4 player email AAR (from Euro-Axis perspective)

[jjdenver]

40 JA i4:
Axis gets surprise on the huge CW fleet and an air combat ensues. Despite being the underdog, the CW cvp's manage to shoot down an Italian bomber wing and abort both Axis fighter wings.

[jjdenver]

40 JA i4:
Despite being shoved around in the air combat, enough Axis air gets through the carrier plane CAP and the huge AA barrage to pick an X on the Ark Royal but it saves. However the Axis air keeps at it and picks a D on the now damaged Ark Royal which is sunk! [&o]

Royal Sovereign also takes a few hits but is only aborted.

The RN has seen enough and the SZ is evacuated with various fleet elements returning to Port Said and Liverpool. [:-]

[jjdenver]

40 JA i4:
Axis plans also progress on land as a massive assault is launched against encircled Paris while fierce air battles rage, and the city falls. Eureka. [:)]

With this roadblock removed, the way is open to advance fully into western and southern France where the BEF holds out around Marseilles (where the French BB's are based) and the French army fortifies Vichy, Lyons, and Marseilles.

[jjdenver]

41 JA i6:
Here is the situation at the start of i6, the 3rd Axis impulse of JA 40. An attack is planned to reduce Vichy and the Wermacht also continues to advance near Bordeaux, seizing a bridgehead over the Garonne.

The BEF consisting of Wavell, Gort, MECH, MOT, INF and 2 FTR2 have taken up positions in the Pyrennees near Bayonne to delay any German attack into Spain. It will be a job to dig them out. [&:]

[jjdenver]

40 JA i6:
Vichy falls to assault and now the French are down to Bordeaux and Lyons as major cities still under their control.

[jjdenver]

40 JA i6:

In China, the Japanese blitz a 2-4 CAV. A string of 2 successful attacks gives the axis team some hope that Japan is down but not yet out of this game. Despite building at a pitiful 8(?) they now have peace with USSR and have landed enough force to start to nibble away at the large Chinese army that has advanced eastward.

[jjdenver]

40 JA EOT:

Unfortunately the turn ends on a 1 after allied i7. A very short 3 impulse JA 40 for the Axis after only getting 3 impulses in MJ 40 as well. It's ok though as the Euro-Axis have kicked the RN out of the W Med, and Germany has struck several mortal blows into the double BEF and French military. Japan is ridiculously weak but there is still life in the Axis despite all of these problems.[X(]

Ominously, USSR has started to move forces west from Siberia and conquers Persia this turn.

Here are EOT losses for 40 JA. 40 SO losses are also shown but I'll tell that tale in an upcoming post. I'm too lazy to edit the image to remove them. [;)]

[jjdenver]

40 SO:
(spoiler) After a very fast summer, 6 axis impulses, the Axis are hoping for a long, clear SO turn. Allies win init and choose to go first but the Axis will indeed get 3 clear weather impulses in SO (yay) before the weather turns sour on allied i7 and the turn ends on i9 with storms raging across Europe.

Here is the situation in China at the start of 40 SO i2. Unfortunately Umezu, the powerful 8-3 INF, and some other units are encircled in the mountains with no hope of escape anytime soon. [&:]

[jjdenver]

40 SO i2:
The Luftwaffe pounds Bayonne and manages to flip Gort. The Spitfires based in Bayonne also destroy with no PIL surviving an Me-110 wing. On their impulse the allies will move Wavell into Gort's hex and unflip one of the FTR2's (both were flipped).

Also on i2 the Italians sail subs into N Atl to raid the convoy line. One SUB is damaged, the other aborted but they manage to sink 3 cp's in what is I think the first convoy raid success of the war for Italy. (maybe I'm forgetting one but I think this is the first?)

Here is the situation at the start of SO 40 i2

[jjdenver]

40 SO i4:
The Germans and Italians had set up a surprise attack on Malta planned for beginning of SO 40. However, the ending of JA on i7 on a roll of 1 prevented the rail moves that were needed to get the attack ready for beginning of SO 40. However, by moving a few units in i2 the Axis have been able to set up a different attack on Malta. Key to the plan is cutting supply in E Med something that is accomplished by German air in E Med.

