Courtenay's solitaire AAR

[Courtenay]

M/A 44 Allied #9: Weather 6: St, R, F, F, R, F, no modifier, impulse advance 2.
CW, SU, Ch land, Fr naval, US combined

[Courtenay]

The US makes a port strike at three disorganized very bad cruisers in Fukuoka. The US rolls a 5, the Japanese a 9. The US uses its two surprise points to reduce Japanese AA to no effect. The US gets an X and a D. The US puts its X on the Siamese cruiser Sri Aruthia, which surprisingly saves with a 10. The Japanese should have put the second D on the Sri Aruthia. I made a mistake, and put the D on the Idzumo, which rolled a 7 and was damaged. As the Japanese are never going to repair these ships, this was the wrong move. I am going to use the debug tool to move the Idzumo back to Fukuoka and the Sri Aruthia from the repair pool to the scrapped pool.

[Courtenay]

A CW ART ground strikes the Italian in Barcelona, and misses, rolling a 7. The US and CW bomb the hex west of Leipzig with LND-3s. They roll 9, 1, and 7, flipping one of the two German corps in the hex. Even when you don't cooperate, you can still help your ally. The Russians should have ground struck Trieste, but didn't. They did make a try at Kesselring; in the rain in forest, it wasn't a very good try: a nine missed Kesselring, but a 2 did get the Munich MIL stacked with him. (The Russians were attacking with a 6 pt Sturmovik.)

[Courtenay]

The Russians rail a 3-5 CAV from Dubrovnik to Novgorod, and their PAR XX from Burgas to Berlin. (The PAR XX had been guarding the Bulgarian resource against partisans; it has been replaced with a bad GAR.)

The CW rails a South African TERR from Pretoria to Capetown.

[Courtenay]

The CW moves to attack the Italian GAR next to Bari. It is flipped and out of supply, but is a white print unit. The CW and the US attack Essen. The US uses all four land moves to help out. The Russians attacks Trieste, which is experiencing fair weather, the hex west of Leipzig, and the Austrian mountain hex at the corner of the Axis line.

The Chinese reorganize their defenses.

[Courtenay]

The western Allies declare two attacks and the Russians three.

The Russians use Yeremenko in the attack on Trieste, and Vatutin in the attack west of Leipzig. The Americans use Eisenhower in the attack on Essen.

The Italians use their one unflipped ship in the Italian coast to support Trieste.

The Russians send a bomber to Trieste; this it the unit that should have ground struck the place.

[Courtenay]

The Russians do the hardest attack, the one into the Austrian Alps first. It is a poor attack, a +4 assault. The Russians roll a 7, and lose a white print INF for no gain whatsoever.

[Courtenay]

The Russians do the next hardest attack, against Trieste, next. It is much better, a +7.167 assault. The Russians do not make the fractional odds roll (.415), and roll exactly average, 11, for an 18. This flips all the Russians, and kills an Italian INF, at no loss to the Russians. Since the Italians are going to be conquered at the end of the turn, this might not look like a gain, but it is, since the Axis could have saved the Italian INF by moving it one hex to the NW, and they had intended to do so. Also, the German in Trieste was disorganized.

[Courtenay]

The action swings to the north, with the Allied attack on Essen. This is a very good attack, +12. One ought to be able to get a good attack when one attacks from six hexes! The Allies roll a 15, killing the Rome MIL and a German white print INF for no loss. The US, not the CW, takes Essen. When they do so, a 3 pt Bf109B (1937!) was overrun and destroyed, along with its pilot.

[Courtenay]

Back to the Russians, and the attack west of Leipzig. It is a +8.955 blitz. The Russians rather overdo the fractional odds roll, rolling a .004. They would like to save that roll for other attacks. Then they rolled a 14, exactly killing an SS INF and the Keil MIL. If the Western Allies had not flipped one of the German units, both would have survived.

[Courtenay]

Finally, the CW attacks an Italian GAR west of Bari. It is a very good attack, a +14.667 assault. The CW first makes the fractional odds roll (.485) and then rolls a 15. The Italian GAR dies, and the CW forces in Italy are no longer in Axis zones of control and all will count towards the garrison ratio.

