HB (Allies) vs MM (Axis) No MM for now.

[Harrybanana]

6 MS and an escort sunk, but 5 U-Boat hits are scored. The entire Kriegsmarine moves to raid the Murmansk convoy route. I didn't even bother to try and hunt them down.

The Western Allies invade Sardinia. Not my first choice, but Sicily is too well defended.

[Harrybanana]

APRIL 10, 1942

If you have read MM's AAR (which I am guessing you already have) then you know how this game ends.

If you look at the screenshot above from the previous post you will see that there is an Italian unit in Rome. I would like to say that I spotted this myself several turns ago, but that would not be true. In fact I didn't notice it myself until this very turn. Even then I may not have risked an invasion except I was getting a bit desperate due to the situation on the Russian Front. The invasion was risky because there was no certainty that the invasion would succeed (especially if Rome was occupied by a Mountain Corps) and because I would not be able to capture a port. But I felt the risk was worth taking so moved a couple bombers to Sardinia and launched the invasion with the below results. The odd thing by the way is that even though I had a Ground Attack air unit on Sardinia in range it did not participate in the attack.

[Harrybanana]

So with the fall of Italy MM conceded the game. Can't say as I blame him as I probably would have done the same. Having said that I think the Germans still had a lot of punch left in them. I wasn't at all sure if I would be able to save my forces in Italy as Citavecchia is only a 1 level port. The only game I have lost as the Axis was to a somewhat similar event when ComradeKorps (as the Allies) drooped a couple paratroopers into Italy in 1940. So the question is: Was my move a legitimate one? I personally think it was legitimate, but I can certainly see where others may have a different view. I suppose the real question is whether or not Italy would have surrendered in this situation when the Axis were overall still doing very well. I think they would have because while Germany was doing well, Italy most definitely was not. It had lost all of its African possessions and Sardinia and its best non-mechanized units had been lost in Africa. While the Germans were allowing this to happen the best Italian units were fighting in Russia. So yeah, I think the Italian people (many of whom weren't too keen on the War in the first place) would have been pissed off. But again, I can certainly see where an argument can be made the other way.

Italy after my moves.

[Harrybanana]

The screenshot below is why I was desperate. My best Russian units all had low effectiveness after the Winter Attacks. Indeed they were in far worse shape than the Axis forces (isn't this kind of backwards). But I was counting on having the rain turns in March and April to recover. But with both the last March turn and the first April turn being cold turns, the Axis forces were cutting through the Russians like swiss cheese.

[Harrybanana]

AGC after my moves.

[Harrybanana]

APRIL 24, 1942

MM completed his turn before conceding and I took screenshots. But probably no point in posting them now. As you probably know from reading his post he got another cold turn and continued his advance on Moscow. If the game had gone on I probably would have had to abandon Moscow in a couple turns. In fact, but for the sudden fall of Rome I think the Axis probably would have won the game. The problem with playing the Allies, IMHO, is that if the Axis is a good player (and MM is a good player) than just about everything has to go right for the Russians to survive. By everything I mean:

1. The Allies have to win the BOA so that the UK and the US can send maximum Lend Lease. In this game I was lucky in this regard and Russia was receiving about 400 PPs per turn.

2. The Russians have to keep the Murmansk railway open. I did.

3. The Russians have to get lucky (or at least average luck) with their Infantry and Armour Techs. I got unlucky in this.

4. The Russians have to gain National experience relatively quickly. I really sucked at this.

5. The Russians can't make any big mistakes and lose lots of their good units. I was able to accomplish this so far.

6. The Russians have to get lucky with the weather. In this game I think I did a bit below average. On the one hand there was a June rain turn and there was no cold weather in either October or November. On the other hand I think there was only 1 blizzard turn and MM got the 3 cold turns in March and April.

So even though I did well in some of these areas, the fact that I didn't do well in 3 of them (Tech, Experience and maybe weather) meant that the Russians were still in serious trouble. Playing the Axis I may whine (I whine no matter which side I play), but I am always fairly confident of winning. If not in 41 then in 42. But as the Russians I always feel as if I am one move away from disaster. And unlike in the real War, the Russians cannot survive any disasters.

