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I am sorry for the delay.

Been pondering on whether to sortie with the Italian navy, or not. Marshal Balbo has requested naval support for the continued assault on Marseilles. The lack of enemy forces present supports such operation and, at last, Italy has enough oil to support naval operations. The British navy in Gibraltar, however, can be expected to react to any Italian naval missions and is a concern.

Preliminary orders for Japan and Italy. Comments and suggestions are encouraged.

No declarations of war.

Land: Japan
Combined: Italy

No Port Strikes.

NAV2 in La Specia fly to the 4-box of the West Med.
NAV2 on Sicily fly ot the 4-box of the East Med.

The Italian navy leave port and sail to the 4-box of the West Med. The fleet consists of 2 old battleships and 2 cruisers. See picture. (Giulio Cesare, Conte Di Cavour, Duca D'Aosta, Garibaldi)

Italy initiates naval combat in the East Med. No additional air. (If there is an air combat, may I suggest that Italy aborts it after round one)

No strategic bombing. No Ground Strikes.

Imperial Guard rail from Changsha to Peking.

Is it worth risking the fleet for Marseilles at this point? Would it be worth waiting until the Sparveiro and perhaps the He-115 (I can leave a re-base this turn) in northern Germany are available to join in said enterprise as some insurance?

Just a thought, but if you think the risk is acceptable then fine by me.

I do not care much about Marseilles. But I do want to capture Toulon and, more importantly, overrun the French fleet there. I had hoped to use the 2-box for the Italian fleet so that it could get fighter cover but the only available fighter is needed to try and intercept possible French defensive ground support.

Capturing Marseilles, and Toulose has the added benefit that it opens up the railroad into southern France.

Would be nice if forces could be diverted to capture French Atlantic coast ports. Although I suspect that there will be few, or none, available for such tasks. Italy do, however, dream of capturing all the French mainland ports so that the French fleet is forced to base abroad.

Since CW has long range fighter, and decent CV fighters, the Italian fleet needs fighters that can reach the 2-box so that it can operate with fighter escort. More naval bombers in high boxes without fighters might not accomplish much.

So are these orders finalised? i.e. can I do the turn now?

You can do it.

Although I will continue to have doubts. [:D]

Nice result from the ground strikes. I suppose an attack against Paris is given now?

Will you complete your part of the impulse now? I ask because I want to know if I can play MWIF today. Otherwise I play some other game and might not check here as much.

ORIGINAL: Orm

Nice result from the ground strikes. I suppose an attack against Paris is given now?

Will you complete your part of the impulse now? I ask because I want to know if I can play MWIF today. Otherwise I play some other game and might not check here as much.

warspite1

I've been pondering this morning but suspect you have an idea of this already.

Although I have a +3 on Paris I can only get 3:2. I can get 3:1 on the hex northeast but only a +1.

We will definitely get another impulse so what do you say to holding off and using the HQ to reorganise the aircraft? Alternatively we could do the 3:1 (we can get the choice of CRT too) and accept that we may lose out and be disorganised. I think on balance I would prefer the 3:1.... 3:2 Assault is not great. The other advantage is that we can shore up the line north of Paris and take Rouen.

I'll take a look now.

Yes, I agree with you. 3:1+1 blitz is preferable. If we get a retreat result, then all the defenders are destroyed. And if France provides successful defensive HQ support, then he can not reorganize any units.

Make sure that you have all 3 German ARM in the attack NE of Paris (2 ARM corps + 1 ARM div). If not, then France would call combat table.


I suggest that you include no HQs in the attack and use them to reorganize the land units. I think we should aim for three impulses this turn and use no HQs to reorganize aircrafts.

ORIGINAL: Orm

Yes, I agree with you. 3:1+1 blitz is preferable. If we get a retreat result, then all the defenders are destroyed. And if France provides successful defensive HQ support, then he can not reorganize any units.

Make sure that you have all 3 German ARM in the attack NE of Paris (2 ARM corps + 1 ARM div). If not, then France would call combat table.


I suggest that you include no HQs in the attack and use them to reorganize the land units. I think we should aim for three impulses this turn and use no HQs to reorganize aircrafts.

warspite1

Yes that was one of the reasons the movement took so long - I kept having to re-do it until I got the right combination of supply and armour to the various points.

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Orm

Yes, I agree with you. 3:1+1 blitz is preferable. If we get a retreat result, then all the defenders are destroyed. And if France provides successful defensive HQ support, then he can not reorganize any units.

Make sure that you have all 3 German ARM in the attack NE of Paris (2 ARM corps + 1 ARM div). If not, then France would call combat table.


I suggest that you include no HQs in the attack and use them to reorganize the land units. I think we should aim for three impulses this turn and use no HQs to reorganize aircrafts.

warspite1

Yes that was one of the reasons the movement took so long - I kept having to re-do it until I got the right combination of supply and armour to the various points.

Indeed.

I find it sad that MECH has no impact at all in this case. No matter on how many. I find it weird that one AT can negate every MECH.

Do you want to do the land combats, and rebases? Or should I do the rest of our impulse?

ORIGINAL: Orm

Do you want to do the land combats, and rebases? Or should I do the rest of our impulse?

warspite1

Happy for you to do the land combat. The rebases should be none as I used all four air up on GS. The reorganisations will depend on what happens in the land battle.

I assume that no bombers should be added to the attack.

No, I can't change the odds. The only problem is if the French bomber gets through, but then I'm hoping fractional odds will work in may favour to bring back to 3:1.

Edit: On second thoughts I had about 4-5 attempts at trying various line-ups and can't recall what nos. I ended up with. If you think that the addition of a bomber or two will help (if we assume the French bomber were to get through) then please feel free to add).

I can't for the life of me remember what the plan was in France....and I can't locate our conversation on the subject despite trying the search function. [:(]

For this impulse are we aiming to take out Paris and then Vichy or what - can you recall?

I think we decided not to rush any attack on Paris. And to try to capture the French Atlantic sea ports.

I think that attacking the hex NW of Paris this impulse might be slower but safer. We are likely to get at least one more impulse this turn. So I would wait with attacking Paris. Just getting a retreat on the forces NW of Paris destroys them. And then the attack on Paris gets one higher odds since there is one more hex to attack from. But even more important, there are then no units that can reinforce Paris, if the first assault in Paris fails.

And a reminder. Attacks on Paris has a automatic -1 on the die roll because of the factories. (2 printed factories gives a negative modifier. I think using a engineer can negate this but I do not think we have an engineer available).

xxxx

Italy will attack Toulon.

xxxx

Should I do the first part of our impulse and you take the second part?

Okay, and I'll do a Combined and attack northwest of Paris. No units available to take ports though.

No orders ahead of Movement except putting the subs to sea in the North Atlantic 3-range and Faroes Gap 2-range.