Redrum68 (Allies) vs Lascar (Axis) - Lascar Welcome

[redrum68]

Casualties

Losses on both sides are pretty standard so far.

On land, the Germans have taken 33 land hits and 14 air hits capturing Poland, Denmark, and Belgium.

In the BoA, the Allies have lost 15 MM and 2 escorts while the Axis have taken 10 naval hits (6 sub, 4 cruiser). I didn't show the results this turn but the German surface fleet again raided convoy lanes but this time the Allied combined navy found and engaged them causing 4 cruiser hits. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results so far as the Allies are only losing about 1 MM per turn which I think is lower than some of the other AARs I've seen. That being said, the Germans have only 3 subs so far so it doesn't appear they've invested much into the BoA.

[redrum68]

May 10, 1940

The Germans begin the push into France by causing 3 French infantry corps to retreat and seem to be driving towards Paris as expected. No counter attacks are made and the Allies try to just form lines and entrench.

[redrum68]

May 24, 1940

Rain! It seems the April rain has finally arrived here in late May giving both the Germans and Allies a turn of rest as the front is quiet. May only has a 25% of rain/heavy rain so the Allies are fortunate and somewhat evens out the unlucky clear weather turns in April.

France finally gets the infantry research and many of their front line units are upgraded. A second British armor corps arrives which including the 1 French armor corps gives the Allies 3 armor corps to look for a counterattack opportunity.

[redrum68]

June 7, 1940

The Germans surge forward towards the Somme pushing aside 2 more French infantry corps and attempt to take Lille but its defenders hold. The Lille defenders are relieved by a fresh French infantry corps. A tired German panzer corps holds the area south of Lille and is exposed on 4 hex sides to counterattack. The Allies decide to push their tanks forward to attempt their first attack of the war... and succeed in overrunning it after several bombing runs and 2 decisive attacks!

[redrum68]

First, the Allies made 3 bombing runs to soften up the German panzer corps. Then both of the elite British armor corps along with a British infantry corps attack with air/ground support at 3:1 odds causing severe losses to the German panzer corps (11 hits) but it holds! Overall, I think this is a bit of a lucky result as while at 3 to 1 odds I would expect a good number of hits, 11 hits is quite a lot for only 2 hits received. It was also better that it didn't retreat to allow a second attack...

[redrum68]

The Allies repeat the attack now at 7 to 1 odds as the German panzer corps is very weak and overrun it! This is a significant loss for the Germans as every panzer/mech corps they have accelerates the fall of France and would eventually be used in other theaters.

[Nirosi]

To be honest, I do not think there are that many players that could actually take France while facing 11 British Corps (including 3 armors) on top of the French Army. I know I could not.[:(]

[redrum68]

June 21, 1940

The Germans out for revenge, push forward hard and capture Lille which represents a significant portion of the French war production (25). But a tired German mech and panzer corps are left exposed on the front lines south of Lille and even though the 2 elite British armor corps are still a bit tired from last turn its decided to try to counterattack again...

The Allies push forward with 4 armor corps (3 British, 1 French) along with a few infantry corps and after 7 attacks are able to overrun both German units! A very bloody turn for both sides but the Allies deem the loss of a German mech and panzer corps as worth the sacrifices.

[redrum68]

After 3 attacks the German motorized corps is overrun.

[redrum68]

The German panzer corps retreats after the initial attack but 3 follow up attacks then overrun it.

[redrum68]

ORIGINAL: Nirosi
To be honest, I do not think there are that many players that could actually take France while facing 11 British Corps (including 3 armors) on top of the French Army. I know I could not.[:(]

Yeah, I was a bit surprised at how many units the British can raise and send to France as well as how many the French have. I guess it used to be even worse and I saw it was mentioned that a recent patch removed 100 UK starting strength? Overall, a strong defense of France seems like a good approach though not sure how it would stand up against expert level players.

[redrum68]

July 5, 1940

The Germans appear to go all in and surge west of Lille with 4 panzer/mech corps to the French coast trapping 2 Allied infantry corps in Calais. But 3 of these German units are very weak after all the attacks and even though the Allied armor are still recovering the command is given to counterattack with all available forces to save the trapped Allied infantry and punish the overextended Germans!

This pretty much ends in disaster for the Germans as 2 panzer and 2 mech corps are overrun and Lille is liberated! The casualties on both sides are enormous and Allied units are starting to be assembled around Paris and Rouen to be refitted. After these losses, I'm not sure the Germans will continue on as I believe they have now lost most of their panzer/mech corps (7 so far) and will struggle to capture Paris in 1940.

[redrum68]

The overrun German units...

[redrum68]

I was able to use Allied fleet bombardment for the first time to assist in 1 of the battles which seemed to make a significant impact as my understanding is you can essentially double your land attack power if you have enough surface attack to match the amount of land attack value.

[ncc1701e]

The armored corps need to be protected by infantry corps at the end of each turn. Looks like the Germans do not pay attention to the preservation of the armored corps in this game.

[Nirosi]

With 11 British Corps in France, not sure to what point it matters to be honest. [:(]

[redrum68]

GG Lascar. We decided to call this game as Germany has little hope of capturing France any time soon and has lost probably more than is feasible to have a successful Barbarossa. We have decided to switch sides as Lascar would like to try a strong defense of France.

@ncc1701e - Agree, I think my opponent wasn't used to facing as many Allied armor in France so left them a bit too exposed.

@Nirosi - I think it would be a pretty tough force for the Germans to break through but I'm not an expert either. This is only my first PBEM game so I don't want to draw too many conclusions from a single game. The mirror game will hopefully shed some more light.

I would be interested if experienced players consider a strong BEF commitment to France to be overpowered or not?

[michaelCLARADY]

How many Escorts did the Brits build?

[redrum68]

@michaelCLARADY - I think they had purchased about 10 and half of those had arrived already (I think I was just under 20 Allied escorts on the last turn). Most of them were built by Canada.

[MagicMissile]

Thanks for the AAR short as it was [:)]

11 corps in France is crazy I barely knew the UK could build that many. It is bad and maybe something needs to be done about it but maybe the main problem here might be the new 3 hex retreat rule.

With that rule change you really can stuff France full with units and when they retreat they wont shatter as they used to. It will be really hard for the Axis to eliminate allied units and the axis will have to do more combats and eventually the effectiveness of Axis units will be too low and France will survive into 1941.

Not sure why that rule was changed since the penalty have been lessened with the eventual return of the shattered corps.

Just shows how crazy hard it is to get these things right [:)].

/MM