it saved the time and effort to code the different movement costs, effects, etc of an "Asiatic Map", on the other hand the whole game balance here is screwed. From how the fronts are larger compared to the units at avail, to the fact if earlier 1 unit was enough to protect from invasions a region, now you need several units; speaking of ZOC, Notionals, chockepoints, etcetera.


The Japenese - also due to the Chinese deployment - opened with a Combined, prepared to invade, and the Soviets evacuated the only unit in Vladivostock.

The 2nd Impulse bad weather was there, and the Japanese delayed their attack (Vladivostock was fine, but the Japs wanted to move good in the north zone too to claim a resource).
In the end, as the 3rd Impulse was still rainy in the north, the Japs declared war nonetheless; marched with a HQ closeby Vladivostock and landed with the marines there. There was only the Militia of reserve that was butchered, covered in massive shore bombardment and carrier planes.

In the while Japanese forces marched in to claim without forms of opposition various siberian cities.

BUG: It is still there the bug that pumps up the Soviet production if attacked in Siberia.

Once the HQ finished its business at Vladivostock, it railed quickly at Nomohan sector, so that his other resource (otherwise only ZOC'ed) could be claimed too.
The Soviets are reinforcing already at Chita on the other hand.

Reinforcement Math: Over time the Japanese can only rail units on the HQ over there, so their reinforcement amount is much more limited than the Soviets, that can place an amount of new units in Chita. Usually after X turns the Soviets grow much stronger than the Japanese and move in for the kill.
In the last game I stood and fought, and lost a whole Japanese army. This time ... I'll evaluate again once the thing happens, but I suspect it will happen - and sooner than the previous game.

[AlbertN]

The Chinese Affair.

China deployed in depth, sacrificing 2 factories and 2 resources to the Japanese but preserving their forces in a way the Japanese cannot jump on them immediately.

For now the Japanese advanced, tried bombing runs at no avail, and did one attack where they gained useless mountain ground, and lost a Militia.

Aerial fights saw the Chinese Airforce gunning down a Japanese fighter.

Presently the Japanese start to convert their carrier pilots to land based bomber pilots (or NAVs used in such role) to bring more push on the Chinese, meanwhile intensive training of land forces is starting.

France and UK started immediately to lend lease resources to the Chinese (2 resources and 1 oil!)

Thoughts: I think this new Chinese deployment works. Yes, the Japan gets some stuff without fighting, but the Chinese preserve the whole of their forces for later on, when the Japanese will struggle to do a Land Impulse all the time, and will have issues to retaliate to their attempt to infiltrate the Japanese lines. In the previous games a more upfront Chinese defence was simply pushed gradually back, with more Chinese losses than Japanese.

[AlbertN]

The Chinese Affair : Start of March / April 1940

The Nationalists:

The Japanese progress has been insignificant, and at a grand toll of blood (2 MILs, 1 INF, 1 FTR + Pilot!).

The front is static and the Japanese generals are banging heads in walls due to the lack of successes of their localized offensives.

Even the puny Chinese airforce managed to rout a bombing mission, with their fighters beating the supposedly superior Japanese fighters.

The Communists:

They're building up forces and their threat level is raising, especially as Yamamoto is badly needed in the south for his HQ support.


In the Soviet North:

Nothing is happening there, the Soviets are building up quicker than the Japanese as expected; and their Mongolian unit is threatening the flank, lurking in a swamp and ready to move out to cut a railway!

[AlbertN]

Mussolini's Empire - The Marocco Question. March / April 1940

France surrendered to the Axis powers, but the Free People of France decided to fight on (Surrender in game terms).

With their whole fleet escaped from France, colonial troops in Syrya and New Caledonia; and regular infantries in Marocco and Syrya; the Free People of France still represent a full major power.

The BEF, quickly extracted from France across January and February, has kept named BEF, simply the place of the "Expedition" of such "Force" has changed, from France to Marocco.
If earlier the political nature of the clash of powers, where the French did not wanted to be a "Dominion", prevented such thing to happen, now the Brits are more than decided to not leave the southern flank of Gibraltar in the hands of the Axis.

On the other hand Italy and Commonwealth are not at war. Not yet at least.

France:

France surrendered by the end of Jan / Feb 1940.
Now it is crowded of German troops with no enemies to fight against.

Though the Luftwaffe suffered two different defeats in the last moments of the battle, one over Lyon where the MS406 of France shot down a Bf109 squadron; and the second by the hands of the RAF over the skies of Lille, another Bf109 was gunned down by the escorts of the bombers sent to strike at Lille's factory.

That pratically halved the Luftwaffe fighters.

[Mayhemizer_slith]

Thank you for starting another AAR. Axis seems to be doing well.

How many days it took from you to play this game at this point? Your game andvances little faster than ours [&o]

[AlbertN]

That was about Friday evening (11.30 PM to 2 AM) for optional rule debate and setup.
Saturday we played from 5.30 PM to 21.00 PM, a break for dinner and stuff, and then from 22.30 PM to Midnight.

