Shannon versus Z

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 Impulse 8 Axis to move.

Rumania

I believe Z made a mistake here.

A volunteer needs to be thrown in front of the Axis advance, but the 5-3 would have been a better choice.
That unit could have gotten one hex farther south and created a north-south line of ZOC from the Cav above Kiev to Odessa.

The Kiev militia is also an elite unit and would be stronger if later forced OOS and disorganized.
There would have been no threat of the 5-3 getting cut off from supply in the upcoming Axis impulse.
But the 5-2 is in danger of having that happen.

What I did here was have the Axis burn an O-chit and reorganize Rundstedt and von Leeb (up north).
I wanted to have the ability to break through the Dnieper in strength this turn.

I was able to get an automatic attack against one Bessarabian city and an almost-automatic against the other.
The Italians were also able to get an almost automatic against the 5-2 militia - all without risking ground strikes.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 Impulse 9 Allies to move.

Rumania

Bessarabia has fallen.
All the Axis units are in supply and the weather is great.

That nasty 2-4 Rumanian Cav is threatening Stalino and Sevastopol.
There is also the Finnish Ski unit in the north threatening Yaroslavl.
The USSR has one available unit to hold all 3 threatened cities: a 1-3 Eng which can be railed in from Smolensk.

Don't forget the Italian Mech which can reach Kharkov.
And the Axis has 70+ attack factors here that can reach the Dnieper.

Z chose the best moves (in my opinion).
He moved the militia one hex east, out of Kiev and railed the Eng to Stalino.
The two Russain air units rebased from the north to the south.
That blocked the Mech from reaching Kharkov and protected the 2 factories in Stalino.

Then he brilliantly rolled a 2 ending the turn! 30% chance.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 end of turn

Overview of the Eastern Front.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

I thought I would give an overview of the turn, vis-a-vis Germany.

The decision to attack Russia instead of France

Assuming that Germany had ignored the USSR weakness in Europe, ...

The weather in Mar/Apr 1940 was awful and Germany would not have been able to DOW Belgium with any hope of conquering it. The first opportunity would have been in the second impulse of May/June, at which time Brusslas would have fallen and all the Belgian units destroyed.

In the 3rd impulse, the French and Brits could have entered Belgium, despite the bad weather. The Germans would have been able to do very much though in their following impulse (#5).

So Germany would have only had one impulse to take on the French and Brits that had advanced into Belgium. Maybe taking one hex, certainly no more than 2.

That would have left them with the rest of Belgium to free of Allied units plus drive on to Paris in Jul/Aug. Probably they could have taken Paris by the end of Jul/Aug and if not, sometime in Sep/Oct. Unless the weather turned really bad.

Meanwhile the USSR would have been clobbering the Japanese in Manchuria. As is turned out, the Chinese had a pretty easy time of it even without the Japanese having to throw everything into Manchuria to hold the line there. Right now in the game, the Chinese are looking pretty good and the Communist Chinese have gone over to the offensive.

The build up on the Russian front.

It took a few impulses, but the Axis was able to rebase most of their air force to Poland where it only had one short range fighter to worry about. And only one 2 tactical factor bomber. Air power made a big difference in clearing the cities and generally intimidating the Russian units.

Rail moves followed by HQs reorganizing the newly arrived units meant that the Axis was able to triple or even quadruple the combat strength it had facing the Russians. Warm bodies in excess meant they could ooze through the Russian lines.

I spent an O-chit to reorganize the HQs and that would have been brilliant - if the turn hadn't ended. As it turned out, it was mostly a wasted O-chit. Sigh.[8|] Dreams of 12 impulse summer turns dance in the head of Axis commanders; right up until 1943.[:D]

[Mayhemizer_slith]

Interesting to see how quickly France befomes powerfull enough to attack.

Can I ask picture of German/French border?

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Mayhemizer

Interesting to see how quickly France befomes powerfull enough to attack.

Can I ask picture of German/French border?

I'll go around the other battlefronts and end with Belgium.

May June End of Turn

Southern China

Nothing's happening.

The weather is about to turn nasty here and the Chinese Attack Weakness optional rule limits Chinese aggression. The Chinese did do an attack in a previous turn against an isolated AA gun and rolled a 3. That would have destroyed all their forces in the south except that I chose the Blitz table so all the attackers were merely disorganized. I think the Chinese are a little leery of attacks since the last one here could have lost all of southern China.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 End of Turn

Central China

I have placed the best land units on top of each stack.

Here the Japanese need to clear up the OOS Nationalists units behind the lines.
That will require successful ground strikes because the risk of losses is too high attacking 6 defending combat factors.
There are 3 bombers here, plus another with a range of 14 available.
Eventually one of those ground strikes will succeed.

The Communist Chinese have moved east as more reinforcements arrive.
They had been huddled in the hills to the west of the clear terrain hexes.
All in all, the Chinese are looking pretty good here, except for the gap in their ZOC line in the south.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 End of turn

Northern China

This is the current headache for the Japanese.
The two Allied cavalry units are running free.
Even if the Axis moves first, they won't be able to stop those units from taking crucial hexes.
Of course the cavalry will then be OOS and disorganized - stationary targets worth 1 combat factor and giving up 2 on the die roll.
I don't think the Japanese Warlord and Territorial will be able to deal with them by themselves though.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 End of turn

Manchuria

The Russians just took Tsitsihar with its resource point.

