Courtenay's solitaire AAR

[Courtenay]

S/O 40 Axis #3:

Japanese align Indo-China. US entry roll 8, one chit moves; it is a 1. At least not everything is going the Allies way, as this was both the most likely result and the best the Axis could reasonably hope for.

Ge land, It naval, Ja combined

The Italians move a large fleet out to the 3 box of the western Med, covered by a NAV. They also move some convoy points into the western Med, with a few escorts.

The Japanese ship a corps into Hanoi, and another into Shanghai. Both had been targeted on Hanoi, but the partisan that showed up has to be dealt with.

The Japanese rail a TERR from the northern front to Peking, saving Peking from being taken by the marauding Communist CAV division.

In land movement, the Japanese move towards the partisan in Haichow, and move a couple of other units.

The Germans collapse Vichy. At this point, a large number of French territories that should go French go German, most notably including Martinique and French Polynesia, where there are large numbers of French ships. All ships that should not have had to rebase were rolled by hand, to ensure that all survived. Four French BBs in Toulon really did have to be rebased, though. The Dunkerque was caught at dock and sunk. The other three battleships had to get past the Italian fleet in the western Med. Unfortunately for the French, the Italians were waiting just outside the harbor. (The Italians rolled a one for search.) The British put a fighter into the zero box. At this point the French demonstrated complete unpreparedness for combat, rolling a nine for search. The Italians, with their 60 points of surface gunnery, picked a surface action, moved themselves up two columns, and moved the Allies down two columns. They inflicted 2X, 2D, A at a cost of 2 D. The Richelieu found another bug. It was damaged on an X, and then absorbed a D, rolling a two. Since it was damaged, this should have sunk it, but the program kept its damage rating as one, so it survived. The Lorraine sank to the other X, while the Strasbourg converted a D to an A, surviving to fight another day. The Italians suffered 2Ds and an A, and to their annoyance both the Fiume and the Pola were damaged. I had to rerun the entire battle, including all the French overrun ships, not because of the Richelieu not being sunk -- I could simply have kept it in the repair pool forever -- but because I somehow aborted the wrong Italian ship, and the Count de Cavour sailed home when it shouldn't have. Then I redid the whole thing a third time, when I realized that triggering Vichy with Rundstedt had put a bunch of Germans that he had left behind out of supply. After all that, a large number of French ships are forced to rebase that should have had to, as fiendishly efficient German spies subvert the French ports. Since this should not have happened. What is particularly bad for the French is that they had stockpiled oil that has gone to the Germans, so they won't be able to reorganize all their ships.

The Germans triggered two entry chits for collapsing Vichy, a 1 and a 2. At least the Axis did not draw any big US entry chits this turn.

Ge/It: Entry 34, Tension 15; Ja: Entry 22, Tension 17.

After all that, the Germans approach the Spanish border, and rebase four bombers near the border. If next turn's weather is fair, the Germans aren't sure what they want to do, as they aren't quite in position to attack yet.

[Courtenay]

S/O 40 Allied #5. Weather 7+2: St, R, R, St, F, F. Modifier +1, Imp advance 2.
The Germans did not have to worry about what happens if the weather turns good. Meanwhile, southern China has seen eight consecutive storm impulses. Germany is watching S/O slip away before its eyes.

The British send a substantial fleet to the western Med, including two carriers, backed by their NAV. Of course both sides roll a six, so nothing happens. In yet another bug, about half the British fleet is flipped, which makes no sense. The only reason they would be flipped is if they were out of supply when the moved, but if they were out of supply, they did not have the movement points to get to the sea box they did. There are still a fair number of unflipped British units ready to fight, so it shouldn't affect things.

An attempt to strat bomb Munich (not covered by German airpower) fails, rolling a 3.

