Ragnarök - (Back to) 4 Player Global War

[NCommander]

Ragnarök (n) - the destruction of the gods and of all things in a final battle with the evil powers.

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As 1939 came to a close, a shadow fell over Europe as the British Empire and French Third Republic had drawn a line in the sand, guaranteeing Poland's right to exist, curbing the Nazi's regime thus unchecked expansion. Churchill looks over the channel, knowing that the next great war is about to begin. With the ink drying on the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics' prepare to regain their lost terrority, and help strengthen their grip on Eastern Europe.

An ocean away, President Roosevelt fights Congress at every turn in an effort to keep liberty alive in Europe. Long in isolation, the mighty war machine of the United States slumbers, dreaming of peace. Meanwhile, the Japanese Army marches its way through China, while the Chinese civil war rages on. With little blocking their way, the final member of the Tripartite Pact seeks to expand its empire, secure resources, and prepare for what is likely an inevitable showdown.

Lights darken across Europe, and only time will tell if they will shine again.

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Welcome to this Global War AAR. Played over TeamViewer, this is a four player fight in determining the fate of Europe. Please join me, fearlessdylan, Tjalfe, and paulderynck as we aim to recreate the greatest war the world has ever known.

[NCommander]

Players
NCommander - CW
fearlessdylan - France/USA/Nationalist China
Tjalfe - Germany/Italy
paulderynck - Japan
Pax25 - Italy
bommerrang - USSR/Communist China

NOTE: Based on availability, we may change players out, or have other players cover a major power. If, at any point, someone wishes to join as either Italy or the USSR, we can add you to the game after discussing it ourself (we have a private forum for discussing Allied/Axis strategy + a neutral ground)

Optional Rules


House Rules
Chinese Surrender - China may only surrender if both Nationalist and Communist sides agree.

Isolated Re-org (modified) - To the extent possible, we will try and emulate this rule, either through save game modification, or something similar.

Limited Carrier Planes - Carrier airplanes can only fly rebase missions when they are not on a carrier.

Modified Victory Conditions (still under discussion) - As we did not bid for powers, I've proposed using an alternate victory condition, based on the World in Flames Historical variant, as outlined here: http://www.devinlc.com/wifh.htm, slightly tweaked as we can not easily use the rest of WiF:H. In summary, the Axis gains victory points for holding specific objective cities on the map for a specific number of turns. The Allies on the other hand gain victory by ending the war, either by surrender of all three Axis powers, or gaining an automatic victory as defined by the RAC, and gain a number of VP based on the year the war ends.

This discourages a sit-and-wait strategy by the Axis player, and forces the Allies to be much more proactive on giving up parts of the map, keeping Japan much more active in seizing objectives, and having the Axis players play more towards the ideological lines they followed (expansion, expansion, expansion). It's admittedly an experiment, but IMHO, provides a much more interesting win condition than the standard RAW continues. We will extend the game length as needed as this option can be changed after the start of the game.

How We Are Playing
We're using TeamViewer with a single copy of MWiF hosted on Amazon EC2; this system runs 24/7 to allow async play. We also have a private forum for discussing stuff, and posting standing orders and such.

[warspite1]

Subscribed [:)]

[NCommander]

Setup Phase - Lend Lease

As the game begins, the first decision for Lend Leasing aircraft comes up. Dylan asked me to do US setup, and trusted my judgment on setting up the USA in the interest of time.



Land lease is slightly wonky in MWIF. Officially according to the RAW, a player may request an aircraft from the lend lease pool, and then the controller of that aircraft approves or rejects it, moving the unit from their force pool out, and the lend-leased unit into the other parties force pool. In MWIF, this happens as a single step, with no confirmation.

With Dylan's permission, the CW requests and gets the Tomahawk and Boston I. Mao wants that LND4, but Stalin feels he'l need the transport ability and denies the request, noting that in addition, the Chinese can't even build aircraft at the moment!

[NCommander]

Setup Phase - USA

In the grand scheme of things, the United States setup doesn't matter much, as they have multiple years to fix it. None the less, there are some interesting things to note.

(note, due to a screwup, I had to do USA setup twice, and got my screenshots intermixed. As the game is locked on the Italy Scrap Units screen, I can't be 100% what I'm posting is correct, but its more or less how the US is setup ATM).

Also, forgot to take a picture of scrap screen itself, so here's a picture of the initial scrap pool (I chose not to scrap any TRS or AMP, though the 2 movement TRS popped in the initial mix, though its still useful for reorging).

[NCommander]

USA Setup - Part 2

A string of convoys stretches to the Sea of Japan to meet the requirements of the trade agreement. Although the US can only save one oil a turn, three convoys are placed in the Pacific to transport oil resources fro Venezuela, and a small chain is connected to the Gulf of Alaska to allow transportation of the oil from Fairbanks.

[NCommander]

USA Setup - Part 3

The oil is saved in Washington DC for a rainy day. Setup passes to the USSR.

[NCommander]

USSR Setup

(sorry for the lack of screenshots, I didn't realize the game essentially locks up while the scrap unit page is up, I'll try and describe the setup of the Russians and post screenshots later)


The Soviets, working on getting the best units they possibly can scrap the worst fighter and their worst transport. A convoy goes in the Caspian sea to ensure supply for the area, while another goes in the Baltic, and a final one goes into the Arctic Ocean.



The Red Army re-inforces Leningrad, and significant forces deploy on the Russian-Romanian border. Meanwhile, in Asia, Vladivostok is garrisoned to the teeth to discourage any interference from Tojo, and an army sits on the border with Persia, their intentions unclear.

[AllenK]

Congratulations on getting this off the ground. Looking forward to following how it develops.

[NCommander]

US Setup - Entry Pools

I couldn't take a screenshot before without giving away the chit values. Here's the initial setup of the US entry pool.

[NCommander]

USSR - Convoy Setup

A look at how the USSR is deployed

[NCommander]

USSR - Eastern Deployment

The Romanians should be worried.

[NCommander]

USSR - Persian Border

Freshly redeployed from the Japanese border, a strikeforce waits for orders from Moscow.

[NCommander]

USSR - Japanese Frontier

Finally, at the far end of the Russian Far East, garrisons defend a vital port.

[NCommander]

Setup - Italy Scrap

The Italians scrap their worse air units

[NCommander]

Italy - Setup

The Italians setup the bulk of their forces on the border with France, as well as deploy their African forces to the border with Eygpt

[NCommander]

Italy - Libya Setup

The Italy CP (not pictured) is in the Italian Sea Zone

[NCommander]

Nationaois China - Seutp

China scraps no units, and deploys forward (I did the setup for China out of habit but our US player was fine with it, the idiotically of this setup can be blamed on me and me alone!)

[NCommander]

Communist China - Setup

Likewise, the communists deploy in a forward matter.

[NCommander]

CW - Setup

NOTE: some of these screenshots are from turn 1, vs the setup phase, but are more or less accurate.

After much swearing, the Commonwealth gets their CPs deployed, and their factories running at full tilt, with even allowing some oil to be spared!.