Global War. Angeldust (Axis) vs Ronnie (Allied).

[rkr1958]

AAR Trailer. Turn 7. Sep/Oct 1940. Allied #2. OPERATION DYNAMO.

2/15/22, 1:49 PM - [Allied]: Looks like Operation Dynamo for the Brits. But, I need to do some "wargaming" in China and Manchuria. So, will be tomorrow before I make official moves.
2/15/22, 1:50 PM - [Axis]: That's just fine.
2/15/22, 1:52 PM - [Allied]: The good news for the Soviets in Manchuria is that they definitely drew significant Japanese forces away for China. However; that's the bad news too for the Soviets. They're having to deal with significant Japanese forces in Manchuria.
2/15/22, 1:54 PM - [Axis]: The real good news for Allies is, your DoWs on Japan and Italy did cost you no aditional USE chits. You are on higher USE currently than on average without these DoWs.
2/15/22, 1:55 PM - [Axis]: Maybe you can help me with some Vichy questions.
2/15/22, 1:57 PM - [Axis]: After Allied troops have entered Metropolitan France, Vichy is hostile and Axis units may enter Vichy without FTC. But can Germany still collapse Vichy?
2/15/22, 2:00 PM - [Axis]: <Media omitted>
2/15/22, 2:00 PM - [Allied]: Allied troops have to enter Vichy in Metropolitan France. Entering Metropolitan France that's not Vichy (i.e., occupied France) doesn't make Vichy hostile.
2/15/22, 2:00 PM - [Allied]: No. Partisans will not spawn in Vichy France.
2/15/22, 2:01 PM - [Allied]: Also, ZOC will extend out of Vichy into occupied France, so Vichy can help with keeping partisans from spawning in those hexes.
2/15/22, 2:02 PM - [Axis]: But can Germany still collapse Vichy?
2/15/22, 2:02 PM - [Allied]: If Vichy becomes hostile there's no need, or very little need, for the axis to collapse Vichy.
2/15/22, 2:03 PM - [Allied]: Both Germany and Italy can enter Vichy freely (i.e., no FTC).
2/15/22, 2:03 PM - [Allied]: Though this might be a bug with Italy.
2/15/22, 2:03 PM - [Allied]: MWiF doesn't enforce FTC for Italy if Vichy is hostile to one or more allied powers.
2/15/22, 2:03 PM - [Axis]: Ah, because if Vichy is hostile, it can trade BP and OIL to Germany, right?
2/15/22, 2:04 PM - [Allied]: Even if it's not hostile it can.
2/15/22, 2:04 PM - [Allied]: Trade that is.
2/15/22, 2:04 PM - [Allied]: Not sure about BPs.
2/15/22, 2:04 PM - [Allied]: But I do know that Germany can give Vichy an oil.
2/15/22, 2:04 PM - [Axis]: Even right now? While Vichy is still neutral, it can trade to Germany?
2/15/22, 2:05 PM - [Allied]: I do know that Germany can send an oil to Vichy at this time. I do it all the time if Vichy is left without oil.
2/15/22, 2:05 PM - [Allied]: Because Vichy can only use their own oil to reorg.
2/15/22, 2:07 PM - [Allied]: When I have questions like this I usually "wargame" the situation to see what MWiF will allow me to do. For example, you could wargame the auto saved resource lending file and see.
2/15/22, 2:07 PM - [Axis]: True.
2/15/22, 2:08 PM - [Axis]: How does Vichy switch from "neutral" to "active"?
2/15/22, 2:08 PM - [Allied]: I find this to be one big advantage over the board game.
2/15/22, 2:08 PM - [Allied]: Allied DOW.
2/15/22, 2:09 PM - [Allied]: It becomes hostile if the allies move into or conduct any air or naval mission against Vichy Metropolitan France.
2/15/22, 2:10 PM - [Allied]: If not hostile (e.g., invading/attacking Vichy North Africa), then Vichy units have some chance of defecting and not fighting.
2/15/22, 2:10 PM - [Allied]: If hostile, they don
