Fall Grau 2.28 Jeremy (Axis) vs. Ben (Allies)

[golden delicious]

Turn 32:
The chaos continues- made much more manageable by the fact that Jeremy got an early turn ending [as Jeremy notes early turn ending is always bad but this was critical. A typical multi-turn Axis round would have caused crises across the map which it would have been difficult to recover from]. The worst of it is that my Canadians are out of supply for a second turn, and this rapidly makes a bad situation a critical one. There was an airdrop, but supported by two SS Panzer brigades, deployed in such a way as to make really smashing them somewhat problematic. I release one armoured division from the trapped force to make a flank attack on one of them, while the remainder concentrates on the consolation prize of annihilating the still-trapped SS Totenkopf, but really I need about five fresh divisions here last turn to sort this out without losing the whole of my force. I'm able to bring two National Guard divisions here from Virginia, as much as I hate mixing non-cooperative units.

The centre is mixed. Jeremy actually failed to get across the Tennessee at all, despite banging away heavily against my unprepared National Guard, and there's a density light here which makes counterattack a tempting option. However, to the northwest Italian cavalry slipped through my centre and put two divisions out of supply, and these soft targets with the Mississippi at their backs are my priority, so I content myself with a double line of good divisions here, and will let Jeremy kill his troops on his own turn. For an opener, it's quite easy to cut off the two lead divisions and concentrate my newly arrived armour against them.

Jeremy also chose to resume operations in Nebraska, and here at last I see 1. SS Panzer Armee, as well as what I assume are the last of the fresh German infantry. I'm torn between immediate withdrawal and counterattack here. When I count them, there simply aren't that many fresh German units here- but there's a whole lot of artillery and definitely more troops coming on behind. At the same time, while I'm a little more tangled than I'd like for a withdrawal, it's nothing compared to how bad it'll be after a full turn of attacks. I pull away as cleanly as I can, leaving a group of infantry divisions hastily digging in around Omaha. This withdrawal allows me to add another National Guard division and two US armoured divisions into Ontario and to my surprise this brings me up to the five good divisions I said I needed- if only I can keep the Canadians alive one more turn. This leaves six divisions, mainly armour, as a mobile force in north Nebraska, to be joined by 5th NG Army to see if I can defend South Dakota up to turn 38.

I also abandon Denver, a position hopelessly outflanked at this point, with my armored division trying to find a safe way south to New Mexico, where Jeremy has cast his own web of ZOCs to put my forces out of supply, but I'm able to put a good ring around 22. Panzer here and will aim to destroy it. This comes off nicely. Both sides are now exhausted, but I'm the one with the supply line. The other success this turn is, again, the Mexicans. I keep up the pressure on the eastern flank, putting five Italian divisions (most of them already in bad condition) out of supply.

Triumph from disaster in Ontario. After wiping out Totenkopf on the first round, my armour inside and outside the pocket combine to turn on the troops that had sealed it, destroying half of SS Das Reich as well as the Nembo airborne division. This suddenly gives me a fair chance of evacuating most of the trapped troops next turn. To wrap things up, over in Maine I kill two good Finnish divisions in an overstack attack.

A dramatic couple of turns. Loss penalty for both forces goes through the roof and I'm definitely going to lose Denver and Norfolk (which has already been compromised) in the next few turns, putting an end to my happy condition of 95% replacements. If Jeremy knows what's good for him he'll take Omaha as well, which brings me down to a more modest 69%. However I feel that the really serious threats have been avoided, at least for now. Trouble is, in the west the Axis will just move up and be threatening South Dakota in a turn or two. I need to stabilise the situation in Canada and in Illinois so that I can draw off some of the good mobile forces from these fronts for a major engagement on the South Dakota border.

The patched together line in Illinois

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[golden delicious]

There is still all the other equipment - especially tanks and planes. The real story here is the spread is only 28. Even at close to the height of Axis strength I am taking about as much as I am dishing out and if I can't change that ratio things get harder and harder the deeper into America the Axis drive and the further afield the Axis have to look to find ways of keeping America from recovering.

The loss penalty is driven by AP strength so squads don't have much direct impact on it, but because I have so much of my force on the board a lot of stuff which would otherwise be sat in the pool is on the map too. The Allies have an effectively bottomless supply of some items such as MGs and mortars so these wouldn't be going to some other unit instead. For every 243 Rifle AT- squads (one US division) you've got about as much other extra equipment on top of that.

So I think the higher starting level of squads- at this point in theory I should have about ten extra divisions on the map because of it- does have a significant impact on the loss penalty; perhaps 20 or 30 points. However in general you're right as the Axis player typically looks to get a spread of more like 100.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 33
A pretty good turn, loss rate swinging back in my favour, gains on most fronts etc. but Ben evades everything I really had going last turn. What I mostly get is stragglers and the like. If it was not turn 33 and the replacement rate at 95% I’d be happy with a turn like this because enough of them will add up. Here though I am more concerned that this is just not good enough.

In the North Ben had a bit more reserves then I had hoped and he manages to slip the trap wiping out Totenkopf and one Brigade of Das Reich as well as the Italian Paratroopers. Ben also floods the area with reserves pulled out of half the fronts on the map. While I chase the Canadians hard and do some damage of my own I’m unlikely to catch them and Ben will be throwing fresh troops into the line at a rapid clip to slow up my attack. It likely works as well. With the loss of one and a half of the SS Panzer Divisions my punch is much reduced on this front and my troops are flagging hard.

The Finns did not loose their HQs with Ben’s counter attack but this turn I expose 3 Divisions to the dangers of being cut off. I am pretty sure I need to just shut this thing with the Finns down for a few turns as their Divisions are a worn out mess.

Down in Virginia I close in around Norfolk. I think Ben has pretty much accepted that it will fall shortly and is just fighting a rearguard action as a fair number of the reinforcements Ben is digging out of the line are coming from this front.

In heavy fighting I manage to get over the Tennessee River just south of where it connected to the Ohio River. Ben’s got strong resistance here and I do kind of wonder what I am doing here.

Meanwhile the Germans sweep aside the Allied defences in southern Illinois. I was right that with the Italians on the flank it is very difficult to defend this part of the line. Lead elements are trying to break through the swamps into to open expanses of southern Illinois. Ben’s got Armoured Divisions here but at least the ones I can see are very worn out formations.

The Italians have the western half of this drive and they make reasonable progress. Behind an absolute wall of HQs the Italians punch well above their weight. I’m pretty desperate to get beyond these swamps and Super Rivers before Ben can solidify his defences. Three hex rows north of the current position and the whole front starts opening up. That said even if I pull that off I have supply problems as the supply head is now getting pretty far behind the line.

Omaha is a case of picking up scraps Ben left behind as he retreats mostly out of the area. He still has a reasonable line of defence right around Omaha and I know he has some force concentrations out somewhere to the north but I’m not sure where those units are now. I’ve pushed back up and around Omaha’s northern flank again and hopefully this time I manage to take the city. Here I have a pretty constant stream of fresh forces at the moment with German Infantry arriving every turn but also a fairly large contingent of Panzertruppen back resupplying ready to take over offencive duties even as the Panzertruppen actually on the front lines begin to flag and have to go back into refit. Not sure how long this lasts for as German reinforcements to this front will start to dry up in 2-4 turns as the last two German corps are slated to be sent to Illinois as that front has experienced a fair bit of success and a breakout in Illinois can be game winning.

