Solitaire game starting late '42

[EUBanana]

There are quite a few German attacks planned but Allied air superiority (really - Germany stretched too thin) is making them a bit risky... Eisenhower simply cannot be attacked without being bombed first so he gets to be unmolested even if he is cut off.

[EUBanana]

Some extra armour arriving in the Pskov region really gives Germany the edge, especially as they are out of range of the Soviet Il-2s so no defending ground support.

So this is a ray of sunshine for Germany, who might finally conquer the Baltics after all...

[EUBanana]

Well, this is up there with 'worst move of the game' actions, don't know what I was thinking there... +8 defence from 1 tankbuster getting through did not help.

[EUBanana]

I didn't realise the aircraft bonus was capped by the attacking factors AFTER the fort... you wouldn't have thought forts stopped bombers.

So the importance of ART in attacking fortresses is now clear to me.

At least sacrificial cavalry was brought.

[EUBanana]

The Imperial Fleet has it's CV air rejiggled in the rebase phase... that's every carrier the IJN has I think.

TBH it looks kinda scary, I'm not sure the USN is going to just sweep that away like it was nothing with their.. seven CVs total? but we'll see I guess.

[EUBanana]

Impulse #2.

US go for a land with an O-chit as they really need to break out of Brittany, they can't maneuver at all.

SU goes for a land o-chit too aiming for an assault with Zhukov.

I'm skipping the air to air. There was a lot. There was some ineffective strategic bombing at night from the CW that just cost some bombers and achieved nothing. The Germans managed to fend off several attacks which gives an idea of just how many there were given this lot...

[EUBanana]

Oh the RAAF is at work over the Bismarck Sea as well, though they didnt find the convoy point there.

[EUBanana]

Zhukov's boys go in, and deliver an absolute thrashing. The odds were decent but the dice rolls were very kind on top.

End result, the Soviets were threatening Bryansk and are well over the Dnieper and pushing hard in the north.

That attack the Germans made in the south did actually disrupt almost all their ARMs, so that attack Germany did wasn't quite as bad as I thought. But the Soviets are moving on the north big time.

[EUBanana]

Brest is a formality, Nantes is probably more important... though the Germans just... don't have enough to stop this.

[EUBanana]

It's gonna be a tough summer for Germany I think...

[EUBanana]

Pretty disastrous impulse... this gives you an idea of what was happening in all those air to air combats too.

The Soviets used their only O-chit though so there is that. Germany has 1, the US currently has 4 more.

[EUBanana]

Impulse #3, Axis go.

Lots of land actions.

Germany tries a spot of bombing around Pskov again, and on the Dnieper to slow the tide a bit. They got a lot on their plate right now... main thing is to extricate their HQs. After my stoopid attack on the first impulse (which did in fairness knock out the Soviet ARMs this turn mostly it seems!) I reorged with a couple of HQs, which are now stuck. And while I got an o-chit to reactivate them all, there's not much point doing that until you've disorged a lot more HQs or its a bit of a waste.

[EUBanana]

The land actions are mostly readjusting lines by the Germans.

France's defences now look like this... look in theory ok if thin on the ground, but the real problem is they've used up all their fighters are already. In fact now the Luftwaffe is forced to cover 3 fronts they are basically totally outgunned on all three.

[EUBanana]

The Leningrad area is its own lil mini front and the only one with German local superiority, so I think if there are any German pushes it'll be here this turn.

[EUBanana]

The eastern front proper is looking slightly more defensible I think...

Japan meanwhile does a few minor land moves, moving MILs around, moving some bombers around. They shou;d've taken an air action really.

[EUBanana]

Impulse #4, allies go.

Bit of agonising as to actions. In the end the US goes for an o-chit land. Because they need to get past that forest in Brittany, their air power cannot smash the crap out of forests so well. They have a lot of other stuff to do but you only need one naval a turn really, and I guess they can skip the supercombined.

CW does a naval action, the rest land.

CW sets up convoy defences, re-establishes ssupply to Ike (TRN in the 2 box in North Sea and Bay of Biscay so should be secure for a while). More ships added to the blockade around Italy. Gort is moved to Greece along with a MOT, maybe we can push a bit there, not through the moutnains but up to Macedonia. The MAR that landed in France is transported out to the Eastern Med, Brittany is a 100% American affair on the ground (there's one CW marine division there still, the commandoes).

The Far East fleet grows, now the Italians have been thoroughly dealt with, though there are still two CVs in the Med to keep them in their box.

[EUBanana]

The RAAF gets past the Tony flying over the convoy in Bismarck Sea and sinks it, cutting Truk off, again. No air casualties. I think Japan is going to have to essentially abandon Truk for all but brief impulses, they can contest the Bismarck Sea but at a cost, and they cannot afford to pay it at will.

A CW sub patrols the South China Sea fruitlessly, and the BB Roma is not found even tough it roams the Italian Coast.

And then there follows some quite brutal bombing of Germans mostly. The main CW attack on Occupied France was contested but the Spitfire escort saw off the FW190.

[EUBanana]

And a whole bunch more... ouch.

[EUBanana]

Fair bit of brutalising by land, though the Soviet advance falters bit...

[EUBanana]

In France the o-chit gives the US their forest.