The World at War ELO Tournament

[EarlyDoors]

ORIGINAL: HamburgerMeat

Game ended

HamburgerMeat (Axis) vs Fafnir (Allies)

Axis victory

Great game from my opponent. By far the best tactical level play I've seen.

Wow - congrats HamburgerMeat

[HamburgerMeat]

ORIGINAL: LoneRunner

ORIGINAL: HamburgerMeat

Game ended

HamburgerMeat (Axis) vs Fafnir (Allies)

Axis victory

Great game from my opponent. By far the best tactical level play I've seen.

Could you provide more detail on how the game went? This is a game that I would love to see in an AAR thread.

No time for an AAR, but I can give a basic rundown:

Things went bad for Germany at the start. With the clever use of suicide LRAs, allies ended up destroying a German HQ during the invasion of France and generally inflicted massive casualties. Immediately after Germany took Norway, Allied forces landed and took the town SW of Oslo. A massive naval/air battle took place to drive the Allies out of Norway. During this time, the Allies destroyed the port at Copenhagen and moved into the Baltic sea, destroying almost all of the Kriegsmarine and inflicting heavy damage against the Luftwaffe. In addition, UK forces landed and cut off Denmark from Germany. Nonetheless, the Allies were driven out of southern Norway and NW Germany, albeit with massive casualties. Allies did take northern Norway, but stopped their advance and were unable to take the mines.

With a demoralized German military and loss of N Africa (I elected to completely abandon it, thinking the Italian armies would be better put to use in Europe), the only path to victory was a complete smashing of the USSR. Luckily, the Baltic states had not been annexed. The Germans landed and conquered Estonia to use it as a forward operating base. When the invasion of the USSR began, Leningrad and Murmansk fell quickly, giving the Germans a much needed morale boost. However, UK forces landed in northern Finland and retook Murmansk. Meanwhile, an armored fist drove straight to Moscow, completely bypassing the series of fortifications laid out in southern Russia (army group south ultimately only conquered up to Kharkov). Around this time, Turkey joined the axis, but UK forces swiftly took Syria and attacked Turkey from the south.


In Asia, Japanese forces had been making steady gains and had taken two of three Chinese capitols by the end of 41. However, because of the early success of the western Allies, desperate times called for desperate measures, and heavy investments were made into amphibious warfare. In addition, the UK declared war on Japan early, sinking several short range amphibious transports. Nonetheless, in early 42, Japanese forces took the Panama canal and landed 12 LRAs + 4 transports on the north American west and east coasts. While long-term success was impossible, the goal was to divert US attention for as long as possible while Germany finished off the USSR. Due to early UK intervention, Japanese forces did not take any of SE Asia.

With German national morale back at 110%, the USA focused against Japan, Japan having secured none of SE Asia, and UK forces squeezing the western axis from Finland and Turkey, it was do or die time. In the final blitzkrieg, German forces took Kuybyshev and Perm in the summer of 42. With the fall of Perm, the USSR surrendered, as well as Fafnir.

Because of my heavy early losses, I was forced to use extremely risky methods to gamble for victory. Despite the relatively quick fall of the USSR, German forces were already stretched to their maximum, and probably would have been driven back if the war had gone on just a few more turns.

[HamburgerMeat]

As shown in this picture, German forces had been worn down to a nub:

[Taifun]

Congratulations HamburgerMeat for this great victory and for sharing with us the basic rundown!

[HamburgerMeat]

ORIGINAL: Taifun

Congratulations HamburgerMeat for this great victory and for sharing with us the basic rundown!

Thanks! I don't think that I'll win next time against Fafnir though. He is the best, I have no doubts.


Anyone up for an ELO game with these house rules:

1. No diplo on Majors.
2. No diplo on Bulgaria
3. No DOW USSR until 1941.
4. No early provoking of Italy in order to immediately attack it (added this since the developers said they will address this, and I don't think that axis have a way to counter it)

[wie201]

Wow! Congratulations HM. Sounds like a fascinating game to have played. If either of you have the time, a more detailed AAR would be welcome or either opponent’s point of view.

Thanks guys!

