Bob Flemin's MWIF AARse

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

The Royal Navy sails Force H from Gibraltar in another attempt to find the elusive Italian convoy.

The Italians - needless to say - do not try and intercept the moving British Fleet. When it comes to the search rolls, the RM find the RN but not the other way around. Furthermore, the RM has sufficient surprise points to avoid combat...

Cunningham and Somerville are getting mighty frustrated.....

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

The Soviets decide to go on the attack.

The Luftwaffe are too strong to allow ground strikes, but Manstein is already disorganised anyway and besides, its important not to get too cocky and end up giving the Germans an opportunity they can exploit.

EDIT: Well the attack Manstein needs to be cancelled... Supply is an issue for the armoured column that was to have moved into Minsk, while one cavalry unit in the hex northwest is already disorganised.

Instead, the Soviets decide to apply pressure in the south, and once again its the hapless Romanians that the trouble descends upon...

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 7

The Germans choose the Assault table....

...a lowly 6 is thrown, but at these odds it hardly matters. The Romanian is destroyed for the loss of one Soviet and all units disorganised. Koniev is quite happy with that thank-you very much.

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 9

The Germans need to forget moving beyond Odessa - the Dneiper is a pipe-dream, let alone the Don or the Volga....

Ploesti is under threat and so troops are pulled back to try and cut off the Soviet threat building in Bessarabia.

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1942
Impulse: 9

There are no aircraft to be brought in and HQ support is not available to either side. The Germans choose the Blitz table and....

.....for the first time the Germans throw a decent score - 18. Both Soviet units are destroyed for no loss.

[warspite1]

Turn: May/Jun 1942
Impulse: End of Turn

The Germans roll a 1 and the turn ends.

A partisan unit arrives in France and occupies the resource hex east of Nantes.

In US Entry news, the Americans freeze Japanese assets. "That's not very nice is it boys and girls?" says Tojo...

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: Reinforcement

Germany:

Scharnhorst, 3 x fighters, a Heinkel 111 and a Condor. On the ground an HQ and an anti-tank.

Italy:

Fighter

Japan:

2 x Carrier Air and an Amphibious

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: Reinforcement

China:

Fighter, Mechanised and an Infantry

Commonwealth:

HMS Hermione, 2 x fighters, Burmese Militia (for some reason Dutch coloured?), Mountbatten HQ, Aussie Garrison

USA:

Carrier Air

USSR:

Fighter, Mountain and Artillery

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 1

The Axis win the initiative and the weather (except the Northern Monsoon) is Fine.

Germany tries to lend an oil to Italy as the bunkers of the fleet are completely dry...

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 1

First things first. The Germans need to extinguish the bridgehead over the Dneister gained by the 50th Infantry Army.

A Stuka and a Ju-88 are ordered to the two hexes north of Odessa in order to try and stop any Soviet counter.

The Soviet air force counter with their two fighters in Odessa flying in defence of the units northwest of the city. The Germans bring in their only two fighters in the region in response.

The Germans have a very slight advantage...

There is no action intended in the north - the Germans have simply run out of units....

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 1

Round 1

The Soviets roll a 10 (DC) which clears the Stuka through to the target.

The Germans also roll a 10 (DC) but there are no Soviet bombers so no effect.

The Soviets decide to abort their fighters back to Odessa. The Stuka manages to disorganise the 4th Mechanised Army and in the hex to the east, importantly, Koniev is disorganised by the Ju-88.

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 1

For this impulse their will be two attacks - the Germans against the 50th Infantry and the Japanese against Chiang, who is all alone following the attack in the previous turn.

Chiang uses defensive HQ support. The Japanese decline so that the HQ's are available for reorganisation purposes. The Germans refuse for the same reason.

No aircraft are availalble in China due to the weather, but the Soviets bring in a bomber to help the odds in the Bessarabian battle.

First up its the battle in China. As this is in mountains, Chiang gets to choose and plumps for the Assault table.....

....its a 16, Chiang is no more and the Japanese remain organised.

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 1

These are the numbers that the Germans really need to be throwing - especially early in the turn. The Blitz able is chosen and.....

....er....its another 6. "You have to laugh" says Adolf..or something...

The Soviet unit retreats and three attackers are disorganised.

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 1

The Germans use all their HQ to reorganise the disorganised ground troops and some of their aircraft. There is still hope for this turn...

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 2

The Royal Navy pile in to the Italian Coast. The RM and RA are pretty much out of gas so they cannot respond - but just hope the RN ability to find the convoy is as unsuccessful as recent turns..

...and they are...

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 2

The Soviets need to be a little careful this turn having got Koniev disorganised and having used up their two fighters and one bomber in the south. They therefore limit themselves to organising their defence as well as they can.

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 3

Right this is it - the Germans big chance in the south to open up the way to Odessa and for the Japanese to make some proper ground in southern China!

First the latter go for a ground strike against the artillery unit caught alone in the fort hex northeast of Kweillin. The Chinese do not contest this as they are outgunned in the region - and besides, the Japanese usually fail to ground strike anyway...

...and they did this time too.

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 3

For this turn there will be three attacks:

a) The Partisan in France
b) The hex northwest of Odessa
c) Southern China

There are no aircraft or HQ support modifiers in any of the battles.

China is first up and its a...

...3 Its a good job the odds were so high! The Artillery is lost and the attacker is not disorganised. The Japanese are starting to roll.

[warspite1]

Turn: Jul/Aug 1942
Impulse: 3

The French attack goes in - its a 2. YES a 2. The Partisan is untouched an the German lose an Infantry corps...

To the Ukraine now and the Germans choose the Blitz table....

...its a 12. The defenders are shattered, the Germans lose a unit and half of the survivors are disorganised... The Germans do not convert the result.

[Orm]

I think Axis should pull their units out of USSR as soon as possible. No need to give USSR any extra production when Germany do not gain anything from staying there.