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Turn 22. Mar/Apr 1943. Japan. Final Production. Oil.

US and Chinese strategic bombing against Japan was a failure with one notable exception, the USA successfully bombed and negate the oil point form the Japanese Synth oil facility. This meant that the Japanese had access to 0 oil for reorganization this turn even with all the oil and save oil in the captured Dutch East Indies. The oil there was not usable because of the absence of Japanese ships in the South China Sea.

The top form reports that 3 Japanese oil points were lost to strategic bombing. Only 1 of the 3, the Synth oil facility was actually lost to strategic bombing, the other 2 were lost to a partisan.

Turn 22. Mar/Apr 1943. France. Final Production. Oil.

Japan isn't the only country suffering from the lack of oil for reorganization. France is too. Unlike Japan, this was self inflicted by the allies as a result of a messed up trade deal between France and the CW. A trade deal which has been cancelled. Note that the French are sending four non-oil resources to the USA.

Turn 22. Mar/Apr 1943. Economic Reports.

While allied strategic bombing was ineffective against Germany and Japan, it did have a significant impact on Italy. Italy lost 4 PP's, which translates into 6 BP's, the allied strategic bombers.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Destroyed & Repair Pools.

The "Cold War" between Germany and the Soviet Union became hot, very hot this turn. Overconfidence about ones own strength compared to the other led to costly mistakes on both sides of this new front. That is, the "Eastern Front".

While the uneasy peace on the Eastern Front exploded into a fierce and brutal shooting war this turn, the fighting on the existing fronts, to include the Med, Atlantic and Japan, often times matched that of this new, Eastern Front war zone.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Weather and Actions.

The axis won the initiative, elected to go first and Germany/Italy on their first impulse DOW the Soviet Union. With the exception of rain in the North Monsoon on only one impulse pair, the weather was fine everywhere for the entire turn.

On the allies first impulse (allied #2), the USA used an o-chit to double their combat values on an attack to take Hiroshima. On the third allied impulse (allied #6), the Soviets used an o-chit to reorganize all their HQ units.

This turn ended on a 20% chance and a roll of 2 after the fourth allied impulse (allied #8). Given the 10% chance of ending the previous impulse (i.e., axis #7), the cumulative chance of this turn ending on this or the prior impulse was 28%. So, given this turns weather, roughly 1 out of 4 game turns of this sort would end this soon (or sooner).

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Germany Ground Strikes on Soviet Units. Surprise Impulse.

Fairly good results but neither of the two Soviet HQ's targeted were disorganized.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. German Land Combat. Surprise Impulse. Soviet Union.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Land Combat. Soviets Counterattack Army Group North Armor Spearhead.

A "5" on the 2D10 Blitz CRT! A very good chance to destroy two quality German armor units thwarted by a bad combat roll.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Land Combat. Soviets vs Axis Minors.

While the Soviets did get beat up by Army Group Center and North, they did manage to do damage to two of Germany's minor allies (Romania and Finland).

Turn 23. May/June 1943. USSR Captures Ploesti Oil Fields.

Germany aligned Romania this turn, however, Germany was unprepared to properly help defend them. As a result, Germany lost 3 oil points in addition to the 2 oil points lost in trade from the Soviet Union after Germany's "surprise" DOW.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Land Combat. Bucharest, Romania.

Not only did Germany lose a major source of oil, they lost Romania.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. The Eastern Front.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Finland.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. CW and USA Convoyed Resources.

While Germany and the Soviet Union were slugging it out, the Italians with the assistance of German u-boats already at sea in the North Atlantic and Cape St. Vincent used naval actions to hammer allied convoy routes through those two area. The result was 8 CW and USA CPs sunk and 2 aborted. While the CW and USA did manage to shore up these losses and fix these convoy routes, the CW and USA combined have only 2 spare (i.e., unused) CPs.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. CP Losses.

Both Italy and Japan suffered CP losses too this turn. Japan lost 3 CPs and Italy 1 with 3 more aborted.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Cagliari, Sardinia. Land Combat.

Now turning to the Med and the island of Sardinia, the Western Allies (finally) successfully captured Cagliari, but at a cost.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Olbia, Sardinia. Land Combat.

But the Western Allies couldn't quite sweep the axis totally from the island.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Sardinia, Western Med and Italian Coast.

Turn 23. May/June 1943. Western Front. (For Completeness)

Now turning to the Pacific, I wanted to point out that the most important unit of the game arrived this turn. [;)]