Courtenay's solitaire AAR

[Courtenay]

Two Finnish ships were in Stettin when it fell; they attempted to run, and a successful intercept resulted in the destruction of them both. The Allies rolled a 2, the Finns a 10, producing no less than 12 surprise points. Three X's were overkill on the Finnish ships, while the Nelson (already used in shore bombardment) sneered at the Finnish counterfire, rolling a 10.

[Courtenay]

The Russians finish up with the attack on the Czech forest; this is precisely a +4 attack. Bad things can happen on a +4, but the Russians roll a 13, for another 1/1. The Russians lose an INF XX while the Germans kill their AT gun and keep a bad INF. I am still not sure this was the right choice. Again, all attackers are flipped.

[Courtenay]

Over the Danube, Allied air power double the US attack, to a +9 blitz. The Americans roll well, for a +16, killing a German ARM and blitzing through the hex. A US ARM and a MECH division advance into the forest west of Munich, flipping themselves to do so.

[Courtenay]

Lastly, the Allies attack east of Frankfort, at no less than a +16.389 attack. 4.5 of that was armor and 4 was the Germans defenders being disorganized. The Americans roll a 10, good enough to kill the Dusseldorf and Hanover MIL and secure a breakthrough. A US ARM and MECH division push through the gap.

[Courtenay]

The Russians use two air transports to reorganize two corps that flipped attacking the forest, and the US uses a two C-47s to reorganize the ARM and the MECH XX that advanced next to Munich.

The US uses Bradley to reorganize a five point LND-3, a 4 point LND-3, and a 3 point air-to-ground FTR. The CW uses Crerer to reorganize the 6 point Mosquito, the 3 point Blenhiem, and a TRS in Bremen. The Russians don't use any HQs.

[Courtenay]

M/J 44 Axis #2:
Ge, It land, Ja combined

[Courtenay]

The Japanese move the units in Saigon, including a CP, to the zero box of the China Sea. The Allies attempt to intercept in the South China Sea, but roll a 7 and fail. MWiF remembers that these units are out of supply, and disorganized them when they move. I would have forgotten. The Japanese also move all their submarines to the Bismark sea, where there're several juicy AMPHs.

[Courtenay]

The Japanese try for a combat in the China Sea. They roll a 10, the US a 6. The US just barely finds the Japanese. After a lot of thought, the US does not cancel the combat -- it wants to obliterate that Japanese CP. The US sends most of its air as fighters, reserving four CVPs as bombers. The first round of combat, at +4/-4, the US rolls a 6, shooting down a Japanese FTR, while the Japanese roll a 13, AC. I misread this as DC, and clear the best US CVP through, rather than the worst. This makes no difference, as the Japanese see no point in fighting at -5, and abort the air-to-air combat. This decision was particularly easy, since aborts don't remove US planes from the sea zone, just this air-to-air combat.

[Courtenay]

The US uses four surprise points to eliminate Japanese AA fire, and four more points to shift the combat result up to 3X, 2D, and an A. The US puts the first X on the Takao, which rolls a 9 and saves. The Japanese see that their CP will not survive, as the Americans have a D all ready for it, and so put an X on the CP. The US puts the last X on the Atago, which rolls a 7 and saves. The Japanese put A D on the Kirishima, which rolls a 9, and aborts. The US puts the last D on the damaged Takao, which rolls a 7, sinking exactly because of the plus one to the damage rating for being damaged. Lastly, the Japanese put an A on the damaged Atago. The Atago wants no part of the rest of this fight, rolling a one and leaving.

[Courtenay]

The combat is a long and bloody one, with the Americans losing three CVPs and two pilots, and the Japanese losing a FTR and two NAVS and their pilots. There were no Japanese ships to attack, but the US put a fair number of planes as bombers just to absorb DA and DX results. See the screen shot for details.

[Courtenay]

The Americans roll 9 points of AA on lowest 2 of 4 (9, 5, 4, 8). The Japanese abort a bomber and lose four points of of their air strength, leaving them with 8.

The Japanese are disappointed with this result; they had hoped for much better. The Japanese got 2X and 2A. They put the X on the Intrepid, which has the 7 pt CVP on board. It rolls a 6, and saves. The US puts the second X on the Quincy, which rolls a 2 and sinks. The Japanese put the first A on carrier, which seems to have saved. The US puts the second A on the Iowa, which shrugs off the A, not rolling a 1.

I managed to not take a screen shot of the US casualties, or rather, did not save the screen shot I did take.

The next round, no one found anyone.

[Courtenay]

The Japanese try for naval combat in the Bismark Sea. The US flies a FTR to the zero box, a NAV to escort the Australian MOT in the two box, and a good NAV to the three box, in the hopes that it will find and sink Japanse subs. The Japanese roll a 7, the US a 9. No one finds anyone.

The Japanese decline combat in the South China Sea. The Allies are not allowed to initiate combat there this phase.

