Burns vs. Flaviusx

[Jim D Burns]

With our patch troubles hopefully finally worked out we are again restarting our game. Hopefully third times a charm.

My opponent left me fewer options in Poland this time, so all I could do was try and circle the wagons at Warsaw. Two air strikes on his lead armor were ineffectual so I suspect Poland will fall next turn for sure.

He again moved his subs northwest of England but this time only one of my carriers could get into attack range. His subs attacked my group as it moved in and the subs suffered 2 damage for their trouble. The carrier attack and the strategic bomber attack both failed to locate the subs.

[Jim D Burns]

Poland falls and Germany declares war on Denmark. All Danish units are eliminated but Copenhagen wasn't occupied. I was sorely tempted to bring in a British Corp, but this isn't the AI and I doubt the unit would have survived more than perhaps for a single turn at best.

More sub action this turn and one of my CV's trades damage with the sub it approached at two each (I think, damage was traded but not sure on numbers as I type this). The Patch has seen a large increase in convoy attacks and damage so I see the CV damage as a necessary thing until more escorts can be built. Right now CV's are all I have to try and stop his subs.

[Jim D Burns]

Denmark Surrenders and Germany declares on Netherlands and Luxembourg. Both nations surrender by the end of the turn and Germany is now poised to strike into Belgium and France.

I've got a solid line, but my only real hope is bad weather reducing his attacks enough to allow for France to build some more defenders to replace any front line losses.

Germany's subs were seen headed back to port and I tried an attack on one along the Danish coast with a DD to no effect. Hopefully the small fleet will be impossible for the kriegsmarine or Luftfwaffe to locate as its currently raining in the North Sea.

[Jim D Burns]

Quiet turn this turn, no events listed in the combat log. A quick perusal of the map shows Italy's intentions for when it enters the conflict.

[Jim D Burns]

Another quiet turn. Germany's forces along the Belgian border certainly look imposing.

[Jim D Burns]

December 8th 1939

Skipped ahead a bit since last update as nothing of note happened for several turns.

This turn Germany declares war on Belgium. The good news is even though multiple battles were lost only a single unit was shattered and most of the Belgian army sticks around to fight another turn. I put everyone in garrison mode to dump as many build points into the pool as possible and set the infantry corp in Brussels to increased replacements to try and get as much strength as possible into the unit for next turns battles.

I've got two lines of French defenders now, so I'm comfortable the upcoming fight in France won't be a pushover. At least not until the weather changes.

I've been using the French navy to dissuade the Germans from declaring war on Norway. This turn saw multiple hits on the French fleet by the luftwaffe. Looks like my opponent is getting impatient with the delays. From what I can tell he has at least 2 bombers dedicated to naval missions near Oslo, so that should help the Defense in France a bit.

[Jim D Burns]

22 December 39

Antwerp falls along with the hex southeast of Brussels. Looks like next turn will see the end in Belgium.

With the French navy requiring refueling, I sent both the French and British subs to try and keep Norway neutral. Hopefully they can interdict any attempted landings.

[AlbertN]

If I may - to 'garrison' up the whole of the French line surrenders initiative to the Germans.
French at the Belgian border, if kept operational, can counterattack any too bold German unit trying to infiltrate or press in, or any exhausted unit after too many attacks (or attacks that have gone sour) that cannot hop back their own line.

[Jim D Burns]

5 January 1940

The Belgian IV Corps heroically holds out against multiple ground strikes and 4 ground assaults to allow the Belgians one more turn on defense. Most other units were retreated or Destroyed after one or two assaults, but the IV Corps bucks the trend, medals all around for the heroes of the IV Corp.

The French fleet is back prowling the waters off Oslo.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Cohen_slith
If I may - to 'garrison' up the whole of the French line surrenders initiative to the Germans.
French at the Belgian border, if kept operational, can counterattack any too bold German unit trying to infiltrate or press in, or any exhausted unit after too many attacks (or attacks that have gone sour) that cannot hop back their own line.

I do it early to capture the 25% production income they dump back into the pool. Allows a few more builds to arrive on map before the attack. If there is money available now that the fight is starting I will pay to make some units mobile again, but as you can see in the screenshot from 5 Jan., the new arrivals are here and mobile, so I do have a good reserve to punish any adventurous move.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

2 Feburary 1940

Belgium fell last turn with nothing else to report so no post in here for that turn. This turn saw a single hex pushed back along the French border and I figured it's a good time to tally losses so we can see how well the French do after the final collapse.

So far Germany's losses have been pretty low with them suffering less than 1/3rd of the total allied losses on land. Air losses are heavier but not too bad either hovering close to 3:2.

German naval losses are all subs I think and most if not all French naval losses were to German air attacks. So the British have not done too bad in the sub war so far if you just compare them to Germany. Most British naval hits were to DD's or CA's, not great but not as expensive as hits to a capital ship would be, so I'm happy with the naval game so far.

