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August 1st, 1944

Encouraged by the recent Western Allies advances in Europe, Greece can be persuaded to join the Western Allies. This was a long standing diplomatic struggle and Germany prevented it so far successfully with their own diplomatic activities. Similar to Portugal, Greece will allow us to land troops and open up a new front in Europe without the need for expensive amphibious landings.

August 16th, 1944

After controlling southern Germany, we press now hard to get into the north as well. The units coming out of Greece have still easy going in the Balkans but the Wehrmacht has now a good attack position to take Stalingrad. We doubt they will linger there much longer.

September 1st, 1944

Stalingrad falls on the fifth anniversary of the war. This is a huge achievement for the Axis leadership, much more so than Moscow, and it really deserves our respect and congratulations (albeit grudgingly). Despite this significant loss, we get the feeling that we are gaining the upper hand overall. The long battle of Stalingrad had its price paid in German cities. The situation in northern Germany looks grave for the Axis even though the Italian defenses are still holding strong.

September 16th, 1944

Northern Germany under direct threat by US forces, Italy holds and German drive in Russia weakens.

October 1st, 1944

The Western Allies can keep the bulk of the German units in the West inside the Hanover pocket. The Soviet union is stabilizing slowly and we still don't have the units to tackle Italy seriously.

October 16th, 1944

Germany is at the brink of a complete collapse and the Russians benefit from this development. Italy is still well dug in.

November 1st, 1944

We need to take four more cities until we can force a complete surrender of Germany. Unfortunately one of them requires an amphibious or airborne operation (Copenhagen). Even the Russians get slowly the upper hand.

December 1st, 1944

We are getting ready to tackle fortress Berlin. After that Danzig and Copenhagen remain as German owned VPs.(The VPs in Russia are only controlled by Germany and not owned since the USSR has not yet fallen).

January 1st, 1945

After heavy fighting, Berlin is under Western Allied control and the German Reich is now governed from Copenhagen. The remaining German forces in Russia are out of major supply and weak. The remnants of the Wehrmacht in the West cluster around Stettin, but destroying them is not necessary any more. Our next target is Copenhagen and then Italy.

February 1st, 1945

Preparing to take out the last German-owned VP in Copenhagen and transfer units to Italy.

February 16th, 1945

Our landing force for Denmark is underway. We hope that there are no surprises such as some remaining Axis naval units popping up from nowhere to intercept. Amphibious operations are always hazardous. But if we fail we just have to try again since we are not prepared for airborne operations and buying new units now will mean we cannot use them for about 5 turns including placement, transfer to Europe and the obligatory 3-turn wait after movement. We are happy though the the British make a first step in opening up the Italian deadlock near Venice. US tanks will be also on the scene shortly.

March 1st, 1945

Copenhagen, the last German outpost, falls after amphibious landing and heavy bombing.

After the fall of Germany the remaining Axis powers Italy and Persia have sued for peace and we have offered them honorable terms.

This concludes this AAR and I want to thank my opponent Etienne Gaudreau for the second great game of RtV. If anything I have enjoyed this second installment more than the first since it was a more mobile game without too long periods of static front line. Even though the Western Allies will win the VP count, the most memorable moment of the game for me was the fall of Stalingrad, something that was new to this game so far at this setting and has not been achieved by the Axis players before. I draw my hat.

A very enjoyable game to watch. Thanks for all your effort in this AAR.

I suspect Gary will give you some more practice in defending the Soviet Union!

Chuck

Chuck,

I certainly need the practice....

But I also wanted to thank you once more for detecting the Tallin convoy problem earlier during this game that almost prevented us from continuing. I would have never been able to find or detect it in the game files.