Denver is surrounded this turn. I think Ben once had a few Divisions defending the area but they appear to have pulled out leaving the city to its fate. Maybe Ben counter attacks but it would not shock me if he really has pretty much just abandoned Denver. The reality is once I take Denver there is not really anywhere I can go from here. Not only is there not much of anything for miles but I am at the end of my supply line and there is little prospect of a supply line out here… maybe ever.

Currently most of my rail resources are devoted to linking the rail lines up (making it much harder to cut the line). Once that is done the priority becomes getting the supply line up to the front in Illinois and wherever the main force near Omaha has ended up (hopefully finally across the Missouri and driving back toward Chicago). Once these projects are done then the priority is a rail line toward Albuquerque and ultimately the west coast if that is possible. A rail line out to Denver would be 20 turns off… optimistically. Even this does not take into account that I actually will probably divert a couple of these to San Antonio to push the supply level in northern Mexico up. If I am choosing new targets (and I am getting ahead of myself here) after the current ones fall Mexico City is more important then Salt Lake City.

The situation around Albuquerque is hard to judge but I think I have the upper hand. The back and forth Shenanigans Ben and I have been engaged in, I think, benefit me because I have fresh forces arriving here over the next few turns and Ben has been in such a crisis on every front I don’t think he has had an opportunity to reinforce here.

Finally, Mexico which went sour last turn as Ben exploited my early turn ending to wreck the eastern flank of the Italian line. I can’t even solidly fix this on my turn and we will see what Ben does to me out here. I do begin to push against the Western Flank. It is all going to slowly but even with set backs I should be able to retrieve this. More Italians are on the way as I empty out Canada (The Croats and other really poor Axis forces have arrived up there to take up rail guard duty). Plus another German Infantry Division has been dispatched this way and finally the Axis 2nd Corp (Spanish and Turkish mobile troops) are landing and they are very solid and fast moving units that should be excellent on this front.

The aftermath of the swirling battle for the western flank.

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Crazy Plan to Land the Japanese!
I just saw what might be a crazy plan to get the Japanese into this war. It will take some setting up however. I still have 3 airbourne units (though the one remaining in Canada is vulnerable and I need to extract it next turn if possible).

[Edit: I actually have 4 Airbourne units remaining but won't realize that until a bit later]

Ben does not really keep any air units in the West (and why would he?). The problem with the Japanese is it is pretty suicidal to try and land without air cover. Hence the only place the Japanese can reasonably land is Washington State but the geographic position there is so bad. You have no real chance capturing Vancouver or Seattle which are the only good supply points and every other landing pretty much sees the Japanese trying to fight their way to Seattle with very low supply while the Allies just clog up the route and wait for the Japanese to run out of juice.

Where I want to land is San Francisco but without air cover its probably suicide. So here is the plan. Grab Albuquerque then gather all the airborne there. The turn before this operation mass the 33 range German fighters there. That should cover their flight west until they are out of range of any Mustangs or the like (assuming Ben does not see this – if he bases Mustangs west of the German long range fighters this won’t work). Airdrop on 3 airbases near San Francisco. Highly unlikely that they are defended. I doubt Ben even has reserves in the area. Bring in 9 Japanese fighter units and that should be adequate to cover the invasion. Especially since whatever gets ashore can probably grab two more airbases near the coast.

Look at all those juicy - probably undefended - airfields!

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[golden delicious]

Turn 33:
Quite an improvement on the situation at the start of last turn. None of my nightmares have come true and I can hopefully start to stabilise things a bit. As usual we start with Canada, where everyone is happily back in supply- everyone, that is, excluding the two non-reconstituting Commonwealth armoured divisions which Jeremy already killed, but this was a given. Axis strength here is largely spent and I have some options, but I note a tell-tale broken rail hex between Timmins and Sudbury which indicates the Axis are going around my long flank. I think I have to accept that points west are now open and deploy troops to protect Sault Ste. Marie, while letting Fort William et al. be protected by distance. I decide to limit my counterattacks to direct assaults on the German spearheads with my five good armoured divisions, whilst the battered Canadian infantry pull back to prepare a line in front of Toronto. As it happens, I get unexpected RBCs here but they're not very useful, only serving to put the vulnerable Axis units out of reach. If I'd foreseen these, I could have easily eliminated the surviving brigade of SS Das Reich.

In Maine, Jeremy opened an attack on the shoulder of his breach down toward New Hampshire, and I think this means the time has come to pull back what is now a salient between here and Lake Champlain. I only go back by two hexes, resting my new position on the next range of mountains and leaving one unit forward to limit Jeremy's ability to immediately grapple with the new positions.

The most serious pressure is in the centre, where Jeremy gobbled up southern Illinois and continues to put heavy pressure on my line centred around Mount Vernon. My three armoured divisions which moved here two turns ago are still available but their condition is hardly perfect at this point, still a counterattack is essential while I pull more forces into this sector. As this continues, my eastern flank is going to continue to stretch and shortly my positions in eastern Tennessee become irrelevant- irritating given how long I spent preparing them. A withdrawal to the line Knoxville-Louisville-Evansville would save me about five hexes on the line, but this puts me on the Ohio, the last defensible line south of the Great Lakes. For now, we hold, defending in depth against the increasingly wrecked German attacks: two divisions here are 7-4s. I'm able to add two armoured and an infantry division here this turn, but most of my rail lift is tied up moving National Guard and Canadian Guard to the open flanks. It'll be a while before I'm caught up with the backlog of rail moves.

Well, the SS Panzers are pretty firmly committed. I now see two at Omaha, one at Denver and one at Albuquerque. I'd like to breath a sigh of relief that this is the end of the barrel for German reinforcements, but I do have to fight these guys at some point. This vindicates my decision to bug out at Denver, but I'm also in trouble at Albuquerque: I have four armoured divisions, but two of them are in seriously bad condition and a third not much better. I opt to pull back- this should look like another Denver to Jeremy- but will remain just behind the city and hope to catch some Axis units between this force and the city's garrison next turn.

At least one German division has showed up in Mexico, on my western flank which is currently a screen of various fragments and so liable to a lot of RBCs if I'm not careful. Well, Germans go out of supply as well as Italians so I send these scraps around the long flank while putting a couple of half-decent divisions in their place. On the other flank, the Italians are falling apart, and I aim to trap and destroy three divisions and two HQs, but this fails miserably as the key Italian division refuses to budge.

A turn of disappointments, where I only get ahead slowly due no doubt to the increasingly battered condition of most of my offensive elements. The one bright spot here is that I unexpectedly cut off a panzergrenadier division in Ontario, where Axis troops are even worse than my own, but it'll likely be relieved before I can hit it. Most worrying continues to be the centre where my line is simply not good enough. Here, I'm counting on Jeremy also having used up most of his supply and needing a rest. If the pressure continues and he's through my positions at Mount Vernon next turn, then I'll have no choice but to evacuate Tennessee; I have about a dozen fresh divisions of various types down here which I can count on to hold a new line, giving me some leeway to reinforce Illinois and perhaps freeing some scraps which can be added to the increasingly stretched Missouri line. Actually one of my peeves at the moment is that Jeremy's side of the Missouri has about half as many units as mine does. It may be that a couple of units spared for this sector would allow me to cause him a serious scare.

