1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45

[christian brown]

This is a great AAR, congrats to both of you!

[Uncle_Joe]

I agree with Christian. Good job guys. Its interesting to see the game develop from the Scandinavian front!

[GKar]

I'm following this one closely as well. [:)]

[Timmeh]

[;)] ty for the support.

As summer rolls in the strange sound heard ripping through the air in Germany has the population buzzing with questions. Again, German fighter pilots see surprised spitfires forced to ditch as they try to defend the RN. Additional AA is moved to the coast and teched to 8 attack, I would also like to take advantage of the 10 attack rating my arty has and think about building almost nothing but AA and Arty in the future. I move an additional arty into denmark aswell and think the west coast is safe for now...

[Timmeh]

I can't help but be optimistic with this result, with current planes deployed I think the Allies may need to send 3 - 1 in to gain superiority on me. At least it gives the Wallies something else to waste supply on.

[Timmeh]

I check the Russians and see they still sit at 18 production, I also notice Stalingrad has been repaired and missions are promptly ordered. on top of taking it out again rail is also damaged in Gorki.


In a desparate move 2 panzer units are dipatched east to try and hold a buffer zone for the upcoming alternate universe version of the "siege at lenningrad".





I feel confidant Lenningrad is in no danger for a season or two and my major concern is of course getting cut off and split up. I tempt fate with Japan on the Russian coast and only match his forces there and risk being overrun but any distraction from an organized assault by both the Russians and Wallies needs to taken.

[Timmeh]

In the Pacific scratch that,.... In the Indian

With no ships spotted in the Pacific, Japan continues to harrass the growing Wallied presence in Java. Once again, the transports have found their way back, this time bringing american fighters [:-]. Unable to afford to send more than a few ships the long way around into the Indian to avoid the op-fire in Java, I curse the double arty there a few times...



The light fleet takes out a transport ( 28 remaining) and the bomber is sent and takes out another (even after 2 suppression) The sub survives and the CAG's are re-spotted.

[Timmeh]

Fighters are moved in so we can continue air ops from our bases in Siam.




To close out my summer 43 turn I readjust Japan's 6 CAG's and several other navel assets and wait to see what happens in Russia.

[Forwarn45]

Carrier air takes out a Japanese raider in the Indian Ocean.

[Forwarn45]

And we finally have a decent airforce that is not all fighters. Our heavy bombers are now 7 attack and 6 evasion. On a side note, Tim is right about those pesky German jets. I attacked with 3 Russian fighters against 1 German fighter in Rumania - only damaging the German plane for the price of one damaged Russian plane in return!

[Forwarn45]

That last turn I had to content myself with minor air raids. IIRC, I hit the rail in Baltic States, Eastern Poland, Romania, and damaged rail in Vladivostok. The Russians were disappointed in that both German tanks survived unscathed after we pushed them back. When the US gets going with 5x production in '44, I think we'll see more substantial progress. I'll probably have to content myself with making some small steps forward in '43, but who knows? [;)]

EDIT: I just took another look at the manual during my game with the AI and I see the US will go to 5x production in '44 (and the Soviets to 4x). I will have a lot of ground to take in a relatively short time given the victory conditions (which I also reviewed), so I'll need it! On the plus side, I can't say for certain, but it looks like the Axis highwater mark will stay below 67 so that could mean a one-turn shift in the Allies favor.

[Timmeh]

As 43 comes to a close for the axis they achieve minor successes in their attempts to divert Allied supply and manpower. The fall starts with what seems like the obligitory air battles in the north sea, unfortunatly for the germans having to fly farther to engage ( notice suppression [:-]) skews the expected results a little and although a heavy fleet is damaged we lose 3 to 1 fighters...




In training since early in the war, Italian sabatours finally get an opportunity to shine. Using advanced German transport, squads of highly trained demolitions experts wreck havoc on Scotish facilities left with only civilian defenders.

[Timmeh]

With Scotland burning the axis unleash phase two of their interdiction plans to slow the northern jugernaught. With one of the two subs deployed in the summer going north to destroy convoys, the second takes out transports off Gibralter. Two more subs are refitted in Italy to join these new menaces next turn as they just went to 4 evasion this turn. If anything, CAG and I hope heavy air will be diverted to counter this new threat and I trust it to be frustrating for Forwarn45 as any unit he can bring has a maximum of 2 ASW.



This also allows a few units some liberty in the west and AA and Armor are sent to the front.

[Timmeh]

The front, although its starting to look more like the 'sides'. Tanks try and push as far as they can into Russia to create chaos and sofar have been relatively successful, Russia has 60 some supply next turn and has been knocked back to 18 production in spite of Forwarn45's efforts to repair. German Heavy bombers have been able to consistantly cause enough damage to nullify the lend lease to date. Supply could come for the winter but at a high price to the Wallies as they are down to 25 transports now acording to Japanese end turn reports.

Lenningrad remains a rock solid fortress, with similar sized ground forces a retreat is highly unlikely, and Germany's armor superiority is keeping the thoughts of attack from Formwarn45's plans I'm guessing. I also have to spend a small fortune repairing infastructure as it seems Germany was hit almost everywhere last turn. With several new AA deployed now in the east it should be a tougher nut to crack for enemy bombers.

[Timmeh]

Half a world away on the other side of Russia, I assume the large supply burden to attack is holding the Russians back at this point. I don't worry too much about leaving the same oportunity as Russia can't really afford to fight on two fronts and I should be able regroup and hold the factories behind our front lines if we get overrun.

[Timmeh]

The southern sector sees CAG first out to spot and attack shipping, the enemy CAG are spotted and by turns end a light fleet and transports are eliminated from the area. Enemy fighters on cap are driven back but at a high cost 3 damaged to 1 destroyed. China was also kept in check and had its newly repaired manufacturing destroyed again. They hold 10 supply and many militia on the front but 7/7 Japanese inf with arty defending should hold them back.

[Timmeh]

Damage/Kill totals to date:



The one thing that caught my eye was the disparity in arty damage/kill ratios [&:]

[Timmeh]

A final screenshot for fall 43'

Forwarn45 is indeed right, the axis will be hardpressed to eclipse the 67 strat points required to shift the victory conditions. At this point Germany looks to reach winter 46 to obtain favorable conditions to end the war. Anything that causes the war to last longer than that causes us to speculate it will end in our favor. Either way we plan hard and try and muster the resolve for at least two more years of war.

Germany is already falling short of maxing out production, not a good thing when our factories go x4 next turn . I try and uncover Allied production totals but can't be sure of what the Wallies are able to recover, with only 25 transports I can't help but think they will also leave production on the floor due to lack of resources when they boost production next year. Russia will be unable to take advantage of new manufacturing techniques with half its rp's captured or in ruins.

[Forwarn45]

The Red Army pushes another armor spearhead back. This time we actually damage the tanks - 1 in this attack and the other in a followup after it retreated.

[Forwarn45]

Heavy bomber raids over the Ploesti oil fields.