Vengeance: A Global War AAR (DQ2004 AAR#3)

[DQ2004]

Then Mussolini gets a rush of blood to the brain, and with the battleships of the Regia Marina in support, launches an attack on Wavell.
But despite reasonable odds, the attack is a disaster. Two Italian army corps are destroyed.

[DQ2004]

In China, the Japanese are steadily moving up reinforcements and preparing for a return of the good weather.
This is the situation in the south:

[DQ2004]

Northern China during the Mar/Apr 1940 turn:
The Communists tried to move their cavalry division and get behind the Japanese lines, but the Japanese cavalry corps was quickly shifted into place and blocked that nonsense.

[DQ2004]

So what happened in France I hear you say?
Well again we are not screenshotting quite every move, but this nice gif should tell the story well.
This time the Wehrmacht again used a large stockpile of ammunition and stores, regrettable indeed as we were trying to save that for other things. But the danger of allowing the French some respite was too great.
If further reinforcements arrived, they could have seriously delayed the Axis timetable. Thus the second offensive chit was expended. This time the attacks were successful, with the LII mechanized corps breaking through and seizing Lille, and tearing a nice hole in the Allied lines. Paras were dropped in the Ardennes, just, well, because we could.
The French were now, finally, in trouble.
The British were also forced to retreat from Antwerp.
In retreating they decided not to give up any further ground. I think in hindsight it would have been better to straighten their line, but they did not. The advancing panzers then chose to pick on the strongest French corps, the Chevallier armoured corps, which had been left in the centre on its own. The slow heavy French tanks were out-manoevred by the faster panzers, and the best French unit was gone.
Following this the French decided to abandon Strasbourg and the centre of the Maginot line. Amazed, the garrison units walked in to the forts and abandoned city.
Next the Metz militia was selected for destruction. After this the turn ended, with the French armies now desperately weakened.
(I didn't label each frame of this gif because I didn't know which impulse it was. But you can see the attacks and the results, so it should be pretty obvious what is going on).

[DQ2004]

With the turn ended, these are the losses:
KMS Blucher was caught in the Faeroes Gap trying to raid convoys. Gneisenau was also damaged in the battle.
The Duquesne was sunk by the Italian fleet in the Eastern Med, as were both of the submarines.
Whilst not screenshotted, Budapest was taken.

[DQ2004]

Global control at the end of Mar/Apr 1940:

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And the grey version (just because):

[DQ2004]

The reinforcements for May/June 1940:

[Grotius]

Great AAR! Terrible weather! Keep it coming.

[AllenK]

Well done for giving us another AAR. Love the animations.

[DQ2004]

May/Jun 1940:

This time we will go straight to the main game.
With almost guaranteed good weather, the Wehrmacht gets straight into the final battle for France at the start of May.
Unfortunately, again I didn't quite screenshot the first attacks, but the first frame of this composite image does show the result; two devastating breakthroughs, one towards the Seine beside Paris, the other west of Metz and to to the south.
France's fate was now sealed, and it was only a matter of time.
Seeing the inevitable, Churchill somewhat selfishly orders the withdrawal of the BEF. But aside from being a slight nuisance to the German armies, they cannot now change the outcome, so it was probably a good decision.
The French attempt to withdraw from the Maginot line trap, but those units are doomed.
Then they counter-attack the leading German mechanized corps - and destroy it, making the attack on Paris just that little bit harder. But the downside is that they lose a unit as well as having all of the survivors disrupted. Now immobilized, this is now just a case of doing the mopping up.
Sadly that is of course precisely when you take things for granted and something goes hideously, horrifically wrong.
Guderian launches an attack below Metz, and naturally makes it a blitzkrieg. The following roll is devastatingly low, and the Guderian HQ is the only armoured unit involved.... OUCH.
Vengeance is an expensive business, no doubts there.
After this, the first attack on Paris is also a disaster, with only one French unit destroyed, and all of the attackers disorganized. After mammoth efforts from Rundstedt and Von Leeb, a second attack goes in, and finally finishes the job.
Afterwards, the now out of supply and disrupted Georges HQ is destroyed (not in the gif).
France has fallen (as long as we decide to declare Vichy - and this question would be very carefully considered in OKH).

PS. Thanks AllenK and Grotius.

[DQ2004]

In Southern China, the Japanese continued to make steady progress, the constant threat of being outflanked causing continued Chinese withdrawals. Inevitably though, some units were caught and destroyed.
(this gif does not show all impulses & moves but you should get the idea)

[DQ2004]

And quite frankly Northern China had become quite boring by this time, but don't worry, we'll get our revenge here too.
...not sure what the revenge is all about, but they are communists, so, you know
Somehow I missed that Mao was destroyed in this sequence (not properly shown).

[DQ2004]

On the North African front, the stalemate continues on the Egyptian/Libyan border.
Both sides continue to fight it out at sea, with a series of inconclusive naval engagements.
Nonetheless the Royal Navy loses two cruisers, Sheffield and Belfast, whilst the Italians lose the Fiume.
Mussolini is fuming...
At least the Italian armies can boast one small if relatively irrelevant success; Tunis falls.

[DQ2004]

The other thing the Italians do is wander across to Corsica.
With control of the sea areas very much in question, it simply isn't safe to try to do any amphibious landings. So with nothing better to do they decide they might as well do this. The San Marco division has no difficulties.
Meanwhile the deteriorating situation in the north of France causes the abandonment of the line in the Alps.
Gleefully the Italians march across.

[DQ2004]

The abysmal force left facing the not much less abysmal Italian army leads to another rush of blood to the brain.
And thus, the Italians attack again.

[DQ2004]

The attack is successful, but once again at a heavy price.
The surviving unit apart from Balbo, the elite Alpini corps, marches through the mountains and seizes Marseille.
Mussolini urges Adolf to conquer France rather than let it become Vichy, as he wants to keep the Savoy region for himself.

[DQ2004]

The horror turn for the Allies finally comes to an end (May/Jun 40).
It hasn't been good no matter which way you look. In China both the Nationalist and the Communist HQs have been destroyed, a catastrophic set of losses that will take more than six months to fully replace.
But for the Axis and our plans of revenge, the defeat of France has been very costly. Italy was foolish to launch an unnecessary attack which cost yet more, and the loss of both the Guderian HQ and a mechanized unit along with the expenditure of both Offensive Chits means that we must cut our losses here and declare Vichy France.
Mussolini is furious, but of course we don't care what he thinks.
Only Japan is happy; the loss of a cavalry and an infantry corps (even though it is their best one) are definitely worth it given the damage they've inflicted.

[DQ2004]

Global control at the end of the May/Jun 1940 turn:

[DQ2004]

Jul/Aug 1940

Reinforcements for Jul/Aug 1940:
Richelieu of course was to go straight to the Vichy construction pool.
We still don't know why the Chinese began the construction of a submarine. Trying to escape maybe?