Lightning Tournament Rd. 1: Lucky1 V. Xianing UV 2.1

[xianing]

WA has no more transports for German to destroy. Med fleets suffer heavy lost every turn but with supply line cut off they have no choice now. The only thing I can do is to damage a transport by air near Norway, that would make a invasion into Scotland a little difficult. Germany still has no interest of Barba so Russia put more bait into Eastern Poland. We can see that US and Soviet has the same level of WR and their DOW is the only hope of UK now.

[Lucky1]

Hehe. For the moment, England remains far too prickly for the Axis to attempt an amphib. Unfortunately, the weather is taking a turn for the worse, so Churchill will have a few more months to launch his tirades against the Reich.

Air raids on British ports destroy one RAF and damage a transport and destroyer. In the Mediterranean, three more capital ships are damged. In the Indian Ocean, a further two transports are damaged. The fortunes of the Royal Navy have never been so low. Greece is liberated after much provocation. Unfortunately, her navy escapes port before it could be captured.... Troops are moved to the Eastern front to show Stalin that Germany has noticed her build-up; Ribbentrop is also sent to clarify that Germany has no designs on Russia and that their pact remains intact.

In the Orient, Japan moves toward Chungking and redeploys troops southwards. Rumors abound that war with England may be a real possibility. The Emperor has no desire to go to war with the US and dispatches an envoy with messages to this effect....

[Lucky1]

hahah. I like how the forum changed p r i c k ly. Must be some auto censor!

[Lebatron]

I was trying to figure out what that word was. I believed you intentionally did that until I read your follow up. 

[xianing]

End of 1941, tension increase in Europe and Asia. Italy countinue to bombard UK Med fleet trying to open a supply line for NA troops. Other side Hitler seems abandoned the sealion plan. In the same time Stalin noticed some German training activity in Poland and Romania, that is a very serious provocation so more red army is sent to Eastern Poland.
Japan invasion to China inland is not alowed by International Law so will be punished soon. Near Singapore, Japan gathered 3 CV and threated south Asia and India. We will see how these crisis will develop.

A good news is US got x2 production this turn and begin to prepare for war.

[Lucky1]

Finally, the Royal Navy is routed! Only a Greek destroyer squadron and a feeble British sub remain as minor irritants. Gibraltar is taken and pressure is placed on Franco to join the war against England. In major air action over Scotland, Axis aces send two squadrons to their graves and damage three others. For her part, Germany has four damaged squadrons -- acceptable losses considering that at the end of the action there were no fighters in the British Isles.

Ribbontrop reports receiving a cold reception in Moscow. In a secret mission, Rudolph Hess flies into Russia in an attempt to work out some accommodation with the Soviets. (Surely, they can see that Britain is on the verge of collapse.) Germany is prepared to cede all influence in Africa to Stalin if he pulls back from the brink.....

Meanwhile, in the Orient.... With the collapse of the British Empire all but a foregone conclusion, rumours abound that Emperor Hirohito will order a strike against weakly defended British and Dutch possessions. Tora Tora Tora! (Of course, this could simply be a rumour.... stay tuned)

[Lucky1]

Another screen shot.... Am playing it close to the wire. Although I do not know the increments by which Russia and US join war, I am fairly sure there is a slim chance that the US can declare war this turn. That would suck.... There is more variance showing in the Soviet WR levels.

[Lucky1]

Sigh. Disregard above screen shot.... I must have saved wrong one.

[Lucky1]

Proper SC.... I have used various ellipses to black out areas b/c neutral shots seem to show things I am not sure that allies would actually see. Similarly, neutral sometimes seems to not show things that I could see as Axis....

[GKar]

ORIGINAL: Lucky1

Sigh. Disregard above screen shot.... I must have saved wrong one.

You can remove or replace the screenshot by editing your old posting. [;)]

ORIGINAL: Lucky1

Proper SC.... I have used various ellipses to black out areas b/c neutral shots seem to show things I am not sure that allies would actually see. Similarly, neutral sometimes seems to not show things that I could see as Axis....

I tested the neutral view mode a little and found no problems at all. Two things are worth noting regarding unit detection: While ground units grant one region of reconnaissance, planes give two - in the early game this usually means that the Allies can see most German possessions, either from the West or East. And regions that you could see as e.g. Germany because of good espionage rolls won't be shown in neutral view mode. This can lead to confusion but works fine as far as I could tell.

[xianing]

42 winter, as Lucky1 predicted, US can not still sit there just watching the free world in peril, they decide to war.

As Soviet is still in peaceful relation with Germany, a Japan first policy is prefered by Allies headquarter instead of the Germany first one. In Asia, the storm is gathering, if Japan dare attack Chongqing they will definitely in trouble. This turn saw a Germany sub damaged and two japanese one destroyed.

