Fall Grau 2.28 Jeremy (Axis) vs. Ben (Allies)

[golden delicious]

Turn 84
Oh, come on! Early turn ending really messes me up. It somehow feels as if Ben suffers less early turn ending then me though it may be that only the most dramatic versions are noticeable. [Edit: I remain somewhat perplexed by this. Ben complains about early turn ending significantly less then me in the AAR - this despite the fact that the Allies, with a 70% force proficiency rating are far more prone to early turn ending compared to the Axis with a 90% force proficiency rating]

I put this down to expectations. If I get three rounds, that's normally a good turn; more is exceptional and I try to avoid exposing myself on my second round of attacks in case its the last. For the Axis, three rounds is normally not a good turn.

The real disaster comes in the Northeast where I face something similar to what I pulled off against Ben in this area earlier. Ben cut me off but I should have had not to much trouble getting out except the turn ends before my attacks come up and now my cut off units have been pretty much left out to dry.

[...]

One element I am really not sure about is what Ben is doing in terms of his reserves. I see forces withdrawing from New England and the Carolina’s and stuff seems to be headed west but it is unclear what Ben is doing. My best guess is he plans to attack the flank of the forces in the Northeast. Basically really extend the fighting back toward the east. I have husbanded together some precious reserves if that is the move but it would leave me in a pretty dire situation.

I think both of these references to the northeast you mean the northwest?

While we're at it all your recent references to fighting in Missouri, you meant Minnesota. I'm not in Missouri.

[golden delicious]

Turn 84:
No major outrages from the Axis this turn. I start off in the northeast to see if I need to divert anything from my Drang Nach Ottawa to defence. The situation at New York is fairly serious as Jeremy knocked aside my best armoured divisions to get another hex forward, so I'm organising a powerful counterattack here. I'll need this to be a slow back-and-forth as with Hartford or Jeremy is in New York City by turn 90. However I have a lot of troops here and two more armoured divisions assemble in this area this turn, so I don't divert anything from the new offensive; I set up a total of three powerful attacks, two at the source of the St. Lawrence and the third at a weak spot near Lake Champlain, which is really just a target of opportunity for units which don't currently fit in the line and are too far back for the first wave. Because of the need of secrecy here, I do use up about half the turn just getting into positions, so I may not get much time to exploit, we'll see.

California is more of the same. I'll need to keep topping up here and another armoured division is slated for this front next turn, plus a National Guard division I'm drawing off from Arizona now that the danger is ebbing away there.

The northwest is complicated, as Jeremy does his best to pull out of the traps I sprung last turn, and his force is still very dangerous. I should be able to massacre the Italians but the Germans will probably put up a serious resistance.

In the southwest, the German drive towards Charlotte continues. I attempt to drive the panzers against the Santee River, but this is incomplete and Jeremy has significant troops here to keep pushing.

A big turn. The Japanese finally break along the coast, leading to Mexican troops pouring around the Japanese flank here, leaving a big force trapped against the major escarpment here, where three divisions are then destroyed with nowhere to run. In Utah, I trap two Italian divisions, destroying one, and put the rest of the force out of supply, while pinching off the tip of the German salient over the border in Wyoming, destroying a panzergrenadier division through overstacking before herding the rest into a single hex which is then hammered, destroying three HQs, a tiger brigade and about a division of infantry.

The main event, though, remains the St. Lawrence offensive. Four German brigades on the line are annihilated and my troops enter Ottawa- and keep going. Montreal is only three hexes more so this is my next objective, but I have to be wary of the five first class German infantry divisions sat outside Toronto. There's not enough time left in the match for it to be worth my while trying to trap and destroy these, but I may be looking to withdraw a couple of my own divisions here since a German offensive on Toronto is now out of the question. I'm able to add three more divisions to this front this turn, as well as added from the static troops on this part of the line.

With all these Axis units being destroyed, Jeremy's loss penalty jumps, and Ottawa gives me a fair boost. This puts my victory level at 324- high enough that even New York leaves Jeremy short of a draw. For my part, I'm suddenly wondering where I could get those last 76 VPs to turn this to "Significant Victory". Montreal and Sault Ste. Marie (against which I banged my head largely ineffectually this turn) would make 40. I could make a dash for Quebec City though that feels like a longshot. Albany is right on the frontline... we'll see. Maybe I can just keep killing 7-8 Axis divisions every turn and that'll do it? May be too much to ask at this stage.