[Courtenay]

S/O Axis 7:

Ge land, Ja, It Combined

In naval movement, the Japanese put a couple of convoy points to bring the Hanoi resource back to Japan. The Italians put a convoy point and some escorts into the eastern Med. I will treat the Axis aircraft on Sicily as unflipped, otherwise this would be simply suicidal. The Japanese spot an opportunity: much of the Chinese line is out of supply in the rain. If they can ground strike it, then its defense will go to way down, and the Japanese can attack. Then the Japanese make a rude discovery -- in the rain, much of Japanese airforce is also out of supply, as it is too far back for Umezu, and too far forward for Yamamoto. Oops. The Japanese decide to give it a try, throwing their range 14 NAV into the fight. It is only a 10% chance of a flip, but it is, the Japanese think, worth a try. The Chinese decide to intercept, since they are only down 4 to 3 in air-to-air combat; this is the best they will ever see, they think. The result is a glorious success for Chinese arms: they roll a 17, for a DX, killing both plane and pilot. The Japanese roll a 10, for a DC. Where is bounce combat when you need it? The Japanese kill off their four point fighter. They regret losing the pilot.

The Germans rail the new 9-5 MECH down to Rundstedt and rail von Leeb and Rommel forward. The Germans aren't thrilled with using the oil, but this weather is ridiculous.

The Italians rail Badoglio replace von Leeb outside Brest. Better an Italian than a German doing that job.

The Germans move up to the Spanish border. They are ready to attack, if the weather ever clears.

I blundered. The unit that is supposed to eliminate the partisan put itself out of supply. If it had hugged the coast, it would be fine. The Japanese try and trap the Cantonese militia behind the lines.

The Italians try to get units out of the Alps.

[Courtenay]

S/O Allied #9: Weather 6+1; R, R, F, R, F, F.
The German attack does not work in rain. A whole turn looks like it is going to just disappear.

CW N, all other pass.

The CW moves transports a MECH into Morrocco, and moves the Indian Corps in Capetown into the Mouths of the Amazon, out of range of German ships. The remaining surface forces in Alexandria move to engage the Italians in the western Med, and they CW also attempts to engage in the Eastern Med. In the Western Med, small CW forces repeated found the Italians. The net result was that almost everybody, including the Italian CP aborted, and the Italians lost the Taranto while HMS Effingham was damaged. I had the CW spend four points to pick a surface combat, because the Italians should have had planes in the fight. In the western Med, the CW found the Italians with a roll of five, which was good enough to include the CW NAV and a carrier, but not most of their battleships. The Italians rolled a 9. The Italians put a fighter into the zero box; the CW picked the zero box, and spent most of their surprise points reducing the Italian air combat strength. Despite that, the Italians managed to abort one of the CW planes, so only two points got through; the CW inflickted a D and 2A. They destroyed one convoy point, aborted the other, and forced a cruiser back home. In the next round, both sides rolled ones. A naval air action was forced. Both bomber forces got through, but the Italain air was totally stopped by the CW AA fire, while the Italians let one bombint point get through; an Italian BB was aborted. In the third round nobody found anyone. All Italian CPs at sea were either sunk or aborted.

End of turn roll 9

[Courtenay]

S/O Axis #11

Ge: Naval; Ja: land; It combined

The Germans decide that if they can't invade Spain, they will see if they can wreck the CW convoys. If they get lucky, the turn ends after they have done so, before the CW can fix them. They send the fleet out at Brest. It gets intercepted, and the Germans decide not to fight through. In retrospect this was a mistake, as they would have had air cover in the zero box if they had fought through. The Bismark and some escorts try to sink Gort in the North Sea, and the German submarines go to Cape st. Vincent. The Italians put their last unflipped convoy point in the Italain coast, with some escorts.

The results of all the naval combat were simple: Nobody found anybody. I think the lowest search die roll was a seven, out of three attempted combats (six rolls.)

The Japanese made a low odds attack on Hengyang; they figured they had a good shot of taking the city.

They rolled a 3! They lost their engineer for no gain!

Turn ended on a 4.

How often does a S/O have _no_ fair weather impulses? The Axis ill luck continues. Here are the destroyed units for the turn:

[Courtenay]

Partisans: Another Chinese 0 strenght partisan unit appeared. Since the other Chinese partisan should already be dead, I am placing it next to, not on a Chinese resource. The net effect will be as if I had played competently.

