AAR - PBEM Game "Case Geld"

[Oleg Mastruko]

Losing conwoy routes has its price, though. Luckily UK and its possesions aren't directly endangered for now.

Here's production queue for England. Losing supplies and resources meant we had to shrink our production plans and put many things on hold. Red numerals are things that are put on hold, so as not to waste any resources and factory capability on them this turn. A turn ago we could work on all of this, this turn, cut from resources, we put many things on hold.

Note "5/0" under resources in the table to the right. 5 is total resource points available to UK this turn: three points are used for current production in England (as seen on the picture) and two are used for production in Scotland (not visible). If we put anything else in production, then resources would go into negative (5/-1) and something would not be produced (AI would decide what to stop). I think it's better if I decide what to put on hold, than to leave this decision to AI, so I did just that.

Note that I have 9 factory points that will remain unused this turn. That is a Bad Thing (tm).

O.

[Oleg Mastruko]

Mediterranean theatre is strange: Axis noted (correctly) that their North African adventure isn't sustainable, so they moved some troops back to continent. This left one Italian transport fleet in the open, and my CV operating from Alexandria sunk it. Then I recalled everything to ports, and Med is now uncontested, no one is interested.

I finished occupation of Persia, and occupied Saudi Arabia as well, repairing resources there too. At least this part of the world seems secured from Axis claws, for now. Note conwoy link from Egypt to India. I have some factories in India and that is good, and some fleet assets in Alexandria to protect them. I don't think German will go this far with his still limited sub flotillas, but once the Japan enters the war all bets are off.

This game is great, and I enjoy playing as WA [8D]

O.

[Joel Billings]

To give you an example of the trade offs involved, had Oleg used 2-4 more transports to link England with southern Africa, England would have been able to use the resources in Africa to fuel the English factories. He probably lost 10 production points by not linking. 10 production points will buy you 5 transports of 2 turns (although it will also use up some population), so he's giving up a lot by not keeping a link. At this stage of the game, all WA production amounts to 39, so losing 10 production points is a major hit. Of course, he would no doubt have lost several of the transports to U-boats had he put them out at sea. Another think Oleg could have done was send a carrier with several light fleets to go after a U-boat. If the U-boats have had their evasion researched up a level (possible by this point), then he would have had to send most of his navy to probably kill 1 U-boat (much easier once he researches his ASW up). He could have tried this but it would have cost him 20-30 supply points (which is equal to 4-6 production points). And he might still miss. Notice strategy often comes back to production points gained or lost.

[Oleg Mastruko]

Yes I did play somewhat conservative perhaps even defensive turn. Sub-hunting would cost me a lot this turn (supply wise), especially with CVs. One CV had undefended transport under its nose, so that was no brainer (I want to make Med secure and destroy Italian transport capability there), and I never had luck hunting subs with CVs anyway.

I thought about reopening route from UK to West and/or South Africa and African resources but decided against it this turn. He'd have lots of my transports on a plate to massacre them next turn. I don't think situation is that critical, at least for now.

O.

[Oleg Mastruko]

Here's why I didn't "insist" on reopening the transport routes with Africa [:D] (it's not visible on the screens above).

O.

[Becket]

There seems to be something very important missing in those screenshots.


[:@][:@][:@]

[Oleg Mastruko]

Soviet subs in the Atlantic? [8|]

O please do send them my communist brother, why wait? [:D]

Don't tell me you meant LL Arctic conwoy route? Sorry not this turn, Nazi beast went wild... Next turn I promise (if I don't forget).

O.

[Becket]

Case Geld: Or, "What if Hoover Was Still President"

[:D]

[Oleg Mastruko]

Finally this screen will nicely illustrate what we discussed above. Crap, letters got smudged when I JPEG-ed this.

Anyway I re-loaded my turn for "turorial" purposes, and sent additonal transport fleet from Gib south to African coast.

