MWiF Global War Hot-Seat (AAR)

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: Ur_Vile_WEdge

If it's not too late to change the convoy setup, I would like to recommend the following.

Keep the way you're shipping the Australia resources, one to Canada and one to the UK (cost, 15 CP)

Ship the 3 Venezuelan oil and the 5 Canadian resources to the UK cost (27 CP)

Two from British Guyana, across Cape Verde, and then up Cape St Vincent and the Bay of Biscay (cost, 8 CP)

One from India, around the coast of Africa (cost, 8 CP)


Ship 3 from South Africa, through the gulf of Guinea and up the coast (cost, 12 CP)

This gives you full production for only 70 CP. For oil....



Put two CP in each of the Bay of Bengal and the East Indian Ocean; this lets you both ship the two NEI oil to India, and to trace directly to the Burmese oil. Unless you lose Kuwait (or the soviets invade) you can rail the Buesher oil directly into Egypt or Kuwait and use that for reorg, (you'll need a CP in either the red sea or the persian gulf. This nets you full production, 4 oil a turn for reorg, all 3 food in flames countries (I think I'm doing Food in Flames right, but I'm not entirely sure) You'll have 7 CP to either help the French with or hold in reserve, plus whatever you pick up from the minors.


Don't worry too much about what this leaves open to the Japanese, they're not going to declare war on you before the Germans attack the Dutch and the Belgians, which frees up two more resources that are easy ships, and the CP to use them. You can then abandon your operation with the NEI if it feels too hot and just trace drectly to the British Guyana oil, or do the thing with shipping the Venezuelan oil to canada. You can also attack Portugal for their resource. (Won't work if the Germans go into the Med, but setting up, the British have no way of knowing that.)


Hope this helps somewhat.

In concept, this is a good idea, but I like to save as much oil as I can, and with the addition of Belgian and NED resources, I can get up to full production without using a drop of oil This is extremely useful if I later need to send some to France, because they have a lot of ships that are oil-dependent, and I'll probably aim to conquer again. Also, I'm not so concerned about the total quantity of CP I'm using, as long as I build 1 per turn with both the CW and USA, I should be able to replace any losses fairly easily (I think).

This is about my 6th variation, so it may prove to be foolhardy, but i'm gonna give it a shot anyway. When Italy took out the CP in the Arabian Sea last game, it cost me 3 Indian RP (1 factory was damaged by a Partisan), 2 from Malaya, and 1 from Australia. It also lost me 2 Food in Flames PP. This way, the worst that could happen in that situation is the loss of 4 RP and 1 PP . . . . all of which I should be able to recover fairly quickly.

[Red Prince]

By the way, there may be something odd going on with the US Entry chits, though I'm not about to run a full test. Here's what's happened so far in my first turn:

New Game for 09.02.05

US Entry Markers:
2 to Ge/It Pool: (2238 [4], 2075 [3])
1 to Ja Pool: (2688 [4])

Turn 1 S/O '39
Axis Initiative +2

Impulse: 1
Weather: 4
Germany DOW Poland (CW); USE-8 (+1 chit, 2345 [3])
CW set up Poland using the * Delay Defence
Japan aligned Siam; USE-1 (+1 chit, 2698 [4]

Germany: Land
Italy: Combined
Japan: Land

Italy sends NAV to E. Med 4 Box
Italy sails loaded CL from Taranto to E. Med 3 Box
Germany conducted Ground Strikes on Warsaw and Lodz (4 of 4 units disorganized)
Japan conducted a Ground strike on Changsha (2 of 2 units disorganized)

In this case, all of the rolls so far seemed to be on the extreme end of things. The Germans used 5-factor Stukas, but the Japanese had a 3-factor NAV . . . c'est la vie.
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Edit: By the way, if there's anything I mention that you'd like to see, I'm happy to try to get a screenshot for you. Sometimes I won't be able to, but I plan to post an updated World Map every turn, at the least . . . as well as anything else interesting that comes along.

[Red Prince]

Well, for starters, I took another Chinese city . . . and rolled another '1'. So US Entry is gonna be high in this game once again. If I win the riskiest of the attacks I'm about to make, I might have yet another chit added, depending on the roll. Here are the attakcs the Axis is making. You can clearly see which the risky one is: 3:1 +2 attack on Changsha, but I've agot a one in three chance of 4:1, and if I do get this, it'll put a bunch of units out of supply. You were all right. The Chinese setup was nuts. Live and learn.
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Results will be edited in once I've got them.



