The Last Two Years (Stjeand Welcome)

[Harrybanana]

Unfortunately most games of Warplan are over by 1941 or 1942 with one side or the other conceding to inevitable defeat. But I have a game going on with Stjeand that is currently in the summer of 1943 and I think has a chance of lasting until the bitter end. So this is the AAR of the last two years of that game.

THE STORY SO FAR

The first two years of the game were fairly typical. As the Axis Stjeand conquered Poland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Yugoslavia without excessive casualties. The British resisted the Axis in French North Africa, but in the end were overwhelmed by superior forces. Egypt has been static.

In order to deprive the Germans of the Swedish iron ore the Brits invaded Norway and captured Oslo forcing Norway's surrender. But Stjeand was ready for this and counter invaded and captured all of the other Norwegian ports except Trondheim. With the Germans setting up the minefields blocking sea access to Oslo my two British Corps there were trapped and surrounded by German forces. But despite the Minefields my units were still in supply; something that Stjeand believes is a bug, and he is probably right. In the end it didn't matter because I didn't need Oslo to block the iron ore route so long as I held Trondheim. So I invaded the one hex I needed in Norway to temporarily open the mine field and evacuated my units. So the current situation in Norway is that it is all German except for Trondheim.

The game was started under the previous version so Stjeand followed the usual procedure after the fall of France of "garrisoning" most of his infantry and using the production to speed up the production of his armour. Unfortunately for him, the Rules changed doubling the PP cost to "ungarrison" his infantry. He miscalculated this cost and was therefore unable to have this done by the Early Summer of 1941. So he decided instead to launch Barbarossa in 1942. This meant that, other than the limited action in Norway, there was no land war happening at all from the Summer of 41 until the Summer of 42. I told Stjeand that, IMHO, the only way a 42 Barbarossa would be feasible is if the Axis spent 41 conquering at least 2 of 3 of the UK, Gibraltar, or the Middle East. But since the Axis did none of these I really didn't think he stood a chance, especially since he was not even receiving the Swedish iron ore over the Winter of 41/42. But as it turns out I was wrong.

One of the reasons I was wrong is because of the way the BOA has gone. Basically Stjeand has kicked my ass in the BOA. It started off unbelievably well for the Axis (in the early days the Germans were sinking almost as many escorts as U-Boat hits) and continued very well for a long time. One of the advantages of a 42 Barbarossa is that it gives the Germans the luxury of building lots of U-Boats in 41. And it wasn't just the U-Boats as the entire Kriegsmarine has gotten into the act as well. My successful "Pursuits" of the Kriegsmarine have been very few and even when found I have scored very few hits. I have over the last few turns sunk several U-Boats, but it may be a matter of too little too late. As of July 42 over 700 MS (UK, USA and USSR) have been sunk. As a result The British are at about 120 MS and the US at about 75. This is not by the way from a lack of trying. The UK and the US built 10 extra shipyards and Canada has done virtually nothing except build escorts. I have used most of the naval production to build MS and escorts, but I have not been able to keep up with the losses. I have, admittedly, used some of the naval production for LCs. But I think this is a must for the Allies. The result of all of this is that I haven't been able to send maximum Lend Lease to Russia.

Regardless of the BOA, I was confident that when Barbarossa started in May 42 I would be able to handle the German invaders. I had pretty much maxed out the Russian Logistics with numerous infantry corps (to wear the Germans down), tank corps, mechanized corps and Armies (including the Siberians). I figured I would also be helped by the fact that all of my HQs had good Leaders. So I was very surprised when the Axis tore through these forces as effectively as any 41 Barbarossa had ever done to me. Perhaps I should not have been surprised as I counted something like 21 Axis Armour and Mechanized corps (I think he had even more than this). Meanwhile of course my own "mobile units" only had 5 OPs, making counterattacks difficult and dangerous. The result is that in the summer of 42 he captured Moscow, Kharkov, Kursk and Stalino. He should have captured Leningrad as he had it surrounded, but a bug allowed it to still receive port supply.

It is now July of 43 and the Russians and Axis are on a more or less equal footing with both launching limited offensives. The good news is that Russian National Experience has reached 50%. But most of my on map units are well below this level. So it will take time to build up the Russian Army version 2.00, and time is something I don't have.

