MWiF Global War Hot-Seat (AAR)

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: brian brian

send some CVs to the East Med and port strike Bardia. Hurry. You have the Italian TRS right where you want them. Blockade them there too via leaving units at sea. Don't worry about losses - the Royal Army is depending on the Fleet to end Axis adventures in Africa. CVs could also intercept ATR missions...

A way around action limits is to use other countries on that side to activate sea areas. So when the CW takes a land, the French can activate a zone in the Med with a CW fleet...keep hunting. The French can afford a Combined impulse every time now.

Any French unit from France can land in Egypt, but can't stack with a CW unit. I'm not sure what unit is in Nice, but if it doesn't go east, it could make a great threat to the Italian flank in western Algeria too, after moving up from Mogador with a land move every impulse. But I also like leaving them in the Marseilles/Nice area, tying down a bit of Axis ground strength. Maybe only leave Nice if Marseilles falls. I'm starting to like the French in this game now.....they can be the pirates on the Allied side. Maybe some US financing might help the buccaneers...

There are no CVs available to send to the E. Med. This was part of the screwed up setup, as well as poor CVP selections to begin with at the start of the game.

As for the way around action limits, I've heard of using that for the Italian and German SUB fleets, and I imagine it could be done with the CW and French, but at the moment the French fleet has 7 ships, including 2 SUBs and a TRS. Once the French regroup, I'm sure this can be done. However, the CW ships need to be there before the French can "activate" the sea area.

At the moment, the CAV from Nice can end up in Spain, Morocco, Spanish Sahara, or it can continue on to some other location. The trouble the non-cooperation in Egypt? If the French unit is in a port, it makes it difficult to land CW units.

With the beating that the French have taken, I agree that they've put up a fight more than worthy of the units available.

[Red Prince]

I decided to use the setup for Spain from Post #435 on Page 15 of this thread, with two exceptions. As suggested, I swapped the positions of the CAV and the 3-3 INF, and I also moved the INF Division from the Pyranees to Tangier.

Also, the main fleet is set up in Cartagena under the CAV, and the TRS is in Rio Muni. If it seems wise to evacuate Wavell, that TRS can get to him next turn. Otherwise, it can be used to get the FTR from S. Africa to a more useful location.

[Red Prince]

After the double-DOW on Spain and the alignment of Finland, here's how the US Entry Pools look:

[composer99]

The Allies need airpower in the active Med fronts, so the South African FTR needs to go to Spain or Morocco.

[composer99]

Looks like the USSR occupation of the Baltics was bad for US Entry.

[Red Prince]

I have to say I planned this DOW pretty well (I think). [:)]

I've got 4 Ground Strikes going for Germany: Marseilles, Bilbao, and in the 2 hexes NE of Saragossa. If successful, particularly with those near Saragossa, I've got my MTN unit and the 9-4 INF stack ready to put those two units into a situation where they are both isolated and disorganized. The MTN may end up OOS from crossing the Alpine hexside, but it will ZOC the MOT out of supply, too, so I really hope that Ground Strike succeeds. If it does, the MOT can easily be destroyed and the MTN will end up in supply again.

With any luck, the Spanish could be destroyed sooner than might be expected, and the Germans may be sweeping through Spain too quickly for the CW to provide adequate support.
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Edit: Good rolls for the Germans, and all 6 units were disorganized by the Ground Strikes. I'm not used to this. In the Barbarossa AAR that Orm and I ran, it seemed that my Ground Strikes were much less successful than they should have been. In this game, too, my Ground Strikes to this point didn't seem to be quite as useful as I would have expected . . . until now. [:)]

[Centuur]

I don't like the look of the UK at all. Only three corps and two divisions left there. I hope you're fleet in the North Sea is large enough to counter any German attempts at invading the UK. He can put two corps and a division ashore, together with the PARA that means trouble. The MOT has to stay in England, together with the air force. I would suggest moving the MOT to London. You don't want to give the Germans a nice opportunity for a Sealion.
Also, there are only four corps in Gibraltar and Morocco together with Gort. You need to keep a garrison in Gibraltar of one land unit against a Italian division invading, and at least two land units in Morocco/Spanish Morocco. That means that only the HQ and one land unit are free to go into Spain. That doesn't even qualify for support of a minor.

