4 Player Game AAR with new PBEM++

[kondor]

Now, this is what concerns me.
USA war readiness is 17, and the next turn will be 30!? I can respect them to unfreeze in two turns?[X(]

[tcart]

Hey Kondor,
Mostly I'm trying not to look at the enemy's postings, but I caught this as I was scrolling. The War Readiness is a range. So as of that turn the US WR is somewhere between 17 and 30. If your spies do better you might see the range narrow. It doesn't mean the US is only 2 turns away, but of course it could.

Cheers,
Tim

[rjh1971]

FA 40 USSR + China

With the invasion of Spain by the Axis powers WR for the USSR is now between 23 and 32. This is the information the axis players are getting. The real WR is 27, this is a learning game for Cveta so no problem in sharing this info which otherwise it would be kept highly confidential.

Taking Spain imo was not a smart thing to do, Germany will lose the supply gift they received from Spain and the resources, plus they spent supply to attack and more will need to be spent to repair the resources and factories, besides a garrison will have to be placed which will mean less forces invading the USSR, Uncle Joe is pleased...

Time is running out, the Axis will have to swift forces from Spain and Greece towards the Soviet border.

In the map you can see how Axis forces are deployed



Current Germany's supplies are 103, they will have to increase the supply production in order to repair resources in Spain Yugoslavia and Greece or they will soon face their factories will not be able to produce due to lack of raw materials.

No units were sent to Poland this turn, but supplies to China were still sent.

Russia invested in 8 research chits and in Sigint (Signal and Intelligence) this turn.






Air attack value has now increased to 6 and spies keep doing their work. More funds were invested in the spy web.

As for China three infantry were sent to Kumming, need to put some pressure into Japan, they either attack Changsa and spent supply or when PH takes place and they need to invade and use their armies, Chinese will be a pain in the butt.
Japan having only 53 supplies it doesn't seem like they would launch a major offensive into China facing an embargo from the USA, also no presence (yet) of Japanese armour so no combined arms bonus.

As railroad was not hit very hard the transport of units was made using the rail system so no spending of supplies took place.

[tcart]

WA Fall 1940

Shocker! Hitler invades his ally Spain. I guess the negotiations with Franco didn't go too well. In the short run, this causes a major rethink in Allied strategy. There's no way to hold Gibraltar, and I didn't want a Western Singapore type situation by attempting it and failing.

So the Allies must commit. I evacuated the Gib garrison to the other side of the straits, where Spanish North Africa is now conveniently allied. This keeps the Italians from breaking out should the naval war go badly for me.

However, since I feel good about the North Atlantic, I push Force H to Malta and look to bottle up the Italian fleet and/or force a battle. Once again, the Allied plan is less about decisive victory this early on and more about distracting the Germans and buying time for the Russians. If he throws his whole air force into Italy I'll have to back off. But air units in the South can't pummel the Russians.

I also meant to take a screenshot of the build queue but somehow forgot. I saw there that the Germans had rebuilt their transport fleet. So I'll have to watch for amphibious threats, though I think my Home Army is more than strong enough.

Long term, Spain may cause major problems for the Germans. They were getting resources and possibly supplies from Franco. So aside from Gibraltar they don't gain much. It's one more region to garrison and it may well slow Barbarossa, which ultimately will decide the war.

But kudos to the Axis. WA was cruising up til now, and he forced me to make some tough choices.

[kondor]

ORIGINAL: tcart

Hey Kondor,
Mostly I'm trying not to look at the enemy's postings, but I caught this as I was scrolling. The War Readiness is a range. So as of that turn the US WR is somewhere between 17 and 30. If your spies do better you might see the range narrow. It doesn't mean the US is only 2 turns away, but of course it could.

Cheers,
Tim

Ty Tim, I really appreciate the help.

[kondor]

I've had another brilliant idea. As what awaits me in Pearl H. is unknown, I've sent my sub to the area for intelligence gathering.
And it got stuck there, I've been unable to move it out of the area. So, not to provoke the US, I've disbanded it. (who needs enemies ).

[kondor]

The bombing campaign in China was a lot better this turn.
A few railroads were destroyed.

[kondor]

Army has its list of desires, IJN their own, and of course, airforce would like some new bombers as well!?
I've dished out few thousand rifles, 2 supply tracks, a few socks, and told them to get by. I've also told them if they have some problems with that, let them suggest Hirohito to cut down the number of concubines...
The men will win or lose this war, not tanks, rifles, and battleships!

For the emperor!

[rjh1971]

Winter 40 USSR + China

The Axis has strengthen the border with the Soviet Union, they say they will be performing some manoeuvres hopefully they will stay on their side and do not trespass the border line (sorry I didn't take a pic of the situation)

USSR meanwhile keeps investing in technology and some progress is being made. More supplies were sent to China.





Chinese partly repair the railway system.

[tcart]

[quote]WA Winter 1940

The Germans redeploy towards the Eastern front. This is the right move, IMO, but it may offer opportunities for the WA in the near future. For now we have to bide our time and proceed methodically. There's no rush.

A quick check of the tech chart shows that the German uboats began to deploy into the North Atlantic while still at EV2. Meanwhile WA ASW tech just jumped a notch, to an attack of two. A rare moment of parity for the allies early in the war. I used a standard allied strategy to knock out two German subs, hopefully putting that threat to rest and leaving me free to throw supplies to the Soviets and units to Norway next turn.

The trick is to attack first with aircraft. You have no chance of hitting, but it imposes the 'already attacked' penalty on the subs. Then attack with every LF within range until you get a hit.

[tcart]

The lynchpin to my strategy right now is the naval force in the Central Med. The Germans built a CAG, the better to sink the Royal Navy. So I'll have to retain air superiority. But I can do it for a turn or two, I think. As long as the RN sits off the Sicilian coast I have the luxury of sending land units to India. With any luck we can pressure the Japanese early and disrupt their offensive.

