Solitaire game starting late '42

[EUBanana]

Mud on the eastern front and snow on the western means there's not a whole lot going on there now. And with the Allied airpower all used up in those giant combined actions, there's not a lot to do anyway.

This seems to be good for the Germans, who have the Americans thoroughly bottled up in Brittany now.

And with the Japanese winning the naval battle at the Marianas, its looking kinda up in general - the eastern front is kinda dicey but contained for now.

Italy though has altered again as the armour that has been present there for quite a while finally gets used now the mountains are cleared due to that earlier carpet bombing. XXX Corps smashes right through some Italians and the front is so thin that they take Milan, forcing, no doubt, a general German retreat.

[EUBanana]

Impulse #9, in the bad weather it's not like anybody can do anything really. Germany would like an air action to reorganise the Luftwaffe but are compelled to take a land action given the situation in Italy. Japan also does a land action, mainly to counterattack partisans but also land on Iwo Jima with a lot of BB support.

If they were lucky it could've been truly glroious, unfortunately they are not. Iwo Jima is going to be a pretty big battleground going forward I fear...

[EUBanana]

Some relief as the turn ends on both sides... a pretty brutal turn at sea, and landing in France got instantly shut down due to the weather. But Germany is being squeezed from all sides. Japan seems to be sitting pretty for a few turns now on the other hand.

Germany has 43 points
2 MNT
3 INF
2 ARM
3 pilot
2 FTR-2
1 LND-3
1 arty

Italy has 4 points
1 INF
1 cruiser

Japan has 17 points
1 MAR
3 naval repair (they do get Hiryu back)
1 carrier air 1
2 pilots
1 NAV-3


China has 9 points
1 INF
1 ARM

CW has 27 points
2 naval construction
1 pilot
2 FTR-2
1 CVA
1 offensive

US has 57 points
1 naval repair (it was the CV first time)
6 naval construction (its gonna be late, but what choice have they got?)
2 FTR-2
NAV-2
2 pilots
2 INF
1 INF div
sub repair
SUB
Offensive


SU has 31 points
2 INF
1 ARM
1 FTR-2
1 pilot
Offensive

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

Snow is Stalin weather. Remember that the Russians get +1 for every winterized unit they have (0.5 for divisions, halved by river), and their winterized units are all white print, MTN and ski units. They can often get a net plus from the weather.

Huh. I'll try and bear that in mind. They are getting a lot more white print units now late in the war too.

[cfinch]

i will make the same suggestion for Ge i made for Ru earlier - retreating is a reasonable option to shorten lines which spares units for reserves and west theater, also rivers must be around somewhere ...

jp - not sure it went entirely their way, trading units isn't always bad for US but i recall you have some issues with arriving Cvs ;p

[EUBanana]

The US has about four Essexes incoming in 1944, so they’ll still have carrier superiority I think, but it won’t be so crushing they can drown the IJN with flat tops and have victory as a given.

The CW is building up a CV force of their own in India and I think in this reality the BPF isn’t going to be an optional extra but a must have adjunct to the Pacific fleet.

And the decent long range fighters like P51Ds will all be going to the Pacific in this one.

Iwo Jima is the last “hop” I suppose so at least they are at the gates, the next few turns will be just keeping Iwo Jima going I imagine, and bringing up LBA. There’s quite a few US subs incoming too as they build quick so the IJN merchant marine will have its guts ripped out I think given how much damage the 2-3 US subs did.

[EUBanana]

Mar/Apr 44 impulse #1

US/CW naval, everybody else land. Snow in SU, storms almost everywhere else.

Naval stuff fairly boring. Transports crisscrossing everywhere carrying units. Convoys being defended. to give an idea of the scale off the East Coast of the US there 7 loaded transports right now, and off the west coast, 3. And that doesn't include the ones that started by the US and are now hovering off Europe.

About the only daring thing even remotely is that the US still wants Kwajalein. Another port to threaten the Marianas with is just too good.

US carriers remain at Pearl as a reserve. 1 sub goes to the south china sea. 3 more, good ones, left the west coast on this impulse.

[EUBanana]

That sub manages to sink 1 convoy and abort 2 before getting aborted back to Rabaul.

And then the Aussie airforce reaches out and touches the Japanese, quite badly, in the Bismarck sea from Rabaul. Rabaul is defended by an AUssie white print and quite a substantial airforce, and clearly the Bismarck Sea is very much contested. Japan has 5 NAVs covering the Bismarck Sea... but after the big fight last turn in the Marianas, zero Zeroes. They might need to abandon Rabaul supply wise, at least temporarily, they have so few transports/convoys...

[EUBanana]

The Japanese do decide to abandon the Bismarck Sea at least temporarily and abort.

Clearly Manila needs to be repaired...

[EUBanana]

Kwajalein absorbs another ineffective ground attack... there's one on the Eastern Front as well in the snow, the Germans don't bother to contest. They are short on fighters now as many were diverted west, so the scale has tipped a bit more in the Soviet favour.

Then we come onto the land, and I try this winterized thing out. Sure enough there's an opportunity, I didnt' screenshot the actual fight, but the Russians manage to push over a frozen river with a lot of elite armour and blitzkrieg the Germans back a step. Attackers circled.

So yeah, the SU has been mishandled in this game even more than I thought!

