Courtenay's solitaire AAR

[Courtenay]

The invasion of Sorong is automatic. The Allies wasted a 14 on it.

[Courtenay]

The Communists get a +10 on Terauchi. To their surprise, they roll another 14, killing both Terauchi and a white print garrison at no cost to themselves. The Japanese north China front has been shattered.

[Courtenay]

The CW attacks the Madgeburg MIL in the Alps at +9.667. They don't make the fractional odds roll (.945), but that doesn't make any difference because they rolled a 15, killing the MIL.

[Courtenay]

Next is the attack on Cavellero, at +11.2. The Russians manage to get the fractional odds, rolling .049, and then roll another 15, killing Cavellero without loss. I am not used to rolling so well on attacks.

[Courtenay]

To my surprise, the attack on the German oil resource is automatic, as capturing Cavellero's hex put the unit is out of supply. The attack is an exercise in overkill, at 59:2. The last German oil resource falls. Here MWiF showed its value; if playing over the map, I would not have seen that SS ARM XX went out of supply.

[Courtenay]

The CW attack the forest hex SW of Leipzig. The Germans made a mistake here. (That is to say that I, playing the Germans, made a mistake.) I forgot that there was a flipped garrison in Madgeburg; if I had remembered that, I would have retreated the INF in the forest back to Madgeburg. The combat is a +13.143 blitz. The CW manages to make the fractional odds roll, (.068). Then they wish they hadn't, as they roll a 5. The CW decides to destroy a MECH, and has to flip three units. They could have destroyed an INF, but did not do so because they wanted to manage which units were disorganized. The German INF was shattered and removed from the map. No screen shot. The attack was a 41:7

[Courtenay]

The Americans attack the hex northwest of Munich with a +15.833 Blitz. They miss the fractional odds roll (.992) and then only roll a 7. A German GAR is destroyed and an German MTN is shattered.

[Courtenay]

Lastly, the Russians make a big attack on Dresden, at +14.682. They make the fractional odds roll and then roll a 14. The Germans lose two units and have a third shattered. They elect to destroy two corps, because the AT gun will have a place to arrive next impulse, if the Germans survive, and the corps probably won't.

When Dresden fell, a 4 pt Italian FTR and its pilot were overrun, and an oil point was captured.

[Courtenay]

Konev reorganizes two Russian air transports.

Alexander reorganizes two ARM and the 6 pt Mosquito.

[Courtenay]

M/J Axis #4:
Ja combined, Ge, It land

The Japanese send out three cruisers to the 2 box of the Marshalls.

Marshalls: Japanese 4, US 4; because of storm, no one finds anyone.

Bismarks: Japanese another 4, US: 1. US includes only 3 box; this gives four surprise points. The US could use them to cancel combat, but feel it is better to reduce Japanese submarine strength. Instead, the US uses them to reduce Japanese damage to nothing. The US gets 1 D and 3As; a Japanese SUB saves, but both Japanese subs in the three box are sent home.

[Courtenay]

Round 2: Japanese 9, US 3: This time the two four boxes are the only ships included. US has six surpise points. Again, they use all six to reduce the Japanese damage to nothing. They get 2D and an A. The Japanese put the D on their worst sub; when it is damaged, rolling a 1, they put their second damage on the same sub, and it sinks on a 5. Their third best sub takes the A, rolls a 3, and and is aborted. From six submarines in the sea area, the Japanese are now down to two. They are persistent, and keep fighting.

[Courtenay]

Round 3: Japanese 2, US 4: The Japanese persistence is rewarded when they find the Allies, and the Allies don't find them. They include only the two box, where a US TRS has a very inadequate escort of only one cruiser, rather than picking the zero box and having to fight a much larger escort. With four surprise points, the Japanese use all of them to increase damage, getting 2D and 3A. The Northampton moves to block the Japanese attack, and nimbly evades the Japanese torpedoes, rolling a 10. It is forced to abort. The TRS captains go "Torpedoes? What torpedoes? Oh.", as they roll a 1, and are damaged. Three aborts are more than enough to send the transport home.

[Courtenay]

The Northampton, with 2A, manages to abort both remaining Japanese submarines, who rolled a 3 and a 6. This empties the sea area of Japanese units. Altogether, a very disappointing result for the Japanese. Losing a sub, even a bad one, is not a good trade for merely damaging one transport.

[Courtenay]

The Japanese now have to decide what to do about the China Sea. They are by no means sure that trying to fight here is a good idea; however, the CW can add even more FTRs to the sea zone, so things aren't going to get any better. The Japanese decide to fight.

