AAR - PBEM Game 2 (The FIRST public AAR)

[Count Bobby]

ORIGINAL: MButtazoni

Fall 1940, Western Allied and China turn

Well it took all the infantry i had in India and Canada to come back to England, but i was able to retake my native soil and start rebuilding the completely wiped out infrastructure (Rail, REsources, and Factories). i didn't do much else as it is a time of rebuilding...

Not wanting to nitpick too much, but a counter-invasion of Britain with colonial troops is not too intuitive, either...

[MButtazoni]

Not wanting to nitpick too much, but a counter-invasion of Britain with colonial troops is not too intuitive, either...

stick to "intuitive" warfare and you may not win many strategy games...[:D]

[a19999577]

Given that the game is set up in such long turns and large areas, the way I'd spin the entire London falling to the Axis and recovery by colonial troops is thus: German troops thundered southwards, rolling up English defences and beginning street-fighting in London. And then, just in time, mind you, colonial troops started arriving practically fighting out of their landing craft, halting the German offensive when they were agonizingly close to sweeping all of Brittannia. Along with colonial reinforcements, they successfully pushed the Germans back to Hadrian's Wall. [Kind of like a British version of the battle of Stalingrad]

Of course, game mechanics don't work out like this, but I think it sounds epic enough.

[a19999577]

Anyhow... I was asking about the 'belt' of neutral-looking territories separating northern Africa from subsaharian Africa. While I find it perfectly understandable to prevent, say, a British invasion of Libya parting from Nigeria, I'm not really sure armies would not be able to go through the Nile area to do the Egypt-Sudan-Abyssinia-Somalia route.

At least Advanced Third Reich had a variant which involved the Italian East African Army breaking through British defences in the Sudan and approaching Cairo from the south...

[paullus99]

Germany Turn #4 - Winter 1940/1941

Well, the English managed to push us back to Scotland, but we gave them another slap in the face - destroying a militia unit & infantry unit, and damaging the remaining resources and rail capacity in England. It will take quite a bit of supplies to repair the damage & I've moved additional air units in range (two heavy air & two tactical air) to continue to rain down damage on the remaining English economy.

My sub fleet is back in business, moving to intercept English transports to cut off resources from the remaining English industry. In research, we were able to increase the effectiveness of our torpedoes & the evasiveness of our subs - which will make it much more expensive for the Western Allies to hunt them down.

In the Med & Middle East, we engaged the British Fleet in the Red Sea & destroyed two heavy fleet units. The Afrika Corps (now the Asien Corps) captured Persia & Arabia, denying those resources to the English & we are now ready to begin our invasion of India.

Feelers have been put out to our Japanese allies to finish the dismemberment of the British Empire (but keeping the United States out of the war).

Supplies are a bit tight, so we upped our production - more subs & surface units came off the slipways this season, signaling the reappearance of the Kriegmarine in the Atlantic.

We have plenty of industry, plenty of resources (finally) - so if we can keep the English in the hole, prevent the US from getting involved, and not invade Russia until we (and the Japanese) are fully prepared, we should win this one.

[Becket]

The first really interesting question that this AAR raises is whether it is appropriate to keep the US and the USSR "locked" while Germany scores such impressive victories.

I'm not necessary suggesting it shouldn't be this way, but rather that this may be a key point for review in playtesting.

If one felt compelled to follow history, then it seems to make sense that the Soviets would remain locked vis-a-vis Germany until attacked or 1943; all of the credible scholarly work suggests that the USSR was in no position to attack in 41 and had no intent to do so for a long while, either. As to the US, I'm sure there are those who know better than me what the US response would have been to a German invasion of Britain.

But, I for one think that in a grand strategy game like this one, history has to bend a bit to playability. If, in most games between players of roughly comparable skill, Britain and China can hold off the Axis until the rest of the Allies engage in the war, then there is no problem...but if the Axis can regularly (or even semi-regularly) secure a victory without the US and the USSR coming into play, then IMO the game might need a fun factor adjustment.

This is just early speculation by my part, and one AAR does not give enough information on which to base any judgment. It looks like you guys are having a lot of fun and Paullus is playing a heck of a game so far. So, because more information is necessary, I suggest the only alternative is to let me into the beta. [:D]

[Becket]

ORIGINAL: a19999577

Anyhow... I was asking about the 'belt' of neutral-looking territories separating northern Africa from subsaharian Africa. While I find it perfectly understandable to prevent, say, a British invasion of Libya parting from Nigeria, I'm not really sure armies would not be able to go through the Nile area to do the Egypt-Sudan-Abyssinia-Somalia route.

At least Advanced Third Reich had a variant which involved the Italian East African Army breaking through British defences in the Sudan and approaching Cairo from the south...