Allied troops breach the Axis line on the northern NY border. Jeremy must be getting deja vu and not in a good way (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 9#p4796899)

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

I put this down to expectations. If I get three rounds, that's normally a good turn; more is exceptional and I try to avoid exposing myself on my second round of attacks in case its the last. For the Axis, three rounds is normally not a good turn.

...

I think both of these references to the northeast you mean the northwest?

While we're at it all your recent references to fighting in Missouri, you meant Minnesota. I'm not in Missouri.

Yeah - come to think of it when I was playing the Allies that was normally (outside of really desperate circumstances) a thing I did with the Allies as well. You expect to have early turn ending so you plan for it and if it comes to pass well that is to bad but usually not a disaster. With the Germans you don't expect it and its bad news when it happens.

Uh - your right - Minnesota it was.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 85
Unfortunately I am very rusty on the exact details of this turn as I did the turn then went on a long vacation and then came back and realized that I had never written the turn up.

That said this turn is the end of all hope turn. Any dream I had of managing a draw is just gone. The truth is I don’t think Ben had to do much to avoid a draw. The Allied replacement rate has finally gotten so high that the Allied loss rate is clearly dropping while the Axis one is, at best, remaining stable. I think this combination probably made it so I would never quite get to a draw because even if I could capture enough 3 vp cities the difference in the loss rate would have put a draw out of reach.

However, this is just a digression. In reality Ben launched a massive attack into the north where Ottawa was vulnerable and as a 20 vp city this is a loss that simply can’t be reversed. Furthermore the whole line in this area is collapsing meaning Montreal and probably Quebec City are also on the chopping block.

Sault Ste. Marie is defended but will probably be cut from supply and taken as well. Other parts of the map are falling apart as well. I believe I had an early turn ending which left the Japanese Vulnerable and Ben managed to get into a position where the something like 3 Japanese Divisions could not retreat and simply evaporated. Now the Japanese are being driven back. I sort of doubt that Ben actually gets anywhere here before the game ends. I can still dig up Japanese reinforcements, but this probably ends any hope that the Japanese can take Los Angeles.

The line in the Norwest continues to rapidly fall apart and I am desperately trying to simply manage some kind of retreat. I lost a bunch of HQs up here and the Axis minors have been practically liquidated. It says something to how huge a blow this turn is in that Ben shifts the loss rate 19 points in his favour this turn. That is the single biggest shift in one turn either of us have had in the entire game.

Axis forces retreat away from Toronto desperate to take the long northern road back around to Quebec City. Meanwhile Axis forces are diverted from New York to race up and start trying to form some kind of defense of Montreal and Quebec City. There are even some reinforcments being culled out of the fighting in the south to sea transport from Charleston to Quebec City.

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[golden delicious]

Turn 85 Part 1:
A huge amount going on here. I'll start with what's new, which this turn is Jeremy finally kicking off his offensive in New Mexico. This is a fairly serious affair with at least six panzergrenadier divisions and various supporting units, split across the three routes across the state. It's hard to see him completing this move and closing in on Los Angeles with the time remaining in the scenario, but for the time being I'm totally outgunned here as I have only five divisions, most of which are in bad condition, and some odd scraps. I'd like to oppose him here as even if he can't get all the way to the Pacific there are 9 on map VPs in this area and right now every VP counts, though actually my VP level is even better now than it was at the end of last turn. First move is that the NG division that pulled back to the rail last turn hurriedly moves back into the pass it was blocking at the start of last turn, though now it won't be on "fortified" status. Next, I drop the good armoured division I released in Oregon in behind Flagstaff, which is the most direct route west for Jeremy. With the situation around Los Angeles vastly improved, I also pull three fairly adequate divisions out of that front, with the two better ones making it four divisions at Flagstaff, enough to make a proper fight of it here.

After the collapse last turn, that still leaves enough strength on the line at Los Angeles for me to press the counterattack. Here, I'm going to attempt to trap or at least damage the southern flank of the Japanese force, which I'm already lapping around to the west, though Jeremy has two more divisions coming up from reserve so this could backfire.

Moving East, Jeremy completely stripped the line outside Toronto, meaning he has three first class German infantry divisions lurking somewhere in Ontario, but I think these are actually fleeing to the north rather than aiming to counterattack my Ottawa offensive in its flank. I release three of my four good divisions from this front, two of them to chase after the German infantry and the third to race to the assistance of my anaemic force targeting Sault Ste. Marie. I also rail a small force to western Ontario (where the rail lines are surprisingly intact) to make a complete ring around the city.

