Courtenay's solitaire AAR

[Courtenay]

Here his my solitaire game of Global War in MWIF. This is my fourth start of MWIF. I wanted to get through one turn before I posted anything, and it took me four tries to do so.

My first start collapsed in a comedy of errors; I had not played WIF in over a decade, and I was still learning the interface. I was particularly impressed with the British transports that sailed bravely into the North Sea. Those transports forgot one minor thing: The BEF was still in England. (Remember, people, you pick up units from the coast at the end of a transport's move, at the same time and the same screen you pick which sea area it is going into. It's that little button on the lower right of the pick sea area screen.) That was not my only major mistake, just the funniest.

I aborted the second game when I found the CLiF oil bug. I did not want to the Allied economy disappearing into the boilers of the Allied cruisers. Thank you, Shannon, for fixing that so quickly.

I stopped the third game because Shannon fixed the oil bug, and I wanted to use CLiF. Also, my Allied convoy setup was far too ambitious, and my Chinese defense was falling apart. (A long, fair S/O 39 where the average Japanese combat roll was about 15 did not help anything, except, of course, for the Japanese.)

So this is my fourth attempt. It hope it will last longer than the first three.

Here are my optional rules. I am also using the enforced USSR-Japanese peace rule as originally written (i.e _not_ the "clarification"), and also am imposing a house rule that the Japanese must have one pilot allocated to carrier air for each carrier. (What is a game of WiF without house rules? [:)] )

[Courtenay]

Initial US entry: All three chits go into the German pool, so that the Russians can both occupy Eastern Poland and claim Bessarabia. Initial chits are 4, 3, 1.

US: Set up to allow rapid evacuation of MacArthur and to put a convoy point in Bay of Bengal, allowing transport of Philippine resource to China. Unfortunately, this triggers a bug in the game, and the trade that should give the US a Japanese build point disappears. The Japanese will stick that build point someplace and never use it.

USSR: The USSR did something strange: they scrapped three 3-3 infantry, and did not take the Siberians. This gives them the same number of infantry corps in their force pool, but gives them a higher quality force pool. Instead of a 3 3-3s, they have a 4-4 and two 5-3s.

Italy: Set up to threaten France, but with HQ in Africa. Also set up to evacuate East Africa if decide not to go to war. The Italians bomber stinks; it has less range than the Italian fighter. The INF XX is set up with the fleet in La Spezia, where it threatens mischief on a surprise impulse.

[Courtenay]

My attempt at a setup for the Chinese in my third game was a disaster. Chinese units that were not stacked did not survive, nor did they slow the Japanese down. Thus I will stack the Chinese. However, not only are there not enough units to double stack the front, there are not enough units to make lines to hold the two cities of Chengchow and Changsha. The Chinese will cover Changsha, plus a moderate force in the south, and hold Chengchow with two corps, on the theory that the Japanese can either kill them, or attack in the center, but not both. The Chinese abandon the Han, since the advantage the Japanese get from setting up second is just too great, and defend on the Yangtze instead. There is an open path from the Japanese front line to Chungking, but it is not what one would call a clear path -- it is nothing but mountains with no supply line.

The communists got the 8th Rte Army (7-3 white print, by far the best Chinese unit). They do not follow the dictums of the Nationalists, as they set up to defend Tungkwan. A major Japanese offensive against the Communists would almost certainly succeed, at least to the extent of taking Sian, but this does not leave the Japanese where they want to be.

[Courtenay]

CW: Cover Gibraltar & Malta; set up territorial adjacent to both Port Said and Damietta, so that there will be a non-zero notional unit in both even in a surprise impulse. Similarly, set up Palastine territorial in Haifa, to maximize defense of Palastine ports. Navy set up to defend convoy routes. Asian fleet set up in Aden. Intend to use it in Europe for at least a year; the British do not fear an early Japanese attack, as they think the US entry effects would be so large as to compensate for any losses suffered. The CW does not have enough carrier planes to fill its carriers. Put three carrier planes on Carriers in Scapa Flow, and the other two on Carriers in Aden, because it is far easier to get new planes on carriers in England.