[Lucky1]

Well. This turn really was a dud for the Axis..... As prophesied earlier, it did suck to have the US DOW!

Anyhow, now for the breakdown of perhaps the most anaemic attack on England and Russia in AAR history.

Lets start with Scotland. First I attacked with fighters to lower evasion of all units. Then I attacked with Tac bomber to see if I could get suppression up on the one artillery. Then, I moved my ten transports into range (five troops) and dropped my two airborne that were in the region. Was going against three inf, one arty and two AA. I took a lood at odds calculator. Yikes! Only 7% chance of victory. So, I decide to abort. Whoa.... only my airborne go back to Germany. (Seems that one cannot undo moves after having been fired upon by artillery. I guess this makes sense, but it was the first time that I ever attacked amphib without first destroying artillery.... Rude suprise for me.) So, I send back my airborne and the attack proceeds. All my units are damaged. Sigh. Not unexected result, but booooo anyhow.

In the East, Hitler reckons that Stalin is close to a DOW. Noting the damage caused by having the US enter rather than be attacked, Germany performs a pretty lame attack into Eastern Poland. Multiple air strikes could not take out the damn tac bomber. Germany gets no CAM. At least we inflicted more damage than we incurred explained Paulus before he was relieved of his duties....

In the Orient, the US DOW allowed the WA to move troops into Indonesia (accross from Siam). Fortunately for Tojo, this does not slow the planned Japanese expansion over-much. However, Siam had to be liberated and her infrastructure repaired. The sub units destroyed by US perfidity are publicly mourned in Japan. The Emperor vows to repay US aggression in kind....

[MrQuiet]

Multiple air strikes could not take out the damn tac bomber. Germany gets no CAM.

Not sure if Eastern Poland was to be your first (surprise)attack but in the surprise attack Germany will not qualify for CAM no matter what the conditions.

So what I am saying is you are better off to hit them hard first (surprise = -1 ev for SU +1 ev for GE) than trying to take out the tac to gain CAM later (+3 die mod GE)

Again I dont know if you executed your surprise attack somewhere else in the line or if you already knew that.
Just pointing it out.

-MrQ

[Lucky1]

Ahhh. News to me. Thanks for the detail... Anyhow, live and learn. In this game I opted to focus almost entirely on WA because, apart from the raised DOW threshold for Russia, almost all the mod / patch changes have most their impact on the war with WA. A good way to explore them, I reckon. Am learning other stuff as I go as well....

[xianing]

Allies 42 Spring
Royal Navy launched attack of the revenge and 5 Germany transports were destroyed. In Pacific, US intelligence showed Japan home land was very lightly defended so Bonin islands is taken as base to bombard Tokyo. In the same time, 4 US Carriers give a supprising attack at Honshu port damaging 2 Japanese Carrier and a Battleship destroyed.
China liberated Peking and cut down Liuzhou. hope all these actions will reduce the presure of India.
Lots of Soviet armies run to the front and prepared for a hard counter attack to Germany, It is not showed here but surely Hitler will see this and regret for his mad decision.

[Lucky1]

I will have to figure out how to paste the various battle results like Ning.... Quite effective.

Anyhow, initiative definitely shifted away from Axis with US entry! In Europe, Axis air performs counter strikes against the WA navy. A battleship, destroyer, transports etc. go down. Germany loses a sub and a fighter! Faced with crushing armies in the East, Hitler consolidates Germany's position. Some ground had to be ceded. Air strikes are conducted against Soviet tactical and fighter units with good success.

In the Orient, Japan repairs resources and lauches a counter strike against the US carriers off Japan. Two US carriers and two US CAGs are destroyed with no casualties for Japan. A transport is also destroyed. An attack was made against Delhi, but I accidently used the bomber needed for CAM in another attack, so Japan come off slightly worse than WA. 1 casualty and one kill vs. two casualties.

Things do not look so good for Axis (they should not normally look this bad until 1943!)....

However, if there is any silver lining, the WA navy has been severely damaged during the course of the game. Will post a couple screen shots after this message. I am hoping that this will hinder them in their ability to knock Germany and Japan out of the war.... We will see!

[Lucky1]

Relative states of armed forces

[Lucky1]

Casualties

[GKar]

Some key unit values would be interesting (Attack and Evasion of Inf, Arm, Art, Fgt, CAG). [:)]

[xianing]

Allies 42 Summer turn.

Germany begin to withdraw from Poland but the aim of Red amy is Berlin. Here shows the picture of Europe. Russia has a overwhelming army in number comparing to Germany.