THE LAST KINGDOM: Sillyflower v sveint. SVEINT WELCOME

[sillyflower]

19 Dec



You may have seen this on sveint's AAR, gentle reader. Any interest in an invasion of Turkey is well-disguised.

He didn't have the cojones for a late '41 Barbarossa.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[sillyflower]

...................even when I leave him some easy ways in.

[baloo7777]

Didn't USA Lend-lease to Russia go through Persia historically?

[sillyflower]

According to Mr Wiki:

Delivery was via the Arctic Convoys, the Persian Corridor, and the Pacific Route.

The Arctic route was the shortest and most direct route for lend-lease aid to the USSR, though it was also the most dangerous as it involved sailing past German-occupied Norway. Some 3,964,000 tons of goods were shipped by the Arctic route; 7% was lost, while 93% arrived safely.[52] This constituted some 23% of the total aid to the USSR during the war.

The Persian Corridor was the longest route, and was not fully operational until mid-1942. Thereafter it saw the passage of 4,160,000 tons of goods, 27% of the total.[52]

The Pacific Route opened in August 1941, but was affected by the start of hostilities between Japan and the U.S.; after December 1941, only Soviet ships could be used, and, as Japan and the USSR observed a strict neutrality towards each other, only non-military goods could be transported.[53] Nevertheless, some 8,244,000 tons of goods went by this route, 50% of the total.[52]

I imagine that little or no LL was carried on the Arctic route by american ships.

[michaelCLARADY]

US LL aid to the USSR was $11.3B from 1941 thru the end of the War. Brit aid to the USSR was $1.7B or about 15% of the USA level. In addition the Brits received $31B in American LL aid. As to little USA shipping on the Murmansk run- USA lost 85 ships there during WW2 to Britain's 87.

[sillyflower]

Thanks Michael.

[baloo7777]

In the game, is there any control over which route LL takes? At least for the US player?

[sillyflower]

Not in my test. I'm hoping Alvaro reads this AAR or my other thread. My hotseat tests don't seem to work for some reason.

[sillyflower]

2 Jan 1942

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS.

The perfect start :



I can almost forgive the pathetic inability of any of my 5 carriers (which are in 2 groups) and a strong fleet with big guns even to find raiding Axis warships, but not quite!

[sillyflower]

16 Jan '42

Axis surface fleets come out again. Italian navy gets a smacking from the carriers, as the battleship fleet fails yet again. The last Italian battleship explodes after getting 10 hits, and all that's left of their surface navy is 1 CA and one CL/DD group - both badly damaged.

[sillyflower]

30 Jan



I think that my previous post was wrongly dated because the Trieste was only sunk this turn, after the battleship was KO'd on the 1st carrier strike

[sillyflower]

13 Feb
Again, not a clue [&:] so possibly/probably nothing interesting

EDIT. I could not be more wrong. I've just found a scribbled note saying The German navy lost the Schliesen (its old dreadnought), a CL/DD group and 9 more hits including 4 on the Bismark. It must have sat still and 3 of 4 carrier strikes hit their targets.

[sillyflower]

27Feb



Self explanatory. Sveint has quite a lot of Germans on garrison duty so that's probably over 200 points, and 2 ftrs in Spain guarding his fleet, and (presumably a bomber) in Ireland.
Axis naval power has been much depleted by my 5 carriers. I think both powers have 3 subs left though probably with some damage.

[sillyflower]

13 March

Nothing to see here as paranoia grips the USSR and security is tightened before we can launch our offensive in May; weather permitting (which I hope it won't)

[sillyflower]

27 March

Nazi fighters in Spain fail to prevent successful port attacks vs uboats: one of which is now resting in peace. It will not be missed.



I have to say that I always struggle (OK, fail) to reconcile this screen with the figures in the 'current' and 'last turn' combat logs.

[sillyflower]

10 April

Lovely bad weather. In Russia,the last of my ready troops still have to be put on the map nest turn. I would have preferred to have held them all off map until the last minute, but the deployment hexes aren't in the right places for that, and they then need to rail and move to the right place.

Allied navies useless this turn. The 5 carriers have had so many successes that their cohesion in getting quite low in the 40s but experience levels all between 65-70 which in good. I will have to circulate the out for R&R. At least the seaborne threat is much lower now so I think its it's OK to keep just 1 naval stack on station off Spain.
The allied subs had been patrolling off Norway all winter, but sveint didn't turn the iron ore convoy back on. Don't know why - his merchants aren't much use for anything else.

Back to the rain dance

[sillyflower]

And I've always loved the Far Side




Whatever it takes to slow sveint down.

[sillyflower]

24 April

The dances worked. Heavy rain everywhere.



Very different from a '41 Barbarossa

[sillyflower]

And the south



With 12 interceptors all sitting on top of land units for safety, another on the way, and 19 tank and mech xxx, I'm ready for paraspam. The Soviet fleet prepares for war by sitting on the Swedish trade route.Bombers moved out of range as they can't yet be trusted to stat in 'mission only' mode. I also have 8 or 10 new armies deployed, in addition to the 3 Siberians.

In the meantime, the American Armada launches and heads for Ihaventaclueyet. The USS Ranger and a UK carrier head for Scapa Flow, which is once again becoming a hive of industry with the transfer of forces from Iceland. 10 new merchants boost the UK, with 80 more on the stocks between the allied nations.The rest of the fleet off Spain fails to score again [:(]. It seems very hard for battleships to damage sub in port which is a bit surprising.

[sillyflower]

Barbarossa has started but I'm waiting to hear from sveint as to where he is with his AAR, so that we cak keep reasonably in synch. I think my 12.00 hours is his midnight.
In the meantime, some early pictures of his army's behaviour:
WARNING: SOME VIEWERS MIGHT FIND THESE SCENES DISTRESSING




This was taken 10 miles west of Grodno. The cause of the massacre is believed to be due to te Wehrmacht's failure to capture the this strategically-placed communications hub.