Redrum68 (Axis) vs Lascar (Allies) - Lascar Welcome

[redrum68]

Hey all. Lascar and I have decided to switch sides so he can give a strong France defense a try. This will be my first PBEM game as Axis so we'll see what I can do. This will primarily be an informational AAR where hopefully other newer players that are looking to get into PBEM can use to make that journey a bit easier. All tips and comments are welcome!

[redrum68]

Sept 1, 1939

The invasion of Poland begins...

The Germans are able to capture 2 of the 4 cities (Poznan and Lodz) while looking to setup to take Warsaw and Krakow next turn. I think it was a decent opening and mostly tried to do something similar to what Lascar did last game. I also move a few units towards Denmark to try to take them out next turn as well.

[redrum68]

Sept 15, 1939

The Germans surge forward to capture Warsaw and Krakow and Poland surrenders.

I also DoW Denmark and use to infantry corps to attack their 2 units then use an amphib division to capture Copenhagen leading the their surrender.

[redrum68]

Casualties

I think the Germans experienced about average casualties in the first 2 turns compared to other AARs so pretty happy with the start.

[redrum68]

Sept 29, 1939

Great start to the BoA with the 2 German subs sinking 3 MM and 2 escorts! Seems to provide more evidence that having less than 10 escorts in a convoy line with 1939 tech is pretty risky.

[redrum68]

Oct 13, 1939

Now the the preparation for Fall Gelb begins! The Germans will look to focus most production on panzers and mech corps to maximize the blitzkrieg potential. The goal is to produce as many as possible by the April/May timeline which is when the invasion is likely to begin. The good news is if the invasion of France succeeds these units will also be essential for Barbarossa.

[redrum68]

Mar 1, 1940

After a long winter with no action besides the BoA, the Royal Navy appears off the coast of Denmark and uses its CVs to bomb our ports where the main German fleet is. They successfully sink the Admiral Hipper CA Group and cause minor damage to the Scharnhorst BC Group!

[redrum68]

Counterattack

This was unexpected but the Luftwaffe quickly rebases as many planes as possible towards Denmark to counter attack the Royal Navy CVs and after several bombing runs successfully sinks the Ark Royal CV! Overall, I think this is a good trade for the Germans as CVs are very powerful and take a lot of production/time to replace. I don't have much naval combat experience so I'm not sure if this is about an average result given the various attacks from both sides or if one side got lucky.

[redrum68]

May 10, 1940

The Germans eagerly await clear weather in late April or early May but Mother Nature doesn't cooperate and Fall Gelb is again delayed. There is much anxiety in high command as more and more Allied corps appear in France with every week that passes...

[redrum68]

May 24, 1940 - Battle of France Begins!

The weather finally clears and the panzers surge forward into Belgium and Luxembourg. Luxembourg immediately surrenders but a Belgian infantry corp holds in Brussels after multiple attacks. This is a disastrous result as the Germans were hoping to force Belgium to surrender with this initial blitzkrieg to prevent the British from reinforcing them. This casts a shadow of doubt across high command on whether the invasion of France will succeed or if they should seek favor peace terms if they still can...

[redrum68]

Research Progress

Here are the current research levels for the Germans and I think its pretty close to standard. Heavy Armor was a bit slow but got it just in time.

[redrum68]

Casualties

Here are the total casualties so far after the initial blitzkrieg into Belgium. France and UK appear to have most of their fighters activated and the Germans trade around 2 to 1 in air losses this turn which I think is average for most games. The naval losses are the UK CV, the German CA, and German sub hits in the BoA. The Allies have lost 55 MM and 7 escorts so far in the BoA which I think is probably around average. If we can conquer France this could become an issue for the UK since its believed they are spending most of the production on land units.

[Nirosi]

There seem to be three less UK corps than in the inverted game. Also the British seem to hug to coast and stay close to ports. He might only moderately help France. Still quite a few British, but manageable I would say for now.

[redrum68]

Yeah, he appears to be focusing more on a strong defense of Lille and having all the UK units there will allow him to push forward to defend Brussels. In the last game, I put most of the UK units behind the initial French lines in hopes to wait til the German units were worn out and focus on holding Paris as long as possible. He does appear to have less quantity of UK units though still considerable but could be that he went for higher quality like some mech corps.

[redrum68]

June 7, 1940

The British advance into Belgium and fortify Brussels with an infantry corps as expected. But the Germans are able to capture Brussels to force Belgium's surrender and push forward into France a bit. But another slow turn of advance and the Germans are looking at quite a wall of Allied units. We can also see that there is at least 1 British mech corps in France so need to be on the look out for counterattacks.

[redrum68]

June 21, 1940

Finally a decent turn for the Germans as there was enough space to surge a good portion of their units forward and push back a handful of Allied units. Looks like the British will be used to fortify Lille and form a line behind the Somme. For now the German plan is to primarily avoid these areas and make progress towards Paris against the weaker French units. Then if we are able to flank the British units we'll look to take them out.

[redrum68]

July 5, 1940

The German drive towards Paris continues and again a pretty solid turn pushing another handful of Allied units back. The defenses in front of Paris are starting to look thin against the pretty fresh German infantry that are marched to the front line. We do see at least 2 Allied armor corps so there is a good chance there will be a counterattack soon.

[redrum68]

July 19, 1940

Forgot to take a screenshot of the map but the tide seems to be turning for the Germans! The Allies did try a few counterattacks and shattered a German infantry corps but this left them more exposed. The Germans overrun 3 French infantry and 1 armor corps!

[redrum68]

August 2, 1940

The Germans surge forward and capture Paris! This along with the capture of Lille and Vichy force France to negotiate a surrender. Italy decides to join the Axis after seeing the German success in France!

[redrum68]

August 16, 1940

The Germans pursue the remaining British units destroying a corps in Cherbourg and forcing the rest to flee France.