Entry chits: All three neutrality chits this turn were ones.

US entry: into Ja pool, of course. It was a 3. The Axis did not need that.

US entry option: repair western Allied ships. Tension roll 3, chit moves. Pick Ge/It pool. Chit moved was a one. The Axis was hoping for something much larger. The US entry leves are now:

Ge/It entry: 34 tension 17 Ja: entry 27; tension 18. There will be no more US entry options taken until after war appropriations. Theoretically, the US is only one entry chit away from war appropriations. Admittedly, that chit is a 2/365 chance, but there is a chance. I have never seen war appropriations in 1940, and I don't really want to see it in this game, either. And, of course, the Axis might trigger some entry actions.

[Courtenay]

Production:

Japan scraps their shot down four point fighter.

Ge saves two oil, burns two.
It saves two oil, burns three
Japan saves one oil, burns one oil

CW burns 5 oil

Ge: 20: ARM, INF, ENG, FI-2, PI; saved 4
Jap 14: ENG, FI-2, CVP-1, PI, Finish Yamoto; saved one (Plus bug)
It: 5+1: 2 CP, Repair Andrea Dorea, save 2

Germany gets a 6 pt Bf 109E-3, a 6-3 INF, an 8-6 ARM, and the 1-4 ENG
Jap builds another Zero, and a carrier zero 5---, size 3, a very pretty aircraft, and they rebuilt their ENG.

Ch 6+1: GAR, ART; save 1 BP;
CW 17+0: INF, FI-2, 2xCVP-1, 2xPi, complete Prince of Wales, KGV, and Anson
US 21+25: complete AMPH, complete Hornet, repair HMS Queen Elizabeth, Birmingham, Effingham, Suffolk, HQ-ARM, 2xGAR, 2xCVP, Pi; save 19 BP;
SU: 14+0; 2xGAR, MECH, MTN, save 1 BP.

The Chinese are proud of their new ART; when it is built, the Japanese will have to be cautious about moving out of supply where it can shoot, since then the artillery might flip a unit, leaving it vulnerable to attack.

The US is displaying its industrial might, with a gearing limit of six naval vessels. Admittedly repairing CW ships is a cheap way to keep its gearing limits up. I don't know where Eisenhower is going, but he is sure to come in useful at some point. The garrisons are going to be used for just that: garrisons. I am build CVPs now because I want some small ones. I should have started building them earlier.

The CW completes the last of its fast battleships. (Not counting the unbuilt ones, which aren't every getting built). If I were smart, I would know how many build points of the gift of destoyers remain. I don't.

I ran into two production bugs. Again, all the saved US build points vanished the first time I tried doing production. They came back on a second try, but it is time consuming to have to do production twice. Also, I took all the CW convoys out of the Bay of Biscay, and forgot to replace them in the Faroes Gap. Nonetheless, the program let me have full CW production. I am going to take it, because I had the CPs available.

(I just was testing another player's bug report. Yes, that's what I was doing. [:)])

The Chinese unluckily built their 2-3 ART; they would have prefered a 3-2. The also built a 3-1 GAR.
The CW built a South African Spitfire, the South African INF, a CVP that is too big, and a 2-3 CVP that will fit on a size two carrier in 1941. More CVP still needed. While it is nice that the South Africans are contributing to the war effort, getting those units to the front is not trivial. It would take 7 air actions to fly that Spitfire to Egypt, for example.

The Americans finish the last of their garrisons, build Eisenhower, and get two large CVP, one a 2-3 and one a 3-3. More CVPs clearly needed.

The Soviets finish the last of their garrisons, their MTN unit, and a 5-6 MECH.

Here are the ND 40 reinforcements:

[Courtenay]

N/D 41

Initiative. The Axis rolled five, the Allies rolled five. Axis with +1 won, elected to go first.

The Axis is hoping for good weather, and if not, then send out the fleet and hope to do damage to the convoys.