Other CW land units on the board are some West African TERR, I believe? That are the units which the CW should move into Spain at this moment. I suggest getting Wavell out of Egypt. There aren't any reinforcements appearing there in at least two turns. Also, it sure isn't looking the way that the Germans are going to be impressed by the CW forces in Morocco and Spain...

Now, maybe I'm overlooking something here, but aren't the City Based Volunteers of France all Free French units? Since Free France isn't going to be created in the event of a surrender or conquest of France, they aren't going to appear on the map at all, aren't they? So no free Morrocan, Senegalese or Syrian units appearing. No aid from that side from the hard pressed French forces, I'm afraid. If they appear, that's a bug in the program.

Advise: build more CW land units next production phase. Build the CAV, and 3 infantry type units. You are going to need them. Build FTR's 3 too and start praying. Those damned bureaucrats in London are designating the war production to the wrong services at the moment...

By the way, align Spain with the CW. They are right about the defensive shore bombardment factors and the Spanish force pool getting into the CW pools.

[Orm]

Now, maybe I'm overlooking something here, but aren't the City Based Volunteers of France all Free French units? Since Free France isn't going to be created in the event of a surrender or conquest of France, they aren't going to appear on the map at all, aren't they? So no free Morrocan, Senegalese or Syrian units appearing. No aid from that side from the hard pressed French forces, I'm afraid. If they appear, that's a bug in the program.

This has been clarified and aswered in the FAQ. A conquered France do get the Free French City Based Volunteers.

Clarification. The Free French city based volunteers are available to Free France if it exists. If Free France does
not exist (for any reason) but France itself exists after having been completely or incompletely conquered, then these
CBV units are available to France - May 11, 2007.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Red Prince

I decided to use the setup for Spain from Post #435 on Page 15 of this thread, with two exceptions. As suggested, I swapped the positions of the CAV and the 3-3 INF, and I also moved the INF Division from the Pyranees to Tangier.

Also, the main fleet is set up in Cartagena under the CAV, and the TRS is in Rio Muni. If it seems wise to evacuate Wavell, that TRS can get to him next turn. Otherwise, it can be used to get the FTR from S. Africa to a more useful location.

Why are you evacuating Wavell? Ids there something useful for him to do somewhere else? If not, let him die fighting to hold Egypt. My philosophy is that every unit has to earn his keep. Those units in the far east in advance of the Japanese attacking next year should be in Egypt - or at the very least in east Africa cleaning up the mess there created by the Italians. Likewise the units in the United Kingdom can be sent to Spain, either north or south of Gibraltar.

Even if all the Italian unis in Greece get across to north Africa, they still have to advance to the front lines & maneuver around before they can fight. Is Italy doing combines? Actually it doesn't matter, Italy's two front offense in northern Africa is going to make a lot of demands on their activity limits. If the CW can push up against the Italians and threaten to go around them (i.e., put them out of supply), then any successful ground strike can reduce them to 1 strength factor. In fact that AA gun is currently worth only 1 when it is sitting alone in a hex. So, if either of two tactical bombers are able to successfully ground strike the 3-3 INF, the CW moves its mech SE and brings up it HQ to have a 12:2 on the 3-3 INF. Throw in a tactical bomber and you have an automatic victory. At that point those units in Greece will be heading for Algiers, not Tobruk.

[Orm]

To bad that Wavell is out of range of the Italian territorial in Egypt. That is a unit that begs to be attacked.

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: Orm

To bad that Wavell is out of range of the Italian territorial in Egypt. That is a unit that begs to be attacked.

I actually considered attacking it last turn, but it was too risky for the CW at the time.

As for Wavell, he isn't going anywhere until next turn at best, anyway, so He'll stay and fight for the time being. As I said in an earlier post, most of the units in the Far East started there, and sealift is a little bit short right now, so reinforcing Spain, Gibraltar, East Africa, the Middle-East, Egypt, etc . . . well, it's just not possible. Remember, this is only the start of the 5th turn, even though I've been running this AAR for a month and a half. There hasn't been a lot of time to get everything done that needs to be done.

