Just One Turn?

[Lord Drakken]

So a post Sept Oct report. Port strike by the English on surprise turn damages Graf Spee and old WW1 BB. Polish front goes as usual. Brits and France see German aggression near Yugoslavia and move 4 transports and protective fleet into the Italian coast with possible reinforcements for that front.

On Impulse 2 weather gets rainy. The Germans DOW on Yugoslavia and align Rumania to stop the Russian claims on Bessarabia forever. Romanians and Yugoslavians face off in the mountains around the border. Poland goes as usual. The Russians are pissed they have to move everyone from the south to the north. Luckily the Japanese have evacuated most of Manchuria and Korea. The Siberians board the trains to the west, their eye is on Finland. Japan removes a stubborn defender out of the mountains but half the army is disrupted.

3rd impulse the weather is fine again. The Nazis DOW Denmark and capture a pair of convoys and sink the rest of the fleet. Now that the Baltic is sealed an SS unit overruns the polish fleet but they have nowhere to go.

Germany captures Warsaw with no fanfare. They align Hungary and move forward with 4 corps and roll a 3 in the attack on the Belgrade on 2D10! OMG! 2 Hungarians die but they get one Yugo unit. The allies disembark 4 corps and a division in Yugoslavian ports in the Adriatic. German HQ only has 2 reorgs and can only flip up 2 units. the Germans don't have any reinforcements heading south not expecting that 3 result. They rebase aircraft to that front to help. The allies move forward towards Belgrade but can only get adjacent.

4th set of impulses and the weather is fine. Mussolini can't stand to not get in on this party. The allied fleet is in the 0 box due to the range from the UK to Italy. They DOW the CW but not France. They sortee into the Italian coast with the surface fleet and get into the 4 box with a NAV for support. the cruisers are carrying a pair of Divs to strike at malta. Malta only as a 2 factor Engineer in it.

1st round of naval battle and the Italians surprise the shit out of the CW fleet in the 0 box. Italy rolls 1 CW 10... CW has 2 cvs so the italians use surprise points to force a surface action. Due to surprise from the DOW the Italians get to pick the allied losses. Both carriers and the hood are sunk. Another BB damaged. the Italians have a BB and CA damaged. Next round searches fail.

Ground strike fails to disrupt the Engineer. with air support and shore bombardment the attack on malta is at 3:1. The die roll is an 17 on 2D10 and Malta is Italian.

The Germans bring in the Romanians this time and make a desperate attack on Belgrade. A less than average roll kills the defenders and the Romanians. The 2 german corps take the capital but are disorganized.

The next turn the French declare war on the Italians and return the favor in the Italian coast. They sail out into the 2 box. They roll low and force a surface action. The 1st round is pretty even. France losing a BB and a cruiser and a CA damaged, Italy loses 2 cruisers and 2 damaged . The second round the Italians select a Naval air. The French CV fighter shoots the NAV down.

Third round the allies roll a 1 and both the CW and French are in it this time. They pound the Italians. The Italians lose their last BB and 2 cruisers. 3 more are damaged. The french lose a BB and cruiser and 1 damaged. The Italians abort the sea zone. They have been trying to hang in there to keep the convs out. The search rolls have been insanely low! The allies rolled 2 or less on all 3 rolls.

The CW tries to port attack a bunch of aborted Italian ships but gets shot down by a land based fighter. The CW brings the last of the Yugoslavs in and tries to bust the Wehrmacht out of Belgrade. The last two Yugos go down and the CW is disrupted. The Germans lose 1 unit but hold onto the city. The French unit swings into Italy and damages a factory and cuts off a resource.

In the far east their are maneuvers but no attacks. The Japanese are emptying their carriers of planes and basing them in China to deter partisan activity.

The turn ends... Poland, Denmark, and Yugoslavia have fallen. Romania and Hungary are in the Axis. Italy is left with only 2 working resources and has a damaged factory. The USA could care less about any of the Axis aggression but was offended when the Russians occupied Eastern Poland and lost double chits when France DOWed the Italians! There is only 1 chit in the US entry pool. This was the most exciting Sept Oct turn I have ever played!