[Courtenay]

The Russians rebase two units forward, and the Chinese rebase a FTR to Kweiyang.

End of turn roll 8, turn continues.

[Courtenay]

M/A 44 Axis #11:
Ge, It combined, Ja land
The Germans don't have much to do.

[Courtenay]

Bay of Biscay: Search rolls Axis 2, Allies 3. No surprise points. Two CW NAVs fly to the zero box. Axis inflicts D, A on Allies. Cairo damaged and aborted (two rolls of six). Two German submarines aborted (4, and not recorded). One Italians Sub and one CW cruiser left. Italian sub tries. Italians roll 6, CW 9, no combat.

[Courtenay]

The Italians rail a MTN from Turin to Nuremburg.

With Manila captured, suddenly the Japanese are worried about everything that borders the South China Sea. Fortunately, they think that weather might save them from invasion next turn; then again, it might not. In particular, the loss of Hanoi will put the whole Japanese force in southern China out of supply. Thus units are sent back to Hanoi to defend it. Also a corps is added to Batavia. If the US wants to spend time invading all the separate oil resources in the Netherlands East Indies, the Japanese aren't going to try and stop them, but the Japanese don't want the US to get the whole place with just one invasion.

The Germans abandon the hex west of the hex the Russians captured last impulse.

[Courtenay]

The US flies a FTR as a bomber in support.

The Italians roll reasonably after blowing their fractional odds roll (.988), getting a 13, but that is not good enough. An Italian 5-3 INF is destroyed.

[Courtenay]

Turn end roll 2, turn ends.

As usual, Allies began the turn, and the Axis ended it.

[Courtenay]

At this point, I try and make up for my forgetting to use the Japanese subs back in impulse 2. I change the end of turn roll to a 10. I set the weather to 10, the weather for the first pair of impulses. Then I pick pass actions for all the Allies except China, who picks a naval. The Chinese do nothing. I do another 10 for end of turn roll. Italy and Germany pass. Japan picks a naval.

Now Japan sends out all four of its submarines to the Marianas. They search for the Americans. The US puts a NAV into the zero box. The Japanese roll a four. The Americans roll a 10. Oops. The Japanese pick a submarine action, and then lower the US attack from 2A to 1A. The Japanese inflect an X and a D. A Japanese sub rolls a one and aborts. Then they pick a target: The brand new speed 5 range 5 US transport. It gets an X. It rolls a 5, and sinks. Double oops. The D sinks the US CP in the Marianas. The US thinks about it, and abandons the sea zone. They've already lost one transport; they don't want to lose a second one.

[Courtenay]

After this success, I give the Americans a chance to put another CP in the Marianas, out of Pearl, and the Japanese a chance to sink it. The US reacts a NAV to the three box, and the Australians a Mosquito to the zero box. The Japanese roll a 9, the Allies a 7. The CP survives.

Over the last two turns, Axis submarines have sank a French and a US TRS, and a CW AMPH. Of course, the US still has 18 transports on the map, the French one, and the CW 12. Still, that is a 10% reduction on Allied sea lift, which is noticeable. Of course, the Allies are getting two TRS and two AMPHs next turn, so the Axis is not actually gaining, but still, the Allies will miss those ships. Only three more transports will arrive after that over the whole war.

[Courtenay]

Oil:
The Commonwealth completely ran out of oil. They left everything at sea they reasonably could, and had to leave large parts of their war machine unreorganized, to wit a Hur IID, a Wellington Mk 1, the Buffalo, 3 BB in port and 3 BB at sea in the Italian coast. 1 CA and 7 CL, both monitors, and the empty Indomitable in Liverpool. Also 2 CVP on carriers. Furthermore, all the submarines stayed at sea, which the British did not want to do. They are going to cut production and save more oil. (This was done before the bugfix allowing you to use cooperating ally's oil.)

Ja: 4/2/13
Ge: 4/1/1
It: 2/0/2
Ch: 0/1/3 A-20B not reorganized
CW 8/12/12
US: 16/12/3
SU: 8