To try and take some of the pressure off Russia the Allies in 1942 advanced in Egypt toward Tobruk and also invaded Morocco. But it turned out that the Germans also had 2 Armour and a Mechanized in Libya and 2 Mechanized and an Armour in Algeria. As the Allies were only getting basic supply in both locations, this was enough to stop both Offensives cold. So on the last June turn of 43 the Allies invaded the Netherlands and the Pas de Calais. It will be interesting to see if I can expand on this invasion or if the Axis will push me back into the sea. in the meantime I have also resumed my offensives in Libya and Algeria.

Another surprise for me is that despite having about 25+ Axis armour and mech, 12+ U-Boats (fewer now maybe) and using the entire Kriegsmarine for surface raiding, the Axis don't appear to have any oil problems. Is it just me or is it odd that if either side has oil problems it is far more likely to be the Allies than it is the Axis?

I am waiting on a turn from Stjeand and then I will post some screenshots.

[Harrybanana]

JULY 16, 1943

I have to correct a couple errors I made with respect to the BOA. First the Allies (not counting the French) have only lost a combined 634 MS, not the 700 MS I reported. Still, with the 50 sunk escorts that is a total of 8300 production; which is the equivalent of 20 Armour Corps. The 2nd error is that it would appear that perhaps I have indeed sunk most of the Kriegsmarine as the only German surface fleet I could find is the one below raiding in the High Arctic. I could have sworn there were still some capital ships, but unless they are hiding with the U-Boats in Bordeaux that does not appear to be the case. I really do have to start writing some of this stuff down, otherwise I get confused from game to game.

This is good turn for me though as only 5 MS are sunk and the U-Boats take 6 hits.

[Harrybanana]

On the Axis turn they killed Zhukov. The Bastards!

[Harrybanana]

And the Italians somehow evaded my patrol aircraft and invaded Palestine. Not sure what he is going to be able to do there, but it is embarrassing just the same.

[Harrybanana]

As revenge the RN sunk the last capital ships of the Italian navy.

[Harrybanana]

NE Africa after my moves. I am pretty sure that one of those "unknown" German units is an armour and the other is an HQ. So along with the 3 air units the Axis were pretty committed to stopping me in Libya.

[Harrybanana]

NW Africa after my moves. Numerous attacks on the German mechanized unit were repulsed at high cost. As I recall one attack was 6-0 in the Germans favour and another was 6-1.

[Harrybanana]

The Low Countries.

The situation here is very tense. I think I will be able to stick this landing; but I am far from totally confident.

[Harrybanana]

The lone UK unit in Norway.

[Harrybanana]

There was some action in Finland earlier, but it is all quiet now.

[Harrybanana]

AGN is also relatively quiet.

[Harrybanana]

AGC. Moscow is in the hands of the enemy.

[Harrybanana]

AGS. I launch an offensive here and destroy a couple corps. But as you can see most of my armour/mechanized are already pretty worn out. Luckily there are no German armour nearby to take advantage. Speaking of which, I counted at least 25 Axis armour and mechanized units on the map.

[Harrybanana]

With no Italian Navy and no Axis air units in range, I send out a couple British Fleets, with transports into the Middle of the med. If nothing else it may force Stjeand to occupy all his ports.

[Harrybanana]

Forces and Casualties.

[Harrybanana]

Production

[Harrybanana]

Technology. I wish my escort techs had advanced a little quicker, but otherwise Technologies have advance well.

[Harrybanana]

In the Deployment Queues. Note that I will not be deploying the 5 "shattered" Russian units. The reason is that they should have surrendered (not shattered) when they were attacked near Leningrad because they were out of supply. So I really have no Russian units building at all. The reason is I can't afford it as all of my production isn't even enough to provide replacements and upgrades to the units I have. This is even with all of my air units being set to receive no replacements or upgrade. Over the last few turns I have even resorted to disbanding some of my weaker less experienced units.

[Harrybanana]

JULY 30, 1943

3 MS and an escort sunk and 4 U-Boat Hits. I think the U-Boats are spending more time in port repairing now than they are at sea raiding.

On the Axis turn Stjeand shattered a British mechanized (not shown) and Overran 2 Russian Armies. At least the mechanized will come back in a couple turns.

[Harrybanana]

The Allies reciprocate by overrunning a German Armour near Tobruk.