Further east, I trap two more German divisions in their positions on the St. Lawrence, and will need to clear these troops if I'm going to have a serious crack at Montreal- already there's a good panzer division on the line here and there is likely more on the way. Having said that, I'm able to race three infantry divisions around the long west flank of the city and enclose it from north and west, leaving the garrison (a Finnish brigade) trapped against the St. Lawrence supplied by a single bridge. Another two divisions (good thing I brought a lot to this party isn't it?) clear the road most of the way to Malartic and will then swing east toward Quebec, which I expect is also garrisoned.

Scratch forces defend Arizona

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[golden delicious]

Turn 85 Part 2:

To my considerable surprise, Jeremy seems to have called off his push on New York. I suppose this was a longshot, but the distance is so little and the prize so big that I would have thought he would keep trying. I'll take the opportunity of this lull to push my considerable forces in this area forward, as Hartford is not far and I want to keep the German troops here pinned and bleeding. To the north, the Canadians are hammering Albany, but I also find three more good US divisions to move up to join the main offensive.

The situation in the Carolinas remains balanced. Jeremy did a fair amount of damage in this area on his turn and is now at the gates of Charlotte, and I determine I need to reinforce, finding two divisions for the purpose from reconstitutes and static areas, then on reflection adding two more from New York. I give Jeremy enough of a shove back here this turn to keep things from getting out of hand, and then hopefully the reinforcements can stabilise this situation more permanently next turn.

I consider shutting down my operations in the northwest, as this front's significance has faded, but I still have some opportunities to hurt the Axis here. I'm hammering the Italians on the southern flank and these will all be eliminated this turn, with two panzergrenadier divisions arriving too late as a relief force. To the north, with the salient pinched off and the remainder of Jeremy's panzer force safe, I shift my emphasis back into the plain around Rock Springs, which is largely weak. Here I aim for a simple pincer movement to cut off a chunk of the line, destroy it and create a breach. The north flank, where my troops are quite weak, I do shut down, digging in and pulling some light units off to the eastern flank where they can potentially harass Jeremy's rear, or else be withdrawn to another front.

Another excellent turn. Montreal is firmly encircled and almost captured immediately. My counterattack from New York is a roaring success, driving right to the gates of Hartford- though here it's possible my lead divisions could be cut off as the frontage is only two hexes. I create the planned breach in Wyoming, destroying one brigade and cutting the southern flank off from rail supply. On the Pacific, the results aren't decisive but I do hammer the Japanese and kill some of that crucial artillery as well as cutting off one armoured division, though my own troops are in very bad condition too.

I do see that path to "significant victory" opening up. Montreal and Sault Ste. Marie are gimmes at this point and those alone put me on 374. Quebec City, Hartford and Albany are all on the table, and any two of these would put me comfortably over the line of 400 VPs. On top of this, my replacement rate is really starting to hit home, and I think I can count on the loss penalty spread moving in my favour by several points a turn for the rest of the match as my units refill every turn and Jeremy's don't. On the other hand there are the minor cities in the southwest which are very vulnerable, and Jeremy may yet get Charlotte, leaving me with "marginal victory".

The third battle of Charlotte in full swing

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 86
OK this is much more survivable. Ben continues his offencive and Montreal is now cut off. Hard to see how I can hold Sault Ste. Marie either but I am able to cut off and destroy some Allied forces that advanced to far both Against the Japanese and out on the North West Front that make it a little easier to survive out this way. I am also continuing to advance in Central America though am dismayed to learn that even here the damn Finns like to take to many losses.

Also hard fighting and I am able to help defend Albany and drive the Allies back from the gates of Hartford. I continue to flee out of southern Ontario trying to get 6 or so good German Infantry Divisions back to the vicinity of Quebec City but here I have also scraped together some reinforcements coming by ship and also out of the southern part of the line around Albany and Hartford and I can see a defence beginning to coagulate. I think I have a decent chance of stopping Ben before he gets to Quebec City.

I manage to retake Charlotte, but I am desperately short of units in this counter attack. In particular I don’t really see where I am supposed to find units to cover the flank as I push forward.

I manage a tiny, opportunistic attack in the Illinois area where Ben seems to have accidently entrained one of the defending Divisions. I punish that unit but am now no longer Fortified. That is something of a concern as I have stripped the area of almost all reserves outside of a handful of Regiments fortified in a couple of key hexs and I don’t actually want the area going mobile but I don’t really expect it to do so.

