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SO39 Axis #1

War in China
The Japanese Army is on the move, sweeping along to control the rail line between Shanghai and Changsha, as well as seizing Changsha itself. Atrocities result which are reported in the international press, causing a stir. (USE roll for occupying a city is a 2, resulting in one marker (value of 2) being added.)

In the north, HQ Terauchi is ordered out of Manchuria to support operations in northern China.

SO39 Axis #1

War in China
IJA air force squadrons move up to support IJA operations in southern China. You can see squadrons of IJN naval bombers that have reluctantly been assigned to assist.

SO39 Axis #1

Fall Weiss
The Polish Army, facing an overwhelming opponent on land and in the air, is set up as best it can, with strong formations in the major cities and a border picket, designed to waste German time. If bad weather sets in, Poland can hold off for some time. The Führer has demanded that Poland be liquidated within six weeks.

SO39 Axis #1

War in Poland
Luftwaffe bombers attack the Polish positions in Warsaw, Lodz, and Krakow, disorganising 4 of 6 possible target units, including the Polish HQ.

SO39 Axis #1

War in Poland
The German Army Groups along the Silesian and Slovakian frontiers advance to encircle the Polish border defences.

The Polish navy in Danzig is overrun, with the Polish merchant shipping escaping to the UK (7 rolled) and the destroyer flotilla scuttled before it could fall into German hands (3 rolled).

SO39 Axis #1

War in Poland
The Germans launch three attacks in Poland to clear out the border defences.

Poznan Attack
This is a +20.333 assault. The die roll is 8, so all goes well for Germany.

Krakow Attack
This is a +20 assault. A die roll of 14 ensures a perfect result for the Germans.

Woodland Attack
Easily the sketchiest battle, given the units at risk: a +14.667 blitz. Not high odds of things going wrong, but had they gone wrong, it would have been costly. Passing the fractional odds roll for a +15B combat, and then a combat die roll of 10, however, ensures that the panzers were able to roll up the Polish cavalry with ease.

(Just remember, kids, during the early frontier battles against Poland, if you don't have a cheap division to risk, don't accept anything less than a +20 combat!)

SO39 Axis #1

War in Poland
The Luftwaffe brings fresh fighter squadrons closer to the action and the remaining Polish defenders in order to cover Army Group South from Polish air attack.

01 September/October 1939

Allied Impulse #2

Britain and France declare war on Germany, fulfilling their guarantees to Poland. With Germany in complete control of the Polish coastline and with a strong defence along the Franco-German border, however, it's hard to see how the Allies will intervene in such a way as to save Poland from destruction.

Forces in the US hoping for peace, or that are pro-isolationist or pro-neutrality, react badly. (USE roll of a 6 results in one marker being removed (value of 1).)

Reserves
All three major powers that are now at war call out their reserves, deploying them in a more or less defensive fashion. Not shown are the Indian and Australian militia formations called up in Delhi and Sydney, respectively.

Impulses
USA combined
USSR combined
CW naval
Fr naval
Ch land

SO39 Allied #2

USA Impulse
My strategic plan for the US involves assuming war with Japan, but if you'll forgive the indulging in a little "roleplaying", the US doesn't really expect to go to war. All the same, with the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, the US decides it's better to be more prepared than less, and so deploys HQ Nimitz and naval bomber formations from San Diego to Hawaii.

Not shown is the 4th infantry division railing from the East Coast to San Diego.

SO39 Allied #2

USSR Impulse
The Soviet Navy deploys a battleship into the Black Sea to support potential operations against Rumania, while artillery detachments assigned to Zhukov's Far East Front are slowly returned to Europe in expectation of their potential use in Rumania.

NKVD detachments and cavalry regulars occupy the barely-defended Eastern Polish sector promised to the USSR as part of the Nazi-Soviet pact. This deed shocks the world. (USE roll of 1 results in one marker lost (the big 4-value marker, too).)

To replace the artillery, the USSR invites its Mongol allies (or is that vassals?) to join the Far East Front.

SO39 Allied #2

China Impulse
The Communists respond to the opening in Japanese defences by advancing towards Taiyuan, in the hopes of "liberating" it.

Meanwhile, the Nationalists respond to the Japanese advance by a slight withdrawal.

SO39 Allied #2

Anglo-French Impulse
With the Anglo-French Supreme War Council yet to convene, the two Allies's naval operations are uncoordinated. Most Royal Navy deployments are throughout the Atlantic, setting up long-term convoy defence schema.

Of note, however, is a flotilla of French shipping bringing the XIII Corps to the Western Med and the approaches to southern France, a daring French raid in the Baltic, a large Royal Navy detatchment in the Eastern Med, and the blockade and BEF at sea in the North Sea.

Unfortunately, the French cruisers fail to find the German merchant shipping and its previous iron ore cargo (France initiates a combat in the Baltic, but the search rolls are Allied 8, Axis 3, so no combat occurs.)

SO39 Allied #2

Anglo-French Impulse
The RAF and French l'Armée de l'Air launch coordinated raids by happenstance on Germany, each with the intent of paralysing operational capacity in the West.

The RAF manages to disorganise German divisions on the coast that present a potential invasion threat to either Denmark or the UK, while the French, unfortunately, are unable to disrupt German command-and-control, which France determined was a key prerequisite for any attempted offensive action on land.

SO39 Allied #2

Defence of Poland
With the border defences overthrown, the city defences disorganised, and with the treachery of the USSR, the Polish high command believes the country can't hold against the German invasion.

