WiF - The Second Half

[EUBanana]

Eastern Front at the beginning of Jul/Aug 1942, Allied #6.

At the southern end by the Black Sea the Russians are being rolled up at Stalino, as they were forced to move a fair bit of their force to the north to contain that bridgehead over the Dnieper. It is contained, just about, but maybe the price was too high.

In the north, Smolensk just fell, and the Germans are across in force, but have quite a lot of disorganised units at this point. On the other hand the Russians have been thinned out quite a lot too and Moscow is close. If it turns out to be a long turn, the Germans could still make a lot of progress here I think.

Pskov, well that was a disaster. Hitler bitches at his generals and asks why they even attacked? Should've just left it masked, and sent as much east as possible. That MOT stack by Pskov will do just that. Yeremenko in the Pripet Marshes is tying up an undue amount of force as well.

[EUBanana]

Jul/Aug 1942, Allied #6

Russia wants the turn to end, badly. but if all pass its only 20%. Not worth that risk.

US takes a combined, CW a combined, China passes, Russia land. China and the US are running low on things to do at this point, the CW has some port striking planned.

The CW carriers send the lot against La Spezia. There's a lucky roll on the AA fire though, 9 points, the Gladiator is shot down and the bombers lose 4 factors. The CW ends up sinking a TRS as the high point. Italy no longer has any sealift at all.

All the carrier using nations seem super low on carrier air no matter how many pilots and carrier air I try and build! Them getting shot down all the time doesn't help at all...

[AllenK]

Yep, in my game they seemed to fall out of the sky given the slightest opportunity. [8|]

[EUBanana]

Jul/Aug 42 Axis #7

All Axis powers take a land.
Italy adjusts a bit, not much else.
Germany examines the Eastern Front. There is an opportunity to be had at Smolensk, and a +8 to take out Yeremenko which is worth it... aside from that it's advance to contact stuff.

It's a 10. The Soviets lose a division, the Germans achieve a breakthrough, which they exploit.

[EUBanana]

In the East looks like there has been serious overextension by the ChiComs. An exposed Mao gets taken out by the reinforcements Japan has been dropping on the coast over the course of the turn. Mao's HQ support had a cost after all...

This will give Japan much needed breathing room.

[EUBanana]

Jul/Aug 1942 Axis #9

... Turn doesn't end on a 9. Weather is still fine where it matters.

Looking like the Axis have an opportunity here alright.

Some movement, 4 attacks this round... Two by Smolensk, one by Kharkov, one more in the Far East as Japan's offensive continues.

[EUBanana]

The Germans are moderately successful wherever they attacked. At Smolensk they smash through the Russians but half the attackers are disorganised, which means any additional turns will be a bit weaker. In the south progress is better still, a breakthrough without any sort of loss. Kharkov and Stalino are now in dire danger. Germany would love another impulse.

In the Far East Japan bounces off the Chinese. Both sides lose out (The Japanese a MIL, the Chinese after deliberation an ART) but the disorganised attackers mean that theatre is now done for the turn.

[EUBanana]

Jul/Aug 42 End of turn

The turn doesn't end when the Axis are done.

The Allies all pass. 60% chance. The turn ends! The Russians, who suffered a lot of shattered units, are relieved.

Lots of destroyed stuff. The Russians come off worse than the Germans but the Germans suffered as well. In terms of attrition it looks like even though the USA quit the field they definitely hurt the Japanese. There are 2 damaged US cruisers and 3 damaged Japanese cruisers on top so yes, the US really did win that one though it didn't feel like a win at the time.

[EUBanana]

That's not good...



Also, 65 BPs for the USA this turn. Jeeeeeeez. The Axis better hurry up!

[EUBanana]

The production screen shows that the Soviet/German balance of power has tipped pretty hard in the Soviet favour when new stuff arriving is considered...

So, builds this turn

Germany
1 SYNTH (bit late I know. [:(])
FTR-3
2 x LND-2
2 x MECH
1 MECH DIV
2 INF
1 Pilot

Italy
1 pilot
2 carrier air
1 GARR
1 INF

Japan
1 Pilot
2 carrier air 0
1 carrier air 1
Inf-HQ
2 INF
1 battleship
1 sub construction

China
1 INF-HQ (need Mao back!)
1 INF

Commonwealth (Lack of sealift was annoying me...)
4 TRS
2 AMPH
2 INF
LND-4
Pilot
FTR-3

USA
4 naval construction (all TRS)
4 ship repair
1 SUB
4 carrier air 1
2 LND-2
1 LND-4
5 pilots
3 INF
Antitank-4
Cavalry div

USSR
3 INF
1 INF-HQ
2 MECH DIV
1 ART-4
2 FTR-2
1 pilot
1 LND-2

[EUBanana]

Sep/Oct 42 Axis #1.

