Winston's Soft Underbelly -- A Dream Realized?

[rkr1958]

May/June 1944. Papua, New Guinea, Port Moresby, Timor and Bismark Seas.

With the allies focusing on the land war with Germany this turn not much happened in the Pacific.

It's in this area the USN wishes to break IJN control and take back IJA conquests. Note the small USN carrier task force based at Port Moresby. Though the allies will have to wait until the weather in the North Monsoon turns fine before going after these objectives in earnest.

[rkr1958]

May/June 1944. Marianas and Solomons.

[rkr1958]

May/June 1944. Country Economic Reports.

Note the dwindling USA and CW oil stockpiles (i.e., save oil). While not critical yet, it could become critical in the next few turns if not addressed.

[rkr1958]

May/June 1944. CW Final Production.

One way to help address the USA and CW dwindling oil stockpiles is to get idle resources to factories running on oil resources. There are 2 such, non-oil idle resources in Malaya. And (not shown), there's a 3 non-oil Free French idle resource in Caledonia.

[rkr1958]

May/June 1944. Trade Agreements for July/August 1944.

With the defeat of Germany inevitable and with the Red Army stream rolling in the East, the first step taken by the Western Allies to address their declining oil stockpiles are to stopped the four traded non-oil resources to the USSR. 1 by the CW and 3 by the USA. This will also free up needed CPs for transporting the 2 idle CW and 1 idle Free French resources to (Western) allied factories.

[rkr1958]

Turn 30. Jul/Aug 1944. Victory Totals.

Germany victory totals dropped by two this turn over last with the loss of Bucharest and Vienna and Japanese totals dropped by one with the loss of Rabul.

USSR totals increased by one with the capture of Bucharest and CW totals increased by two with Rabul and Vienna falling to the Western Allied. Seeing the way victory totals are given "allocated" between the CW and USA, I don't see how those two countries could be played anyway except as a team with composite victory points. Otherwise, I feel that the game would take on an ahistorical flavor with tension and mistrust between the USA and CW as great or more than between the Western Allies and the Soviets.

This turn lasted 10 impulses with the allies moving first and the axis moving last (again).

The USA and CW did take one naval (both on the first impulse) and four land actions. The USA played 1 o-chit and the CW and Soviets played none.

Germany took all land actions and played their one remaining o-chit to double three desperate counterattacks against the Soviets in Poland and the Baltic States.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. Destroyed Pool.

In general this was a very good turn all around for the allies.

Pacific Naval Action Summary.

Bismarck Sea Area: 4 rounds of combat over 1 impulse.

Timor Sea Area: 1 round of combat (over 1 impulse).

South China Sea Area: 3 rounds of combat over 1 impulse.

Pacific. Western Allied Land Combat Summary.

2:1A 1 (retakes Rabul)
5:1A 1

Japanese Land Combat in China.

5:1A 1
7:1B 1

communist Chinese Land Combat.

3:1A 1
5:1B 1

Red Army Land Combat (Poland, Baltic States, Germany and the Balkans). 13 blitz and 9 assault, or 22 attacks total.

2:1B 1
3:1B 2
4:1B 2
5:1B 4
6:1B 2
7:1B 2

3:1A 1
4:1A 2
5:1A 3
7:1A 3

Western Allies Land Combat Against the Germans, which included Overlord landings. 6 blitz and 10 assault, or 16 attacks total.

2:1B 1
5:1B 1
6:1B 3
7:1B 1

4:1A 3
5:1A 2
7:1A 4
10:1A 1

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. Repair Pool.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. Reserve Pool.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. The Soviet Front.

The Red Army pushes into Prussia, Western Poland, Czechoslovakia and liberates Estonia.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. The Balkans.

In the Balkans the Red Army and the Western Allies meet up on the border of Hungary and Yugoslavia. The Soviets manged to grab Rumania and Bulgaria by complete conquest.

The Western Allies have declared Budapest is theirs. In addition to finishing off the axis in Budapest they still need to capture Belgrade. The Western Allies still have work to do in the Balkans. Work they hope to finish, weather permitting, next turn.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. ETO. The Western Front.

Into addition to pushing deeper into Germany from the south, the Western Allies opened a third front against the German with their Overlord landings in northern France and the Low Countries. Though this new (third) front is small, it does put pressure from a third side against the Germans. Most importantly, this front is designed to liberate captured German resources and factories in order to degrade and eventually cripple German war production.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. German Production.

German production, in terms of PP's is down by 7 from it's peak of 30. From last last turn to this it dropped by 6 PP's and with a production multiplier of 2, this means a drop of 12 BP's. However, because of 1 PP last last turn due to allied strategic bombing, the actual BP reduction experienced by the Germans from last turn to this was 10 BP's. Still, a significant drop. Soviet war production alone, even with a 1.75 production multiplier, now tops Germany's production.

However, 46 BP's is still a large amount and the Germany army is formidable and is still far from total defeat.

[rkr1958]

30. Jun/Jul 1944. Country Economic Report.

I usually put these reports near the end of the report for a given turn, however, I think it fits better here for this turn.

As mentioned in the previous post, you see in this one that Soviet production alone has out stripped Germany war production. Total allied war production is 160 BP's compare to a total axis production of 67 BP's, which is not even 42% of total allied war production.

Also worth noting in this report are the barrels of oil consumed by the CW and USA this turn. The CW consumed 14 and the USA 12 oil points this turn alone. If you throw the Soviets in, the allies combined consumed 36 oil points compared to a total axis (Germany and Japan) consumption of 7. While oil for the allies will never be critical (BP output will drop some from the max if need be), it will soon be critical for Germany. Their oil stockpile is now down to 3 saved oil points. Once that stockpile is gone, which is likely to be next turn, then the declining German BP output will decline even faster as oil is diverted from production to reorganization of units.

I really love playing with oil. I think this rule makes the game so much more realistic without adding much, if any, additional complication.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. China. North Temperate.

Japan's strategy is to hold out in the Pacific against the USN and RN and then "double-down" in China.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. China. North Monsoon.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. South China Sea, Malaysia and Siam.

The RN managed to sink two IJN CPs and force a third to abort. Japan, however, was able to replace those losses before the turn end.

[rkr1958]

30. Jun/Jul 1944. CP Losses Through Turn 30.

Note: Report updated to correct for a data entry error.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. Bismarck, Timor Seas. Rabul and New Guinea.

The USMC managed to recapture Rabul, but at a great price. They lost a corps and division in doing so. In New Guinea and Papua, the Western Allies have isolated the IJA armies there.

On the first impulse the USN supported by the RN managed to sweep the IJN out of both the Timor and Bismarck Seas, giving complete control of those two areas to the allies and isolating the IJA in New Guinea, Papua and Rabul. However, the IJN did managed to get and keep surface units back into those two areas reestablishing supply. Though, all that came too late for the IJA defenders of Rabul.

[rkr1958]

30. Jul/Aug 1944. Marianas and Solomons.

The three flyouts show the units on the islands at Sapian, Enwin and Kwajalein. The unit panels show the units at sea in the Marianans and the Solomons.