WAW6T- Axis GrumpyMel and Lunaticus

[GrumpyMel]

Doing an AAR of Explorers version 6T of WAW. I'm playing Axis along with Lunaticus playing Japan. We'll post our reports in this thread. The Allies are 82ndTrooper playing the West and Etzo playing the SU. They'll be posting in thier own thread, so the sides won't have to worry about giving up intel to thier opponents. We're playing with the following game options...


-FOW
- Passwords
- Anti-Supply
- Anti PBEM Cheat
- Special units
- Historical Western Blitz
- Canadian Supply of UK
- Accelerate Ship Production

[GrumpyMel]

Sept 1, 1939

War once again breaks loose over digital Europe. Poor Poland finds itself unprepaired and squarely in the cross-hairs. It's pixilated troops pay a heavy price for thier lack of readiness. The opening turn is fairly standard with Germany attacking as agressively as possible in order to take advantage of the surprise round. You can see the end results below. My troops suffered a few more losses then I'm really happy with, but it's important to kill as many Poles in the opening round as possible. This should set me up well to take Warsaw in the next turn and knock Poland out of the War.

[GrumpyMel]

Sept 29, 1939

Warsaw falls along with the last Polish troops, knocking Poland out of the War. It did cost a few more casualties then I would have liked, including 1 tank in the final assault. However, the losses are not significant in the greater scheme of things. Now the Sitz-Krieg begins as we await the Spring and the assault on Western Europe. We are building forces in preperation for this. Although production of units has not kicked into full gear yet, as I am building a fair amount of PP's right now so I can build some upgrades and pressure the Axis minors into the war as soon as possible.

We are playing with the Historical Western Blitz option, which means France is frozen until the spring. That means the only action I really need to worry about right now is possibly some naval clashes in the Atlantic and maybe some air strikes against Northen Germany, if his bombers in England have the range to fly around the neutrals. I have stationed some of my fighters in the area in order to deal with that. Meanwhile my first Wolfpack has taken up station between Britain and Canada to see if they can upset any supply shipments. I am building more subs at a modest rate to keep England preoccupied with it's supply lanes.

Pictured below you can see my first group of subs out at sea, along with a summary of losses for the turn.

[GrumpyMel]

Oct 27th, 1939

The Sitzkreig begins in earnest. The sole piece of action being that one of my u-boats got blocked by an English sub while trying to run the Channel. I'm sure I'll loose it during the Wests turn, but not a major situation.

Though there is little fighting going on. There is much planning and preperation. With the fall of Warsaw, I have recieved the Action Card for pressuring the Axis Minors into my Regieme. I played it this turn (as soon as I recieved it) with the PP's I've been saving, as it's a significant boost to production and getting these guys in as early as possible maximizes thier production time. Meanwhile planning and building for the Spring continue.

Germany is building for the invasion of France and the low countries. My basic goals here are to capture France in as short a time as possible while preventing the escape of as many French troops as I can. My timetable is very strict for this. The goals are to take Brussles, Amsterdam and Lille on the first turn of the offensive and Paris no later then the 3rd. I am building accordingly. I also need to plan for the invasion of Denmark and Norway, which will happen immediately before the offensive on France. This, however, is a much less important theatre and I will make it primarly a responsibility of the Kriegsmarine, although some small ground forces will be earmarked for it. Also during the Winter I will attempt to continue my campaign to disrupt Englands supply lines in the Atlantic.

Meanwhile Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania are building up for a Summer offensive against Yugoslavia. They should be able to achieve this largely on thier own...although if things go well in France I will likely be able to offer some German assistance.

Finland is slowley building for Barbarossa. With this much lead time, they should have a decent little force assembeled by then.

Pictured are the Axis Minors.

[GrumpyMel]

Nov. 24th, 1939

The weather still remains fair. A good break, this helps our production situation. Also fortunate, our sub in the English Channel was not attacked. Surprising, but I will not look a gift horse in the mouth. I pull it back and sneak more subs out into the North Atlantic by the northern route which remains unguarded. I am operating mostly with single SFT subs as there is no cost for deploying units only HQ's in this scenerio. This will give me the greatest flexibility. My main wolfpack takes up position of the coast of Spain and begins to have some effect on the supply line to Gibraltar. Meanwhile, back on the continent we continue to build up our forces. We invested in Fighter II Research this turn. Since fighters are not upgrade-able it makes sense to improve tech in this area early on. I had been holding off building any until I purchased this Tech. The first ME-109's are now scheduled for production.

[GrumpyMel]

Jan 19th, 1940


The new year dawns and winter lays heavy on Europe. The war has been remarkably quiet so far, with no casualties suffered by either side since the fall of Poland. That will change with the Spring thaw, a few short months hence. For now, I am content to build my forces, as I'm sure the West is doing. My U-boats are active in the Atlantic and beginning to exact a toll on Allied supplies. As you can see pictured below.

[GrumpyMel]

March 15, 1940

The spring thaw has come and soon the quiet waiting will be over. In the Atlantic one of my submarines, U-12, has withstood 2 attacks by enemy ASW forces. I am moving it eastward to resupply. So far no losses among my U-boats. I slip one U-boat past Gibraltar in hopes of preventing any enemy evacuation from Southern France once the offensive begins. Next month, the Blitz against Denmark and Norway will commence. The Kriegsmarine stands ready, but it is the attack on France and the Low Countries due in May that occupies most of my attention.
You can see my planning pictured below.

3 Armies are poised on the doorstep of France. 3rd Army consisting mostly of Infantry will screen the French forces in the Maginot Line. Meanwhile 2nd and 1st Army will carry out the attacks. 2nd Army consisting of 6 Panzer and 5 Infantry Divisions will strike through Luxueburg with Lille and Rheims as initial objectives. 1st Army consisting of 3 Panzer and 5 Infantry Divisions will strike into the Low Countries, with Brussles and Amsterdam as objectives. The Luftwaffe, along with several FalschrimJaegar units will support the operation.

[GrumpyMel]

April 12th, 1940

I recieved and played the Northern Blitz card this turn, allowing me to occupy Norway and Denmark. I moved a couple of U-boats off the Norwegian coast, screening Bergan and Stavanger. If the Brits try to sneak in a landing force, they may cause them some pause. I also created a new HQ for Norway, 4th Army in Oslo so that it can recieve production from the Swedish ore and from Oslo. The Kriegsmarine also transported 1 Infantry division into Norway, to help out in case the Brits stage a landing there.

Norway is mostly a distraction though. The important show will begin next month in France. My troops have already moved into attack positions.

Meanwhile, I lost my first U-boat in the Atlantic. U-12 was sunk on it's way back to port by a large enemy destroyer group. It did manage to kill one destroyer though before sinking. So a decent trade.

[GrumpyMel]

May 10th, 1940

The attack on France and the Low Countries begins. On the ground things went reasonably well, with all first turn objectives achieved and reasonable kill/loss ratios. 1st Army took Amsterdam and Brussles with the aid from artillery and airstrikes. Meanwhile 2nd Army drove through Luxemburg to capture Lille and Rhiems. Though the Allied ground forces suffered no apparent readiness loss from our Blitz, we were able to smash them aside where-ever we encountered them. With the capture of Rheims, we were able to isolate the Maginot defences from Paris.
A paradrop north of Vichey should succede in cutting Maginots supply lines and avenue for retreat.

Unfortunately, it looks like our secondary objective of preventing the French Army from evacuating will be only partialy successfull. Although the Maginot forces are isolated, Paris itself has a clear line of evacuation to Calais. We were able to stage a small attack on Calais, but lacked sufficient AP's to capture the port. An attempt by U-boats and E-boats to interdict the Channel Crossing met with disaster. Our force ran into a station keeping force of 3 British DD's and an old cruiser. We attacked with 6 U-boats and 2 DD's, but lost 5 of our U-boats and inflicted no casualties on the enemy. The e-boats lacked movement to retreat after that and will probably be lost. Truely a black day for the Kriegsmarine, casting a shadow on an otherwise successfull Offensive.

Pictured below are our opening positions.

[GrumpyMel]

Here are our final dispositions.

[british exil]

Why didn't you do an air-recon of the channel before you moved the Kriegsmarine? I mean once the land attack starts the enemy know your're coming and a possible loss of a fighterI compared to those subs seems a good trade off.
But I think you will have used your fighters to protect the airspace for your Airborne forces, nice move BTW. But maybe 1 old fighter would/could have helped. Maybe, possibly, who knows. ????

I know that in hinsight I think of things I should have done. Plus once the big offensives start I do tend to forget somethings. But as soon as I do not need the fighter squadrons in action, they are always doing recon flights just to get xp and moral built up.

