TAIFUN (Axis) vs Calcwerc (allies) Full game 1939

[Taifun]

I am starting a new AAR resuming our current ELO tournament game, me as TAIFUN playing the villain Axis invaders versus Calcwerc playing the honorable Allies. As I did before in WiE this AAR will lag behind the current turn about 10-18 months, so now that we are currently in Spring 1942 I will start with a resume of the first year of our World War.
As I write this lines I am ranked as Nº2 at the WiE ELO tournament managed by Markiss behind “the King” Fafnir so I am quite experienced with SC. This is my second game in WAW and I will comment my strategies and the main differences and surprises that I found compared with WiE.

The firsts thing that you need to do when you change form one game to the other is to get used to the time/space scales. This is difficult. After playing for many years at a European scale the change to a World Scale is scary at first. I found out in my first game that the turns are monthly based vs WiE were the summer turns are shorter, 15 days long, so you have less turns in the summer to launch your offensives. The land units in WAW move the same amount of hexes as in WiE so they can move “faster” as the map scale is smaller and this have various serious consequences. As a German player it is much easier to move your units from the East to the West front…

[Taifun]

September 1939
Luxembourg is invited to join the German Reich by our friendly infantry troops.

The 2 available Luftwaffe Tactical Bomber Wings will not take part in the Polish attack and instead I moved them towards the West Front along with the fighter plane wings.
The 3rd Panzerkorps near Danzig was also earmarked for the initial attack in the West so after being engaged briefly in the Polish campaign they move West along with von Rundstedt HQ. As well, other German Armies end the turn in railroads hexes to be operationally transported to the West next turn.

[Taifun]

October 1939
Warsaw is captured by the 4th Panzerkorps with the help of the Luftwaffe Bomber Wing and Poland surrenders at the end of the turn.
In the West Front, after the capture of Luxembourg by our joyful troops, the French unexpectedly left the area South of the Ardennes free of troops and we occupied those 2 key hexes without a fight. At the same time 4 Armies and the 3rd Panzerkorps end the turn in position near the Belgium border to attack next turn.

[Taifun]

November 1939
After a brief fight Brussels is captured and Belgium surrenders at the end of the turn. Our attack in the West looks very promising as we advance to within 1 hex from Paris! The lone British infantry corps defending Amiens looks hardly intimidating.

[Taifun]

January 1940
The Allied main line of defense is tested by our forward troops but we are unable to advance due to bad weather conditions. Worst still, a German Army is destroyed near Paris in a well executed Allied counterattack.

[Taifun]

February 1940
We reach the outskirts of Paris from the North with an Infantry corps. We are slowly upgrading our troops for the Spring offensive but there are not many MPPs available as Research is our main priority. The BEF Army is stationed at Le Havre and no British AA troops or planes are detected in France. It looks like the British will not make a big effort to help their French comrades … I personally like to ship to the continent 2-3 British AA units to make life harder for the German invader. They are great in land/air defense specially if positioned in marsh areas.

[Taifun]

March 1940
Our Infantry corp near Paris is destroyed in another well lead Allied counterattack. We start to push South between Chalons and Nancy, the idea being to attack the French Capital from the Southeast and isolate the Maginot line from the rest of the country with the help of Fallschirmjager paratroops. Additional German troops arrive, the most important unit being the fully upgraded Panzerkorps near Dusseldorf. One of our 6 rated HQs is now upgraded to von Manstein's HQ rated 9 to take control of the main punch. Many of our infantry units are still not upgraded to level 1 and the Luftwaffe tactical bombers are also not upgraded due to lack of MPPs.

[Taifun]

April 1940
A Fallschirmjager para unit jumps and takes control of Dijon, isolating the Maginot line and 5 French infantry units from the main fighting. The British defending Amiens are surrounded to be destroyed next turn in low supply. The road to Paris is now open…

[Taifun]

May 1940
Coming from the Southeast our 2 Panzerkorps destroy the 2 French HQs stationed adjacent to Paris. I like to position my HQs further back not in such exposed positions…
The BEF Army is isolated at Le Havre and Caen is captured.

[Taifun]

June 1940
The BEF infantry defending Le Havre left the continent during the Allied turn, surely being missed by many French girls of dubious reputation…
Paris was captured with few losses and France will surrender next turn. The Vichy government will be installed in place and the country divided in two. Unfortunately for the Allied player the French special forces and Heavy tank arrived too late and could not be used effectively.