The south East is the most exciting part of the front as my powerful Panzer Grenadier Divisions down here try and sweep through the area or fight their way through passes.

Maybe most consoling is that after a turn of hard fighting I manage to zero out the Loss Rating. It did not shift in either of our favour this turn (though losses rose for both of us) which, given that Ben has such a high replacement rate, means I was able to inflict a chunk more damage then I received. My Axis forces may be critically damaged, but they are still fighting.

Tired and burnt out Axis forces manage to finally retake Charlotte

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[golden delicious]

Turn 86 Part 1:
Lots going on. Let's start with the major action in Canada. The arrival of the Free French division from Toronto at Sault Ste. Marie allows me to put the remaining garrison (a division and a half of Swedish troops) out of supply, hopefully to be assaulted and eliminated before turn 90. To my considerable annoyance, the weak Finnish brigade clinging onto Montreal fails to RBC, which will significantly delay the direct drive on Quebec City; I have one US infantry division which pushes ahead and secures the bridge at Trois Rivieres, but beyond that is a full-strength German infantry division. Although I also have two divisions coming the long way around from the west, I see more German troops arriving in this area so a further advance here will have to wait until Montreal is cleared. East of the St. Lawrence are at least five panzer divisions. I have a lot of power here so I'll be trying to push my way through these.

Over the border in New York, Jeremy pushed me back more or less to my start line outside the city, but I'm going to keep pushing as I sense he's operating on a shoestring here and I haven't the time to redeploy this force. I also want to keep him focused here while I work to secure Albany, which is comparatively lightly held and still on the frontline.

Jeremy also pushed back in a big way at Charlotte, and here actually took the city. However I added four more divisions to this front last turn so I'm prepared to shove back again in turn, although this looks like it will need more as the forces I have already on the line are pretty much wrecked, so I'm looking for units I can add here from other fronts; this is three divisions, plus two engineer brigades which reconstituted.

California is good; Jeremy was active here but I consider the threat to Los Angeles completely gone, and so excess troops from here will shift east to Arizona, where the Germans are pressing through the passes. On the direct route via Flagstaff, my powerful armoured force added here last turn goes into action against the (hopefully) unsuspecting Axis, but elsewhere I'm just trying to keep my troops alive while avoiding a headlong retreat.

In the northwest, too, I'm looking to extract troops, but I'm very aware that anything I move to the rail line will spend turn 87 in transit and only have turns 88, 89 and 90 to actually fight, so this has to be worth it- and it's also more than a single turn's rail lift to the Carolinas for most of these units. The other consideration is that the Axis appear to be trying to break off here- which means a full-blooded attack could pay off nicely. I take four divisions that are already on the rail and send them off to Arizona, and two that're in range goes to the Carolinas. Everything else focuses on destroying vulnerable Axis troops, with a particular focus on pinching off the northwestern salient which contains the powerful Grossdeutschland division.

The pursuit across Ontario

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[golden delicious]

Turn 86 Part 2:

Sort of a disappointing turn after all the recent triumphs. I do get Montreal, and retake Charlotte for now, but otherwise I feel like I am butting my head against things. For some reason, taking Montreal consumes the whole turn for the units involved, which precludes any further advance towards Quebec City this turn, and next turn I expect the path to be even more firmly blocked. I do get ahead somewhat toward Hartford again, this time opening up the flank so I'm not so vulnerable to overstacking. Another bright spot is Arizona, where my fresh armour makes its presence felt, routing the lead panzergrenadier division- with this turn's reinforcements I think I have rough parity with the Axis here, but with the wide open front I'll need to be careful if I want to keep both Phoenix and Tucson- El Paso is already lost. The northwest feels like a failure with most of my attacks bouncing off, but when I check the end of turn save I realise I did at least put Grossdeutschland (plus two more German divisions) out of supply, though they may escape via one of my own exposed divisions.

Time for our final six-weekly update on my field strength:
Squads:
Irregular: 1.7 / 1.3
Mounted Rifle: 7.5 / 7.7
Motorcycle: 1.8 / 1.8
Light Rifle: 27.1 / 25.3
Light Rifle AT-: 11.3 / 11.9
Rifle: 19.8 / 18.8
Rifle AT-: 16.0 / 15.1
Heavy Rifle: 5.3 / 5.5
Engineer: 4.4 / 4.2
Total Combat Squads: 94.9k / 91.6k
Another big drop versus turn 80 as the armies grind each other into dust over key VP locations. Because the proportion of static units is lower, this is still considerably higher than the strength I was at when I started tracking this on turn 44, but its clear even my colossal replacement rate isn't enough to keep up the extreme intensity of operations. My main solace is that things must be just as bad if not worse for the Axis

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 87 Compare

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Things are in fact far worse for the Axis as the army continues to collapse. Beating the report from turn 81 in the last six weeks 12,000 squads vanish from the Axis OOB. Most heavily from the Japanese but very much across the board.