It will be some time before the USN and our carrier tech is ready to go head to head.

The naval balance around Malta, shown here, is basically even. But that'll work to my advantage unless the Italians get lucky. The fall of Gibraltar makes reinforcing the Med much harder and more expensive. It practically demands a buildup in Spanish Morocco so as to retake the Rock...

[tcart]

WA cont.

Oddly my last post vanished. If someone sees it, please let me know.

Anyway, to repeat myself, the WA strategy hinges on Malta. Provided we can lock up the med, I can afford to send land units to India to stave off a Japanese invasion. I may even get a chance to reinforce some bit of Indonesia if the initial Japanese attack runs out of gas.

I think the balance of forces in the Med is good enough to keep the combined Italian-German force at bay for now. The trick in 1941 is to make sure it's me tying down his troops and not the other way around. Sicily, Sardinia, and Gibraltar all look appetizing for late 1941, barring a naval disaster.

[kondor]

My bombers drew a shorter end of the stick, sometimes I really dislike RNG.
Both of my TB-s rolled 1, and both got damaged by single flak.

Other than that, nothing much to report.
After seeing the progress SU has done in research and the way this game is going... Can't we all just have peace? [:D]

[ncc1701e]

ORIGINAL: kondor

After seeing the progress SU has done in research and the way this game is going... Can't we all just have peace? [:D]

Too late [:-]

[rjh1971]

Spring 41 USSR + China

The Germans look ready for something more serious than just some manoeuvres...



The Soviet production will increase from x2 to x3 when Germany declares war, meaning each factory will be able to produce three items each turn.
The next image shows the units ready for the next quarter



Here is an overall picture of the forces involved in this war.
As you can see the German's forces and Soviet's forces are quite even but the Germans have a far greater territory to garrison than the SU.

The numbers are from the beginning of the turn, at the end of it Soviet infantry forces surpassed the Germans in number by 3, equalled the number of armour and had six more artillery. Still you have to take into account the difference in technology, superiority in numbers is not all and on the first turn the Soviets suffer lots of casualties.




The fail to take Norway and that will like a thorn in their back... They suffered heavy losses, that coastal artillery didn't leave any chance of success to the invaders, they were decimated before even touching the beach.
The German artillery was destroyed in the sea, the German infantry suffered heavy suppression



As for China Inf and arty units are brought into Changsa and Kunming to strengthen their defences. Railyards are repaired once more. AA gunners were awarded with a 15 day leave for their excellent aim damaging two tactical bombers.

[tcart]

WA Spring 1941.

It looks like an invasion of Russia in imminent. WA intel indicates that the Germans need more fighters on the Eastern front, so maybe they will delay another turn?

Churchill doesn't want to wait. This is a learning game, so the WA will push a few strategies that would work regardless for the purpose of education. Having sealed off the Med, and with the Italian fleet unwilling to engage in a massive battle of attrition (which is wise on their part), the WA are free to start nibbling at the edges and causing problems.

Sicily falls. Gibraltar and Spain are threatened. Southern Italy is one big air battle away from being in trouble.

As the Germans, you have to tidy up around the edges. Of course, our friend is just learning, so there's no blame there. It's just a point for future would-be world dominators. With command of the sea we can very quickly shift forces around.

Also the amphib attack against Norway was strategically logical, because Norway will be a pain in the German's butt. But very hard to pull off. You'd need to throw your whole air force at it to have a shot. The lesson here is to combine para and inf when you attack Norway the first time so there's no chance that a fluky die roll causes you headaches.

Here's the Sicilian invasion force. Nothing too scary, but seriously annoying and now Italy is one province from surrender.

[tcart]

And here's Spanish Morocco. Gibraltar, Spain, and Sardinia are threatened. And he's faced with a classic dilemma. Defend Gib and you're probably weakening Spain. But don't reinforce and you're giving me a beachhead on the continent.

[Erik Rutins]

Reading along with great interest!

[kondor]

In the lack of my own news, I'll share an attack of my axis ally. The attack on the SU has begun!
Attack on E. Poland. Why should the poor country be divided?

[rjh1971]

Summer 41 USSR + China

The Germans decided having an iddle army was not worth the cost so they sent it against the USSR. Fortunately the previous invasion of Spain, Balkans and Greece along with the failed invasion of Norway prevented a deeper advanced into mother Russia.



The forces left behind in Romania were weak and the Stavka decided the profits outnumbered the the risks and gave green light to invading Romania, chances of succeeding were around 76% and voila the Red army was victorious.
Even if the Axis manages to cast away the Soviets from Romania it is still a great victory since all four resources, rail and two factories were destroyed. Repairing them will cost 35 supplies and they won't be operative until the turn after they are repaired (except for the rail). The German war machine will soon miss those raw materials.

Next step was to eliminate the forces in Odessa, chances were 74% of success but this time luck was not on our side. All available forces were sent into battle, armour unit was rushed from Rostov, but they could not make it.
Besides I committed an unforgiveable mistake, the transport fleet should have been sunk before attempting to retake Odessa. This way all damaged enemy units should have been destroyed as they would not have had a path toward any factory.





Velikiye Luki south of Leningrad was taken by lonely German armour, Soviet HQ decided to take it back and in the process the lonely panzer unit was destroyed.

As if the USSR didn't have enough with the German attack, Japanese have piled up a huge army in Manchuria, reinforces were rushed to the far east... Those with a blue arrow.



After the production phase and with the two militia that spawn after the first turn the USSR is attacked in each area not conquered with population the forces are as follows:



Russia is badly in need of supplies so they she can produce more war material and conduct research. Research levels are now almost even.