A musical global war AAR...

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A German ARM is railmoved into the Ukraine and two INF are railmoved into Basra, while the Japanese railmove Yamamoto into Siam. In Manchuria, the army group of Yeremenko is put out of supply.

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German troops are moved to attack several Soviet positions. Now, the INF and MAR in this screenshot have to be in supply, since Guderian is in supply according to the rules (that MWIF considers him to be out of supply is a bug). They attack the adjacent ART, which is without any supporting land units. This means it has a defense factor of 1. 12-1 makes a +24. The weather reduces this to a +20. No planes can fly during storms and no Soviet HQ is adjacent to the unit. On the assault table I rolled a 4 manuallly, meaning that the ART is destroyed. I use the debug tools to simulate this event:

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Students Para's are dropping into Kiev, the local police is mobilized to fight the Fallschirmjäger (notional included) and in the snow, heavy battles are starting, with von Manstein adding HQ support. Large numbers of “Jagdkreuzers” appear above the city, supporting the defenders. Since all hexes which are under attack are covered by German FTR's, the only remaining Soviet Bomber on this front remains grounded. Germany uses the Rumanian MTN to increase the attack to +11:

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Kiev gets taken. Germany chooses not to change the result into a retreat. If another impulse is forecoming, they want to be able to cross the river, if the USSR doesn't fill that hex...

Von Bock orders to make the already existing gap at the far southern end of the front a huge one:

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While von Leeb orders a couple of attacks south of Novgorod:

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And:

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Finally, there is Rommel attacking near Smolensk:

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Rommel is very happy that he chose the Blitzkrieg table...

German music: Wir kommen wieder - Ein Wehrmachtslied

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7yYklTx18o

Germany rebases a Stuka next to Tilfis. The Italians rebase their Stuka and a FTR in the Caucasus. The Japanese air force is reinforcing the Manchurian area heavily.

Rommel decides to reorganise two ARM and an INF. Von Bock reorganises an ARM and a Stuka.

Here is the Karelian Front:

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The Belorussian Front:

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The Ukrainian Front:

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The Caucasian Front:

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The Manchurian Front:

[Klydon]

Yay! Glad to see this one going again! (Geeze, hard to believe this one went over 6 months between posts).

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January/february 1942, Allied impulse number 4

In the US, newspapers are very concerned about the loss of live by US sailors in the Atlantic. Congress asks the President how he will react on this. The answer of the President astonishes everyone in Congress: “Congress created this mess, by passing the Refute naval warzones Bill. Now, if Congress would agree with the Declaration of War Bill, I've got the necessary tools to adress this properly”.

This causes quite some disturbance in Congress. The Bill is again discussed. Debate is fierce. Senator Taft points out that Japan is mentioned in the Bill but the Merchantmen were sunk by the Kriegsmarine and the Regina Marina. Mr. Kurusu goes public and claims: “Japan didn't sink any US ship, so why should the US declare war on our peaceful nation?”
Next day, the Washington Post opens: “Our President Lies!” In the article documents are presented in which the Treasury Department informs the White House: “The treasury department would like to state, that the funds send to the Commonwealth nations could be best used, to make the Dutch sell all their oil to the British Empire, thus insuring that the oil embargo against the Japanese Empire is effective”.
The President however, stated earlier that the White House wasn't informed on how the CW was going to use the money send. Now it seems that the White House knew all along and probably even advised the British to use the money the way they did...

That evening, the President of the US decides to lay down his office, due to “serious health issues”.
He wonders how it is possible that top secret documents are leaking so easily to the press.

Here is another US song: Amen - Abe Lyman (Rose Blane & Chorus, vocal)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-2bptGNTz4

In Berlin, admiral Canaris opens up a good bottle of Cognac and smiles...

[Centuur]

The US now tried four times to DoW the Axis. All times those DoW's failed. Loaded dice in MWIF?

One entry chit (who cares, with over 50 chits in both entry pools) and one tension chit removed. There are now 5 tension chits in the Japanese tension pool and 9 tension chits in the Ge/It pools.. Canaris Abwehr estimates that the chance of a succesfull DoW by the US on Germany and Italy is about 50%.

In Tokyo, the Japanese secret service is really concerned about this DoW. Did they miscalculate somewhere? Or were the tension chits in the pools all high ones, therefore giving the US the opportunity to DoW? Questions, questions...

The CW and France both take naval, the USSR a land and the US a combined action.

The CW flies a Swordfish in the 0 box of the Faroes Gap.

Catalina's based in Pearl Harbor report that a Japanese carrier task force is sailing within range of the port. This signal is send to the Admiral in charge. He reports this to Washington and prepares to write an order to the captains of the Saratoga and the Lexington to sail to West Coast waters. The moment he wants to send those orders, the telephone rings. The White House. The new president informs him that under no circumstance, he is allowed to let ships leave the port. The CV's stay put. The merchantfleet in Hawaii, leaves port and sails towards the Atlantic. A TRS leaves North Ireland and loads Eisenhower in the East Coast for tranport to Europe.

The convoy escorts are of course being put in place by the French and the CW.
In the Cape Verde Bassin, the CW doesn't want a combat to occur. They don't search for the enemy.

French and Dutch SUB's leave Australia and enter the South China Sea. They initiate combat. The Japanese fly a FTR into the 0 box as escorts for the convoys. Both sides fail to find eachother (search rolls Allies 10, Axis 3. Due to the weather the Allied SUB's aren't found.

Out of Bombay, the CW sends Force Z which escorts a Canadian MIL being transported towards Somaliland. The CW doesn't want to fight in this sea area.

CW Task forces out of Freetown and Martinique are send into the Central Atlantic. The target: the Italian battle fleet there. They initiate combat. The Italians decide to include the SUB's. Search rolls are: Allies 3, Axis 7. The Allies choose a naval air combat. The Italian anti air guns open fire at the descending Swordfish:

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Next, the allies use 2 surprise points to increase the damage done to the Italian fleet. 3 surprise points are used to select targets:

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The Italian admiral is killed. The vice-admiral, knowing that he is fighting a combat he can't win without air cover, decides to abort back to port...

The Italian SUB commander in the Cape Verde Bassin decides to search for the Allied convoys. Axis 6, Allies 2. The French cruiser makes sure the Italians stay submerged (avoid combat).

Italian music: Canzone dei sommergibilisti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuZhWMJXbB0

The Italian fleet in the Arabian Sea, having got good intellligence on the carrier planes on board of the CW task force, decides to initiate combat. After all, with only 1 air to sea factor available to the CW. Search rolls: Axis 5, Allied 3. The Allies find the Italian cruiser squadron. The CW, being outgunned, decides to choose a naval air combat:

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They elect that both planes fly as a FTR. The reason is that the Italian AA will always reduce the one air to air factor. In the next round, the Italians roll a 3 and the CW an 8. The British Vice Admiral, on board of the Illustrious, is suddenly confronted with three Italian BB's firing at his ships (4 surprise points used to choose combat type).

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On the Italian side, two cruisers take damage:

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The Italians stay and fight. The CW commander thinks he can handle another fight too. Italians roll 4, CW 7. Since the Italians don't have 4 surprise points available to call for a surface battle if they choose the carriers to fight, they decide to go for the 0 box. A large CW convoy is surprised when the big guns of the Vittorio Veneto, Po and the Andrea Doria open fire: