Courtenay's solitaire AAR

[Courtenay]

Trading:

The US opens the spigots. 5 oil to CW, 2 oil to France. (Won't save any.)
The British are sending 5 resources to France.
Hanoi, Burma, and Philippines to China.

Initiative rolls: Axis 3, Allies 10. The Axis does _not_ reroll. The Allies choose to go first. Next turn, the Axis rerolls!

The weather roll was a 9 +2; Fine everywhere.
The Axis thinks "Finally!" The Allies think "Eeep."

Here is the position on the China front at the start of the turn:

[Courtenay]

And here is the situation at the start of the turn on the western front. I think this position will have changed somewhat by the time the turn is over.

[Courtenay]

The Allies move out to protect the convoys. I said I hate the Stay at Sea step. I'm not very good at the Return to Base step, either. I did not put enough force in Gibraltar. Also, I had planned to move the TRS that delivered the ENG back to Gibraltar. Instead, it went to Aden. At least I can do something useful with it there -- it moves offshore of Perth, and picks up the Australian MIL. Additional convoy points are added to the US-England route. Also, I just discovered a resource in Dutch Guyana. This was evidently added in America in Flames; it is not on the "Charts from WiF FE", and I had not realized it existed. This also requires more convoys to be added.

The British transports are staying at home; the CW wants to force the Germans to use their air transport.

The Russians rail a MECH up to Timoshenko.

The Chinese shuffle around as best they can. They have left some strong stacks out in the open. The problem is that Chiang is so slow.

In naval reorganization, I discover how to solve convoy point shortages. I am about to post a bug report; it is amusing.

[Courtenay]

M/A 40 Axis #2

Italy declares war on CW and France. US entry 5, a 2 is added to Ge/It pool.
German declares war on the Netherlands. US entry 10, no chit moved.
The Dutch TRS and nine CPs set up in the Caribbean.

Ge Land, Ja and It combined.
I guess the Italians are so used to comebineds, that they wanted to stick with them. The Japanese do have units they want to ship in, but they really picked the combined for the air actions.

The Italians send their Naval bomber on a port strike against the French. The French do as well as they can, rolling a 1 for surprise. The Italians get a 2D+A result, and damage Provence and disorganize two other battleships.

In the first Naval Air action of the game, the Italians fly a fighter into the two box of the Eastern Med.

The Japanese finally bring the 2-3 AT gun over from Japan; they have had it since the start of the game Two transports sail out of Canton into the South China Sea, to go back to Japan to pick up units next turn.

The Italians send out a large portion of their fleet, including all three BBs to the 3 box of the Eastern Med. During combat, they roll a one searching for the French convoy point in the Eastern Med. That convoy point is no longer with us. The Italian INF division is with the fleet.

The Italians ground strike the French front line, disorganizing two units, while the Japanese make a massive ground strike on Chiang. The Chinese decide to use their airforce. The Chinese air force was successful, aborting one of the Japanese bombers before being aborted in turn (DRs were 6 and 13, both DAs. The Japanese chose to abort a bomber, rather than their fighter.) However, this success just enraged the Japanese bombers, who managed to flip all three units in the stack. If the Japanese could get the units out of supply, they would really be in business. Neither side thinks that that is possible, but the Chinese will be forced to do things they don't want to do to stop it.

The Italians invade Nicosta, Cyprus. They did not see a good target elsewhere.

The Germans launch a parachute attack on Rotterdam. This took me much more time that it would if I were experienced, so I will go through the mechanics of the operation in detail, in the hopes that others will find it useful. First, ignore the "Air transport" step. Air transport is flying to hexes you already control. It has nothing to do with parachuting, and takes place at a different time for parachuting. When you do get to the parachuting step, left click on your air transport, and pick load. (I am assuming that your transport is in the same hex as your parachutist.) Picking up your air transport and putting it down on the hex will allow you to load the parachutists, but seems to mark your transport as having moved, halting your invasion it its tracks. Once you have loaded the unit, you should be able to fly it to its destination. Simple, and should take you five seconds; it took me more like three minutes. Anyway, Student is now Rotterdam.

The Italian MECH advances next to Alexandria.

The Germans decide that they really don't need flipped ground units at this point, so throw a bomber into Amsterdam. One INF corps is supporting Student in Rotterdam, to make absolutely sure of that attack. The Italians invading Nicosta are unopposed. All attacks are successful. The Dutch fleet escapes, except that the submarine was captured, and goes into the German damaged pool. Doenitz exults that the key to victory is now in hand!

[brian brian]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

The Dutch fleet escapes, except that the submarine was captured, and goes into the German damaged pool. Doenitz exults that the key to victory is now in hand!

indeed - this is how the Germans got their idea for the snorkel on a U-Boat - by capturing one from the Dutch in 1940

[Majorball68]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

The British pull their LND-2 from the map. One carrier gets a plane, but there are only two size 1 CVPs available, and the British have three size one carriers. Next turn some size two planes turn into size one, and all carriers will have a plane.

I break my own house rule, and pull a Jap CVP from the map. Some air unit in China will fly to Japan to replace it. If I had remembered that you have to be in a city in your home country to pull up air units, I would not have had to do this.

Does this happen during production? Whats the benefit of removing planes? to get better ones or to get the pilots?

[Majorball68]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

The Japanese have a new strategy in China: conquer the country without every fighting a battle. This is literally impossible, of course -- hero cities have to be dealt with -- but it describes their general approach. Flank the Chinese, try and threaten their supply lines, and do not hit strong positions head on. Sagely quote Sun Tzu at appropriate moments.

This approach is working well. Looking at the above map, the Chinese are holding in the south, and the Communists are doing fine, but the middle of China is wide open. It looks like supply would stop the Japanese if nothing else, but only one HQ is needed to attack Chungking from a base in Ichang. This strategy takes lots of units, but they don't have to be good ones; thus the Japanese have been building their MILs and TERs.

The Chinese have to respond to this strategy, and I don't have any good responses. The center is more important than the south, though, so I don't see any alternative than to pull back in the south.

People suggest that partisans might help the Chinese. Yes, but the nature of the fighting, with forces maneuvering against each other, but not adjacent, and aircraft threatening but not flying, keeps the Japanese garrison high, without effort on the part of Japanese.

If anyone has any suggestions about how the Chinese should attempt to hold on, feel free to make them. (Or about anything else, of course.)

Not that experienced however for what its worth I think your initial defense of Chengchow is a little light. I like to make use of the river line, the lake hexsides(until Marines arrive) and a couple of mountains in the south. Keep them in ZOC and force the Japanese to advance 1 hex at a time to infiltrate the lines rather than give up so much terrain early for free. I am not playing with additional units. The big hole you leave south of Chengchow allows the Japanese to advance to easily. Also in the south at Canton I like to push my ZOC right up to Canton in initial setup. A unit in the forest West and a unit in the clear terrain protected by rivers. Just fall back into the mountains if they arrive in strength. Its an extra couple of impulses they need to do to take this ground rather than just being handed it. No units should be at risk if done properly. Just an observation.

[Courtenay]

One pulls pilots from the map during reinforcement.

The order goes:
Put newly produced air units into your reserve pool;
Put planes on the map from your reserve pool if you have pilots for them;
Pull planes from cities in your home country (only); plane goes into the reserve pool and you get a pilot.

In this case, the Japanese were getting a NAV with a three point bombing factor, and wanted it to replace a plane with a smaller bombing factor. The above sequence means that switching a pilot will take the pilot off the map for a full turn.

[Courtenay]

Note: I had to redo some of Axis #2, and all of Allied #3, when I found out that I had carelessly landed the German air transport too far from the parachute corps for the parachute corps to walk to the air transport. Since my whole German plan of a slow invasion of the Low Countries was based on the parachutist dropping on Brussels this impulse, I thought a redo was justified.

MA 40 Allied #3: Weather roll 10, fine everywhere. The Allies begin to have visions of Paris falling this turn.

Fr & CW naval, Ch Land, US & USSR Combined.

