THE LAST KINGDOM: Sillyflower v sveint. SVEINT WELCOME

[sillyflower]

When Mosley is captured, we shall imprison him for life with a TV in his cell playing repeats of the Kardashians 24/7.

[sillyflower]

When we catch him, he will be imprisoned with a TV in his cell playing repeats of the Kardashians 24/7.

[sillyflower]

Recent losses have started to cause some of sveint's troops to doubt his leadership

[sillyflower]

July 19 UK

I retake the hex over the Avon which sveint had retaken, and I liberate Birmingham. This the UK's biggest city after London so I hope it will provide a few recruits as well as its 5 PPs.






No enemy units destroyed but 2 Italian mtn xxxs comprehensively trashed. He's started to pull out from Scotland (only 2 units holding a 3 hex frontage) and the blockade gets stronger as the battleship fleet joins in after refuelling at Scapa Flow last turn. I need to reduce his supplies significantly and to prevent any ground troops from reinforcing him. In the meantime, I get more air and ground reinforcements

Removing my naval forces from the Arctic convoy route hasn't harmed me yet. The only casualty up there was the last German uboat scoring an own goal (ie blowing itself up)

[sillyflower]

Russia

Mixed. Sveint attacked successfully further south with all his armour. At least 1 of my cut-off xxx was able to occupy the retreat path of a Hungarian xxx which surrendered at the first opportunity.





My response was to retake Vitebsk, shattering the defending garrison of an elite german inf xxx. I used mainly inf, so the bulk of the armour was able to continue to rest and refit, whilst moving up nearer to his front line for next turn.........

NB the Russian dispositions in the south changed after this pic was taken.

[Flaviusx]

What is your convoy tech at?

[sillyflower]

'43 I think. I have been keeping it researched. sveint has 3 Italian subs up there but I don't know what tech they are or how many subs they actually represent. They had lost a lot of their strength in earlier battles.

I hope sveint has posted, or someone asks him to his oil reserves level. Not to peek now of course, but for when I eventually get to read his AAR. I like to think my cav xxx did not die in vain..............

[Flaviusx]

Yeah, from 43 on your convoys become radioactive for subs and the escorts can practically do the job all on their own.

[sillyflower]

July 30




Mixed results. Down south, a US tank xxx had shattered, but another took its place in the front line. What seems to be sveint only pz xxx was smashed up but not destroyed. In Scotland Glasgow is cut off by land, with help of a landing by a US xx to the south, and Edinburgh won't be long. I expect long sieges, but supplies to the rest of his forces will be significantly reduced. Each 9 level port can supply 180 points of troops, or 6 full xxx - at least I believe so.

In the arctic the Italian subs sank 1 merchant for the loss of 2 of their own. OK by me.

[sillyflower]

Russia

A much better turn than expected



sveint blinked first and called of his central offence beyond killing 2 isolated armies. In return, in the land bridge, 2 German inf xxx were shattered (1 by a Pacman move along the Dvina was shattered by a single 5 hex attack), and an interceptor unit overrun losing 10 points so it must have been full-strength.I am bound to lose 1 of the tank xxx SE of Vitebsk, but it will be worth it as long as it is only one. I hope to do more Pacmanning (sorry - a horrible non-word) along the river as it does give easy wins against even full strength entrenched xxxs.

[sillyflower]

13 August
sveint seem to be giving up on the UK, which is sensible.



Anglo-American forces destroy 2 german xx down south, and sever Plymouth from the rest. More surprisingly, Edinburgh was evacuated allowing Eisenhower to move his HQ into its fabulous castle, while his troops race south. Macarthur commands the Americans in the south. The reason must be the very limited transport capacity of the Italians, and there are a lot of Italians in the UK.

In the Arctic waters the Italian subs wittily follow the example set by the u boat last turn, as 1 of them self-immolates for no gain. Bismark group sinks 7 merchants which is less entertaining. I will try to remember to sort out a carrier task force next turn as I won't have so many ports to blockade.

UK manpower now up to 7/turn, and Ediburgh should add to that

[sillyflower]

Russia has its moments

THE GOOD



This pz xxx shattered on the 2nd attack after taking 10 losses.

[sillyflower]

THE UGLY

This german AT inf xxx had lost 29 points after 2 attacks before retreating here, so what could be an easier shatter that a 30:1 attack vs a 1 point unit????? Oh well, it was the unit that stopped the 5th pz xxx retreating.......................
#@*^ing Kesselring again [:@]

[sillyflower]

The Nazis are getting weaker

[sillyflower]

As losses grow on both sides

[sillyflower]

27 August

Russian forces failed in their 1 attack. Can't destroy a panzer xxx every turn - at least not in '43, especially with a worn-out air force.

England better, but no-one can call sveint indecisive as he gets his troops out faster than I thought he could. Picture shows the only part of UK not back in British hands





Sveint's evacuation policy is clearly 'Aryans first' - typical Nazi. However his small so-called 'Emergency xxx' that had been adjacent to Liverpool was forced to surrender before it could find any transports to jump on to. An Italian Alpine xxx was forced out of Southampton and is likely to share the same fate.

Otherwise, Axis transport ships were able to sail past the RN's harbour blockades, pick up around 150K+ soldiers with all their kit (Dunkirk was obviously completely bungled and not the miracle that has been claimed) and sail back out past the watching Royal Navy without even the most cursory of Customs searches.

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

In retrospect, calling the AAR The Last Kingdom might have been asking for trouble.

The Last Kingdom was Wessex (essentially SW England) so that is now entirely back under my control. The Vikings (under Guthrum I think) did take the whole of Wessex historically leaving King Alfred and a few followers to hide in some particularly inaccessible marshes. Scapa Flow in my case. I am proud to follow in the footsteps of the man who is regarded as the founder of England, although his vision was only made real by the work of his son and successor Edward, and daughter AEthelflaed (it is spelt like this) who became the Queen of Mercia (north of Wessex), and finalised by his grandson Athelstan who was hailed as the first Rex totius Britanniae: 'King of the whole of Britain'




The only claim that I have to be like Alfred is that I, too, would had got distracted or dozed off (more likely both), allowing the cakes to be burnt. The real Sillyfower (my wife) will attest to this...............

[sillyflower]

10 September

Rain in northern Russia effectively ends the campaigning season

In England, sveint's abandoned allies pay the price for his megalomania




The Alpine xxx in London threw down their arms and marched happpily int prison camps at the 2nd attack. The other Alpine unit took a little longer to die. Only Dover now remains in foreign hands, and I don't expect the Spanish unit to stay there.

The only other notable event was that the Italian subs managed not to blow themselves up when doing a futile attack on anArctic convoy. Strong allied naval forces arrive in the area.

[sillyflower]

Whimsy time

My parent's survived the second Battle of Worthing. 1 of the Italian prisoners taken there was a short and slightly stout rifleman named Mario. To jump ahead in time, after the axis surrender (it is coming) Mario was released and returned to Worthing. He started an ice cream emporium on the other side of the road from the pier. He called it "Mario,s". I had many delicious soft ice cream cones there in the early 60's and I still remember it fondly. This was, of course, in the days of 'proper' ice cream before a brilliant young chemist devised a way of mixing air with soft ice cream to bulk it up: with the inevitable reduction in taste. She went on to be more famous for other things.

Her name was Margaret Thatcher.

[michaelCLARADY]

Ah yes the Iron Lady. She led Great Britain's very last successful foreign war. Showed some spine back in the day when too many on both sides of the Atlantic were cringing in abject terror because of seeing 'Threads' or 'The Day After' on the telly and mistaking a movie script for the real correlation of forces.