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At the end of this turn the Allies offered to resign. I accepted. Robert has been a most able, reliable and gracious opponent. As he always is.

He was behind the 8 ball all along in this game due my incredible good luck with the weather in late 1939. Three turns of Cold (as good as clear) weather, and two in a row gave me a great launching pad in to France. He was never able to recover in France from those early gains. As a result France fell very early and cheaply.

So then the snowball started. I was able to use all of 1940 to roll through the Balkans, Turkey and the Middle East. This gave me access to huge amounts of fuel. Which in turn allowed me to enter Russia with a massive mechanized army with no worries about lack of fuel.

Also Robert did not catch on the the weakness Germany has to Strategic Bombing in the early game. This also helped me. He began his bombing campaign to late. I think he played very well considering the early luck I had. Which just snowballed from there.

So then the snowball started. I was able to use all of 1940 to roll through the Balkans, Turkey and the Middle East. This gave me access to huge amounts of fuel. Which in turn allowed me to enter Russia with a massive mechanized army with no worries about lack of fuel.

The change to patch .03 has made a massive difference, any game started before then gave Axis the chance to roll through Turkey and grab the oil. Life is a lot more difficult for the guys in grey and black now.

I think early fall of France did not make big difference. The easy grab of Turkey and oil however helped a lot. There was no oil issue for Germany as Michael admitted so this resulted in unstoppable Panzer ball. I think sinking RM and part of KM solved partially Axis oil issues too.

Sorry - missed initially that this is game is completed.

I think it was played very enterprisingly and very daring by both players. And your game helped me to understand the amphibious invasion mechanic much better. Thank you for publishing it.

ORIGINAL: 821Bobo

I think early fall of France did not make big difference. The easy grab of Turkey and oil however helped a lot. There was no oil issue for Germany as Michael admitted so this resulted in unstoppable Panzer ball. I think sinking RM and part of KM solved partially Axis oil issues too.

This, but also letting the Italians get into Egypt and the Middle East via amphibious assault.

You have to guard your ports against this sort of thing. Yes, I am a broken record on this. Far too many games are being determined by successful amphibious assaults that should never have worked against a proper defense.

There are things I would have done differently in Russia, too. A linear defense by the border with rifle corps doesn't work, even against a more ordinary German army not turbocharged by ME oil. You have to defend in depth and use rifle corps as speed bumps.

The entire defense of the Soviet Union imo comes down to this: buying 4 turns for your rifle armies to show up in numbers. The Soviet should bank a bunch of production prior to Barbarossa and dump them into rifle armies on the first turn of Barbarossa and really just keep building those for a while, with just enough production left in the bank to tech up the reserve rifle armies as they arrive. (Those come in at 39 assault.)

With luck and planning the German will run into a wall of rifle armies just short of Leningrad and Moscow and Kharkov and Rostov. The German will be on a logistical shoestring at this point. In the meantime, you have to run with your mech and HQs and air and not let them get surrounded or overrun.

You have to guard your ports against this sort of thing. Yes, I am a broken record on this. Far too many games are being determined by successful amphibious assaults that should never have worked against a proper defense.

In the release version were missing minefields and more ports needed to be guarded but yes I should have had figured it out.

There are things I would have done differently in Russia, too. A linear defense by the border with rifle corps doesn't work, even against a more ordinary German army not turbocharged by ME oil. You have to defend in depth and use rifle corps as speed bumps.

The entire defense of the Soviet Union imo comes down to this: buying 4 turns for your rifle armies to show up in numbers. The Soviet should bank a bunch of production prior to Barbarossa and dump them into rifle armies on the first turn of Barbarossa and really just keep building those for a while, with just enough production left in the bank to tech up the reserve rifle armies as they arrive. (Those come in at 39 assault.)

With luck and planning the German will run into a wall of rifle armies just short of Leningrad and Moscow and Kharkov and Rostov. The German will be on a logistical shoestring at this point. In the meantime, you have to run with your mech and HQs and air and not let them get surrounded or overrun.

I took historical approach with expectation of historical result, e.g. sacrificing the border armies to buy time but
- the losses were far more bigger than reinforcements
- I did save production and bought armies on Barbarossa T1, it was still not enough
- before Barbarossa I bought just some Airborne and Mountain units, have better stats than corps
- needed to guard Caucasus, that was at least 15 counters, but Axis needed too so probably not a game changer
- Rifle corps is joke, 20 experience, the weakest unit on map, worse than Italians, seriously!? On first 2 turns I lost most of them, they all shattered after 1-2 attacks

- needed to guard Caucasus, that was at least 15 counters, but Axis needed too so probably not a game changer

I think this was a big one actually. As I only committed a parity of forces to that front. Which allowed a much better ratio for me on the main front.

As for invasions I have made points in other threads about this. It's just too easy to invade just about anywhere willy nilly. No level of pre planning is required. It's a dumb rule to be honest and should be fixed. But I don't see it changing any time soon.