Below are the ending Force Strengths. the Russians don't look to be doing bad, but a lot of their units are trash due to the low experience.

[Harrybanana]

Production. As I said the Russians are doing well, but with an experience level of 42% (it went up 1% on the Axis turn) I think it was going to be a long hard summer.

[Harrybanana]

The Russians were doing very poorly with their Assault and Heavy Armour Techs (compare with the Brits and Yanks). Reading MM's AAR you will see that his Germans have already advanced to 43 Tech in both of these. With the Germans having advantages in both experience and tech they are almost unstoppable unless and until they lose a lot of effectiveness.

[stjeand]

If there are no German units in Italy I think that is a big issue...at least after losing Africa.

Even if he rails back the max amount of German troops...not sure he can hold.
Would have to have some units coming in the deployment queue this turn to move south.
Did you have a bunch of troops to move in that were not worn from invasions? If so then I am not sure he could do much.

Sadly I think he loss of Africa so early killed him.
I might have seen what I can pull back from Russia yet keep the offensive alive to see what I could do if anything. BUT losing Italy in 42 is normally a game breaker.

I think though that unless he could put a killing blow on Russia...and within the next 3 months it is over.


Also perhaps unaware...Italy turns all German now not UK...so railing in Germans is still good and the UK has to go capture more ports with either invasions or moving. That is a big change.

[Stelteck]

Thanks for the AAR. The desperate defense of the reich would have been really interesting [:(]

[Harrybanana]

There were actually quite a few German and Axis Ally units in Italy and more close by in France (ready to invade Vichy). As the Allies I was actually faced with a couple dilemmas. First what to do with the 3 units near Rome? As you can see from the screenshot below the Germans had railed 2 Panzer units (from the Vichy border) to near Rome. Since I only took the Port of Rome this turn I couldn't transport in any reinforcements. So I wasn't sure how to best place my units to hold both Rome and the port. I saved the game before deciding and then read MM's email to me conceding, so I didn't have to decide. But whatever I did I would have a tough choice on the next turn if I should evacuate or reinforce.

I still had enough LCs for a few more units to invade, but where to do so? The main options were either Vichy France or Southern Italy. There was an Italian unit in Bordeaux that disappeared when Italy surrendered, so that was an option too. But whatever I did it was not going to be an easy march to Berlin.

[Harrybanana]

The situation in Russia before my moves.

AGN. Things have been static here since Leningrad fell.

[Harrybanana]

AGC.

This is where all the action was. I had no counter to his panzers. Remember that the Summer of 42 hasn't even truly begun yet.

[Harrybanana]

AGS

[MagicMissile]

Hello everyone,

I forgot to comment on this game.

Thanks for the game, HB is a tough opponent [:)].

Ending the game early because I forgot to put a German unit in Rome sucks a bit. I really looked forward to try and defend with the axis and see what I could have done in the east in 42 but it was not to be. I think it could have been an interesting game.

I have never defended Africa very hard basically because I have always managed to take out USSR so I havent really cared much.
But I was impressed by HBs Axis defense of Africa in our other game so I might learn some lessons from that and possibly not give up Africa quite that easily going forward.

I made some other mistakes especially in building units. I built more air and less mech than usual and that is a decision I regret for sure.

Anyways again thanks for the game and maybe play again later?

/MM

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: MagicMissile

Anyways again thanks for the game and maybe play again later?

/MM

I will play you again whenever you want MM, just email me.

Rereading the AARs for both of our games they were actually very close. I only won this game because of the Italian surrender. But for that I think you probably would have won. In our other game (where I was Axis) I got lucky with the cold turn in October. I think I probably would have won that game anyway (since the Axis seem to win most games between good players) but it would have been closer.

[MagicMissile]

Ok I have some things to deal with in October but possibly at the end of October beginning of November I´ll get in touch.

/MM

[ncc1701e]

ORIGINAL: Harrybanana

But as the Russians I always feel as if I am one move away from disaster. And unlike in the real War, the Russians cannot survive any disasters.

Same feeling whereas in reality there were always reserve armies behind.