Solitaire game starting late '42

[EUBanana]

The bad weather impulses go fast, especially late in the turn with a lot of things disorganised.

But its fine weather across the globe for impulse 11, and the Allies go.

The US goes for that promised combined action, will have to see how much of what they want to do they get to do with it.

The CW doesn't really have a whole lot to do, so go for a combined as well.

Russia/China land, of course, though China is basically stasis.



Bit of strategic bombing, Lille, Brussels, Canton. The Chinese score a hit at Canton, showing the western allies up...

Remember that exposed ARM on the eastern front? The Russians made sure a fighter bomber was near and have a go at it.

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No hit though, looks like the ARM is going to get away with being the tip of the spear...

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Pretty much the last bomber the CW has in the Med tries to bomb Tripoli...

... naturally its a naval bomber. [:D]

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Majuro is out of supply thanks to the US fleet clearing the Solomons, so the Marine Division there just walks on in with +21, in stark contrast to what happened a few months ago.

And the Allies take Tripoli without any real loss or problem.

The Russians did look at the odds for that German armour. The best it got was +5 ish and no blitz. Quite a few Russian tanks around but they are all disorganised.

[EUBanana]

And the turn ends (was 50/50), which suits the Allies nicely, having finished the last two things they could hope to achieve this turn, and reorganising the Eastern Front.


A couple of partisans in the USSR, one in Yugoslavia. Not in really terrible places though (put them in Minsk and Smolensk to be annoying), most of the really juicy places like Krivoy Rog are guarded.

Stay at Sea a bit fraught, but I don't think I ruined anything too badly. Most of the CW Med fleet moves to Gibraltar or Malta, the US has its own bases now on Sardinia... the Japanese used stay at sea more than I'd like really (CW too to an extent) to try and preserve oil but I really douibt the Japanese will have enough to reorg much next turn, it's going to be lean again.

Here are the turns losses so the eastern front can be judged from an attrition perspective...

[EUBanana]

Italy after unit placement.

They are up to 4 naval bombers now, and their fleet, after some repairs, has 49 naval factors (!!!) as a couple of BBs just came back online. So they are actually potentially a serious naval force again now. It has been month after month of building it back up, of course.

No CVs though, and the only long range fighter is one Bf110. However the Hei219 Uhu is coming to the theatre which looks so overpowered it might just be game changing.

[EUBanana]

So, building stuff.

Germany has 44
2 ARM
1 MECH
2 MOT-div
3 FTR-3
4 Pilot
Antitank
Sub Repair

Italy has 12
2 pilot
1 NAV-2
1 ARM
1 naval repair

Japan has 14
3 Pilot
2 NAV-3
1 NAV-2

China has 9
LND-3
2 INF

CW has 36
2 nav construction
2 naval transport
2 ARM
2 MOT-div
2 pilot
LND-3

US has 53
1 Offensive
2 ARM
3 MOT-div
3 TRN
3 pilot
2 CVA
2 LND-3


USSR has 32
ARM
2 INF
3 LND-2
2 Pilot
2 MECH

[EUBanana]

A rarely seen pic of China... this place could go on forever.

[EUBanana]

And the Eastern Front... the Russians got a FTR-2, a Shturmovik and a fighter bomber, the Germans got the Uhu but its not going here, so I think the air power tilts a bit more to the Russians finally... Also shattered Zhukov and his ARM buddy come back at Ryazan.

[cfinch]

now that you have tripoli i think you have 2 of 3 needed conditions for italian surrender? if so i believe sicily counts as mainland italy and packing allied troops there may get you over the garrison value and you get to see that new navy go poof and surrender along with all the IT units in italy

and whether they go poof or the axis see it coming and try to move IT units out to save them, the german forces there are far forward and no "rear guard"... so depending who goes first the following turn either Ge furiously railing in troops or allies have a wealth of landing spaces up the boot...

edit: you can use the units in north africa and if needed for garrison values i'd even be willing to risk greece, at this point i'm not sure IT can take it and even if they do... so? (ok maybe frees up a few units but not sure it is big deal)

[EUBanana]

I'm gonna try and give packing Sicily a chance, I mean... it's a board game, you gotta play by those rules, and that's what everybody is telling me to do. [:D] It's gonna take 2 turns though, at least. i suppose when winter arrives it'll happen quickly enough.

