Courtenay's solitaire AAR

[Courtenay]

The US and CW carpet bomb the two southernmost hexes of the German western front, with 25 and 16 bomb points.

The Allies roll well, an 8 on the northern hex, killing a 7-5 MECH, and a 9 on the southern hex. Unfortunately for the Allies, the unit killed in the southern hex was the German FTR that had just landed there. The Germans really don't mind losing that unit too much.

I am not convinced of the value of carpet bombing; ground strikes seem more remunerative.

(No screen shots of carpet bombing.)

[Courtenay]

The Allies send out waves of planes to ground strike Axis units in Europe, and the Chinese send their one organized bomber to bomb Tungkwan. Even though the two Chinese factions do not cooperate, they can help each other. The Axis powers see two FTRs that are very likely to be flipped if they stay on the ground, so they intercept with two FTRs, one over Leipzig and one over Dresden. The Russians intercept both with two FTRs.

Over Leipzig, an Italian Macchi C202 outdoes itself. The first round, at -2, the Italians roll a 4, DX. The Russians kill their front FTR, in the hopes that they will drive the Italian away. No such luck, as they roll an 11, DC. The Italians wish they had bounce combat here. The next round, at +1, the Italians roll a 14, DA, and again the Russians pick their FTR to abort. The Russians roll a 12, AC, for no effect. The third round, the Italians again roll well, 7, AA, and the lone Russian bomber goes home. The Russians are comforted by the fact that their artillery unit that is bombarding Leipzig can not be shot down.

[Courtenay]

Over Dresden, the combat is much simpler. The Germans roll an 11, clearing a bomber through, while the Russians roll a 6, killing the German Bf 109C, a very obsolete aircraft. The Russians put their best bomber in front of their queue, as they wanted it to do any fighting if the Germans got lucky and sent the Russian FTRs home.

[Courtenay]

Here are the results of the ground strikes. I made a mistake, and did not record the results of several strikes in the middle of the list.

IL-2M3 (4 AT), IL-2M3 (5)
Viipuri: IL-10 (4 pt AT, halved) [36, 51]: 6, 10, 7, 4: Finn MECH, MOT, SKI XX unaffected;
Stettin: Pe-8 (3) [48, 40]: 3, 9, 10: Stettin MIL disorganized, GAR, Finn Ski XX unaffected;
Leipzig: 3 pt SU ART [52, 38]: 8, 3, 8: INF disorganized, 4 pt Stuka, GAR unaffected;
Dresden: 2xIL-2, IL-2M3, Pe-2 (2x3 AT, 2x3) [42, 39]: 5, 2, 4, 2, 2: ARM, GAR, AT all disorganized;
Frankfurt: B-25C, B-26F (5, 3, halved) [53, 35]: 1, 7, 8, 8, 9: He 112 disorganized, von Bock, INF unaffected;
Mosquito, B-26B, Wellington (6, 4, 2) [53, 36]: die rolls not recorded. 2xMIL disorganized;
B25-C (3, halved) [53, 37]: die rolls not recorded, It FTR, INF unaffected;
Manstein: Escorting Yak-5, 2xIL-2M3 (5, 4 AT) [53, 38]: die rolls not recorded, Manstein, GAR disorganized;
Karlsruhe: A-30 (4, halved) [54, 35]: die rolls not recorded; Ju-86 (!), Model unaffected, GAR disorganized;
Nuremburg: Tu-2 (6) [54, 38]: 9, 6, 6, 8: Bf 110E, GAR disorganized, Bf 110D, It MTN unaffected;
Tu-2 (5, halved) [54, 39]: 6, 4: INF, AT unaffected;
Stuttgart: Blenheim (3, halved) [55, 35]: 10, 7, 7, 4: 2 2pt LND, INF, Balbo unaffected;
Ger Oil: IL-2M3 (3 AT) [56, 40]: 5, 1: MOT unaffected, SS ARM XX disrupted;
Kesselring: IL-4 (3, halved) [57, 39]: 8, 4: Kesselring, Munich MIL unaffected;
Cavallero: Su-2M, Su-2 (4, 3) [58, 40]: 9, 3, 8: Cavallero disrupted, It INF unaffected;
Graziani: Su-2, Yer-2 (3, 3) [59, 39]: 10, 4, 7, 7: Graziani, It INF unaffected;
Barcelona: CW 3 pt ART [66, 27]: 2: It GAR disorganized, unsupplied;
Tungkwan: Ch A30G (5) [76, 139]: 10, 2: Terauchi unaffected, GAR disrupted, unsupplied;
Ch Resource: SBD-5, SB2C (2, 2, halved) [90, 138]: 1, 9, 2, FTR disrupted, Kyoto MIL unaffected;
Rangoon: Swordfish (1) [99, 123]: 8: INF unaffected.

