Solitaire game starting late '42

[EUBanana]

Incidentally this hex... stopped Germany from losing supply in the south.

[EUBanana]

Huh. Or it didn't, as the partisan in Odessa moving to it makes no odds.

Think we found something else I don't understand.

Partisan stays in Odessa and some Katyusha rejiggles elsewhere to cover more front.

[EUBanana]

The US does a mass debark into the UK. 30 factors of US ground troops in the UK right now.

The CW debarks Alexander into northern Italy. The two Allied bridgeheads there seem pretty decent now but they also seem quite bogged down at least so far, they'll need some naval support or something to blow the Italians off their mountains.

Despite Japanese attempts to supply the notional unit at least Eniwetok looks very capturable by the US fleet in the Marshalls, so lets see how that goes. It'll let them project LBA properly into the Japanese defensive zone if they bag it - and bomb Kwajalein maybe. The LBA in question is already loaded on a TRN in the Marshalls (a P38 - the US is very short of NAVs).

The US goes all in as I'm very bad at judging amphibious operations as we've seen... Including, probably somewhat unnecessrily and riskily, US CV air.

The Zeroes at Kwajalein try and do something about that, and ther's a counterbombardment from BB Kongo in the Marianas too.

The Americans abort the air after this happens, figuring they dont need to risk their CV air in this way.

[EUBanana]

End result is the Japanese seem to do a fairly credible defence of Eniwetok without actually committing that much at all, those odds are not exactly great after all while committing very little. But the Americans roll well so it doesn't matter.

Seems like making sure the notionals are supplied is a good start at stopping it from being candy from baby stuff at least.

Unfortunately immediate counterinvasion is not possible.

[EUBanana]

And the turn ends. That's bad for the Axis who had more to do, but also a bit annoying for the US who had more air stuff to do.

Even more partisans, Communist Chinese ones in Peking, fortunately no more in Russia at least which makes Germany happy.

Stay at Sea was a complete disaster from the US/CW, leaving Italy out of supply [>:][:(], and due to the turn ending quite quick some transports being out fo position (still loaded, had to go port at their destination). The Med is a mess as the US fleet sand CW ones start spliting up properly to avoid that malus. Happens to the Germans too, who now have some ships docked in Norway carrying troops.

Can't think of anything particularly daring or unusual bar the US sub hunting in the China Sea goes to Eniwetok, quite far forward, and a TRN carryign that P38 goes to Eniwetok too.

The numbers in production now are getting quite big.

Germany has 33
GARR x2
MOT
MNT
ARM
FTR-3
2 x Pilot
Offensive

Italy has 12
2 x Pilot
1 SUB
1 NAV-3
2 naval repair

Japan
3 x Pilot
2 NAV-2
2 GARR

China has 7
LND-3, its a decent lend lease one
MOT

Commonwealth has 35
PARA (its 1st Airborne again, yay)
Armour HQ (Monty)
2 naval construction (all TRN)
2 convoy
3 x Pilot
2 x CVA-1
FTR-2
LND-3
2 convoys


US has 46
2 CA
2 BB
4 Pilot
1 MAR
2 FTR-3
2 PARA
2 ATR

USSR has 33
6 INF
1 ARM
4 Pilot
2 FTR-2
1 LND-2
1 MIL

[EUBanana]

March/April 43, Impulse #1, Allies have the initiative.

US / CW both take naval actions, the rest take land.

US sends fighters to the 3 box of the Solomons and Catalinas to the 4 box of the Marshalls, going to do a lil raid there to bag the convoy point.

CW sends a Mosquito to the 2 box of Italian Sea, where the TRN to supply Italy is going to be.

Usual CW boring stuff, spreading across the various convoys in the Atlantic... They also deploy to the Bay of Bengal with a transport so if Japan wants to cut supply to Malaya (still standing...), they won't be able to do it on the cheap. Not to mention the defensive shore bonbardment.

[EUBanana]

They also deploy an invasion force to the Eastern Med to attempt Libya again.

And shore up their convoy situation, the US has been exporting to the CW which shortened CW supply lines at the extent of costing the US production (this is what I meant by 'maybe the US is being too kind' earlier). So this turn US exports to the CW diminished by 1, and sure enough they had a gap in their routes, which they filled by a convoy. Now running out big time. I hope US convoy points cooperate with them, I assume they do, plenty are passing through Panama about now.

BBs and a CV go to Bay of Biscay to keep the Bismarck in port again, on a nice weather month Is uspect the carrier will be enough given the way this game plays.

[EUBanana]

Usual crisscross of American TRNs across the Atlantic... couple of strat bombers and a MTN-div go for the Med this time but the bulk is still headed for the UK. The American fleet in the Med all deploys, to the Western Med mostly, but its' mainly to get Admiral King out of Malta and remove that -1 bickering penalty on speed. [:D]


The US has quite a lot of fighters in the Pacific as I prioritised those, so several P38s, but only has 2 NAVs - a Hudson and a Catalina. So we need some bite. So we go back to the West Coast and load up a Dauntless, hopefully over 1943 we'll see a lot more US NAVs.

Kinda want to keep up the pressure so four old BBs go to the Coral Sea, a SUB goes to the Bismarck Sea, a SUB goes to the 1 box of Sea of Japan... two CLs and two CAs dare the Solomons to try and get the convoy point there, the IJN does have a cruiser force defendnig it. They are in the 3 box covered by fighters. The main carrier force and fast battleships stay at Hawaii though.

Aircraft are scrambled by Japan but the US cruisers in the Solomons roll well and are in a higher box.

[EUBanana]

Crunch the Solomons is cleared of IJN by a cruiser action... maybe the Japanese shoulda put a Val into the 0 box but they were going to use it for the sub in the Bismarck Sea. And the US was somewhat lucky.

Helena/Phoenix are aborted, Astoria/Portland remain on station.

[EUBanana]

The US sub in the China sea finds the enemy, but so does the defendnig Emily in the 4 box so end result is the sub aborts back to Midway.

Much the same happens in the Bismarck Sea, where the IJN rolls well. Another SUB aborts back to Midway.

The American submarine arm isn't doing that well, at least compared to the surface raiders...

[EUBanana]

The Chinese night bomb Shanghai again with a strategic bomber, a Nick is nearby to intercept. Nothing is shot down but a 6 means the bomber doesn't do any damage either.

Then onto ground attacks. Quite a few actually, the Russians are not short of artillery so four ART bombard German/Finnish lines, and a US tactical bomber bombs Rome.

[EUBanana]

Not a whole lot of luck...

[EUBanana]

.... Really not a whole lot of luck.

[EUBanana]

But the Americans do a lot better at Rome...

... A hope? A chance.

[EUBanana]

The Russians jiggle with their front line in a fairly minor way.

So do the Communist Chinese, it's looking like another Operation Human Wave might happen fairly soon. The Japanese always seem to be on the edge in China no matter how well they do, WiF truly gets the quagmire feeling right...

However an ill judged attack b ythe Chinese (didnt realise there was no divisons to soak up losses!) means Japan is probably going to be pretty safe this summer in the Paoting region. They might even be able to clear out that partisan.

The only consolation for the Chinese is they'l'l be back pretty soon.

It's 31C here and my brain is cooking. I'll put it down to that.

[EUBanana]

Seems to be more than a bit touch and go around Moscow so a Shturmovik and a decent fighter are based nearby for defence.

[Courtenay]

About the supply: A HQ tracing back to a secondary source can move off railroad for a few hexes. (In the snow, three). Going from Chisinau to one hex to the NW only uses up one MP for supply. Any German HQ within two hexes of a rail line would be in supply, and could supply other units.

[EUBanana]

Great. Well, I wrote out a fairly big post but the browser crashed.

Bottom line is, Germany does a land, Italy a combined, Japan a naval.

Italy sends its fleet + bombers to Italian Coast but nothing happens.

Japan had grand plans involving clearing the Bay of Bengal of CW battleships but a lack of oil means half their fleet in Canton is laid up, so there goes that plan. I'd have to send out CVs on their own which seems kinda risky.

So they instead mess around with the Americans. They send some BBs out to fight those cruisers in the Solomons with plenty of air support. SUBs far and wide to find American convoys, whcih are not nearly as protected as they should be as it turns out (Japanese subs are fast and have a long range, the Kriegsmarine envies).

The SUB that attacks the US fleet in the Marshalls is found by Catalinas and narrowly escapes destruction, aborting back to Truk.

The faster subs hit the Hawaiian Islands sea zone where there are no defending cruisers. The US sends up two bombers, but the subs roll very well.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

About the supply: A HQ tracing back to a secondary source can move off railroad for a few hexes. (In the snow, three). Going from Chisinau to one hex to the NW only uses up one MP for supply. Any German HQ within two hexes of a rail line would be in supply, and could supply other units.

Aha.

See, the AAR is very useful, playing with yourself you just don't know this stuff.

[EUBanana]

Just as well 'arm merchantmen' happened or that would've been quite bad. As it is the SUBs dont want to abort so have to spend a lot of points on avoiding damage. Still, lots of American convoys are roughed up.