Play along with me! - Global War Solitaire AAR

[joshuamnave]

And here's China

[joshuamnave]

The US freezes Japanese assets, moving a chit from the war pool to the tension pool. Chances are very good of a gear up next turn. The allies are still concerned about the plodding pace of US entry, however.

In the RTB phase, German subs rebased to Brest. They're in no danger of port strikes there, because subs in major ports can always decline combat. In minor ports, they're sitting ducks.

German production jumped up a bit this turn. More importantly, Germany once again has spare resources and can increase the amount they send to Italy.

You may ask, why send German build points to Italy, after all German units are pretty much better right across the board. True enough but Germany will almost always take land actions. Italy, on the other hand, can take naval, combined, and even air actions on a regular basis. German subs may be better, but Italian subs get used more.

Production:
Germany, 21 BPs - 2 pilots, Lnd (3), Nav (3), CP, Arm, Eng, Sub
Italy, 7 BPs - Pilot, Ftr (2), amph
Japan, 15 BPs - Pilot, 2 CVP (1), Trans, 2 CP, 3 repairs
China, 5 BPs - Pilot, Ftr (2), Cav Div
CW, 17 BPs - 2 Pilot, Howe, 2 CP, 2 Terr, Lnd (4), CVP (1)
France, 1 BP - CVL (playing without saved bps. Might as well put some hulls on the spiral)
US, 10 BP - Amph, Hornet, 3 CVP (1)
USSR, 16 BP - Mtn, Mot, Mech, Mech Div

Incoming reinforcements:

[joshuamnave]

Last save file for the night/morning... end of the sept/oct 1940 turn.

[jcrohio]

Zartacla

Been following your AAR. New to the whole gaming system. Got it for Christmas and slowly wading through manuals. Thought I would go back and take your saves and play through them. Got stuck right away on your first impulse move! Over in Japan, I am trying to transport the Japanese Marines and HQ from Japan to Canton, China. Can do it all right but the only way I can do it is to move the transports directly to Canton which then puts them disorganized in port. In your example you have the land units in Canton but the transports are sitting in the China Sea in seabox 3. I cannot figure out how you did this.

Hope you don't mind questions. I will probably have more.
Thanks
Jack

Never mind - figured it out! But will probably still have questions

[joshuamnave]

Sure, ask away! I'm glad someone is finding it useful.

The last save I posted, for the end of Sep/Oct 1940, is also another one for Steve. It has the French surrender crash bug. If you try playing it, it will crash when you get to the surrender stage. There is a work around - after it crashes, you can reload the game from the surrender stage. The crash will happen again, but this time you'll be able to continue the application, then end the phase and continue the game. What you won't be able to do is surrender France.

[joshuamnave]

The Axis keep the initiative going into winter, and the weather continues to be upside down. It's a roll of 1, so it's clear skies everywhere.

Eager to take advantage of the lingering summer, the axis high command focuses all of its energy on the ground (3 land actions).

In France, German bombers sortie en masse to groundstrike Lyons, escorted by a large number of fighters. France got new fighters and a Lnd (4) this turn, and Germany wants to neutralize them before attacking Lyons. The Japanese attempt to groundstrike Changsha.

In an air battle over Lyons, one German bomber (out of 3) was aborted, and both French fighters were shot down. The remaining bombers flip both the mtn unit and the 4pt Lnd in Lyons, opening the door for a heroic siege of the city. In China, the Japanese bombers, unimpeded by enemy air and working in clear terrain, manage to flip one out of three units in Changsha.

Last turn, the Germans started railing in a few minor country units to help crack the Spanish mountain line. Both the Yugo and Rumanian mtn units and their HQ units are now in south France. They may never see combat - they can only cooperate with the Germans and their low combat factors mean I'd be better off with another German unit, but simply by having them in the alpine hex sides, it forces the Spanish to more carefully deploy their troops. Now the Germans rail back the last of the units used to take Greece. Italy leaves an HQ in Greece to keep air units there up and running.

Nothing but medium to low odds siege attacks this turn. Things could get bloody but the odds will only get worse if I wait.

[joshuamnave]

The Chinese are more concerned with protecting their units than the cities, and choose blitz attacks. The French, who have nowhere to retreat to and just want to kill Germans anyway, take an assault. All three attacks work, with remarkably just one Axis casualty (a militia unit in the siege of Hengyang) although most of the axis force pool is flipped.

In keeping with tradition, the US couldn't possibly care less about the occupation of Chinese cities.

With Lyons out of the way, the western axis powers turn their attention to Toulouse. It's another factory city in the mountains, surrounded by rivers, but fortunately the French are out of mtn units to garrison it.