The single black print unit in Malta is also flipped by a horde of Axis air and the invasion goes in, taking the island and securing a strong position for Axis in the center of the Mediterranean Sea. [:D]

There was also a FR TER from W. Africa that walked across the desert to take the resource hex in Algeria. However, the TER met a rude reception when Balbo and a couple of German corps that were transiting eastward across the Atlas mountains in Morocco marched south to destroy the TER.

[jjdenver]

40 SO i4 (continued):

The Wermacht also puts in a heavy assault on Bayonne and the port falls, leaving the units BEF farther inland isolated in the mountains along the Spanish border. In addition a couple of CW FTR2's are over-run in Bayonne. In all the elimination of the entire BEF will eventually result in something like 26 BP loss to the CW although it slows down the German war machine and makes the Germans re-think whether an attack on Spain is a good option.

Also on a sad note, at some point (I don't recall exactly when) the CW/US player decided that he wanted to leave the game so 1 player will now run all of the allies.

[jjdenver]

40 SO i6:
The euro-axis content themselves with some ground strikes but no attacks are launched since the GS on the 7-4 MOT near Bayonne fails and even though a 5-3 is flipped in Lyons the attack odds are not good enough.

However near Tripoli a FR corp is caught OOS and destroyed by the Tripoli garrison troops.

In China the Japanese launch a 3rd(?) successful attack, a blitz in central China. Yay. [:)]

[jjdenver]

40 SO i7:

As previously mentioned weather gets nasty starting with allied i7 and the Axis doesn't manage to do anything in i9 other than roll a 2 to end the turn. Aircraft have been searching in CSV this turn but without success so far.

All in all the Axis got 10 clear weather impulse in the 1940 campaigning season:
MA: 1
MJ: 3
JA: 3
SO: 3

This was enough to accomplish a lot but of course more could have been done. Here is the situation in China at EOT.

[jjdenver]

40 SO:
Here are losses to date

[jjdenver]

40 SO wrap-up:

As Euro-Axis commander I spent much of JA and SO agonizing over how to proceed. The overall situation is that the euro-axis are quite successful having seized Malta, Morocco, and inflicted heavy losses recently against the Tommies as well as the French. However, USSR looks huge, now building with the factories and resources of Manchuria as well as Persia. The Japanese are in a simply awful position, building at something like 8 BP per turn.

We faced some game bugs and had to go from v 2.7.5 back to 2.7.0 (cvp disappearing or not working correctly bug). So I can't easily load the save game to see exactly what JP was building at.

Given this situation the German high command decides to employ a strategy that I personally don't like because I think it's too powerful. I'd normally never choose this strategy because in an evenly balanced game I think it can be too strong. My philosophy is that I like both sides to be enjoying the game and I always prefer an interesting game to a one-sided game. So this strategy isn't my cup of tea at all.

However in this game I feel that something drastic is needed to keep the Axis in the game and give us a good chance to make it into 44 and 45 with a good game still going on. So the decision is taken to try to take Gibraltar by air and sea assault rather than going through Spain. Euro-Axis builds have to pivot to support this strategy so an IT AMPH is laid down (waaaaaayyyy too late haha), and all PARA and MAR divs are built by Italy and Germany as well as an IT ATR.

Japan will be lucky to survive into 44/45 and I'm not sure at all that Japan will even be able to seize its' basic defensive perimeter of Manila, Singapore, and NEI. Japan will also face an SU DOW probably in early 42. So Japan has really got a lot of work to do to re-establish some sort of order in China, prepare a defense of Korea and N. China v SU. On top of this only 1 JP CV, a CVL, has been built. I don't think any other naval assets at all have been built including no CV's, no BB's, no TRS, no AMPH, no SYNTH.

Japan has begun to take back some of China but by only killing 1 unit in JA 40 and 1 unit in SO 40, CH has got the +.25 PM boost which gives it extra BP's so China is still very strong.

So Euro-Axis needs to do whatever possible to put pressure on CW and eventually SU while also forcing US to pay attention to Europe rather than focusing heavily on the Pacific.

Although I'm not happy with the overall situation I'm looking forward to trying a med strategy. I've never tried this before with Germany so it will be interesting. [:'(]

Here is the situation at EOT SO 40 in Europe.