And here are the results:

Attack on Poznan: Assault, Roll = 7 = */2S
Attack on Krakow: Assault, Fractional Odds .166 (Yes), Roll = 9 = */2S
Attack on Warsaw: Assault, Fractional Odds . 829 (No), Roll = 10 +2 = 12 = */2S
Attack on Danzig: Assault, Roll = 3 = -/2S (units disorganized) CA Destroyer Flotilla overrun and Destroyed
Attack on China [85, 142]: Assault, Roll = 6 = */2S
Attack on Ghangsha: Blitz, Fractional Odds . 949 (No), Roll = 10+2 = 12 = */2S

Okay, now the reason I chose a Blitz for Changsha is that someone mentioned to me ( I forget who) that I might have done better by accepting the retreats when they were availaable. Well, this attack as an Assault has a 60% chanceo fo success at 3:1, with both Chinese units lost. As a Blitz, it's an 80% chance of victory, but only a 20% chance of losing both units. However, the rolls didn't work all that well for the Chinese . . . wouldn't have mattered if I had taken Assualt, though.
And you're not going to believe this . . . taking Changsha: USE-1 (+1 chit, 32 [0])
At least it was a low one . . . now what are the odds of rolling a 1 fore each of 2 cities taken and the alignment of Siam?

[Ur_Vile_WEdge]

Is there any way we can see the German setup? I'm curious as to how you divided your forces East and West.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Titan

Is there an option to have hex's under ones control shaded instead of the flags, the flags i find look abit distracting and busy. That would be my preference anyway plus the nice art works gets abit less obvious with those flags.

Only the flags are available to visually communicate which country controls a hex. If it is an aligned minor, then the flag belonging to the controlling major power has a white triangle of one corner lightly shaded to indicate the alignment.

The flags can be toggle on and off using a button on the main form, which is always visible. So they are only intrusive if you want them to be.

Shading would be even move intrusive in my opinion. The colors for all the hex graphic elements have been carefully coordinated and trying to add another layer would be a nightmare.

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: Ur_Vile_WEdge

Is there any way we can see the German setup? I'm curious as to how you divided your forces East and West.

I'll see what I can do. I'm going to have to try to find the right autosave. Needless to say, it was very heavy to the east.

[Red Prince]

I realize this is very cluttered, but there were so many multi-unit stacks that I wanted to try to show what was in each of them. I took a lot of editing, and it was the best I could do. Obviously, I'm aiming to rush Poland, head into Hungary, Denmark, and the Netherlands in short order. Belgium may have to wait. The Greek DOW will actually come before/at the same time as the DOW on Hungary, so that Bulgaria can join Germany and Italy can invade, though I think Italy may have better luck making the DOW on France first.

You'll notice some CBV units already placed. There is a quirk which hasn't been fixed quite yet, and I didn't wnat to forget about them come next turn, so I put them all on the map at the start (assuming prerequisites were met). Mostly, this helps France more than anyone else.

[Centuur]

Every time I see the maps and the units on them in these reports, I'm getting more jealous on the guys doing the testing...

It is a really great map to look at...[&o]

[Red Prince]

Does anybody else feel like they are burning up brain cells whenever they play WiF in any of its versions? MWiF, CWiF, WiF FE, etc.

Maybe it's just that I'm sick right now, but I'll tell you, this game uses more brain power than any other game I know. In fact, it may be the trigger we need for the next step in human evolution!!!
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Edit: By the way, this is my home town of Bangor, and believe it or not, the rail does actually split just like it is shown on the map. I was very impressed by that.

[Red Prince]

Okay, we're into Impulse 2 now, and you were right about the Chinese setup, so here's the situation. Any recommendations for what to do with my land moves here? Note that I made the unorthodox choice to use a Land Action for the CW first, so that Gort could reorg the white print units and send them to Gibraltar on a Naval impulse next time round. The French fleet sailed into the Med and Italian Coast in preparation for war with Italy, so I should even be able to get a few CW units to Malta and/or Egypt . . . assuming Italy does DOW France, which is likely . . .

But anyway, what are your thoughts on Chinese movement. Remember I am playing with attack weakness here.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

There's hole in the middle of the line! You need to move units to plug the gap.