N/D Axis #1: Weather five. St, R, F, F, F, F, F 2 imp advance, +0 modifier
Panic in southern China! There is a strange, bright yellow disk in the sky and the populace reacts in panic, as they don't remember having seen such a thing before.

Ge Naval, It Combined, Ja Land.

The Germans send out their fleet. The surface ships, including the speed five ships, all meet in the North Atlantic. The submarines all go to Cape Verde. The submarines went first, and scored a great success, rolling a one to the Allies eight. They picked a submarine action against the Allied air cover, and then killed 4 CPs and aborted 2, out of seven in the sea zone. In the second round of combat, the Germans did not commit their subs, as they could not find worthwhile targets, and did not want to engage a larger number of CW cruisers. In the North Atlantic, nobody found anybody.

The Italians again move a large fleet out to the western Med. They took a mountain division along, and had an idea of attacking with it, until the program reminded me that notional units have an infinite supply range, so the Italians just dumped it into Tunisia.

The Japanese ground struck Kweilin and the Canton Mil. The Kweilin strike achieved nothing, but the other flipped the Cantonese militia.

The Japanese move up for a much better assault on Hengyang, and move to cutoff and destroy the Canton MIL. Hengyang rolls a 9 for a 21; the defenders of Hengyang are destroyed, and half the Japanese are disorganized. Most of the combat value is intact though; Kweilin is next. The attack on the Cantonese MIL is overwhelming. The Cantonese MIL dies, and will never be seen again. There was no US entry effect for the capture of Hengyang.

[Courtenay]

I forgot to mention that Germany aligned Bulgaria, while Japan aligned Siam. Neither moved an entry chit.

N/D 40 Allied #3:

Br, Fr naval, Ch land, US & SU combined

The Sunderland shows up in the North Atlantic, demonstrating its impressive range.

The British move to counter the Axis naval aggression, supported by the French. The German submarines must all have been in the shipping lanes, not watching the ports, as the three TRS in Morocco all successfully transit the area, evading the German subs. Two head for England, while one steams south. In the Western Med, the usual results occured, that is say, no one found anyone. In Cape St. Vincent, the German search was no more successful. In the North Atlantic, the captain of HMS Hermes demonstrated great courage. Unfortunately, he did not demonstrate any sense, as, it appears he tried to ram the Scharnhorst. The Germans, with 8 surprise points, picked the zero box, and picked Hermes as a target, sinking her. They also damaged HMS Ramilles and HNLMS Sumatra. The Germans relied upon the armor of Bismark and Gneisenau, which successfully converted Ds into As. After this great success, with two of their three best ships already gone, and looking at way too many British battleships, the German just departed. Another identical result would have decimated the CW shipping lines, but a reverse result wrecks the German fleet. The Germans are going to aviod unequal naval battles, thank you.

The British try to strat bomb Lyon in the rain; they just miss, rolling a six and needing a seven.

Most of the Chinese units are still immobilized by rain; the Peking MIL retreats toward Kunming.

Alexander reorganizes the two TRS that returned to Britain, and the Strat bomber that bombed Lyon.

J/F 40 Axis #5: St, R, R, F, F, F; Imp advance 2, no modifier.

This has been good turn for fives -- both initiative rolls and the first two weather rolls.

The Germans know when all the ones, twos and threes will happen: for the M/J weather!

[Courtenay]

J/F 40 Axis #5: St, R, R, F, F, F; Imp advance 2, no modifier.

This has been good turn for fives -- both initiative rolls and the first two weather rolls.

The Germans know where all the ones, twos, and threes weather rolls are: in M/J!

The Germans align Hungary. No US entry effect.

Ge land, It combined, Ja land

The Italians move a convoy and some escorts into the western Med. The Allies search for them. The Italians find them with considerable surprise, and adjust the Allied air to air down. Both bombers are cleared through. The Allies roll a 1 for AA. The Axis tries to bomb the Glorious. Why not the Ark Royal? Because I clicked on the wrong unit by mistake! At any rate, the Glorious saved and was damaged. The next round, no one found anyone. When the Glorious went back to Gibraltar, the Nimrod lost in the North Atlantic was resurrected! (See Tech Support for thread.)

