MWiF Global War Hot-Seat (AAR)

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: WIF_Killzone

OK, before the turn ends can you redeploy your unsused transports to create a good convoy train around Africa?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Assuming the Allies lose Morocco, getting from the UK to S. Africa may be the most difficult leg. I'll have to study the map to see if I can get the transport convoy going in that direction. It may actually be easier (and safer) to use the Panama Canal instead.

[JeffroK]

Good to see the back seat drivers, who have never played this version of WIF are so full of advice.

I would prefer the game to be fully tested, even seemingly dumb strategies by a newbie to make sure the game works rather than get something which needs patching from day 1.

Imagine the hue & cry by me if something didnt work because it was assumed on perfect players played the game.

Keep going Red Prince.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: WIF_Killzone

For the CW think "leap-frogging", you load inf-armour on transports...and move as far as you can, safely, into the zero box, and then, next impulse, you move into a port, pick up an other transport, and repeat. Going around the horn of africa in this way can move quite fast. Even those slow transports are quite useful, keep your fast ones close to the island and the slow ones around the horn (if you still own it )

I dont mean in this impulse, I mean strategically? What are their medium and long terms strategic plans?

Saving the 1/3 of the fleet, holy crap, yes, that's important Can you hold the suez major port, if so, you probably don't have to worry, just work it backwards how you will get them out of there. Although, yes, the CW is in dire straights.

Dire Straits?[;)]

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: WIF_Killzone

For the CW think "leap-frogging", you load inf-armour on transports...and move as far as you can, safely, into the zero box, and then, next impulse, you move into a port, pick up an other transport, and repeat. Going around the horn of africa in this way can move quite fast. Even those slow transports are quite useful, keep your fast ones close to the island and the slow ones around the horn (if you still own it )

I dont mean in this impulse, I mean strategically? What are their medium and long terms strategic plans?

Saving the 1/3 of the fleet, holy crap, yes, that's important Can you hold the suez major port, if so, you probably don't have to worry, just work it backwards how you will get them out of there. Although, yes, the CW is in dire straights.

Dire Straits?[;)]

No singing, please !!! [:D]

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: JeffK

Good to see the back seat drivers, who have never played this version of WIF are so full of advice.

I would prefer the game to be fully tested, even seemingly dumb strategies by a newbie to make sure the game works rather than get something which needs patching from day 1.

Imagine the hue & cry by me if something didnt work because it was assumed on perfect players played the game.

Keep going Red Prince.

Thank you, Jeff.

I hope Steve doesn't mind me telling you this, and I don't know if it's actually true or not, but when I applied to be a beta-tester, I think one of the reasons he took me was because I told him that I like to try things that most people wouldn't even consider when I play games like this. I figured that converting a game of this magnitude to binary decisions would mean everything needs to be accounted for -- even crazy possibilities that would "never actually happen" in a game.

Basically, what you said is what I told him, and I've been doing my best to fill that role. (And I think it's paid off in a number of fixes Steve has had to make).

I like the back seat drivers, or armchair Generals. I can get cranky now and then at the end of the day, but I usually try to apologize afterwards if I've been particularly grumpy. It's all fun for me in the end, and these folks are helping me to learn the game.

I owned WiF FE for 15 years before starting beta-testing in April. I read it 2-3 times a year (the RAW, I mean), but it just doesn't prepare you for the realities of the game.

I'm eager to continue, but I might not today. It depends on how my urges play out. This game takes a lot of thought, and though I haven't mentioned it in a while, I'm still in that recovery period that follows pneumonia, so I have to try to pace myself.

If not today, expect an update tomorrow.

[USSLockwood]

Red Prince, don't be discouraged.  My first game playing the CW, I lost Gibraltar on the third impulse.  In my latest game, I lost Suez in 1940.
The CW's lot is to grimly hold the line, waiting for Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor.

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: doktor

Red Prince, don't be discouraged.  My first game playing the CW, I lost Gibraltar on the third impulse.  In my latest game, I lost Suez in 1940.
The CW's lot is to grimly hold the line, waiting for Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you lose Gibraltar in the 3rd impulse? No units starting there and an Italian Surprise DOW?

[Centuur]

ORIGINAL: WIF_Killzone
Do I see four transports in the CW, what pray tell are they doing just sitting there.

I think you are mistaken here? Those ships in the UK are convoy points and not TRS.
All CW TRS are being used at this time...

[WIF_Killzone]

Your right, they are convoys, just looked again, boy do I feel dumb.

[Red Prince]

The report so far on the Allied impulse . . . see, even I can't stay away from it. The CW did, indeed, take a Combined Action, using the naval moves to drop the W. Med fleet down from the 4 Box to the 0 Box, and to evacuate the E. Med fleet to Aden. I decided against railing the Delhi MIL to Bombay, selecting the INF I had in Chittagong instead. It's a better unit, and will be a better reinforcement.

The three land moves (I forgot there were 3, thinking there were only 2) are a semi-interesting problem. I'll need one of them to debark the MIL from the Red Sea into Suez, and another to move HQ-A Wavell. The image below shows the options I considered. I think I'm going to go with the blue arrow, and not the red one. The reason for this, is that if the Italians are feeling frisky, that desert hex could mean a 4:1 attack on Wavell (with a 20% chance at 5:1), and the river line will help him. He needs all the help he can get, with no naval shore bombardment at his beck and call.

