Ragnarök - (Back to) 4 Player Global War

[paulderynck]

News flash: in JA40, Impulse 1, Italy DoW'd the CW, but the US - concerned about British imperial intentions in Greece in accompaniment with the Royal family linkages between those two countries - did not react. At the end of MJ40 the US did freeze Japanese assets in response to continuing Japanese aggression in China. Here's all the Axis knows about US entry at this point:

[Centuur]

ORIGINAL: Ur_Vile_WEdge

Just curious, where's the USE standing about now?

"Beware what you are talking about, the enemy might be listening"... [:D]

[Ur_Vile_WEdge]

Heh, no, I wanted what Pauldernyck sent, not any sort of state secrets. Japan's looking to be in a little trouble, if the U.S. can concentrate the entry in their pool and throw down the embargo. A lot of this is going to hinge on Germany being able to put enough pressure on the Soviets to force a focus in Europe for LL to the Russians.

[paulderynck]

Here are the major world economic transactions in effect at the start of JA40.

[paulderynck]

Once again the Axis defy the odds to win the initiative in JA40. (Allies were +1, winning ties and lost both the initial and the re-roll.) Weather roll 3 - fine everywhere except Rain in the North Monsoon. Seeing an excellent opportunity to put a hurt on the CW transports that brought reinforcements to Greece, Italy DoWs the CW and port strikes Athens. No Us entry chit is generated!

Fortunately for the CW, their surprise roll was very low.

[paulderynck]

The results...

[paulderynck]

Next, Italian submarines roll a 1 for a search in the Eastern Med and despite being denied surprise by the presence of a French convoy, succeed in driving all Allied shipping out of the sea zone.

[paulderynck]

Germany makes 4 ground strikes in France, but one is aborted by defensive fighters and CW Defiants score a miracle shoot down of a German 6 factor fighter, although the bomber it was escorting got through, but the bomber pilots were obviously rattled. The CW had no convoys in the North Sea at this point and a successful ground strike on the BEF would have been disastrous for them, but it was not to be.

The picture below shows the only successful ground strike as well as the disorganized German Stukas. There's also a disorganized Ju-88 underneath the Stuka east of Brussels.

[paulderynck]

The Axis moved last in MJ40 and first in JA40. This resulted in the encirclement of Moses - errh, I mean Mao - who had been wandering in the desert between the remaining three Chinese cities still under Communist control.

Note the pesky Japanese Infantry division in the mountains northeast of Lan-Chow. It moved southwest from the city it took at the end of MJ40 and was reorganized by the timely arrival of the ATR Japan received as a reinforcement at the beginning of JA40 (seen at the bottom right after flying its mission).

[paulderynck]

On the downside for Japan, their first attack of JA40 was on the Chungking Militia at +9 on the 2D10 despite it being doubled in the mountains. But the roll was a measly '3' and Japan lost a Cavalry division and had their entire central army attack force disorganized - at no loss to the Natios.

[paulderynck]

In France Germany attacked the hapless disorganized French Armor and the Lyons Militia but logistical bottlenecks in the Ardennes prevented the reorganization of the 8-6 Mechanized corps that advanced - setting the stage for some exciting potential French counterattacks in the upcoming Allied impulse.

In southern France the urgent call for reinforcements to fill gaps caused by the Blitzkrieg - allowed the Italians to gain territory in the French Alps, without having to fight for it.

[paulderynck]

Impulses 2 and 3 from JA40 suffered from world wide press strife. One headline proclaimed: "Film editors on strike! Slides at 11."

So unfortunately no video or picture footage can be made available. The French did counterattack, trying first to dislodge the stack with the 6-6 German Mech, so that the 8-6 Mech would only be worth 3 on defense. But the German Luftwaffe was overpowering in its defensive ground support. Both French attacks failed. Casualties on both sides were light but many French units needed reorganization.

In impulse 3 German advances in France and Japanese advances in northern China continued. But in Greece a suitably Pyrrhic victory over the Greek mountain corps north of Athens (a magic net '14' roll) pretty much put "Paid" to any attempt by joint German-Italian forces to knock Greece out of the war in JA40.

[paulderynck]

Finally in Impulse 4, war correspondents returned to the front in time to see the Allies exact revenge in the Mediterranean Theater. After finding and sinking the Italian supply convoys in the western Med, both the CW and the loyal French Tunisian Territorials made attacks. It was a replay of the battles for Kasserine Pass - early and in reverse!

Despite choosing a Blitz attack to gain the highest probability of survival, Graziani was felled by a net '15' result, taking the glorious and valiant Tunisian Territorial with him. The CW had no trouble disposing of the disorganized and OoS Libyan Territorial, with no loss to themselves.

[paulderynck]

Situation in France, end of Allied impulse 4 of JA40.

[paulderynck]

After the disastrous Japanese attack in the center of China in impulse 1, the Nationalists got feisty, advancing from their center defenses northward and also from their industrial center moving to the southeast, in an attempt to distract the Japanese from their offensive against the Communist Chinese. Below is the situation at the end of impulse 4.

Note that in impulse 3 Terauchi had reorganized the Japanese ATR as well as an 8-3 which is under the northern-most 6-3.

[paulderynck]

In impulse 5 the 3-factor Japanese Nav succeeded in ground striking Mao and he was slaughtered along with the entire Chinese Communist headquarters forces. Despite that, in impulse 6 the Nationalists kept pressing north and southeastward, presenting Yamamoto with the dilemma of whether his forces could surround the Kunming Militia while keeping Stilwell's army at bay. Here is the situation in China at the beginning of Axis impulse 7.

The JP ATR re-organized the 5-4 west of Tchang at the end of impulse 5, so that unit is about to cause the Nationalist command some consternation.

[paulderynck]

Situation in France at the beginning of impulse 7. German units have reached the outskirts of Paris.

[paulderynck]

In Impulse 7 the Germans and Italians continued their advance in France and the disorganized French units trapped in the forests of southwest Belgium were mopped up*. The victorious northern Japanese army redeployed to threaten the pesky Nationalists and when the 5-4 shown above (post #136) began advancing due west through the mountains of central China the Nationalist command realized the jig was up, and in Impulse 8 began a general retreat towards their industrial heartland.

*(Here is a case where Option 47 or no Option 47, the French units' ZoCs were just creating too many difficulties to be ignored any longer - they had to go!)

[paulderynck]

In Impulse 9 the weather favored the Axis beyond all reasonable expectations, giving fair conditions in the North Monsoon for the second time in JA40!

A lucky ground strike in northern China furthered Allied woes and two attacks were launched by the Japanese.

Although the Japanese didn't roll particularly well, they could have rolled much worse. And with the road to Kunming open, all they needed now was to get one more Axis impulse.

[paulderynck]

The German juggernaut ground forward in France as the Allied prayers for the turn to end seemed inaudible over the sounds of battle.