The Germans rail units in every direction: A 5-3 white print to Brest, and a GAR and an INF to the eastern front.

The Germans adjust units near Spain. The Italians march into Bone, Algeria. The Japanese attack Kwielen, rolling a nine and getting another 21. A 2-5 Cav and the 2-2 Kunming MIL die. No US entry effect for taking the city, but the Japanese are thoroughly disorganized.

[Courtenay]

Allied #7:

The British fly a couple of bombers into the Bay of Biscay. They will be landing somewhere in the south. If the British get some bombers into Egypt, and can flip some out of supply units, the stalemate in Egypt might be broken.

The CW moves a 7-6 ARM, a 7-4 MOT, and a Beaufighter (5, range 8) onto transports and try to get through the German submarines at Cape St. Vincent. The game froze the first time I did this, so I had to redo it. This time the subs were successful, stopping both naval missions. The CW puts everything in the sea zone. The Germans search in Cap St. Vincent, and the Allies search in the western Med and nobody finds anybody.

A strat bomb of Lyon fails.

The Chinese put a unit into the line in the rainy mountains, disrupting it. They also pull pack the Peking MIL. The Communist CAV division grabs the resource in southern Manchuria, flipping itself.

The British move Gort towards Casablanca, and debark the two land unit into Casablanca.

During air rebase, I try and land the CW fighter. It doesn't work. A bug report was submitted.

Turn end roll: 1, turn ends on a 10% chance.

The Germans don't believe it.

[Courtenay]

N/D 40 End of turn:

No partisans appear.

Both players get neutrality chits; I don't remember what they were. I tried and failed to convert a German defensive chit to offensive; maybe I will figure out how to do it next turn.

The US entry chit was a 3!
US chits for entry actions this year were 2, 2, 1, 3, 1 = 9.
US automatic chits this year were 1, 3, 1, 4, 3, 3 = 15.

The entry action chits were dead average (1.78), but the US automatic chits were four higher than average. The US actually missed a lot of chances to add chits N/D, but even so, their luck has been very good. They are several turns ahead of any game I have ever played before. I think I know how this game will come out, but I am morbidly curious as to just how bad it will be.

US entry: Ge/It entry 36, Ge Tension 17; Ja Entry 31, Ja Tension 18.

[Courtenay]

Production:

Ge 21+5: GAR, INF, MTN, ARM, 2xFi-3, 2xPi, repair Adm. Scheer, No BPs saved;
It: 5+2: NAV-3, Pi, 2xCP, No BPs saved;
Jap: 15+1: MTN, TER (Hanoi), start TRS, AMPH, 3xCVP, 2 BPs saved;

The Germans get their last GAR, a 6-1, 7-4 INF, their two remaining range 3 FTS, a 6-4 white print MTN, and a 7-5 ARM.
The Italians get their last NAV-3, a 1-3 range nine.
The Japanese get a 5-4 white print MTN, a 4-3 TRS, their 5-2 AMPH, and three size three CVPs, a 4-02, a 4-1, and a 5. By most people's standards, these would be excellent; by the Japanese, they are only average. They very much want to get some Kates.

Ch 6+1: MTN, GAR, 1 BP saved;
CW 17+0: ARM, PI, 4xCVP, CP, Complete Indefatiguable, Mauretius, Nigeria; No BPs saved;
US 21+19: ARM, MAR, TER, 3xCVP, Pi, complete TRS (3), complete AMPH(3), repair Colorado, HMS Glorious, Ramilles, Frobisher, Curacoa; 8 BP saved
SU 15+0: MECH, 2xINF, CAV, MOT XX

Again I had to repeat production, because both the Chinese and US saved build points vanished. Also, the first time one US oil resource was missing.

The Russians thank the Germans for the extra build point.

