How the War went: Cpuncher (Allies) vs Fafnir v1.07 Full Game

[Cpuncher]

May 1940: Paris fell, with most of the British infantry destroyed, but the French won't surrender yet. Worse, UK lost her Strategic Bomber which was parked at the red circled spot. This, coupled with my failure to try to rebuild it right away, had a sifnificant impact on the course of the war later on.

[Cpuncher]

But also a huge blunder by Regia Marina: They wanted to come out of Gibraltar to fight, which, I must say, did not end very well for them. I happened to have something in the area, and the rest could cruise there in one turn.

[Cpuncher]

July 1940: Lyon fell and the French sued for peace, but something ticked off the Fuhrer and he said no. He wanted all of France!

Now this I believe, was the wrong decision, and could be the very reason the Axis lost the war. Germany needed the French plunder right now to research and buy units for the showdown with the Russians. Everything snowballs in this game. 100 mpp now is always more valuable than 150 mpp a year later. Now Germany needed to go all the way through the mountains of Algeria to finish off France, which caused her unable to DOW Russia early 41. It's here when I first thought I could have won the war, a thought that was to be changed many times later...

Tactically speaking, a French surrender here would delete the unit in Bordeaux (when it's the capital), and give the city to Germany, which means the other 2 British units nearby would be soon lost with low supply. I was not aware of this until yesterday.

Also building the forts around Bordeaux was bad choice...

Though humble in communications, Fafnir appeared to be extremely confident on the battlefield, probably rightly deserving so.

[Cpuncher]

Meanwhile, Regia Marina was hunted down with 1 DD left. However with the presence of all the Allied ships, I did not discover an amphibious transport that's within distance of Tunis. Most likely the transport was launched from Tripoli. What a daring move!

[Cpuncher]

Aug 1940: The amphibious assault took Tunis. I have a damaged CV parked in the port, who almost got killed. Worse, this means the Axis will have an intact port to work with the next turn.

[Marcinos1985]

Blast to read.
Couple of questions:
1. You went all-in with UK to defend FRA, shipped guys from Egypt. What was left to protect Egypt then and did Italy push?
2. Reggia Marina came to you and got ambushed, ok. But did you leave Med empty beforehand? No port blocking? If so, why? To prevent NM loss for FRA from fleet dmg?
3. Do you recall what Fafnir bought in the beginning? Paras, maritime or maybe teleporting/operating units?
4. You bought French SF and shipped to UK. Why?
5. Winter war - yes or no?
6. Did GER take some tech or went all-in with units?

Can’t wait for more.

[Cpuncher]

Sep 1940: The French Bomber could only score 1 hit on Tunis port, which will grow back to 5 on the Axis turn. The RN badly needed some repair and refitting, coupled with the concerns of the presence of both Axis maritime bombers, left the area. The British retreated hastily back into Egypt, as soon as they saw some German Panzers.

[Cpuncher]

Oct 1940: Bordeaux fell to the Axis, while London was finally recovered. A lone German paratrooper held it since April!

[Cpuncher]

Addis Ababa was finally captured.

[Cpuncher]

Bad weather prevented bombing of Tunis port, and Panzers began to arrive.

[Cpuncher]

Nov 1940: Situation in China. Kwuichow fell and China sets aside a force to defend Kunming.

[Cpuncher]

Dec 1940: More and more Germans arrived in Algeria, and multiple Axis aircraft located and killed the French medium bomber. With the presence of multiple bombers, I couldn't use any Naval asset to blockade the Tunis port.

To some extent, I actually welcomed the presence of Panzers in Algeria. I estimated it would surely take them at least 6-7 months to go through all the mountains to reach Oran, as the defenders will need to be eliminated 1 by 1, while I can keep shipping in more and more. Even then I could leave something in Fez and Rabat, that would require some of his units to march on. So whatever was shipped to Algeria would not be available for Russia until late 41.

This, turned out to be somewhat of a miscalculation. The Panzers were far more powerful in the mountains than expected, and would capture Oran far sooner than I thought. They were mostly able to make it to the Russia front in time, just slightly late.

Now had I not lost Tunis by the Amphibious assault, or didn't have a ship in the port so he could capture it intact, or had my strategic bomber available to keep the port out of action, I could definitely keep the Panzers (He sent in 3) in Algeria for much longer, which would impact the Russian front greatly.

[Cpuncher]

Jan 1941: The Brits launched a LRAT, and set up her Navy to raid the Baltic Sea, where the majority of the Kriegsmarine surface vessels should be present. Well, they should have taken a look at the calendar and think about the weather forecast...

