Crossroads: Axis Perspective

[Chocolino]

July 1st, 1943

The last US troops have left Germany - for now. Denmark is under aerial attack again. Only the same little border skirmishes in Romania.

The Italians started a small reconnaissance mission from Turkey into the Caucasus. Since I never tried this before - not even against the AI - I didn't realize how stretched supply lines would get. Movement is down to one point which is not sufficient to enter even the foothills with the regular L3 Infantry. Unless you use higher level motorized units or build a mulberry port you may not even bother to try it. A good lesson. (Can a Mulberry port be built near the Caspian sea? It may not be possible besides inland lakes not matter how large. I didn't have the PP to try in any case).

[Chocolino]

July 9th, 1943

We conduct a limited attack on Timisoara and retake the city but have no real plans of going further. Given their PP situation, defense is probably the wisest option for the Germans from now on.

The Caucasian explorers are still beyond the horizon of the Red Army but we are sure their advancing territory lines did not go unnoticed.

The paratrooper unit that landed in Poznan earlier did move around in the meanwhile and hence may not be ready to fly out yet. We hope we come in time to trap the unit.

[Chocolino]

July 16th, 1943

An interesting move - but unfortunately an utterly unsuccessful one for the Axis.

The Sovjets again break through our lines south of Timisoara (where they amassed their tanks a turn before). But we get the chance for a good counterattack on the leading tank. Unfortunately, it only leads to medium losses and the USSR tank corps remains too strong for single unit follow up attacks.

The previously decorated German paratroopers were sent into a last-hurray suicide mission since spotters detected a USSR army visible near Ciuj-Napoca - just 23 hexes from the nearest paratrooper. Flying 20, walking 2 and one attack. But the German intelligence department mislead them just enough to make their sacrifice an utter waste. Enemy ZOC from units not visible so far resulted in the use of more movement points than (mis)calculated.

One more paratrooper landed close to the Romanian oilfields near of which we triangulated other USSR air armies. But again we were not close enough and just spotted the units for the third paratrooper to land nearby. They however suffered huge landing losses and were barely able to wipe out one air army in multiple attacks instead of the expected two. So instead of three we only destroyed one air army for 3 airborne divisions.

Poznan is under siege now.

[gwgardner]

Dang, this is driving me crazy! Push that Italian division forward on the clear hex enough to see if there's any garrison in Baku. The world wants to know!

[there's a gamey way to check - just click on Baku and see if you can do an amphibious assault - will say if the hex is occupied.]

[Chocolino]

Dang, this is driving me crazy! Push that Italian division forward on the clear hex enough to see if there's any garrison in Baku. The world wants to know!

As I said, the Italians can only move one field. So we have to wait one more turn until we know. But I would be very surprised if the Russian command has missed this. With the exception of the mech Inf. no unit will be able to get across the hills anyways.

[there's a gamey way to check - just click on Baku and see if you can do an amphibious assault - will say if the hex is occupied.]

Didn't know, very tricky. Thank you.

[Chocolino]

July 24th, 1943

The airborne division holding Poznan surrenders and all of western Poland is again cleansed from capitalist influences. After the breakthrough, USSR tanks withdraw behind the lines and reorganize. Our paratroopers in Romania are starving and trying to blend into the Romanian countryside - unsuccessfully though.

[Chocolino]

August 1st, 1943

In Romania, we start another round of attrition against the USSR and destroy an Infantry corps. As expected, Baku is occupied.

[James Ward]

The one good thing is that if your allies surrender, when you re-liberate the country Germany can get the PP's. Better to be spending them on lvl 4 German infantry than on lvl 1 Romanians!

[Chocolino]

Good point, agree - unfortunately it will have to be done in another game since even hard core optimists in the German planning section have removed Operation Dracula from their briefing charts by now.

[Chocolino]

August 16th, 1943

In the Caucasus we bypass Baku with an Italian mech. Infantry to explore the coast along the Caspian see (no picture). But we are in danger to be cut off at any time. Romania sees the only fighting this turn when we try to destroy another mech. Infantry unit with our tanks. This time, we were unsuccessful with our 7:1, causing only medium damage. The USSR has transported in a tank corps to Cluj, probably to reinforce the area of our attacks.

[Chocolino]

September 1st, 1943

The war is four years old. During the last year, Sweden and Romania have changed hands. The pace of geographic conquest has slowed down compared to the early years but the battle is much fiercer now. We have slowly but steadily lost ground. We hope this will not accelerate much.

One of our targets in the east is to not let the USSR get Sofia too soon. In the North and West we await the next onslaught of the USA. It will be much stronger this time.

[Chocolino]

September 16th, 1943

All quiet in Europe. The Italian exploration near the Caspian sea will return home proudly claiming to have occupied Sovjet territory at least once during the game.

[gwgardner]

You could always do a siege

[Chocolino]

When I lay siege on Baku it is from one hex only. That gives very low siege odds (probably zero) given the small SP of the unit and the defender bonus. I am also in danger of being cut off of supply once units form Makhachkala pursue. And the rest of the Italians have to stay on their side of the mountain and cannot get involved.

Next time I try this, I will use a different unit mix with highly mobile units only.

[Chocolino]

October 1st, 1943

All attention is on Sofia. We bring in more units for the defense and want to avoid loosing it without putting up a stiff fight. Since quite some time we consider to replace the Romanian garrison of Sofia with a German unit but always abstain. The risk of leaving it open even for one turn is too large with possibility of USSR paratroopers looming all the time. Do they have any? If yes they will be in range.

The Italians withdraw slowly form the Caucasian USSR (not shown). The Italian commander is now worried if the advanced mech. unit has still the action points to reenter the hills southbound since they are now even further from their Turkish supply. Now they are down to only one hex per turn in flat country. In this game, being able to go somewhere does not mean you can also get back the same way.

[Chocolino]

October 16th, 1943

A quiet move, the US Air Force has disappeared again. False alarm or a transfer somewhere else?

[Chocolino]

November 1st, 1943

Holding on to Sofia and slowly backing out of the Caucasus. One unit needed rescuing via strategic transfer.

[Chocolino]

December 1st, 1943

In the east we are in an iron grip of the Red army and cannot move but neither can they much. We are holding. Starting 1944, this will be all we can hope for in any case. In the West or North we await the next American move. This can tip the balance.

[Chocolino]

January 1st, 1944

One year ago we harbored still some hope to be able to wear the Russian out sufficiently to mount some limited attacks and possibly some land gains in Romania. This did not materialize. In 1944 this plans would be even more unrealistic and we enter a pure defensive mode. We continue our diversionary operations in the Caucasus but we are fishing in murky waters. Realistically, there are no gains to be made.

[Chocolino]

February 1st, 1944

We are happy with the status quo in Europe and will not make it too easy for the Allied command to crumble our defenses by launching any unnecessary attacks. Still playing catch-me in the Caucasian mountains.