Europe 1939 turns 3-7

[tweber]

Decided to group the next couple of turns into a thread as they represent the 'Sitzkrieg' Period of the war. Here is Turn 3.

The West was quiet. One of the first things you should do when opening a turn is to review the previous player's history. The West made only 6 'moves' that were observable by my units. Pictured below is one of them. Artillery in the Maginot Line is shelling my troops to spoil any potential attacks.

[tweber]

Reviewing these reports is useful to gage your opponents level of research. I see that he shelled me with artillery, so that means he has not upgraded this yet. You can see that my troops are now Rifle II. The previous turn, I researched this. Rifle II can inflict and take more damage. It also uses the same supply levels as Rifle I so it is a good way to improve your army. (In general, supply constrains the overall size of your force).

I am trying to learn as much about my opponents intentions as possible. I review the strategic screen to look at pp grant levels.

[tweber]

If you are building a scenario, you can define variables. You can also expose variables on the strategic screen. This scenario uses about 50 variables but only 4 or exposed.

The top three variable report the political point (pp) levels of The West, Germany, and the Soviets. Each turn, these regimes get poliitcal points based on how the game is going (e.g., Germany gets extra pp once Swedish iron ore is secured, the West gets extra pp as lend lease once France falls. Actually, the entire U.S. entry is similated by a large pp grant). PP is the currency of the game. To put things in perspective, a city can produce 5 pp a turn. US production after 1942 is 150 pp or 30 on map cities (Germany only has 9 now).

You can play an action card to increase your economic production by 1 for 12 pp (so you have a 1 year payback period). The West's pp level is 25 so I know my opponent has not invested in economic development.

It is a tricky call whether Germany should invest in economic development. If you invest regularly, there is quite a large payback over a 6 year war. However, Germany's best chance is in the early years so you have to decide whether to go for the quick kill or the long, drawn out marginal victory.

Here are some other action cards:

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Germany can buy uboats to attack allied pp and buy interceptors to protect German pp. German uboat effectiveness changes depending on conditions. It is less effective in the winter and more effective once French Atlantic ports are captured. You do not want to deploy uboats piece meal since the West can counter with destroyers. The bestt tactics is to build up uboats and then do a massive deployment. You can do this by either buying uboats and then playing the reserve card, this keeps them stashed for a while. Or, you can store pp and then buy a lot of uboats at once.

I am going to buy some interceptors. This will protect my industry and I can recall them and use them as fighters in the spring. The advantage of this is that they do not use supply while guarding industry. The disadvantage is that they do not gain experience.

I will keep my uboat plans quiet for now. They is a 50% chance that the Western player while crack my codes (ULTRA) and learn about my strategic deployments. This makes a large sortie somewhat of a crap shoot.

Back to the action. Not much to do after the planning is done. I launch some attacks on the Maginot Line and find that my opponent has withdrawn his airforce. He is most likely preserving it to defend London and Paris. I throw my entire airforce on the Maginot line and launch a few concentric assaults. I am able to penetrate 2 hexes into the line but take some damage. Here is the picture at the end of the turn.

[Erik Rutins]

If you're going to post this in separate threads, could you possibly put a "continued" link on the first thread to the next? I posted a link to the first thread in a few places and it would help folks find the further threads.

[Barthheart]

What's the difference bewteen the three versions of this scenario? (1939, 1939b,1939f)

Also what the "Diplomacy" scenario that's mentioned in the brief for these scenarios?

Good AAR, already helped me find stuff!

[seille]

Tom used the advantage of XP very well. He did not waste any time and hit my Maginot line as long as the troops had a bigger disadvantage in experience. German initial army has (except some units) a XP of 100. Elite soldiers is the right word for....
 
Even i upgraded my infantry also last turn to level II my troops in the Maginot line had no chance. German attack was very hard as always.
With the high XP and good mortar support they kicked me out of my bunkers.
AT least they did some damage to the attackers.
 
Tom is right that i removed my planes from France.
Against 100 XP fighter II resistance would be suicide. And i hate to waste my forces.
This is the other plus Germany has at begin: A very strong Luftwaffe.
The counterpart for the west is a strong Navy (also 100XP). A very powerful instrument in both attack and defense.
I´ll need my Navy later very much.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Barthheart
What's the difference bewteen the three versions of this scenario? (1939, 1939b,1939f)

That was a build glitch, we somehow included three versions. The 1939f version is the most recent "final" version and should be the one used to play. The other two can be deleted, from what I understand from the designer.