I forgot to take a screen shot of the air-to-air battle. The first round, the US rolled a 15, DX PX, and the Japanese killed their front NAV. The Japanese rolled a 10, DC, clearing the best US CVP through. The second round, at -3, the Japanese rolled an AA, sending the 9 pt US FTR home. The US rolled an 11, and the Japanese sent their 4 point ATR in. The third round, the Japanese rolled a 19, AX PX, killing a 7 pt US FTR. The US rolled a 10, sending the last Japanese NAV through.

At lowest 2 of 5, the US rolled a 1, 10, 4, 7, and 9; one 5 point Japanese NAV got through. It inflicted an X, a D, and an A. The Japanese try to sink a TRS; it saved on a 6. The US put the D on a cruiser, which aborted. The last A went on the the US CV carrying the remaing good US CVP fighter, and it also aborted.

After this success, the Japanese are happy to continue, even thought they only have one NAV left in the sea zone. The Japanese roll 4, the US a 1. The US wants to get more FTRS into the sea area, and cancel the combat.

The Japanese are getting very frustrated by US damage control efforts. They are damaging a fair number of US ships, but they haven't been able to sink very much that is worthwhile.

[Courtenay]

The Japanese rail the Shanghai Warlord from Wuhan to Shanghai. They don't want the unit to just fall off the map when Shanghai falls. This move shows why I do not like the option that prevents isolated units from reorganizing; with all of China to draw on, to say nothing of Shanghai itself, with around five million people, this unit should be able to reorganize, assuming that it is not attacked by the Chinese first.

[Courtenay]

The Germans pull back an out of supply MOT from two hexes east of Munich to east of Munich, flipping it. They don't want to let the hex east of Munich fall without a fight. The Italians move two units southeast of Munich.

I use the debug tool to move the German units in the Stuttgart pocket. Because MWiF won't let you swap units, none of these units can move. They should be able to. The Germans put their two best units in Stuttgart, leaving the HQs outside the city.

The Japanese move their MAR from Ichang to Wuhan, flipping it.

The Japanese rebase two planes back from the China coast; one to Pusan and one to an island in the middle of the China Sea. That was as far as they can reach.

[Courtenay]

M/J 44 Allied #5: Weather roll 2, St, R, F, St, R, R, modifier +1, impulse advance 2.
The Axis breathes a sigh of relief. Germany will not fall this impulse.

This is absolutely typical weather for one of my first summers of Barbarossa when I am playing Germany: a clear impulse in the Arctic, followed by rain, followed by storm.

[Courtenay]

SU, Ch, CW, land, US, Fr combined

The US launch a couple of port strikes against Japanese transports in Hiroshima and Osaka. No one's heart is really into this. Over Hiroshima, both sides roll a 9. The US gets a single D, and the TRS saves, rolling a 9. Over Osaka, the Japanese roll a 7, while the US gets another 9. This only produces an abort. This transport decides it is very comfortable where it is, rolls a 3, and is disorganized.

[Courtenay]

South China Sea: Allies 4, Japanese 1. The lowest possible rolls that don't find anyone. It feels strange for a one not to find anyone.

The Marshalls. The Allies aren't sure about this, but try anyway. They roll a 9. The Japanese respond with a 5. No one finds anyone.

China Sea: US 3, Japan 7. US picks 0 box only, gets a -4/4; spends four surprise points increase own air strength, two points decreasing Japanese. The Japanese put their worst FTR in front. The first round, the Allies roll a 13, AA, and the Japanese roll a 9, DC. The lone Japanese FTR remaining aborts the air-to-air combat. The Allies use the last two surprise points to shift the Japanese AA down to nothing. The American CVPs get an X, a D, and a couple of A's. The Kuma surprisingly saves against the X, with a 10, but the D finishes it off, with a 5. I forgot to take a screen shot of the air to air combat.

Second round Allies 7, Japan 4; No one finds anyone.

[Courtenay]

I did not record my rail moves, but am sure that various people sent something!

The Russians move to make two attacks. One automatic one against the disorganized Italian who was left behind and a low odds blitz attack against the hex northwest of Munich.

The Western Allies combine to attack a weakly held Nuremberg.

The Allies declare their attacks.

The Russians drop one PAR corps on the attack northwest of Munich. This converts a horrible attack into a merely bad one.

The Germans do not include the notional, which simply would make the attack better.

The Western Allies put five points worth of bombing into Nuremberg, the Russians two points into their risky attack. (Both figures after halving.)