Allies vs. Skynet

[John B.]

Hello all,

Since I clearly like to hear myself type and I've enjoyed the other AARs thus far I figured I would break down and buy the game. I'm the allies playing the AI. I did not want to bore people with the polish campaign (spoiler alert, the Poles lost) but they did cause some German armor and aircraft losses.

As for options thus far, the Brits waited to the Congress party to get off its a** so India is not yet in the war. The US decided to open the supply route through IndoChina (which is a real no brainer, you reap many many more MPP than you sow), the French activated the free engineer unit, the BEF went to France, Stalin and Hitler agreed on the non-aggression pact, and Stalin has borrowed part of Finland. But, he promises to give it back at the next opportunity.

The Norwegians are annoyed at the British for interfering with German convoys but no other real neutral news.

[John B.]

We pick up the action with the Germans going into the Netherlands and Belgium early. As you can see, both countries held out in the initial attack. I don't think I can save the Netherlands this turn, but I plan to reinforce the Belgian armies to see if we get bad weather that lets them hold out another turn. I don't seem to be able to make the files small enough to fit. I'll have to work on that! I use the microsoft paint so any advice is welcome!

In China I'm holding out in the South and I have a Japanese army surrounded in the north which is going to die this turn.

[John B.]

I"ve made it into April 1940. The Finns allowed the Soviets to borrow part of their country, Germany occupied Denmark and Norway (taking some losses on Oslo), and the UK decided to build up Singapore and arm the home guard.

In military news, the Dutch surrendered but Belgium has held out for two more turns. It looks like the weather is clear for this next turn so Belgium may not hold out much longer. The Americans had a logistics breakthrough ("if you put the ammo in boxes it's easier to carry") and that's about it. Waiting for the main event to start in France.

The Chinese continue to hold the front line and are under zero pressure in the north. The loss of the army seems to have scared Japan straight in that area. I'm stockpiling Chinese MPP by not building new units and just replacing losses at the front.

[John B.]

Still trying to figure out the whole picture thing.

In any event, it's May 1940. The French army was unable to hold Antwerp in the face of sustained German bombing with vicious dogfights over the city that involved French, British, and Belgian interceptors. Eban Emal also fell but Belgium is still in the war as it clings to Brussels.

A French BB bombarded The Hague and took three strength points worth of damage (and the comment reported from the Admiralty of "so what, they're French" did not do much to strengthen the rapport between the countries).

A South African corps is moving to Kenya to keep a lid on any Italian expansion from Ethiopia. Not much to report from China. They continue to hold the line and bless each turn of 60 MPP from Indochina.

The Soviets decided to invest in winter warfare and that rounds things out.

[John B.]

Well, here is a not very good picture of what the Western front looks like right now.

[John B.]

Things are getting creaky in France. My staff messed up and Skynet was able to send the Italians into Lyon. At the same time, vicious airbattles are going on and the Germans use their bombers to soften up targets and then wave assault. I'm still fighting in Belgium, which is a good thing, but the BEF was destroyed. In better news on this front, the Germans lost a U-boat and had two other UBoat units badly damaged.

[John B.]

With the Italians entering into the war, the Brits have moved on Tobruk. Meanwhile, there has been a swirling naval battle down south of Italy. Il Duce lost two BBs and a DD unit. The Italians almost sank a British carrier and if they find it, it's gone given that it's down to 2 SP.

In China the Japanese had a bit of a breakthrough in the center and wiped out a Chinese corps. I've moved in reinforcements and built another army.

The Russians watch all of this and chuckle to themselves as the capitalists tear each other's guts out. Soon the USSR will be able to move in and pick up the pieces.

[John B.]

France has made it into August but the German keep pressing. I almost killed the paratrooper unit on the coast but was not able to finish the job. In the meantime, Italian tanks reopened the corridor to Lyon but the corps there moved west and the French were able to retake it.

More battles in the Med with the Italians losing a heavy cruiser unit.

The English opted to not take the US destoyers (the German U Boat fleet is fighting for its life near Norway) so I figured there was no sense in losing the MPP. The English did decide to send the 7th armored to North Africa and Allied units are advancing in Ethiopia.

[John B.]

The Japanese are pressing their advantage Central China and causing some heavy Chinese casualties there. I'm moving reinforcements that way and hope to hand onto the City. So far the Japanese have not shut down the Indochina resupply which is very very helpful to China

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: John B.