I know you will not take this post as critic because you a too experienced player to do such.
Keep your panzers fueled up and continue your storm through Europe mate.

Mat

[GrumpyMel]

ORIGINAL: british exil

Why didn't you do an air-recon of the channel before you moved the Kriegsmarine? I mean once the land attack starts the enemy know your're coming and a possible loss of a fighterI compared to those subs seems a good trade off.
But I think you will have used your fighters to protect the airspace for your Airborne forces, nice move BTW. But maybe 1 old fighter would/could have helped. Maybe, possibly, who knows. ????

I know that in hinsight I think of things I should have done. Plus once the big offensives start I do tend to forget somethings. But as soon as I do not need the fighter squadrons in action, they are always doing recon flights just to get xp and moral built up.

I know you will not take this post as critic because you a too experienced player to do such.
Keep your panzers fueled up and continue your storm through Europe mate.

Mat

Mat,

I knew what the enemy had there. I spotted his group[ with my ground forces. But I figured I could take them, I had 6 Sub II's and 2 DD II's going in on 1 DD II, 2 DD I's and 1 Cruiser I. With those odds, I actualy saw it as an opportunity to sink some Allied ships...never thought I'd get creamed as badly as I did. Those Royal Navy guys deserve and extra rum ration...they did a heck of a job that day.

[GrumpyMel]

June 7th, 1940

The Allies have evacuated Paris and France all but lies at my feet. However, the cost has been heavier then I anticipated. Besides the loss of the Kriegsmarine task force (My remaining 2 e-boats were sunk by Allied carrier air on the West's turn), the Maginot defenders staged a suicidal series of counter-attacks into Luxemburg. Although they were driven back with heavy losses, they managed to destroy an artillery unit of 5 guns in the process. That was a lack of foresight on my part. I had anticipated the Maginot defenders would try to break out to the west in order to try to join the evacuation, not attack across a river into Luxemburg. An expensive lesson for me. The West is clearly a skilled and daring opponent.

At the very least, I am ahead of my schedule. Having walked into Paris unopposed this turn. The remaining Maginot defenders, though still a formidable force. Have little supply and slim chance of retreat. My attacks this turn were mostly to contain and disrupt them, I am avoiding a full scale direct attack on them while they are still powerfull, as it will cost uneccesary losses. I used the 4th SS Panzer division along with an Infantry division to strike at thier central flak defenses, which were left largely unguarded. These being knocked out, the Luftwaffe had some target practice. My forces then moved mostly to encircle these defenders. Although they still have some ability to attack, with thier disrupted organization and limited supply...they won't be able to move or attack far....and I think it will be less costly to force them to attack me (they are mostly defensive troops) rather then assault thier fortresses. If I decide to play the Vichey card, they will disappear anyway.

One good bit of news. My gambit into the Med has paid off...as my U-boats there are intercepting the Production from Marsielle, which seems to have been directed toward Africa or Gibraltar HQ.

Below is a picture of my starting position this turn.

[GrumpyMel]

And here are my ending positions, along with the total losses in the war to date.

[GrumpyMel]

July 5th 1940,

With the fall of Paris, the will to fight has gone out of the French people. The trapped Maginot defenders tried yet another suicidal attack into Luxemburg. They ran into much stronger resistence this time and only succeded in doing minor damage. Lots of French soldiers knocked out in that attack. We decided to play the Vichy Card which we recieved this turn. That eliminated the remaining enemy forces in France, as they disolve thier formations and go off to sulk and eat lots of cheese.

Vichy is a good option as it gives Japan some much needed resources in Asia, along with denying Mosul and North Africa to the West and means I don't have to waste time or troops killing off the remaining defenders in France. A fair trade for giving up Southern France. The West commenced his bombing campaign this turn by hitting Amsterdam. He did about 1000 points worth of structural damage, more of an annoyance then anything really... and my engineers repaired it completely this turn. Still, I am making preperations for the air war over Europe. We'll see how those turn out next turn.

With the Fall of France, Italy came into the war this turn. I have shifted production from both Milan and Venice over to OKW. Manpower is too precious to waste on troops with morale issues... supply doesn't have morale...nor do political points. So Milan and Venice can produce those and allow Germany to produce more fighting forces. Only Rome is producing for Supremo. I'll likely use that mostly for Naval production, as the Italian Fleet is decently strong early on in the game. I'll try to use them to keep the Brits off-balance in the Med a bit.

