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Turn 13: Winter 1943: Japan

And so, it begins. We bomb Pearl Harbor with disappointing results: one light fleet sunk and one heavy fleet sunk. What the hell...we move our heavy fleets into the area to dare the US to counter, as we intend to pound the area for a while.

The rest of the moves this turn were disappointing. I did not seize as much territory as I would have liked, however, I'm quite fond of the island hopping invasion rules (seize an island, then hop back on a transport and seize another).

Up to 58 production. Could it be possible? Is 70 in sight?

Turn 13: Winter 1943: Allies

Arrgh. Some reversals.

Soviets prove they still have teeth and take Vladivostok from the Japanese. This costs them most of what forces they have left, but is annoying.

Chinese move ominously to the coast. I do not have enough forces for this.

WA...wow. The ships in PH come out to play: my 5 carriers & 5 heavy fleets against several heavy fleets & two carriers. The WA takes the worst. I lost a heavy and two air units, the WA loses two carriers, a few ships, and some carrier air units.

The US might is suddenly felt in the Med as the WA pummels my pathetic med fleet into dust. I have to close Gibralter, and fast.

Turn 14: Spring 43: Germany

I take Spain and Gibralter. Hopefully that will shut down the WA's access to the Med. The rest of the turn spent consolidating gains. Partisans everywhere! Oh, uneasy sits the crown.

Turn 14: Spring 43: Japan

I suck. I left the PH force unsupplied and I can't get a supply chain that stretches far enough to reach them.

They're going to get crushed next turn by the monster fleet that the WA is sending my way. Ugh.

I take a few more islands, but I'm completely out of supply and in a really bad fix. Took Vladivostok back but had no supply to fix the factory there.

Ugh ugh ugh. I may lose this game solely due to my inept handling of Japan...my best hope is probably to find a way to scrape together the 9 production points necessary to get an automatic victory.

Turn 14: Spring 43: Allies

SU: Dead.

China: Takes back Foochow. I'm skrewed.

WA: Ow. This one hurt. I fought off the attempt to destroy my fleet hovering around PH, but they totally demolished my transport fleets with submarines. My empire is a shambles. Brits invaded SE Asia and took Rangoon.

My Production Point total plummeted from 61 to 55, a loss of 6 poins on one turn. (Key because in the next German turn, I repair enough to get back to 63. Had I not lost all that production, I'd have been 1 point away from automatic victory. *sigh* Now I'm more or less guaranteed to be looking at a long defense of the western shores of Europe.

WA also invaded Morocco and have a good foothold there. Will need to drive them back into the ocean. Luckily, this means Vichy is now unfrozen.

Turn 15: Summer 1943: Germany

This turn is spent in repairing and preparing. I do not yet have troops in position to attack the concentration in Morocco, so that will have to wait til next turn. Malta, too, remains a thorn in my side.

My production points increase to 64 due to shrewd repair and resource collection. In other words, barring last turn's Japanese collapse, I'd have an automatic victory.

Turn 15: Summer 1943: Japan

How awful is my condition? I had five supply this round. I could do nothing except harrass British shipping.

My goal is to conserve what I can, and shoot to make one last gasp to increase my production points by a couple or three, and try to get 70 total.

Turn 15: Summer 1943: Allies

China: takes another coastal province. I am helpless to defend.

WA: Tries again to smash my trapped fleet at PH. They destroy all the remaining heavy fleets, but three carriers remain (all carrier air destroyed, so...you can imagine what will happen to them next turn). The WA take Siam. The empire, it doth shrink.

On the European front, the WA bomb Gibraltar, reinforce Morocco, and send a nice sized army to Greenland (assumedly to invade Britain.

Turn 16: Fall 1943: Germany

*sigh*

My repair and expansion efforts bring me to 69 production points. One short of victory. Ah well. Partisan attacks send the total back to 66 after the turn was over, anyway, but still, tantalizingly close.

I seized Morocco, and should take Gibraltar next turn. On the new German-China border, I invaded and took Sianking, along with the resouces and factory there.

Turn 16: Fall 1943: Japan

I use my meager 5 supply to repair a damaged resource. Increases my production points by one.

Can you tell that I'm going all out for 70 here?

Turn 16: Fall 1943: Allies

China: takes more coastal territory. I've written off western China at this point, anyway.

WA: utterly destroys the remaining trapped IJN fleet at Pearl and begins moving West.

Huge suprise! WA punishes me for leaving Finland ungarrisoned by dropping an infantry there. Bastards. Easy to address but annoying nonetheless.

Turn 17: Winter 1944: Germany

Big, big swing in production this turn. I am able to take and repair several Middle East nations, raising my production total to 75 (higher than the Allied total, now).

Just in case, I surround Finland, and take Gibraltar.

Then I press the turn advance button and....




Hope you guys enjoyed this. I know there wasn't a ton of detail sometimes, especially near the end, but it's hard to post tons of detail on non-combat events. At least for me it is.

Final Map:

Left column is damaged, right column is destroyed. No German armor unit was destroyed, just 8 damaged. Check out the Soviet infantry losses.

Post-mortem:

I really thought I'd have no chance at an automatic victory after the Japanese collapse. Interestingly, I was saved by one of Germany's weaknesses: lack of population. My population essentially capped the amount of units I could produce. I didn't bother queuing many up, because I couldn't churn them all out due to my low population. It's the major difference between Germany and the WA: while I ultimately passed the WA in production, most of that was from captured factories that don't produce units. In any event, this meant that I had tons of production lying around that was useful only for supply or research. Once I had 130+ supply per turn, I could repair my empire with ease. It took a few turns to get everything, but in the end, I had taken a massive amount of resources. The Middle East and China put me over the top.

Japan is a lot of fun. I'm probably going to focus more on them from now on. I made some collosal blunders, but the WA needed at least two more turns before they could start to punish me in the home islands. Lesson learned.