2/15/22, 2:10 PM - [Allied]: If hostile, they don't.
2/15/22, 2:11 PM - [Allied]: The axis can/will still collapse Vichy if active but not hostile if they move a unit into or through Vichy.
2/15/22, 2:12 PM - [Allied]: Even if hostile, Vichy and German units can never stack together or lend air support to the other.
2/16/22, 2:01 PM - [Allied]: Turn 7. Sep/Oct 1940. Allied #2.
2/16/22, 2:01 PM - [Allied]: No DOWs, no special actions, no alignments.
2/16/22, 2:04 PM - [Allied]: Actions: (1) USSR - land, (2) China - land, (3) CW - naval, (4) USA (neutral) - combined.
2/16/22, 2:14 PM - [Allied]: You have 2 Italian planes in Sicily that are flipped. Is that correct?
2/16/22, 2:16 PM - [Axis]: Yes, 2 LND are flipped
2/16/22, 2:16 PM - [Allied]: Roger.
2/16/22, 2:18 PM - [Allied]: There's been a heck of a lot of discussion at White Hall on the scope of Operation Dynamo. If fact, that discussion is still raging.
2/16/22, 2:22 PM - [Allied]: That discussion even concerns potential CW naval air. Also, "Bomber Harris", who's not part of Dynamo, is also arguing for precious air missions. The Admiralty has agreed to forgo any naval air missions this impulse after all was said, done, discussed, discussed more, said more, done more, etc.
2/16/22, 2:27 PM - [Allied]: Cape St. Vincent. Italian (sub) intercept decision (2 or less required).
2/16/22, 2:27 PM - [Allied]: <Media omitted>
2/16/22, 2:27 PM - [Allied]: RN CV w/CVP, BB, CA & empty TRS moves from Gibraltar into the CSV.
2/16/22, 2:28 PM - [Allied]: Intercept?
2/16/22, 2:28 PM - [Axis]: No
2/16/22, 2:28 PM - [Allied]: Roger.
2/16/22, 2:29 PM - [Allied]: You deleted this message
2/16/22, 2:30 PM - [Allied]: This force stops in the Bay of Biscay. The empty TRS embarks the CW XI Mot corps out of Bayonne. The force moves to the 2-box.
2/16/22, 2:30 PM - [Allied]: Operation Dynamo has begun with the evacuation of the XI Mot corps.
2/16/22, 2:30 PM - [Axis]: The cowards are running, again!
2/16/22, 2:30 PM - [Allied]: <Media omitted>
2/16/22, 2:31 PM - [Allied]: Since they're motorized, they're actually driving away.
2/16/22, 2:32 PM - [Allied]: You deleted this message
2/16/22, 2:32 PM - [Allied]: NED TRS moves from Liverpool into the Bay of Biscay, loads the CW IV Mot corps and joins the other RN ships in the 2-box.
2/16/22, 2:33 PM - [Allied]: <Media omitted>
2/16/22, 2:34 PM - [Allied]: <Media omitted>
2/16/22, 2:35 PM - [Allied]: An empty 4-4 TRS in Liverpool moves directly to Bordeaux, loads the CW VIII Mech corps, leaves and moves back to Liverpool.
2/16/22, 2:36 PM - [Allied]: <Media omitted>
2/16/22, 2:37 PM - [Allied]: A second empty 4-4 TRS in Liverpool moves directly to Bayonne, loads General Alexander's HQ troops, leaves and (also) moves back to Liverpool.
2/16/22, 2:38 PM - [Allied]: General Alexander, his senior staff and the RN captain coordinating the evacuation were the last to leave France.
2/16/22, 2:38 PM - [Axis]: Göring will feel very sad, no targets for his bombers, again!
2/16/22, 2:38 PM - [Axis]: The Führer is not amused ...
2/16/22, 2:38 PM - [Allied]: <Media omitted>
2/16/22, 2:38 PM - [Allied]: Well, except for the flipped RAF fighter unit.
2/16/22, 2:39 PM - [Allied]: Looks like those pilots and aircrews will be spending the rest of the war in a German POW camp.
2/16/22, 2:42 PM - [Allied]: They have orders to burn their planes and any important documents before Herr Goering and his folks can get their hands on them.

