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Things don't go much better for the Italians. At least they cleared the hex.

Fortunately, the Axis have better luck in Belgium, wiping out the Belgian army with no losses. The Turn does not end, and with a roll of 2 on the weather, the skies are once again dark and cloudy in the north temperate.

Now the allies no longer want to pass. First of all, there's a 50% chance of the turn ending no matter what. And even if the axis gets another turn, it will be yet another foul weather turn. But most importantly, the allies plan to move into Belgium and Greece.

CW takes a naval action. They need to move a few transports and they also need to reestablish supply through the eastern med. France takes a land. Nobody else really matters for the moment.

Greek sailors take to the seas to bring food and other supplies to Athens, in preparation for British visitors. The CW patches as much of its convoy chain as it can.

Wavell lands in Greece, and the Transport in Algiers picks up the inf unit from Gibraltar. It will land in Gre at the end of the turn. The other two transports are disorganized and will have to sail in next turn.


The axis try to cut the eastern med supply, but roll a 10. The allies roll a 3, and use their surprise points to avoid combat. Using your surprise points (rule 11.5.6, RAC pp 54-55) to avoid combat precludes any additional rounds of searching, so the British supply line is safe for this impulse. If the Axis get another impulse, you can bet they'll try again.

The French occupy western Belgium, and the impulse, then the turn, ends. The first 6 months of 1940 are over, and the axis got 1 clear weather impulse in the north temperate.

Here's the situation in France now:

The US chooses option 16 (gift of destroyers), and the American streak of apathy continues unabated. No chit is moved.

Both Germany and Italy land their Nav's in or around Greece. In order to get 2 units into Greece this turn, the CW had to sail their transports into Greek ports. If the axis get the initiative, they're just sitting in port very vulnerable to port attacks. The axis can bring 9 points of air to sea, against 2 ships. That's an X,D,2A result without surprise points. The main action in July/August will be in France, but Greece may prove to be the more interesting theater.

Production:
Germany, 16 BPs - Pilot, Pilot, lnd(2), Lnd (2), Ftr (2), Inf, Sub, Graf Zep (yah, I built it. I'm just a dreamer. Plus we're out of armor units and had no infantry gearing)

At the start of Italy's production we encountered an easy to replicate crash bug, but one that fixes itself with a reload. If you're playing with unlimited breakdowns, and you lose the component divisions of a corp, the game makes you recombine them at this step. But when it pulls up the recombine pool, the game crashes. All you have to do is load the autosave from that country's production, and it fixes itself. In other words, easy to replicate, near 100% occurrence, but no point in uploading a save file because the save file fixes itself.

Italy, 6 BPs - Mtn Div, Nav(3), CP
Japan, 15 BPs - Pilot, Ftr (2), CVL, CVP (1), 2 CPs, Amph, Mil, sub
China, 6 BPs - pilot, ftr (2), inf div
CW 16 BPs - 2 pilots, Indomitable, 2 cvp (1), Lnd (4), Terr, 2 CPs
France 8 BPs - Mil, Mil, Ftr (2), pilot
US 10 BPs - Amph, NCarolina, cvp (1), Trans
Russia, 16 BPs - Pilot, Ftr (2), Arm, Inf, Inf

Inc reinforcements

The saved game file

The axis get the initiative, and a written guarantee of clear weather for the whole turn.

Japan takes a combined, to bring over fresh troops. Doesn't need many land moves at the moment anyway. Italy also takes a combined, to go after the british supply lines into Greece. Germany takes a land.

As promised, the 4 axis nav bombers target the pair of transports, but the Allies roll better and use their points to lower the axis results. Allied AA fire is also incredibly good - they roll 5 dice and pick the lowest, a 6. One bomber is aborted. After using surprise points to lower the results, the brits are looking at 2 damage and 3 aborts. They make both of their defensive rolls, so the damages turn into disorganizes, and the aborts are meaningless. But the transports are stuck there for the turn and won't be ferrying in new units. We'll get another crack at them.

The Italian sortie out to the Eastern Med but fail to find the british convoys. The fleet will still be useful in providing support for the attack on Athens later in the turn.

Germany uses 1 of its 2 remaining air missions to GS one hex of the French line, flipping a single unit. Japan hits 1 unit in the mtn hex adj to Sian.