It is clear to me now that an early attack during the fall 1939 is a better strategy for the Axis players than to wait to be fully ready Spring 1940. We took some losses during this campaign including an infantry corps and an Army but very few planes were lost mainly because of lack of air opposition and British AA units. My opponent did a good job holding the line with the few troops available to him.

As a resumé so far:

• The USSR invaded Finland winter 1939 but the Allies arrived in time to help the Finns. Finland moved away from the German sphere of influence…
• Norway was invaded per scrip spring 1940 but Denmark remained neutral as did the Netherlands…

[Taifun]

July-September 1940
During these 3 turns a series of air-battles took place over the British mainland. Having no intention to invade the main Island we made several fighter sweeps that were intercepted by the RAF and exchanged heavy blows. After this preliminary work we attacked the port of Bristol in force, where an aircraft carrier was stationed, with 2 upgraded medium bomber wings but failed to sink this ship. Then with the arrival of the bad weather all was over and we left the hostile British skies forever…

[fluidwill]

Great stuff, thanks!

[Taifun]

Mediterranean Area 1939-1940
As Axis our strategy in the South will be one of containment. We will not fight for Libya and will reinforce Abyssinia. As other players have stated before I do not think that Germany should be involved in a fight in North Africa as they need every MPP for the real war against the USSR. Italy entered the War much earlier than I expected very early 1940.
The whole French Navy was looking for a fight and attacked several of our ports in the Italian mainland in a series of search and destroy missions… they got what they where looking for and lost 1 BB, 1 CL and 2 destroyers in futile attacks against our main BBs in well defended ports. But then the Royal Navy arrived in force April-May 1940 with 3 carriers and support ships… in a series of sustained attacks they managed to sink 2 BBs, 1 CL and 1 DD plus very severe damage to the remaining Italian BB (1 point left and miraculously escaped destruction). The British embarked air wings took some heavy damage and left the area 2-5 strength...

[Taifun]

Tobruk being left defended by a weak Garrison unit fell easily as did Benghazi August 1940. Tripoli was left alone for a time but eventually was equally occupied after a short fight, the damaged defending Italian Army escaping miraculously to continue the fight in the mainland…

[Taifun]

Meanwhile, as stated before, Abyssinia was reinforced with an Army and an additional Infantry corps from Italy (that moved on the first turn before the Allies blocked the Strait of Gibraltar). A medium bomber wing followed by a fighter wing will arrive afterwards. Our strategy will be one of delaying the fall of our Colonies: to make the allies spent units and MMPs in a growing effort to occupy the area.

[Taifun]

Initially the Allies attacked in the summer 1940 coming from Kenya with the South Africans towards Mogadishu but were unable to take the town. At the same time they move an Infantry corps from Egypt supported by an Indian HQ to hold Berbera in British Somaliland.
By the end of the year additional forces were engaged by the Allies in an effort to stretch our forces to the limit.
While Massawa was being assailed in the North a Kenyan Garrison approaching towards Bonga from the South was nearly destroyed by our defending forces. Indian Heavy artillery arrived near Berbera to start pounding our defending Army in the mountain pass…

[Taifun]

February 1941
For many months the Italian Air Force enjoyed air superiority bombing ships and troops at will (heavily damaging an Australian CA). More good news arrived from the Southern area.
An Italian infantry corps pushing South from Addis Ababa after destroying the Kenyan Garrison captured an undefended Nairobi and the whole of Kenya falled in our hands! We got there just before the South Africans!

[Taifun]

Benito Mussolini flies himself immediately with his own plane to Addis Ababa to congratulate the victorious troops!!! a bunch of medals are distributed among the soldiers and then leaves the area a week later.

[Taifun]

June 1941
As expected the Italians are doing a great job holding the Abyssinian Theatre of Operations and the Allies are compelled to bring serious reinforcements to unlock the situation. A strategic bomber wing together with a tactical bomber wing supported by spitfires arrive from Egypt to Khartoum. They immediately start a serious bombing camping slowly gaining air superiority…

[Taifun]

September 1941
The deteriorating situation forces our retreat from Nairobi as the Infantry corps in needed to reinforce the Northern sector near Massawa. An Indian Army arrived Berbera and begun attacking our entrenched troops near Dire Dawa…