Rather than throw mustering reserves uselessly into battle, the Poles send them into Rumania along with the air force, ensuring they can fight again, in time. (The air units are interned, giving the Commonwealth 2 pilots immediately. There's no mechanical representation for such events as, say, the move of Polish units towards the Romanian Bridgehead, as such, although something like it is represented by the Polish units appearing in the CW force pool once the USSR and Germany at war.)

ORIGINAL: composer99

the French, unfortunately, are unable to disrupt German command-and-control, which France determined was a key prerequisite for any attempted offensive action on land.

I sometimes think I won a game by making this die roll. The German player couldn't believe that I tried this, and then couldn't believe I made the die roll, but it was a 30% overall chance iirc. His plans for 1939 were instantly wiped out and he was off his game for the duration, though he eventually managed to launch a strong 1941 Barbarossa and the game really turned by all of the Allies in the middle years. But he never stopped commenting on this one die roll and 'luck'. Once you put that in the front of your thoughts, I think it influences your play. If your grand strategy can be stopped by a single opposing die roll - is that the perfect strategy?

I am always surprised that I don't see this happen more in AARs. There is zero point to strategic bombing Germany on the first turn when their HQs are in the west.

The German counter-measure is to deploy the AA unit with any HQs near the Rhine, though in 20% of games they don't have it.

In Collector's Edition, the pendulum swings to German advantage on using AA. Same 20% chance to not draw the mobile 88s, but Germany does have 2 Flak counters that can shoot at tactical air missions at half strength. Every modifier on the die might make a difference in World in Flames.

ORIGINAL: composer99

01 September/October 1939

Axis Impulse #1

Germany starts by declaring war on Poland. USE roll is a 1, so a single marker (value of 1) is added.

Something odd here. The USE entry effect for Germans declaring war on Poland is 12, so a USE entry roll of 1 should have moved two chits.

ORIGINAL: brian brian

ORIGINAL: composer99

the French, unfortunately, are unable to disrupt German command-and-control, which France determined was a key prerequisite for any attempted offensive action on land.

I sometimes think I won a game by making this die roll. The German player couldn't believe that I tried this, and then couldn't believe I made the die roll, but it was a 30% overall chance iirc. His plans for 1939 were instantly wiped out and he was off his game for the duration, though he eventually managed to launch a strong 1941 Barbarossa and the game really turned by all of the Allies in the middle years. But he never stopped commenting on this one die roll and 'luck'. Once you put that in the front of your thoughts, I think it influences your play. If your grand strategy can be stopped by a single opposing die roll - is that the perfect strategy?

I am always surprised that I don't see this happen more in AARs. There is zero point to strategic bombing Germany on the first turn when their HQs are in the west.

The German counter-measure is to deploy the AA unit with any HQs near the Rhine, though in 20% of games they don't have it.

In Collector's Edition, the pendulum swings to German advantage on using AA. Same 20% chance to not draw the mobile 88s, but Germany does have 2 Flak counters that can shoot at tactical air missions at half strength. Every modifier on the die might make a difference in World in Flames.

Wow, talk about letting yourself get off your game!

Realistically, as the French, I rather doubt I would have attempted an attack even if I had disorganised Rundstedt, but failing to do so certainly put paid even to entertaining the notion. What is more, I didn't really plan as Germany on fighting in Western Europe until 1940 anyway. A couple of years back I was regularly playing on Vassal with a few other fellows where it was habit to play with No ZoCs on surprise, which saw a lot of France-first games - but it also saw a lot of earlier US gear-ups and entry into the war, thanks to the edge those 1939 entry markers gave. I intended to manage US entry at least a little as the Axis, so trying to do stuff as much as possible in 1940 was the goal unless I had reason to wait until 1941.

All the same, the French succeeding on the ground strike against Rundstedt would have made at least some difference: with the RAF pinning down two of the units I regularly depend on as Germany for swiftly overrunning Denmark, it would have been put off at least until November/December, giving the Allies that much extra time to operate freely in the Baltic.

Edit to add: Also, now I come to think of it, if I had considered a first-turn attack on the Netherlands and/or Belgium, a successful French ground strike would obviously have put paid to it. In the event, the Allies successfully delayed any such attack with Rundstedt having to reorganise units on the Danish border instead of units along the Western Front.

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

ORIGINAL: composer99

Germany starts by declaring war on Poland. USE roll is a 1, so a single marker (value of 1) is added.

Something odd here. The USE entry effect for Germans declaring war on Poland is 12, so a USE entry roll of 1 should have moved two chits.

That's a typo. The roll was a '6'. Fixing in the original post as of this writing.

01 September/October 1939

Axis Impulse #3

Weather
The weather roll is a 2, so clear weather continues to prevail.

Impulses
Ge land
Ja land
It combined

Libyan Build-Up
Italy brings the Libia Corps to... well, to Libya, off-loading in Tobruk. Libia Corps then advances out of Tobruk to the frontier with Egypt.

SO39 Axis #3

War in China
The Japanese continue their unopposed advance in the south, occupying Hengyang. The advance slows up as the Japanese enter the mountains. IJA air force squadrons move forward into Hengyang to continue supporting the advance.

Either Japanese forces behave upon seizing Hengyang, or reports of atrocities don't make it into the international press. (USE roll for occupying the city is a roll of 3, which normally generates a marker but does not because I am playing with the additional Chinese cities optional rule.)

In the north, third-string infantry forces (a GARR corps) are rapidly deployed by rail to prevent the Communists from entering Taiyuan, while HQ Terauchi and supporting forces from Manchuria reach the approaches to Chengchow.