The Chinese build the communist MTN Corps, that has been in the force pool since the start of the game, and a 4-1 GAR.
The CW get an 8-6 white print ARM, two size one 0-3 swordfish that look very pretty, and two size three planes, one a 4-0, one a 1-4. If they fit anywhere, they will be good. The CW did not replace all the CPs they lost; the have plenty for their current needs. They do not have enough for when lend lease starts kicking into high gear, but they look at the US, and think that they will let the US worry about it. The CW are going to be tight on pilots. They must build two next turn.

The US gets a 6-6 ARM, and their 4-4 MAR. They are not wild about a 6-6. but it is an ARM. An ARM and a MAR keeps the Axis guessing about which way the US is going to go. (At the moment, no one, including me, knows.) The TER is to force the Japanese to use real units taking the Philippines. Why did they spend money repairing Curacoa? Because she has some use, and is a cheap way to keep US gearing levels up. At least her fate, whatever it will be, will be better than that of the historical Curacoa, eaten by the Queen Mary.
The Russians get the last two INF in their force pool, a 6-4 Siberian and a 5-3, their last CAV, a 3-5, a 1-5 MOT, and a 6-6 MECH.

Both the Soviet and German builds are being made with one eye on the garrison ratio; that is why they both built the MTN units over the last couple of turns.

Here are next turns reinforcements:

[Courtenay]

Start of year:
Germans scrap a He 111 H-2; The Japanese a 1 point bomeber;
the British a 5 point Spitfire, range 3, and a Skua, Sirius and Carybdis;
The US scraps a 1-2 CVP and a 1 point land bomber;
The Russians scrap 2 IL-4s.

Initiative. Both sides roll twos. Axis wins.

The Germans think long and hard about moving first, and possibly doing nasty things to the Allied convoys, but they don't want to give the Allies a reroll, ever, so they let the Allies move first.

Weather: 9, Bl, Sn, Sn, F, St, R, Imp Adv 3, Modifier +2.
It does not look like this will be a long turn. There is a very precise zero percent chance of good weather in the northern temperate next impulse.

The British also fly their Beaufighter out of Gibraltar into the Western Med. three box. The British finally have a long range unit that can fight in high sea box. This will, they hope, give the Axis air power significant problems. Of course, if you rely on plane superiority, the first battle you fight the enemy will roll a 17 and kill you.

The Allies move out to protect the convoys, and send out their submarines to the Italian Coast and a substantial fleet out to the western Med. The Axis sends out two NAVs to the Italian coast, while the Italians send a fighter to the zero box of the Western Med. The South African Spitfire is taken to the Red Sea. I want to see if I can figure out how to disembark it. The Queens take the South African infantry to Mogador, as Casablanca is full up. The French made a mistake with their transport, putting it in a non-city Canadian port, where it could not pick up the newly arrived Canadian corps.

That Beaufighter puts a real crimp in the Axis air power; the Axis had a lot of bombers that could have reached the two box, but they all would most likely have been slaughtered in air-to-air combat. The search rolls: In the Italian coast, the CW rolls an eight. The Italians roll a nine. In the Western Med, the CW rolls a nine. THe Italians rolled a ten. I am not sure that either side even found the ocean in that area.

In air rebase the RSA Spitfire successfully lands at Suez, while the Allies demonstrate that no part of the world can escape the influence of this war, as a Blenheim Mk IV unit flies to Fort Lamy. Why? Because it is the only way to get to Egypt, barring a stop at Malta, which risks being ground struck and out of supply. Here is a screenshot of rarely visited section of the map:

[Courtenay]

J/F 41 Axis #4:
Ge, Ja, and It all land

The Italians put a fighter in the two box of the western Med, along with a NAV, now they can fight!

A ground strike or Kweiyang achieves nothing.

The Germans shuffle units around.

The Japanese move up from their attacks on the southern cities. The partisan killing unit moves north. A unit is pulled out of the Sian lines to kill the partisan in the middle of China. Kweiyang is cut off. Kwieyang and Nanning are the next targets; Nanning looks like a hard target, with two units on top of mountains.

A great success for Italian arms: they finally occupy Berbera, British Somaliland. They also move west, closer to Algiers, and finally begin to get their units out of the Alps.

