IN-COW Leaked Report on WW II.

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First Installment from an unnamed source.

INTRODUCTION
My name is Julien Christen. I am head of the INTERNATIONAL NONBELLIGERENT COLLEGE OF WAR, which has affectional become known over these past two decades as IN-COW for short. Our mission is the study of wars past and present. In these studies, we focus on the military aspect of waring nations and make no judgement to their governments or to their judicial, civil or economic policies enforced. While our focus is military we do consider attrition of industry and resources through strategic means.
Our member list is diverse and include men, and even some women, from all civilized nations on earth. Our complete member list is known to no one and is a secret that is valued and guarded above all. Otherwise, a report as this would not be possible as we have unfiltered and unbiased access to any relevant military detail from all belligerent and non-belligerent nations involved. This gives you, the lucky reader, the complete picture of the subject war, free of propaganda from any and all nations.
The subject war of this report is, of course, the global war currently raging and known as the Second World War, or World War II. At this point our members wish me to express that in no way was our comprehensive report on the Great War, now known as World War I, responsible for the military doctrines adapted by the axis powers, especially German and Japan, and used so effectively to date. Our members would also like me to strongly deny that this same said report on the Great War in no way influenced the appeasement or isolationist policies adapted by allied powers prior to their involvement in this current world war.
The information cut-off date for this report is August 31, 1943. With a generally accepted date as September 1, 1939 for the start of WW II, this report details the global military situation of all nations involved after four years of world war. The report you are about to read, while assembled by me, and typed by my trusty secretary Eva Hug, is the result of a collaborative effort of members, most if not all unknown to me personally, from all belligerent and may nonbelligerent nations involved. Discretion on you part regarding the dissemination, or lack thereof, of information or conclusions contained in this report is vital to the continue mission of this college and, most significantly, to the health and well-being of our contributing members. I also make this appeal for discretion on a personal basis after the (suspicious) death of our previous head, Viktor Berg and his lovely secretary, Elsa Hansson, in a sleigh riding accident. While I have been personally assured by the investigating authorities that these two deaths we indeed an accident, I still hold to my personal suspicious that this was not the case. Worse still was my uncomfortableness in informing Viktor’s widow, Vera Lind Berg, of his death in the company of his lovely and unmarried secretary, Eva Hug.

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ROAD TO WAR

This section pulls for the highly acclaimed and widely circulated treatise, “Road to World Word War 2”, written by our late member and former head Viktor Berg. My personal opinion was that the public release and wide dissemination of this treatise in September 1939 was what lead to the deaths of Viktor and his secretary Eva. In fairness this claim has been strongly disputed by the investigating authorities, but I still hold strongly to my convictions on this.

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Japanese Militarism of the 30's.

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Italian Aggression in Africa. The Spanish Civil War.

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Germany's Re-militarization and annexation of Austria.

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Appeasement.

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Germany's occupation of all of Czechoslovakia.

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Britain's and France's Pledge to Poland.

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Italy Invades Albania.

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The Pact of Steel.

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Nazi-Soviet Pact.

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Germany's Invasion of Poland.

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Britain's and France's Declaration of War.

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The Options.

Discussion/Negotiation on selected options.

1. Cruisers in Flames - NO. As a fan of the naval portion of MWiF, I really want to play with the extra ships this option provides; however I fell this option unfairly tilts the Battle of the Atlantic too much in the allies favor.

2. Supply Units - YES. I have limited experience with this rule and how to make use of supply units but like everything else no better time than now to learn how to use them.

3. Railway Movement Bonus - YES. I've played games both with and without this option. I just like how the game plays with it.

4. Unlimited Breakdown - NO. I do like this option for island warfare in the Pacific, however, I feel this rule grossly changes how MWiF plays especially with respect to making invasions too easy, transport of troops (assuming SCS transport) too easy and land combat losses too light. In summary, I feel this rule impacts the play of MWiF more much more negatively than it helps.

5. Limited Overseas Supply - YES. Again, I really like the naval aspect of MWiF and I like how this rule makes naval just that much more critical especially in the Pacific and the Med (i.e., North Africa).

6. Emergency HQ Supply - NO. I see that a majority of players use this rule, however, in the two or three games that I've played with it I've have never once make use of it. Truthfully, this rule confuses me and I'd rather just not play with it.

7. Variable Reorg Cost - NO. I just don't like this rule, especially as the axis. They have a hard enough time with oil and don't need the extra burden that this rule imposes.