China isn't going to attack any time soon (i.e., within the next 2 years). So although the Japanese 1-4 marine unit is vulnerable in the south, China can't afford to attack unless it could somehow gather 3 or more units. Basically, China should only focus on defense, with the slight possibility of a cavalry unit trying to do a Jeb Stuart ride around the Japanese rear areas.

In the north shift: the 4-2 one hex SW, move the 7-3 to Tungkwan, move Mao due W of the Japanese 4-1. This lets the Communists cover more of the center, freeing up the Nationalist units around Nanyang.

In the center: move the 3-4 to the hex due W of Ichang, move the 4-3 2 hexes SW, the 3-2 2 hexes west, and the 2-2 where the 3-2 use to be. The goal here is to retreat the first 3 of these units to the mountain hexes.

In the south: move the 5-3 and the 2-4 SW of the 3-1, the HQ 1 hex W, the 3-2 into the hex with the 3-1, the 4-3 goes 1 hex SW and the 1-3 moves 2 hexes W. The line still has a hole in the middle but the Japanese units are mostly slow movers so you will have a short respite before the Japanese can exploit through the gap.

What you want to do is force the Japanese to attack your units in the mountains. That doubles the strength of your units which has a wonderful effect on the combat results table.

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

There's hole in the middle of the line! You need to move units to plug the gap.

China isn't going to attack any time soon (i.e., within the next 2 years). So although the Japanese 1-4 marine unit is vulnerable in the south, China can't afford to attack unless it could somehow gather 3 or more units. Basically, China should only focus on defense, with the slight possibility of a cavalry unit trying to do a Jeb Stuart ride around the Japanese rear areas.

In the north shift: the 4-2 one hex SW, move the 7-3 to Tungkwan, move Mao due W of the Japanese 4-1. This lets the Communists cover more of the center, freeing up the Nationalist units around Nanyang.

In the center: move the 3-4 to the hex due W of Ichang, move the 4-3 2 hexes SW, the 3-2 2 hexes west, and the 2-2 where the 3-2 use to be. The goal here is to retreat the first 3 of these units to the mountain hexes.

In the south: move the 5-3 and the 2-4 SW of the 3-1, the HQ 1 hex W, the 3-2 into the hex with the 3-1, the 4-3 goes 1 hex SW and the 1-3 moves 2 hexes W. The line still has a hole in the middle but the Japanese units are mostly slow movers so you will have a short respite before the Japanese can exploit through the gap.

What you want to do is force the Japanese to attack your units in the mountains. That doubles the strength of your units which has a wonderful effect on the combat results table.

I'll take this advice and see what happens. It sounds solid to me. Thanks, Steve.

[Red Prince]

I'm exhausted and I'm going to have to sleep soon, but your going to love/hate this . . . the weather roll for impulse 3 was a '3', so Fine weather everywhere again. Therefore, Italy is making a DOW on France, and Germany is making DOWs on Denmark, Netherlands and Hungary. Greece will just have to wait for a bit. The choice to DOW France was based on the fact that the French Fleet is almost all at sea, and the Surprise I'll get as Italy should help me do a lot of damage to that fleet.

I know, there are a lot of USE rolls being made here, and my luck has been pretty lousy, but the USSR hasn't claimed anything yet, so there might be some relief. And it might be possible to force the CW into a DOW on Italy, which will help some. Plus, I'm planning to try the whole USSR invading Persia thing one more time, so US Entry might not get out of control. Then again, it might. We shall see.

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: Red Prince

ORIGINAL: composer99

For Belgium given you expect Germany to hold Rotterdam I suggest two units in Antwerp and 1 in Liege.

Really, as long as Germany has the strength to secure Antwerp on the surprise impulse and has units in place to secure the Belgian resource hex, there is no real chance of stopping the Germans from getting across the Maas & the Dyle rivers.

But the above set-up at least slows down the seizure of Brussels. And if they flub the Antwerp attack, then the other Allies can even still get in there and slow them up even further.

That's a good point. I'll probably change my plans when I get that far. It also might depend on the weather . . . dunno.

I forgot to ask: which two do you think should go in Antwerp, and which one in Liege? Or does it matter?

[Red Prince]

I haven't gotten to Belgium or Greece yet for DOWs, but the other ones came off miraculously for the Axis. Not one of the German DOWs produced a US Entry chit, and the Italian DOW on France added one with a value of '1'. I'd say that's pretty lucky for a 4 DOW impulse. For setups, I used the ones I said I was going to use (on the previous page). No matter which one Hungary chose, it had no chance, so I decided on the original choice. It will delay things at least one impulse. Bad weather might keep Hungarian hope high.