Rain on the Eastern Front, though China is fine.

Italy combined, Germany land, Japan naval.

Japan shifts some units around, sends submarines to the Coral Sea. I'm still not quite sure how you are supposed to advance with navies, island hopping style, surely soon as the opposition gain initiative your supply lines get cut.

Japanese submarines attack the Coral Sea. Here I get a hint as to how you advance with the navy. Allied naval bombers get to scramble to meet the threat. An Aussie Beaufort goes in the 2 box to get kills, and a Devastator goes in the 0 box. Turns out to be irrelevant, nobody finds anybody.

In the Med, Italian naval bombers fan out to cover the Eastern Med and Coast of Italy. Italian cruisers raid the Western Med, the CW really needs some sort of naval bomber presence here too. Nobody finds anybody again though.

Kharkov is in fine weather unlike the northern end of the front, so the Germans are going to try their main effort there. Much of the Luftwaffe is out of fuel though... erk. A single Stuka hits Kharkov, but gets a solid hit.

Dora shells Odessa too, which is this game's Leningrad - surrounded but by low value units and so unassailable for now. Everything there gets disorged.

[EUBanana]

The rain means no odds better than a +4 in the north, so the Germans decline to attack. They can get 7.5 against Kharkov. Not amazing but they go for it.

The Soviets see an opportunity to try and derail the Germans big time, so they try ground support. An Il-4 and a Mig-1 meet a Bf109F-3 over Kharkov. The 109 is shot down (pilot survives), but so is the Il-4 (pilot does not survive) so the Luftwaffe figure that'll do.

The Germans roll a 14, and Kharkov falls, though half the attackers are disrupted.

[EUBanana]

Sep/Oct 42, Allied #2.

US/CW naval, China/USSR land.


CW first.
All the CW transports are in the Far East... sigh. Not needed there atm, they start headed west. The Med is dangerous though so the liners go past South Africa, they can do that and get home in a single turn. A TRS at Bombay heads to Suez though...

CW plans are to really clamp down on Italy by bringing more aircraft to the Med, but that isn't happening while the TRS are all miles away. An American TRS is in Wales atm, that will help.

All the German navy is disorged bar a few cruisers. Renown/Repulse/Prince of Wales + cruisers all go to the 4 box of Bay of Biscay, that's all that is really needed as a precaution I think. In the Western Med 2 CV, 2 BB and some cruisers go to the 3 box and a couple of old BB and cruisers go to the 0 box, to counter the Italian cruiser force (The Italians plan on aborting asap!). The fleet in Malta moves to the Italian coast, mostly to make sure it doesn't get caught out supply wise.

In the Eastern med a CW TRS leaves Suez with some cruiser escort, braving the Sparviero. The Italians promptly surprise it, bomb it, sink it, and abort the escorts. [8|]
(I've not got this far in the war before, but I consider this an instructive lesson on the use of air power to control sea zones...).

In the Far East the NED navy moves to Timor, where there is a Japanese convoy point for some reason, and two subs go to the South China Sea.


Then the US.

4 SUBs at Singapore head to the South China Sea. A small fleet with a TRS and a MAR in the TRS goes to the Coral Sea, no combat with the Japanese subs there. Then an AMPH which was at Luganville with a supply battles through the Coral Sea and drops its cargo there with Nimitz, making me feel a lot safer about basing stuff there.

Yorktown and Saratoga arrive at San Francisco as they need to replenish carrier air. The fleet at Rabaul stay put, they got 90 naval factors and a couple of CVs (the Japanese are no better off with CVs now) but they can only make it to the 1 box off Truk, doesn't seem an auspicious place to be. SoDak and Massachusetts go all the way from the West Coast to the Coral Sea, as part of fixing that problem...

Fair bit of transport from the east coast to the UK. 2 PAR and 2 MOT in the Faeroes sea space, plus whatever's landed already, the Jolly Green Giant is waking up for sure. An AMPH ventures into the North Sea, planning on rebasing on the south coast of the UK (Plymouth is full of ground units, no room for Yankee landing troops).