As for Centuur's suggestion that the builds have been wrong for the CW, I do believe it was he who told me to lay down some TRS last turn, which I did. The only thing that can truly be argued with is the CV I started last turn. Otherwise, I'm trying to build all that you folks have been suggesting, but there are only so many BP available to the CW at this point (and I can't yet provide BP from the USA due to a bug I've noted already).

Essentially, I'm being asked to build everything at once. It just can't be done. Sorry. [:)]

[Red Prince]

The reason the UK is so empty is two-fold. There are 2 land units and an HQ coming in at the start of next turn, and it seems obvious that Germany is going to have to use land impulses for the whole turn (and most of next) in order to take Spain. They probably won't even be able to take a Combined impulse to try for an invasion. Even if they do, they have no way to maintain supply and/or land more units in the UK. It would be pointless to boost the CW production multiple by .5 and gain little from it.

Remember, that with Amphibious rules ON, only 1 unit and a division can invade the UK right now.

[Red Prince]

Impulse #3 Axis Attacks:



And the results:

Attack on Tangier; Assault, Fractional Odds .132 (Yes), Roll = 6 = */2S
Attack on Marseilles; Assault, Roll = 6+2 = 8 = */2S
Attack on Spain [65, 31]; Assault, Fractional Odds .268 (Yes), Roll = 10 = */2S
Attack on Spain [64, 26]; Assault, Fractionsl Odds .791 (No), Roll = 10+1 = 11 = */2S
Attack on Spain [64, 25]; Assault, Roll = 9+1 = 10 = */2S
Attack on Almeria; Assault, Roll = Automatic

The invasion of Almeria by Italy was a success, putting them in position to threaten Malaga, Seville, and even Cadiz. Taking Tangier was a little unexpected -- I didn't quite realize I'd be able to make the attempt. I suppose Spain should have swapped out the CAV for the INF Division defending it, and let the division hold Cartagena. Hindsight, they say, is 20/20.

All of the other attacks seemed to produce high rolls, but the truth is that a '3' or '4' would have made most or all of them successful, anyway. Even a '2' would have been enough for several of them, due to the astounding Ground Strikes earlier. In the next post, you'll see the broken Spanish line.

As a side note, for the AIO, maybe there should be something else planned to defend against "overwhelming forces" on the Northern border. What I used was designed for a "strong" force with a potential minor threat of invasion/paradrop. The Ground Strikes were very lucky, indeed, but perhaps a defense set up more than 3 hexes from the border should be considered if there are a lot of German LND around. Just a thought.

[Red Prince]

I forgot to mention two things in the previous post: France is now finished, and the CW won't be able to make a bid to take back Tangier immediately, since it needs to get some Shore Bombardment factors back into the W. Med and maybe add a few more in the Bay of Biscay. Besides that, those TRS need to bring assistance to Spain desperately.

Turns out the Combined impulse would have been better off as a Naval impulse last turn, but I didn't actually see the opportunity for Italy to try for Tangier until it actually happened -- not as the CW or as Italy. Once I saw it, though, I just had to take advantage of it. What is more important, though, reclaiming Tangier? or setting up defenses for 2 of the 3 remaining cities needed to conquer Spain?

With 3 other HQs in the area, and a 4th almost there, I decided to reorganize my 2 best LND using HQ-A Rundstedt:

[ItBurns]

"Turns out the Combined impulse would have been better off as a Naval impulse last turn, but I didn't actually see the opportunity for Italy to try for Tangier until it actually happened -- not as the CW or as Italy."

Does this mean you achieved surprise against yourself?

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: ItBurns

"Turns out the Combined impulse would have been better off as a Naval impulse last turn, but I didn't actually see the opportunity for Italy to try for Tangier until it actually happened -- not as the CW or as Italy."

Does this mean you achieved surprise against yourself?

Believe it or not, this happens more often than you might think. [:)]

[composer99]

Not much risk of flanking action in Egypt on the Med coast front thanks to the Qattara depression.

Retaking Tangier strikes me as very important as it can make a big difference for supporting Gibraltar.

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: composer99

Not much risk of flanking action in Egypt on the Med coast front thanks to the Qattara depression.

Retaking Tangier strikes me as very important as it can make a big difference for supporting Gibraltar.

This would suggest a Land impulse next, rather than a Naval impulse?

[Centuur]

The way I'm looking at things now, there are some lessons to be learned from what happened in Spain and Morocco.