[Cpuncher]

Jan 31, 1941: With the weather outlook not good, the Baltic raid was on hold, and the CVs were rushed toward multiple U-boat sightings.

[Cpuncher]

Feb 28, 1941: Panzers reached the outskirt of an abandoned Algiers while a U-boat was located and trapped in the Las Palmas port. The U-boat would eventually be sunk by the efforts of 4 CVs. While in port, they don't dive, and the supply level can be reduced by the adjacent Allied ships.

Meanwhile the Germans never really advanced from Tobruk. The panzer that was sighted there earlier that scared the brownies out of the Brits probably moved to near Algiers here now.

[Cpuncher]

ORIGINAL: Marcinos1985

Blast to read.
Couple of questions:
1. You went all-in with UK to defend FRA, shipped guys from Egypt. What was left to protect Egypt then and did Italy push?
2. Reggia Marina came to you and got ambushed, ok. But did you leave Med empty beforehand? No port blocking? If so, why? To prevent NM loss for FRA from fleet dmg?
3. Do you recall what Fafnir bought in the beginning? Paras, maritime or maybe teleporting/operating units?
4. You bought French SF and shipped to UK. Why?
5. Winter war - yes or no?
6. Did GER take some tech or went all-in with units?

Can’t wait for more.

1. I shipped enough UK minor assets (plenty) to Egypt and also had India build several units. No way Italy can push Egypt and Germany is too occupied everywhere else. No action between the 2 sides there until July 41.
2. Yes I left Med empty beforehand. I never sacrifice FRA navy. The value of FRA not surrendering for 1 more turn is far greater than the extra plunder GER may get with an intact FRA navy.
3. I know he bought both Maritime B immediately and he didn't buy the 3rd GER para. He didn't cancel the ITA long range research which paid some dividend later. His ITA para was bought sometime later.
4. I didn't buy the French SF, it's from the DE to intervene Finland.
5. Yes.
6. GER focused on Ftr, Tank, Ground Attack and most likely S&I early on which resulted in dominating tech lead for much of the game, until US caught up later. His tech investment was reasonably balanced.

[Cpuncher]

May 1941: Panzers entered Oran and France finally surrendered. What a struggle for them. It's finally over. Viva la France! (Though in fact it was the British who paid a grave price trying to defend France. Way too many UK and minor units died, and a good portion on low supply and couldn't be replaced.)

A couple British stragglers were left there to piss off the Germans. Also 2 garrison units were shipped to the 2 island ports (Saint Denis Port and Port Louis) east of Madagascar in the previous turn. No one uses them or pays attention to them (I challenge you to find them actually). However now it's different: They would become German if not occupied by Allies. The convoy lanes nearby are too far away for me to take care of, and the presence of refueling ports nearby would have been a grave threat. As long as they can not refuel, I don't have to worry about Germans raiding outside the Atlantic. I can let them raid until they have to leave to refuel, which would take them forever.

Another preparation for the loss of France was to replace the Garrison at Gibraltar with an AA. Malta was already lost to the Axis bombers in March by just 2 turns of bombing. I thought the bombers are surely to come to take Gibraltar now. Turned out it didn't matter. Spain was to join the Axis soon.

[Cpuncher]

Meanwhile, the Allies cautiously probed Tobruk, finding a significant Axis presence. The port was bombed by the Strategic Bomber to impede movement.

[Cpuncher]

And the Yugo coup happened. Looks like there is a bug there with the message on the top of the image.

It seems to me that the Axis did not prepare for this in advance. In the next couple turns some Axis units were hastily rushed there to solve the issue, which couldn't have been worse timing for the coming Barbarossa.

[Cpuncher]

June, 1941: Good weather. No Barbarossa, yet.

Axis minor units were seen busy moving toward Yugoslavia. It is possible Yugoslavia also caused some further delay. Who knows? Right now, every single turn of delay could be the difference between life and death for Russia. Could have Yugoslavia saved Russia?

I stuffed a lot of garrisons outside Lwow, hoping this would push the more valuable Russian units that were to be deployed there further back and save a few if possible. The garrisons would be rebuilt cheaply later anyway and useful in digging trenches behind the lines. Well it didn't work. When war broke out, the Axis not only killed all the Garrisons there, but also all the others too in the region.

However, the 3 Corps deployed outside Riga did save everything there.

I must point out I intend to raid the Baltic before Barbarossa (remember it was planned for Jan). Well the CVs were just able to return to port to resupply, after finally sinking the U-boat in that port. I was worried it was already too late.