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 34
Strategically Ben heavily refocuses this turn pretty much abandoning many of the Industrial cities that he was defending in favour of focusing his forces on just two areas of the map, Illinois and Ontario.

On the one hand I breath a sigh of relief as this means I am going to shortly capture a lot of Industrial Cities and drag down Ben’s replacement rate. I’ve lost Fall Grau, more then once, substantially on turn 40 when the Allies have acquired an overwhelming replacement rate and simply started driving me back into the sea. This at least kicks that can down the road until turn 50 at the earliest.

On the other hand Ben is refocusing to make sure that I don’t break out into Illinois to easily and forcing him into a losing battle of attrition. The reality is all of the cities I am about to grab, with the exception of Omaha, are more or less the end of the line. Once I take Norfolk it just does not make much sense to try and keep pushing forward. The terrain is difficult and I don’t have the army for it here. My plan is to pretty much just shut the front down and shift the units to more active fronts.

Albuquerque might, one day, be the jumping off point to a push toward the West Coast but that won’t be for a while yet. Once I take the city I’m pretty much at the end of my supply line. Denver – which has already fallen is the same story and here I’m just going to screen with Romanians while the rest of the forces head back toward Omaha.

Only in Omaha is the story different because here I’ll follow up by crossing the Missouri and racing across the state of Missouri to try and cross the Mississippi and get into Illinois. As of yet I’m not sure whether I also try for Minneapolis.

The Fighting around Norfolk

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[golden delicious]

Turn 34:
Various offenses this turn from Jeremy. Two SS divisions are over the Missouri behind Omaha, which is out of supply, having been subject to a careful multi stage attack which wiped out my engineers in the rear BEFORE clearing the defenders, thus destroying two National Guard divisions. I'm able to get away some of the remaining trapped units but they're not much. I bring my remaining armoured reserve down from behind Sioux City and will make some mid-turn counterattacks here which, if I'm lucky, could do a lot of damage- or could bounce off. At least with the German strength focused here I can forget about any threat to South Dakota for the time being.

In the centre, the Axis pushed forward again, this time with the major development being crossing the Ohio over into western Kentucky from Illinois. This makes the whole salient down here pretty irrelevant and I activate my plan to pull back on the Ohio. This comes off reasonably cleanly but due to the terrain and various ZOCs, not to mention units in reorganisation, I'm left holding an awkward bulge between Bowling Green and Owensboro which will need to be evacuated next turn. Otherwise this sector is pretty good as the push north is necessarily anaemic and Jeremy's troops are in a terrible state, so my fresh armour off the rail rolls up and will smack him on the nose, hopefully to retake Evansville and destroy the bridge, while giving me time to regroup and make new defensive arrangements.

Operations in Ontario are winding down, as superior German numbers prevent me continuing my counterattacks, but he's far too exhausted to press me hard. As such, I consolidate my advanced positions, holding forward with armour and National Guard while my Commonwealth infantry rebuild. Some of my American firepower is railed out to Iowa to help as a striking force there next turn. The situation's calm in Maine, too, and I withdraw a division from here and hope to pull out at least two more in future turns. The final act of the Virginia campaign plays out as Jeremy cuts off Norfolk and I counterattack to extract the regulars from the garrison

The west is mostly pretty calm. Jeremy demurred in front of Albuquerque, I guess aware that I have four armoured divisions here, and only followed up gradually. For now, I hold my ground, largely just digging in with positions intended not to be too vulnerable to encirclement. In Mexico, a second German division showed its face and this makes the pressure on the west flank fairly severe. I'm continuing to attack on the east flank with the hopes of pushing this back onto the Gulf so that I can defend a short line and then shift my weight across; I also have three more divisions railing into Monterrey which should keep the wolf from the door for now- already the Germans are running out of supplies just like the Italians did so this may grind to a halt.

Not bad. I really hammer the Germans in the centre, and on the Missouri I cut the bridge behind the SS, destroy it, then kill one a half divisions. This brings Axis loss penalty up to an eye-watering 141. I lost Denver and I'll lose Omaha and probably Norfolk next turn, so that puts a bit of a limit on the celebrations, but Jeremy is hopefully learning to fear my armoured reserves. 1st Armored reconstituted this turn which means I have 22 of my 23 US armored divisions on the board (20th is stuck in the reinforcement list as its arrival hex is in Florida), thanks to my prolonged period of high replacements. On the other hand, the Axis are wearing away at the infantry and my Rifle AT- Squad strength is now below 16,000.

The Allies pull back from the Chattanooga salient, stabilising the critical centre of the line. Note the parachute divisions in line here: in Fall Grau these divisions haven't been able to complete their training and are airborne in name only

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 35
Well my plans are proceeding but they are hitting some snags along the way. In the North Ben counter attacks a bit but is already sending some forces out of the area to reinforce other fronts. I close up the line but have also gone over to the defencive. My forces are exhausted and I don’t think I have a reasonable push here at the moment.

One oddity on this front – in the centre – is it just me or is Ben replacing Brigades with Divisions? I strongly suspect that Ben’s longer term plan is to launch an attack from this area driving north toward Quebec City thus cutting off anything left west of Quebec. It is something I have been thinking about when considering an attack toward Sault St. Marie with my forces in the future. If I launch such an attack I want it to go quickly because I don’t want large forces tied down so far from this area if Ben launches a major counter attack this way.

The Virginia operation comes to an end this turn. I’ve taken Norfolk and reduced the Coastal defences. I look at the map but I don’t actually want the James river to my rear and I don’t want to fight through the rough terrain in this area so, starting next turn, pretty much everyone is going to ship out. This gives me an idea for what I might do in the north as I can send around three Infantry Divisions north and that should allow me to gather all the mechanized units I have in the north back to resupply while Infantry takes over defending the line. Then, once they resupply. I can try and race them to Sault. St. Marie, grab it and then pretty much pull back out hopefully before Ben can do much about it. Also, if it does come to pass that Ben counter attacks in Quebec before this is accomplished mechanized units could retreat away from Sault St. Marie very quickly. The bulk of the forces pulling out of Virginia will head for Illinois.

In Kentucky and Tennessee Ben is withdrawing toward a new defencive line while he and I trade Evansville. My mission here is to follow him up and pretty much set up opposite him, then get the Panzers out of here so they can be resupplied and then sent into the fighting in Illinois.

