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September 15th
More units of the Royal Navy are detected all around the Mediterranean. The carriers are stationed near the Gulf of Sidra well escorted. We think that it is to lure and attract the Luftwaffe bombers to Libya. A second Luftwaffe fighter wing is nevertheless sent to reinforce the area around Benghazi. The British start advancing towards the Libyan border.

October 14th
All the Axis forces are in position for the third step, the invasion of Greece. Now begins a series of turns that I was privileged to contemplate in total admiration and disbelieve. Fafnir in complete control of the situation and fighting in 4 fronts just displayed his great genius!! [&o] [&o]

He attacks Malta with a Calvary corps and all carriers and manages to destroy our defending para unit with the last air attack of the last 4th carrier!! Malta is again in Allied hands.

October 25th
As I did before with crispy131313 we planned for an early invasion of Greece. Unfortunately from now all that could go wrong, went wrong. In our turns we got rain and the Luftwaffe could not attack or defend the area from constant air attacks. In Fafnir turns the air was clear and the carriers had a field day.
All started with a long naval battle in the Ionian Sea, the Regia Marina sinking 2 BBs and 1 BC. But the next turn the Royal Navy obliterated the whole Regia Marina, sinking all 4 BBs, 2 CAs, 2 DDs, 1 CL and the sub. A complete disaster. The Axis air power unable to respond or help in any way.

November 16th
In rainy shitty weather our advance towards Athens continues. Because our paras could not jump the Greek troops stationed near Thessaloniki were able to escape, one corps moving near the Capital and the other moving to Corfu where it then attacks our rear area based tactical bomber! Then the British carriers arrived and destroyed our tactical bomber!! [X(]

December 8th.
Athens is finally reached and a British AA unit defending the Capital is severely damaged. The last Greek troops are defeated.
December 30th
The damaged AA unit is evacuated and replaced by a British Antitank unit last seen in the Egyptian desert! [X(] They attack our panzers in combination with heavy air attacks from several carriers, dealing 4 damage to the elite German Panzerkorps.
Greece finally surrenders next turn Feb 1941 after the heroical defense of the British antitank unit to the last man!

Meanwhile in the hot Libyan desert our forces are holding the Bardia area against repeated Allied attacks. The Allies have artillery, tanks and air superiority… The issue is not in doubt, the idea here is to protect the safe arrival of the Afrikakorps…

By December 19th the Allies have isolated the last remaining German Infantry inside the Tobruk Fortress and destroyed the Italian HQ plus the garrison. But they have accomplished successfully their delaying mission, as the Afrikakorps arrives safely next turn in the Msus-Benghazi area…

December 30th is also the date that the Iraqi revolt ends. Without a fight the Iraqi troops surrender! I did not know it but it appears that if the Capital Baghdad is completely surrounded they are force to surrender… [&:]
More bad news are coming as the Italian troops defending Nicosia in Cyprus are finally destroyed.

February 10th 1941
A blitzkrieg offensive is launched in heavy snowy weather against Belgium from the French border, the country being unable to resist, surrenders immediately. In the Norwegian theater of operations a German attempt to retake one of the ports fails and the Kriegsmarine losses 2 BCs but claims 1 CA and 2 CLs in retaliation.

February 10th 1941
This is our current turn. As I wait for more pain in Fafnir’s next move I will take some time the review the current situation as this new year of 1941 starts.
The Regia Marina has ceased to exist. The Kriegsmarine is hurt but still retains some assets, the U-Boots being now level 3. The British lost 5 land units (not counting the Greeks) and the Royal Navy 6 units. But the big looser is the Luftwaffe, with 3 whole wings lost so far, that will be very difficult to replace.

Keeping the mobilization of the USSR and the USA as low as possible for the whole year of 1940 was a priority, ending the year at 18% and 28% respectively.
I will now take a look at the War economics. The German economy collected 8198 MPPs, lost 5018 MPPs, spent 6321 in units (77%), 2400 MPPs in research (29%) and 600 MPPs in Diplomacy.
The British Empire economy collected 6544 MPPs, lost 6456 MPPs (including minors), spent 1150 MPPs in research (17%) and 3723 MPPs (56%)in units. They got 3366 MPPs through convoys losing 359 MPPs to U-boots (10%).

The USA spent 1775 MPPs in research so far, and the USSR 1100 MPPs out of the 1296 MPPs collected.

It is obvious that the German economy was hard hit during this first months of War. The future invasion of the USSR is already seriously affected by the amount of damage taken by the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe in particular. The fact that we were not able to count with the income of Denmark, Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands also diminished in a significant way the amount of received MMPs. We are struggling to build a decent invasion Army for future conquests… [8|]

The DAK arrives December 30th and is reinforced next turn February 10th but not before the Australians coming from Cyprus disembark and occupies Benghazi destroying the Afrika Fighter wing stationed in the city with the help of the carriers.