The Armour situation is just about as bad with 2700 Armoured vehicles vanishing from the OOB. Again the Japanese experience the worst fall but there are now 800 Panthers spread over maybe 13 or 14 Panzer Divisions.

We don't cover the numbers here but the one area that remains a bright spot for the Axis over the course of the entire scenario is the war in the Air. much to my surprise Axis air superiority never falters. I'll delve into this a bit more at the end of the scenario.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 87
Yeah, this is just kind of ominous. The Japanese are my force that is now doing the most work despite the major defeat I suffered here some turns back. A trickle of newly arriving Japanese forces manages to start to fight their way back south and I have a division in reserve behind the line at pretty much every hex making a brutal reverse less likely. Here I think I am helped by Ben withdrawing some units from this front to deal with the Panzergrenadiers that are rampaging around the American southwest.

Those Panzergrenadiers are looking like they might be in trouble as reasonably significant numbers of Allied forces start showing up. Individually the Panzergrenadiers are very powerful units but I just don’t have enough units to really fight in any kind of a line. My big concern is that Ben will just start sweeping around the units cutting them from supply.

In Central America the advance is brutally slow. No Artillery or other support equipment means even fighting 4th rate Central Americans often seems to be costly.

The Northwest is an ongoing disaster primarily because my units want to retreat to San Fransisco and they have been marching their way into pockets and then going into reorganization. I suspect that the only reason this is not going even worse is here is another front Ben is stripping forces from as there are no VPs here.

Sault Ste. Marie is cut from supplies. I am a little surprised that Ben managed to get a unit in behind me so quickly. I can’t see the unit but presume it must be there – unless badlands are what is cutting me off.

[Edit – I finally understand what Ben means when he says the rail lines work. Over time the rail hexs in northern Ontario where slowly converted back to Allied control and Ben finds he can simply rail deep into the province from the west north of the Great Lakes.]

Meanwhile there is scattered fighting all over Quebec and Ontario. Ben’s main offencive would seem to be Sherbrook which strikes me as a bit odd. If the match where to go on significantly longer than this would eventually force me to defend an ever expanding front and threaten to cut my forces in the north in two but I don’t think there is actually enough time left for that as things stand and there are no VPs here.

South of here at Albany and Hartford the heavy fighting continues as I attempt to keep Ben out of these two cities. So far it is working but I’m not certain how long I can keep this up.

The South East is a real problem. I just don’t have the forces even while I most certainly have the artillery. I’m blasting away but the units I have to advance with are terribly weak and I may have gotten myself into a real pickle this turn as I have some units, including a good SS Panzer Division that advanced but don’t have flank protection. Ben’s been sending some of what he is stripping from other fronts here and while I fought my way back into Charlotte I actually think I am just over extended with forces that are too weak to keep this up.

The Loss rate is going sour as well with Ben’s falling slightly overall as he rebuilds his armies while mine continues to climb. For the first time this match the loss rate is more then 100 against me. It is a good thing I don’t have to really hold much longer because if I did my armies would completely collapse.

Desperate to pick VPs anywhere they can be found, a small Axis expeditionary force try and fight their way through the jungles of Central America. A couple of Italian Divisions are coming south from Mexico.

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[golden delicious]

Turn 87:
Looks like things could hold in Arizona: in two different places, a panzergrenadier division has pushed itself up against major escarpment, and my forces are numerous and mobile enough that I can trap the remaining hexsides and then hammer the unit. This is well, as the Japanese are somewhat resurgent in California and I'll withdraw no more troops from this front.

The northwest is good, too. For whatever reason, Jeremy's mechanised divisions weren't able to escape the trap and I stand a good chance of killing two of them this turn. I'm also running a couple of divisions furiously east through Colorado to force Jeremy to protect Denver.

Jeremy took Charlotte again, but I get the sense his troops are running out of steam, as several of his lineholders RBC when prodded, and with last turn's reinforcements I should be able to take the city back again. I still see German troops railing up behind the line here and I add two more divisions of reconstitutes on my side. I'm also assaulting Sault Ste. Marie this turn.