And then the naval combat.

The Allied submarines in the South China Sea surprise their targets...

[EUBanana]

A submarine combat is forced upon the Japanese. The Netherlands sub is damaged and aborted, 2 more US subs are aborted, but 3 out of 5 convoy points are sunk and the remaining 2 are aborted. A bad day for Japan I think for minimal Allied cost... And then, noob disaster! I move the NED submarine to Singapore first. Unfortunately then the US subs can't go to Singapore as they don't cooperate with NED, and so they end up in out of supply Kuching. Great. [:(]

No other naval combat happens this turn (Coulda happened in the Italian coast, Coral Sea and Bismarck Sea zones, the latter is just a solitary Catalina in the 4 box).

[EUBanana]

Sep/Oct 1942 Allied #2

Not much in the way of ground strikes, the Nationalist Chinese unleash their lendleased airforce on the Japanese. A Nate comes up to challenge the P40... the bomber is cleared through and the nate breaks off.

The Boston doesn't do all that well though, against a 3 stack its achievement is to disorg the armoured division there.

[EUBanana]

And then I'm looking at the Russians and shaking my head. They look in a state of almost complete collapse to me. They dont have enough units to hold a proper front line so the front is veeeeery thin, especially in the south. Kursk and Stalino are strong points, as is a forest by a curve in the Donetsk river. A couple of units caught out of supply by the rain are about to be swallowed up in the German mass. The north is looking faintly better in terms of unit density but still seems to be a deeply flawed position.




Lexington, Saratoga and Yorktown all get 4 point carrier air loaded onto them in San Francisco at the end of the turn. A CW Sunderland flies to Gibraltar. Ike gives the CW a hand and reorgs a Commonwealth TRS in Plymouth.



And the next impulse is... fine weather across the globe. Russia starts panicking...

[composer99]

It's been quite some time since I read the early pages of the AAR, but as I recall, the USSR defended pretty far forward at the outbreak of war, correct?

Even in 1942, defending up front is probably not a good plan.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: composer99

It's been quite some time since I read the early pages of the AAR, but as I recall, the USSR defended pretty far forward at the outbreak of war, correct?

Even in 1942, defending up front is probably not a good plan.

The first real line of resistance was around Pskov and Vitebsk in the north, and more or less level with the Dniester in the south. Then the Russians fell back to the Dnieper and around Smolensk. Now it looks like everything is shaky again, so in the north the Russians are going to try and stack up in the forests around Moscow and the forests around Bryansk,and in the south probably along the Don around Voronezh and the foresty bits on the far side of the Donets.

The whole 'fighting retreat' thing is pretty hard as you leave a bunch of disorged units behind all the time.

The German oil situation is pretty bad though, for starters they gave a lot of oil to the Italians to keep their fleet going, have been fairly busy with their submarines, and seconds Ploesti has been relentless bombed with lucky rolls. The Luftwaffe was only half reorganised this turn as a result. So maybe the Russians can cling with a fingernail until the weather turns bad, but we'll see, this turn looks to be a long one.

[Orm]

USSR looks in a decent position to me. As long as the Western Allies provide support by lending resources and build points to USSR they should be fairly strong for next summer. Just remember to continue to rail factories so that they can continue with production even if they lose some territory.

CW and USA should be prepared to do an invasion in Europe once the spring arrives to draw forces away from the Russian front.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Orm

USSR looks in a decent position to me. As long as the Western Allies provide support by lending resources and build points to USSR they should be fairly strong for next summer. Just remember to continue to rail factories so that they can continue with production even if they lose some territory.

CW and USA should be prepared to do an invasion in Europe once the spring arrives to draw forces away from the Russian front.

Three hexes from Moscow and the USSR unable to hold a continuous line... it's late in the year though, bad weather will give the Russians a chance to rebuild. But... if it turns out to be a mild winter the Germans will be able to press on a fair bit more. They still have an O-chit if a particularly firm line needs to be broken, too.

I'm not lending any build points to the USSR atm actually, perhaps the Allies should do so. As the U-boats are currently out of fuel there may be enough spare convoy points kicking around to do it. And yeah, the CW/USA are trying to get into a fit state to open a second front against Germany ASAP, which is desperately needed. I think by summer 43 they should be in a position to put a fairly large force somewhere on continental Europe.