Also what the "Diplomacy" scenario that's mentioned in the brief for these scenarios?

That's one of the other scenarios that comes with the game. [8D]

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

...

Also what the "Diplomacy" scenario that's mentioned in the brief for these scenarios?

That's one of the other scenarios that comes with the game. [8D]

But it's not in any of the scenario folders...[;)].... another "glitch"?[:'(]


DOH!!! Just found it!.....[8|]

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Barthheart
DOH!!! Just found it!.....[8|]

Oh, ye of little faith... [;)]

[tweber]

Also what the "Diplomacy" scenario that's mentioned in the brief for these scenarios?

This Europe 1939 scenario uses the map that I built for the "Diplomacy" scenario. The Diplomacy scenario is modeled somewhat after the old 'Diplomacy' game in that you have a bunch of European powers with equal military and production. You can use action cards to build units and to give political points (the diplomacy part) to other players. That game is probably best with multiple players (it goes up to 6).

[tweber]

Turn 4, December 1939.

Winter strikes. Winter is modelled as a 25-50% loss of readiness. This turn, it will be 33%. Losing readiness means that units cannot move as much, attack as many rounds, and consume more supply. The picture below shows that my supply consumption is now exceeding my supply production. I need to shift production to make more supply or my units will be much less effective.

[tweber]

I continue my assault on the Maginot line. I am trying to show enough progress on the Western front to get Italy to join the war. In game terms, Italy will join when Lille (city NW of Paris) is captured. I assault Strassbourg from 4 sides with a prepatory airstrike. Casualties, as you can see from the battle page below, are high for both sides.

[tweber]

Here is a picture of the Maginot line and the Western front at the end of the turn. I am halfway through the line. However, the West may have purchased engineers and could add depth to his defense.

I discovered that the West has put substantial investment in upgrading flak (see Flak III below). This will make an invasion of Britain difficult. I also notice that no destroyers have been purchased. A massive uboat campaign is starting to look more attractive.

[tweber]

Meanwhile at sea, my uboat fleet is lurking offshore. I plan to engage them in the coming spring campaign.

[Arditi]

  Great AAR! [:)]
   Regards, Arditi

[seille]

Not much to report from my side.
The germans broke deep into the Maginot line even with the bad weather.
They are simply unstoppable at this time. But as the battle screen shows they had to pay for
at least.
I reorganized my defense a bit and bought some supply since i did not produce enough.
And the first DD´s arrived to fight the coming sub threat.
 
Why these german hard early attacks in winter instead of spring ?
Tom can win time this way for later sub attacks or invasion of england. He´ll have more time
to finish me off until the russians become active and the USA join the war. When this happens and Germany
is not in a very good position already they will run into trouble that´s sure.
 
I expect to lose control over France in the next 2-3 turns.
 

[tweber]

Turn 5. January 1940.

I plan to continue my assault on the Maginot line with my overwhelming air superiority. In the picture below, I show the front with terrain view on and off. It is a useful button to see the ground under the units. On the panel with the terrain view, I added arrows to show my objectives for the round. I want to role up the front from the South.

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I bring my artillery south to shell the circled unit. I then assault from Strassbourg and the hex directly north. Here is the screen prior to the battle. You will notice that I have 4 units in Strassbourg. I only select the infantry units for the assault. I hold my armor in reserve for a potential exploitation.

You can also see below that the game tells me how many strength points are attacking, what is the maximum that can be used in the battle given number of hexes I am attacking from, and the concentric attack bonus. Concentric attacks are very important. My bonus is low (4%) since I am only attacking from 2 sides and my readiness has been impacted by the winter weather. A normal 2 sided attack is 10% bonus. (and yes, you can adjust concentric bonuses in the editor)

[tweber]

The battle in the southern hex is successful. Remnents of the Maginot garrison retreat to the SE and are attacked by my armored unit in reserve. Unfortunately, this action takes all the action points out of my armored corps. I will not be able to concentrically attack the next strong point.

I now work on the second hex in the front. I prepare my attack with a large air strike. The West has nearby flax that do fortunately do not inflict damage (must be inexperienced). Here is what the air strike battle looks like when done. Unfortunately, I do not get the enemy tank.