By the Numbers: Another Solo Global War AAR

[brian brian]

The Russians will miss those 2 ARM well into 1942. Those should never appear within Stuka range unless well covered by the Red Army Air Force, which appears to be intact. Both sides seem a little over-interested in the north here. The money is in the south.

Many Allied players of WiF will automatically lay down an AMPH for the CW in 1939. Such a build would be keeping these Italians quite a bit less interested in foreign expeditions to help Adolf.

‘Stuffing’ the border is a powerful Russian strategy that can seriously disrupt Axis war plans and is very good for the western Allies’ convoy lines - so they can quickly deploy a significant Murmansk run. But I am not sure how it would work with your requirements for Russian chits on the Japanese border so this is a different game altogether.

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: brian brian

The Russians will miss those 2 ARM well into 1942. Those should never appear within Stuka range unless well covered by the Red Army Air Force, which appears to be intact. Both sides seem a little over-interested in the north here. The money is in the south.

Many Allied players of WiF will automatically lay down an AMPH for the CW in 1939. Such a build would be keeping these Italians quite a bit less interested in foreign expeditions to help Adolf.

‘Stuffing’ the border is a powerful Russian strategy that can seriously disrupt Axis war plans and is very good for the western Allies’ convoy lines - so they can quickly deploy a significant Murmansk run. But I am not sure how it would work with your requirements for Russian chits on the Japanese border so this is a different game altogether.

On the upside I think I've repeated Stalin's error of ignoring the Nazi buildup in the spring of 1941 and possibly to the extent of Soviet losses. Now the downside is that I may have killed the Soviet Union. Only time will tell but I'm not sure if they can recover from this. Though, I have seen them come back from situations this dire.

With respect to requiring Soviet chits on the Asian front, maybe in the future if I require that then I don't include the optional rule that makes it easier to break the pact in the latter half of 1941. That might be the appropriate balance?

Also, the Sitzkreig on the Finnish front is interesting. Basically I have the Finns on the sidelines watching the show along with 2 Soviet armies and 1 division in Murmansk.

[rkr1958]

I've been following a thread over in the WIF groups, Grand Strategy Question where some of the discussion has been on oil. Specifically, not using saved oil for production but for moving units only. Coupled with the change oil rules in WiF CE, I'm very serious thinking about at this point forward (turn 13 and beyond) including the two house rules that: (1) saved oil cannot be used for production and (2) only saved oil can be used to reorg units.

The arguments for the former that impressed me was that if convoy lines are disrupted then a country should face the consequences that turn for the disruption.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. July/August 1941. End of Turn. Economics.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. July/August 1941. End of Turn. Build Spiral. Axis.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. July/August 1941. End of Turn. Build Spiral. Allied.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. July/August 1941. Factory Destruction.

Germany destroys the blue factory at Dnepropetrovsk, which the Soviets didn't rail out in time. Strategic error on the Soviets part. They had time but elected to rail the blue factory at Stalino. Not good for the Soviet official, or officials, who made this "error". Stalin will ensure that it'll be the last error they ever make.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. July/August 1941. Global Map. Control.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. July/August 1941. Global Map. Units.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. July/August 1941. Global Map. Active Axis.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. July/August 1941. Global Map. Active Allied.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. July/August 1941. Victory Totals.

[rkr1958]

AAR Outline (revised).

For those who might be interested I've made a couple of minor revisions to my AAR outline. The revised outline I'm now using for posting is:

1. CWAKE (Combat tally, Weather, Actions, Key Events).
2. Trade
3. Theater(s)
- Combat logs (as applicable)
- Maps/Screen Caps (as applicable)
- Commentary (as applicable)
4. Partisans (may be covered in part or in whole elsewhere)
5. Destroyed, Repair and, as applicable, Scrapped, Lend Lease
6. US Entry
7. Economics (Oil, PPs, BPs, Builds)
8. Build Spirals (Axis, Allied)
9. Factory/Resource Destruction (if applicable)
10. Global Maps (Control, Units, Active Axis, Active Allied)
11. Victory Totals.

[rkr1958]

Turn 13. Sep/Oct 1941. CWAKE.

[rkr1958]

Turn 13. Sep/Oct 1941. Resource Grants/Trade.

Axis: No changes to discretionary trade, which is: (1) Germany to Italy 5 non-oil.

Allied: Following changes made to discretionary trade: (1) CW starts 2 non-oil to USSR. Unchanged discretionary: (1) Free France to China 1 non-oil. (2) US to CW, 2 oil.

[rkr1958]

Turn 13. Sep/Oct 1941. Initiative. Weather.

Initiative: No advantage, allies win ties. AX=3, AL=7. Axis lose the first roll and can but don't request a re-roll. Allies win the initiative and elect to move first.

Allied #1. Weather: Allies hoping for a high weather roll in order for bad weather to hit the Eastern Front. The die roll looked to "finish" on a 1 but didn't quite finish that last roll. The final result was a 7, which was modified to an 8. Needed rain, from the Soviet perspective, in both the Arctic and North Temperate.

[rkr1958]

Turn 13. Sep/Oct 1941. Asian Front. Combat Logs.

[rkr1958]

Turn 13. Sep/Oct 1941. Asian Front. China. Axis #6.

[rkr1958]

Turn 13. Sep/Oct 1941. Asian Front. China. End of Turn.

[rkr1958]

Turn 13. Sep/Oct 1941. The Eastern Front. Start of Turn.

1. On the plus side the allies got the initiative, are moving first and rain has hit all along the Eastern Front.
2. On the downside, the rain has put 4 inf armies, 1 mtn corps and 3 divisions of various types out of supply. 3. Also, the Soviets have no HQs in the south (i.e., Ukraine) so supply there is very precarious. In the north it isn't much better either.