8. Food in Flames - NO. I like the concept of this rule, but giving the CW up to 3 BP's per turn of extra production just doesn't seem fair.

9. Chinese Attack Weakness - YES. I feel this rule is a must from both a historical and game perspective basis. Without it I feel the already heavy burden for Japan becomes too much.

House Rules.

10. "Playing it down." For those familiar with golf this is a term that the weekend hackers use to say that you play your ball as it lies. That is, no "minor adjustments" to improve your lie. In MWiF terms I'm using this phrase to say once you click you're stuck with your decision. That is, no do-overs after you click with three specific, but important exceptions. The exceptions are program crashes, data file corruptions or game bugs where rules are incorrectly applied.

11. "Wargaming" allowed. Wargaming is where you save the game file to a temporary file (e.g., wargaming.GAM, temp.GAM, scratch.GAM). Once saved you're allowed to do anything you want but the temporary game file can NEVER be saved back to the original game file. To "officially" continue the game you have to go back to the original game file and play from there. The temporary game file can be considered a testbed for one to examine and assess strategies, odds and other such things.

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Available Optional Rules - NOT USED.

1. Construction Engineers.

2. Cruisers in Flames.

3. HQ movement.

4. Unlimited Breakdown.

5. Carpet Bombing.

6. Emergency HQ Supply.

7. Variable Reorganization Costs.

8. Food in Flames.

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Scrapped.

The first causality of playing it down is the CW. They were a bit overzealous in their scrapping and was short a 2-cost air unit during setup. The temptation was to go back and redo their scrapping, but once you click it's done. The CW loses out on one 2-cost air unit.

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Introduction.

As WW-II primarily came about from the global ambitious and aggression of the axis powers, so it's from this perspective that we start this AAR.

Japan.

Japan's been at war for nearly 8-years now when they invaded Manchuria on September 18, 1931. They've been at war with China for over 2-years when they invaded on July 7, 1937. Japan's objectives at the start of our conflict are to max out their war production, build up their oil stockpiles and stay out of war with the USSR and USA.

Japan has divided their ground forces into there army groups: (1) Army Group North China, (2) Army Group Central China and (3) Army Group Japan.

(1) Army Group North China, commanded by General Umeza.
(a) Composition: Inf HQ, 3 Inf armies, Inf MIL army, Inf Div, AA Div, AT Div, Warlord army.
(b) Objectives:
(i) Secure Northern China
(ii) Secure RP [68,141] to factory
(iii) Secure RP [73,143] to factory.
(iv) Capture Sian and secure RP to factory (4 to 6 months).
(c) Near term reinforcements: Calvary corps currently in Manchuria.

(2) Army Group Central China, commanded by General Terauchi (currently in Manchuria).
(a) Composition: Inf HQ, Mot army, Mil army, 2 Inf armies, Kor Mil, 2 Gar armies, Warlord army.
(b) Objectives:
(i) Secure Central China
(ii) Secure RP[77,148] to factory
(iii) Secure Kaifang
(iv) Capture RP[86,142] and secure to factory (4 to 6 months).

(3) Army Group Japan, commanded by Admiral Yamamoto.
(a) Composition: Inf HQ, 2 marine corps, inf army, Eng Div, Arty Div, Mil army, 2 Man Terr corps, Gar army.
(b) Objectives:
(i) Secure Manchuria and Korea
(ii) Deter USSR
(iii) Secure RP [68, 151] to factory
(iv) Secure RP [57,153] to factory
(v) Secure RP [67,145] to factory
(vi) Secure RP [71,154] to factory
(vii) Provide Reinforcements to North and Central China Army Groups as possible.

Recap.
Army Group North China commanded by General Umeza is responsible for the security of 2 RPs and has the mission to capture one more in 4 to 6 months. Army Group Central China commanded by General Terauchi is responsible for the security of 1 RPs and has the mission to capture one more in 4 to 6 months. Admiral Yamamoto is responsible for the security of 4 RPs. With the security of 7 RPs, the capture of 2 additional RPs and the building of a Synth oil facility in Japan, Japan would achieve full production, however this would leave no oil for replenishment of any oil consumed. Japan starts with 4 saved oil. Oil conservationist is paramount for Japan if they wish to achieve full production.

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Manchuria.

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Japan and Korea.

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Northern and Central China.