Illinois is the scene of strong Allied counter attacks and the destination for significant Allied reinforcements. Ben does not like me breaking out here. I make reasonable advances on my turn but it is very clear that I don’t have enough units here and what I do have are running out of steam quickly. Two full strength German Infantry Divisions will rail into the area continuously for the next few turns as I have most of 2 German Infantry Corps (the last two) slated to reinforce this front. I’m going to find reinforcements from other locations as well so hopefully I can begin to address this issue. Still the powerful army I once had concentrated around Memphis has been diluted primarily into Kentucky and Tennessee. I’m not 100% sure this was the best move I could have made (forcing my way over the Tennessee River and shoving Ben backward) but the reality is I am increasingly shoring up my lines at this stage in the match as I no longer can simply deploy reinforcements by sea with the last of my forces landing and Ben is increasingly in a position to take advantage of weak links I leave in the front. There was always a danger that Ben would counter attack over the Tennessee River himself threatening to cut off my forces in Illinois or get in behind them. This operation widens the base and makes that improbable.

The Italians continue to make good progress due to the large amounts of Artillery they have and at this point I think St. Louis might be vulnerable. It looks to be too hard to surround and I think I will just try and take it by storm if I can get around 4 sides of it.

Omaha is interesting though my operation last turn was not actually nearly as successful as I had thought when I ended last turn. Ben had Armored Divisions in the area and fiercely counter attacked the forces I had crossed the Missouri with. Ben drives me back over the Missouri river and I lose an SS Panzer Division and a SS Panzer Brigade. Furthermore, last turn I had said that I thought Ben was substantially abandoning this area based on the number of troops that were railing out of the area but here they are all railing back in. Some of them, I don’t think, even got off the train. They left and this turn they rail right back into the area. Meanwhile I hammer Omaha from all sides having cut it off last turn and am amazed when some remnant of the American 31st Division is still holding the city while the fighting basically goes the whole 10 rounds (there is some weirdness in this scenario where sometimes fights stop after 3 rounds with a max rounds exceeded rule and sometimes they go the whole turn). It’s an annoyance but cut off this remnant will succumb next turn but it does delay me.

Ben’s setting up a strong defence of this part of the front and that might be a bit of a pain to overcome but I am confident that I can overcome Ben’s defences here. Nothing Ben has setting up on the opposite bank was here last turn. A little to the South Ben has some Fortified Units but he just has not had time to Fortify this part of the River and the Armored Divisions he is counter attacking with have not really had a chance to resupply. Meanwhile I have lots of Fresh Infantry arriving and stacks of my own Panzers have just finished their resupply. Basically, I have enough in this army that I think I can pretty much constantly relieve my own burnt out units with fresh forces and once I am over the Missouri this is excellent terrain for me to fight on.

With Denver having fallen the German Infantry in the area are heading back toward Omaha and that battle. The Romanians will screen the area but the Romanian Cavalry and Mountain Infantry will break up into regiments and head north to start cutting rail lines. Ben will be able to deal with them of course but anything that hinders his movement across the map is going to be a problem for him.

Albuquerque is surrounded and should fall next turn. At that point I am going to try and leverage Ben out of the good terrain just West of the city and then shut this front down until such time as I can start building a supply line out this way. The Mobile Hungarians where headed this way but I don’t think they are actually going to be needed so I plan to divert them toward Mexico.

Mexico looks reasonably good this turn with the arrival of the Turks and Spanish smashing the Mexican Eastern Flank and surrounding a sizable chunk of the Mexican Army. Looking at the current strategic situation and I need to find some Industrial Cities to keep things from getting out of hand and while Monterrey will help in that regard. I am thinking that Mexico City might be part of my solution. If Ben flees south I should be able to just chase him. I have to take Tampico along the way or the supply line will get to far behind but that probably is pretty doable. I then just follow Ben up to Mexico City and go about trying to take that off the Mexicans. That also gives me another valuable rail repair unit. I have a whole Hungarian Mobile force that will be turned around and head this way and I can strip both Hungarian HQs away from Albuquerque as well as a German HQ and the SS Panzer Division I have here which can all be sent to Mexico. Be a while before they show up but they will arrive on the scene eventually and may be useful if Ben does find a way to slow me up.

Denver: 86%

Axis Overview Turn 35

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[golden delicious]

One oddity on this front – in the centre – is it just me or is Ben replacing Brigades with Divisions?

This would be where I pulled back to shorten the line. In the short term, while I wait for units to get back to "fortified" status, I consolidated brigades up to divisions. These will get split down to thin out the line later once it's static again.

I strongly suspect that Ben’s longer term plan is to launch an attack from this area driving north toward Quebec City thus cutting off anything left west of Quebec.

That would be too obvious, since I did it once already. It's also a move for when the Axis player is already on the ropes- which you're not.

[golden delicious]

Turn 35:
Looks like the Axis have fully ground to a halt in the northeast. This leads to the extraction of my two US armoured divisions from Ontario, with the rest of the mobile force here staying forward while the Toronto line divisions resupply, and two divisions coming out of the line in New England as well. Half of this is already on the rail so heads directly to Illinois where things are evidently still not settled.

There, despite my feeling of strength last turn Jeremy blasted forward again. His lead units are real wrecks now, but this doesn't stop him advancing across pretty much the whole stretch between St. Louis and the Wabash River, disrupting my armour, too much of which was deployed forward. I can counterattack but this feels weak and I only have one division coming up by rail from last turn to throw onto the line. Fortunately the situation south of the Ohio hasn't deteriorated so I'm able to shuffle divisions west to hold the line for the time being.

Mexico switches from optimistic to catastrophic. The 2nd Axis Army- mechanised Turks and Spaniards- shows up and immediately cuts off my stronger eastern flank, while two more German divisions arrive on the western flank. Besides immediately deleting about a third of the Mexican army, this puts the rest in a severely overextended salient which I have to get out of right now. As much as I'd like to hold Monterrey it's untenable now, and the much more defensible positions on the route south to Tampico need this force to hold it in strength. I swing everything as far south as it will go, then use the mobile forces I have available to hit the encircling troops in the rear hoping to rescue some portion of the trapped force- apart from anything else, this includes the lion's share of my artillery.

My hoped for ambush outside Albuquerque is off. Besides the fresh SS division here, Jeremy shows up with at least three fresh German infantry divisions. This gives him a good deal more power than I have, and so I rail the two best of my four armoured divisions out to the Dakotas, where Jeremy is advancing forward with individual brigades of German infantry and I see an opportunity to attack him where he's weak. The remainder of the force falls back over the state line into Arizona. It's a long way to California from here so I can fight later. I jump on one German brigade [in the Dakotas] with three National Guard divisions this turn, but it refuses to die and now these units are exposed- although I have three good divisions coming up on the rail so this could be interesting, and may divert Jeremy from the Missouri

There wasn't another attempt to cross that river at Omaha, and by some miracle I still hold the city this turn (it won't last). I'm using my considerable armour here to target Axis units which are exposed on the river, where I get a flank bonus and they get a 30% penalty for sitting in a river hex; hopefully this should help reduce the really very large amount of power the Axis currently have in Nebraska. This is almost a triumph as one German division evaporates from overstacking, but the turn ends before SS Hitler Jugend follows suit.

