Storm Clouds Gathering (4-player game)

[NatRapsEno]

I will send detailed instructions for the rest of the EOT as soon as I can. Late here.

[Orm]

"You can’t move naval units between the North Sea
and the Bay of Biscay (even via Brest or Plymouth) if
a major power you are at war with controls London"

Ah. The thing is that you do not make a move between the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay here. You make a naval move between the North Sea and Brest. So, according to rules, it is legal.

With that said, we could always make a houserule for it, if we so desire. I have no desire to play one way when we are Allies, and another when we are Axis. That is, of course, unless we decided to make a change between games.

I suspect that the MWIF rule is this way because of the Germans sailing part of their fleet through the English Channel once (the Channel Dash).

[NatRapsEno]

The intention of the rule is clear, but it is not worded exactly enough, which allows people to misinterpret the rule. The key is London and knowing where it is. Allowing the move to Brest while London is controlled violates the intention of the rule. I don't care if the Germans did it once, twice, or every day. Those waters were treacherously mined and netted and the rule is intended to prevent people from moving past the London area of the channel. Full stop.

Like I said, I don't care if other players do it. You have made your point. You are on solid enough legal grounds through the wording of the rule to defend your position. I don't judge you, or other players for doing it. That said, I will not do it. Now let's move on from this please.

Oil usage:

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[NatRapsEno]

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[NatRapsEno]

No breakdowns. Final production numbers:

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[NatRapsEno]

Scrap the German 4-4-3 sub and the Graf Spee before builds please.

For Germany, build the below plus a motorized div and Armor div.

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[NatRapsEno]

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[NatRapsEno]

Reinforcements:

Place pilots in The F-4 and Stuka for Germany.

Stuka in Vienna. Fighter in Saarbrucken. The two mountain divisions in Aachen. Garrison and infantry corps in Konigsberg. Engineer div in Munich.

Pilot in Nav for Italy. Roma in La Spezia, infantry div in Florence, and Nav in Palermo for Italy.

Pilot in G4M1 Nav for Japan. Place in Sasebo. HQ and infantry corps in Tokyo.

Reduce lending from Germany to Italy to just one resource. If Axis win initiative, the Axis will move first but no reroll.

[Orm]

The intention of the rule is clear, but it is not worded exactly enough, which allows people to misinterpret the rule. The key is London and knowing where it is. Allowing the move to Brest while London is controlled violates the intention of the rule. I don't care if the Germans did it once, twice, or every day. Those waters were treacherously mined and netted and the rule is intended to prevent people from moving past the London area of the channel. Full stop.

Like I said, I don't care if other players do it. You have made your point. You are on solid enough legal grounds through the wording of the rule to defend your position. I don't judge you, or other players for doing it. That said, I will not do it. Now let's move on from this please.

I suggest that we enter a new house rule here.

How about this? Would this be in line with your thinking?

-Brest, as a port, may only have ships entering, or leaving, from the Bay of Biscay. Unless you control London.


xxxxxxxxxx Rule layering below. Avoid it rather than be annoyed. Please. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A few thoughts below on the Brest rule that I have, and feel a need to share, that I hope is solved by the above.

- Brest is located on two sea areas for a purpose. That purpose is to allow ships to sail out either into the North Sea, or the BoB. And to allow ships to sail from those sea areas into Brest. Would have been easy enough to make Brest border to just one sea area.
- The wording of this rule changed multiple times to avoid misinterpretations. Therefore, I would assume, that the rule is written exactly as they intended it.
- Plenty of other instances where mines would stop naval movement if we added that consideration.

[Orm]

Losses for the turn. CW feel really mauled.

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[Orm]

Reinforcements before production.

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[Orm]

Lots of damaged CW ships that are out of action.

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[Orm]

Use Oil:

China:
All units are reorganized for 0 oil (0,0).

USSR:
All units except are reorganized for 1 oil (0,8).

CW:
All units are reorganized for 7 oil (7,45).

Free France:
All units are reorganized for 0 oil (0,3).

USA:
All units, except 4 BB and 3 CP, are reorganized for 1 oil (1,45).

Breakdown:
-

Final production:
CW uses 8 oil saved in UK to get to full production.

Scrap:
CW scraps CL

Production:

CH (8)
-------
ART 4
CAV 2
MTN DIV 2

CW (22 -> 8 oil saved in UK used):
MIL
MECH
FTR2
NAV3
CVP1
2 Pilot
5 CP

Free France (0):
-

US(10)
------
GARR
CVP1
Pilot
Repair CW Ships: 2 BB + CA

USSR (17):
2 PARA
2 PIL
1 FTR2
Save 1 BP

Greece, Crete, Cyprus, and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was conquered by Axis.

factory in Nantes was destroyed by Italy.

Reinforcements:

Com China:
----
INF -> Sian

Nat China:
----
FTR2 -> Hengyang

CW:
FTR2 + NAV4 -> Liverpool
NAV2 -> Southampton
BB + CL -> Liverpool
INF + GARR -> Liverpool
MIL -> Sydney
SUB -> Calcutta

France:
-

USA:
BB -> Norfolk

USSR:
3-3 INF -> Baku
4-3 INF -> Kiev
8-5 MECH -> Kiev
HQI -> Blago
I-16 (10) + I-16 -> Baku
3 LND4 -> Vitebsk, Gomel, Kiev
3 FTR2 (4-strength) -> Vitebsk, Gomel, Kiev

Voluntary Resource Lending:
Removed; CW -> USSR:
Modified; CW -> China: 2 resources total -> 1 Res + 1 Oil
Modified; USA -> CW: 5 resources total -> 0 Res + 5 Oil
Same; USA -> China: 1 resources total -> 1 Res + 0 Oil

Allies goes first if we win the initiative, no re-roll.

