MM (Allied) vs HB (Axis) HB Welcome

[MagicMissile]

The other game in my mirror match with HB.

I have read HBs AAR as he probably read mine. So I know he plays very similar to me generally dont do anything too unexpected just plays solid and skillfully. I have no tricks as the allies really the only thing I will try to do if things play out as normal is when the time comes I will try to stop the invasion of Vichy North Africa. I know HB likes to take out Vichy France early.

Good Luck Harry!

/MM

[MagicMissile]

Allied tech.

Nothing too strange I think. If any Stratbombing is to be done the US will do it. With the Soviets I am thinking maybe go with escort fighters the range on a long front could be nice but I dont know we will see [:)].

[MagicMissile]

September 1 1939

War begins. It is a very strong opening with 2 arm units in Poland. Poland will fall easily next turn. Lyon bombed women and children killed but also 4 hits scored. The subs sank 2 merchants.

[MagicMissile]

September 15 1939

Poland and Denmark surrenders. Copenhagen is taken with just infantry and no invasion. After all these hours of playing I still dont understand how that is done [:)].

BoA starts with a bang against 12 escorts 7 MM sinks but I inflict 2 hits on 1 sub so maybe not a horrible trade I dont know.

In France I start to exchange all infantry in the Maginotline I withdraw the Anti tank units and put the assault tech inf there. Plan to only have anti tank on the main front vs the Germans.

[MagicMissile]

September 29 1939

BoA losing 2 MM and 1 escort. HB stayed at sea with the damaged sub.

In France continued to exchange units in the Maginot line but now realise it wont matter much as anti tank and assault gain same thing with 40 tech and I doubt very much that France will see 1941 tech but ah well lets do it anyway [:)].

France build inf corps. UK and Canada escorts and shipyards US build shipyards. Plan to build 10 each for UK and US maybe 20 for the US.

Not sure if the bug havent been fixed or if it is back but I cant fly my UK bomber in Egypt to Cyprus. Anyone know why? Always worked before.

[Nirosi]

After all these hours of playing I still dont understand how that is done .

Hint: it has to do with detaching a division.[:)]

[ncc1701e]

ORIGINAL: MagicMissile

Not sure if the bug havent been fixed or if it is back but I cant fly my UK bomber in Egypt to Cyprus. Anyone know why? Always worked before.

Clearly a bug since this is an urban port.

[MagicMissile]

I know it must have something to do with that. I thought you could not detach with 0 ops left but now I see you can but even when blocking with a division one of the 3 possible detach hexes. It wont detach a divison into copenhagen it says not allowed so still stumped so silly .

[MagicMissile]

Ok Ill report it.

[Nirosi]

I thought you could not detach with 0 ops left but now I see you can but even when blocking with a division one of the 3 possible detach hexes. It wont detach a division into Copenhagen it says not allowed so still stumped so silly .

I believe (IIRC) you can not detach into an enemy hex. So (I go by blind memory here so maybe a small mistake), you move one hex (to capture the forward hex into Denmark) and then detach a division forcing it forward. The corps can then continue to attack and after that the division moves to occupy.

Can seem strange, but frankly it probably helps to reproduce the almost immediate surrender of Denmark.

[MagicMissile]

Thank you Nirosi I finally solved it, yay [:)].

You detach not at Copenhagen but earlier easy when you know but eluded me a long time. Ok sad for Poland who will now face 2 arm corps in the future wars.

[MagicMissile]

October 13 1939

To protect the people of Luxemburg I put it under French protection.

Lose 1 MM

The British gets an extra tech point.

Otherwise not much happening.

[MagicMissile]

End of 39

1939 comes to an end. Nothing going on except in the Atlantic.

On the tech side British escorts do ok at 178 days left until 1940 tech but the ones doing best is the Soviet airforce both interceptors and groundsupport at 145 days.

I feel I make small mistakes. For example I am flopping like a fish on land. First I did not plan to build a British arm corps but now I have changed my mind and I built one but it wont be ready for the fight in France. Not so good [:)].

Also not sure of the French or the Soviet defense.

When it comes to the French I think I will just build max infantry and put most or all in garrison mode then have 3-4 British corps for the occasional counterattack see how that will work out.

With the Soviets I have begun by building the 3 arm corps that I always build but I seriously consider disbanding at least the 2 and 3 strength mech corps they seem pretty useless nowadays (I guess they always were but even more so now) and maybe even some airunits and build more arm corps than I normally do.

[ncc1701e]

I am interested to read your feedback on French defense with the new garrison rule.

Thanks

[MagicMissile]

End of March 1940

The showdown in the west is approaching. Weather clears and Germany stomps The Netherlands. RAF contested but lost 20-8 so not a very promising start [:)]. Also out of touch with the rules a bit. It thought declaration of war on Belgium or The Netherlands meant the other country joined the allies nowadays but I must have dreamt that or something. Good to know for my Germans.

UK got their first tech advancements Assault and Ground support and interceptors. France havent got any.

In the Atlantic another mistake I let the convoy with oil to France last too long so the German subs got a double shot with most escorts in the North Atlantic so lost 9 convoys this turn.

[ncc1701e]

ORIGINAL: MagicMissile

The showdown in the west is approaching. Weather clears and Germany stomps The Netherlands. RAF contested but lost 20-8 so not a very promising start [:)]. Also out of touch with the rules a bit. It thought declaration of war on Belgium or The Netherlands meant the other country joined the allies nowadays but I must have dreamt that or something. Good to know for my Germans.

Rules have changed:

Belgium (Neutral) - Will join the Allies if Netherlands or Luxembourg is invaded by any Axis country and Luxembourg has not joined the Axis powers.

So here, since France has invaded Luxembourg as you said in October 1939. Belgium is neutral.

[sveint]

Just a note, I now absolutely love Allied defenses like this when playing the Axis. In my last two Axis games I've easily taken Plymouth, all I need is Calais first.

I think all 9-size UK ports need at least a small corps, except maybe London.

[MagicMissile]

Thank you. Maybe not worth take Luxemburg as the allies after all. I just copied HB when he took it [:)].

[MagicMissile]

Not having any unit there was a mistake. I play too fast [:)]. But unless you build some more landing ships I dont think a German div will move a UK div? Also there should be some more forces in UK when Calais falls.

But I am really not used to the much weaker UK this is how they were when the game was released and Sealions were very common.

I guess I need to be more careful next game [:)]. Well its not too late maybe HB is planning something.

[MagicMissile]

May 1940

Was a bit lucky and got some rain on the first turn of May so the Axis offensive is delayed a bit but on the second turn of May Belgium and Luxemburg falls.

Looking at casualties the Luftwaffe is doing too good. In the Atlantic I am fairly happy. Lost a lot of MM but on the 2nd turn of April I scored 6 hits on 3 subs suffering 13 MM losses but the action was far south in the South Atlantic so it took 2 turns for the Subs to limp home then I think 2 turns at least of repairs and then 1 turn back out to sea again so won some time there.

I might have overbought on the escorts and underbought (is that a word ) the land forces need to calibrate that next time.

France did get the infantry tech in place so most units might have 1940 tech after all. Might not matter much but still, Uk also got 41 fighters and 40 assault also convoy escort tech 40 was reached in April.