All out war!

[joshuamnave]

Conquests -
French Guyana (Italy)
Persia (USSR)
Gibraltar (Italy)
Latvia (USSR)
Palestine (Italy)
Transjordan (Italy)
Cyprus (Italy)
French Somaliland (Italy)
Middle Congo (Germany)

Notably missing from this list... Japan forgot to walk a unit into Hong Kong. Next turn.

[Centuur]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

Which Axis countries aligned which minors? This particularly makes a difference for those countries bordering Russia, as Germany and Russia aren't at war.

That is shown in a map somewhere above.

It's interesting to see that you chose to align Persia to Italy. I would have aligned it to Germany, if only to prevent the USSR from entering the country.

Also, why didn't you put the Belgian CAV into Congo? If placed in the south of Congo, it could have raced into Rhodesia and start messing up things there for the CW (even threathen to capture South Africa, if there aren't any South African units appearing there).

On the Mexican issue, I probably would enter the US with the few Mexican units. I would certainly deploy them to threathen Los Angeles and Houston, so the US is forced to keep his units on the Mexican border (and isn't able to send them to France). If they aren't deployed there, than I would race with the Mexican CAV into Texas and start to capture the oil fields. It will mean the US need to focus on how to get those annoying Mexicans out of the way first...

[yvesp]

ORIGINAL: Centuur

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

Which Axis countries aligned which minors? This particularly makes a difference for those countries bordering Russia, as Germany and Russia aren't at war.

That is shown in a map somewhere above.

It's interesting to see that you chose to align Persia to Italy. I would have aligned it to Germany, if only to prevent the USSR from entering the country.

Also, why didn't you put the Belgian CAV into Congo? If placed in the south of Congo, it could have raced into Rhodesia and start messing up things there for the CW (even threathen to capture South Africa, if there aren't any South African units appearing there).

On the Mexican issue, I probably would enter the US with the few Mexican units. I would certainly deploy them to threathen Los Angeles and Houston, so the US is forced to keep his units on the Mexican border (and isn't able to send them to France). If they aren't deployed there, than I would race with the Mexican CAV into Texas and start to capture the oil fields. It will mean the US need to focus on how to get those annoying Mexicans out of the way first...

Once war is declared on a minor by Russia, the fact that it aligns with Germany won't prevent the entry of the Russian troops on its territory.
This is what happens when Russia claims the Finnish borderlands and is denied: the Finns have to fight it alone, and Russia has no limitation on entering Finland.

[Centuur]

I didn't notice that it was the USSR who DoW'ed Persia. An oversight on my part. You are absolutely right.

[joshuamnave]

All of the Allies declared on every minor.

I probably should have put the Belgian cav in the Congo. Honestly it didn't even occur to me. There is a Mexican unit stationed in Tijuana, and then 2 in the mountain city just south of Texas. The US can't afford to ignore them.

[joshuamnave]

Ugh... the forum ate a post. I'll have to reconstruct as best I can.

The Axis start Nov/Dec by placing all the minor militia units. Most will never see combat. Rain in the N Temp, Germany and Italy take land actions, Japan takes a naval. One of the consequences of the early war against the allies is that Japan has to take a lot more naval actions early in the war, to China's benefit.

North of Pearl, a Catalina PBY flying a routine patrol mission stumbles on 2 Japanese subs. A few torpedoes later, one is damaged and both are slinking home, tail between their legs. On a happier note for Japan, a land based nav bomber flying off the southern tip of Formosa disorganizes an out of supply Macarthur.

Turkey pulls back out of Russia, correcting one of my many mistakes. Spanish units advance along 3 coasts, taking La Rochelle, Marseilles and Rabat. That's one French colony down. Italians take Tunis for another. In Egypt, the Libyans occupy Alexandria. Further south, British Somalia, Kenya and Sierra Leone fall under Italian control.

Things are less happy in France where convoys to the front line are delayed by muddy roads. The German vanguard finds itself low on food, fuel and bullets. HQ units race toward the front... but are similarly bogged down in the mud.

[AlbertN]

Out of curiosity, to who have you aligned Netherlands?
Japan or Germany?

[joshuamnave]

Japan.

[joshuamnave]

On the allied turn, Britain takes a naval and the US takes a combined. America has a few ships to move and may want to participate in an attack in France. Russia and China take land actions.