We pick up the action with the Germans going into the Netherlands and Belgium early. As you can see, both countries held out in the initial attack. I don't think I can save the Netherlands this turn, but I plan to reinforce the Belgian armies to see if we get bad weather that lets them hold out another turn. I don't seem to be able to make the files small enough to fit. I'll have to work on that! I use the microsoft paint so any advice is welcome!

In China I'm holding out in the South and I have a Japanese army surrounded in the north which is going to die this turn.

warspite1

This is really irritating. I mentioned it in my AAR recently as no other game I've AAR'd does this. Almost Regardless of the size of the picture, I can't paste it into the forum until I've made it 'smaller'. How small and why? There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. I want the picture as big as possible but don't want to spend my life being told 'File Too Large!' so I've sometimes had to have 2-4 goes at it. Usually though, just making it smaller (no. of pixels) - not even by much - will work. Worst thing is when you've made it too small and then need to enlarge....[:@] I use Paint 3D, save the piccy in a file and then make smaller using Irfanview.

[BillRunacre]

When I did AARs in the past I used photobucket, as you upload the image to there and then click on an option underneath which is effectively a link that you paste into the forum thread.

[sveint]

I heartily recommend irfanview for resizing/general image management.

[John B.]

For some reason the maximum file size I can upload for Strategic Command WWII is 250Kb. But, the maximum file size for WitPAE is 1 MB. Bill, do you know why they have the different limitations on file size?

[John B.]

Anyway, on with the war. If I can figure out an easier to post pictures I will, otherwise it's just a written record. The Germans used tanks and airborne to bust a hole wide open in the allied line seizing Lille and killing both Gort and Gamelin in France. Meanwhile, the French retook Lyon but the Italian Tank unit busted through. The Italians lost a battleship and there British advance into both Ethiopia and up to Tobruk.

Britain successfully researched infantry weapons and moved both Turkey and Spain towards the allies.

In China, the Japanese are pressing their offensive in the center and China is sending reinforcements there and may cut off a Japanese special forces unit. Supplies are still flowing through Indochina and Stalin is slowly building up his army.

[EwaldvonKleist]

Pic upload limit depends on subforum. 200kb as here is very low. Ask admins to increase or open an image saving thread in a subforum with big allowance and simply link to the image

[EwaldvonKleist]

WitE mod forum allows up to 8mb iirc so I opened my image storage thread there, worked fine for WitE AARs.
tm.asp?m=4527555

[John B.]

Good advice! I'll give it a shot on increasing the the file size I can upload.

[John B.]

In the meantime, France held on for another turn. A british corps and french corps were destroyed but the RAF (which has been upgraded) is taking a heavy toll of German fighters and bombers. Mersailles is under siege by the Italian army and German paratroopers are next to Paris. The French did get another army as a reinforcement and it is raining in france but things are looking grim. Stalin continues to chuckle and pat himself on the back for having the capitalists disembowel each other.

In China the Japanese special forces unit was destroyed and the line restored. There is a Japanese army that is about to be surrounded and then it will be a race to see who dies first.

British advances on Tobruk are hampered by bad supply as is their advance into Ethiopia. The British are at the gates of Addis Ababa but are unlikely to take the town.

[John B.]

Back to the file size issue. As you can see, here in the AAR section the file limit is 200kb. But, in the Tech Section the file size limit is 5MB (I noticed that as I was posting this picture in the tech section). Anyone know what gives?

[John B.]

Back to the main event. It's January 1, 1941. France has just surrendered. They put up a very good fight but in the end German tanks, air power, quality and numbers were just too much as was the very strong Italian thrust into Southern France. Paris and Marseilles were both taken on the same turn and it was too much. France went down fighting killing 5 or so infantry steps, a couple of air steps and a couple of tank steps in the last turn. The Germans increased their naval facilities at St. Nazaire and declared Vichy France. The usual suspects went Vichy but Britain supported DeGaualle and got LeClairc's under strength corps in French Equatorial Guinea. The US has started Lend Lease to Britain and the Afrika Korps is reported to be in North Africa.

Continued naval fighting in the Med. off of the coast of Sicily and Italian frogmen did one point of damage to a British BB in Alexandria harbor.

Phew. In the meantime, Russia developed infantry weapons level 1 and has been upgrading all of its units. Stalin is feeling a bit less chuffed now than he was. Can Germany redeploy in time to attack the USSR in 1941? We shall see.

China continues to press the Japanese. China has been rotating units to upgrade to infantry weapons level 1 and has cut off a Japanese corps in the north. I also see a Janapese heavy artillery unit making its way forward in the south.