It's mildly annoying though as I think if it was more a war sim than a board game I'd probably be trying a 1943 D-Day about now as I'm pretty sure there's enough force to manage it now. But I guess I'll try and form the Italian Social Republic instead.

Anyway.

Jul/Aug 1943. Axis lose intiative, but then get a reroll and gain it.

Italy/Germany take air actions. The airforces are big enough now that using the ones you get as a land action, isnt really working so well anymore. Also, there's so many HQs around I'm hoping to maybe get some cheap reactivations, but that's not exactly planned per se.

So a giant wave of aircraft bombs the hell out of the Eastern Front. The Soviet airforce is about equal in size now, fighter wise (but way less bombers). And challenge every bombing run. I think it's about even in the air, but the dice are surprisingly merciful to the Germans and pilots in general, as almost no aircraft are shot down.

So plenty of bombing to hopefully open it up for a land action.

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And some more...

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BLAM

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And some more...

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Even Sevastapol gets good and strafed...

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As mentioned almost the entire Soviet airforce was used to counter that, but not a lot really happened in the air, everybody got to live another day.

Also the Italians put up all their NAVs over the Italian coast and the Germans put their usual Bf110 assistance, the CW put a Mosquito interceptor over the transport fleet. But they didn't find each other anyway.

The Japanese meanwhile take a naval move but its quite a restrained one - setting up convoy escorts, moving a TRN carrying Yamashita from Singapore to the China Sea, and a GARR from Japan to the China Sea. Also a single BB moves a MAR-div to Truk from Rabaul (Rabaul itself has a division garrisoning it but the rest of the Solomons is empty of land units). A couple of aircraft rebase to the Philippines.

Again the Japanese kinda want to save oil.

Kesselring and Guderian reorg a bunch of bombers.

[EUBanana]

Lots of naval moves from the US/CW but its mostly boring stuff, the Med gets covered with fleet, the Atlantic does too. Trying to move materiel to Sicily basically far as Europe is concerned.

One more daring move. In the Solomons 1 MAR is stuck on Tarawa because I thought, idiotically, that it might be useful to garrison it. Well, no, Tarawa is worthless, only the atolls on the borders of sea zones are really worth anything, and Tarawa is unsuppliable at the moment.

But an entire MAR corps is valuable. And an invasion is also... at least not bad, right? And the Solomons has now been ringed by ground based fighters.

So this is one part rescue mission, one part invasion. Question is to the Japanese simply attack it, from the 4 box, or attack something else.

[Courtenay]

I'm gonna try and give packing Sicily a chance, I mean... it's a board game, you gotta play by those rules, and that's what everybody is telling me to do. It's gonna take 2 turns though, at least. i suppose when winter arrives it'll happen quickly enough.

One thing you can do is fly your strat bombers in England at extended range and land them in Italy. They will reorganize before the garrisons are calculated.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

I'm gonna try and give packing Sicily a chance, I mean... it's a board game, you gotta play by those rules, and that's what everybody is telling me to do. It's gonna take 2 turns though, at least. i suppose when winter arrives it'll happen quickly enough.

One thing you can do is fly your strat bombers in England at extended range and land them in Italy. They will reorganize before the garrisons are calculated.

Mm that's pretty nice idea, and there's certainly a lot of them.

[EUBanana]

American subs from Eniwetok attack the Japanese in the China Sea again, and are seen off by the naval air, again.

I was hoping for more getting a sub base up reasonably close, than perhaps I got. Though Japan has so few spares even one good attack would be devastating.