[EUBanana]

Impulse #4, Axis go.

Germany is gonna lose all their SUBs if they dont do something baout it, so they take a combined just for that.

Japan takes a naval, storms in China, a new defensive arrangement to ponder given the Bismarck Sea situation.

Italy's rump state a land.

Yamato and Kinugasa raid the Coral Sea which is stormy and only protected by cruisers.

A single convoy point and a cruiser goes to the Bismarck Sea, there's one Reisen who can be rebased to Truk to cover. A Tony gets loaded onto a TRN destined for Manila for the same reason, covering the Bismarck Sea and making a fight of it.

Yamato finds nothing. The SUB that patrols of Hawaii aborts a the convoy in the Marshalls and is itself aborted, but that doesn't reaelly make any odds, probably wasn't even worth the oil. Plenty of American CPs and ont much to use them on. Plenty of TRNs as well.

[EUBanana]

Aside from saving the submarine fleet at Bordeaux, the rest of the German combined action basically goes on adjusting the defences in italy. In particular all bar one rebase air action is used to send fighters, now 3 decent ones there, but against a true air armada...

[EUBanana]

Now I think it's too cold even for Russians...

going to be a quiet turn I think, which will no doubt soon come to an end.

[EUBanana]

So the US can't really do anything much, not wanting to waste risky attacks in the rain. They got a huge air farce to rebase though so go for an air action.

CW needs to advance in Italy so they take a ground, was pondering air for them too. Having a big commonwealth air force really stresses their 2 air actions for taking land I've noticed. And theirs is quite big. Feels like the CW is very action starved.

In any case rearranegemtns are made, and then on a 1, the turn ends early.

[EUBanana]

Oil isn't really a problem for anybody this turn.

A massive swathe of reinforcements ends up in the UK and even Italy which still had units en route, though I'm thinking the CW doesn't really need any more given the choke points in the Alps.

Lots more Allied fighters in the UK especially.

A few extras in the Pacific too, USS Ranger returned to Pearl for example, several SUBs are now at Midway.

The German Uboat fleet returns to Kiel, where it no doubt will remain for the rest of the war.

Only unit to be destroyed as a Japanese TRN in the Bismarck Sea that turn.

Production...

Germany has 42 points
2 MOT
1 GARR
3 MIL
3 Pilot
FTR-2
FTR-3
Offensive

Japan has 21 points
1 sub repair
4 naval repair, all cruisers
3 FTR-2
3 Pilot
2 MIL

China has 8 points
LND-4
Pilot
Inf-div

CW has 27 points
Transport
SUB
3 CVA
2 pilot
Airlanding
Offensive

US has 70 points ( [&o] [X(] )

5 naval construction
3 naval repair
4 SUB
4 FTR-2
3 Pilot
Antitank 5
Mech-div
Engineers
MOT
Offensive

SU has 30 points
1 INF
Antitank 5
LND-3
Pilot x2
Offensive



Axis have the initiative for once. Weather is decent... the war is on.

[EUBanana]

As per usual, here's the reinforcements due the end of this turn...

The Essex's are coming online such as they are.

[Courtenay]

So the US can't really do anything much, not wanting to waste risky attacks in the rain. They got a huge air farce to rebase though so go for an air action.

CW needs to advance in Italy so they take a ground, was pondering air for them too. Having a big commonwealth air force really stresses their 2 air actions for taking land I've noticed. And theirs is quite big. Feels like the CW is very action starved.

In any case rearranegemtns are made, and then on a 1, the turn ends early.

This is why the US wants O-chits: Supercombineds. Generally one a turn, with excess O-chits used for land. The CW is going to want some O-chits, too. The Russians will want some three, for summer of '44.

US carriers remain at Pearl as a reserve.

Now that the US has Rabaul, they will want most of their fleet there. It is closer to more, and more important places. The US objectives are either Truk (very hard against a good defense) or Manila. Major ports rule everything, at least until the US improved ports optional rule is implemented.

[EUBanana]

Thing about Rabaul is it's very much contested atm far as the air war goes, so I was a bit wary of a port strike on it, though it's safe from counterinvasion with white print Aussies there. There are Lightnings there but they are getting a bit obsolete now tbh. I think some Aussie Mosquitoes are coming though.

I guess I shouldn't be that afraid of port strikes as they don't seem that good without surprise.

[EUBanana]

May/Jun 44, impulse #1, Axis initiative.

Japan takes a naval, Italy takes a combined, both send out raiders. Japan fixes its convoys a bit, sends out escorts as well.

The Commonwealth doesn't lack for NAVs these days. Germany is cagey about using fighters to protect Italian naval assets at this point in the war... the pixeltruppen are giong to be used up without regrets though.

[EUBanana]

San Georgio and Caio Duilio are damaged and aborted.

Roma somehow survives to patrol still.


Japanese raiders sink the convoys in Polynesia and New Zealand Coast - not that this actually cuts any supply to anything, but it's an irritation. The USN isn't really big enough to put two cruisers everywhere, whichi s the bare minimum, might have to do this going on though. Especially as Japanese cruisers are much bigger, it'll jsut mean toasted cruisers. I suppsoe they need more LBA and more spread out.

Ike is currently out of supply at Cherbourg, a very tempting target, so the Germans go for it, but they are a teensy bit outnumbered - though their quality is very high.