Read from bottom to top. 1 resource point in West Africa thus became available to UK industry. The OTHER resource point (in Nigeria) is still unavailable, because there's no link to West Africa, and no transport fleet off the Nigerian coast (and fleet sent there would have to eat OpFire from subs and would surely die).

Look at insert to the right - now I have 6/0 - an additional resource is available, and I could have produced one unit more (like the ARTY unit outlined on top of picture). Also I would surely lose another transport fleet to German subs in the next turn. Decisions, decisions... [:D]

O.

[YohanTM2]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

Here's why I didn't "insist" on reopening the transport routes with Africa [:D] (it's not visible on the screens above).

O.

Would have been just a touch dicey to redeploy those routes Oleg. Churchill better get the First Lord of the Admiralty working on new DD hulls and better depth charges or he may be turfed from office.

[YohanTM2]

ORIGINAL: Becket

There seems to be something very important missing in those screenshots.


[:@][:@][:@]

LOL, better offer Churchill the Balkans <g>

[paullus99]

Germany - Spring 1941

Our invasion of Russia may not have been the initial stunning blow it could have been if we have waited another season, but its better not to let too many more artillery come off the assembly lines (too close to my front lines) before attacking. We've regrouped somewhat & will continue the offensive this year.

Our sub fleets have been recalled to resupply with increased torpedo loads & prevent the Western Allies from taking advantage of our spread out wolf-packs. This will give us a huge number of fully-equipped subs for the Summer to once again cripply the WA supply lines.

As a precaution, we used our available air to destroy the two remaining transport units in the Atlantic. Oleg is going to have a hard war on his hands.

[Drax Kramer]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

Here's why I didn't "insist" on reopening the transport routes with Africa [:D] (it's not visible on the screens above).

O.

What are the relative costs of submarines vs ASW platforms? Is it possible for Allies to prevent such Axis domination in Atlantic by investing in ASW? What are the first decisions Allies must make regarding production until US comes into war?

I like this logistical aspect of war, I hope it will be out of Cristmass so that my wife has no need to worry about my present[:)]


Drax

[Oleg Mastruko]

O Drax that's you?!?! This "Kramer" thing confused me. Anyway, it's time to plan the Final Croat Takeover of Matrix board - we're slowly out-numbering Finns, in the unofficial "Wargamers to total population ratio" competition [:D]

OK people, Drax here is overall great guy and ACW buff (thats American Civil War, not ASW), something you don't see very often in The Old World. I guess my campaigning in the mail regarding WAW was success after all? [:D]

"Relative costs": sub fleets take 4 turns (seasons) to build, main ASW platforms: heavy (or LR) air units - 4 seasons too, DD fleets take 6 turns to build.

It is possible to prevent Axis domination of the Atlantic, but it's not easy, and you need time to develop good ASW systems. As I said in other thread transport system in WAW is very "submarine friendly" (discussion above shows this very well). Subs will have 2-3 periods of "happy times" in the Atlantic, no matter how you slice it. In this game I will try to surpress subs with my heavy air fleets, maybe even more than with DDs.

O.

[Becket]

Soviets, Spring 41:

The supply situation this turn was abysmmal and limited what I could do (hint, Oleg, SEND SUPPLY). [:D]

The first order of business was to harrass the forces outside of Leningrad. First, I sent the two fighters from Leningrad to kill the fighter in the Baltic States (lost one fighter myself). I then sent the heavy bomber from Moscow to strike the land forces in the Baltic States, destroying one infantry and, even better, damaging rail, which will cost paullus supply to fix. I believe Leningrad should hold out for at least one more turn, simply because if paullus diverts all the forces necessary to take it, (a) he'll take appalling losses and (b) it will leave him wide open in the southern regions. Here's hoping I'm right.

Next, we struck at Kiev. First, we sent the tac air in, where they destroyed an artillery unit. Second, we employed standard Soviet tactics -- infantry and armor supported by massed artillery -- in an all out attack on Kiev. We suceeded in taking the province, and only one German unit survived.