The British try to sneak the Queens through the Med carrying a 6-4 MOT corps. The Italians are vigilant, rolling a 1 for their search roll. The Queens do not try and fight through, thank you very much. The Queens go into the 2 box. There they are joined by a bunch of ships from Gibraltar and Aden, plus the single unflipped French battleship in the Med.

Single British subs go to both the Western Med and the Italian Coast.

The 5-4 MOT corps is transported back to Gibraltar.

Oh, the grand old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men.
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And marched them down again.

The Dutch transport moved to Cape St. Vincent, where I eventually discover that it can't reorganize Dutch naval units. (See Tech Support, Minor naval reorganization.)

Additional convoys were added to the sea lanes from the US to Britain. (More, in fact than were necessary; some will be retuning to base at the end of the turn, if they all survive.)

The French convoy is evacuated from the Western Med.

The British try to sink the Italian Convoy in the Western Med. The Italians can send a fighter to cover the sea zone, but think that they want to reserve their air for the decisive battle in France. The British find the Italians on a roll of 1; the helpless convoy rolls a 2, but it is not enough, and an Italian convoy point goes down.

The British fail to find the convoy point in the Italian coast.

In the great sea battle in the Eastern Med ....

Nothing happens. The British decline to initiate combat; the Italians attempt to, and neither side finds each other.

The Russians rail the 3-2 Art to Leningrad, start moving Zhukov around Lake Ladoga and, move the 4-2 Art into the swamp west of Leningrad.

The Chinese disorganize a unit retreating from Hengyang, protecting Chiang's supply lines, while the stack north of Chiang blocks the left flank from being exploited.

[Courtenay]

M/A Axis #4:

The Germans DOW Belgium. US entry 5; a 1 chit is added to the pool.
Ge/It Entry 18, Tension 13; Ja Entry 14; Tension 11.

All Axis powers take land actions.

The Germans ground strike Antwerp and one hex in France, using both their 5 point Stukas. The French decided not to intercept. (The French feel that this is not the critical impulse.) The Japanese through there remaining fighter at the Chinese stack northwest of Chiang. The Japanese, unsurprisingy, fail, but the Germans are very successful, flipping both Belgian units in Antwerp and two French corps, failing to flip only the AT gun.

The Germans spring into the attack in Belgium, making a frontal assault into Antwerp, a paradrop onto Brussels, and just overwhelm the hapless defenders of Liege.

The Japanese think they will never get a better attack, and throw everything that can reach against Chiang.

The Italians grab the resource hex in Cyprus, advance a large force into Egypt, slip a unit up to the Tunisian border. Finally, in a great success for Italian arms, they take Djbouti! What they will do with it I have no idea, but the Italian war machine (machine?) is on the advance. Mussolini is thrilled.

The two important attacks, against Chiang and Antwerp, are both +11 assaults. The dice rolls are, on the whole, average. The Germans rolled an 18. The Japanese, well, the Japanese rolled a 2. A 2! The Germans obliterated the Belgians without loss or disorganization. The Japanese, well, they didn't suffer any casualties. Neither did the Chinese. The whole Japanese force in the area was disorganized. The two German autokill attacks rolled a 15 and an 18. If the Japanese had anay of the German rolls, the Chinese situation would be impossible. As it is, the Chinese looked to see if there was any way to put the Japanese out of supply (there was) and if they could attack flipped Japanese units (there wasn't.) As an aside, the Japanese are glad they did not use HQ support. That would have given them a 2/1 result, which would be much worse for them. The Japanese don't think much of this whole "attack" idea.

The Japanese reorganize a speed 4 transport. It might get the Kyoto MIL at some point.

[Courtenay]

M/A 40 Allied #5. Weather 1. B, S, R, St, St. modifier +2, Impulse advance +3.
The rain dance worked! This weather will bring operations to just about a standstill this pair of impulses. No airpower, no blitz bonus, and a -6 adjustment to the combat roll makes it very unlikely that the Germans will attempt to continue their attack this impulse. Heck, they would be doing well to get a +1 attack.