2.93 air units expected, got 3. Very, very average.
16.76 land units expected, got 15. Again, on the low side for expected results; however, the Allies are not complaining; sd some of those results were very good.

[Courtenay]

The US rails the Chicago MIL to Liege from Spain.

The Communists move up to attack Tungkwan, and move up to threaten the rest of the Japanese northern line. The Nationalists shove units forward as best the can. The Indochinese PART moves onto the rail line NW of Hanoi. One GAR in Indochina flips moving into mountains; it was surrounded by mountains, so it would flip on any move.

The Western Allies and the Russians are beginning to interfere with each other's operations. The northwestern part of the German line is most vulnerable, but only one of the two Allied contingents can attack there. The Western Allies are given the chance to go first. The Russians make an attack on a weakly defended forest hex on the German eastern front, and on Trieste. Also, the Russians attack surrounded Stettin. The Western Allies attack across the Danube in the south and against a weakly defended clear hex in the north. Lastly, the US attacks Barcelona.

[Courtenay]

The US invades Taihoku, Formosa, with three MAR units while the CW invades Turku, Finland with three units. At least, I think they're units; they aren't very good.

[Courtenay]

Western Allies and Russians each declare three attacks not counting the two invasions, and the Communists declare an attack on Tungkwan.

Here is the Italian front:

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Northern China:

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South China:

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Attackers shore bombardment: US 8 pts into Taihoku, CW 5 points into Turku, SU 5 points into Stettin.

The Axis does not use HQ support on the two attacks where they can; they want to be able to move their HQs.

The Soviets use Yeremenko in support of the attack on Trieste. Mao is not used in the attack on Tungkwan.

[Courtenay]

The Russians send a bomber to Trieste, so that they can send some FTRs at full range. There are so many mountains in that area that not many Russian FTRs can get in range of Trieste.

Over the Danube, the Allies send four FTRs as bombers, three of them AT capable. This will cause a foreign contingent modifier, but those big CW ground to air strengths are more than worth it.

During the ground support segment, I cheat. Originally I sent the German air force to Trieste and to the attack over the Danube. The Western Allies had enough FTRs in range of the Danube to turn that air battle into a complete slaughter. After seeing the results, I went back to the autosave, and had the Germans fly to Trieste and the Russian attack on the northern forest hex.

Over Trieste, four Russian FTRs and a LND fight three Axis FTRs 2 LND, and 2 NAV.

The first round of combat the Axis rolls a 12, DA. The Russians send their bomber home. The Russians roll a 12, AC, sending a very bad German bomber through. The second round is bloody, with the Axis rolling a 5, DX, the Russians a 4, AX. The two lead FTRs both die. The third round both sides roll ACs (9 & 12), and an Italian NAV is cleared through. Round four the Germans get a 14, DA, and the Russian another 9, AC, clearing a Condor through. Round 5 the Axis rolls a 10, DC. The Allies roll a 3, AX, and blow up the remaining German LND, a 6 pt Stuka. That one plane had as many bombing factors as the three planes that did get through.

[Courtenay]

Most of the remaining Axis airforce flies to the forest hex the Russians are attacking, who respond with every FTR in range. Five Axis FTRs escort five Axis LND against six Russian FTRs. The Axis starts off at -1. The first round of air combat is surprisingly ineffectual, as the Axis rolled a 8, and the Russians an 13, both NE. Round two, both sides try again. The Axis rolls a 16, AA, and the Russians a 9 for another NE. The differential is now +1 in the Axis favor. Round 3 the Axis sends another Russian FTR home with a 14, DA, but the Russians finally do something, rolling a 6 for an AA. The lead German FTR is sent home. This sends the odds to even. Round four is a 9, AC versus a 13, NE, for no overall effect. Round 5 the Axis rolls another NE (13), while the Russians roll 17, DX. The Germns kill a Ju 88 G that they had had in a museum until this turn. Round 6 produces a pair of DAs, (14 and 8), sending another Russian FTR home as well as another obsolete German bomber. Round 7, the Germans kill a Russian FTR and its pilot with a 15 at +2, while the Russians roll an 10, DC, clearing a 7 pt Stuka through. The Russians see no reason to conserve their planes, and stick around at -3. Round 8 they are rewarded. The Germans send another Russian FTR home with a 14 (AA), but the Russians roll a 4, DX. The Germans decide to kill their FTR, hoping to get more bombers through. The next round at +4 the Germans send the last Russian FTR home with a 9, while the Russians let a LND through with a 10.

[Courtenay]

The Russians have an AA gun next to the forest, and use it, rolling a 10, a 3 and 6. 6 points of bombers get through, after halving.

Total ground support is:
Turku: 1 point added defense. (2 got through, but only one defense point.)
Danube: 20 added to attack (Actually 21, but only 20 attack points.)
German forest: 6 added to defense
Trieste: 5 added to defense.

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The Allies do their automatic attacks first. Barcelona goes first, killing an out of supply, flipped Italian GAR.

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Next is Taihoku, also automatic. The Allies used up an 8 and a 7 in these two attacks. They are surprised; normally these rolls show up on more important attacks.

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The Chinese Communists go next. The attack is a good one, +11.429. After some thought, the Japanese pick the blitz table; they don't want to lose Terauchi. This decisions turns out to be correct, as the Chinese, after they roll a .272 to get the fractional odds modifier, roll a 10 for a 22, *1B. The Communists would like to get rid of that HQ, but are convinced to convert the result to a retreat, on the theory that they will likely kill it on subsequent impulses. A 4-1 GAR dies. If the Japanese had picked Assault, half the Chinese would have been flipped, but the HQ would have died and Mao would have unflipped most of the flipped units, so they think they made the right choice. The Chinese are surprised. They finally made an attack without disastrous consequences. (The last Communist attack is how they lost Tungkwan in the first place.)

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Next is the CW invasion of Turku, at +12. The Allies roll a 13, getting ashore safely and unflipped.

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The Russians go next, attacking Trieste at +5.115. The fractional odds roll is good, .215, but not good enough. The Russians roll reasonably, a 12, for a 1/1 result. The Russians lose a SKI XX, but the only German defender, the Leipzig MIL, dies. All of the Russians are flipped. A German SUB and a flipped float plane and pilot are destroyed when Trieste is captured.

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The Axis unit in Trieste when it was captured:

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After attacks on Taihoku, Tungkwan, Turku, and Trieste, the Allies frantically search for another place beginning with 'T' to attack. Not finding one, the Russians instead attack Stettin, with a +8.769 assault. The Russians roll exactly average, a .670 for the fractional odss roll, and an 11 for the attack, getting a 1/2S result, with half the attackers being flipped. The Russians lose the Stalingrad MIL, while the Axis lose a white print GAR, the Stettin MIL, and a Finnish SKI XX. My screen shot somehow lost the bottom of the screen where I had picked which Russians were disorganized, but you can see which ones were disorganized by the dots above the pictures.