Lightning Tourney Rd. 1: Marshall Art vs. MrQuiet (Global Glory 3.0)

[MrQuiet]

Allies Fall 42

Russian aggresion in Sweden went even worse than Finland.
93% chance of success failed due to, you guessed it auto hit.
Sumatra is reclaimed.

That is the longest I have seen anyone keep US out of the war.
Of course the downside for the axis is USA is much more prepared than it would have been a year ago.
A WA HB fleet finally earns a star when it destroys a Albanian resource.

Germans have 15 armor and 15 fighters on the map.
Spies reveal Germany showing renued interest in its sub fleet research. German subs heading for 4ev although they have no fleets completed and there torp rating still a 2. Germany has played the sub game very strangely this game.

Pearl Harbour is burning despite heavy fighter cover. It did cost 1 damaged and one killed CAG though. Glad CAG's were at EV7 or is would have been a desaster.

Due to surprise JP CAGs were actually fighting with 8ev and my poor p47s were down 1ev at 5evasion.
I am surprised I did as well as I did.

[SGT Rice]

ORIGINAL: Marshall Art
IMO the possibility to move around Allied troops gives the Allies a completely new option and the Axis a hard time as surprise is only gained in one single battle. Perhaps thinking of having surprise for the entire Japanese turn would bring the game back into balance? Of course the Axis powers both could have attacked earlier but still the US have time to move onough units around to reinforce the likely targets. Same for Germany, as it is rather unrealistic that only in one region the defenders can be surprised.

I can understand why the designer didn't want unlimited surprise; there are a lot of potential attacks, (i.e., strategic bombing of infrastructure, 2 region moves by mech units) that could not easily have benefited from tactical surprise. On the other hand, there are ample historical examples of coordinated surprise attacks that the current rule precludes: e.g., all of the initial ground attacks in Barbarossa were coordinated with airfield attacks against the Red Air Force and port attacks against the Baltic Fleet in Leningrad. Allowing all of these categories of attacks (ground attacks, airfield attacks and port attacks) to benefit from surprise would probably be more realistic; that's the way surprise rules work in other games like WIF. But it would also have a big effect on play balance ... the Russians would need help to counteract the more severe losses they would incur during the inital attack.

[Marshall Art]

Winter 1943 - The Swedish Army is welcomed into the Axis force pool and promptly reinforced with a Tiger Brigade to hold back the Reds in Scandinavia. With the Russian Winter turn and an attack by some 40+ Russian units looming in Kharkov a thwarding attack was launched into Belorussia which at a calculated loss ratio of 9:14 (Axis/Russian) resulted in 5:8 units hit, or 5:13 if you count man power units. Not as bad as feared.

With no artillery near the Axis army at least the Russian militia and tanks will not get CAM if they counterattack. Unfortunately Kiev had to be abandoned with 3 freshly repaired resources.

With 20 German fighters (7/8/3) and 5 Japanese (6/6/4) the Allies have equal numbers with 18 WA (7/7/3) and 7 Russian (7/7/2) fighters. The increased cost of 3 seems not to matter, Fighters just are the prerequisite for all operations.

[Marshall Art]

Meanwhile Japan captures Chungking without losses.

It is fair to say that the Axis expansion is slowly coming to a stop though. The Allies have the industrial might and too few losses were dealt by Axis attacks for them even have to regroup.

[MrQuiet]

Allies Winter 43

Fairly quiet on the East Front this first Russian Winter.
A lone milita is sent in to wipe out the 3 unguarded resources in Kiev.
A small force marches to put pressure on unguarded Romainia.
Lenningrad digs in for what looks like a major offensive building.
About 12 Tank units are poised to strike North.
Factory is targeted and destroyed in Southern France (partisans had allready damaged the resource)

In the Pacific our Cags go on a killing spree against mostly undefended transports (hey gotta start somewhere)
We do come up with one big fish though... see Screen Shot

[Marshall Art]

Spring 1943 - Except for an attack against Finland all quiet in Europe, Some rail and factories are bombed in Russia.

