Tourney game amadeus (Axis) vs Mika (Allies)

[LLv34Mika]

October 1940

Yugoslavia, Tunisia and Algeria are occupied. German forces seem to take control of entire Europe and North Africa. It doesn't look good looking at the map. But Stalin is aware of the German danger (already at 51%!!!) and the British are ready to defend Cairo at all costs.

Weather is changing to more rain and storms around UK. Nevertheless the Royal Navy was able to sink another heavy cruiser. It was risky... the British submarines were scouting for prey and some heavy ships were ready to sink the German destroyers that tried to hunt the submarines. But Grossadmiral Raeder did not wait for me to strike first and sent his ships. The Kriegsmarine made contact with a British carrier and started its attacks. The ship got away luckily and heavily damaged (Str 3). The counter attack was the end of one German heavy cruiser.

Another German U-Boat was sunk in the central north Atlantic while additional destroyers are arriving in UK after the destroyers-for-bases-treaty was signed. Seven German ships/subs sunk with not a single loss for the Royal Navy so far. That means the danger for merchants is decreasing more and more. And since the tide turns more and more for the Royal Navy (an US Marine later) I am pretty confident that there won't be too many investments in more ships from the Germans.

Finland has a 40% pro Axis leaning again. Must have been a massive diplomatic effort. MPPs that would have been invested in units or new technology otherwise so I count that as success for my side.

I expect attacks on Malta now to provide more supply as soon as Rommel arrives with his forces.

[KorutZelva]

What's the unit/diplo/tech spendings are looking per country so far?

[LLv34Mika]

Italians march east... could be a mistake. Italian tank almost destroyed. Retreat of italian forces expected. if not... well, even better.

Unit spendings UK 3348 (forgot to take a screenshot for Germany)
Tech spendings UK/USSR/GER/ITA = 875/1725/1700/525

Diplo UK 350, GER 250, ITA 150

Never invested so much in research at this time before. At least not with the Russians. I still think attacking Yugoslavia so early was a big mistake. Stalin is collecting ~180 MPPs/turn. October 1940!!!

[Amadeus]

Many mistakes I made...

[LLv34Mika]

The tank you see on the screenshot was down to 1 and did NOT retreat. As expected the Italian tank was destroyed. Same decision again: retreat with the Italians or risk losing another army or two.

Unfortunately Amadeus was able to destroy one Corps but at least it was "just" a French Corps that joined the British after the surrender.

German spendings so far:
units 6964, losses 5882 and collected income 8641.

Still waiting for the attack on Malta since my little Island keeps reducing the supply in NA. The other thing I expect is a DOW on Greece. Probably to make Turkey happy?

[KorutZelva]

ORIGINAL: LLv34Mika

Italians march east... could be a mistake. Italian tank almost destroyed. Retreat of italian forces expected. if not... well, even better.

Unit spendings UK 3348 (forgot to take a screenshot for Germany)
Tech spendings UK/USSR/GER/ITA = 875/1725/1700/525

Diplo UK 350, GER 250, ITA 150

Never invested so much in research at this time before. At least not with the Russians. I still think attacking Yugoslavia so early was a big mistake. Stalin is collecting ~180 MPPs/turn. October 1940!!!

I was wondering if it was a mistake and it was the USA numbers. [X(]

[LLv34Mika]

January 1941


British bombers reducing supply in North Africa. The bombers encountered German interceptors for the first time. I guess that means the German Afrika Korps has arrived. Now it will get tough!

Another Italian army was destroyed (at supply 4) very close to Tobruk. Still wondering if the Germans will rush towards Tobruk (risking running into a trap) to help or if the Italians will retreat. I do not intend to take any risk... there is not much to win. With the DAK around the risk of getting crushed by German forces is too high. I can only deal with the Italians OR Germans. Not with both.

So I'm very very curious what Amadeus will do. Give up Tobruk to save the Italians or try to hold the fortress but risk losing another two armies and probably the HQ too. Not an easy decision.


Everything else is really quiet. There is one more U-Boat raiding the convoy lines. I can deal with that one a bit later. An the USSR switched from R&D to production.

[LLv34Mika]

Barbarossa has started and both sides lost their tanks and some infantry in Africa.

[Amadeus]

Awesome war report from Mika. He plays better than me but the last few turns were some fun.

[LLv34Mika]

I made some stupid moves in North Africa leading to the loss of some of my infantry. The only good thing is that the Germans/Italians suffered a few losses too and the remaining troops are around 60% strength. I have to retreat and reorganize my troops and keep the supply routes for Mr. Rommel as long as possible. I think I can only win if I keep the supply low to reduce the firepower.

That are the bad news. The good news: another sub near Canada sunk, the last (?) one located at the very northern end of the map. It is horrible to attack there. I have to click around 20 times before the game recognizes it as attack. I hoped the sub would dive south but it did not.

The eastern front is also looking good so far. The early MPPs show more and more how important it is to keep russian mobilization low. I have plenty of research going on. Infantry and AA is at level 1 and I hope to have both at 2 before winter. Russia collects ~700MPPs/turn what is pretty good considering that it is only summer 1941.

So even with the North African Theatre crumbling I am very confident that the Russians and USA will be a pain for the man in the high castle sooner than expected.