The Territorials are the most useful I have ever seen: An Indian 3-3, and a South African 4-2 and 2-3. I usually get something like Northern Rhodesia, is never useful. These will be useful very rapidly. The Indian territorial will be used in India (a novel idea). I think the South Africans will garrison Britain.

Fr: Set up to defend borders as best one can. Fleet split between Atlantic and Med. The 4-4 Mountain unit was scrapped to ensure getting the 5-4 white print mountain corps, which defends 60, 33 (Lyons-Milan railroad border hex.) If a black print unit defended that hex, the Italian mountain unit could infiltrate over the alpine hexside to 61, 32, putting 60,33 out of supply. A surprise ground strike flipping a hypothetical black print in 60,33 would be very bad. If the "Morocco" Mountain unit is flipped, it still defends with a strength of nine, which is good enough. The French 6-4 INF started the game in Casablanca. The territorials were Algeria and Indo-China. The Indo-China territorial is a pure gift to the Japanese, and I don't see anthing that can be done about it; the Algerian territrial is useful, in that it stops some Italian adventures.

USSR: Set up for immediate claiming of Rumanian border lands. Defense of the far east is impossible; set up so that it is not cheap, with Zhukov on the west.

[comsolut]

I appreciate every AAR, so thank you in advance.

[Courtenay]

Japan: The idea of an attack on Russia is a great idea -- for Germany. Japan is much less certain of the merits of such an idea. The Chinese position is composed mostly of air. Try to take advantage of that fact. The Japanese can attack in the north, the center, or the south. The north is the weakest, the center the most important. However, the rail lines to the center actually go through the north. The Japanese think that they are going to go for Changsha. After making this decision, I actually took a look the Japanese forces in Manchuria. (One should always make decisions, and only then look at the data, right?) They are bad, with a Korean unit stuck in Korea. The Japanese did not get their 3 factor bomber.

Germany: Considered an early attack west. Considered an early attack on Yugoslavia. Decided to play conservatively, obliterate Poland, conquer Denmark, and see how a naval campaign works. Possible attack on Yugoslavia later.

[Courtenay]

S/O 39 Axis 1: Weather 4 (all Fair):
(What a surprise that weather roll was. [:)] )

The US is outraged at the invasion of Poland! Die roll 2, two chits, a 4 and a 2.

The Poles see the overwhelming force that is bearing down on them, and decide to set up in such a way that their planes can't be overrun, and are not ground struck with their army. This weakens the defense of Lodz and Warsaw slightly, but so what?

[Courtenay]

The Germans pick land. The Italians and Japanese both pick combined.

The Germans contemplate sending their NAV to the Baltic to help protect the convoys there against a French naval raid. However, they only have four air actions and there are four targets, so no naval air.

The Italians move a transport to the Red Sea and pick up a 3-3 infantry. For the Italians, 3 build points are a lot!

Actually, the Italians didn't pick up the unit; I had to go back to the autosave and redo the move. Forgetting to pick up units from the coast with transports at sea is one of my most common mistakes.

The Japanese land Yamamoto and a 4-2 MIL at Shanghai, and a 6-3 MAR, a 4-4 MAR, and a 1-3 ENG at Haichow.

[Courtenay]

The Germans send four planes to the four targets in Poland. The Japanese send a bomber to ground strike Chengchow.

Here is a useful table: (I assume 2d10 CRT)

Hex contains:
2 XXX + XX: always ground strike
2 XXX or XXX + 2 XX: Def > 5, ground strike
XXX + XX: Def > 6, ground strike
XXX or 2 XX: Def > 10, ground strike
XX: always ground support.

