Harrybanana vs Mike Mcmann

[Harrybanana]

Mike and I have agreed to do AARs for our game we started today. I'll be playing the Allies and Mike the Axis. I think this is the 1st time either of us has ever done an AAR but we'll do our best. I'll be posting here and Mike will post in a separate Thread. Obviously neither of us will be reading the others posts (at least not until after the game). Also obviously we don't want anyone to kibbitz to us on the others plans.

My own Strategy will essentially be to try and counter what ever it looks like Mike is trying to do. I personally believe that the Med is the key. If you lose both Gibraltar and Egypt (or is it called Cairo?) as the WA you are in big trouble. Unfortunately my Defend the Med strategy has cost me Scotland in 2 or 3 games. Like a lot of players I think Scotland is too vunerable in this game; but you have to play the cards you are dealt. I also believe that research is the key to winning this game and I will try to put 12 to 16 WA and Russian build points into research each turn.

The Spring 40 turn was unusual in that Mike's Italian fleet attacked me in the East Med and damaged both my Hvy Fleets and caused my 2 light fleets to retreat to port. I think I dmged 2 of his heavies as well. Mike then moved his remaining hvy Fleet and 1 light fleet to the West Med. He then moved a couple Trannies into the East Med and invaded Paletine (or whatever it's called, the area east of Egypt anyway). He then Strategically moved in an armour an artillery and some infantry along with 5 supply. A bold move on his part.

On my Spring 40 turn I attacked his fleets in the West med with a couple hvys dmging his hvy and sending his light fleet and a trannie fleeing to port in neutral South France where, lol, they are now politically frozen. Neither Mike or I had ever seen this before. I then moved a light fleet to the Aegean to block retreat and attacked his 2 lights in the East med with some more hvys. I dmged 1 light fleet but, to my surprise, the undamaged fleet retreated through my units in the Middle med to port in Italy. I didn't think they could do this, but trust the Italian Navy to be excellent blockade runners if nothing else. In any event, the Italian Navy has been effectively neutralized for now. Meanwhile I reinforced Egypt to stop Mike's (now isolated) invasion force in Palestine from getting very far.

Summer 40 was relatively quite except for some Uboats sinking/damaging my trannies and being sunk/damaged by my navy in return. I was surprised Mike didn't invade Spain as this seems to be the oh so popular Strategy of the moment. Maybe he felt with most of the Italian Navy hiding in port there wasn't much point.

The Chinese theatre is interesting in that Mike amassed huge forces off Chansa. I've never seen this before and didn't know what to do; so I panicked and pulled everything back to Chungking, wasting most of my meagre supply to do so.

Below are some screenshots of the Med and Chinese theaters respectively. Again, don't go telling Mike what you see here.

[Harrybanana]

OK, here is China. Program says i can only attach 1 file upload (ie Picture) per post. Does anyone know how I can do more? Also I don't know how to crop my pictures using Paint so if anyone can explain that to me it would be appreciated.

Finally if there is anything you want to see or know about this game let me know.

[Harrybanana]

FALL 1940
All is relatively quiet on the Western Front. Still no invasion of Spain? Is Mike planning for Sealion? He did move his units in Trans-Jordan to Iraq using up all but 1 of his supply in the process. On my turn I retook Trans-Jordan and bombed his units in Iraq to dmg his artillery and use up his last supply. Unless there is an emergency in England next turn I should be able to take out his expeditionary force next turn.

In China Mike took Foochow against the 4 generated milita w/o any losses. He also bombed my infrastructure in several provinces but left my main force in Chungking alone.

Below is a map of The Mediterranean Theatre as of the end of the WA Fall 40 turn.

[RodentDung]

HairyBanana, nice story you got going. You really put the boots to Mike in the Med Sea and Middle East. He may not have invaded Spain cause it becomes another nice big beach for the allies to target later but that's a strange thing for Mike to pass up cause he values his resources even more than other stuff. As for China, no need to panic cause I think its too early in the game for them to be supplied up enough to attack you unless Russia is stripped bare.

Ah and don't worry, I sent a PM to Mike describing what you are doing so its cool cause he wanted to know. Hehe, just kidding of course. [:D]

[Barthheart]

Using MS Paint, under the Image menu, choose Stretch/Skew. Set the Stretch numbers to 70%. That should make the pics smaller to fit everyones screen and still be readable.

Great AAR. I want to see how yo do against Mike. Our first game was so back and forth we could not tell who would win... until now which I don't think I have much of a chance anymore...[:@]

[Badbonez]

OK, that's it. I'm modding my game. I love the unit bases and territory colors. I guess I'll start at the mod forum to see if I can find those listed? Or is that your own personal blend, if so, wanna share? [:D]

[Harrybanana]

Badbonez,
Actually its not a mod at all. I'm from Canada and though the families of both my parents are from the States I'm an Anglophile. I therefore chose to use the British colors for the WA in the preferences section of the game.

[Harrybanana]

WINTER 1941
Mike got his revenge in the Med. He attacked my 2 hvys, 2 lights and trannie stationed there (I had supply with them, I think) with 1 Tac, 1 Bomber, 1 sub and 1 light and sunk 1 light and the trannie with out taking a scratch himself. He then moved in several bombers and tac into south Italy. Discretion being the better part of valor, on my turn I retreated to the East Med.

Meanwhile Mike also sunk or damaged a couple trannies ferrying supplies to Russia. I don't know if he sunk or damaged them because of the bug in the replay feature which doesn't let you see enemy sub attacks. Does everyone suffer this bug, or is it just a few of us? Since his sub torp and evasion are both teched at 3 and my ASW is still at 1 I couldn't even scatch him in return, but I did waste a lot of supply trying.

The good news is that I did finally waste all his troops in the middle east, 1 of which had made it all the way to Persia. I also learned that a unit defending against air attack alone does not use up its supply. I know this because last turn I bombed Mike in Iraq when he was down to his last supply for this very purpose; but this turn he still had 1 supply left which he used to take Persia.

Either Mike is an expert at deception or it would appear that he is going to forgo Sealion in order to attack Russia. The only question is will he attack in the Spring or wait until Summer. Unfortunately Mike has researched the hell out of his tanks, and although I have tried to do the same with Russia I have fallen behind. On the other hand he "only" has 7 tanks. How much damage can they do?

Meanwhile, the Japanese have marched inland into China. No one has ever done this to me before so I am at a loss what to do. By accident or design Mike has stumbled on my biggest weakness, I am a poor China player. My strategy has always been to leave Japan alone and hope it leaves me alone.

Unfortunately I got so excited playing the game I forgot to take screenshots. Perhaps this explains why Mike (who started his post after me) has had more hits and comments. Doesn't anybody out there like me? If so, more comments please. I don't mind losing to Mike (well not too much) but heaven forbid he should be more interesting than me.

[MrQuiet]

I also learned that a unit defending against air attack alone does not use up its supply. I know this because last turn I bombed Mike in Iraq when he was down to his last supply for this very purpose; but this turn he still had 1 supply left which he used to take Persia.

Last turn when you bombed his defending unit it did not use supply because it was still supplied from its tactical move that turn. (you would have seen the little barrels and a green arrow if you moused over his unit)

If it had moved strategicly, or not moved at all that turn then it would have burned a supply.

Hope that clears it up for ya

-MrQuiet

[Harrybanana]

Thanks Mr. Quiet. I did not know that (obviously).

[Badbonez]

ORIGINAL: Harrybanana

Badbonez,
Actually its not a mod at all. I'm from Canada and though the families of both my parents are from the States I'm an Anglophile. I therefore chose to use the British colors for the WA in the preferences section of the game.

Doh! Didn't know that was an option. Thanks!

[wobbly]

Bonez - absolutely, it's the Brit ships who are giving and taking it to you in our game. You refuse to give me the yanks after all!