The game defaults to skipping all CAP phases, and usually that's fine. But without CAP, the only way to fly offensive fighters over a hex is to either escort offensive ground support or intercept defensive ground support. Occasionally you have a situation like the one I'm in - my fighters are too far to intercept, and I have no incoming ground support to escort. The easy solution to this problem would be to let fighters fly on their own during ground support declaration. Technically, it's not following the correct phase order, but I can think of no reason why it would make any difference. At any rate, here's how you fix it in the game - before ending the land combat declaration phase, go to Command/Disable Phases in the main menu and uncheck the Cap: Ground Support box. Later you can disable it again, unless you prefer to have the prompts every turn.

At least, that's what's supposed to happen. I tried it, and it didn't work. The CAP step never came up. There was no fair way to adjudicate it and apparently no way to fix it, so I decided not to fly defensive air support for the French (who might not have flown it anyway... better to save their airpower for a hex where they aren't doomed anyway). The Japanese launch another low odds attack on the mtns near Sian.

This time they make the fractional odds roll, and end up with a modified 21. One Chicom dead, one is shattered, and half the attackers only are disorg'd. Sian is now in real danger.

In Belgium, the axis drive a hole in the French line and armor pours through. Here's the situation after the advance:

Note, I'm not worried in the least about the French moving up to take the resource. Putting themselves into open terrain surrounded by German armor is beyond suicidal. They wouldn't keep the resource, it would be easier to kill the units, and the French line would collapse even faster (not that I'm expecting it to take long anyway).

The Germans use their last air action to bring another bomber down in range of Greece. The Italians use theirs to fly in a fighter, so they don't get caught unawares by British CVP's again.

The UK takes a naval action, and France takes a land. They plan to abandon southern France, leaving behind a strong garrison in the mountain factory cities of Lyons and Toulouse. The German dreams of an incomplete conquest followed by Spain in the summer/fall of '40 are all but shattered now.

The pinned transports make it impossible for the allies to land a 4th corps in Greece this turn, but they get set up for it just in case there's another shot in September. In the 2 birds with one stone department, they pick up the infantry unit in Lille. With our transports so busy these days this may be our only chance to pull him out. The UK also finishes patching their convoy network, and moves a few more of the north American resources out of the north atlantic, by sending them past Greenland and Iceland.

Italy tries again to find the brits in the east med, but to no avail.

Sensing an opportunity to throw some cold water on the German attack, France and Britain both ground strike the 2 armor units that broke through the line. Germany has one fighter that can intercept. There are no counter interceptors available. Even though I would rather protect the southern unit from disorg, I think there's more long term value in shooting down the british bombers, so I'll intercept in the north. The air to air was at +5/-5, but after aborting one allied bomber, the remaining two bombers chased off the german fighter and were cleared through. Fortunately their pilots were better than their bombardiers and they missed. The French tagged the southern armor however.

The French feel the noose tightening. The next impulse will decimate the French forces and the line in the north. France decides now is the time to mount a few heroic attacks, at low odds. If they fail, as they likely will, the fall of France will happen perhaps 1 impulse sooner, but either way it will happen this turn. But if they succeed, they may take out some german armor, and could even get very lucky and stall the entire offensive for an extra turn. The two attacks are on the breakthrough hex and on the flipped armor. Germany flies in some ground support.

And it works, to some degree. On the flipped armor, the French lose 1 unit and flip. But on the breakthrough hex, they roll a modified 17, making the germans retreat and flip, and putting both armor units out of supply. Note - had I done the attacks in the proper order, this would have put the flipped unit out of supply when it was attacked, and the results would have been even uglier for Germany.

The German units elect to retreat forward, knowing that the breakthrough hex will be recleared with an HQ, who will then reorg them.

I have to say, I've played several games through past the fall of France, and I've never seen one where so many things went so bad for the axis.

Alexander reorgs two of the British strat bombers, and Wavell brings the two transports in Greece back to life. The Impulse ends, and the next impulse weather is clear everywhere but the north monsoon, where it's stormy.

Here's the position after the French Counterattack. That attack was made at +1.175, by the way.

I patched to 1.09 after the last update and loaded the save file. Let's see how it goes. Unfortunately, the patch notes didn't include any of the crashes that I've been experiencing.