Thanx for the compliment... I have to admit that I like it myself

[LLv34Mika]

September 1941

USA join the allies / coup in Iraq / Leningrad captured / Germans move towards oil fields


The German advance in North Africa swept away all concerns about keeping the USA out of the war any longer. The mighty ally shifts its industry to military production and full mobilization. With the good diplomatic relations to Saudi Arabia additional oil imports increase the economic power of the USA.


Iraq has couped and joined the Axis. At least Axis powers are still far away from overrunning Egypt and helping out. The British will do everything necessary to force the new leaders to surrender and will set up a base to reconquer north Africa from there.

Even tough another German U-Boat was sunk in the icy waters north of Norway the Soviets are still struggling. Leningrad was captured and German tanks are rushing for the oil fields in the south. It is a risky plan! That operation will take much time. And that is the only thing that the Axis do not have at the moment. The opposite is the truth. Nights are getting longer and the winter will come very soon. After that winter thousands of tanks and hundred thousands of soldiers will be ready to join the Great Patriotic War.

My guess is that Egypt will fall but the Germans won't be able to hold it long enough to capture Moscow and Stalingrad too. That will take at least 8 months more. 8 months in which the USA will pump out new planes, tanks, corps and armies every turn. The pressure will increase more and more and finally it will be too much for Germany and Italy. But maybe I'm wrong and Franco can help out with his troops to achieve a deceisive victory.

[LLv34Mika]

15. October 1941

The German advance is slowing down. The front has thinned out, soviet troops are popping out everywhere on the battlefield. Even tough the German war machine still has a big advantage and superior tanks and infantry weapons the morale and readiness are dropping due to lower and lower supply every month.

The USSR recently signed a truce with Japan and the arrival from experienced troops from Sibiria should finally make the difference.

In North Africa it is getting tougher and tougher to hold the position. The Germans will break through in the next weeks. The surrender of Egypt is inevitable as it seems. At least the allied forces were able to delay Rommel as much as possible.

The biggest problem of the Axis might be the increasing economic power of the combined allied war industry. More than 1600MPPs were produced!

[Taxman66]

How is your USSR making so much base MPP (729), or did it just kick up? I'm only a couple of turns behind you (Sept 9) and making just a little more than half that much (399 MPP).

[Amadeus]

ORIGINAL: Taxman66

How is your USSR making so much base MPP (729), or did it just kick up? I'm only a couple of turns behind you (Sept 9) and making just a little more than half that much (399 MPP).

Yeah, that is really high. A good part of Russia is lost to Axis. That is a lack of information I always be aware of. I think my end is near. But there will a short hard fight coming soon

[room]

Probably mainly due to differencde level in prod thec

[Taxman66]

I tried investing in that early once as the USSR and got smoked for it.

[LLv34Mika]

Since it ist just a question of maths I can also post it here.

Amadeus knows what he conquered and how many cities/mines/etc are left. I even think there is a report about it. That way you know that it can not work without industrial tech. And yes... I made some early progress with it. And as you know the early attack on Yugoslavia was a big mistake. USSR mobilization was going up like a rocket. I already invested a second industrial chit before when Amadeus declared war on Yugoslavia.

That was the moment when I knew that I have plenty of MPPs to spend. I was on level 1 and had 1 chit invested. I invested a second one to speed up progress. At the moment the USSR are on industrial tech level 4 and the last chit is invested too.

It was a bit risky I think because I knew he would try to rush deep into USSR territory as fast as possible. And he did! But I was able to slow him down here and there. At least enough to hold Moscow (ok, there was no attack at all) and Stalingrad.

He was clearly going for the southern route so Moscow was not contested so far and Stalingrad seems to be a secondary target. I still think he is going for the oil fields. His biggest problems seems to be to catch up with the slower HQs. Here and there I find his units with a supply of 5 or even below. That's low enough for a huge loss of morale. That allows me to hold positions a bit longer.

And now fall/winter is coming. Production is at 150% and plenty of units are in the pipeline and will be deployed in the next months. The sibirian troops will arrive soon and with all these units together it will be VERY tough for him to take Moscow AND Stalingrad AND turn west again to capture London.

I guess I have good cards but he still might have the one or other surprise for me. If he can manage to get these two cities and capture London before my economic war machine starts running the game is over and nobody will ask how the game would have ended if we would have kept playing.

[Taxman66]

Ok, got it. A case of allowing too much pre-war mobilization. My Soviets were stuck at 16% until the start of 1941.

I wish there was a bit more normalizing of Soviet pre-war MPP (if not actual mobilization value). Otherwise it feels like an aggressive Axis makes the USSR too strong, and a passive Axis makes the USSR too weak.

[LLv34Mika]

well... there was just that one mistake.
He told me it has advantages but so far I haven't seen any. If he would have waited for March/April 41 to attack Yugoslavia my mobilization would have been at a normal level. That way I got hundreds of MPPs to spend at a very early stage. Too early!

Attacking Yug in March/April 41 and then start an early Barbarossa (May/June) might be an option. That way you might be able to capture Leningrad + Moscow or Stalingrad in the first year of war in the east. Sugar did that more or less and there was not much for me to do about it. Sugar killed a unit and moved in a tank that was adjacent to 4 units iirc. Just one of these four units was able to do ONE point of damage. Pretty useless vs an elite tank (Str 11, level 3 or 4). Next turn that beast killed a unit with just two shots. It was like duck shooting... I lost 5, 6 or more units every turn. The other choice was retreating but at some point that's just giving up.

[Taxman66]

Korut did that to me in my first pbem game. Level 3 tanks at the start of Barbarossa.