We pratically play hotseat so to say, in the end I do everything on my PC and I share the screen all the time so that my pal can see (Besides he's a laptop with the screen of the size of a handerchief and to do many things he needs to go to the screen settings and rotate it by 90 degrees to reach some OK buttons!).

The main advantage is that being the both of us on voicecomm, the answers are instants.
Where a plane intercepts, where it lands, do you stay and fight or abort? Which combat table do you choose, etc.
WiF has too many "interrupts" of the flow to be played PBEM as other games which are of the very old style IGOUGO, and we deemed a necessity to be online together.

That is the tradeoff as well - we need to be both online, which means probably we'll keep playing in 2 and won't try to get to play in 4 at once (as it would increase the organizational issues to have 4 people together online).
But when we can play we tend to churn through a lot of impulses - at least in the early war.

Once the war is total there impulses can take 1-2 hours, especially the US dreaded supercombined where they move everything!

[AlbertN]

Thank you for starting another AAR. Axis seems to be doing well.

Axis could be doing well, but I realized the "France Gambit" brings lots of US Chits of '39 quality and not the worse '40 type.

The USA are close already to their first gear up! (Estimate of 2-3 turns in accord to my books!)

[AlbertN]

The Soviet Bear awakens: Manchurian Front. - Start of Impulse #4, Allied.

Until now the Soviets built up their forces, and then advanced in well before the Japanese are even remotely prepared to defend the riverline.

The lack of a HQ for the Soviets implies that they cannot operate far from Chita for now, but the Imperial Command is strongly evaluating to surrender the borderline resource and find better positions behind the Kerulen river.
Though, as new troops just arrived, they'd be left at the wrong side of the river...

[AlbertN]

The Mao's offensive.

Over the opening of the 1940 the Chinese worked with two Nationalist cavalry corps flanking operations to infiltrate the Japanese.

The first attempt to threaten to cut the railway to Sian was met with force by the Japanese; led by Yamamoto in person the Japanese repelled first the first cavalry corp (at the cost of 1 japanese Militia).
The remaining organized units of the Japanese (a 6-3 INF) pursued the retreated cavalry deeper in the mountains, engaging again - the bloodshed was finalized with no units surviving.

In the while Mao led the first assault against Sian, which contained 3 Japanese units, 2 of them arrived via raid so disrupted; but as the Japanese lost only an INF-Div, the Commies lost a Warlord and and INF-Div.
Mao was not too worried, the Chinese situation was improving and the powerful elite corp was to get there shortly after.

In the while another Nationalist Chinese sent their other Cavalry corp from the south, aiming to seize the undefended Chengchow. The Japanese scrambled their Marine forces from Vladivostock; and upon the fresh turn with the initiative maneuvered to attack the cavalry (which remained organized after bombing runs. Japanese bombers are really bad!).

The Japanese took a high risk attacking with Yamamoto and their Imperial Guard Marine (with 2 points of bomber support) the still organized 3-4 CAV unit of the Chinese. With the looming risks of precious units (and costy) to be destroyed, Yamamoto granted support.

The attack went well; and in the while to add to the glory of the Japan, Mao attacked Sian again - the two defenders from earlier stood still, got some minor bombing support and bloodshed happened. With 1 Japanese unit lost, the Commies lost 3! (1 Japan Garrison, 2 Com-China MILs and 1 Com-China INF-Div).

But the situation of the Communists now is rather shivering, especially for their cavalry unit which remained cut off.
The Imperial Guard of the Japanese army is marching to open supply to Sian and perform a combined strike at the weakened northern pincher of the Chinese.

Screenshot of Impulse #4 (Allied) of May / June 1940.

[AlbertN]

Chiang's Resilience.

Meanwhile the northern part of China saw operations and maneuvers, and soon the Soviets will start to advance toward Manchuria; the southern zone of China is quite tranquil.

After the Japanese lost their fighter squadron, they had to replace it and now have no airplanes for the Soviet front (yet at least!).

With the lack of artillery or bomber successes, to attack against these Chinese dug in the mountains is extremely hard, ontop of the necessity to have to ship in the militias required to attack (and take the losses!).


Screenshot of Impulse #4 of May / June 1940. - Allied impulse.

[AlbertN]

Fall Felix.

After the surrender of France, the Germans deployed their forces to the borderline of Spain.
It was clear Franco's offer of resources for the German industry was not enough.

In the while the Kriegsmarine sailed from Kiel, reaching for the Faroes Gap, successfully finding the British convoys and sinking two escort cruisers and some convoys for two of their cruisers.
The Royal Navy reacted with force but the Germans slipt away toward Bordeaux.
Bad weather favored the Germans.