The remainder of the turn was spend reinforcing the line. Some areas are weakly held, with only militia guarding them, but the militia are present is such numbers that, again, it will take an overwhelming commitment of force to drive them out. Any overextension by the Germans will be a good thing for me.

I do expect to hold Kiev. Hopefully, I won't lose all the units there, but I am prepared to sacrifice them if necessary, as the race against time has begun. Every turn I delay the German assault is another step closer to victory, as the Ural/Khazakstan factories are online and working on new tanks that equal (and soon exceed) German abilities. I did have to commit too many resources to supply this turn (OLEG!), so it will likely be Summer of 42 before I can get a substantial armored force into the field.

Research was spent to bring armor attack to 8, equalling Germany, and we are very near a breakthrough in armor evasion, which would bring it to 9, the best of any force. Next turns we switch to infantry research.

[Becket]

China, Spring 41:

Oh, how I wish I could launch an offensive. However, until Mo has other things to distract him, if I even try to move troops into position, I'll get smacked (learned that lesson the hard way). So, I bide my time and wait.

Here's the force screen (showing units on the map and in production) as of Spring 41.

[YohanTM2]

Question:

Lot of comments about catching the German's troop capabilities. Is Germany unable to spend funds on research to stay ahead?

[Becket]

He's been researching armor evasion and artillery attack, among other things. He starts with armor evasion lower than the Soviets, but armor attack higher. So, he made that gap up pretty fast.

[Oleg Mastruko]

Russian crybabies resorted to desperate measures (ie. spamming this board with their whining [:D]) so we decided to give them the supplies they beg for. Paullus recalled all his sub flotillas for resupply and refit, so Atlantic (and Arctic route) are completely clear this turn. We must use this to the max, and haul as much supplies to wherever they are needed (and that includes SU too). Becket I sent you 20 "trucks" you asked for via Archangelsk, which is quite a lot, by any measure, but don't expect to get more anytime soon! Just look at how many subs this bloodthirsty Nazi has!

Paullus now has MANY flotillas of his uber-subs, and this will probably be last "freebie" transport turn for WA in a long time. Battle for Atlantic will enter critical phases in next few turns, as we improve ASW capabilities of our weapons and put them in production. By recalling his subs Paullus (inadvertedly) sent me the message: "free transport for you this turn" and I think I used this as best as I could.

I also have to produce lots of transport fleets to make good the inevitable losses. I predict I'll lose as many as 6-8 transport fleets in the next turn alone, when refitted and resupplied Mega Godzilla U-boots go back to swarm the Atlantic once more.

Anyway, we also ordered Gen. Auchinleck in Egypt to do something, as Axis dispositions in Libya seem weak. Med fleet CVs opened up with airstrikes on Axis positions (destroying an ART unit) and we moved our troops from Egypt in contact with the enemy in the Western Desert. Resupply for this effort is to be hauled from India. We hope to start liberation of Libya in the next turn.

Reality check: Our research plans from the beginning of the game proved to be just empty dreams. We abandoned many research projects for now (bye bye A Bomb - sigh!) to concentrate on ASW and land forces.

O.

[Oleg Mastruko]

Also, I noted that many of Paullus subs are refitting in French ports, so I scraped together an air force to strike sub bases there. I sent one medium air unit and one CV airgroup (from CV anchored in UK port). I ordered them specifically to attack ports.

Results are visible below - 3 FAC and 1 rail damaged (and my medium air unit also damaged). No subs were damaged. I am not disappointed, although maybe it's strange to see rail and factories damaged as result of what should have been port attack? Perhaps that's something we should discuss on the beta board? On the other hand, since one turn here represents three months, it's not entirely impossible that some railways and factories would suffer from a "port attacks"? Obviously Joel is the one to decide whether this represents intended results... [8|]

O.