Germany and Japan take land actions. Italy really wants to take a land action too, but I would rather take another shot at british supply in Greece, so I'm sending out the subs instead.

In the eastern med, the Italians run into the Sunderland by itself. No air to air, just the Italian AA versus 2 points of nav bombing. The Italians force the Sunderland to abort. When a land based air unit aborts, it goes back to land and flips, so I've chased it out of the sea zone for this turn. At least, that's what is supposed to happen, however the Sunderland aborted back to the sea zone. Pretty sure that's a new bug. Round 2, the Allies find the Italian convoy and sink it. The Italian convoy isn't nearly as important as the British convoy at the moment. Sadly, search rolls are a blank for round 3.

The Italian subs turn up some British blockade runners in Cape St Vincent. 3 are destroyed and 3 more aborted. The Brits have some more convoy patching to do.

Germany attempts to ground strike the greeks in the mountain, but the British CV sends the bomber home.

In France, the German luck continues with a 3 on a ground attack. It's not a critical attack, but still an annoyance.

The attack in Belgium went swimmingly, and Rundstedt advanced. He'll reorg the main vanguard at the end of the impulse. In Greece, the Germans oozed past the mountain unit and with the help of the Italian navy, got a nice high odds attack on Athens. A natural 11 (modified 22) is good enough to take the hex, and the Germans lose a motorized division, and one unit disorganized. Germany still has to prevent the allies from aligning Yugoslavia by the end of the turn, and they're half way there. Germany either has to close the ports, close the sea lanes, or kill one or more units already in Greece before the allies bring 2 more corps in.

Italy rebases some air to help with that effort.

Rundstedt reorganizes the German armor, Von Beck reorgs the mtn unit and a nav bomber in Greece, and we drive on.

UK - Naval, France - Land

The UK repairs most of its convoy net, but will be down a few points this turn. The transports escape Greece and land in Gibraltar. There were not enough face up units in the med to get 4 corps into Greece this turn, so now we will need a rescue mission for the 2 already there next turn.

France makes another suicide attack (+3.2). Kills a german infantry, for no French losses. Japanese generals note how successful suicide charges are against the Germans and begin teaching the technique to their own troops.

New impulse, still clear weather other than N Monsoon. Land actions all around.

The Germans stuff up another +15 attack with a roll of 4, losing a motorized division, and clear a hex adjacent to Paris. The oozing around Athens continues, as the axis surrounds the CW units in the mountains.

The Brtis are out of ships to move, the French are out of ground units to move, and the allies are really hoping for a short turn. Everyone passes for a 20% shot at ending things.

The turn does NOT end, and with a roll of 1, even the north monsoon has fine weather. Here's the save file, screen shots to follow:

Here's central China. We're really being slowed down by the supply bug, but with a little luck we'll crack the line soon, and once away from the lake, the supply issues seem to go away.

And here's the situation around Sian. Unfortunately, several of those units are disorganized, so I'm not sure I'll get an attack off this month.

And here's what's left of France

Germany and Japan take land actions. Italy takes a combined, in order to sail an HQ into Greece. The HQ will reorg some air, just in case there's another impulse.

Italy groundstrikes the British in Greece and flips over the inf (the HQ is already flipped). Japanese bombers miss their targets. Italy rails another fighter into Greece.

In China, the supply bug strikes again. I reloaded the game during movement to reset supply, and all was good in the world. Now it's time to declare combat, and they're out of supply again. On the plus side, reloading again fixed the problem, and this time they stayed in supply through the attack. And on a +5 attack, I rolled a natural 20, clearing the hex east of Changsha.

But of course, it couldn't last. +11.5 attack on Paris, I rolled a 3. Paris falls, axis takes heavy casualties.

The allies still have very few units left that can move, and an even stronger desire to see the turn end. All pass. And the turn ends. It was bloody, brutal and a little frustrating at times, but Paris, Athens and Changsha all fell this summer.

The US is just shy of enough entry to gear up production, but has nowhere near enough tension. Time to start picking some entry options... America occupies Greenland and Iceland, and 1 chit is moved from entry to tension. Next turn they'll be able to do the second embargo against Japan, which should put them at or near the tension needed for a gear up.