[Orm]

Allies wins the initiative (Axis 4, Allies 8), and go first, in mostly fine weather.

Save sent.

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[NatRapsEno]

Yea, the Commonwealth was very unfortunate during that whole turn. I made some of my better moves of the game but the bigger story of that turn was lady luck. Germany found the Allied ships repeatedly during poor weather and the land attack rolls were stellar.

[NatRapsEno]

Axis strategy has revealed itself! Due to the stout resistance offered by the French and English forces in France, the Axis high command did not believe it was possible to mount a successful attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. The Axis did not want the Soviets to know this until the May/June turn came and went. An elaborate ruse by Japan to make it appear the Japanese were going to attack in May/June, most likely in combination with the Germans, hopefully helped deceive the Soviets. These Swedes are very savvy so I doubt they fell for it, but that was the Axis deception strategy.

So one might ask, what good moves did this idiot make? To answer that question, let's go back in the game a bit. The Italian offensive in Africa did not kick off until the first turn of 1941. It had to be delayed until the French navy was out of the war. The Italian builds since the beggining of the war have been subs and naval bombers. This allows them to challenge the Royal navy carriers in the Mediterrenean. I prefer to allow the Luftwaffe to provide most of the fighter support needed. The He 100, He 112, and the Italian 6 range Falco provided enough fighter support for the navs to allow the offensive to begin in early 41. During the first impulse of May/June, the Axis used the He 100 to cover the East Med while the newly arrived FW190 A1, along with the Falco, supported the Italian Coast. As insurance, three Italian cruisers sailed to the four box of the West Med to cover an Italian convoy placed there, as well as to serve as a blocking force against the British fleet located at Gibraltar. The Commonwealth had their four carriers poised there for a counterattack of the Italian supply lines. The Axis deployment posed a significant problem for the British. Should the British attack the West Med at a severe fighter strength disadvantage? Should they attack in the Italian Coast where only the Falco is covering, but should they miss the search during their impulse, the FW190 A1 would fly to the two box and they would be at a severe disadvantage there as well. Split their forces between the two? Or Should they smash the cruiser force in the West Med. The lads in the West Med were willing to take one for the team. If the British carriers come after them in the West Med, so be it. That takes pressure off the Italian Coast and East Med. If he doesn't send the carriers in there, then he's still gonna need to take out the West Med convoy, and one of the other two sea zones, to cut off the Axis forces in Egypt. That would not be easy. Both of those sea zones are utilizing what I call a 'hardened defense'. This consists of a transport or amphib in a higher box than the 0 box(preferably the two box, which is the best the Axis can achieve for most of the war. The Allies, with their longer range fighters, can do this from the three box and even the four) accompanied by escorting surface ships to provide an AA defense, as well as fighter and nav cover. No CP is in the zone to give the Allies a search advantage.

The Allied first impulse came and went without the British carriers making a move. The British needed a combined action because they needed to shore up the defenses in Egypt. Horrible May/June weather hits next impulse. The Germans activited the Kriegsmarine. With no blocking force in the North Sea, every German ship and sub sailed from Kiel into the Faeroes Gap and as luck would have it, found the underdefended convoys and drove the Brits out of the Faeroes Gap. This forced the British into a tough decision. Should the carriers attack or pull back and defend the sea lanes? The Brits chose the latter, which I believe was the best decision. However, this left the Mediterreanan sea lanes open and essentially the forces in Greece out of supply and thus after the breakthrough in the central mountains with a good attack roll, Athens was essentially doomed and it fell before the turn ended. In addition, Alexandria fell which now puts serious pressure on Egypt. The foothold that the British forces have in Bourdeaux could bear fruit in the long run if the Axis can't eliminiate it. However, in the short run, it left Egypt underdefended which could lead to a big strategic defeat if the British forces can't hold on there. Only time will tell.

[NatRapsEno]

ORM, until your health fully returns, might I suggest you simply make the moves without the accompanying fully typed out information you provide. I know where everything is and easily notice your moves. I know it takes a lot of energy to execute the moves that way. I will provide more screenshots of the active theaters of conflict if need be. Just a suggestion, take it or leave it.

[Orm]

Thank you. I appreciate it. It is not yet such a chore to so the reporting. Much of it I get written already from my Allies. I may take you up on it later on.

I have indeed had some sort of internal infection again, this along with additional worldly tasks reduced my MWIF time significantly. And with one of my Allies finding it hard to find time to make the orders for the second part of our impulse, I decided to delay the first part of it until I had those orders. All in a hope of do it all in one go. Now I am about to do our impulse.

Edit: Of course. Now that I delayed it a bit I apparently have changed my mind about making Allied moves in the Med so making it all in one go has become impossible.

[Orm]

Jul/Aug '41
Impulse #1 (Allied)

No declarations of war.

Land: China
Combined: USSR, USA
Naval: Free France, CW

No Port Strikes.

Naval air:
CW:
FTR2 Malta -> East Med 1-box

Naval movement:

CW:
BB in Port Said leave port, and sail into the East Med. Will Axis try to intercept?

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[NatRapsEno]

No intercept