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Mar/Apr 1943

2nd Allied Impulse:

Weather:
The western allies usually use their 1st impulse to do their Naval actions. Now, the second time around, they will look for possible land attacks.

Unfortunately the weather just turned bad again, and this March/April turn so far is not lending itself to good maneuvering.

Well, at least the weather is Snow in Arctic, helping with Soviet movement.

Mar/Apr 1943

2nd Allied Impulse:

Actions:
USSR - Land
CW - Land
US - Land
Fr - Land

Land Moves:
USSR continues to pull back. Almost all salvageable units are across the river line, including 3 HQs. (3 more air will be rebased behind the river this impulse)

Mar/Apr 1943

2nd Allied Impulse:

Land Moves (continued):
Soviet bastion in the South...

Mar/Apr 1943

2nd Allied Impulse:

Land Moves (continued):
Finally, an update in Spain...

Mar/Apr 1943

2nd Allied Impulse:

Land Moves (continued):
While the Marines are landing in Truk, US Army units are disembarking into the Phillipines.

Mar/Apr 1943

2nd Allied Impulse:

Land Combat:
Well, it took long enough, and the US simply got tired of waiting for the right circumstances. Right before land combat declarations, the US landed another Marine DIV and the Marine Engineers on the island adjacent to Truk. This gave them three Marine units to attack across the sea hexside. In addition, the other Marine corps unit, plus the Sydney MIL and another US DIV invaded from the sea.

The US heaped on 14 pts in ground support and 14 more points in shore bombardment to get +9.333 modifier, even without any units being disrupted.

The Japanese chose the Assault table. US did not get the fractional, but rolled a 14, good enough for a complete kill. Truk is now in the Allied hands.

Mar/Apr 1943

2nd Axis Impulse:

Actions:
Japan - Combined. move Imperial Guard to Manila.
Germany - Land. Kill the left-behind Soviet units quickly. Consider using offensive against US/CW next turn.
Italy - Land

Naval Combat:
Allies try to find the Japanese convoys in the South China Seas, but no luck.

Land Moves:
Germany was able to do overruns on two sets of Soviet troops, killing a total of two INFs and an ENG division. They surrounded two other pockets of isolated Soviet units and declared 2 attacks, both at over +20.

Mar/Apr 1943

2nd Axis Impulse:

Land Combat:
1st of the automatic attacks in Russia...

Mar/Apr 1943

2nd Axis Impulse:

Land Combat:
2nd of the automatic attacks in Russia...

Mar/Apr 1943

2nd Axis Impulse:

End of Turn Roll:
An incredibly short March/April turn, as the Axis rolls a 1 to end the turn after each side only got 2 impulses...

Losses:
Not a long turn, so not a whole lot of losses here. You can see the defenders of Truk, as well as too many Soviet units.

Mar/Apr 1943

End of Turn Phase:

Production:
Germany (57): INF, MTN, MOT, ARM, 3 x FTR2, FTR3, 2 x LND3, 3 x PILOT, OFFENSIVE, save 4
Italy (17): MOT, 2 x MIL, FTR2, LND3, 2 x PILOT
Japan (37): 2 x GARR, MIL, FTR2, FTR3, NAV3, 2 x CVP1, 3 x PILOT, CV (finish), 4 x CV (start), save 6

5 BPs are being added to USSR from CW/USA
CW (30): 3 x INF, FTR2, LND3, LND4, CVP1, 3 x PILOT, TRS (finish)
US (79): PARA, MECH, 2 x MOT, MAR DIV, ARM MAR DIV, AT DIV, ARTY DIV, 2 x FTR2, FTR3, 2 x LND3, LND4, 2 x CVP1, 6 x PILOT, 6 x CV (start), save 1
USSR (27): HQ-INF, 4 x INF, GARR, CAV, ARM

Conquest:
Mauritania completely conquered by Italy
Caroline Islands completely conquered by USA

Reinforcements:

Allies incoming forces for May/Jun
- 2 more fast BBs for the US
- first Allied offensive
- not enough Soviet units
- the game is letting me produce non-named DIVs like those you see in the broken down pool, here a Indian MOT DIV

Mar/Apr 1943

End of Turn Phase:

Reinforcements (continued):

Axis incoming
- 2 NAVs for Japan
- first 8pt FTR for Germany
- nice 9 strength INF for Germany
- another offensive for Germany
- more no-named DIVs (MAR for Japan and MECH for Germany)
- Iraq Militia (not sure if it will let me place it)

May/Jun 1943

Beginning of Turn Phase:

Initiative:
The Axis really want to get initiative this turn. Unfortunately its up to die rolls.