It feels like things are slipping out of control again, with my force in the centre always too weak and Jeremy showing up in strength all over the map. With the unexpected loss of Monterrey replacements will fall to 56% by turn 38- the lowest level they've been all match, though it gives me an OK 84% for turn 40, there's no guarantee that's the end of it as St. Louis is on the front line. I have to keep the most important goal- keeping my army in the field- in mind. This leads to the question of whether Jeremy will force me back from the Missouri. So far he's shown no interest in moving east, instead driving continuously north, but after Omaha there are no more targets this side of the Missouri. One piece of good news- my force supply goes up to 30 next turn, while Jeremy's stays flat- and his railhead is way back. This should help me with these long attritional battles. I'm also looking forward to not seeing any more of that dreaded fresh German infantry- and Jeremy may start withdrawing his panzers from turn 37.

The Mexican army falls back to protect the road to Tampico. I'm dismayed about this defeat, but in fairness the Mexicans have been fighting without support but with a fair amount of success for almost ten turns, and are not beaten yet

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 36
While there is a snag this is a really good turn for me, the kind of turn that makes me think I have a reasonably good shot at winning this thing after all. Six turns ago I was thinking that things where going to have to go hard in my favour or I was toast, now I think they pretty much have. To be clear I now think we are at something of a coin toss. It is anyone’s game from here but I just feel as if I have managed to get out of what was a serious hole in terms of my chances of winning and now have an even shot.

In the North Ben minorly readjusts the line facing the Finns and I work to follow up only to be reminded that the Finns seem to take absolutely excessive losses for even the most minor gains. Over in Ontario I also find myself pushing forward as what was supposed just be a minor readjustment of the line advances much further as the National Guard just kind of fall apart under pressure. Brought in three more Infantry Divisions along this front while the Mechanized forces are mostly back resupplying.

Virginia is a quite with the first wave of forces leaving the area this turn though messed up the withdrawal as some of the units can’t make their destination as they where to low on movement (due to low supply) initially and I find myself trying to cover with air units some forces stuck at sea in the Gulf of Mexico just hoping that Ben does not see them.

The drive into Tennessee and Kentucky continues as Ben withdraws further east. At this point he has opened up the possibility that I might use an engineer to cross the Ohio east of Evansville to expand the front in Illinois. My problem is I just don’t really have enough units to exploit this. I’m working to change this but the new forces I am sending this way can’t resolve all my issues so we will see what develops. I do make a small bridge head over at Evansville but again few units to either defend this or exploit it.

It is the same story in Illinois. Despite how critical this attack is my Germans are advancing with a few burnt out units while I desperately scramble to find fresh forces.

The Italians are beginning to have the same problem but this turn they storm St. Louis which is an excellent development.

Omaha is where I hit the snag as the 31st Infantry Division once again foils my plans by refusing to die even though it barely exists and I attempt to RBC with a huge fresh SS Division. I storm Omaha but I could not get the Engineers where I wanted them this turn and Ben has another turn to set up his defences across the River. As it was he hit me hard on his turn. Next turn is going to see a real struggle of titans as I attempt to storm the river along a large front with massive forces against a very prepared Allied Defence (though I doubt Ben gets much into Fortified Status – more like he has loads of reserves and a double line etc.).

In the north west Ben comes out of the mists with some National Guard to try and surround and destroy one of my Brigades. Does not work and I am able to free the Brigade this turn.

Albuquerque falls and I start setting up a screen West of it. Ben withdraws most of his forces away from here. I am at the edge of my supply line and am mostly doing the same while trying to get the airbourne and my long range fighters into the area.

Mexico was exceptionally good. Ben pulled back and tried to free his trapped army but substantially failed. I run down loads of broken down Mexican units and kill the trapped army. By turns end I have Monterrey cut off and should be able to try and take it next turn. Most of the minor forces in the West as well as a few extra Germans are here or heading this way as I hope to grab Mexico City reasonably quickly.

So here we are with Ben’s replacement rate finally being knocked down hard meanwhile the loss rate jumps in my favour once again this turn pushing Ben over that 180 number I have generally felt spelled some kind doom for the Allies. I’m less sure here with the new replacement system however since part of what I felt doomed the Allied player was that this tended to signal an inability to keep putting armies in front of the Axis where it mattered. The spread is moving my way but I was actually still doing better all the way back on turn 21.

Now everything has more or less focused down to my two drives toward Chicago and a tertiary drive toward Mexico City. I’m pretty confident in Mexico City but the attack toward Chicago is where the game will likely be decided and I am, despite all the recent successes thinking this will be a tough one. Assuming I blow my way over the Missouri – not guaranteed – I then have to move all the way across Missouri before I am even setting up for an attack toward Chicago. My attack out of the south is many turns away from really having enough punch from reinforcements so I don’t see me seriously threatening Chicago until well into the 40’s and the Allies get tons of reinforcements during that period. The question will be whether I stall out or manage to keep going with enough strength to keep things together.

Norfolk: 77%

Loss Rate: Axis: 141 / Allies: 185 / Spread: 44

The Axis forces punch degrades as it is spread out from Illinois through Kentucky and into Tennessee

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[golden delicious]

Turn 36:
Not too bad this turn. Jeremy resumed a sluggish offensive in Ontario, shoving aside the National Guard. I'll continue to withdraw the US troops, while counterattacking the exposed and battered attackers here, leaving one armoured division forward of the main line to give it one more turn to solidify- thanks to my improved supply situation, however, these guys are already in good shape. My Canadian armour is generally pretty good so with my supply now high I expect to maintain a fairly active defence here. There was also a push in New England, with one brigade shoved back, but again high supply means I'm well placed to respond, with my now rested armour going into a counterattack on the exposed salient of Finnish troops on the coast.

The centre is fine- except Jeremy stormed St. Louis. This is out of character for him but I suppose inevitable and it does give me two reserve divisions which will help relieve regulars from the Atlantic coast. On the other hand the Italians here are incredibly weak after multiple turns of heavy combat and no supplies, and so I launch a serious counterattack here, starting with an RBC which creates a nasty salient to pinch off.

No big attack on the Missouri- yet. The Axis are very much massing, with another stack moved into the hex where I nearly killed SS Hitler Jugend last turn, and a huge orange density light stack of fresh panzers just behind the river. I continue my counterattacks on exposed German divisions while everyone else digs in, meanwhile I think I have the upper hand over the Axis in South Dakota, where German infantry is slipping forward and trying to trap my National Guard, but I have quite a lot of units here and these guys are much more agile than German infantry, making them highly effective for low density fighting. Over to the west, the brigade I trapped last turn evaporates trying to escape, so I swing the whole force over to the west, where Romanians are sneaking into Wyoming. If I gobble these guys up one division per turn I can shut this down- or force Jeremy to make a diversion.

Mexico is depressing, as Jeremy gobbled up everything which was trapped or exposed last turn, but at least I still hold Monterrey one more turn. I swing my force around to cover the gap between the rail and the coast, putting an infiltrating Italian division out of supply and otherwise occupying a line of hills which will at least force the Axis to make a serious attack. Out to the west, I put an already ruined Ariete division out of supply with my expendable forces in the desert.

A much calmer turn, mainly of attritional damage to the Axis across much of the map as tired divisions are worn into shells. The changed supply situation makes a huge difference already in one turn, with much of my force now in fine condition. I even have the leisure to second a second armoured division to Washington state, where an increased rate of bridge strikes makes me think a Japanese landing may be imminent- I might also move the Mexican fighter force up here as I don't have enough airfields close to the front in Mexico for most of it. Everything really would be very cheery if not for the fact that I've just lost or am in the process of losing six industrial cities, putting my replacement rate at a pathetic 50%. We'll see. It feels like Jeremy is spending his last strength for these victories. If so then the low rate won't matter.