In the East, I'm pretty much in berserker mode, attacking everything everywhere. I still can't push past Trois Rivieres as there's a stubborn engineer brigade throwing a ZOC over the road that I need to shift first, but I have half the Canadian army barrelling down this road (two divisions formed at Montreal this turn, which helps) and the good German division on the other side of the river has for some reason moved off.

A fine turn. I get Charlotte and Sault Ste. Marie, putting a hex between the former and the German positions. I destroy three German mechanised divisions in the west and wreck a fourth, which is trapped northwest of Flagstaff. In Quebec, I hammer the defences of Quebec City, and break through the German line south of the St. Lawrence, putting two panzer divisions (already in bad shape) out of supply. All this brings my VP total to 392, just 8 points short of the threshold for "Significant Victory". I may get there on the loss penalty alone, but I'm also threatening four more industrial cities (Quebec, Albany, Hartford and Denver), which I'll need if Jeremy can still secure Charlotte. All four may be longshots but there's a fair chance of getting one.

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 88
It is a good thing this match is going to end very shortly because I have gone from dreams of getting a draw – to hoping to just claw on to a marginal defeat. Ben just crushes what was left of most of my armies in the northwest and southwest. In the North West they like to retreat into pockets and some very good units did that and were destroyed. In the South West my fears that my powerful units would simply be surrounded by generally weaker units and end up destroyed turned out to be very much the case.

The Japanese are just about the only thing resembling a bright spot a perfectly solid advance that is once again getting them to the outskirts of Los Angeles. Not that I have any real belief that I could take the city. Ben is now doing more then well enough to shift forces back there though, as he points out, it is kind of questionable to move units at this stage there are so few turns left.

Worth Noting the scenario does not have a hard stop at turn 90. It should actually be the case that there is a 50% chance that the scenario ends on that turn and then a 50% chance every turn afterword that the scenario ends.

Meanwhile my fears about a bad advance in South Carolina don’t really come to pass but Allied reinforcements have shown up and launched strong counter attacks. I lose and then retake Charlotte but doubt I can keep this up much longer.

In New England Ben does not manage to fight into Albany but I just barely manage to hold onto the city. I doubt I hold it much longer but will keep trying. Hartford on the other hand seems pretty safe as long as there is not any particularly long overtime in the match.

Up in the North the line really is beginning to fall apart but even with the front collapsing it is probably to far to get to Quebec City if the game ends on turn 90. Seems much less clear if it ends after that.

[Edit: Ben mentions reinforcements arriving in the South East - what is actually happening is I am digging up the very last crumbs of units I can find anywhere and sending them to the Port of Charleston. From there it is a one turn sea transport move to Quebec City. This turn I dug up an Engineer unit and a fully supplied Infantry Brigade.]

Loss Rate: Axis: 547 / Allies: 428 / Spread: -119

Fighting all across Quebec as Axis forces try and find a way to get in front of Quebec City.

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[golden delicious]

Turn 88:
Some interesting moves from Jeremy in Canada. He has a surprising three divisions now at Malartic and my poor one is struggling against them, meanwhile the two divisions east of here on Quebec City's long north flank have been put out of supply. I think I have to write this flank off as a feint and concentrate on the Canadian drive directly at the city, with the Axis forces opposed to them still looking fairly weak. I do add another US division at Malartic as I don't want Jeremy creeping into the rear of Montreal this way. I also continue to drive along the south bank of the St. Lawrence.

Our back and forths continue over Albany, Hartford and Charlotte. At the latter, Jeremy has expanded the frontage but I do seem to have a lot of units here and I'm content to attack across a wide front, this time hitting two hexes behind the city itself in the hopes of cutting off and destroying 10. Panzer which is holding it. I send my three reconstituted divisions (plus some troops left over from the assault on Sault Ste. Marie) here as it's the front which can most obviously benefit from an infusion of more troops. It occurs to me, though, that as I'm force 2 its sufficient for me to retake it on turn 90 even if Jeremy keeps getting it every turn.

The Japanese are somewhat resurgent outside Los Angeles, where it seems five or six fresh divisions have been added to the front. This does however include Jeremy's remaining airborne units which is something of a relief as I was expecting something big from these in the closing turns; I guess they just couldn't get through my fighter cover.