Japan licks its wounds and build some more fighters. Also the troops that invaded Chungking are recalled near the Chinese rails to be thrown against the Allied army marching towards Siam from India.

IMO fighters should be less effective against enemy bombers, thus it would be less important to have "more" fighters than the opponent.

[MrQuiet]

Allies Spring 43

Allies have landed in the South of France one year early.
Germany has attained 3/3 subs and produced 8 fleets this turn.
Allies resume ASW research/training

More Jap naval and merchant vessels rest on the bottom of the Pacific.

[Marshall Art]

Summer 1943 - after quiet turns the ETO heats up. WA Beachhead in S. France is a thorn in the Axis side so significant forces were dispatched to E. France and Italy to prevent a breakthrough. Paris had to be abandoned. Meanwhile heavy air attacks were flown against the Invasion fleet, causing severe losses in Ships. Since the Luftwaffe is still quite intact any fleet in its reach is in danger. Subs attacked the weakened fleet and scored well. One sinking Transport hit a sub and took it down with it.

The Russian Front remained quiet but the Reds seem poised to strike soon into Belorussia. The long-time elusive Red sub was finally sunk in the Baltic.

BUGREPORT: one sub that was damaged as an elite unit back in 1940 or so actually came back as a vet unit after repair, so this feature finally works well as it seems.

Japan captures Paetow hoping this resource will be saved to defend than those in the DEI.

[MrQuiet]

Allies Summer43

The War continues.

Soviet Union enjoys seeing large numbers of German units get shipped to the new front on the French side of the continent. The Lull is used to build and research. Bomber crews train on rail targets that use to belong to us, such a waste this war bussiness is. Soviet troop quallity and armor quallity is on par with the Germans at 7/7troops and 9/9armor.

Germany got its snorkle tec last turn and skyrocketed its sub evasion up to 4. It appears the axis subs have gone from ev3 to ev4 in one season with 11 units in game, very well done I must admit. My ASW is behind by 2 now, but not for long.

*GG note* air power has lost a bit/lot of its ASW effectivness due to max air range penalty which is more severe than air to air combat due to only rolling 1 or 2 dice. Not a complaint, just a mod observation.

China did nothing except ship rice to SU.

Western Allies have turned there attention on a very mis-behaving Spain/Portugal.[:-]
There will be no more diplomatic gifts between Spain/Portugal and Germany.

In the Pacific US has moved one more Island West to the Bonin Islands.
A sneak amphib attack was ordered on unguarded FIC.
Due to opfire from from airfields on Maylaya we had to go the long way around the DEI but hopefully the effect will be worth the cost in transports this turn. Taking FIC cut off any retreat paths for the Japs holding in Siam and all damaged units in that attack were destroyed. Siam did hold though, if one of my infantry rolled a 22 instead of 21 we would have occupied Siam. Oh well, war is HELL!

[Marshall Art]

Fall 1943 - Subs continue to harass the Allies captains, significant numbers of trannies were the price for the bold invasion of FIC. Several Russian fighters destroyed in an air raid. As far as auto-hits go - luck gets even over the course of a game [:(] A tactical withdrawal was ordered from Belarus back to E. Poland.
Jet technology was successfully implemented in large scale manufacture, ME262's defend Central Europe's skies. Allies seem to be slighly behind in EV but start to outbuild the Axis.

[MrQuiet]

Allies Fall 43

Well this is the end of 43 and I finally qualify for a Quick play point. Definately lagging behind in QPPs vs my opponent. The same can be said for fighter ev tec and asw tec. 44 should prove much better and we are looking foward to the big 5x USA massive production output. Even repaired some of the extra resources in USA to maximize output since I know the A bomb sure can eat up production points.

