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Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Land Combat. Ploesti, Rumania.

Fighting for the oilfields at Ploesti went back and forth with Germany winning.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Bucharest, Rumania.

With the Germans, actually the Hungarians, eventually "liberating" Rumania. This has to be the ultimate embarrassment for the Rumanian government. First to get conquered by the Soviets on the opening days of the war and then to be "liberated" by the Hungarians.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Land Combat. Not Properly Accounting for Defensive Air Support but then Rolling Well.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good ... but one doesn't want to have to account on that all the time because by definition low odds attacks will catch up with you and likely catch up with a vengeance.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Land Combat. USSR.

The Red Army did have some limited success against Army Groups Center and North. But this wasn't one of those attacks. Another lesson learned for me is that I need to start properly accounting for defensive air support and stopped being "surprised" by these low odd attacks.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Finland.

One are the Red Army did have, and continues to have, great success in is in Finland.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Land Combat. Finland.

Finland's brave leader knocked out. By the way as the Germany player I'm glad I elected to conduct the second attack (top cap) first, otherwise the it would have been a disaster.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. A Second Front. The Western Front.

The Western Allies attempted to take some pressure off the Soviets by opening a second front against German. The success of this second front is far from guaranteed.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Land Combat. Germany's Counterattack Against the Allied Beachhead in France.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Land Combat. Marseilles, France.

Attempts at this second front expanding into the Med failed.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Western Med. Sardinia. Southern France.

This invasion from the West Med failed in part because of the allies inability to gain naval and air supremacy in the Western Med. The true extent of this is not apparent in this post return to base screen cap.

The Western Allies had an impressive invasion fleet lined up but that fleet was bloody by a combined action against the Italian Regia Marina, airforce and Germany Luftwaffe which managed to nearly sink, but did damage, two allied amphibious and transport loaded with amphibious troops. (The transport was loaded with a Royal marine corps). Also, the axis managed to force another amphibious unit, transport and SCS loaded with troops to abort. Successful allied landing in Southern France was prevent by an inferior Italian naval force supported by air power on par or even greater than the air cover the allies could provide to their fleet.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Land Combat. Oliba, Sardinia.

To rub salt in the Western Allies wound, their attack to take Olbia, Sardinia failed once again. And, to add more salt, the Italians since reinforce Olbia with a 3-3 infantry corps, which now means two corps defend that city.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Sea Areas.

On the up side, Japan's presence was completely swept from the China and South China Seas. And strategic bombing totally negated their oil and production.

The Allies needed to make the Italian Coast safe for Democracy's Battleships and just plastered the place...

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. South China Sea.

Japan does have 8 oil points stored in the Dutch East Indies but with no naval presence in the South China and China Seas they have no way to use them.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Southern China. Philippines.

I'm a victim of history and the war in the Pacific thinking that I need to keep such a large USN naval force in the Pacific. With all going on in the Med and in the Atlantic I need to start redeploying some of the USN from the Pacific to Europe.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Japan. China Sea.

Even with Japan's lack of oil and production, it's still slow going in Japan because of the terrain.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Land Combat. Kyoto, Japan.

In fact, a land combat with an O-chit to double the attack factors failed to take Kyoto, Japan, defended by only a single corps.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Trade.

Turn 24. Jul/Aug 1943. Economic Reports.

If I were the Allies, I would not open a second front at all in France at this time. The USSR has got a lot of room it can retreat into and it has a pretty strong army.

Japan first. A second invasion around Sapporo/Sendai would be the end of the Japanese. You need an army up north...