Production:
Germany, 17 BP's - 2 pilots, 1 CP, Nav (4), Ftr (2), Inf, Inf - yes, that's a convoy point. Currently the supply system is broken and Italian convoys are not supplying German units overseas as they should be. In order for Germany to play in north Africa or the middle east, we'll need some German convoys in the med. One convoy per turn can be placed as a reinforcement in a controlled minor country - this one will go in Yugoslavia.
Italy, 7 BP's - Pilot, Lnd (3), 2 CP's
Japan, 15 BP's - Pilot, Yamato, Amph, 2 CVP (1), CV, repair CA
China, 6 BP's - Inf, Inf
CW, 14 BP's, Pilot, Pilot, 2 CP's, 3 CVP (1), Inf, Terr
France, 4 BP's, Terr, Terr
US, 10 BP's - pilot, Washington, BB, 2 CVP (1)
USSR, 16 BP's - 2 Pilots, Arm, Mot, Inf Div

Germany wants to establish a Vichy government in France and wash their hands of the whole ordeal, but Italy insists that they want to keep the gains they've made in the south. With the promise of increased air support, Berlin reluctantly acquiesces and presses on. The allies aren't particularly happy, counting on the US entry hit. Nor are they thrilled about a mostly unbloodied Wehrmacht pressing on into Spain.

and the save game file

After nothing but grey skies the first half of the year, summer extends itself into September. The first impulse is clear everywhere, and the Allies have the initiative.

Top Priority for the CW is rescue her overseas garrisons. Both in France and in Greece, those units are in real trouble. The units in France have left the coast line, so they'll need to move before they can be rescued. On the first impulse CW will take a naval and focus on getting the boys in blue out of Greece. France will take a Naval as well. There's precious little the French army can do about the arse kicking they're about to get. Lyons and Toulouse are garrisoned, and that's where they'll make their stand. But their navy can harass the axis a bit while it lasts.

The Brits send the Gibraltar fleet into the Italian Coast and suck the two units up out of Greece. For protection, they fly 2 sunderlands and a Fighter out of Malta into the sea zone as well. The Axis now has a lot of air power stationed in Greece, and it's there to contest the Med, so we could see some sparks fly soon.

Not much else happens on the allied half of the turn.

The Germans start off September by allying Yugoslavia. Months of planning and scheming and fighting went into this moment, not that it's worth all that much.

Germany and Japan take land actions. Italy wants to get her fleet into the game, send out subs, reestablish supply to north and east Africa, etc... so takes a naval.

Italy moves its fleet and subs, then finds a british sub sleeping in the eastern med. 2 German HE 115C's follow the periscope wake and drop torpedoes. That sub is now a pile of scrap metal at the bottom of the sea. It's a bad day for advocates of sub warfare everywhere... a French sub in the Italian coast was also picked off by eagle eyed Italian gunners.

In the north of France, a Stuka, escorted by Bf 109, attempts to groundstrike the 2 OOS CW units. The British send in a Spitfire, and eager for the chance to shoot down some British planes, a 6 factor He 100 joins the fray.

Here are the results -

Doing good mate this AAR will help lot of players. Don't know about your strategy but your explanations are very good.

I reloaded from the ground strike cap phase, and repeated the same steps, got the same result. I'm attaching the save game file. The steps I took from the position in the save game file to the crash are: 1) assign the Stuka 2 hexes east of the CW units in France to groundstrike. 2) escort it with the fighter from the same hex. 3) end phase 4) ground strike Sian with 2 Japanese bombers sitting next to it 5) end phase 6) intercept german groundstrike with British ftr 7) end phase 8) intercept with german 6 factor 4 range fighter 9) end phase 10) click axis ready

The die roll result flashed up, and the game crashed. It's possible that only certain results will cause the crash, in which case you may have to repeat a few times. I think the roll I got on the second try was a 5.

ORIGINAL: Majorball68

Doing good mate this AAR will help lot of players. Don't know about your strategy but your explanations are very good.

I'm much too green to rely on my strategic decisions. Even when they work, they may very well be because of poor strategy on the other side!

