Global War - confessions of an armchair strategist

[Centuur]

Go back to the stay at sea phase (there is an autosave for that one) and correct your mistake...

[Ingtar]

As far as bombing Germany on the 2nd impulse, my game saw a lucky roll damage a German oil. Somehow, though there was an engineer and it was paid for, it has never been repaired. I need to dig into the RAC to see what I did wrong.

[Walker84]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'm now back in the saddle having gone back to an earlier 1939 save and spent yesterday redoing my turn (also taking the opportunity to improve various dispositions - an option denied in real life!)
The US entry is sorted, although I would suggest a low priority fix to make it easier to avoid reducing your treaty convoys by mistake. Perhaps a warning with an override option? Has anyone else found a situation where your CPs are 'available this turn' but without the sentry option available?

Here is the situation on the Western Front inJan 1940 as both sides continue their build-up.

[Walker84]

Meanwhile, in central China, Gen Umezu moves to exploit the Chengchow breakthrough, splitting Chinese forces in half while Yamamoto manoeuvres to link up from the south.

[Walker84]

Imperial Japanese forces in Canton are happy to maintain a holding action while the action takes place further to the north.

[Walker84]

The campaign is well into Mar/Apr 1940 when the weather suddenly clears and the Wehrmacht is given the all clear to proceed with Fall Gelb. Having DoW'd Belgium and the Netherlands, the Luftwaffe takes to the air immediately and is able to disrupt the defenders of Brussels and Liege, although an attack on Amsterdam by HS-123s fails to yield any results.

[Walker84]

The Germans choose three attacks - on Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Liege. Critically, the airborne drop on Rotterdam is not allocated any ground support as there are only naval units in the hex, but the crack paras are looking highly confident as they climb into their JU 52s..

[Walker84]

Here is the outcome of the latest assault in China. Yamamoto is not happy that his forces have become badly disrupted in attack and is considering slowing the pace a little...

The odds for the attacks on the Western Front can also be gleaned from this form.

[Walker84]

Liege is taken in the face of overwhelming odds and no attackers are disrupted.

[Walker84]

But all is not so rosy in Rotterdam where the odds for Goering's elite airborne attack were not great. Today's object lesson - never underestimate the power of the notional unit!

Although this is clearly a setback, the para will go back into the force pool and can be rebuilt next turn.

[Walker84]

Amsterdam still falls however...

[Walker84]

The impulse switches to the Allies who implement the Dyle plan but are unable to reinforce Brussels which falls next impulse, although many of the attacking units are disrupted in the process. Rotterdam also falls just before the turn ends abruptly. So Belgium and the Netherlands have both been conquered in the space of two short impulses but Germany has lost a para and most of the Luftwaffe and front line ground units are disrupted. This will cost a lot in reorg points but the Offensive chit is still available and may need to be deployed in May/June.

[Walker84]

Here's the attack on Brussels. Good odds achieved but costly for the attackers in terms of disorganisation effects.

Now I have a question for any experts out there who are still following this: I would like to move more CW units to France but they refuse to land as there is a limit on the number of CW units allowed into France based on Gort's reorganisation value. Is this a hard limit and what options do I have? I thought that by moving a CW unit into Belgium this might allow a further unit to arrive in France but the game said non! I have a Spitfire in France and could move that back to the UK if it helps. Hell, I'm sure Warspite had more than 2 units plus Gort in France. What am I missing fellas? [:(]

[Walker84]

Western Front, May/June 1940. The Allies win the initiative and elect to go first enabling Gamelin to plug some holes in the line. Its raining as well so it looks as if the Wehrmacht could get bogged down pretty quickly if they try to assault the Dyle line...

[Courtenay]

Foreign troop commitment is a hard limit. All units -- air, naval, everything -- count, except for HQs themselves. Thus it is Gort and two other units. That Spitfire counts, and should not be there. If you were to get Wavell to France, that would give you more units, but I think he belongs in Egypt. Warspite only had three units in France (Gort plus two others) at any one time. You can have as many units in Belgium as you can fit, so the current lines provide ample opportunity for additional CW units.

[warspite1]

Walker84, Courtenay is right. Remember I had a forward defence i.e. in Belgium and so the CW had no limit there. However, there were never more than 2 units - ARM + ART - in addition to Gort once I got to France. I used the southeast coast to house fighter command once that happened.

[Walker84]

Thanks guys, this makes perfect sense and having removed the Spitfire to Dover I have managed to land a second army corps in France.

Mind you, the French are looking pretty handy even without their allies at the moment. The Fuhrer was angered to find out that his cautious Generals were waiting for the rain to clear before pushing forward so an immediate attack on Antwerp was ordered. Despite the adverse elements the Luftwaffe managed at least to locate some of the target units...

[Walker84]

Both sides successfully flew ground support into Antwerp and the outcome was... a bad roll for the Germans who were all disrupted with no losses to the stout defenders. The picture shows the ground support action, I forgot to save the ground combat result.

Thanks partly to the wash-out weather and the Allies passing, the turn ended after this impulse. So we are now heading into May/June and, although you could say that the Germans are ahead of schedule compared to real life events, France is looking like a tough nut to crack now that the Dyle plan is in place. Hitler is on the phone to Mussolini right now...

[Walker84]

Thanks partly to the wash-out weather and the Allies passing, the turn ended after this impulse. So we are now heading into May/June and, although you could say that the Germans are ahead of schedule compared to real life events, France is looking like a tough nut to crack now that the Dyle plan is in place. Hitler is on the phone to Mussolini right now...

EDIT: I made the above comment without the game open in front of me. In fact May/June has just ended so progress is looking too slow the Axis. They have been over-cautious in the attack, and were also hampered by several impulses worth of rain last turn.

Mind you, IRL they were given a relatively easy hand due to the Allies poor initial deployment, overly defensive mindset and tactical ineptitude.

No excuses however - it's time to bring on the blitzkrieg!

[Klydon]

Way too slow unfortunately, but it also appears you were unlucky with the weather and length of turn.

In my limited time, I have found declaring war on both the Netherlands and Belgium during the same impulse is generally a mistake. I have gotten to the point where I just figure this is a preliminary attack before going after France. You burn up enough of the Luftwaffe taking out both countries that you typically don't have that nice crunchy edge you need over the CW/French. IF you can get both Belgium and the Netherlands out of the way before the M/J turn, you are usually sitting pretty well. The perfect scenario is to start the M/J turn with the Axis moving first (never a guarantee) and good weather. You can then unload the offensive chit and look to do damage to the French army it won't recover from.