Axis rolls a 2, Allies roll a 5. Even with the +2 modifier, Axis is still losing. They decide to do a reroll....

Their risk is paid off as they roll a 5 and allies roll a 3. Axis decides to go first and possibly use an offensive if the weather is right.

Weather:
Veddy niiizze...

May/Jun 1943

1st Axis Impulse:

Actions:
Japan - Land
Germany - Super-Combined
Italy - Combined

Naval Air:
- Japan puts NAVs out to the Bay of Bengal and China Sea
- Germany puts NAVs out to Red Sea, Black Sea, and Cape St Vincent
- Italy puts NAV out to Arabian Sea

Naval Moves:
- Italy picks up 6 divisions from the Middle East. They bring along one BB in case they want to invade Cyprus.
- Germany sends SUBs out to Norwegian Sea and Arctic Ocean
- Germany sends Portuguese DDs to Cape St Vincent to cause trouble
- Germany sends Romanian DDs to Black Sea and picks up Engineer DIV

Naval Combat:
Totally not historical, but this is the first SUB attack from Germany in the entire war, and only the second Combined action they've taken (since the seaborne invasion of the Low Countries in 1939).

The Allies, lulled into a sense of safety with their convoys, have no escorts in the Norwegian Sea or Arctic Ocean.

Germany attempts to find the Convoys in Norwegian Sea, and roll a 1. Allies roll a 5.

Axis uses surprise points to lower Allied ASW roll to no effect. They use the rest to increase their damage on the CONVs, destroying both CONV points easily.

May/Jun 1943

1st Axis Impulse:

Naval Combat (continued):
In the Arctic Ocean, German SUBs fail to find the Allied convoys.

In Cape St Vincent, Germany attempts to find the Allied cruisers and block supply to the forces in Africa and southern Spain. Italy flies out another NAV to the 2 box.

The Allies fly two NAVs out, since the Axis have no fighters out, at this point, there is no way for the Axis to totally cutoff supply. CW also flies out a FTR to the 2 box to protect one of the NAVs.

No matter, no one finds each other anyway.

May/Jun 1943

1st Axis Impulse:

Naval Combat (continued):
Finally, Italy tries to find the Allied convoys in the Arabian Sea to cutoff BPs to the Soviets. They have 2 NAVs in the 1 and 2 box, and roll a 3, both finding the convoys. The Allies roll a 7 and have no escorts in the 0 box.

Italy takes an aggressive move and includes the escorts as well, even though that exposes them to AA fire.

Allied AA fire ends up causing 2 points in bomb reduction. Italy uses the 6 surprise points to increase their air attack damage.

Italy destroys 2 CONVs, CW elects to damage the CL Perth.
Italy damages another CONV, CW elects to abort the CL Perth.

May/Jun 1943

1st Axis Impulse:

Naval Combat (continued):
Italy tries to search again, and rolls a 2. Allies roll a 2 as well, so Italy won't have much in the way of surprise points.

They elect to include the escorts again, it worked last time!

The CW doesnt get an AA roll (i'll have to check the charts to see if that makes sense), so no effect on the Italian NAVs.

Italy uses their 2 surprise points on damage to the CW ships.

Italy destroys the CL Sydney. Allies elect to damage (destroy) the last CONV since the cruiser is more valuable.
Italy aborts the last CL Hobart.

At this point, the Allies have been cutoff from any help to the Soviets unless they can re-establish CONVs (likely in the North, not likely in the Arabian Sea)

Wow, Italy got much better than they originally hoped. It helps to roll 2s when doing Naval Searches!

May/Jun 1943

1st Axis Impulse:

Strat Bombing:
Germany fails on a Strategic bombing raid on Glasgow even with not being intercepted. Eh..

May/Jun 1943

1st Axis Impulse:

Ground Strikes:
Germany declares a few strikes using their super-combined, and in three cases we have air-to-air combat, which quite large air fleets involved.

The first is in France, where Germany sends two bombers to hit the only Allied hex that they can get a three-hex attack on it. The Allies have plenty of air to respond with and in this case the forces are even, and the odds are 0/0

1st round, Allies roll an 18, Germany chooses to kill their lead bomber. Axis rolls a 9, no effect.

2nd round, Allies roll a 11, clearing the Stuka. Axis rolls an 18, killing the lead Allied fighter, a 7pt Hellcat. Air combat over.

May/Jun 1943

1st Axis Impulse:

Ground Strikes (continued):
Result of the bomber strike in France (Germany also contributed an ARTY strike here as well): All three hit!