CW, Fr, and Ch Land, the US and USSR combined

The CW notices that it has the chance to port strike a TRS in Tobruk, and takes it, despite the weather. The Italians get about six surprise points, and cancel the combat.

The Allies pour into the first hex of Belgium. The bad weather and three flipped corps means that the Allied set up is non-optimal, with one hex considerably weaker than the others. A double turn by the Axis would create a vulnerability. The Chinese do not move anything, as anything that moves, flips, except for a two cavalry corps that are happy where there are.

The French use Georges to reorganize the three flipped corps. If the French get another turn, they hope that their line gets reorganized.

I realize that I made a mistake, and should not have defended Brussels with the notional; then there would have been no attack, and Brussels would only have the parachute corps in it, theoretically allowing an Allied attack. Of course, I would not make such an attack, but if I had realize how the rule worked, I would not have used the notional. Below are pictures of the situation on the Western front and the mess in China. Note all the dots on the units in the middle of the screen. The picture of the Western front is not very informative, but the snow is pretty. Or, at least, the Allies think so. The Germans view it differently.

[Courtenay]

M/A 40 Axis #8

All Axis choose combineds!

The Japanese get the Kyoto MIL into the Sea of Japan, and move their AMPH out to sea. The Italians put another convoy point in the Coast of Italy. The Germans decide that it is still not the right time to risk their fleet. The Italians decide to try and sink the Queens and initiate naval combat. This backfires, when the British find the Italians and the Italians don't find the British, rolling 2 to 6. The British look at the situation, and only include the zero box, and obliterate the Italian convoy point. This puts the Italians in Africa out of supply. Oops. The Italians do have their supply unit in Egypt, but the British don't really think the Italians will use it. At this point, the British, having sucessfully gotten a corps into Egypt have to decide if there is any point to staying at sea. There is -- the corps in Gibraltar would like to get to Egypt. However, there is even more sense in the British passing. Since the British have no intention of staying at sea in the one box, they abort now. The Queens return to Plymouth, while the fleet steams into Alexandria. They feel confident in the ability of the Royal Engineers to hold the place, even in the face of shore bombardment.

The Japanese long range NAV tried to strat bomb Kweiyang, and missed, rolling a two.

The Japanese railed the anti-tank gun forward, and shoved some more units toward the mess in the center. The Germans put their artillery in the front line, and rebased all of their planes forward. The Italians, out of supply in Africa, don't move. Most everyone just watched the snow fall.

Turn does not end. (die roll 4.)

[Courtenay]

M/A Allied #11: Weather roll 4+2 = 6; St, R, F, F, R, F. Imp +2, no addition.

Fr Land. Br Combined. Others pass

The French put their line into position.

The British forgot about the Belgian plane. They pick a combined to fly it out. That will be their only move, and I will treat the end of turn roll as if they had passed, since this should have been done in the proceeding Allied impulse.

Turn end roll 10. Turn continues.

[Courtenay]

M/A Axis #13:

Ge, Ja Land, Italy Combined

Italy moves a convoy point out to the eastern Med.

The Japanese move some units forward.

Germany, ignoring the rain, throws every available bomber, plus the adjacent 4-2 artillery, into ground striking the middle of the French line. The French do not intercept for a very stupid reason -- they are desperately short of oil, owning to the oil bug. The Germans flip the 4-2 Marseilles MIL and the 3-2 artillery unit; the French 7-6 ARM is unshaken. Both sides commit HQs, Rundstedt for the Germans, Billotte for the French. Actually, because of the oil situation, I did not actually commit the French HQ, and said that I did, lowering the die roll one by hand. (In reorganization, the French are going to use 1 oil point; if they had the extra they deserve, they would reorganize 1.4 units. Billotte represents the .4) The final attack goes in at +7. Die roll 11. No casualties, attacker is half flipped, and defender has to retreat. One point higher on the die roll and the French would have been blitzed off the map. As it is, the Germans abused the retreat rules to the best of their ability, forcing the French ARM unit to make a two hex retreat, so that it is not on the current front line.