With so many units flipped, an attack on Toulouse or Spain this turn is unlikely. Rommel and Guderian reorg a few fighters to they can rebase next impulse in preparation for the fighting to come. Terauchi also reorgs a bomber. There's a pocket of out of supply Chinese units south of Hengyang now. If they can be groundstruck, Yamamoto will wipe them up.

On the allied part of the impulse, the British take a naval action to send out escorts. The French also take a naval action - most of their navy is at sea already, but their land units are completely pinned down and the French do have a few subs that can harass Italian supply lines in the med.

The British move Wavell and an infantry out of Malta and into Egypt. Those boys have had quite a European tour...

In the Western Med, the French find the Italian Nav bomber and try to chase it home, but their AA gunners are all a bit hung over and only manage to reduce the Italian air to sea value by 1. France ends up with a damaged battleship and a cruiser aborted. In Faeroes Gap, a single German sub finds the allied convoys and escorts. Two convoy points are aborted but the escorts chase the Germans back to Brest.

Noticing a lack of organized fighters in the north of France, the British strat bomb Lille and Paris, costing the Germans two BPs. They return to base, landing next to Alexander who has been left in the UK for just this reason. He'll reorg two of the bombers for another run next impulse, weather permitting.

The Chinese pocket extricates themselves from their supply situation, but one of them flips in the process. And here's something to watch out for in a situation like this - if a unit moves while out of supply, it will become disorganized. Supply is checked when the unit tries to move. In this situation, the first unit that moved was out of supply, and so it flipped. But by moving, it reestablished supply for the rest of the group, who were able to move without becoming disorganized. The first time I moved them, I moved them as a stack and the entire stack flipped. Realizing the mistake, I undid the move and moved just one unit, then the rest of them. The remaining Chinese units, those that can move, being the process of an orderly retreat into the mountains, falling back toward Chihkiang.

The impulse ends and the weather turns sour. Rain in the north temp.



Here's the save file.

[joshuamnave]

Japan takes a land action. From this point on, most new Japanese builds will be geared toward the naval war to come and the bulk of the land units will be sent to garrison the pacific or placed with Trans/Amphs for invasions to come. Germany takes a Land. I want to send out the German subs, but they're OOS and I need to move Rundstedt a little closer first. Had we vichied France, they would be in supply. Once France is conquered, they'll be in supply. But for now, French cities are not secondary supply sources and they need the HQ. Italy takes a naval action.

In the western med, a naval air fight sends a british spitfire and an Italian nav home. On the second round, Italy finds the French fleet with max surprise points. 2 French cruisers are sunk, 2 more are damaged. Italy aborts 2 cruisers and a battleship, and Vittorio Venetto fails its defensive roll and is damaged.

Germany puts her subs in supply, and shifts the face up units south toward Toulouse, screening the remaining but mostly irrelevant French ground troops in the north.

Japan masses units adjacent to Chiang, who is sitting on a clear terrain resource hex. Rather than attack at +7, Japan stares down at Chiang. If Chiang stays in open terrain, Japan will rebase air and pop him in January. But he is too valuable a unit for the Chinese to risk that way so they'll be trying to evacuate him.

The CW takes another naval action. They left a large portion of the Gibraltar fleet in reserve, waiting for the Italians to commit. Now they want to come out and play. Some CPs need to be moved as well. The Germans rebased some fighters to make strat bombing more difficult, but there may still be a few targets available. Unfortunately, the fleet fails to find the Italians.

Chiang moves NW. He's still in a clear terrain hex, but this one is surrounded by rivers and adjacent to OOS or flipped Japanese units. Next turn he'll be able to move west into the mountains, and the Chinese will fall back further. It hurts to give up the resource that way, but the alternative was to lose the resource and the units.

The impulse ends, and winter has arrived as snow falls in the north temperate. The north monsoon has fine weather now. As weather gets worse in the north, it improves in the south. Winter is a good time for fighting in African, south China and the south Pacific.

[joshuamnave]

The last French factory. The Yugoslavian and Rumanian units are not there to participate in the assault. The Yugo and Rum mtn units are there to help cross the alpine hex sides on the Spanish border. France has 8 inf factors in Toulouse (2 units), 1 ftr and 1 lnd.

[joshuamnave]

Garrisons in Flames!

[joshuamnave]

The last ChiCom garrison. Unfortunately, it's in the North Temperate so probably is safe until spring. The 3 bombers will be rebasing to the N Monsoon for the winter.

[joshuamnave]

And the nationalists...

[joshuamnave]

Germany takes a combined. The UBoats are in supply and are heading to sea. Japan takes a land action and presses up against the retreating Chinese.

