TAIFUN (Axis) vs crispy131313 (allies) 1939

[Taifun]

October 19th 1942

[Taifun]

November 1942
The Yanks arrive again [X(]!! In a daring amphibious operation the US Army strikes again from the Suez Canal area and attack the whole coast of Cyrenaica!! Rommel HQ in Tobruk is destroyed as is General Gariboldi HQ in Bardia, while Model HQ in Mekili is hard hit and will be destroyed next turn. Rommel himself escapes [;)], but the situation is a new disaster for the Panzerarmee Afrika. The allies attack supported by 3 carriers and a big task force on naval units…

[Taifun]

November 10th 1942
A panzer counterattack retakes Bardia. A US Army loaded in transports is attacked and destroyed by Regia Marina ships and sinks near Derna… Flying is impossible in this horrible weather and the Axis are unable to attack the many naval targets around the Gulf of Bomba…
General Mannerheim arrives Benghazi with 2 of his infantry corps to help stabilize the situation. They are still wearing winter uniforms!

[Taifun]

December 2nd 1942
The fighting for survival in Libya continues! An Italian Battleship and one destroyer are sunk west of Crete. Near the Egyptian border both Italian Corps defending Sidi Barrani are destroyed out of supply and south of Tobruk one of our veteran panzercorps is equally put on lost list. General Model HQ is destroyed and captured near Msus…
But our forces strike back and in a combined operation we sink 2 carriers (1 US, 1 British) and a battleship, seriously damaging several other ships and destroying several US land units a British AA unit defending Mekili. The remainder of the US troops in Libya are out of supply and isolated.
More panzer troops arrive via Benghazi including a unit equipped with the new Tiger tank.

[Taifun]

December 24th 1942 Current turn
The Situation in North Africa is restored. All US GIs in Libya are now in POWs camps. Only Tobruk is still defended by American Rangers. A US destroyer is sunk near Crete and the rest of the Allied ships have retired towards the Canal. We advance towards Algiers and Gibraltar from Tunisia...
Our forces are reaching Baku in the Caucasus. New offensives are planned towards Gorki and Kuybyshev. Volkhov is now in our hands near Leningrad and the Northern flank is secured.

[Taifun]

December 24th 1942
The Axis lost 5 HQ in North Africa this last year!! but the Allies paid a heavy price with the USA alone losing 6 corps and 2 Armies in this theatre of operations…
No U-boots have been lost so far and the Allies lost 6 destroyers. The battle of the Atlantic is going well and the USSR bound convoys are stopped for the time

[Elessar2]

LOL, Finns in Africa...

[Taifun]

Some numbers to help view the current situation…
The German have 130 land units, the USSR 66, the British and Allies 31, the USA 19 and Italy 16. Both sides have roughly the same number of ships…
The U-boot campaign is damaging the Allied economy, the British losing 1342 MPPs since the war begun and the Russian bound convoys another 1015 MPPs.
The Soviets lost 24767 MPPs and collected 24155 MPPs. They are replacing the losses with no net growth.
The Germans collected 44358 MPPs and lost about half 21044 MPPs.
The USA lost 3513 MPPs and collected 14624 MPPs.
The British lost 15067 MPPs and collected 15737 MPPs.

[Taifun]

This Christmas eve is celebrated with joy in the whole Russian front. Our forces are approaching Baku in the Caucasus, fanatically defended by Soviet forces for a whole year…

[Taifun]

East of Moscow the fighting for the city of Gorky has begun… heavy concentration of Soviet armored corps are identified in the area.

[Taifun]

June 24th 1943
Malta is assaulted by air under General Kesselring. Meanwhile General von Manstein attacks towards El Alamein sweeping Allied forces aside...

[Taifun]

June 24th 1943
In the East Front Baku has fallen and we are entering Iran. The city of Gorky east of Moscow is about to be reached and the Soviets are losing the defensive battle of Kuybyshev…

[Taifun]

The game ends here ... Many thanks Chris for this great game! He was an outstanding opponent, playing a great Mediterranean Campaign. The Axis decisive victory in the East Front in 1941 was the key of this war. The Soviets never really recovered from their Moscow defeat...

[crispy131313]

Well I should probably contribute a postmortem report.

Clearly not honoring the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a poor strategy, and not one I had tried before and certainly would not have risked had I known that this would end up a battle between #2 & #3 in the tournament rankings! Nonetheless it was a committed strategy that fell on it's face.

The plan went horribly off track from the very beginning, with the UK and France both anticipating to invest in Soviet diplomacy but the German advance through the Maginot Line in September/October tossed that plan to the wind, though I think the early defense of France went well anyways. The UK did invest 450 MPP in Soviet diplomacy in September 39' which was never countered by the Axis, and I regret that I did not increase this to the maximum amount. Not a single diplomacy chit activated which by rough calculations is less than a 1% probability over 1.5 years. It was also crushing losing the Iraqi convoy on a single diplomacy chit on the 2nd turn of the game!

Another miscalculation was my defensive strategy in the Soviet Union, the garrisons were a mistake and not worth the cost to protect the auto-spawn troops. Also at issue was the speed of the Axis advance, which was compounded by the Soviets not marching into Warsaw. The war was likely over by Christmas 41' though I was in denial and continued to press forward in the Mediterranean with the Allies, even managing to connect the Soviet to the Mediterranean via capturing Iran, Iraq and Syria with the Soviets. The grand plan of sending Soviet forces to the Mediterranean turned into a pipe dream however without ability to build more than our losses mainly throughout 42' & 43'.

I feel the Mediterranean was well played on my part, but without any pressure from the Soviet Union the Axis were free to send as many forces as necessary to thwart whatever I could muster. The Atlantic was not very well played by the Allies, though we did win a decisive naval battle in the summer of 43' which really should not be celebrated but expected.

Overall Taifun played very well and countered any plans I had and deserved the win. Thank you for the match and the AAR!

[The Land]

Thanks for the AAR! An interesting read

[Elessar2]

Will you increase the Scorched Earth penalty in your next update?

[crispy131313]

ORIGINAL: Elessar2

Will you increase the Scorched Earth penalty in your next update?

I don’t think it’s necessary to change in Fall Weiss II because of the Soviet Reserves which deploy near Moscow and Stalingrad ahead of the battle which can also defend the approach if invested in, additionally their should be a Tank battle which will occur at either Kiev or Smolensk which will somewhat slow the advance. I balanced the East based on the existing supply rules.