[Red Prince]

Well, I discovered today (finally) why surprise is so important to Naval impulses . . . the Italians got the jump on France, and the end result (due to some really lucky rolls) was half of the French fleet was either Damaged or Destroyed, while they only managed to damage 3 Italian ships. Those bonus surprise points are really handy.

[composer99]

ORIGINAL: Red Prince
I forgot to ask: which two do you think should go in Antwerp, and which one in Liege? Or does it matter?

It's common to put the two INF in Antwerp and the CAV in Liege.

Unless the Germans are really weak in their attack on Antwerp (unlikely during a surprise impulse) it's not likely to make a big difference. Usually you're just hoping the attack die roll comes up really bad.

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: composer99

ORIGINAL: Red Prince
I forgot to ask: which two do you think should go in Antwerp, and which one in Liege? Or does it matter?

It's common to put the two INF in Antwerp and the CAV in Liege.

Unless the Germans are really weak in their attack on Antwerp (unlikely during a surprise impulse) it's not likely to make a big difference. Usually you're just hoping the attack die roll comes up really bad.

Thanks. I kind of guessed that, since I've seen people talk about "sacrificing" the CAV, but I wasn't certain that was your intent.

I'm working on a glorious Italian surprise strike, but I keep running up against a bug that I should be able to work around, but just can't remember how to do it. The total losses . . . . well, I'll post them once I figure out how to fix my problem. Should be soon, and should be quite convincing of why a Naval Surprise impulse is so effective -- something I never understood before.

[Red Prince]

When I finally figured out how to get this to work the way it was intended to, it ended with 10 Destroyed French ships & only 3 Damaged Italian ships . . . there were a few aborted on each side, I believe. The big problem is I had to fiddle with things so that the French ships that survived (from the Italian Coast) could abort to Malta . . . which meant clearing out the INF that was there. This leaves Malta a bit of a temptation, should Italy decide to DOW the CW next time round. Which means the CW may have to act pre-emptively.

I shouldn't complain too much. This is what we do when debugging. We run into a problem, figure out how many ways it manifests itself, then find a way around it. We report the whole thing, and Steve works his magic. My problem was that this was a bug that showed up last week, that Steve warned us about, and I simply forgot about it until I was in a situation where I needed to find a solution or start the whole game over again. My mistake, and I paid for it with time and energy.

However, as I said, it did finally teach me the reason why Japan needs its O-chit to gain surprise on the US and/or CW. Those extra Surprise Points you get (technically the opponent doesn't get) are astoundingly useful, even if you start at about even odds. Granted, the French probably shouldn't have sailed as they did, but I wasn't yet aware of what the consequences would be.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Red Prince

When I finally figured out how to get this to work the way it was intended to, it ended with 10 Destroyed French ships & only 3 Damaged Italian ships . . . there were a few aborted on each side, I believe. The big problem is I had to fiddle with things so that the French ships that survived (from the Italian Coast) could abort to Malta . . . which meant clearing out the INF that was there. This leaves Malta a bit of a temptation, should Italy decide to DOW the CW next time round. Which means the CW may have to act pre-emptively.

I shouldn't complain too much. This is what we do when debugging. We run into a problem, figure out how many ways it manifests itself, then find a way around it. We report the whole thing, and Steve works his magic. My problem was that this was a bug that showed up last week, that Steve warned us about, and I simply forgot about it until I was in a situation where I needed to find a solution or start the whole game over again. My mistake, and I paid for it with time and energy.

However, as I said, it did finally teach me the reason why Japan needs its O-chit to gain surprise on the US and/or CW. Those extra Surprise Points you get (technically the opponent doesn't get) are astoundingly useful, even if you start at about even odds. Granted, the French probably shouldn't have sailed as they did, but I wasn't yet aware of what the consequences would be.

Attacking the French naval is dangerous for the Italians. The reason is that if you just wait until VIchy is declared virtually the entire French navy becomes Vichy. So all the BPs lost by the Italians in fighting the French navy can be considered an unnecessary waste. Of course if you have something that needs to be done by the Italians in the Med before Vichy is declared, then its not a total waste. The other risk to the Italians right now is that the Commonwelath can DOW them and gain suyrprise on the Italian navy which is out at sea: what goes around comes around.