[rkr1958]

Angleldust and I have decided to do an AAR on our 2-player game (global war scenario). We at this very moment are on Turn 8, Nov/Dec 1940, allied impulse #3. We have WhatsApp logs and screen caps going back to our AAR "trailer" on Turn 7, Sep/Oct 1940, allied #2. But don't despair we have game logs going back to the start and game file saves for each turn at the preliminary production phase to get you caught up.

We started off with MWIF version 4.2.3.2 then moved to 4.4.1 and finally retrograded back to 3.2.0.0, the rationale/necessity for which will be covered in our logged conversations.

P.S., I would like to add that we will strive to correct any obvious grammatical errors; however, we aren't going out of our way to check and as such our game logs (especially those pulled directly out of WhatsApp) will be narratives from the "heat of the battle" and will no doubt contain such errors. We consider that narrative flavoring and hope you do too.

P.S.S., Note that in our game log we are capturing all of our die rolls (DR), where applicable. Each log entry may have 0, 1 or 2 associated die rolls. DR1=die roll 1 and DR2=die roll 2 and filled in as applicable.

[rkr1958]

Survey of optional rules used vs MWIF advance, standard & novice set. Note that rules crossed out are not yet coded in MWiF and HR = house rule.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. Axis #1.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. Allied #2.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. Axis #3.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. Allied #4.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. Axis #5.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. Allied #7.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. Axis #9.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. End of Turn.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. End of Turn. Preliminary Production Phase. Destroyed, Repair & Scrapped Pools.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. End of Turn. Preliminary Production Phase. Eastern Europe & The Baltic.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. End of Turn. Preliminary Production Phase. Western Europe.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. End of Turn. Preliminary Production Phase. The Med.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. End of Turn. Preliminary Production. Asia.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. End of Turn. Preliminary Production. Malaya.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. Weather & Actions Summary.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. Sep/Oct 1939. Economics.

[Angeldust2]

Ronnie asked me to do a joint AAR on our current mirror game and I agreed. But as he has posted already all important overviews on Turn 1, 39SO, (and for which I am thankful), I will just add some comments to help the casual reader better understand the significance of various events. Be warned, these comments come with hindsight, so potential spoiler alert!
Ronnie's vita in MWIF and on this forum speaks for himself. I am a mere rookie, playing MWIF Global War for the first time. I tried however to play the boardgame WIF in the distant past. First encounter was in the second half of the 80's in the last millennium. We were a group of gamers who enjoyed ADG's Empire in Arms before and were eager to play this monster as well. We used 2nd edition, which still had only generic counters for ships (HS/LS, no individual BB/CA/CL) and planes. We started with 6 players, I was SOV/FRA. I had played Barbarossa once solitaire in order to learn the basic rules and mechanisms. I think, we met 3 times, playing each time for 10-12 hours, but making only very small progress. Instead we had a lot of rules discussions and critical analysis, how this new WIF was more like a Beer'n'Pretzel game like Axis and Allies and not a proper historic simulation ...
Well, I held Paris till the end of 1940 and was happy about it. We did already the force pool additions and the reinforcements for 41JF, but then never met again.
I started a second multiplayer game some years later in the mid 90's with a different group, using WIF 5th edition. We played for one long weekend (3-4 days), I was USA/CHN. We arrived at 41ND, prepared for Pearl Harbor Strike and never met again. I bought Planes in Flames, because the air unit counters looked so beautiful, despite not owning the base game.
In the early 00's I somehow received a copy of Chris Marinacci's CWIF and followed with renewed interest the development of MWIF on the Matrix forum, while playing intensively the original Strategic Command with a friend, who had the same interest for military history in general and WW2 specifically. I never thought at that time it would take us another 15 years to learn MWIF together ...
Yeah, well, about 4 years ago we bought two copies of MWIF and started our journey. Reading the tutorials, watching introductory videos, installing the game and get everything up and running, making ourselves comfortable with the UI and setting up the first scenario took us months. We played Barbarossa Fast Start scenario as a mirror game to learn the basic game mechanics. After that Barbarossa as a mirror game with most of the optional rules. After that Guadalcanal Fast Start and Guadalcanal with our preferred set of optional rules, both times as mirror games. After this experience we wanted to do the half-map scenarios, but unfortunately they are not fully functional yet. So instead we started a mirror game of Decline & Fall scenario with most optionals. We are now coming into 1945 in the rematch.
In December 2021 I asked Ronnie, if he would be interested in playing a Global War mirror game with me, a guy he doesn't know and who has not played GW before. To my surprise he accepted and since then I am trying to keep the game interesting for him, but of course my lack of experience shows on all levels, so please keep this in mind, when you follow our AAR.