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Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. The Eastern Front. Land Combat.

Now turning to the Eastern Front, the Soviets also tried to keep up the pressure on the axis not only through strategic bombing of their oil fields (discussed earlier) but also through a couple of land combats fought in the rain and which didn't turn out all that well for the Soviets. Again, the Soviets need to learn how to roll better than a 7 and a 6 on the 2D10 CRT!

Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. The Eastern Front.

Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. Allied 5. Amphibious Land Combat Formosa and Siam.

Now turning to the Pacific ...

Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. Allied #5 & Allied #7. China. Land Combat.

And not to be left out, the Nationalist kept up their pressure on the Japanese and were able to seize one hex in Hong Kong. Not the city itself but an adjacent hex.

Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. Formosa. Hong Kong.

There was only one problem with the USA landing in Formosa and that was the USA player forgot to move the marines on the Allied #7 impulse, kill of the Japanese Mil in Taihoku, capture Taihoku which is not only the key to conquering Formosa but is a victory location. What an oversight by the USA player!

Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. Malaya. South China Sea.

Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. Truk and Kwajalein.

There also an invasion task force headed by Nimitz based in Truk who has the objective to capture Kwajalein (a victory location). Nimitz and his force was in position to do so if only the Japanese defender, which is out of supply, could have been disorganized. 6 air units failed to do this so no landing. Why risk losing Nimitz and the other two units? Nimitz will wait until the unit can be disorganized, which will reduce it's strength to 1 since he's out of supply. Patience is the best course for this situation.

Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. Sea Areas.

Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. Geo-Political.

Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. Destroyed. Repair Pools.

Turn 28. Mar/Apr 1944. Victory Totals.

Turn 29. May/June 1944. Yugoslavia.

German intelligence services were tip off to the possibility that a CW sponsored coup inside of Yugoslavia was possible. Through extensive cloak and dagger work German spies uncovered the following document that details such a possibility. A document generated at the highest levels of the British government and in, no doubt, in the handwriting of Winston Churchill himself.

Turn 29. May/June 1944. Tirana, Albania.

The axis were able to win the initiative, which required them to request a reroll. The Germans took a land and the Italians took a naval. One of the first orders of business was to reinforce Tirana, Albania as a counter to the possibility of a CW sponsored coup inside of Yugoslavia.

Turn 29. May/June 1944. CP Losses.

The Italians also used their naval to move submarines out into Cape St. Vincent where they successfully found and attack allied convoys. To the extreme frustration of the CW and USA players, the Italian player rolled a 1 for their search followed by a 10 for the allied search. With their oil possibly running out, the Italians isolated sea box 0, used all their surprise points to increase damage to allied convoys and sunk 3 CW CPs, 3 USA CPs and forced 3 more CW CPs to aborted.

While this turn started off almost like a continuation of last turn, it most definitely didn't stay that way for long. Lots of stuff happened and probably where you wouldn't expect it happening. Well, I definitely didn't expect or even plan for all that happened. These game changing events just unfolded and played out themselves. In fact, I was so fascinated by how this turn was playing out I couldn't stop, playing well past my bedtime and not getting to bed past 3:30 am this morning.

Dang this game! [8D]

Turn 29. May/June 1944. Weather. Actions.

A nice long turn, with mostly fine weather and lots of land actions. What could possibly be going on?

By the way, for the USA, C* = super combined (allied #2) and L* = o-chit with Eisenhower (allied #5).

Turn 29. May/June 1944. The Med, Italy and Southern France.

Here are how things were at the end of the turn in Italy and Southern France.

Turn 29. May/June 1944. The Western Front.

Here are how things were at the end of the turn in France.

There was lots of action, which include ebb and flow in who had the upper hand, happened this turn to result in the situations you see in France, Southern France and Italy.

I will do my best to show the sequence of events (or most of the events) that produced these results. It was exciting, entertaining, addictive and the reason I didn't get to bed until past 3:30 am this morning.

By the way, in the previous screen cap, I only have one CW unit in Italy. I do realize now and before all this unfolded that I need 4 CW corps to align Yugoslavia to the CW. At the start of this turn as the allied player I had no intention of attempting any landings into Italy. They happened this turn as part of the ebb of flow of the combat.

Turn 29. May/June 1944. Allied #2. Amphibious Landings, Southern France.

The USA used a super-combined and the CW a naval on their first impulse of the turn to put troops on ships and with ships at sea in the Western Med and in the Bay of Biscay for (attempted) landings in Western France and for expansion of their beachhead created last turn in Southern France. With the super-combined, the USA was also able to successfully put more troops into southern France and establish two separate beachheads in Western France.

First, the land combat in Southern France and the expansion of the beachhead there.

Turn 29. May/June 1944. Allied #2. Land Combat (Amphibious Invasions) Western France.

The Americans are able to establish two new beachheads in Western Front and hopefully opening up that front.

Both landings went off with all troops staying organized. The expectation from allied commanders, especially from the USA, was that these two beachheads would quickly expand to incorporate the defenders at Bordeaux who had been holding out for almost a year now. Well, that was the initial expectation ...

Turn 29. May/June 1944. Axis #3. Germany Counterattacks USA Landings in Western France.

The Germans were able to quickly organize a successfully counterattack against the Americans in Western France. They destroyed one of the two new beachheads and cut off the remaining newly created beachhead at La Rochelle from Bordeaux. Worst yet for the defenders at La Rochelle, La Rochelle is a port but not a city and is therefore susceptible to Blitz attacks. It's not looking good for the new allied position in Western France.