Global War AAR

[composer99]

Commonwealth Setup

"The Colonies"

Here are units set up in several overseas possessions: Halifax, Calcutta (image showing the oil in Delhi), and Aden. I think I forgot to take a picture of several cruisers set up in South Africa?

[composer99]

Commonwealth Setup

Mediterranean
From west to east, the CW forces in the Med.

Wavell is in Alexandria, along with the freely-placed INF. The submarines are based in Malta, which is to be garrisoned as soon as time and sealift permit.

[composer99]

Commonwealth Setup

United Kingdom
The BEF begins ready for action in Portsmouth. A few other units are sitting in Liverpool, ready to be deployed to other theatres - Egypt in particular, while some other units are on standby to defend the UK. RAF fighter squadrons are based in Dover, while Bomber Command formations are ready in Harwich.

[Courtenay]

Move the oil out of Delhi to someplace where there is a unit. You are just asking for a partisan to drop on it.

(I hope you don't mind my making comments on your game. I realize that you can't take my advice, because you have already played these turns, but I will give it anyway.)

[composer99]

Well, don't forget the CW gets a reserve militia in Delhi, so that won't be a problem.

Edit to add: And, no, I don't mind. Might be something to keep in mind for future games.

[composer99]

France Setup

Strategy
The French didn't go to war in 1939 expecting to be defeated sometime over the summer of 1940. WiF can't properly simulate the fateful interaction of Allied and German operational and tactical planning and execution in May 1940, so it compensates in other ways. The bottom line is that it's hard for France to last through all of 1940, and, in particular, if the Germans are willing to blow an offensive chit, it's likely going to go down some time in the summer.

All that's to say that my planning was heavily influenced by the need to try to slow down the German offensive as much as possible, so even if France fell, at least it was going to take Germany all summer to do it.

I ended up drawing strong INF in Syria and French North Africa, so I decided to make the effort to bring them back to France. I would come to rue the decision to bring home the INF corps in North Africa, at any rate, as we shall see.

If and when France was defeated, my intent, once I began lending build points to Free France, was to build HQ-A De Gaulle and then build out French air units, prioritising the air transport and twin-engine bombers (atr3 and lnd3).

I haven't actually liberated France as of this writing, on the first Allied impulse of ND44, but it's going to happen this turn. That means French production will resume as normal in JF45, which certainly isn't enough time to build a real army. I'd consider doing so in a game with the extended game length optional rule, but I'll probably just build the few air units I can before the end of the game as it is.

Scrapping
The French scrap reasonably aggressively - all the ftr2 they can scrap, lots of early sealift, and even an art division (I really, really want the at/aa guns).

[composer99]

France Setup

Overseas Stuff

The TERR in the Asia-Pacfic map ended up being the New Caledonia TERR, which isn't great. I mean, any other territorial would probably sit in its home country, too, but at least, say, the Indochina TERR can protect a resource from partisans.

Also not pictured are some cruisers and the nice sub (6 move 2 range) that were set up in Equatorial Africa.

As I mentioned earlier, I got two of France's best infantry on colonial duty.

The French convoys are set up to bring the Indochina resource and the Iraqi oil back to France.

[composer99]

France Setup

France
The weaker infantry start on the Maginot line, which is a great spot for them. The slow GARR units are sitting in Strasbourg and Metz, where they will sit until defeated. The rest of the Army, apart from a token force screening the passes through the Alps against the Italians, are standing guard against Germany, on the (admittedly safe) assumption that the Germans' primary thrust will happen through Belgium.

A small detachment of ships is ready in Brest to sail into the Baltic Sea - Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish territorial waters be damned, so it seems.

Any cruisers not pictured here are either the Lamont-Picotte, the ones stationed in Syria (to help defend the Eastern Med), or the ones stationed in Equatorial Africa.

[composer99]

Japan Setup

Strategy
For Japan, I decided to go against China, rather than the USSR, in the early game. If opportunity permitted, I was certainly ready to attack the Soviets in order to pick up Vladivostok and some resources, but I didn't want to start that before the Red Army was busy with the Germans, anyway.

In China, my actual goals were two-fold:
- Take Sian
- Secure the two resources in Southern China

As "stretch" goals, I had:
- Take Lanchow
- Take Kunming

I aimed to align Siam and Indochina both in 1940, before the 1941 US entry markers appeared. I believe I had as an objective to garrison the Marshalls, thus triggering that entry action, in 1940 as well. I also wanted to align Madagascar if possible: an objective hex is an objective hex.

Once the time came to go to war in the Pacific against the US and British, my objectives were to seize the normal targets in the South China Sea (Hong Kong, NEI, Philippines) and environs (Rabaul and Ceylon). I really couldn't decide on whether or not to attempt to reach any further (Australia, India, or Hawaii).

As far as defending against the US advance went, my goal was to fight forward as much as possible, but fall back, sea area layer by sea area layer, in a sensible fashion to ensure I didn't fritter my fleet and land-based air away too quickly. One priority I had was to have HQ-I Yamamoto and my strongest Marine corps and division as a mobile reserve, with their own dedicated sealift (cruiser in the division's case), based just back from whatever was the currently-contested sea area, to spring on unwary Americans after an invasion gone bad or if I got a good opportunity.