With the opening of the better season the Kriegsmarine sails again, to intercept the enemy shipping in Bay of Biscay and at once prepare to support the invasion of Spain; meanwhile fresh aerial assets (the new stukas!) reployed at Toulose from Germany.

The Kriegsmarine rejoyced at the earlier success, finding the convoys entirely unescorted except by planes; sinking an few of them and scattering away more.
This time though the Royal Navy, surely suffering a reprimand from Churchill, swamped the zone with carriers, battleships and cruisers, and it was only fate that the Germans were found at very uneven conditions.

The Germans managed to not get any ship sunk (They passed 4 saves out of 4 on the destroyed!) but their Battlecruisers both, and other heavy cruisers were heavily damaged. Currently the Kriegsmarine is only a shadow composed by a few heavy cruisers; and due to the heavy presence of the Royal Navy their mission to bombard the Spanish coasts was promptly aborted.

On the other hand the moment Operation Felix was triggered, the Spanish forces were ready to protect the Pyrenees.
But submerged by bombing runs and overwhelming forces, the Germans pierced the defences in four different points, even if not always their forces were not exhausted in the effort. (Lucky rolls and all the bombers pooled there!).

The Spanish situation before the Allied turn - Impulse #4 of May / June 1940.

[AlbertN]

Mussolini's Imperial Desires: Marocco.

The Italians have been bold, and pushed by the orders of the Duce they attacked the French corp that moved in to the pass of Fez; managing to annihilate the French defenders while exhausting their force. (A very bold attack with +4.5, including HQ support. 18 was rolled and I danced!)

That gave some time for the British forces to move in and shape a perimeter.

Germans airplanes moved in the area (their NAV) strikes at the port of Casablanca where the CW transports are at the anchor, after having delivered the british forces.
The Italian "Gabbiano" fly to Mogador, where the battleship Jean Bart is docked.
The Germans fail miserably, but the Italians inflict damage to the old battleship (which I doubt it will ever get repaired).

In the openings of May, the Italians declare war to the Commonwealth, and "Gabbiano" and "Sparviero" make their appearance over Casablanca, damaging (but not sinking) the Queens and the british transports.

With the declaration of war to Spain the Italians occupy quickly as well the Spanish Marocco, and their Regia Marina sails out (in the first impulse, to invade Ciprus, in the second to have the Germans do an amount of landings on the Spanish coast, one of them threatening Madrid in the next move).

Note: Due to a light distraction of mine I landed in two Spanish Cities, forgetting the Notional would be stronger. Instead of redoing the move, me and my opponent agreed I'd have - logically - landed to the side of the Cities where the surprised notional is 0, and move in the cities subsequently.

Screenshot of Impulse #4 - Allied - May / June 1940.

[AlbertN]

Other Facts across the world:

The Italians seized Cyprus, sank the British convoy in the Eastern Mediterranean; and brought German units in Lybia, which advanced up to Alexandria without meeting opposition.

The UK is preparing more troops, including planes, to reinforce Marocco and Gibraltar.
Even Wavell is coming, from the far and distant India, to bring more punch in the area.
Germany in reaction is sending units in Italy so that they can be shipped to Afrika as well - meanwhile Italy can focus on the aereonaval production.

Production wise the Axis is playing the economical run, Japan has already in the spyral 1 Synth Oil, and Germany 3.
USA too is playing production, with 1 Synth Oil and 3 Factories in the spyral.

May / June 1940 - US Entry:
Read to gear up already!

[AlbertN]

Another weekend comes - another gaming session!

Spain Situation - July / August 1940, Impulse #5 (2nd Axis Impulse).

In the month of May / June the Axis was excelling in Spain, they broke the Pyrenees without losses, seized Barcellona and Bilbao with no ground losses (But the pesky Carrier Gladiator shot down a Stuka, with pilot - over Bilbao).

Spain should have been taken already in May / June, but plans never go as expected.
The Franco HQ in Seville, having survived the bombing and whatnot moves closeby to Madrid to attack the 2 factor German division that marched in there from the beaches.
Even worse - due to a complete miscalculation of mine, Franco still get the supply via some rather odd trail of rail and such to some port and to UK! I was accounting on Seville falling in ZOC and Franco not having supply - so there was even a Ju52 (AirTP) grounded in Madrid after it ran a resupplying mission.

Franco gives its best. It's a +4 attack in the end, with its own support.
It clearly rolls 14! Goes up to 18. No losses for the attacker, 1 loss for the defender. A 19 would have been much better...

So suddenly the losses of Germany in Spain skyrocket - from 4 BPs (Stuka + Pilot) to 11 BPs (adding up 1 Division, 1 AirTP and Pilot).

With the opening of July / August - albeit the Spanish mobilized a mechanized corp in Madrid, the German forces surround the Spanish Capital and after preliminary bombing, claim it.

On the other hand, to add to the dismay of the Kriegsmarine, the Royal Navy carrier planes strike at Bordeaux, and sink the Graf Spee.