Europe
1. Germany and the USSR invade Poland. (Details provided in post 97).
2. Western Allies declare war, no chit lost.
3. Then CW moves the 4th infantry division from Plymouth to Arabian Sea for anti-partisan defense in Bombay. (That is, I once lost Bombay to a partisan and it took a major campaign to dig it out. Afterwards, I vowed never again to leave Bombay ungarrisoned). Note that the CW positioned an infantry corps (5-4) during setup in the hex between Singapore and a Malaysian RP for anti-partisan defense. (Again, I once lost Singapore to partisans early on, costing me a couple of ships and vowed never to allow that again)
4. The RN ships a Canadian Terr to Cape St. Vincent for deployment to Gibraltar, which is currently ungarrisoned. Note that the CW positioned a 2-5 eng division in Malta during setup. Having Gibraltar and Malta garrisoned early into the first turn is one of my rules of engagement and, is also, a guideline I follow when playing another human.
5. Hoping to fight this war not in the trenches of Belgium or France, but in the skies over Germany, on distance shores or in the seas, Britain and France provide all the help they can short of sending troops to Poland, which they won’t do. RAF and French bombers hit German industry on three different raids but manage only to reduce production by 1 PP. Two sub groups, one RN and one French, make their way into the Baltic and attack the German shipping, which is moving the high quality iron ore from Sweden to Germany. However, the subs are unable to located the unescorted merchant ships.
6. The RN and French move out their ASW escorts to protect their shipping in the Atlantic and Med threaten by a neutral Italy.
7. The RN puts two strong and heavily escorted task forces into the North Sea. The first, which is in the 3-box, is a transport task force carrying the BEF (Lord Gort, his HQ, mech and mot corps). The second, in the 4-box, is a carrier strike force centered around the carriers Ark Royal and Furious. Both task forces are escorted by numerous battleships, heavy and light cruisers (and destroyers).
8. The weather on the next axis impulse (#3) remains fine across the globe. Though the allied subs failed to find, Germany decides to shut the door on allied access to the Baltic by invading Denmark. The USA reacts to this aggression and another chit is added to the German/Italy entry pool. To protect their unescorted convoys, Germany files a NAV3 to the 3-box and maintains an Hs123 in position to respond to the 0-box if necessary. It is, while Germany declined to initiate naval combat, the allies don’t. The result is that since this allied initiated combat takes place before land movement the Germans by flying their NAV into the Baltic have allowed the allied sub groups to escape. Even so, both sub groups commit to combat but get the worse of it. The British sub group is damaged and aborted and the French sub group is aborted. Though, doomed to die the German’s move allow these two groups to flee and fight another day.
9. German easily overruns Denmark with the 3 divisions that they had stationed on their common border. The overrun manages to capture Copenhagen and all hexes adjacent to North Sea, locking out any chance that the allies could disembark into Denmark. The only way now that allied ground troops could land directly in Denmark would be through amphibious invasion. With no allied divisions on the coast, amphibious invasion is not possible.
10. German easily finishes off Poland and begins their transfer of forces from Poland to the West.
11. German u-boats sortie into the Faeroes Gap and sink two convoys there, potentially disrupting CW supply to Scapa Flow.
Asia
1. Japanese aircraft are unable to hit the broadside of a barn but through maneuver and counter-maneuver the IJA manage to capture the open cities of Chengchow and Tungkwan. Reaction from the USA is somewhat negative with 1 chit being moved from the Japanese entry to the tension pool.
2. The situation in China, along will all other active theaters will be presented later, but needless to say that the garrison requirement of having to keep an HQ-I and 7 other ground units in Manchuria and China to counter the threat from Zhukov's HQ-A and 7 Soviet ground units is impacting Japan’s military operations in China.