Troops from both sides spread out in the north plains. Note the tell-tale broken rail hexes; this shows the extent of Axis advance even though I can't see the units.

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 37
Wow --- what a turn. When all is said and done I get 8 rounds with 76 attacks (14 of them airstrikes). That is probably the biggest turn of Fall Grau I have ever had. That it comes on the turn I decide to try and storm the Missouri against pretty strong Allied resistance is really lucky. I am so used to the game just screwing me on critical turns but this is the opposite of that in a big way.

In the north operations are fairly small with German Infantry slowly pushing forward behind artillery barrages while the Mechanized Units rest up. First of the Swedes finally land and I do go for Portland and continued pressure toward Boston. Not sure I ever get there. The Finns have been a disappointment but maybe the Swedes will do better.

In Kentucky/Tennessee I’m just moving up opposite Ben’s line now and pulling Panzers off to open another small Bridgehead over the Ohio between Evansville and Louisville.

Illinois remains a back and forth with the Germans who are far too weak though fresh German Infantry is now beginning to arrive. The Italians continue to punch above their weight behind large Italian artillery barrages though their losses are pretty troubling.

The Missouri line is everything I could have asked for and more. I was pretty scared about this being an abject failure to cross against tough resistance and would have been ecstatic with an operation that went half as well but here I blow my way across the entire river and by the halfway point of the turn I have managed a loose double envelopment of the Allied forces defending in the area with 5 Allied Armored Divisions, about the same number of Infantry Divisions and 8 HQs cut off and the Panzers breaking out into the wide open snow covered plains of Missouri. I’m vulnerable to a counter attack if Ben has extensive deep reserves and maybe Ben manages to escape my trap (yet again) but from where I am sitting at the end of this turn this looks to be a stunning success.

Ben has launched his own assault with National Guard forces on my northern and far north western flank. He kills a Romanian Division and gets unlucky when the Romanian HQ he caught out in the open actually kills his attacking National Guard Brigade. In my mind this is a distraction – though he really is distracting me as I try and put a stop to him gobbling up isolated flank guard units. I have more Romanians which should help resolve this but they are still way down near Galveston and need to be railed up. Also, unless Ben has a lot more reserves in Missouri then I am crediting him for, I think he is going to be really searching high and low for forces to cover the northern Mississippi which will soon come under threat on a large front. That should slow up this counter attack I would think.

Down in Mexico it’s a bit of a mixed turn as, to my surprise the Mexicans manage to re-establish a front line blocking my advance toward Tampico. I line up to assault the new line and my forces basically just bounce off the Mexican defenders. The story here is that I am out at the end of my supply line and the Mexicans are getting loads of supplies. Even in victory my forces are being worn out. Now I do still have a fair amount of fresh troops pouring into the area so hopefully I can pick this up again but Mexico City now looks a lot more distant then it was last turn. Assuming I can leverage Ben out of Tampico and take the supply point there I could well find that I need to halt most of my army just to resupply. Alternatively I could try and take Mexico City with hordes of burnt out units which might be the better plan but could also fail spectacularly. Basically, it would depend on Ben not being able to reinforce Mexico with fresh units and I don’t know that I want to depend on that being the case.

On the upside Monterrey falls and the Allied replacement rate reaches a new low.

So the situation sure looks good for my Axis and while I have recovered the ball from a situation that was looking pretty dire on turn 30 but the reality is I’m running pretty late in my main assault toward Chicago and in two turns the Allied replacement rate will jump back up to 76% and I am going to have to work hard to knock it back down before it starts to really get out of hand on turn 50.

This while the Allies start to get a real bucket load of reinforcements. The Allied supply rate jumped back to 30 a few turns ago which is why we see the Mexicans bouncing back so quickly as well and I have a problem even as I race across Missouri in that I will probably need to resupply much of my army before I can make a real push to Chicago. My own loss rate is lower than Ben's but it is still pretty damn high and the spread is not that favourable. I’ll actually be pretty interested to learn what Ben’s on hand pools are like at this stage. Mine are problematic with basic rifle squads completely tapped (mainly a problem for Axis minors like Finns, Swedes and Romanians). The German Replacements appear pretty high with nearly 2000 Squads but the Infantry are short 2 or 3 times that and many Divisions are at half strength at best. Italians still have 1000 Squads but I suspect that their Divisions are short at least that much.

I disband the VII Panzer Corp this turn. It will return in about 10 turns even more powerful. It is an easy withdrawal as the Corp has lost around half its units.

Albuquerque: 69%

Omaha: 63%

St. Louis: 56%

The Missouri is stormed

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[golden delicious]

Turn 37:
OK great Jeremy blasts over the Missouri and deep into my rear, putting pretty much everything out of supply. This is my whole armoured force here including everything that railed up last turn, for a total of nine full divisions and various smaller units, plus nine HQs, and then another two divisions cut off further north. This means it's time to fall back to the Mississippi, but hopefully via the destruction of a couple of these bloody panzer divisions. It looks like SS LAH is secure but I throw a strong ring around 18. Panzer and will hit it with everything, while culling what I can from the Missouri line (this turns out to include two first-class infantry divisions) to put some sort of line between there and Des Moines to create a breathing space to withdraw this force back. With only one turn until the next NG Army shows up in South Dakota I strip most of the existing forces from here and move them east, while other units march west from where they railed into Illinois last turn. I also bring in six divisions by rail from various directions

The pressure in the centre continues, too, with two panzer divisions hitting my fairly weak positions on the north bank of the Ohio. Here, I'm withdrawing broken down regular divisions to start building up the Mississippi line. The Italians closest to St. Louis are incredibly weak and I throw in another counterattack here (starting with 2 RBCs) but I just don't have the strength to push back the Germans on the eastern side of the Ohio front so I can only dig in.

Mexico is not really improving. My new line is compromised well before its ready and I pull back again, but this is uglier this time and my units are strewn all over the area; still, the new line is in much tougher terrain than the last one and, crucially, ever further from the Axis railhead at San Antonio. Already the fresh troops Jeremy added here are on red or amber health. I wonder if they're "overextended" yet? That could turn this situation around for me, but only if I can hold Tampico. For their part the irregulars out on the desert flank are having a fine time, with Ariete destroyed. I'm also having a happy time out in the northwest plains where I encircle and destroy a division and then a brigade of good German troops- but my force here really needs to be in Iowa.

I kill 18. Panzer- but crucially it takes two rounds, not one, despite the colossal amount of firepower deployed for the task, and this leaves my unsupplied force horribly exposed and out of position. If Jeremy is able to put this huddle of battered troops out of supply again next turn then they'll be reduced to trash, leaving me in no shape to defend the Mississippi. If on the other hand this fails- and given the dire state of most German units this isn't impossible- I have a lot of extra mobile power coming into this sector, and may have a chance for a serious fighting retreat across Iowa.

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[golden delicious]

I’ll actually be pretty interested to learn what Ben’s on hand pools are like at this stage.