The first one is never to take a setup for a minor, without first looking at all the possibilities the enemy has got. This is difficult, because in most cases, the minor country is desperately short of units to cover all area's he wants to cover against the agressor. Another lesson with this is that a minor should always guard his backdoor, if he has one. Yesterday, I did post too late, unfortunately, however, I was going to post to put the Spanish CAV in Morocco to prevent the Italian 3-3 INF an attack on Tangier (it was the only one capable of attacking that place).
The second one is avoid taking combined impulses (with whatever Major Power). The only exceptions to this rule are when you are going for a surprise invasion or when you simply haven't got any other units able to move.

In northern Spain, this is the kind of Blitzkrieg you always get when Adolf attacks. There isn't a set up available which prevents the breach into the Spanish line. What- or however you setup, it doesn't matter. The Germans are far, far superior and the CW isn't on the map. Also, to conquer Spain, the Germans needs to conquer Madrid and the two factories in Northern Spain. How nice it is that they are so close to the French border. And Madrid isn't in a mountain hex and is therefore vulnerable.
What ever you do or don't do with Spain, if the Germans are attacking in a summer turn, you're likely to get conquered in that turn. With 4 HQ's, the Luftwaffe and the Panzers with the large INF combat factors on the frontlines, he simply can't get a good defense in place. Spain can only try to buy time for the CW to get into Spain.
The Italian High Command took revenge on the Marseilles defeat by brilliantly closing Franco's back door. Next impulse, the German Armour is going to rush towards Madrid, while the slower INF are going to try to take positions around Bilbao and Barcelona.

What to do with the CW?
The first question you should ask yourself: can I kill the Italian INF in Tangier now? The answer is probably negative.
The next question you should ask is: can the Italians bring reïnforcements into Tangier next impulse? I suppose the Italian TRS are still in Bardia, aren't they? The Italian GAR is to far away to get to Tangier now, isn't he?
Now look at Northern Spain: is Franco able to save himself if the CW takes a naval action next impulse? Are the Germans and Italians capable of cutting the rail lines, to prevent him from rail moving to Cadiz? If the answer is negative (and I expect it to be negative), I would suggest the following:

Take a naval impulse with the CW. Sail 1 cruiser each in the Azanian Sea. Sail another in the Red Sea. Sail all other ships available in the Eastern Med, blocking the Italian TRS. Sail BB's capable of shore Bombardment into the Bay of Biscay. Also, try to sail units capable of shore bombardment into cape St. Vincent.

Sail a TRS into Cadiz. He is going to save Franco and get him into Morocco. Sail the Spanish fleet into Cape St. Vincent or Western Med. to add shore bombardment factors (I hope they in Cadiz, so they can go into the Cape St. Vincent area.

Get the Spanish TRS to South Africa (if you put him in Rio Muni, he should be able to go there) and sail the other TRS and the liner to get the two TERR you've got in West Africa.

Next Axis impulse, the Germans will try to move towards Franco, but they can't block the railways to the southwest at this point. Also, they will take out Barcelona (10 defence isn't going to be a thing the Germans are going to worry about). However, around Bilbao, things aren't that easy for the Germans. With SB factors in place, it is very hard to take out. Franco however, is going to get attacked. However, he might survive. So the CW impulse after the next Axis one is going to be a land impulse, you declare Madrid an open city and rail Franco on the TRS in Cadiz and try to knock out the Italian INF in Tangier, using the CW airforce and SB factors. He only defends with 6 points, so you should be able to get at least a 4-1 against him. With Tangier clear of Italians, things are looking much better regarding the situation with Gibraltar.

So please, no combined impulse or land impulse with the CW, because it will not get anything done to prevent the capture of Spain, or getting that irritating 3-3 INF killed.

[Centuur]

I forgot something: you might also consider to sail the Gibraltar Fleet into the Western Med, thus contesting the area. I don't know exacly what the Italians have got there, but imagine if you start rolling nice dice as the CW...

Oh, and start moving any ships around the Indian Ocean towards the Med. Let the Japanese attack you, since that is very good for US entry (I'll wouldn't dream of DoW'ing the CW at this point if I were the Japanese). There's a nice Dutch fleet waiting for duty around the Azanian and Red Sea...