The Germans would like a clear weather double move here very much. The odds are less than 50-50, because, first the turn can't end, second the Germans have to win initiative, and third the weather has to be good.

Turn end roll 8. Turn does not end. The Germans are disappointed. Initiative moves to +2 Axis, Axis wins ties.

[Courtenay]

M/A 40 Allied #15: Weather 1: B, B, Sn, R, St, St. Imp Adv +3, Weather +2.
This weather roll does is gaurantee that the M/J turn will start off with fair weather.

CW Naval, Fr & Ch Land, US & USSR combined

The British take the 5-4 from Gibraltar and begin moving it around the Horn. The Belgian convoy points are also moved around the horn.

The Russians keep moving units north, while the Fench try and balance their line as best they can.
Their position is not great. Of course, they are the French in 1940, so what should they expect?

Turn ends on a 3.

[Courtenay]

M/A 40 End of turn phase:

Still no partisans anywhere.

US puts a 4 chit (lucky) into the Japan entry pool. At this point a 1 in either pool will give the US gear up. The US does not pick any entry options.

I forget what the neutrality picks were. Looking at the markers, which I just figured out how to do (I had not noticed the "markers" button on the Neutrality pact screen; I may eventually learn this game), I see that the Germans have a 1, 2, 3, and 4 in offensive, and three 1s and a 3 in defensive, while the Russians has 2 1s, a 2 and a 3 in defensive. The Russians are envious of that four, but the Americans feel that the Germans can have a four, as long as the US gets one too.

During return to base, every French ship at sea stays at sea, because there is no oil to reorganize them. The oil bug might cause many ships that should have been Free French to go Vichy. We will see. Having the French fleet disperse all over the map so it goes Free French is not very historical; after all, historically all of the French navy represented by counters in the game went Vichy, except for the Bearn.

The CW leaves six 1 point cruisers unflipped to save oil; the Italians save their oil and leave a few cruisers at sea flipped.

The Japanese leave their long ranged NAV and one transport unflipped to save an oil.

The Germans break down a 6-3 INF. I am not playing with unlimited breakdown.

Production:
Germany 17+0 BP: MECH, INF, FI-2, LND-2, 2xPi, repair Dutch sub; none saved
Japan 14+0-1 BP: start CV, 2xINF, FI-2, Pi. 1 BP saved, plus bug BP.
Italy 4+1; NAV-2 + Pi. Saved 1 BP.

Germany 7-4 elite INF, Bf 109 E-7 6 pt FI, 5 pt Stuka, 9-5 SS elite MECH.
Japan 6-4 elite INF, 4-3 INF, Zero FI (5, range 13), started Junyo
Italy Z.501 NAV-2

The Japanese are out of infantry and carriers. They have approximately one zillion light carriers, and are unimpressed by them. The Germans have built all the Stukas.

The Allied production did not work right at first. First, most of the French build points to the CW disappeared at the start of the CW use oil step. This was repeatable, so I was going to live with it. Then, when I got to the production step, I found that all Allied saved build points had disappeared. This, I was not willing to live, so I went back to the USSR saved oil step. To my astonishment, the trade of French build points was back! The British use them happily.

Then I discovered, or I thought I did, that the US saved build points had vanished. It turns out they had not, but the production screen made it appear as if they had. Between the real bug of the trade build points vanishing and the apparent bug of the of build points vanishing, I repeated the last Allied impulse many times, putting out more and more convoy points, seeing if that would affect the bugs. They do not have the reserve of convoy points that they should. Since I did this testing a bug, not because I thought it reasonable Allied play, I will not take advantage of this as the Axis. Seven French build points were traded, when eight were asked for. The amount of trade seems almost random.

Ch 7+0; CAV, MIL, GAR, CAV XX; 0 BP saved.
CW 24+0; start CV, MECH, FI-2, FI-3, NAV-4, 3xPi, repair CA, BB; save 1 BP
Fr 10+0; Fi-2, Pi, save 6 BP.
US 9+19+1+2; BB, AMPH, TRS Saved 22 BP. Gained a BP somehow.
SU 14+1; INF, GAR, PARA, Fi-2, Pi. I seem to have lost a build point.