I reloaded again and this time tried sending both german fighters as escorts instead of having one counter intercept. I don't know if it was that, or the die roll, but this time it worked (The roll was a 10, clearing the Stuka). Both units were flipped, and are now just a pile of dead meat. If this was a horror story, they would be the walking dead. If it was a drama, we might call it Dead Men Walking. The Japanese also hit 2 of the 3 units in Sian.

There are no big dramatic unexpected moves, just a lot of oozing around and surrounding units. In France, Germans set up to take out the BEF and a +10.5 (before air) attack on Metz. The Japanese surround Sian and launch a +11 attack, along with +6.5ish attacks on Changsha and Hengyang. In china, the P-36 tried to intercept my bombers, but the shiny new Japanese Zero swatted him out of the sky (killing the pilot as well). It's been a while since I had this many attacks in a single impulse.

The attacks in France went as expected. Lots of dead allies, lots of happy Germans. The Sian garrison was eliminated, costing the Japanese a territorial and half the attackers flipped. With the bulk of the ChiComs dead and Chinese production about to drop, the Japanese position in China suddenly looks fairly good. America finally noticed that there's a war going on in China, and added a chit to the Japanese pool.

In Hengyang, each side lost 1 unit, but the Chinese held the city. In Changsha, the Japanese rolled a 4, losing 1 unit and flipping, and the Chinese didn't even notice they were being attacked. This will more or less stop the Japanese dead in their tracks in central china until next turn, but the nationalists are all in the north monsoon zone now so while the rest of the world is covered in snow, Japan should have lots of clear weather to push the Chinese back this winter.

The impulse ends, and rain begins to fall across the north temperate and north monsoon zones. The med is still fine weather, however.

The CW takes a combined action. The longer the transports sit out at sea, the more vulnerable they are. Britain will use her naval moves to bring them to land. France takes a land action.

I've made a terrible mistake with Italy, leaving her two transports unguarded in La Spezia, with a British CV fleet on the Italian Coast. Britain sends her carrier planes to port strike them. Italian AA gunners aren't nearly as competent as their British counterparts, apparently, and we barely slow the attack down. Nor are we as good at making defensive die rolls... one Transport sinks.

The two transports land their troops in Malta, and nobody finds anybody at sea. Other than that, the allies can't do much this turn. A few Chinese units move up, and Hengyang is once again fully garrisoned. The French units that had been OOS in the north move together into a city where they are now supplied. Russia brought another unit into the border zone. Now the end of turn watch begins, more or less.

Germany and Japan take advantage of bad weather to do some naval moves on a combined. Italy, having resupplied the African corps, takes a land. Germany scatters her subs, and Japan sends a Mtn unit down to Truk. When war comes, we'll want that mountain unit in Rabaul, eventually, and Truk makes a good staging ground. It's time to start thinking about Japanese strategy in the Pacific, a part of the game I know very little about.

In the eastern med, the allies shoot down a german Nav. The Axis missed the other 5 search rolls.

In East Africa, the Italians walk into Nairobi, conquering Kenya. The South African garrison in Algiers probably doesn't have long to live. Germany grabs a few more resources in northern france, and kill off the last French HQ, and that's pretty much the impulse.

The third allied impulse brings clear skies and a lot of incentive to pass. With very little to do and a 30% chance of ending the turn before the Germans get another clear weather turn, the allies all pass. The turn does not end, and the axis celebrate by taking land actions all around.

Italy sends a plane into the eastern med, which lets them trigger a naval search there. Finally, they find the british. With an overwhelming air advantage and no ships of their own to lose, the Italians include the British carriers in the fight.

Here they spend 2 surprise points increasing their own air to air column to +4. Decreasing the allied from -3 to -4 wouldn't create a column shift, nor would going to +5, so the Italians save the other 4 points for now. Each side loses a plane, the British losing a 2-2 swordfish and the Italians lost a 4 factor fighter. Both sides clear through a bomber. The allies sink the 1 Italian CP, and the Italians make an allied CV abort. There is no second round.

In France, Germany ground strikes Lyons, flipping one unit. Knowing that this could well be the last good weather we'll see until March, the Axis march on Lyons and make a long shot attack. One casualty on each side, but the hex isn't cleared. Still, knocking even one of the two mountain units out of Lyons is a huge victory, especially coming at such a low cost.

The turn does not end, the weather stays clear. The allies pass and pray, and end it on a 1. Here's the situation in France: