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Greetings to all WitW enthusiasts. I have contacted Mr. Liquid Sky and asked if he would be willing to play a 1943-1945 Grand Campaign. He graciously accepted; and also hopes that all will go well for Mr. Bimmler. I also want to state clearly that Mr. Bimmler is canceling our challenge due to a serious personal problem and not loss of interest in the game. I hope in the future other players will be able to play with him, as I also would like too.

I do not know if Mr. Liquid Sky has played a campaign game with the option of "Expanded Allied Air HQ?" Yet he was willing to do this with me so I think that is pretty cool. Most aspects of the air war are the same but following is the difference. In a standard campaign the US has 8 US Air Force along with the 15 US Air Force for strategic bombing missions. UK has RAF Bomber Command. No such limitation with this option. Any air HQ can create them.

There are no UK static divisions in England in this option and I think that is because there are so many new air HQ. This pretty much covers the unique aspects of this option.

One final aspect is the administrative points for the Allies. I wanted to double that so flak can be effectively utilized. Meaning, twenty points instead of ten.

Once again, thank you Mr. Liquid Sky for accepting this Challenge:

To the community; Mr. Liquid Sky is an exceedingly skilled player. You will see him utilize the Luftwaffe in a ways that degrades the Allies. Ground units of the Axis will not fail in holding a line. And finally, and I think most importantly, Germany will destroy Allied Naval capacity. I will of course try to counter but I have no illusions at what faces the Allies. This challenge is going to be hell.

Enjoy and comment often. Mr. Liquid Sky will be doing the same, as this is a combined AAR from both of us.

It took a couple days to set up air but I am now done. At least done enough. I think I got 85% of what I wanted to do so next turn I can continue to setup. It is a tedious process to say the least. And I do hope the program runs without a hiccup. I will probably be a little less forthcoming on what I show until I know Mr. Liquid Sky cannot gain intelligence from his spies on this server. Ha. However, I am my own worst enemy on that.

First picture is of air superiority over Sardinia. I want to stop Italian naval air and fighters from interfering on next weeks invasion.
Second picture shows air superiority over Sicily. Notice how some of the protection box is north of Sicily. That is to prevent Mainland Italy from interfering with next weeks invasion.
The following picture shows ground attacks on the ports of Corsica and Sardinia. This is to reduce logistics for Italian air based on these two Islands. There is a lot to start with and I believe Mr. Liquid Sky will place much more on them. That is, unless he feels logistics are getting strangled too much for the Italian presence there.
Final picture is of potential landing areas on Mainland Italy. There are two sites near Rome and Naples. Both are risky but with the Luftwaffe pushed back from Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily, it is possible. There is also a good landing spot where the mainland meets Sicily. Very doable for the Allies to control. Further east are the prize ports but they are far from Allied air support.

First picture is of Northern Europe. very intense.
Next picture is over Ruhr Germany. Contacts are in about every hex.
There was much activity over Corsica and Sardinia as well.
Waters north of Sicily were active too.
Allies lost 693 while Germany lost 375. A Luftwaffe advantage of 318. I think this is just the beginning of such weeks.

The reason there are no pictures of invasions is because there are no invasions. I changed all six task force locations. Next week they will initiate amphibious operations. In essence, allies loose a week of game time but are able to select better landing sites. At least I think they are better. Mr. Liquid Sky may change my opinion on that. Ha.

I do believe this is nessecary, conducting a radical strategy to ensure control of a piece of Italy. Otherwise, a standard Sicily invasion can be mauled over by a determined Axis player. If they are really good, they can even push the Allies off Sicily. By the way, I have not ruled out invading Sicily, but if I did that, it would be strategically around the whole Penesula with all six task forces. That would force German units to flee or get trapped. the downside to this is that the Axis player gets a turn of preparation, unlike an invasion on turn one.

Great to see you back at it Kemt. Good luck to you both.

Turn one was sent and now I wait to see how Germany (Mr. Liquid Sky) responds to this peculiar Allied setup. I am also glad to report that naval losses were small. And In fact, this is winning strategy. Just say no to invasions. Ha. But seriously, no amphibious transports were lost in the first turn.

I waited until turn two before moving any unit by sea. Most notably, no unit movement from UK to Mediterranean. The reason for this is that I wanted to wait until a reasonable amount of Allied air naval control existed over sea paths.

With expanded air missions, many more naval missions can be created; and that is exactly what I did. This gives me the option of not having to use automatic naval missions. The advantage is that I can control patrolled areas. For example, auto system sends out aircraft for thirty hexes, and no more or less, unless physically limited by range. It does a good job but cannot do more than block protection.

I am placing patrol blocks of three hexes along the Allied coastline, along with a few specialized sized ones. Reasoning for this is to make safe paths for units traversing ports. Additionally, logistic ships also use the same paths yet they do not follow along the shoreline so that is why I am using 3 hex block size patrols rather than a single hex line. Each patrol sea block gets one naval squadron and some will get more, when needs arise. I have never done this because when playing against Mr. Metalist, the goal was to maximize air ground attacks. This expanded use of naval missions I feel is a better use of this expand ability. I do hope this also presents a unique challenge for Mr. Liquid Sky. The Luftwaffe may need to engage some of the Allied logistics over the sea to reduce Allied logistics and naval capacity.

The pattern I am using for strategic bombing is four. Meaning, during a daylight attack, I have a wing attack on odd days. A second one attacks on even days. That gets you to two per week, keeping up bombing every day.

At night I do the same bombing pattern if the hex is within the British special ground radar reach, and of course the aircraft are equipped with the corresponding radar. This means that hexes in the Ruhr area get hit every day and every night by a total of four strategic missions.

I am doing the odd and even patterns with level bombers conducting tactical bombing. The goal is to hit a hex every day without making crew morale drop to a critical level.

Thank you very much for your response Mr. Red Bunny. This is going to be an exciting match between Mr. Liquid Sky and myself.

I am concerned if I will be able to have the Allies stay on the initial landing site. For Mr. Liquid Sky is vastly more skilled than I am, or ever could hope to be. But the goal is to have fun and not winning. At least that is my philosophy. Otherwise, what is the point of playing. I guess it could be for an ego boost but this challenge is not about that.

We are both playing to win but that is not the only thing driving Mr. Liquid Sky and myself. The hope from us is that the WitW community is able to learn effective techniques in how to conduct the Axis side. I suppose there is a chance that a thing or two can be learned when watching the Allied side too. Or maybe at least not what to do. Ha.

Most of my games are played to conclusion so what happened with Mr. Bimmler is not typical for me. I do believe Mr. Liquid Sky has not had such luck so I think he will enjoy hurting the Allies till the end. In the process this will give me ulcers. Oh well, if I am having fun playing, then I am okay with ulcers and stress. Ha.

Best wishes to you Mr. Red Bunny.
And best of luck to you Mr. Liquid Sky.

PS: At the time of this writing Mr. Liquid Sky does not know where the Allies will land.

Sincerely, Kent Kroeckel

For the first turn Allies left transport aircraft, Patrol aircraft, and torpedo aircraft at rest (4). All others were active. At the end of turn one I put all to rest; except fighter bombers assigned to air superiority for both phases.

No invasion turn one.

While this may seem to open up a myriad of possible invasion sites, it really only comes down to two.

Possible invasion sites:

1) France/Belgium/Netherlands. He could have pulled the amphibs back to England to invade from their. Not likely for a few reasons...one, their probaby would have been some naval losses in the movement through the med. Also...why? It would be better to hit Sicily with the default invasions, and then pull out. It would buy a month or so before I start wondering about where the amphibs are.

2) Sicily. Yup....wait a turn, and invade Sicily anyways. Not likely as it would be better to invade Sicily and hold back 2 of the amphibs to invade both sides of the toe to cut it off. In fact, it is because of this I usually pull all the Germans out of Sicily so they won't get trapped. Sicily is a lost cause if it is invaded, and waiting a turn doesn't make it easier.

3) Italy mainland. Around Naples....Taranto....in front of Rome? Very very high risk. While the lack of German units in the theatre means you will successfully invade, the lack of aircover means you will be doomed to only receiving supply from far off African airbases....and even then, I would pretty much park the entire German luftwaffe in Italy while reinforcements show up turn after turn. Again...Sicily (and the toe) first and then anywhere from Naples to Brindisi, would be much safer. No....you need aircover which means if not Sicily then....

4) Sardinia/Corsica. These are the only two logical sites. When Italy surrenders, these two islands will flip to being allied, but many axis players will put a few units on them to prevent that. By invading it you ensure that the islands will be allied. As an allied player I would love the opportunity to invade Corsica along it's entire eastern coast to put down level 2 airfields which I would upgrade to level 3, and turn it into one big airfield. The Italian surrender rules require either Sicily or Sardinia so if not Sicily....then Sardinia.

So my guess is he is landing on Sardinia and Corsica. With only a single german unit and Italians that are fixed unless an allied unit gets close, the invasion of Sardinia will be easy. Corsica will be problematic as it is in easy range of many German/Italian airbases but will eventually fall as the Sardinian airfields come on line. If he wants to play it safe, then he will land all 6 on Sardinia.

It occurs to me that their are two other possible invasion sites.

5) Southern France/Northern Italy or anywhere along the Adriatic....this would be suicide for the allies. No aircover, close to German reinforcements.....not doable. Won't spare any more thought here.

6) This one intrigues me. Land all 6 in Calabria on both sides of the boot. It places 6 airfields down which can be built up while you send a force down to take Reggio.....and a later invasion staged for Sicily. By the time Sicily is all done, you have air cover over Naples and can land all around it. It's a bit risky since it is out of range of Malta and African fighters, but you will also gain 3 level 1 airfields. The terrain is rough so you should be able to hold back the Germans while you push south down the boot. And you might trap a bunch of mech/armour down there.

My money is still on Sardinia/Corsica though.

This is my response to Mr. Liquid Sky. Enjoy.

Private Wingmire had been fighting in North Africa for a little over a year. He had heard others being disgruntled with British High Command but his experience was one of acceptance and trust. General Montgomery was the only commander he knew and rather liked him. The General had led them to a substantial victory over the German African Corp.

Yet the American General, Patton was bragging on how his personal army (U.S. Seventh Army) had saved the British from defeat. Of course anyone near the war knew the Desert Rats (Montgomery’s Eighth Army) had completely defeated the Desert Fox, (Rommel’s African Corp). German and Italian troops had been in retreat for six months, until their surrender in Tunis. But now another chapter in the war was about to start.


Below is the letter Private Wingmire wrote to his Mother and sister, Elan:

Hello mum [British spelling of mother] and sis [Abbreviation of sister] I hope you two are doing well. In the last letter you sent me, you asked what most I missed. Well, I have got an answer, but I think you two will find it odd. The tube. [British word for subway] Of course it really is not much of a bustling place anymore. I mean, people are not racing from place to place. They are just trying to keep safe from the V-1 attacks. I remember when I wanted to go into London to see the hustle and chaos. I know our city of Waterford is not far away but it was calm during the night. London never was, day or night. Just happy chaos all the time.

I know you two worry about my safety and so felt relieved when the news of the African Corp surrender happened. But that is just one piece to puzzle we are in. Much more war is ahead of us. We are going somewhere soon but no one knows where. At least the small chaps [British grouping of men] like me. It seemed we were ready to leave last week but then, nothing happened.

Yet I fear this week will be different. Instead of being strict with the morning breakfast rations, we were told to have as much as we like. I know you worry if I am fed enough mum, but I am. And on this morning, it was especially tasty. Crumpets [British pastry] and black tea. We had a few tea variety choices too. I can hear you now, wondering if I am drinking milk too. Yes, I am Mum. It is delicious with my crumpets.

Some were wondering if we were being sent back to the UK but I think not. Ships are small for that. No, this is going to be an invasion in the Mediterranean. We were issued small translation books with German and Italian words so I do not think France is it. We will just have to wait and see.
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This post is dedicated to Mr. Liquid Sky. Have to stop the diary here and not reveal the invasion destination since I have not received turn two. No need to rush though, and this gives me a chance to do a post like this. I think it enriches the thread.

Your posts on the invasion is intuitive and filled with logic. Skill level is showing Mr. Liquid Sky. Allied High Command is nervous now that you have been assigned Command over the German defense effort. I hope my choice of an invasion location does not embarrass me. I tried to figure out what would be a safe yet productive landing site.

Hello to all. Wanted to let all know that fog of war (FOG) is on for this challenge. First turn, units are displayed; to the level that there is a unit but not nationality, type, or size. Turn two sets everything to total FOG. At that point reconnaissance becomes important for both sides. Well, maybe not so critical for Germany but Allies need it. Strategic bombing in particular. I do not recall the specific difference between full reconnaissance and generic strategic bombing but it is significant. I think Mr. Liquid Sky may know the exact figure. If there are any questions please ask, Mr. Liquid Sky or myself will try to answer them. More often though, Mr. Liquid Sky. Ha.

Best wishes, Kent Kroeckel