Ch: 4-2 Lanchow MIL, 5-1 Com GAR
CW: 6-6 MECH, Hur IIB Fi (5 pt), Beaufighter MK II (5 pt, twin, night) repair London, Queen Elizabeth, 2 attack Sunderland (range 20 NAV 4), started Implacable
Fr: MB 152 (4 pt)
US: 3-3 TRS, 4-2 AMPH, started Indiana. I wanted an Iowa.
SU: 5-3 INF, 4-1 GAR, Mig-1 (4 pt), 4-3 PARA

The only Chinese land units in the force pool are two INF XX, a MOT, a MOT XX, a MTN, and three guns . And the Japanese are still chasing the Chinese around! I don't think the Japanese will roll a 2 every time.

Belgium and the Netherlands are incompletely conquered. New homes of Belgian Congo and NEI. The Italian empire adds French Somaliland and Cyprus to its holdings

[markb50k]

Pretty reliably, I plan as though all the BPs will flow from France to CW even if it doesnt look like it. Then once I get to Production (Build Units) I exit the game. Then restore at the Scrap Destroyed phase (the phase right before Production). When you do restore it re-implements max amount of BPs from France to CW, and also seems to fix all the other wierd issues of BP as well. Then i happily build units will all my tasty BPs... Seems to work every time.

[brian brian]

when Georges re-orged some French land units, were they adjacent, or 2 hexes away? I think it was raining that impulse... ???

[Courtenay]

brian: Yes, the weather was snow, but the three corps Georges reorganized were all adjacent to him. Some had been on the French border when they were ground struck the impulse the Germans invaded Belgium, and some were retreated next to Georges when the Germans forced the French ARM's stack out of Belgium.

mark: I will have to try restoring to see about the French build points. Thank you.

[Courtenay]

M/J 40:

Initiative: Germans roll 7, Allies 9; Germans win, elect to move first.

M/J 40 Axis #1: Weather 2 + 2 = 4; F, F, F, F, R, F
The +2 from last turn's bad weather saves the Axis.

Ja, It combined. Ge offensive-chit aided land.

The Germans thought about waiting an impulse or two, until they had some flipped units to unflip, but they decided that it is better to blast much of the Allied army, if not off the map, at least into disorganization.

Italians join their fleet and their fighter in the two box of the Eastern Med.

The Italians pull a transport out of Tobruk. They have analyzed an attack on Alexandria, and come to the conclusion it can't work.

Japanese again make a massive ground strike on Chiang; this time their artillery is added to the mix.

The Germans (aided by one Italian) launch a wave of ground strikes against six hexes, including the Ardennes, struck solely by the 4-2 ART unit. Billotte gets both the Italians and a 3-2 ART. The French intercept the 6 point Stuka (escorted by a Me-109) headed for Georges. This is the one hex not covered by at least two back up fighters. The French roll a 10, clearing the bomber through; the Germans roll a 17, shooting down the French plane, but the pilot lives.

The German ground strikes got fewer units than they hoped, but they did flip both Billotte and Georges. One 5 point Stuka whiffed entirely against three units. The German artillery unit shooting at the Ardennes thought he was doubled, but I must have made some mistake, since he wasn't. He did flip one corps in the Ardennes, though. The French, aside from the two HQs, had three corps and one division flipped. Average German rolls would have flipped 7 units, and they got six, so the results were not horrible. And flipping Georges is worth a lot. There is one five point Stuka available The mechanics of that group are busy painting the Eiffel Tower onto those planes. (Yes, the Germans got a new 6 point Stuka this turn. That is the unit that bombed Georges.) Geobbels announces that all known French HQ are disorganized. He doesn't mention Pretelat, who just showed up in Paris.

In China, the Japanese repeat their earlier success, flipping all three Chinese units. Will they repeat their earlier "attack"? We will see.

Below is a belated screen shot of the reinforcements; pilots and planes were not on it, so I added planes by hand, and show total pilots. Note that the US got 8 free pilots from a bug. In the future I will try and take the reinforcement screen shot the turn before.