[Harrybanana]

SPRING 1941: DISASTER

The replay feature won't let me see Mike's UBoat attacks so I don't know how he did it, but I do know that when I started my turn I was short 1 carrier and a few other ships. Since I rely on my carriers as my main line of defence against the UBoats this was bad news.
Worse was that Mike stacked all 7 of his Uboats just west of Gibraltar cutting it off from supply. The royal navy valiantly attacked this Uboat mega wolf pack but was soundly defeated. In all I damaged 2 Uboats but had 1 light fleet destroyed and 2 damaged. I now have only 2 light fleets in the entire Atlantic opposing 5 Subs. Well I built 1 more at the end of my turn, but it still looks bad.

Meanwhile in China, the expected Japanese onslaught against Chungking did not materialize. I expect this is only because Mike intends to move in an even more overwhelming force. I don't know quite what I did wrong in China, but the collapse is going to be spectacular.

Meanwhile in Eastern Europe, the German attack on Russia is emminent. Not only has Mike been able to increase his Tank Tech, his sub tech, his ftr tech, his bomber tech etc. he has also managed to build up an overwhelming force against the Soviets which includes 12 Tanks!!!! I begin already to think I may have met my match; but I will bravely soldier on.

Below is a screen shot showing the numbers of each unit we have.

[Harrybanana]

Oops, try this again

[Harrybanana]

OK, so I was wrong he only has 11 Tanks!! Still very worrisome. Especially when you get a load of his tank tech levels as shown below:

[Harrybanana]

OK, so my Russian tanks are almost but not quite as good as his. But he has a lead on me towards the next increase and once he attacks Russia he will have more available production to put into tech than I will. On the other hand I am on a close par to him with respect to our infantry and have a slight artillery edge as shown on the next to charts.

[Harrybanana]

Here is the artillery tech levels

[Harrybanana]

The situation in China before the end.

[aletoledo]

mike definitly favors artillery

[Harrybanana]

SUMMER 1941:

MOSCOW:
The treacherous Germans have dishounoured our Non-Agression pact and attacked the Motherland. Although the frontiers have been temporarily breached no deep penetrations have been reported. Most surprisingly, the enemy landed an expeditionary force in Archangel. This invasion was not in the slightest hindered by the Royal Navy which is holed up in Scapa Flow afraid of a few submersibles. That's OK we'll show our capitalist pig allies how to take the war to the Germans. Already our Airforce has wiped out all enemy artillery on the Archangel beachhead in preparation for it's liberation.

THE BALTIC SEA:
One of our submarines in the Baltic Sea south of Norway was ruthlessly attacked and damaged by a Nazi Cruiser disguised as a merchant ship. Although the Kriegsmarine has claimed it was just a merchant ship, this is simply another example of Nazi Propaganda.

CHUNGKING:
Aided by Russian supplies, our Nationalist and Communist armies won a huge victory today liberating Lanchow from the Japanese invaders and destroying or damaging a large portion of their airforce and army. Of course this victory was won at a hard cost and has exposed our Capital in Chungking to a 2nd Japanese army. However, we are confident that the few brave militia guarding Chungking, inspired by this victory, will repel any assault. Indeed, our beloved leader is so sure of the success of our forces that he has left the defense of Chungking to lesser Generals while he, his family and concubines travel to Singkiang to visit the munitions factories there. Unfortunately, upon his arrival he discovered that the Chinese airforce had also visited this Province and all the factories were smoking ruins.

LONDON:
While sinking Axis shipping off the coast of Norway today our Royal Navy airarm spotted a couple German wolf packs lurking in the shallows. Cautious of the damage these UBoats have caused in the past our First Lord of the Admiralty consulted with scientists and his dead mother in an effort to determine the likely result if the last 3 light fleets in the Atlantic were committed to disposing of this threat. On being advised that the expected losses would favor the Royal Navy the attack was ordered. As a result 2 more light fleets were damaged in exchange for only 1 UBoat. "Enough is Enough" screamed the First Lord and he immediately sacked every Naval officer over the rank of ensign and replaced him with a howling monkey. The theory he explained "Is that even a monkey could do better than these boys."