Global War AAR in Pictures

[AlbertN]

Germany looks pretty behind on schedule to me in this situation.

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: Cohen

Germany looks pretty behind on schedule to me in this situation.

Yes they are but I think you'll see that this will be mitigated some by a major mistake made by the French player. As you shall see he must have been [>:] at the wheel. [X(]

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Axis #4. Japan. Strategic Bombing. Sian, China.

Japan takes a land and use 1 of their 2 air mission for strategic bombing, which reduces China production by 1 PP.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Axis #4. Japan. Ground Strike. China.

Japan uses their second air mission for a ground strike against Chiang hanging out in the mountains. The strike is ineffective.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Axis #4. Japan. Northern China.

Japan just can't get good odds against the communist. It's too early in the turn to make a low odds attack. Japan still has maneuvering left that can boost their odds, which they'll try to do later this turn.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Axis #4. Italy. East Med. Egypt.

Italy takes a naval and use that to move both troops and more ships into the Eastern Med. The troops are headed for the Italian held part of Egypt and the ships to keep supply and possibly gain control of the East Med.

Italians try to initiate naval combat but neither side was able to find the other.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Axis #4. Italy. Cape St. Vincent.

Italian subs try to initiate combat against CW convoys in Cape St. Vincent. However, the lone RN cruiser on patrol there is able to avoid combat.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Axis #4. Italy. Italian Coast.

Off the Italian coast, the Italian RM does find and make short work of the lone RN CA on patrol there. The RN sub chooses to stay but declines to commit, thus ending combat there.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Axis #4. Germany. France. Ground Strike.

Germany takes a land and uses 2 of their 4 air mission to ground strike a French stack that contains the only French armor corps and situated in the hex directly east of Paris. The strike succeeds in disorganizing the armor corps. Note that Georges was already disorganized.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Axis #4. Germany. France. Land Combat.

Germany makes three land combat attacks. One is an assault, which is on Lille and is automatic, and two are Blitz attacks. Germany rolls well for both Blitz attacks, which achieve breakthroughs. It was the first breakthrough against hex [55,30] in which the mind boggling military blunder the French had made was exposed.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Axis #4. Germany. The Western Front. Paris, France.

And the mind boggling military blunder made by the French was that Paris did not contain any land units. It was occupied only by three air units, which were quickly overrun by German armor exploiting the breakthrough. What a monumental blunder ...

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Axis #4. Germany. The Western Front. Air Reorg.

A German armor division is reorged by air.

[rkr1958]

Question: As the German player I plan to declare Vichy. Should Germany cease all combat operations against the French?

[AlbertN]

Technically yes though as the turn could not end that soon and you could want to get hands on the Brits, you could have to get Frenchmen out of the way to try to grab the Brits before they evacuate. (Depends on how the W.Allies move really).

In general though - you telegraph your opponent (Yourself pratically) your want to Vichy France if you stop all the operations against them. Sometimes it could be curious to see what France does if they smell a no-Vichy.
At this stage you could easily try to go for Spain and simply besiege Lyon for the time being (If France has units shattered or coming next turn make a race for the spanish border cities); passing on Vichy for 1 turn and see IF France surrenders themselves (Which halves the chits from US - but has other pros / cons).

[Centuur]

Germany should refrain from making high risk attacks. But to stop operations against the French and the British shouldn't happen. One doesn't know how long the turn will last and a conquered France is always better IMHO as compared to a Vichy France. Also, there are resources which might get captured, one might be able to force the French BB's out of France if the turn lasts long enough (thus getting a higher chance of conquering Free France). Sure, conquering France itself is a long shot, but who knows? Perhaps the turn lasts for a long, long time and you suddenly get a shot at Lyons (which should end up being the last French controlled factory hex with the way things are now on the map). I would send fast units towards Toulouse, Marseilles and Nantes. Take Vichy and see what you can do about Rouen (which should become the stronghold of the BEF with Gort sitting safely in the hex east of that city. If you can get a reasonable attack, do so. If not, be content by grabbing the resources and prepare to attack next turn...

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Allied #5. Weather.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Allied #5. France.

The CW take a naval and France takes a land. The CW decides to pull the BEF out of France. The required RN transports were spread from Gibraltar to Liverpool to Portsmouth. The CW decided to put the BEF under heavy escort in sea box 0 of the North Sea. I had contemplated keeping the BEF in France and moving them to a hard to reach port to harass the Germans but in the end decided that the 14 BPs that they represented could better be put to use in North Africa.

The French do what they can, which isn't much.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Allied #5. CW Naval. The Western Med.

The RN successfully finds and surprises the Italians.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Allied #5. CW Naval. The Western Med. Round 1.

Round 1 clearly goes to the RN, which saw the RN carrier planes down the Italian naval air unit in addition to forcing an RM battleship and heavy cruiser to abort.

[rkr1958]

Turn 6. Jul/Aug 1940. Allied #5. CW Naval. The Western Med. Round 2.

The naval combat continues for a second round, which again sees the RN finding and surprising the Italians. Like the first round, the second round is a resounding victory for the RN. What was left of the Italians in the Western Med withdraw (i.e., abort) after this round.