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J/F 41 Allied #7: Weather 6+2; Bl, Sn, St, F, St, F 3 imp advance, +2 die roll.
Well, there won't be any air battles in the Med this impulse!

CW combined, Fr Naval, Ch Land, US & SU combined.

The Allies reinforce Cape St Vincent, which suddenly lost its protective air cover. The French load up the Canadian MOT. The CW tries for another set of naval engagements. They roll two 4s for their searches; they needed threes. The Italians roll high both times.

The Germans have provided fighter cover for Lyons. Stettin is still open, and the Allies send a bomber there. They also make a major strike on Lille, two bombers, including their new LND-4, escorted by a FTR-3. The Germans look at this, and the two Spitfires in Dover, and decide to engage at a -1, with three British fighters versus two Germans. The Germans got a DA on the first roll, and the CW aborted their front bomber. The CW aborted the Germans front fighter in return, and since the back up Ftr had an air to air rating of four, the Germans left. The German defensive effort was a success, as the Allies rolled a 5, which missed. It would have hit if both bombers had gone through unmolested. Stettin, meanwhile, was hit, with the CW rolling a nine.

The CW moves up to the border of Sp. Morocco. The Communist Chinese pull Mao out of the line and send him south; they discovered that they can't supply their units as far south as they wanted to operate.

Turn does not end.

[Courtenay]

J/F 41 Axis #10:

Ge and It Naval; Ja Land

The Italians, hoping the turn will end, put their last convoy point and some escorts in the Western Med.

Germany observes the weather with interest, and decides to try and wreck havoc under the protection of the storm. First, though, their ships have to get to Cap St. Vincent. The British have a small force with a carrier and a couple of battleships in the Bay of Biscay. They roll a 3 for search, which is just good enough to find the Germans. The Germans have to make a decision: Stop in the sea zone, or continue on. Since there is good fighter cover close at hand, they elect to fight through; if they roll well, it will be naval air combat where the Germans will have an advantage. Me 109s vs British carrier planes is not a fair fight. Unfortunately, though, the German roll an eight for search. After the British finish reducing the German losses, the British suffer 2D and an A, while the Germans take a X and an A. The two D's send the two British battleships hone, and the A does the same to the Ark Royal. The Germans take the X on the Emden, which goes down; the A plinks off the Bismark's armor. One British light cruiser is left, facing the Bismark and other ships. What would you do? Right. Having cleared the Bay of Biscay, the Germans proceed to Cape St. Vincent. They search: A 2! Visions of slaughtered convoys dance through their brains. The Allies respond: a 3! Four brave cruisers, HMS Norfolk, Southampton, Edinburgh, and HMAS Hobart, stand in the way of the whole German navy; the French battleships in the three box are lost in the snow. The Germans inflict an X, a D, and 3 As. The Hobart absorbs the X, and survives. The D bounce off Norfolk, sending her home. After that, the the damage control crews were done -- the three As sent the three remaining ships home, clearing the four box. The Germans absorbed an X on the Konigsburg, sinking her. In the second round of combat, neither side found the other.

The range three German submarines tried the Gulf of Guinea. They French in the four box found them, only, with five surprise points. The Germans aborted some French ships, but lost their 4-3 submarine in exchange, and had another sub sent home. With only one sub left, the Germans declined to commit it in the second round.

These sorties were not a glorious success for the German navy. However, the fleet is still at sea, and might yet accomplish something.

The Japanese ground strike Kweiyang and Nanning. The ground strike against Nanning does nothing; the one against Nanning flips a unit.