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

ORIGINAL: HamburgerMeat

ORIGINAL: Taifun

Congratulations HamburgerMeat for this great victory and for sharing with us the basic rundown!

Thanks! I don't think that I'll win next time against Fafnir though. He is the best, I have no doubts.


Anyone up for an ELO game with these house rules:

1. No diplo on Majors.
2. No diplo on Bulgaria
3. No DOW USSR until 1941.
4. No early provoking of Italy in order to immediately attack it (added this since the developers said they will address this, and I don't think that axis have a way to counter it)

Do I dare? Been 6-months since we last played, you strolled thru England if I remember correctly.

[Fafnir]

Well two mistakes lead to the quick defeat of the USSR.
I did not annex the Baltic so Germany could conquer it and use it to destroy the Leningrad HQ in the first turn.
This lead to a fast advancement to Moscow and Rostov area.
I lost Moscow but could stop him around Rostov.

I waited now for the new attack to Rostov/Stalingrad which never came.
I should earlier prepare a defence for Perm an slow down the Axis advanement too it.
MPP was still good for USSR so as HamburgerMeat pointed out a few more turns and costly attacks would have stopped Germany.

So clever moves from his side and the fast advancement together with a wrong defense strategy of the USSR did the trick.
Still wonder how he managed to build such a strong Germany attack force even though he had costly losses and not to much MPP income.
I had not many games as Allies vs. such strong players, so he stroke me with the sharpest sword 'surprise'.

[calcwerc]

HamburgerMeat: you should play Taifun!

[HamburgerMeat]

Game Started

ElvisJJonesRambo (Axis) v HamburgerMeat (Allies)

[HamburgerMeat]

ORIGINAL: calcwerc

HamburgerMeat: you should play Taifun!

have room for another game, so I'd be down

[pjg100]

Fafnir, I'm curious, if you're willing to share your thoughts on this - why did you not annex the Baltic States?

[Taifun]

Game ends:

Fafnir (Axis) vs TAIFUN (Allies). Fafnir as Axis wins October 1940.
I resign early as I think that Fafnir is a much better tactical player. After a promising start I feel that I made several beginner mistakes and feel that I need a brake after all this games. Many thanks Fafnir for your time!

[Fafnir]

Fafnir, I'm curious, if you're willing to share your thoughts on this - why did you not annex the Baltic States?

Some of the USSR units which you get when entering the war will automatically be placed in the Baltics.
If you do not annex the Baltics the will be placed behind the Baltics where they are sure.
Except for the last game nobody ever attacked the Baltics before the USSR since it will greatly activate it.
Only possible if you are one turn before the attack but the USSR will still not enter after war.

Not sure if declaring war on Baltics also activates a few % for the US.

[pjg100]

Thanks, I appreciate your sharing your thoughts on the matter. I suppose this is one of those gambits that will work well against most players, but will result in pain against a first-rate opponent like HM.

[LoneRunner]

Game Started:

petedalby (Axis) vs LoneRunner (Allies)

House Rules:
1. No diplomacy on majors and Bulgaria
2. No DOW on Russia before 1941
3. No British DOW on Japan before Dec 1941

[calcwerc]

New ELO game with ELO house rules:
calcwerc (Axis) - Petedalby (Allies)

[calcwerc]

Game ended:
Petedalby (Axis) - calcwerc (allies). Allies win.
Axis took Canberra, Hawaii, London, most of India and sank lots of allied ships in the Atlantic. Still, Russian defences could not be penetrated, so Axis gave up in 43 I think. Entertaining game, with quite a few surprises!

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

[LOSS] ElvisJJonesRambo (Axis) lost Farfin (Allies) ---> Scando Gambit defeats Turkish/Syria invasion. Luftwaffen wiped out in consecutive turns
[LOSS] ElvisJJonesRambo (Axis) lost HamburgerMeat (Allies) ---> Staled in Russia, wrong mix of troops Smolensk and too many Reds +2 infantry +2 Air at Rostov

[Epekepe]

ORIGINAL: Epekepe

New ELO game started:

skinster (axis) vs Epekepe (allies).

Game ended, August 29, 1941.
skinster did not play his turn in month time.