They have a really nice army here and outnumber the Japanese in unit count.

The Japanese are hiding in cities and mountain hexes; immediately building any Manchurian territorials that are lost so they arrive back in one of the cities. Clearly a defensive posture.

The Japanese are tricky though.

I just moved the 6-3 Inf east, away from defending the Manchurian cities.
My goal was threefold:
1 - cut the rail line for Russian supply east.
2 - link up with Marine units for an attack on Vladivostok.
3 - hinder the Russians from moving units back to defend Vladivostok.

I have placed the Japanese Marines in a port on the Sea of Japan with 2 transports and there is an arriving Inf corps that can be broken down for two more invaders aboard light cruisers. Plus the AMPH is available with a 6-4 Inf.
To make this all happen, I will rail an HQ up to Rashin next turn, putting everyone in supply and giving the Japanese another coastal hex for landing units.
The 3-2 Militia in Vladivostok is tending to 2 submarines. He is unlikely to get reinforced given the need for units along the Dnieper.

===

The USSR spent their first two impulses of the next turn advancing on Harbin and circling around Changchun - heading for Mukden.

I think that was a mistake.

By their third impulse so did they, and they started the long retreat back the way they had come. With the Inf HQ bringing up the rear on its one hex per impulse trek to Tsitsihar.
Starting with their 2nd impulse they railed a corps out of Manchuria into an empty city in European Russian, thereby preventing the Germans from simply 'walking' into Soviet cities like Rostov, Moscow, Stalingrad, Krasnodar, and Yaroslavl.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 End of turn

Egypt

A truly boring theater.

The Brits chose to not shatter Balbo when they had the chance.
They are reluctant now to even destroy him, which they could easily do helped shore bombardment.
I guess their thinking that an Italian HQ in Africa is less dangerous than one in Italy (or Russia).

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 End of turn

Italy

The Italians are on the defensive and have a pretty strong line.
The French could launch an attack by the odds wouldn't be very good. Losing 3 French units would leave their line quite weak - the extra units in the coastal hexes are mostly naval units.

As it is, The French 5-4 Inf journeyed across the Med to Libya to keep the Italians from walking along the coast (one move per turn) and conquering Libya like they did Tunisia.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 End of turn

Tunisia

I skipped this by accident; it should have been before Italy.

Nothing much going on. The Italian cruiser has been stuck here OOS and disorganized for a while.

There is a land unit in Malta.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 End of turn

Denmark

Another headache for the Axis.

Frederickshaven has an HQ and a bunch of naval units.
The navy, including a carrier, enter the Baltic each turn and mess around with the German convoys.
So far the convoys have avoided losses, but they have had to return to base this previous turn, reducing German production points by 4.

Next turn the Brits attack the 5-4 across the straits using a newly landed 7-6 armor and with support from shore bombardment - vaporizing the German Inf.
The 6-3 Inf charges forward to Aarhus (bad decision) and narrowly avoid a ground strike, which would have left him OOS and disorganized to be overrun by the aforementioned 7-6 armor.
The Germans are barely holding on here.
Their big advantage is that their reinforcements arrive in the front line while the Commonwealth has to transport theirs over the North Sea.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

May June 1940 End of turn

France

The requested screenshot.

The French have the advantage here, but not by much.
Most of the Commonwealth units have left and they are soon to be followed by the remaining 3 corps.
There is a 4-2 Art under the 7-2 Militia. There is also fighter cover for the German front line.

If the French attack into Germany and succeed and advance into Germany, they would boost the German production multiple from 0.75 to 1.25: 14 BPs would become 23 BPs.

If they DOW Belgium, the US entry chits would lose 1, maybe 2 (1.2).
That would be twice as bad if the Commonwealth also DOWs Belgium.

The French would be unlikely to destroy all the Belgian units.
They would not be able to occupy Brussels immediately and the Germans would.
The big advantage for the Germans is that reinforcements arrive here immediately.
Guderian in Jul Aug.
Rommel in Sep Oct.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Mar/Apr 1940, End of Turn

Southern China

All is quiet here. The Japanese cut the Burma Road (diplomatically) but because French Indochina still belongs to France, resources can be shipped through there to Chinese factories.

Is this correct? I think that if the program allows this then it is a bug. The rule concerning diplomatic closure of the Burma Road specifically includes, and forbids, use of the Indo-Chinese railways for resources to China.

Cut from: 13.3.3 US entry actions
....
6. Japan forces closure of Burma Road - the Burma Road is one way that the Allies can transport resources
(see 13.3.2, entry option 9) and build points (entry option 17) to China. The Axis can close it by physical
occupation but Japan can also close it by diplomatic pressure on the Commonwealth.
If Japan does this, an Allied major power can’t transport resources or build points to China via the Burma
Road or French Indo-China until it is at war with Japan or the USA chooses US entry option 24. China can
still use the road to transport its own resources.
You only have to roll a die for diplomatic closure of the Burma Road, not for physical closure.