These results only refer to the expected value of the combat result, assuming the defender is in supply. The do not take into account air action limits, the possibility of calling off the attack it the ground strike does not work, the benefit of having your opponent's units flipped, or many other things. Just the expected value. Thus they are most useful in deciding whether to ground strike or ground support an attack that you are going to make not matter what else happens.

The German ground strikes flipped one corps in both Lodz and Warsaw, leaving Rydz unflipped, but failed to affect either air unit. The Japanese, with a much worse aircraft and without the benefit of surprise, did just as well, flipping the 4-1 garrison in Changsha.

[Courtenay]

When I first tried moving in my previous game, I panicked because the Germans couldn't move any units. Then I realized that the Italians were trying to move German units. One click, and the German army was mobile.

The Poles prevented an overwhelming attack on Lodz and Warsaw. The Germans can make a decent attack on Warsaw (about +10), but don't see the point -- they have some time, and don't want to lose any units. So they are only attacking the four Polish units not in Lodz or Warsaw, all at overwhelming odds. They overrun the two Polish naval units, destroying both of them. The Germans set up too much in the north, not enough in the south, so they commit their last bomber to the blitz combat between Poznan and Krakow. The plane was not needed, the Germans rolled well. All the other attacks were autokills.

[Courtenay]

The Japanese creep forward with three units.

Thus endeth the first impulse of the game.

[Zorachus99]

Good screenshots! Nice description of the impulse goings-on.

[brian brian]

I like the Chinese set-up. Make the Japanese take Chengchow and there is a good chance the Communists will be able to grow their forces sufficiently before the Japanese can mount a serious threat to Si-An.

[Courtenay]

S/O 39 Al2. Weather fair everywhere.

Allies declare war on Germany. DR = 10, no effect (a 9 was needed to move a chit).

This is turning into the FDR fantasy scenario. There is a one in fifty chance of having that many chits in the pool at the moment.

Fr and CW pick Naval, Ch Land, US and Russia Combined.

The British send their Blenheim on a port raid to Kiel. The Germans continue their high rolling ways, rolling a 10 for surprise, so there are lots of surprise points (13). The British use two to eliminate the AA fire, and use 10 more to increase their combat table, getting X+2D+A. They decide to go for a high value target, and attempt to destroy the Scharnhorst. The Germans of course roll high, so the Scharnhorst is only damaged, not destroyed. The Germans put the second D on the most useless ship in the navy, the Schlesien. To their surprise, the thirty year old armor holds, and the Schlesien is aborted. The Allies put the last damage on the Graf Spee, and the new armor does not work as well as the old armor; the Graf Spee is damaged. The Germans _thought_ they were putting the last abort on a convoy point. Somehow I did something wrong, and the result went on the Gneisenau. Fortunately, the dice roll was high, for no effect.

Note that the German TRS and AMPH were set up in Konigsburg, out of range of any starting CW plane; otherwise the AMPH would have been sunk.

[Courtenay]

The US transports Nimitz into Hawaii with a range four transport.

The CW and Fr move out units on convoy protection duty. Two CW transports, carrying Gort, theG 7-6 MECH and the 2-3 AA gun move to the North Sea. There they are joined by a 6-4 Fr INF departing from Casablanca. The Queens take a 5-4 MOT to Alexandria. (I have never quite figured out how the Queens can transport a MOT. One truck per stateroom?) The Queens are joined in Alexandria by HMS Glorious, out of Aden. A strong force is in the North Sea, escorting the troop convoys, and good size forces are defending the convoy lanes. All of the CW Pacific Fleet has redeployed to the European theater.

A correction: The French thought they had moved the 6-4 to the North Sea. It and the TRS are still sitting in Casablanca.

(The forces in the Faroes gap are completely inadequate. I saw 12 ships in the area, and forgot that 5 of them were convoys. This made no difference in the turn, as I did not notice this fact until much later, so the Germans did not realize there was something to take advantage of. A disadvantage of solitaire is that you have no one besides yourself to point out mistakes.