I considered the hexes to the east of both shown here, but one would let Cairo fall (North), and the other would let the Italians close the Suez Canal (South), so I can't retreat that far. The problem I face here is that next impulse is going to have to be either a Naval Action or another Combined Action, probably the latter, in order to get the rest of the fleet out of the Med before the canal is closed. With either of the hexes I have to choose from, Italy is 2 impulses away from either taking Cairo, closing the canal, or both. Ideally, I want to get both Wavell and his reinforcing MIL into the same hex before an attack comes. That's probably going to have to be Suez, since Cairo would put them both OOS once Suez is taken. This is why next impulse should also probably be a Combined Action. Otherwise, the Italians might find a way to pick off one of these two units.

However, if I double-stack Suez, it's likely that Egypt, Palestine, and Transjordan will all collapse this turn. The good thing, though, is that it is unlikely that Iraq can be activated, since Italy will need to screen Suez until it can get more forces to the area (which might come in the form of German LND).

Anyway, that's for consideration after the next Axis impulse, not for now. Here's what I have to choose now, and I think blue is the way to go. As the CW, I don't trust the Axis when it comes to taking chances. I will not, however, reveal to you whether or not Italy would be willing to take that chance or not.

As for the 3rd move, it'll probably be in Morocco, but I'm not sure what or where yet.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Red Prince

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: WIF_Killzone

For the CW think "leap-frogging", you load inf-armour on transports...and move as far as you can, safely, into the zero box, and then, next impulse, you move into a port, pick up an other transport, and repeat. Going around the horn of africa in this way can move quite fast. Even those slow transports are quite useful, keep your fast ones close to the island and the slow ones around the horn (if you still own it )

I dont mean in this impulse, I mean strategically? What are their medium and long terms strategic plans?

Saving the 1/3 of the fleet, holy crap, yes, that's important Can you hold the suez major port, if so, you probably don't have to worry, just work it backwards how you will get them out of there. Although, yes, the CW is in dire straights.

Dire Straits?[;)]

No singing, please !!! [:D]

Warspite1

A lovestruck Romeo,
Sings a street-Suss serenade,
Laying everybody low,
With a love song that he made.......

Ooh NO singing.....sorry

Seriously though, keep up the good work Red Prince [&o]. I wish I could add value here, but as I last played many years ago under the 5th Edition rules and maps, there is little, if anything, I can add [&:].

This AAR is extremely valuable - and frankly how you play is of secondary importance.

[Red Prince]

For those who really want to know, I used my 3rd land move to reinforce Rabat with the Canadian MIL that started in Casablanca. The image below shows the 24 CW factors in Morocco (plus a 3 factor disorganized French CAV that can't co-operate with the CW):

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

A lovestruck Romeo,
Sings a street-Suss serenade,
Laying everybody low,
With a love song that he made.......

Ooh NO singing.....sorry

Seriously though, keep up the good work Red Prince [&o]. I wish I could add value here, but as I last played many years ago under the 5th Edition rules and maps, there is little, if anything, I can add [&:].

This AAR is extremely valuable - and frankly how you play is of secondary importance.

You just had to do it, didn't you? [:D]

You're lucky I like you, fella . . . actually, I thought I was in for a thrashing from you as soon as you saw that Gibraltar failed to hold and Egypt is under the gun to the point that 1/3 of the entire CW fleet nearly got trapped in the Med.

So, I'll forgive your singing . . . this time.

[composer99]

If I was Italy, I'd consider attacking Wavell as long as I had a better than 50% chance of killing him. There's a MIL and an inf division present, which covers the cheap losses if things go bad.

As for what Wavell should do, I second the notion that he moves into the Delta hex. It ZoCs the Italian forces and keeps them from reaching Cairo and the canal.

If the Italians don't attack Wavell, I think he should run for the clappers down the coast of Egypt, with a view to getting picked up by a TRS in SO40.

[composer99]

Thanks to Warspite I now have that particular Dire Straits song stuck in my head. Good thing it's a good song (as compared to, say, "Friday").

[Red Prince]

I've decided that Lanchow can't be held, not without Mao active, so that means I have to try to save Sian. Below are the before and after shots of how I used the 5 Soviet land moves to try to get that done.

I know this image is extremely degraded in quality, but I wanted to let you see exactly what I did without having to jump from post to post. The idea behind this is that I can start to creat double-stacks that will be tough for Japan to destroy. I wasn't able to form any of them in the mountains, and I'm counting on the fact that Japan still needs another impulse ro two to get the East front units activated again. This is a holding action, nothing more . . . buying a few extra impulses, if at all possible.

If I attempted to reinforce Lanchow instead, there would be little chance of making double-stacks of Communist Chinese, and some could easily be put out of supply. This also means that if that CAV really wants to take Lanchow, it will end up OOS, too. The troops Japan has available are going to find their supply lines stretched very thin for the next few impulses, and they'll have to get very creative to make any attacks at all. In the meantime, the Communists can try to improve thier position a little.

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: composer99

If I was Italy, I'd consider attacking Wavell as long as I had a better than 50% chance of killing him. There's a MIL and an inf division present, which covers the cheap losses if things go bad.

As for what Wavell should do, I second the notion that he moves into the Delta hex. It ZoCs the Italian forces and keeps them from reaching Cairo and the canal.

If the Italians don't attack Wavell, I think he should run for the clappers down the coast of Egypt, with a view to getting picked up by a TRS in SO40.

Just curious, does that 50% chance include staying organized? or is it just to gain his destruction? There's still a lot more turn ahead, and there's a lot to do in this particular arena.

[Red Prince]

Ah, isn't summer nice . . . the weather for Impulse #5:

[Orm]

I've decided that Lanchow can't be held, not without Mao active, so that means I have to try to save Sian.

I think it was a mistake to let the Japanese get Lanchow without a fight. Japan would have to use alot of forces to get the city. Now he is free to put his focus on Sian instead.

[Orm]

It's a mystery to me - the game commences

For the usual fee - plus expenses

[;)]



Edit: I just had to do it. [:D]