Mar 46 – May 47
Time to finish this AAR with a grand sweep across the last year. On land, not much happened. The allies got bogged down trying to reach Karachi, also in Afghanistan and further north in Russia. Supply & communication problems dogged my land forces which could not breach Shane’s shrewdly arranged defences.
At some point, I realised I would never reach either Chungking or Delhi in the time remaining so decided to try for Tokyo to secure a stalemate. To that end I needed nukes which in turn dictated the capture of Manilla. Manilla fell easily & the nuclear strike was triggered on 29 Nov 46. Jap morale plummeted to 60% from c. 100. More on morale below. In Jan 47 I invaded Honshu & found it lightly defended. No kamikazes. No navy.
On 21 Feb 47 a French unit took Singapore. One in the eye for the Rosbeefs! On the next turn, Tokyo fell & the Soviets reached Urumchi, still well short of Chunking but the Chinese were liberated earning a whopping 7 MPPs at the end of the turn.
On 18th April 47 I sunk my first Japanese carrier in the entire game, the second city hex of Tokyo fell and the Japanese capital switched to Seoul. A desperado attempt to capture that city on the final turn narrowly failed. And that was that. Except it wasn’t.
Before I go into that, a few points:
1st, thanks to my opponent. He’s a pleasure to play against & a real challenge both in attack & defence. Also ruthless in economic warfare.
2nd, morale. By the end, UK morale was down to 9%. The graph, which I failed to screenshot, showed a steady decline from beginning to end. The US was at 20%. France was at 100%. I do not remember the Soviet figure but it was also low, maybe 40%. I’d appreciate some comment on this, especially the British figure.
3rd, my best decision – to abandon the Italy plan right away and switch units to GB for an early D-Day.
4th, my worst decision(s) – to engage Shane at sea. All naval engagements ended in disaster. I’m wondering whether this accounts for the morale problem.
5th, biggest area for improvement – see 4 above.
6th, most interesting and rewarding firsts – finding out how nukes work (capture Manilla & get in bombing range of Japan) & holding onto the Caucasus.
7th, I needed to get the Russkies researching mobility at the earliest moment after Germany & Italy fell. I was badly held up by mud & bad roads and consequently unable to bring their great force to bear.
More to follow.
Detailed losses as at Oct 46
- 461015 losses.png (768.04 KiB) Viewed 176 times