None of the German subs find a target. Germany has started patrolling the east coast of the US, so America will have to start providing convoy protection there. This requires a US entry action, so expect to see that coming up real soon.

The Japanese envelope the ChiComs. I should have had them fall back to Lanchow, but didn't want to give up a mountain city straddling a supply line without a fight. Now I see my mistake. One Japanese unit has a clear shot on Lanchow if the turn doesn't end. And even if it ends now, there are no ChiCom reinforcements due.

[joshuamnave]

With a 10% chance of the turn ending, the Axis rolls a 2 and we continue. The Chinese need to move some nationalists, but then desperately want the turn to end. China takes a land action, the other allies pass, giving them a 50% chance of ending the turn.

Chiang and Stilwell fall back into the mountains, leaving behind a sacrificial disorganized division. Better to lose the division than the whole stack. The Japanese have more or less routed the southern part of the Chinese line, and by falling back the nationalists have moved most of their units into the N Temperate zone, denying the Japanese good attacks for the next few months.

The turn does not end, the weather stays the same, and the Axis get another shot.

Germany takes a combined. At the end of the previous impulse, Rundstedt reorganized the German sub that aborted earlier in the turn from Faeroe's Gap, just in case there was another turn. Now it will sail and the Germans will get to make a few more search rolls. Italy and Japan take land actions.

In the north atlantic, Germany sinks a british convoy and sends another home, but one german sub is damaged. Not a great tradeoff, but the shipping war is just heating up.

Japanese and Italian bombers fail to groundstrike their targets, but the IJA makes a run for it and grabs Lanchow. America... doesn't care. The ChiComs are down to their last 2 cities. If they lose all of their cities, their units are removed from the force pool. Typically, you send a communist division south to take a nationalist city before that can happen, but thanks to my blunder last turn they might not get that opportunity now.

There are no attacks, and the impulse and turn, and for that matter the year, comes to an end.

The US has the entry level to gear up, but not the tension levels. So they choose to provide escort for convoys along the east coast, and a chit moves. Now they have the tension, but not the entry... the missing US entry from the fall of France is hurting the US (although obviously not as much as it's hurting the axis).

[joshuamnave]

Production:
Germany 19 BPs (strat bombing hurt a bit) - pilot, pilot, Ftr (2), Lnd (3), sub repair, CVP, sub, inf, inf
Italy 9 BPs - Pilot, amph, trans, terr
Japan 16 BPs - Pilot, pilot, repair CA, 2 CVP (1), trans, CV, warlord, 3 CP
China 3 BPs - Inf
CW 14 BPs - Pilot, 2 cps, amph, victorious, ftr (2), 2 cvp (1)
France 0 BPs
USA 10 BPs - Trans, Indiana, 2 CVP (1)
USSR 16 BPs - pilot, mech, mot, mot div, Lnd (3)

[joshuamnave]

The new year starts with the Axis holding the initiative. Things are quiet in the west where it is snowing heavily in the N Temp and Med zones. In the N Monsoon, they are enjoying clear skies and balmy temperatures, but most of the troops have fled north.

Japan and Germany take combined actions - more because the naval actions they get in a combined are sufficient than because they have a lot of land moves to make. Italy takes a naval action.

In the Bay of Biscay, German subs strike, knocking out 4 convoys and sending 2 more home. The CW's convoy net was already damaged from the previous turn, now it's starting to fall apart.

The Italians pile on, sinking 2 and aborting 3 in Cape St Vincent. The British convoy lines are long, and this is the first turn the US has been able to step in and help guard them. Are they coming too late?

In China, 4 Japanese bombers pile on to the one stack of Chinese units still in the N Monsoon zone, trying to smack them now before they escape into the snow. A Chinese plane looking suspiciously like an American P-36 flies up to intercept them, and a squadron of A6M2 "zeros" joins the fray.

[joshuamnave]

Second time this has happened. Both instances came when there was a counter interception from the attacker. Not sure if that's relevant or not. The roll flashes up (in this case it was a 4, last time it was a low number also), then the error message. If you hit "continue application" the game hangs with a "waiting for dice roll" message.

I reloaded the game, and manually entered a 10 for the die roll, same crash.

I reloaded again, this time had the Japanese fighter escort the bombers instead of counter intercept. I manually entered a 4 again and this time it worked fine. The last time I had this crash (see earlier in this AAR) I was able to fix it by escorting instead of intercepting as well. Looks like the code doesn't like attackers counter intercepting during ground strikes.

Moving on...

The Chinese shoot down the Zero, but not before being destroyed themselves. When the lone survivor lands and sees a row of holes along his fuselage, he casually blames it on termites.

