Global War AAR in Pictures

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Axis #10. German. The Eastern Front (South).

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Axis #10. German. The Eastern Front (Finland).

With both Italy and German taking an action, other than a pass, and this being impulse #10, there's a 40% chance that this turn will end. Germany's hope is for the turn to continue and end of the allies impulse. If this happens then the axis have a +1 advantage on the initiative (first) roll and wins a tie. If the turn does end on this impulse, then the neither side has the advantage but the axis still wins a tie.

Barring a crazy weather roll, Germany will launch Barbarossa next turn. One issue as the axis I'm struggling with is whether or not Italy will also DOW the Soviet Union. If the do, they then would expose their newly aligned ally Persia to an incursion by the Soviet Union. Even if Italy doesn't then Soviet Union could DOW Italy. However, this would risk loss of chit(s) in the US Germany/Italy entry pool at a critical time when the USA is trying to pass the war appropriations bill.

What an amazing, wonderful and addictive game MWIF is.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Axis #10. Japan. Ground Strike. China.

Japan takes a land with the objective of exploiting the fine weather in southern China to take it to the Nationalist. Japan's first action is a low probability ground strike that fails to disorganize the intended target.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Axis #10. Japan. Land Combat. China.

Japan carries out to medium odds land combat attacks against the Nationalist. The first (top) attack is the one they wanted to win. Any roll 5 or higher (94% chance) would give them that win. Japan rolls a 3! At least the second land combat goes well for Japan. But they really wanted to win the first attack!

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Axis #10. Japan. Southern China.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Axis #10. Japan. Northern China.

Japan had hope to pretty much taken care of Mao and his communist by now so they could turn their attention to the Soviet Union in Asia, (i.e., in and around Vladivostok), about the same time that Germany invaded from Eastern Europe. But this front as become more of a stalemate which has allowed the communist to grow in strength.

Japan now needs to think about getting their marine units back to the coast over the next few turns in order to grab oil and non-oil resources in and around the South China Sea, to include Burma and the Dutch East Indies, when the USA starts to put the squeeze on them and Japan is forced to go to war with the USA and the CW.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Axis #10. End of Turn Roll.

Well, the axis did their part. The turn continues. Now it's up to the allies to roll the turn to end in their next impulse.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Allied #13. Weather.

Wow, look at this weather roll. Fine everywhere. This gives the CW a another, and better chance to fight a naval battle in the East Med against the Italians, and Germans.

I'm not sure the allies want the turn to continue after this impulse or not. It would be probably best if it did.

[AlbertN]

The turn will probably end - and I do not know how the initiative tracker is.
BUT if the turn does not end AND the initiative is favorable to Axis (Possibly a +2, but even a +1 can do); Germany could DoW Russia.

Cons:
Soviets place reserve and will have them organized the next turn already.

Pros:
Germany moves and attack and holes - and can use surprise to use all their planes in awareness they'll be ready immediately once the turn ends.
Germany has double chance (due to the Initiative toward Axis) to seize initiative next turn too - and move twice in a row (Which probably dooms all the upfront Soviet forces); which can be devastating for the upfront Soviet units.
Soviet reinforcements will have many cities already filled with unmoved reserves and will be placed further behind.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Allied #13. RN. East Med.

The CW takes a combine and the RN in the East Med finally find and surprise the Italian RM. Most of the axis air is in box 1, so the CW chooses to exclude that box which gives the axis only two NAV air and no fighters.

The RN is able to get 5 bombers through to attack the Italian fleet. One of the two Italian naval air is forced to abort. The second NAV, which has no fighter support, aborts this round. Note that this abort is different that the abort of the first NAV which must return to base. The second Italian NAV is available for further combat this impulse.

Italian AA has a modest effect.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Allied #13. RN. East Med. Naval Battle, Round 1. Naval Battle.

Both sides decide to stick around for a potentially second round of naval combat with the RN hoping for a continuation of the battle and the Italians hoping for an end to this battle.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Allied #13. RN. East Med. Naval Battle, Round 2. Search.