In Africa, we start preparing defend against Commenwealth troops. I have no grand plans for the Italians in Africa other then to stay alive as long as possible. It's mostly a distraction. Russia will be the make or break Theatre for Germany. Even now, I'm beginning plans for that campaign.

Japan is in the war now too....so hopefully we'll see some reports from them here soon.

Pictured below is France just before I played the Vichy Card. As soon as I did, all those blue units evaporated.

[GrumpyMel]

August 2nd, 1940

With the ground war in France ended, the battle on the high seas and over the skies of Europe heats up. In the Western Atlantic we lost 1 U-boat to enemy action, though we sunk one of the destroyers which engaged us. The enemy seems to be stepping up thier ASW operations. We also have not destroyed much supply the last couple turns, although our subs are well situated to intercept. I'm unsure what the enemy is doing with his supply lines.

On the West's turn, the RAF paid a return visit to Amsterdam. This time we arranged a warm welcome for them. 11 squadrons of our new model Me-109's went out to engage 5 Squadrons of Bombers with 5 Fighter Escorts. The enemy was no match for us and we shot down 3 squadrons of bombers and 3 squadrons of fighters at no loss to ourselves.

On our own turn, we spotted a lone British submarine blocking the English Channel and the Luftwaffe went out and sunk it without opposition.

The West has not proven yet that his air strength is sufficient to present a serious threat to us. However, we must be cautious and we are building an integrated air defence over Western Europe, featuring batteries of immobile flak, interspersed with fighter squadrons. When the War in the East heats up we will withdraw fighters as neccesary and leave the bulk of the defence upto the flak batteries.

You can see our planned defences pictured below.

[GrumpyMel]

In the Balkans, we bring the Blitzkrieg to Marshal Tito and Yugoslavia. The campaign starts with air strikes against Yugoslav forces in Belgrade, Skopje and Zagreb. On the ground, the 5th Army, consisting of 3 Infantry, 2 Cavalry and 1 Mechanized division starts the advance. The mixed Romanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian force quickly captures Belgrade against light resistance and nearly succedes in destroying Tito's HQ as it retreats westward with Romanian Armor and Cavalry in hot pursuit.

In the North, the German-Hungarian 6th Army of 3 Panzer, 3 Infantry and 1 Italian Mechanized division advances toward Zagreb, but lacks sufficient movement for an attack.

The swift capture of Belgrade has effecively decapitated the Yugoslavs, as they are left without a supply source. This should allow my forces a relatively easy campaign in finnishing the remaining defenders, especialy with air support from the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force. The campaign will then move to Greece. Although depending upon the timing I may only use one Army for that attack as the other might need to move towad start position for Barbarossa.

Pictured below are my opening moves.

[rjh1971]

Nice AAR, I'm gathering new ideas from it, I liked your airborned attack to cut supply in France.
Keep it up.
Will you be playing the japs as well?

[rjh1971]

Never mind my last question Lunaticus is playing Japan, I just saw the allied thread separately.

[GrumpyMel]

August 30, 1940

The skies above Europe are quiet this turn, although the Battle in the Atlantic continues. I lost 2 more U-boats this turn and killed one destroyer. I did destroy about 700 supply though. The enemy is winning this battle slightly, at least in terms of production destroyed. However, my commitment to it is fairly low. I am devoting no more production than 2 subs a turn to it...and sometimes less. My real goal here is not really to win in the Atlantic. I know my chances of doing so would be quite slim without devoting a large amount of production. Rather, I am trying to keep the West off-balance and distracted. If he believes he needs to commit serious resources to hunting down the few subs I send out to harras him...then he isn't doing anything more serious to disrupt my plans. One of my U-boats ran into his main battle fleet this turn, however I don't have enough subs in the area to think about challenging it...rather I'll keep playing hide and seek with him.

In the Balkans, 6th Army took Zagreb and 5th Army captured Skopje both with air and artillery support. Sarajevo was bombed but not attacked. I have time to take it in a coordinated attack. Then these armies can turn thier attention to Greece.

Planning and building for Barbarossa are in full swing and some of my forces are beggining to head east. Soon the numbers on the borders will start to matter and I must make sure that I have enough to keep the Soviets quiet until I am ready to attack.

Pictured below are our operations in the Blakans