I spot a South American cavalry regiment working its way west across southern Utah. It's sort of moot by now but this unit is only six hexes from the remaining east-west rail line so I send a Mexican cavalry division to mark it for the rest of the scenario. Last turn's furious activity seems to have settled matters in Arizona; the Herman Goering division is still trapped and will be destroyed, and the only significant Axis force here now is 3 and a half Panzergrenadier divisions east of Tucson. I push units around both of their flanks but leave my best troops to their front. Jeremy must be nervous about being cut off here after what happened to the northwest so he may simply pull back.

Denver looks good. Weak Axis units block both my divisions advancing here, and one of them approaches to three hexes from the city- but there's now a full division of Hungarians in the hex and taking it will still be a longshot. For the broader northwest front I was hoping to withdraw some pieces to shore up California, but I find nothing is on the rail line and I'm certainly not spending turns 88 and 89 moving a unit for it to only get into action for turn 90. All I can extract are two Army HQs which should give a boost to my counterattacks here, and I'm also redeploying my bombers to other fronts. After the recent excitement Jeremy's line through Central Wyoming is pretty strong and I'll limit myself to small, opportunistic attacks here. This is actually more fruitful than I'd hoped, as I manage to cut off the southern flank of Jeremy's line here, putting several divisions out of supply.

It's slow and bloody, but I fight my way down the St. Lawrence. Jeremy simply doesn't have enough pieces here, and as the Canadians grind forward, the US troops on the south bank break through the thinning ranks of German panzers and start racing to catch up with them, ending the turn 4 hexes from the city against the Canadians' three. I think there are a couple of German units sealifting up here on turn 89 but I think I have a fair shot at taking it before the scenario ends; with my attacks largely bouncing off Albany and Hartford this feels like my best shot to get more VPs. I need three more for Significant Victory....

SS Hitler Jugend stubbornly defends Albany against massed attacks from all directions

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 89
Just about at the end now. In the South East many of my Panzer Grenadiers are in reorg and I op to hold on with what I have left but the situation is a disaster. It really is mostly now just a question of time between how much I can hold on here. If the game were to go longer it is possible Ben would start up a real counter attack this way – though he did not in the past. Hindsight is 20/20 but it is clear that my attempt to use the Panzergrenadiers without support was very flawed. There simply was no support to be had at this stage of the match so what I should have done is withdrawn them. They could have been a strong supplement to forces in either the northwest or in the Carolina’s. The one possible upside is that they clearly drew of forces of Ben from the Japanese who are once again breaking out and also threatening a last ditch seizure of Los Angeles. I doubt that happens but it is at least on the table.

Ontario and Quebec are also falling apart but here last remnants of reinforcements are at least slowing the Allies down. Ben wants Quebec City and while he is reasonably close I have a good Panzer Division digging in there. In theory Infantry should be what holds an urban space but in practice Armour heavy units are better. The reason is artillery just blows infantry out of the hex more or less always but artillery is basically useless against tanks – though I am not certain how that works with my Panzer Divisions without Panzers.

The phenomenal defence capability of Armour is highlighted in the south where Ben has been working for turns to eject the Fortified Hitler Jugend SS Panzer Division out of Albany. Now I do counter attack the flanks every turn to buy the city some time (or more accurately give Ben less rounds of combat against Albany) and holding on for another two turns might be a bit of a tall order but it really emphasizes both what Artillery can do (shift infantry extremely well) and the somewhat counter intuitive fact that Armour is actually really good at holding ground.

The turn rounds out with a counter attack in the North East that helps to stabilize the front which is going to pieces but I think slowly enough that nothing too major will happen here in the next turn or a few. Ben clearly seems to recognize this himself as here is where he has been stripping the line for forces headed elsewhere.

I also just give up on Charlotte – Ben has had a constant stream of reinforcements headed here and at this point I am just too badly outnumbered and while I have a core of pretty good Panzers the infantry here is woefully weak and can’t be trusted to hold the flanks. I fall back onto the defencive.

I am getting tantalizingly close to the conquest of Central America but suspect that I don’t quite get to anything before the match ends. Even a few cities captured here might be significant as Ben is only 25 VP short of shifting this to a significant victory. Albany alone is a 20 point swing and I kind of doubt if I can keep him out. That would leave a 5 point difference and Ben can probably make that up in the Loss VP… but it would be close and suddenly a 3 VP city might make all the difference.

Despite constant bad setbacks that involve the loss of 5-7 Divisions I always seem to manage to get the Japanese back on the offencive - if only they had some kind of support they might have been much more significant in this match.