Scrapping
I scrapped as much as I could as far as air and naval units went. Japan starts with a lot of sealift, relatively speaking, and doesn't need a whole lot more, so I certainly didn't feel bad aggressively scrapping TRS.

[composer99]

Japan Setup

Manchuria & At Sea

Based on its priority, and, in no small part thanks to the confidence of knowing what the other side has planned, Japan leaves only a token force in Manchuria to start off with. The rest of the starting forces are along the frontier with China, ready to move south.

At sea, Japan's convoys are set up to meet its trade obligations and receive its resources and oil from the US, as well as keep supply to its Pacific possessions and ship its current slate of resources and oil home from overseas.

Japanese carriers that happen to have planes capable of reaching Chinese forces inland are on station in the South China Sea. Doubtless the IJN is unhappy about supporting the IJA. I guess the Army is currently controlling the War Cabinet or something.

[composer99]

Japan Setup

China
I like to go after southern China first when playing Japan on this map scale, for four reasons:
- Better weather in the south during the first few turns of the game, save for SO39 when there are two weather results of rain in the south and fine in the north.
- You can launch an attack on Changsha pretty much on the first impulse in MWiF, unlike in regular WiF.
- Killing Nationalists floods the Chinese force pool with Nationalist units, so the Chinese struggle to build up the stronger Communist forces.
- As a result of the immediately preceding point, once you're ready to go after the Communists, which I planned to do in the summer of 1940, they'll be short the units they need to stop you enveloping and seizing Sian.

As a result, the forces in northern China are sufficient to seize weakly-defended Chengchow, once HQ-I Terauchi and other forces from Manchuria arrive, and could punish the Communists if they dared push forward, but weren't strong enough yet to press the attack on Sian, while the forces in southern China were ready for serious campaigning, and could expect the first wave or two of reinforcement from Japan.

Sitting in port in Canton were the cruisers I expected to use for convoy defence over the long term, along with the slow battleships that would ultimately be used to bombard targets during the waves of invasions in late 1941/early 1942.

[composer99]

Japan Setup

Japan
Not gonna lie, it seems weird to have the Manchurian MIL be the draw for Japan proper, but there you go.

Land units in Japan are ready to ship to China. The Marines were going to be on station to deploy to Persia if the Red Army got feisty there, with the option of heading inland for a spell otherwise.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: composer99


Japan
Not gonna lie, it seems weird to have the Manchurian MIL be the draw for Japan proper, but there you go.

The MIL has been sent to Japan for training?

[composer99]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: composer99


Japan
Not gonna lie, it seems weird to have the Manchurian MIL be the draw for Japan proper, but there you go.

The MIL has been sent to Japan for training?

I suppose so.

[composer99]

Germany Setup

Strategy
Germany's strategy this game is fairly simple:
- Strong offensive against Poland first, then a late-fall/winter/spring campaign against Yugoslavia, transitioning into a spring/summer campaign in the West, then build-up in fall/winter/spring for a 1941 Barbarossa, while supporting Italy's Mediterranean campaign.
- In the mid game, fight in the USSR while supporting Italy's offensive & defensive operations.
- In the late game, hold on as much as possible.

Scrapping
I don't think there's anything controversial about Germany's scrap list given its strategy. I'd have kept the 4-movement TRS if I was planning a Sealion. Sure, it telegraphs to the British that a full-scale Sealion isn't in the works, but in order to spook them I'd have to actually spend build points on extra sealift - and at any rate, with Italian PARA and MAR, German PARA and MAR, and AMPH I could get off a three-hex invasion without those TRS, which would be enough to cause trouble if the Commonwealth neglects the defence of the UK.

[composer99]

Germany Setup

Baltic Operations
Swift German forces are ready to spring into action to seize Denmark in order to secure the vital iron ore shipments from Sweden.

[composer99]

Germany Setup

Western Front
Under cover of the forests, a mobile reserve force guards the central and northern sector, while second or third-rate forces man the French frontier.

[composer99]

Germany Setup

Poland
The Second World War might have been going on in China for two years already, but it's just about to get underway in Europe, with the Heer and Luftwaffe prepared for a broad-based offensive to swiftly and decisively crush Poland before the British and French have any chance to intervene.

[composer99]

Just for fun, here are the three previous pictures stitched together to show the entirety of the German setup.

They don't quite do so seamlessly, on account of the flyout panel in the Baltic front picture.

[composer99]

01 September/October 1939

Axis Impulse #1

So begins the game!

Thanks to the scenario defining the first weather roll as a 4, it's fine weather across the board.

Germany starts by declaring war on Poland. USE roll is a 6, so a single marker (value of 1) is added.

Impulse calls:
Germany land
Japan land
Italy combined

Neutral Italy
Not much happening here: the RM picks up the supply unit to transfer it to HQ Balbo, for reasons discussed in the setup phase.