The RN gets their wish. They again surprise the Italians and manage to exclude axis NAVs and fighters in box 1.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Allied #13. RN. East Med. Naval Battle, Round 2. Naval Battle.

The RN manages to sink, damage and / or abort all Italian surface ships and convoys in the East Med. A clear victory for the RN and the CW.

Both sides, again decide to stick around. The axis still have fighters and NAVs in sea box 1 and must maintain supply to all their forces in North Africa and the Middle East.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Allied #13. RN. East Med. Naval Battle, Round 3.

Round 3 once again sees the RN finding and surprising the axis. However, this time the naval air battle is bloodless, not even resulting in an abort.

Of course, the axis decide not to continue round 3.

Both sides, again, decide to stay. And this time neither side finds the other. Thus ending this epic naval battle.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Allied #13. CW. East Med.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Allied #13. CW. East Africa.

Looks like CW near term objective for East Africa is Eritrea and Ethiopia.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Allied #13. CW. RAF Strategic Bombing Raids. Western Front.

The RAF unleashes five strategic bombing raids against German industry and oil, but only managed to destroy 1 PP.

Well, given the success of the RN in the East Med, it's hard to complain about the poor performance of the RAF against German in the West.

End of Turn (pre roll).

Now, comes the all important end of turn roll. There's a 70% chance that this turn will end, which means a 30% chance that it will continue.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Allied #13. End of Turn Roll.

Wow ... this turn continues on a roll of 8 against a 70% chance of ending. That is, there was only a 30% chance of the turn continuing.

Now I remember someone on this forum saying that baseball would be a very boring game indeed if a 30% chance was essentially the same as no chance of "the event" occurring. [:)]

ORIGINAL: Cohen

The turn will probably end - and I do not know how the initiative tracker is.
BUT if the turn does not end AND the initiative is favorable to Axis (Possibly a +2, but even a +1 can do); Germany could DoW Russia.

Cons:
Soviets place reserve and will have them organized the next turn already.

Pros:
Germany moves and attack and holes - and can use surprise to use all their planes in awareness they'll be ready immediately once the turn ends.
Germany has double chance (due to the Initiative toward Axis) to seize initiative next turn too - and move twice in a row (Which probably dooms all the upfront Soviet forces); which can be devastating for the upfront Soviet units.
Soviet reinforcements will have many cities already filled with unmoved reserves and will be placed further behind.

I'm going to have to sleep on this one. If the turn ends after this impulse the die roll modifier is 0 (neither side has an advantage and both sides can choose to re-roll. However, axis wins ties. If I've done my calculations correctly and assuming whoever wins the first roll, the other side chooses to re-roll I calculate the chance of the axis winning the initiative and being able to move first at 55.5%. A little better than a coin flip.

[AlbertN]

A very tricky situation then.
Remember also who won the Mar / Apr initiative loses ties. (I think you computed that already though).

Also a last bit to bear in mind - the "Trade" to be accounted.
Germans give 2 BPs to Soviets.
Soviets give 2 Oil and 1 Resource (I think - assuming Finland, Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary are all Axis) to Germany.

German oil stocks can be a variable there.
You'd lose 2 points and increase the oil consumption by 1 turn usage of airplanes.

You'd also obviously get the headstart and gain grounds with some forward rebasing for all planes giving "Ground Support" bonus (as they return to base after the movement).
It would be 1-2 hexes at top eventually but they're free rebases letting you gain that hex or so.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. Mar/Apr 1941. Axis #14. Germany. Baltic.

Germany decides NOT to DOW the Soviet Union at this time. Barring bad weather they will do that on their first impulse next turn.

Both Germany and Italy take a naval. Germany uses their naval to move Finnish and German surface ships into the Baltic to defend against Soviet submarines and raiders. Also, they move 3 additional CPs (Finnish) into the Baltic.