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[golden delicious]

Turn 89
Just about at the end now. In the South East many of my Panzer Grenadiers are in reorg

You mean the southwest.

The turn rounds out with a counter attack in the North East that helps to stabilize the front which is going to pieces but I think slowly enough that nothing too major will happen here in the next turn or a few. Ben clearly seems to recognize this himself as here is where he has been stripping the line for forces headed elsewhere.

You mean the northwest

[golden delicious]

Turn 89:
I still hold Charlotte at the start of this turn and so, with the loss penalty continuing to shift in my favour, I'm back up to Significant Victory, which has more or less been my goal since the chance of falling to a draw disappeared several turns ago. However I still need to hold onto it, and there are several places where the Axis can pick up VPs. The most significant of these is Los Angeles, where the Japanese barged their way adjacent to the city this turn, as well as tearing up the Canadian line inland. I can afford to more or less ignore the latter as there isn't enough time for Jeremy to work his way around this flank, but I have to push back outside Los Angeles or he'll get the city- and I'd actually love to bring more troops here even if it's only to fight for one turn. I decide to strip the Oregon front, pulling out two cavalry divisions and a first-class armoured brigade. Jeremy may attack here on his turn, but there's not enough time to reach any real objectives in this direction. I also take a National Guard brigade off the coastal garrison two hexes south of Vancouver. Again, Jeremy's welcome to land here if he really wants. Finally, I pull a good infantry division each out from Wyoming and Arizona, where I feel the threat to Phoenix and Tucson has been thwarted. Five divisions altogether should be enough to push Jeremy back out of Los Angeles should he gain the city on his turn 90.

Quebec City still looks interesting. There's a full SS panzer division in the city now, but I really am barrelling towards it now, despite several Canadian units being in reorganisation, and I add several more divisions to the drives either side of the St. Lawrence this turn. I also cut off about two panzer divisions and some other units to the east and will attempt to liquidate the pocket this turn

A good turn: I'm advancing on all fronts. I liquidate the pocket east of the St. Lawrence, while driving up to adjacent to Quebec City and actually assaulting it- though the garrison holds for now. The Axis troops in Quebec to the west are now cut off from the city and from supply. To the south, I finally shift SS Hitler Jugend from Albany, and although my troops don't follow up into the city, with the fortified status lost here it feels much more likely that I'll be able to take it next turn. I'm able to get a little more depth back at Los Angeles, and I'm just generally roughing the Axis up in Wyoming, New York and the Carolinas; the loss penalty moves another 7 points in my favour over the course of the turn. The one disappointment is that my attack on Denver (I do reach the city) simply bounces off. Still, I can live with this- as long as I still have Los Angeles at the end of the match.

Allied troops begin driving the Axis into the sea in Quebec (one of the bugs fixed for v2.29 previously led to units retreating into deep water hexes which contained hidden rivers)

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 90
I really hope this does not go into overtime. My situation will just get worse. At the end of my turn there is just 11 VP separating a marginal defeat from a significant defeat and my optimism, if one could call it that, from last turn has really evaporated. I thought Quebec City was out of reach but while Ben did not take it on his turn he did attack it and he is in position to unleash a really large attack on his turn 90. I do have a good Panzer Division in the city so it might hold but I pretty much doubt it.

Hitler Jugand is finally driven out of Albany but Ben fails to occupy the city so I race SS Panzer Hohenstaufen to try and hold the city. Not fortified so I think the odds are not great here either.

Even Hartford is in more danger than it has been in a while since SS Panzer Hohenstaufen was the unit tasked with defending it but with no one else to hold Albany I had to pull out. 13th Panzer is reorging in the city and it is not on the actual front line but 2 spaces back so it might hold on for a turn.

I can’t quite get to anything in central America and I am launching only a few line fixing attacks in general on my turn. That said the Japanese go all out and for the first time in the match are attacking Los Angeles directly… sadly the city holds on. Ben poured some reserves here and I attacked until the last round with horrific Japanese losses so I would not be surprised if Ben begins to push me back solidly this round.

Everywhere Axis fronts are going to pieces but here is where it is going to pieces most explicitly as I can no longer close up the front line.

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[rhinobones]

Have been thoroughly enjoying this AAR and glad to see that you are taking it to a conclusion. Thank you both for sharing.

Best Regards, RhinoBones

[Curtis Lemay]

Have been thoroughly enjoying this AAR and glad to see that you are taking it to a conclusion. Thank you both for sharing.

Best Regards, RhinoBones

+1