In March Benghazi is recaptured (the Australians are destroyed) but fortress Tobruk falls in British hands, lowering the Italian morale to about 75%. April 15th Rommel counterattacks with the DAK near Gazala destroying a second enemy Infantry Corps…

The Allied response is immediate and brutal. The DAK Panzercorps is destroyed South of Gazala, hammered by carrier attacks and finished by the British tank corps. Rommel launches a counterattack that nearly destroys the British tank unit leaving it at 2 strenght.
Then both Axis Infantry corps are destroyed while defending Msus, leaving the DAK with no infantry units. The retreat towards Tripoli is a bloody affair, Rommel HQ is destroyed out of supply near El Agheila followed by the antitank unit further West… By July 1941 the pitiful remnants of the DAK are retreating towards Tripoli, a battered force out of supply.
The performance of the British carriers was outstanding, being able turn after turn to inflict serious damage to all kinds of units. Their complete control of the Mediterranean Sea is total.
The Axis Strategy in the Mediterranean was a complete failure. It was based on safeguarding the arrival of the DAK at Benghazi. I would have preferred not sending the DAK to North Afrika as previously suggested by other players in the discussion forums…

The only good piece of news in this period was that Sweden joined the Axis May 1941. After a successful diplomatic campaign we got 3 hits of 16%+6%+22% in about 11 months. The British not countering.

June 20th 1941
Operation Barbarossa is about to begin. We were planning for an early July attack but as we felt that the Soviet forward positions were thinly manned we launched the invasion 1 turn in advance late June. This meant that many troops were not in position, as many troops were still in Greece, and that others were still unprepared and not upgraded...
As a preliminary Yugoslavia was invaded by the Hungarians and surrendered in 2 turns April-May. Lithuania was occupaied also in May and used as a forward advance attack position.

This Barbarossa was the weakest attack that I ever launched due to previous losses. We will sorely miss the presence of 1 tactical and 1 medium bomber wings and both para units (one destroyed in Malta and the other still in Greece). Only one HQ will command both Army Group North and Center. Of the 4 Panzekorps only two have been upgraded. And of the 3 bomber wings only 1 was upgraded… The Germans never getting enough MMPs...

June 20th 1941
Army group South is divided in two groups. A smaller one, attacking from the Polish border towards Lwow and a bigger one attacking from Rumania. The first group had one Panzergrenadier unit and a Panzerkorps, but this tank unit was out of position being based in Krakow. In the south the Rumanians will assist the German thrust towards the Dnepr. The Luftwaffe in the area is a strong force with 3 bomber units and 2 fighter wings and are assisted by some Italian planes.
The main goal is to destroy the Soviet forces appearing near Lwow.

So June 20th Germany declares war against Latvia and the Russians are immediately fully mobilized. Then a bug happened in the game: the country Latvia was 100% activated but the Germans could not enter the country as it appeared as neutral in the main board!! I was astonished at first, but then after switching back and forth from the Diplomacy screen to the main board game screen several times I finally managed to enter and invade the country. But then I was not able to declare war against the USSR! Merde! [:@] I think that it was a bug, as I only managed to declare war with Italy. As a result the Finish did not enter the war and remained neutral for a while!! [:@] And the Soviet units did not get the malus moral modifier…
I should have first declared war to the USSR and THEN to Latvia. Anyway the war did start, Latvia was conquered and Daugavpils fell without a fight. Coming from Greece a second General accompanied by an elite Panzerkorps and Army are immediately rail operated to this city. The main Soviet forces around Grodno are destroyed or isolated.

Meanwhile in the South most of the Soviet forces around Lwow were destroyed, but 2 Soviet Infantry corps survived and escaped next turn by rail to the interior of the vast country through Minsk. The Rumanians enter the Ukraine and approach Uman and Odessa. The Hungarians start to arrive to the town of Kishinev fully upgraded from Yugoslavia to support the advance. A fallschirmjäger unit arrives as well to this town and immediately prepares to jump next turn.
It was a pity that those Infantry corps escaped the encirclement as we were not able to seal the bag North of Lwow…

July 8th Army Group South
The advance into Ukraine continues. The city of Lwow and the towns of Zhitomir and Nikolayev fall without a fight. Uman and Proskurov are surrounded to fall next turn. Few Soviets are to be seen, we think that the main bulk are stationed deep inside the country, defending the Dnepr river line.

July 8th Army Group Center/North
The strategic towns of Ostrov and Polotsk are reached and fall in our hands. The Luftwaffe is upgraded and now 4 bomber wings are available to continue the advance East.