British subs vacate the Med and head for Calcutta. They'll be more useful for now against the Japanese. Troop transports head around the coast of Africa with reinforcements for Suez. Probably too little too late, but they are also tasked with evacuating Wavel if the situation becomes untenable. In that case, Wavel and the remaining troops will head to the Pacific to reinforce British territory there. The Queens carry a pair of Inf Divisions into the Norwegian Sea. If the weather clears up, they'll invade Narvik and then try to cut off the Swedish iron ore deliveries, or at least peel units off of the front line in Norway.

The US lands an Infantry corps (ok, a militia really) in France and sends a white print marine to garrison Midway. In the S China Sea, the UK manages to sink a Japanese ship on convoy escort, but the convoys hold out. Destroying the British Pacific fleet is rapidly become a high priority for the Japanese. The French take a stab at ground striking the OOS mech unit adjacent to Paris. Both sides fly in fighters and the French bomber slips in on the first roll. The allies roll a 3, which would have been a hit in fair weather, but the rain sends the bombs astray.

French and American troops make a daring attack on the lone Mech unit. Germany flies in Air, Allied AA units take off a few points, and here's the final attack:

[joshuamnave]

In terms of beating back the Franco-American alliance, it's a minor setback. But it's an expensive one looking at the larger picture, where the Germans are so far behind in production capacity already.

Wonder of wonders, the weather clears up on a roll of 2 - clear skies everywhere. This could be a bloody impulse.

The Axis powers all take land actions.

Germany makes a low odds attack on Strasbourg, but it's mostly garrison units attacking so even in a worst case scenario they can shrug off the losses. Japan makes another medium odds attack on Vladivostok, which is down to a single unit garrison. Germany also blitzes another hex adjacent to Paris and Japan takes a crack at Manila.

[joshuamnave]

Strassbourg falls, with 1 garrison lost on the German side. Manilla falls with no losses to Japan. But Vladivostok holds out on a roll of 3, and Japan loses the Hiroshima militia.

The allies take land actions, save for the US. America does another combined and moves the pacific fleet to the Mexican coast to support an attack on the Mexican unit in Tijuana (not a city dot in the game, but that's where they are). An American sub in Midway makes it to the 0 box in the South China Sea, letting it trigger a naval search to the benefit of the British fleet there. The British find the Japanese convoys and 3 escorts. The Japanese lose another escort, an a British ship is damaged.

The Allies take advantage of the clear weather for another round of strat bombing, but now regret buying those Japanese bombs that can never seem to find their targets. German production is unaffected. However the British to manage to disorganize a Swedish unit in the mountains of Norway.

Russia occupies the Kirkuk oil fields in Iraq while moving adjacent to Baghdad. It will take another turn for their supply lines to catch up however. The UK makes an auto invasion near Narvik. The Axis will have time to garrison it, but it draws units away from Oslo and the British will just hop back on ship. Death by 1,000 cuts.

The US kills the Mexican cav unit in Tijuana, and the British kill the Swedish unit in the mtn NW of Oslo, losing an inf division of their own. This may be a blessing in disguise for the Axis - with one less Swedish unit in Norway, Germany can rail a Swedish unit to Narvik for defense there.

[joshuamnave]

The weather turns ugly on a roll of 10. Germany and Italy take land actions anyway, Japan takes a combined.

Germany really wanted to take a naval, but needed the rail moves. A Swede can't be shipped to Narvik as planned due to the presence of Norwegian naval units there, but the rail line is still intact enough to get the Oslo militia there. Italy occupies Algiers, satisfying the first requirement for a French capitulation. Of course, Paris still stands and there are American troops in France, so there's still work to be done.

Yamamoto, fresh from victory in the Philippines, lands in Shanghai. This is the reason for the Japanese combined action. No attacks.

The allies would be happy with the turn ending now, so pass. They need a 6 to end the turn and the roll is a 6.