[Courtenay]

The Japanese rail a 5-1 white print GAR from Taiyuan to on top of Terauchi. This concedes Taiyuan to the Communits, but is the only way the Japanese sea to try and hold the whole northern Chinese front. Railing (or moving) any other unit on top of Terauchi is pointless; the Communists could get a +19 attack on anything the Japanese put there. Not putting anything on top of Terauchi is automatic elimination, with the other units on the front being surrounded and killed. Doing this gives the Japanese a chance. (Although it still not a good chance.)

The Germans have a problem: too many places to defend, too to few units to defend with. Stuttgart, Leipzig, and Dresden are defended by either trapped or flipped units, and so there is nothing to decide. The problem is Nuremburg and Munich. The Germans decide to put everything they have into the defense of Munich, and to actually abandon Nuremburg. They also abandon Frankfort, which is not worth anything, using the units to defend the hex northeast of Stuttgart instead. The Axis pulls back much of the force defending the southeastern part of the front. This was the only sector of the German line that was adequately defended; the problem was that if the cities were being taken from the west, holding this area had no value.

The Finns pull back to defend Helsinki and the hex northwest of Helsinki to the maximum, leaving a speed bump to the northeast.

[Courtenay]

The Japanese pull air units back from the Communist front to the coast. They are still out of supply, but might become useful later.

The Germans move Rudel over towards Dresden. In a act of desperation, the Germans try to reorganize a unit with their ATR. A newly arrive CW Spitfire XIV swats the thing from the skies.

The Japanese use Haka to reorganize a NAV that has the range to reach Terauchi, or to go back to the South China Sea. This does use up a lot of oil, and may not have been worth it.

[Courtenay]

M/J Allied #3: Weather 3, R, F, F, St, R, F impulse advance 1, no modifier.
This is the sort of weather that Russia loves in the first summer of Barbarossa. However, it is just barely not bad enough to affect combat in Germany. It will slow things down in Finland, though.

US, CW, Ch Land, Fr combined, SU Land O-chit, Konev doubling

[Courtenay]

The US sends a 9 pt FTR and a 4 pt FTR into the four box of the South China Sea. The CW wants to send a 7 pt FTR to the China Sea, but the storms prevent that.

The French move out the only ship they still have in port, the Jeanne D'arc.

[Courtenay]

The US uses two planes in ground strikes, one an extended range bombing mission by the B-17 in China against an INF next to Terauchi, and the other a raid on Munich. The Russians use all three missions on ground strikes. One plane flew to a non-optimal target because it was overstacked with an HQ that wanted to move, and would have died if it did not fly. The CW uses their Mosquito and a Tempest to strike the hex northwest of Munich.

Ground strike results:
NW Mun: Mosquito, Tempest (6, 4 (AT)) [56, 37]: 2, 2; INF, GAR disorganized;
NE Mun: Pe-2 (5) [56, 38]: 1, 7; It MTN disorganzed, INF unaffected;
Munich: B-26C (5, halved) [57, 37]: 3, 9; Kesselring disorganized, Munich MIL unaffected;
2xIL-2M3 (6, 5, halved) [57, 39]: 5, 3, 10: INF disorganized, MOT unaffected;
China: B-17G (4, extended) [77, 139]: 8, INF unaffected.

[Courtenay]

The MAR XX in Taihoku captures the adjacent resource and moves back to Taihoku. The unit is in supply because the invasion TRS are still in the South China Sea.

The US overruns a Bf-109E and its pilot southeast of Stuttgart, and the South Africans overrun a He 112 and its pilot in Frankfort.

The CW moves to attack the forest southwest of Leipzig and the Madgeburg MIL in the Alps. The US moves to attack the clear hex northwest of Munich.

The Russians move to attack the German SS ARM XX in the oil resource and Cavellero in the Italian Alps. More importantly, they attack Dresden, using 7 doublings. The eighth doubling is used against the SS ARM XX.

The Communist Chinese take Taiyuan, and move up and around the Japanese line in front of them. The Nationlists continue to push units forward.

[Courtenay]

The CW unloads two units into Turku, and the Australian MOT into Truk. The US unloads a MECH into Saipan. They did not want these units sunk by Japanese SUBs.

The US invades Sorong, NEI, with a division from the Bismark Sea. They should have done this last impulse. They also should have invaded Menado, and forgot, and can't this impulse because of the weather.

[Courtenay]

The Russians declare three attacks.
The Communists decide to attack Terauchi.

The CW sends a Spitfire with two bombing points to attack the MIL in Alps.

The Germans send Rudel to Dresden. The Japanese send a long range NAV from Japan to support Terauchi.

The Russians send up three fighters, all that were in range, against Rudel. It occurs to them that CAP here would have been a good idea. However, they do well enough; Rudel rolls a 7 for NE, while the Russians roll a 14, killing Rudel. (But not the man himself; the pilot survived.)