The Japanese decide to attack both places; they don't know how much good weather there is left. The attack against Nanning goes in first, with Yamamoto providing support. It is a +7.71; the Japanese roll a 722, just missing the fractional odd. They roll a 9, getting a *1/1, so they lose two units and the Chinese lose one. The Chinese lose a 3-3 INF, keeping the Chungking MIL, because it fights better. The Japanese lose a Korean TER and the Hiroshima MIL. Against Kwieyang, they have a straight up +7. with Stilwell, trapped in the city, providing defensive support and Umezu providing offensive support. The Japanese roll a 12, the lowest number that would let them take the city. as they kill two units and lose two units. They killed a 4-2 INF and Stilwell, losing a 1-5 MOT div and a 5-4 INF division. Far worse than their losses, though was the behavior of the Japanese troops upon capturing the city. The Japanese mechanized corps took its tracks, and ran over the surrendering headquarters personnel. Since there were American advisers killed, the American public was outraged. (Japense rolled a 3 for US entry; with the factory, that was just enough. The US pulled a 4! War appropriations was very likely; now it is certain.)

Turn end roll 6, turn continues.

[Courtenay]

J/F 41 Allied #13: Weather roll 10+2; B, B, B, R, St, St, Imp advance 4, modifier +3.
I did it! I managed to get the single worse weather result in the game, the only four impulse advance. The fact that it is already impulse 13 is irrelevant; I managed to get a 4 impulse advance. This after getting rain in the Arctic M/J 40. I am very glad I am playing this game solitaire, because it would be no fun to play this game as the Germans.

The Allies contemplate passing, but decide that they have things they want to do.

CW, Fr, Naval, Ch Land, US & SU combined.

The Allies move all remaining ships in the Mediterranean. They don't touch Cape St. Vincent. A single brave Dutch cruiser moves to the Italian coast, because both British subs have already searched. Six ships sail to the Eastern Med, to challenge the Italians there. In the Western Med, the British don't find the Italians. In the Eastern Med, both sides find each other; by the time the one round battle is over, the Colleoni was sunk. In the Italian coast, the Dutch cruiser, only, found the convoy point, but the convoy point rolled very well; the Dutch had two points of surprise, and to my surprise, that wasn't enought to kill the convoy point. The Dutch could have aborted it but didn't, but when the round ended, the Italians voluntarily aborted the CP.

In China, Mao moves south, flipping himself; other Chinese units move and flip.

Turn end roll 8, turn does not end. The allies now wish that a few nations had passed.

[Courtenay]

J/F 41 Axis #17:

Ge combined, Italian naval, Ja combined

The Japanese bring a CAV corps over from Japan. The Germans don't make any naval moves, but want to try their luck again in Cape St. Vincent. The Italians move out ships to kill the Dutch cruiser in the Italian coast, and move out four battleships and some cruisers to fight the British in the eastern Med.

Nobody found anybody in Cape St. Vincent or the Italian Coast. In the Eastern Med, the Italians found the Allies with lots of surprise points. Sheffield and Aurora went down; the Strasbourg went down. The Allies did inflict two Ds, though. The Italians applied them to their battleships, intending to show off the BB's armor. Victoria Veneto shrugged off the D, but the Strasbourg fired a Parthian shot and actually damaged Littorio. This partially spoiled what had been an excellent combat for the Italians.

Here are the destroyed units for the turn; this has been the bloodiest turn suffered by the Axis ground forces. The Chinese lost one and a half turns of production.

Turn end 4.

[Courtenay]

Draft Extended to 2 1/2 years!

It is my belief that the "War Appropriations" US entry option represents the extension of the draft from one year to two and half. Historically, this took place in August of 1941. In this game, it has happened in J/F. No other piece of war legislation in 1941 was as important, or as controversial, as the draft extension. Certainly, there was no appropriation bill in 1941 comparable to the Two Ocean Navy act (Vinson-Walsh Act) in 1940, which represents gear up.

Again I am unable to move a German chit from defense to offense. I will work around this somehow.

The US entry chit goes to the Japanese pool. For what it is worth, it was a two. The US picks War Appropriations. The US now has the largest economy in the game. War Appropriations caused a single chit to move, but the chit that moved was a four. Japanese tension is much higher than the US would like.

Ge/It Entry 37 Tension 19 Ja Entry 34 Tension 24.

In return to base, the British attempted to put a blocking force in the Bay of Biscay. I retroactively canceled this decision when I found a that interceptions in the return to base step causes a bug that left half the German fleet still at sea.

Here are the US entry options picked and the US entry pools: