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August 28 1942

In Moscow victory cannons and fireworks create a cacophony of noise as Stalin decelares victory in this summers Rostov campaign. The Germans retreat from Rostov and start to withdraw from the bridgehead in I think it is called the Kuban area not sure though.

There were some German attacks capturing Kursk and Kharkov but summer campaign is coming to an end.

Must say I am happy with the outcome. The Soviets have been fighting alone against almost the whole German army while receiving almost no lendlease 40 per turn up to June then 0. Army size never below 2150. Manpower fine at 86%. Only lost 1 mech unit this whole war so have 17. Only need to build maybe 3 more and build back the airforce and the Soviets should be ready to go. Meanwhile I managed to shatter a fair amount of German units and the German army size right now is at 1460. Not small but not very scary either.

And the summer of 43 the allies have to start to earn their bread by doing something probably either Spain or France.

The BoA still goes on there are 12 subs out to sea. The UK still spends all the resources to build mms and canada just build escorts. At least the USA can build something but this is far from over. Especially what has changed from before is that you can no longer sink any sub units. Before you could if you were lucky get a escort hit and then follow up with a CV hit. This is no longer possible so it is easier to withdraw subs that get damaged.

Looking at my losses 360 merchants 40 mm it looks insane. But maybe this is what is needed to hold the allies back a bit so actually I think the game might be working fine now. Maybe it has been a bit harsh on the British but again if you take Gibraltar you should get something for it. The feeling is awful though as the British but maybe that is as it should be [:)].

Oh and BTW I retook Rostov with 6AA isnt the AA supposed to be destroyed?

September 11 1942

Stalin is very happy with the improvement of the mechanized units from 7 to 9 op so he orders an offensive to relieve his namesake city of Stalino (if not Stalingrad Stalino will do [:)]). Offensive success and Stalino liberated and overrunning a Ground attack air unit. Reckon spots two more airfields ungarriosned and the order is given to overrun them. Feels good but looking at the map there is a gnawing feeling that there has been a bit of an overreach. Was this an airfield too far?

September 25 1942

The gamble succeded as the Germans chooses to retreat. So on the last turn of clear weather Soviet forces reach the Dnepr River and eliminate 2 german inf corps as well.

On the central front the Germans try to attack around Kursk and Tula but both are narrow penetrations and are easily cut off leading to one mech corps and one inf corps surrendering and another mech corps still surrounded with bad weather next turn.

As can be seen this was a very good turn with 5 German corps shattered or surrendered.

On the northern front therre have been some German attacks but with no mech units backup not that much progress have been made.

Finally the first stratbombing of the war Stuttgart was chosen. I built a strat bomber with electronics and had it on the Azores but it didnt really do all that much so now retrained as stratbomber. As can be seen not much AA in Germany as of right now.

Looking at forces can note Germany under 1400 and Soviet almost going under 2000. UK Merchants and escorts kind of recovering also only 40 days to 1943 escort tech. Late but better then never.

US army growing at decent speed. UK built for the first time in over 2 years a unit. A ground attack bomber. Crazy never seen anything like it before.

In Africa a great allied victory as I barely and after losing like 45 strength points managed to eliminate the German Arm corps in Port Said so the Suez is open again. Also a fighter was overrun. So the Axis have stopped me from doing anything
in the Med this summer and I gave up Cyprus so that is now German. The cost though 1 arm corps 1 mech corps 2 inf corps 1 fighter and fair amount of landing ships.

Now the Med is open again but I realise that invading Italy and possibly be invaded at port Said again might be annoying. So I think I keep garrisoning Egypt but aim to take the fight to Spain or France. But that might change I have a winter to think about it.

And finally casualties as good campaign weather comes to an end for 1942.

If I just divide Soviet/German losses I get about 1,8 Soviet losses for each German. In my game vs BattlevonWar the ratio was 2.2:1 not sure if that says anything but it shouldnt be bad [:)].

November 20 1942

Move forward not much happening on land.

I did invade Vigo in Spain it was momentarily empty.

On the Seas though I am getting annoyed. Look at that result because there are now two convoys one to UK and one to USSR there is a double attack. 19 mm and 6 escorts, the turn before lost 13 mm and 2 escorts that is 640 production in 2 turns the subs lost a fair amount especially last turn thats why 2 groups are heading home but total losses like 11-12 sub points. So on average 1 point per sub. Repair cost something like 120 pps or so. Never have a sub unit died whereas each escort takes 7 months to replace. Well as I wrote above maybe this is fine but we are entering 1943 there is no miraculous event that will turn this. US building up kind of OK. UK in complete stasis just building merchants. If the Soviets hadnt done so well this game would be so over. Anyway rant off [:)] we obviously need more games to see if it is reasonable or not. But I feel there might be a slight problem with sub units not dying.

I have now terminated USA-USSR no lend lease for now.

December 4 1942

I am also giving up on Egypt. As soon as I advance there is a invasion or in this case a paradrop. Lots of units are being thrown away like this but it is annoying [:)]. I am again vulnerable for an invasion. If I get out of this alive I am done with trying to get to Tobruk.

And situation in Spain. I might get the 9 port in NW Spain that would be nice.

MM
Could you please show a full shot of Italy. Wanna see what the garrison is like.

Its coming but it is farily empty as is France which I will go for in the Summer. But with air control of central Med it is not so easy just to sail out there. Also with Gibraltar gone if you invade Italy and there is another invasion in Port Said the troops in Italy would soon starve to death. But maybe I should have tried instead of these bad attempts to get Tobruk [:)]

ORIGINAL: MagicMissile

November 20 1942

Move forward not much happening on land.

I did invade Vigo in Spain it was momentarily empty.

On the Seas though I am getting annoyed. Look at that result because there are now two convoys one to UK and one to USSR there is a double attack. 19 mm and 6 escorts, the turn before lost 13 mm and 2 escorts that is 640 production in 2 turns the subs lost a fair amount especially last turn thats why 2 groups are heading home but total losses like 11-12 sub points. So on average 1 point per sub. Repair cost something like 120 pps or so. Never have a sub unit died whereas each escort takes 7 months to replace. Well as I wrote above maybe this is fine but we are entering 1943 there is no miraculous event that will turn this. US building up kind of OK. UK in complete stasis just building merchants. If the Soviets hadnt done so well this game would be so over. Anyway rant off [:)] we obviously need more games to see if it is reasonable or not. But I feel there might be a slight problem with sub units not dying.

I have now terminated USA-USSR no lend lease for now.

Based on what I am seeing here it would appear that the BOA has been broken. U-Boats are inflicting way more production point losses than they are suffering.

Yes maybe I am still not sure but it kind of looks like it. Have to try it out a bit more. Expect a fair amount of subs in our game [:)].

My opponent calculated the production cost and the conclusion was 5200 allied pp for 2100 axis pp up to october 42.

January 1 1943

1942 ends here is the situation on the eastern front. The Germans have retreated a bit even given up Dnepropetrovsk and some hexes on the west side of the Dnepr river.

Plan for the summer I have build some mobile units and some air. I hope to just amass like 15 mech units somewhere with lots of open ground and see if I can get some kind of breakthrough.

In egypt thinks calm down. My 4 pt corps survived so in the end the Axis lost 1 arm corps 1 para corps and one italian inf corps the UK lost one mech and 1 inf corps. So in theory a economic win but unfortunately the UK dont build any units so they just got weaker.

There will be no more attempt on Tobruk. A spy in Rome said the axis have more landing craft then they have troops [:)].

For whatever it is worth, I think all this naval business he is doing has hurt him in the eastern front. He's throw away thousands of points keeping you stalled in Egypt. I mean, great, but the Red Army is all set to win this war for you, so who cares. He's been riveted on the West and Med this entire game and it is showing. The Western Allies might not get very far but Stalin can march all the way to Berlin at this rate and close it out.

Too early to conclude the BoA is broken, imo the Western Allies didn't do it right in this game. Admittedly, losing Gibraltar made this way harder on them, because you need that port to really cover the south Atlantic.

That is the plan [:)]