The French submarines attacked the German convoys in the Baltic. The speed 6 sub found the convoys. The Germans rolled a 2 for surprise, so two convoys were destroyed, and one was sent home.

The French strat-bombed Dusseldorf and a DR of 6 knocked off one production point.

[Courtenay]

In Land movement, McArthur moves towards the south, where he borders the Bismark Sea.

The Chinese move a unit towards Canton. That is the only Chinese move.

The Russians move into Eastern Poland. Incredibly, they roll another 10 for US entry. The Germans are beginning to predict a US DOW in 1940. (Not really, but this is pretty bad.)

The British flew the Polish airforce to Lithuania, saving the pilots. The really amazing thing about those pilots is that it turns out they are are carrier trained! Who knew? [:)]

In reorganization, Nimitz reorganizes the transport that took him to Hawaii, while Wavell, in Alexandria, reorganizes Glorious and the Queens. The Poles thought about reorganizing two units with Rydz, but decided not to.

At the end of their tun, the Allies deploy the most important weapon in their arsenal -- the rain dance. I have lost games as the Axis because the Allies deployed it brilliantly (Seven fair Axis impulses in 1941.) and lost games as the Allies because we failed to execute the dance properly (Six months of fair weather in 1941.) We will see how it goes. So far luck has been running on the Allied side.

[Courtenay]

S/o 39 Axis 3: Weather 7 (R, R, F, R, F, F Imp adv 2, +0 to next weather roll)
The rain dance succeeded.

The Germans and Japanese take a land, while the Italians take a combined.

The Italians move the transport and corps from the Red Sea to Tobruk.

The Japanese inch forwards, against no opposition.

In the combat phase, the Germans take Lodz without loss. The risked their engineer and did not use HQ support. In retrospect, I would reverse those decisions. They rolled a 9, +15. Rain does not halt the mighty German war machine! On the other hand, it sure saves Denmark for this impulse.

[Courtenay]

S/O 39 Allied 5:
CW Combined, Fr Naval, Ch Land, US & USSR combined.

The US sends a transport off the Philippines, which picks up MacArthur.

The US is also moving its carriers out to the Gulf of Mexico. They will get back to the Pacific eventually.

The CW sends the Queens all the way down south to the Mozambique channel, where they pick up the 4-3 South African territorial. The French belatedly get their best infantry corps out of Morrocco, and ship it to the North Sea. They take advantage of the bad weather that saved Denmark for an impulse to evacauate their range six submarine from the Baltic back to Brest.

The Chinese don't move. At all.

The British decide that an invasion of the Netherlands is not likely this turn, and lands the BEF at Calais.

The Russians start to garrison Eastern Poland, and begin the long and expensive railing of Zhukov back to west.

[Courtenay]

S/O 39 Axis 7: Weather 8, R, R, F, St, F, F (adv +2, WR +1)
The Axis bad luck continues

The invasion of Denmark is off for at least another impulse.

Ge and Ja both pick land. There is a good chance the turn will end, but the Germans live with not replacing their convoys because they think the need the all the land moves they can get versus the Poles. And who knows? The turn might not end.

Given the risk of the turn ending, the Germans send their naval bomber to bomb Coventry, which is out of range of all British planes, including the planes on the carriers. Of course the Germans roll a two, and miss.

The German artillery unit northeast of Warsaw bombards Warsaw. To their amazement, the Germans roll a one, flipping Rydz.

The Japanese creep up on Changsha, but do not feel that it is worth attacking in the bad weather with units not in position.

The Germans go in for the kill on Warsaw. They use HQ support, partly because I want to see how to do it. It takes me two tries to do it correctly. The Germans use von Bock in support, but not their engineer. They roll a 14, far higher than they needed to obliterate the Poles without loss.

[Courtenay]

S/O 39 Allied 9:
All the Allies pass, hoping for a turn end. The roll is an eight, turn continues.