Two of the 3 Chinese units are flipped. Bayonets are fixed, prayers are said...

The Japanese continue to exploit my blunder by grabbing the resource NW of Lanchow and taking Ningsia. One ChiCom city remains, and there's a Japanese unit 2 mtn hexes from it. Fortunately for the Chinese, he's disorganized and too far from an HQ. Double fortunate for the Chinese, there's a communist infantry due to arrive next turn.

In the south, the Japanese wait another impulse to attack. The units are flipped and not going anywhere, and the Japanese can bring in several more units to help in the fight. Otherwise it's only a +6 battle. If the Chinese HQ's reorg them, they'll be flipped on the front lines at a time when China is trying to fall back.

On the Allied half of the impulse, Britain and France both take Naval actions. Britain because they have a lot of ships to move and convoys to reestablish, and France because with the exception of the garrison guarding the port of Oran, all of the French ground units are locked in place now anyway. The US is finally getting involved in the war, sending fleets out to escort the east coast convoys on a combined. (Note: The US picked the escort east coast convoy option last turn. The allows them to use up to 5 ships in the 0 box of the east coast in any sub combat there. They can't fight from the 4 box, or send in more than 5 ships, but if the turn is long enough for them to dribble that many ships in, they could put 5 in the 0 box and 5 more in the one box that slide down at the end of the turn)

The British are able to patch most of their convoy net, while running more of them through the north. Unfortunately, not even that route is completely safe, with long range uboats operating out of Brest now.

Off the Italian Coast, British subs zero in on a convoy of Italian freighters and send them to the bottom.

In China, Chiang retreats his units toward the river line. If they can get behind the river in the mountains, Japan will have to spend a lot of valuable time oozing around them.

The impulse ends, and the weather clears up - a little. Now it's only raining in the Med. With a strong chance that this will be the last axis impulse of the turn, everyone takes land actions. The goal for Jan/Feb is to be ready for M/A. At the first sign of clear weather we want to be ready to clear Toulouse, then turn our attention on Spain. We're already putting off Barbarossa dangerously long, so it's key that we get through spain, close the Med, and do some damage in the middle east. A 1942 Barbarossa will benefit heavily from allies in Iraq and Persia, for example.

Lots of unit shuffling. The Japanese squeeze that pimple in the south and it pops, with lots of sticky Chinese squirting out to the northwest and a disorganized retreat. They live, but Japan has the rail line. The Germans clean up the southern end of the Maginot, mostly as a training exercise to keep their troops sharp. Territorials in East Africa threaten more British possessions, but not British units, resources or supply routes. The impulse ends.

As is often the case, the Allies haven't much to do at the moment. Even the Chinese situation is fairly stable now that they are all stacked in contiguous mountain hexes. For the allies, time is money. They pass, giving the turn a 50% chance to end. And it does.

The allies add a chit to the European pool and it's a 1. Frustratingly, they still can't gear up.

Production:
Germany, 28 BP's - 3 Pilots,2 ftr (2), 2 Lnd (2), Arm HQ, Inf, Inf
Italy, 11 BP's - Pilot, BB repair, Lnd (4), sub, terr
Japan, 16 BP's - 2 Pilot, Mussashi, Amph, Ftr (2), CVP (1)
China, 3 BP's - Inf
CW, 21 BP's - 2 pilot, 4 CPs, 2 CA's, Monty, Nav (3)
US, 10 BP's - New Jersey, pilot, CVP (1), terr
USSR, 16 BP's - 2 Ftr (2), Inf HQ, Mech, garr

Decent number of reins coming in this turn

[joshuamnave]

I continue to get the surrender bug at the end of every turn. The game doesn't have any problem offering to let China surrender, but when it tries to let France surrender, bam!

Anyway, here's the save for the start of M/A, 1941

[Tonqeen]

Really nice reading, ty!

[Cad908]

ORIGINAL: Zartacla

I continue to get the surrender bug at the end of every turn. The game doesn't have any problem offering to let China surrender, but when it tries to let France surrender, bam!

Anyway, here's the save for the start of M/A, 1941

Zartacla,

Following your AAR and enjoying the read.

After looking over your last save I noticed US entry as:

Ge/IT Entry: 18 Tension: 11
Japan Entry: 26 Tension: 9

You need both tension levels at least 11 the turn before you trigger Opt 22 Gear up production. Assuming you draw a high market this turn which gets Ge/It entry to 22, you will need to move a marker to get Japanese tension at or above 11. After moving that marker, you will not be able to play an option directed against "ALL" the same turn, as Gear up production requires. Though the way you are drawing 1's, it may take awhile. [:)]

Take care,

-Rob