[Jim D Burns]

1 March 1940

Clear weather hits and Germany plows into France capturing Lille and threatening to cut off troops west of the city. I fall back but one unit is still exposed a bit should Germany get another turn of clear weather.

Germany also declares war on Yugoslavia and advances in with an all infantry force. Unfortunately for me I got a phone call while doing my turn and clicked off the infantry unit in the far northwest before moving it after having already set it to garrison status, so looks like I'll lose it instead of adding it to my defense around Belgrade. Ah the vagaries of war, I chalk it up to the old cat on the table problem seen in boardgaming lol.

With such an early push into the Balkans I'm wondering if my opponent intends to go through Turkey. I've read in the forums how vulnerable it is and I doubt Britain can build enough infantry to bolster it much in another few months. I will however be sending as much stuff to the middle east as I can as it looks like he intends to go south.

[Jim D Burns]

29 March 1939

Germany continues his slow methodical march into France. At this rate he'll probably take France by Mid May I think, France simply doesn't have the ability to stop him. And unless he tries a daring deep penetration, no way I can even hurt him that I can see with his across the front slow advance policy.

German infantry closes in on Belgrade and should begin attacks on the perimeter units next turn.

I thought I had hit print screen for an image capture over France, but when I went to paste it into the image editor nothing was in memory, so sorry no screenshot today. Wish we could open our turn after having submitted it so we could go back in for screen caps.

[Jim D Burns]

12 April 1940

With losses mounting and Germany only 3 hexes from Paris, I put everything I could into garrison mode to get as many points as possible dumped back into production to try and flesh out my units as much as possible for the final resistance before total collapse.

Sorry about the fuzzy image, had to reduce quality quite a bit due to forum image size limits, to show a large enough shot to display most of France.

[Jim D Burns]

26 April 1939

Germany pushes ever closer to Paris, grabbing 2 hexes within two hexes of the city. Most French units are switched to hold at all cost orders. I doubt I can hold till June, but if I make it I'll view it as a victory of sorts.

In Yugoslavia Germany pushes back my left flank by a hex. Manpower and production are still holding up OK so I hope to hold for at least two more turns. With just divisions to my North it looks like he intends to wrap around to the south with his strength, next turn may see me shift to the south a bit with my two northern units.

[Jim D Burns]

10 May 1940

Germany now controls two hexes adjacent to Paris, can we hold?

In Yugoslavia I may have inadvertently caused a bug. Instead of leaving my trenches in the north I instead intended to split off two divisions to send south to help defend the southern approaches to Belgrade. Well the game instead split both of the 30 strength Corps into four 15 strength Corps.

At first I was happy with this, but I think it bugged the game. I went in to get a screen grab to show how well production and manpower were doing, and take a look at the production number...

Man I hope this fixes itself after a turn, I think Yugoslavia had about 120+ production saved up to use to get the 200+ manpower into the units. Now the manpower is locked up tight, so no more reinforcements for the Yugoslavians.

Hopefully this is an isolated thing that goes away when Yugoslavia falls and doesn't effect other nations production somehow.

[Flaviusx]

France gets an extra week to live thanks to rain.

Man what a grind this French campaign is. Practically WWI.

No way in hell can Germany take France on time without doing all the cheese I've been doing. This is just keeping me right on schedule, with maybe a bit to spare.

[Michael T]

And no Brits in France. So imagine the extra pain if they were.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Michael T
And no Brits in France. So imagine the extra pain if they were.

Wouldn't make a difference, he pushes me back a hex a turn along about a 2-3 hex front (look at the 5 and 6 strength corp on both flanks, he hasn't touched them). Only difference British would make is they would be dying instead of the French and then they wouldn't be around to help defend after France fell.

Jim

[Flaviusx]

France is not lacking for units here and I think if he put the Brits in there he'd risk them being destroyed. At least given his tactics. Everyone is dug in and giving up their ability to maneuver. I honestly kind of wish the BEF was there so I could smash it. The other problem with the Brits is they come in weak, weaker than the French in fact. By the time he topped off those units I would already be in France proper and they'd be caught out of position. So I think this is a perfectly valid strat as is.

He is certainly making me pay for France. Not more than I can afford, and I am on track to build the army I want, but it's tight.

Next time I am wondering if I should do Belgium first instead of the Netherlands, but it's kind of rough to do it in one clear turn with a single panzer corps.

Alternately, I could rail both panzer korps out of Poland on turn two and go for a 3 turn Polish campaign. With 2 panzers in the west on turn 3 I might be able to do Belgium. Can the infantry polish off the Poles in 2 turns of clear weather? Probably. Going to have to test this out.

You definitely have to take it one step at a time if the French do what Jim is doing here. I could in theory have pushed harder and tried to dislocate his lines more. But that would put something at risk of counterattack on four sides. Nope. Better to grind it out one hexrow. It's safe, and you will get the job done more or less on schedule.