As we're about thirty turns behind the match in this AAR I can satisfy your curiosity here. I have some thorough analysis of the manpower situation in the AAR starting from turn 44 but here's part of the picture at the end of turn 37:

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Some annotation of the main types for the benefit of our readers:
Mounted Rifle, Light Rifle AT-, Heavy Rifle: used mainly by National Guard
Light Rifle: used mainly by the Mexican army but also by garrisons
Rifle Squad: used mainly by the Canadian army but also by garrisons
Rifle AT- Squad: used by the US regular army

All of these listed types start with big stockpiles, and all of them are pretty close to their original levels, which means my losses for those categories have been about the same as the replacements received. The exception is Rifle AT- Squads, this pool starts at 9,500 and is now effectively zero and has been zero for some time, as their losses have been much higher than the rate of replacement. So the US regulars are wasting away while the other forces on the board have plenty of capacity to take more losses. The picture's a little complicated for the Mexicans as Mexican units mostly do not reconstitute and so I only get to use these replacements if I can keep the units from actually being destroyed.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 38
Some success but ultimately a frustrating turn. The Fighting in the north and down in Mexico remain very modest. In Mexico Ben has pulled his line back a bit and I am trying to flank it but am mainly in the process of moving units onto the flank.

Ben’s activities on the northwest continue to be exasperatingly effective with a number of my units caught out and killed. Clearly Ben does not intend to withdraw from here to get more forces in front of me in Missouri.

In Illinois Ben is fairly aggressive at pushing my forces back a few hexs though here I have some success on my turn pushing back forward and manage to surround and destroy an Armored Division. More Axis forces are also beginning to come up from various points and I am starting to see a real Axis army forming here.

Missouri is, of course the highlight and Ben finds forces for Missouri with troops being culled from pretty much everywhere (except the North West). He manages to partially break out of the trap by surrounding and destroying the Panzer Division covering his southern rear. There are also a few Good Divisions that form something of a barrier in his northern rear. I am actually faced with something of an interesting choice at the start of my turn. I could try and more or less stay in place to the west and pull all the Panzers and PanzerGrenadiers out of the line and attempt to form them into two wings to hopefully smash my way around both flanks of Ben’s Army. Alternatively I could pretty much just go for a full on attack against the somewhat weakened forces and hope that this will open up RBC opportunities during the turn that will allow me to cut off and destroy the Allies. I opt for the RBC plan but it does not work. I kill a couple of Armored Divisions and work these Allies over real good but by turns end they have just been bodyblowed backward hard and are not even cut off any more. It is this that is leaving me frustrated because I feel like I need to deliver some kind of knock out blows right about now and this is actually just ‘Ben escapes the trap once again’ which is a story I have been playing over and over again since I had pretty much my one and only success on turn 5 or whatever. The one upside I have this turn is that the Loss Rate jumps in my favour and the spread passes 50… but in reality That is not actually a good spread for turn 38 where I actually want the spread more like 100 in my favour.

Monterrey: 51%

Once again the Allies slip the Axis trap

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[golden delicious]

Turn 38 [another wordy post so splitting it]:
OK well not much is out of supply- but the situation is hardly improved, with panzers tearing around all over Iowa. I mostly need to get out, while perhaps hitting some of the more exposed units if I can do so without too much danger. I pull the most wrecked forces out of the southern flank easily enough, but this is no longer nine divisions but more like five, all in dire condition. These guys plus elements of the Missouri line pull back to a temporary position in southeastern Iowa which should be largely out of Jeremy's reach this turn. To the north, I still have those two good infantry divisions that were next to Des Moines; these form one half of a trap for SS Horst Wessel which has gotten ahead of the rest of the pack, with fresh divisions railed in last turn assaulting from the other side. I then position my remaining infantry along the flanks to stop this force being cut off in turn

I'm near to crisis in the centre, too, with the lack of reinforcements last turn making the line too weak to hold. One German infantry division broke through and went off chasing an HQ and this must be dealt with; I strip two fair divisions off the line I started on the upper Mississippi last turn for this task. Actually as I rearrange here things look less serious in Illinois as I have some good armoured divisions which have been in reorganisation and as such have rested up a bit; it's Indiana that's most dangerous as a German advance here flanks my line in Kentucky; this will need reinforcement immediately

The third crisis (these things come in threes) is in New England, where Jeremy dropped the Swedish corps (one of the final Axis ally formations to arrive) and broke a hole in my fortress line. I have some spare infantry units here (77th Infantry obligingly formed at Boston this turn) so I put a division back in the gap while forming a second line behind. Boston is close to the line but this advance is very slow and painful so I'm not too worried. I rail a division of the Canadian guard here and may follow with a second next turn, as this whole formation is excessive to guard Sault Ste Marie which Jeremy isn't even in contact with.

Festung Illinois: the Allies brace for concentric attacks into the Midwest

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[golden delicious]

Turn 38 con't:

Mexico is good. It looks like the Turks and Spaniards have been pulled out, leaving the Italians plus Hungarian cavalry to follow up to my line. In the desert, another lone Italian mobile division (the Eugene cavalry) has jumped into my rear, but I'm able to readily disengage from the infantry to my front and surround the unit. Still further west, a panzer regiment (!!!) approaches Torreon, which is my mustering point for various scraps- but also happens to hold a fresh National Guard division. I surround this too and will try to destroy it. I add a second NG division reconstituted in Mexico here this turn in case this bogs down (it's on the way to the border anyway). I'm also delighted to see I get my first tranche of Mexican guerrillas this turn, these rail up to the north of the country where they'll disappear into the Axis rear.

As much as my force in northwestern Nebraska has been having fun killing odd Axis units, I realise that 1) I have other fish to fry and 2) this is now deep, deep in Axis territory. I spot an Axis-controlled hex waaaay up at Gillette, Wyoming, and scouting out I find the Romanian cavalry division here. Three divisions plus one of the new South Dakota NG Army swing across and will attempt to destroy this unit, which anyway is isolated and can hardly be supported. The rest of this force bugs out, two divisions railing directly to Indiana, joined by one other reconstituted and some pieces which will rebuild up to whole divisions.

I'm wary of completely abandoning the southwest- the route to California is wide open, and troops currently have to transit via Idaho to get here from the rest of the United States, but I don't have the impression Jeremy is going this way, as he has largely just moved north since securing Denver and Albuquerque. As such, I withdraw my last armoured division from Arizona to join the mobile force which will hopefully fight in front of Minneapolis in the near future. This leaves me with nine regiments and brigades covering the entire distance between Wyoming and Mexico.

Tragically Eugene escapes, destroying one of the encircling regiments, but the division is wrecked- and everything else dies. I'm starting to feel good about things again. Jeremy's army has been pushed to its limit and it's starting to be pretty rare to see a German infantry division above half strength. My policy is going to continue to be to use armour and above all the National Guard to relentlessly target isolated or exposed Axis units to whittle away Jeremy's strength piece by piece- I still have enough equipment on hand to rebuild 28 NG divisions. Despite this unpleasant blip my own strength is still growing; Rifle AT- squads are down below 14,000 but since I gained six National Guard divisions it balances out.