Historically the southern Sahara desert was a no-man's land that saw no fighting, so I'm guessing that's what is being simulated here. It was hard enough to supply an army moving along the coast. Given the German supply situation in the Middle East, I'd think it would be next to impossible to supply an army from the south (Italian shipping would have to find away to get out of the Med and to the south without getting pasted by Malta, for one thing). Plus, most of what I've read suggests that the Southern Sahara was pretty much impassable to mechanized units. The north is rocky, or sand over rock...isn't the south just lots and lots of soft sand?

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: Becket

The first really interesting question that this AAR raises is whether it is appropriate to keep the US and the USSR "locked" while Germany scores such impressive victories.

I'm not necessary suggesting it shouldn't be this way, but rather that this may be a key point for review in playtesting.

We'll see, but it seems that according to current rules Axis is very close to victory at this point, EVEN without having to attack USSR.

Quoting from current (remember this is *ALPHA*) victory conditions (just first 2 points out of 9)

1) Victory will be based on recent production levels by player (actual usable production points, 1 factory plus 1 resource) of all Axis powers added together vs. all Allied Powers added together.
2) If at the end of any turn the Axis production is ever 50% greater than Allied production (all numbers in this section to be tweaked later), than the Axis win a Decisive victory.

End quote. Axis production is currently cca 30% greater than Allied production combined so they are quite close to victory.

Personally I find the possibility that Axis may win without ever getting involved with USSR and/or USA very interesting, but the question is should it be achieved that easy? We'll see. (Remember guys, alpha, NDA, discalimer, washing hands, etc blah blah)

This is just early speculation by my part, and one AAR does not give enough information on which to base any judgment. It looks like you guys are having a lot of fun and Paullus is playing a heck of a game so far. So, because more information is necessary, I suggest the only alternative is to let me into the beta. [:D]

Rekwest denied komrade Becket, back to trenches. [:D]

Oleg

[tiredoftryingnames]

I'll try again. Can you replace the 3d icons with standard counters?

[Becket]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

ORIGINAL: Becket

This is just early speculation by my part, and one AAR does not give enough information on which to base any judgment. It looks like you guys are having a lot of fun and Paullus is playing a heck of a game so far. So, because more information is necessary, I suggest the only alternative is to let me into the beta. [:D]

Rekwest denied komrade Becket, back to trenches. [:D]

Oleg

Dammit! I bet it's that fecking Mehklis again, so biased against us poor soldiers.

[bigbabyhead]

Turn 4

The new recruits are finally ready to go forth to victory.

Since the main problem for the Japanese right now is a lack of resources, and the Germans are obviously preparing a cut across south Asia; it's been decided that Thailand shall gain from the benevolent leadership of the Emperor as a staging area to meet Adolf for some curry.

All those islands in the pacific are looking juicier and juicier, but the available forces are not quite up to the task of dealing with the Americans yet.

[bigbabyhead]

ORIGINAL: tiredoftryingnames

I'll try again. Can you replace the 3d icons with standard counters?

Not at the moment. (Standard disclaimer about Alpha artwork, nothing nailed down, etc etc)

[VI66_slith]

Will there be optional rules for victory conditions?

Thanks in advance

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: VI66

Will there be optional rules for victory conditions?

Thanks in advance

What do you mean by that? If you're referring to the two victory conditions I posted I'll remind you I posted only two out of many more currently valid victory conditions in the game.

O.

[Oleg Mastruko]

Soviets here again. It seems it's not over yet, as we put more factories into production, slowly getting close to Axis powers (see screenshot below).

Politically, we still remain sitting on the fence, as joining the Axis camp seems like a juicy prospect. Unfortunatelly, seems the game engine does not allow for this option. Thus, developers from 2by3 are being rounded up and sent to Gulag. Digging some gold in Kolyma mines at -40 deg. Celsius will teach them a lesson.

Curent victory screen:

Oleg

[Becket]

Interesting. Looks like the Axis may be forced to salley forth into the SRA and/or the USSR whether they want to or not.

[mavraam]

Cyrpus (for the hell of it)

Cyprus can be captured! Awesome, my dad's from there so I like a war game that actually recognizes its existence! They had some of the best mules in the region during WWII and were taken and used to pull artillery according to legend.

[paullus99]

I prefer to go in at the time of my choosing - and from unexpected directions.

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: paullus99

I prefer to go in at the time of my choosing - and from unexpected directions.

Adolf, my old friend! You can't be talking about USSR now can you? We have a gentlemen's agreement, remember? Insofar as we are both gentlemen...

Yours sincerely,

Josif

[MButtazoni]

joining the Axis camp seems like a juicy prospect. Unfortunatelly, seems the game engine does not allow for this option

"i'm not dead, yet" [:-]