Put major effort into asw with luke warm results, 2 damaged sub fleets (out of 9 on map) and zero damaged allied vessels.
Siam was left abandoned by JP so we walked in and gave the childeren candy bars.
More JP transports destroyed. 17 destroyed so far and 3 are curently floating.

Allied bombing raid over Eastern France sees bomber casualties for 1 resource damaged.
I figured to lose at least one bomber since I am overdue for the dreaded bombard 1 vs flak, but actually lost the bomber rolling a bombard 2 vs vet flack.

ME 262s will be a nusence for sure but Mustangs are getting ready to take on the challenge.

China shipped more rice to Soviets.
Russia moved into abandoned BeloRussia in force and just cant believe what Jerry has done to our beutifull country.
Next turn being Winter should help keep a German counter attack at bay.

[Marshall Art]

Winter 1944 - reinforcements shipped to Sweden and the Eastern Front. Gibraltar's Fighter squadron cheers two (!) lucky hits on subs passing by. Still a couple of trannies bite the dust. Japan is still out there, somewhere. Russia and WA enjoy now their factory multiplier while Germany has barely sufficient resources for a FM of 2. We found ways to mount 30 mm cannons under the ME262's.

[MrQuiet]

Allies Winter44

Our fancy new ASW tec helps hunt down a couple Uboat Fleets.
Still 9 on Map, but its better to see german manpower being devoted to subs than ground units.

Over off the coast of Shanghi p51 Mustangs engage Jap Cags.
4 JP CAGs sent home for repair work.
JP naval untis strike back hard in AA fire (max air range penalty gives naval flack +6 modifier) costing me several allied planes.

In Maylaya a suicidel enemy is engaged and the Japs fight to the bitter end prefering to die rather than surrender.
With no retreat path available all ground units are destroyed (HB and TB do get away though)

[Marshall Art]

Spring 1944 - A few bombing raids on Russian airfields and infrastructure yields mixed results. Subs continue to sail into the Atlantic, getting the auto hit again. Japan catches a small batch of Allied aircraft offguard killing a few ships on the ground.

[MrQuiet]

Allies Spring 44

Soviets go on the offensive in Romainia and Sweden.
I didnt expect to win either battle, just trying to attrit some Jerrys and tie up reinforcements.
Romainian Battle saw all of the auto hits given to the Germans and they hapened against my better units causing a destroyed precious little armor unit and damaged infantry.

Chineese took back there capital after JP abandoned it.

WA took the northern Japanese main land.
We then took the Ryuku islands for port benefits.
A major Carrier Strike force hit the Japanese Navy hard but we are afraid the damaged vessels will be turned into artillary and airpower next season.
All JP transports have been destroyed which should prove detrimental to Japanese military operations.

East and West France have been re-liberated and heavy forces have set up shop in both.
All fighter cover in Northern Italy has been given a fairly thourough beating. ME262s are difficult but not imposible to to take down even at max air range.

Sub Hunting came up empty but little resources were devoted to the task this season.

[MrQuiet]

Japan is in a bit of trouble

[MrQuiet]

Europe getting hot for Summer44

[Marshall Art]

Summer 1944 - Bad Bad Allies, they bombed a neutral Norway, is this how the free world will look like? [8D]

Some skirmishes in the air over Europe, Axis forces take defensive positions while the subs continue to harass Allied trannies. With WA fighters (Sub attack 2) patrolling a mixed result at best...

[Marshall Art]

Summer 1944 - A look back at the air battle over Italy in Spring '44 - max range modifier and superior Evasion of the Jets showed its effect.

Meanwhile Japan sends the remainder of its fleet out to a last desperate mission, at least we got back some scrap metal to repair airplanes... I give Tokio one or two more turns [:(]

[MrQuiet]

Allies Summer44

Su Marches on E Poland.
LC and E France Liberated (lightly garisoned)

Japan loses all Air and Naval forces on the Mainland.
Japan is at Production Zero.
Bomb ready in a couple seasons.