Production:
Germany - 24 BP's, 6 oil. Only 5 oil are being used in production, but one idle oil in Mexico could be railed to a factory instead of a non oil resource, so it satisfies my house rule.
Italy - 7 BP's, 1 oil
Japan - 11 BP's, 4 oil
China - 4 BP's, 1 oil. China is at full production this turn. Britain is shipping in the Burma oil and France is kicking in the resource in Indo China.
CW - 9 BP's, 3 oil. The US is sending 2 BP's and 2 oil
France - 2 BP's, 0 oil
US - 48 BP's, 16 oil
USSR - 14 BP's, 11 oil

Total Axis production - 42 BP's, 11 oil. US still beats the combined Axis total despite shipping 2 BP's and 2 Oil to the CW, and despite the Germans losing 0 to strat bombing this turn.

Dead pool for the turn:

[joshuamnave]

German production
Pilot, Ftr3, BB (2nd), Arm, Mtn, 2 Inf

As a side note, it would be fantastically helpful to AAR writers if the game could export a text file with builds on request. Or even if the "Undo builds" form could be copy/pasted.

Italian production
Pilot, CP, BB repair, Mil

Japan production
Pilot, 2 CP, Zuikaku, Inf, 2 CVP

China
Pilot, Ftr2

CW
Pilot, CVP, BB (2nd), CA, Inf Div

France
Senegal Mil

US
2 Pilots, 4 naval repairs (british), CV repair, BB, Lnd3, 2 CVP, Macarthur, 2 Inf, O-chit

USSR
Pilot, Lnd 4, Mech, Inf

[joshuamnave]

Conquests:
Philippines (japan)
Hong Kong (Japan)
Syria (Germany)
Tunisia (Italy)
Algeria (Italy)
Morocco (Italy)
British Somaliland (Italy)
Kenya (Italy)
Sierra Leone (Italy)
French Guinea (Italy)

[AxelNL]

Great reading, Zartacla.

[joshuamnave]

January starts off with more terrible weather, giving the allies a chance to regroup a little. The UK and US take a naval, the rest take land actions. Two Inf Corps and one Div board ships in New Jersey and head across the Atlantic, and the Los Angeles militia hops on board a ship bound for Pearl. The Queens pick up the 2 inf divisions near Narvik and the London militia lands in Suez. In the South China Sea, the allies continue their nearly unblemished record of finding the Japanese convoys, but this time lack the surprise points to overcome the naval air. 1 US sub is aborted.

In the east, Russian units continue their advance on Baghdad. In short, it's a very boring turn.

The Axis powers take naval actions. There are some convoys that need to be moved around, some escorts that need to put to sea, etc... and what better time than when the active fronts are also storm fronts.

The Swedish and Norwegian convoy points slip past the british ships in the North Sea and pause in Faroes gap on their way to help bring south american resources back to Europe. The German navy moves into the Baltic sea to provide shore bombardment as the Germans work to clear the Russians from the Baltic states. Turkey and Romania finally set up a convoy line in the Black Sea so that Italian and German units can rail through Turkey on their way to Iraq.

The Spanish navy sails off into a potential suicide mission in the Bay of Biscay, but search rolls are high and nobody gets hurt. In the South China Sea, the British once again dodge the bulk of the Japanese fleet and find the convoys + escorts, but once again can't ward off the naval air. This time the Japanese damage the Devonshire. In the Faroes Gap, the allies do a bit better, sinking 8 Scandinavian CP's. The Axis abort, and the CP's end up in Bordeaux. Note that they wanted to split up and go to minor ports in NW Africa, but apparently you can't split CP's while they are aborting from combat so they had to find a friendly major port.

[joshuamnave]

Ugh, another long post trashed by my browser.

In summary, the weather is a 1. Russia disorganizes then destroys both defenders in Baghdad. American units come ashore in France and advance down the rail line in central Mexico. British push deeper into Norway.

The Japanese move closer to Sian, send Yamamoto to the front lines near Changsha, and land 2 more units near Vladivostok. Germany disorganizes two of three units NE of Paris after US and French AA aborts one of the ground striking bombers. On a +10.8 attack, France chooses a blitz. Germany rolls a 7, forcing all 3 French units to retreat. Germany now has 3 hexes on Pairs, one of which is behind a river. Japan makes a +7 attack on Vladivostok, round 3. This time they succeed, but their engineer division pays for it in blood.

The turn ends on a 3. Here's how things look in France:

[joshuamnave]

And China

[joshuamnave]

Egypt

[joshuamnave]

Norway