The Wild West. Axis units reached the Montana state line before being destroyed- not typical for Fall Grau

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[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Turn 39
With great sadness I watch as Ben’s army that I had hoped to destroy and then hoped was all in reorg pretty much just runs off. 8 or 9 HQs that I did not manage to kill!

I launch a lot of attacks this turn but it is primarily just assaults on screening units and the like. In Missouri my infantry just can’t keep up and the Panzertruppen can’t really get much ahead as Ben did a pretty good job of killing units to far forward and he is even better positioned for that now. I do break over the very minor river north of Des Moines, admittedly against light resistance, but this I think makes holding the river line south of Des Moines untenable and I would not be shocked to see Ben start pulling back behind the Mississippi. One real problem I am having here is the Panzers really are pooping out at this stage. I have to start pulling large numbers back to resupply. Much of the Infantry is doing fine however so they will carry the offensive forward albeit probably not at a lightning pace.

I could not really tell what Ben was doing with the transfer of reserves this turn but it was very extensive. I postulate that I can’t pin point what is going on primarily because Bens gathering forces in deeper reserve. Probably primarily behind the Mississippi and Minneapolis.

Two interesting elements is that Ben sent some powerful Armoured Reserves out to the area just south of Vancouver Island. With the landing of the Swedes an attempted Japanese Invasion is to be expected. However I plan to air drop and naval assault San Francisco and my last Falchijager Division won’t arrive at Albuquerque for another two turns so there won’t be a naval invasion where Ben is setting up his defences.

On the far west flank Bens nasty little counter attack may have ended. Some of these units appear to have railed out and the rest go off and destroy my Romanian Cavalry Division. That is a bit of a sad loss. I knew they where dead when I sent them on a deep raid but I had hoped they would get much further.

Romanians are arriving in this area which is welcome because I feel like I have far to many Germans in the area and I need to relieve them.

I also found out where the Canadian Guard has been hanging out as a bunch just railed out of Sault St. Marie – convenient as my forces resupplying in order to race for and try and grab Sault St. Marie should be ready to go next turn. Otherwise in Canada my German Infantry fight their way to the choke point north of Toronto. That is as far as I go for the moment as I am about to withdraw half the HQs here to send them heading for Sault St. Marie. My Infantry could do to go over on the defencive in any case. Bens line here is extremely solid. Powerful fortified units and lots of Canadian Armour.

The Finns die in droves for minor gains and the Swedes are only slightly better – but at least I got minor gains. In retrospect they would be better used to be covering that northwest flank (Finns and Swedes) and all those Germans I have stuck way out there could be here trying to make this advance – probably far more successfully – though the Germans would be stretched to find four free HQs which would be the minimum to advance.
In Mexico my flank attack breaks up much of the resistance on the flank though Ben reveals he has reasonably sizable forces on the really far flank complicating Italian screening duties. My advance on Mexico City is really going to take much longer then I would like as my armies are absolutely pooped and Ben seems willing to keep at least some of his reconstituting Americans and Canadians down in Mexico. I doubt I take the city on the cheap. If I want it I think I have to resupply if and when I take Tampico.

Continued streams of fresh Germans arriving in Illinois have finally begin to pay dividends as the German advance is picking up speed. Ben’s forces here are also clearly beginning to wear thin.

The Illinois front begins to pick up steam again as the last of the German Infantry arrive in the area. This is also where most of the forces withdrawn from Norfolk where sent and Ben and I are both stripping the line in Kentucky and Tennessee down to provide more forces for the fight in Illinois

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[golden delicious]

Turn 39:
Mostly following up from Jeremy this turn after two turns of seat-of-the-pants excitement. I definitely need to keep pulling back but this is more of a clinical exercise than a panicked rush. Actually I have something of a problem around Des Moines as rather a lot of the National Guard are in reorganisation. I can afford to lose these units but I'd prefer not to. Well let's see what sort of line I can put together on the Mississippi without these guys and then come back to it. OK I can put together a fair line as far as the water hex east of Cedar Rapids; the rest of the river is too far from my body of retreating troops that fell back from the Missouri opposite Omaha. I decide to commit my four divisions from Minneapolis to extend the line up to the Minnesota state line and make a local counterattack on Jeremy's panzertruppen to make this look better than it is. Then I refuse my south flank so that this position can't be compromised in a single lunge.

The centre is still reeling, with too little infantry holding the line and my good armoured divisions always for some reason in reorganisation. I patch things together as best I can while looking for units I can bring in here now the heat is temporarily off to the west. This looks good by the end of the turn: six National Guard and two regular army divisions. In doing so I've almost completely drained the force I had in South Dakota, with one division there still trying to get back to the rail and another six hunting Romanians in Wyoming.

The pressure continues in the northeast, but at least this is slow as the Scandinavians here lack the firepower of German troops. One division of Canadian Guard goes into the line in front of Boston and two more rail up; I'm going to replace the Sault Ste. Marie line with US troops as Jeremy isn't in contact with it and I want to release the fresh Canadians for active fronts, and expect to be adding Canadian regulars to New England, too, in due course. I have an incredibly 9,000 Rifle Squads (primarily used by the Canadians) in replacements still, enough to rebuild the entire 1st Canadian Guard Army five times.

Tee hee hee. Jeremy's anti-partisan troops spot my guerrillas coming up the rail, but only scatter them. I move them to the east of these units, then spread my other Mexican troops in a fan to the west, throwing a huge ring of ZOCs around three Italian regiments despite having almost nothing in contact with him. This ought to be upsetting for Jeremy. Upsetting for me is that other Italian raiders have cut the Torreon-Chihuahua rail line, which was the main route for reinforcements to head north when formed in Mexico City; I expect this is done with very light forces and will attempt to fix it up. The rest of Mexico is not so great, as the Hungarian mobile corps smashes my Irregulars that failed to kill the Eugene cavalry division. For now, the main line is intact, but it'll be badly outflanked from next turn. I hold on to it for now as there isn't much room left to fall back before I'm at Tampico, and if the Axis get Tampico they get Mexico City.

My air situation has been improving for some time and I have record high air superiority this turn (just below the Axis rating, but considering the Japanese are presumably set but not actually in action this looks good to me), and I've noticed a lot of my fighters are on bright green health, like, are they even flying? So I tried a couple of airfield attacks. The results are not excellent, with my losses significantly outweighing the Axis, but I'm not certain this is a dead end as I doubt Jeremy's air units are in such fine fettle as my own due to his reduced supply rate, and in a land battle later I notice one Luftwaffe fighter unit actually evaporates. I launch a few more but my air superiority rating rapidly begins to fall off after two rounds so I quit for now.

I notice belatedly that the news event for the first panzer corps withdrawing came up last turn. This, coupled with next turn's replacement boost, gives me some feeling that the most difficult phase of the scenario is coming to an end. I do expect the Japanese to land on the Pacific at any moment- I'm alternating between just one and two armoured divisions as the Pacific coast reserve each turn- but apart from this there are no other new threats from the Axis. Every single European Axis unit has landed and been accounted for, and now Jeremy's fighting strength will fall off turn by turn while- hopefully- mine continues to grow.

The Mexican army struggles to prevent the Axis moving south

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