A World Ignites... (AAR)

[Orm]

German ground strike was a complete success to the despair of UK.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #3 (Axis) - Ground Strike

[Orm]

Germany rails two units from Poland to the west front and one corps to Genoa.

Italy move a Terr to the French minor port Sousse in Tunisia. Japan debarks two MIL into Canton.

No land attacks since I didn't like the odds even with positive modifiers. Not having enough loss units also had something to do with this.

Germany rebase 2 more aircraft to the west front. Japan rebase two aircraft from Japan to China.

Germany reorganize the 1st Engineer division with the Ju 52. Rundstedt (HQA) reorganize one FTR2 and one LND2.



Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #3 (Axis) - End of Impulse

[Orm]

No declarations of war.

CW selects a naval impulse. France and China picked a land impulse. CW wanted to take a land impulse as well in order to attempt to reorganize one of the land units in Rotterdam but the need to move the Royal Navy was greater since this might be the last Allied impulse of the turn. Besides, it is not guaranteed that the air transport would have succeeded in reorganizing a unit and no TRS was available for reorganization.

No Port Strikes. No naval air.

CW sends a TRS with Wavell (HQA) from Egypt to Bay of Biscay. CW also move out more CPs because of the increased demand on convoys to France. A lot of convoy escorts also leave different ports. CW also sends a TRS to the North Sea that loads a 7-4 Mot.

USA sends a long range naval bomber to Hawaii.

CW strat bombs Hamburg for no effect at all.

CW elects to ground strike the two German stacks next to Rotterdam. Mostly to annoy Germany. The bombers are unescorted so they will be at a great disadvantage if they are intercepted. But if Germany intercepts then CW will have a fighter advantage over Rotterdam during the next German impulse. And if Germany does not intercept then at least some of the units in the stacks should become disorganized and that might cause some trouble if Germany decide to attack Rotterdam.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #6 (Allies) - Ground Strike

[Orm]

Germany decides to intercept the better bomber rather than risk being flipped on the ground. But the air battle is a disappointment to Germany as the Blenheim bombers fire is to accurate and shot down the German fighters. Not a good day for Luftwaffe.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #6 (Allies) - Ground Strike

[Orm]

Germany fires with the AA against the LND2 but the result was only one point reduced from the bombing for no practical effect at all.

CW ground strike is a complete failure and no German unit was hit.

USSR rail a unit to Baku.

France, China, and USSR just make minor adjustments of their units.

No reorganization.

And for no other reason than that I like how the counters look I post a picture of the alps.



Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #6 (Allies) - Reorganization

[Orm]

New weather is a 8 (6+2) which means winter continues.

No declarations of war.

All Axis nations pick a land impulse.

No Port Strikes. No naval air.

Italy strat bomb Lyons for no effect at all.

No ground strikes.

Germany rails two more units from Poland to the West Front. Germany also rail one corps to La Spezia.

I am considering attacking Rotterdam despite the snowy weather. One question is if I should bring in the best units for the attack or bring in the units I rather lose. The engineers, for example, would help to get better odds but if I use them then I will surely lose 'em.



Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #9 (Axis) - Land Movement

[Orm]

It is late in the turn so Japan declares two attacks.

Edit: It is 30% chance that the turn ends after this impulse.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #9 (Axis) - Land Combat Declaration.

[Orm]

Germany decides to not attack Rotterdam this impulse either. The odds is to bad. I had forgot how powerful defensive shore bombardment is in snow. If Germany gets to decide then that option will not be allowed in future games.[:@]

CW taunts the chicken German player.

[Orm]

Japan attack the Chinese in the Mufu mountains for the third time and for the third time the attack roll is a 5. This time it is enough to take the hex.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #9 (Axis) - Land Combat Resolution

[Orm]

And in the South of China Army Group Yamamoto crush the Chinese 8th Army.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #9 (Axis) - Land Combat Resolution

[Orm]

Germany and Japan rebase a crappy bomber closer to the front.

No reorganization.

The impulse did not end so now the Allies ponder on whether they should pass or not.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #9 (Axis) - End of Impulse

[Orm]

No declarations of war.

CW, France and China selects land. Without passing there is 50% chance that the turn will end. China felt that they had advantage by moving some units and so did CW.

No Port Strikes. No naval air. No naval movement. No strategic bombing. No ground strikes.

France rails the 42nd Corps from Oran to Tunis.

China reorganize their lines and are not happy with how things look.

Wavell (HQA) debarks into Bayonne. CW also debarks the 4th Corps into Calais.

No land combats.

CW rebase a NAV2 (Swordfish) to Derry.

No reorganization.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #11 (Allies) - HQ Reorganization

[Orm]

Turn ends on a 5 or less but I rolled a 10 so the turn continues and Axis gets another, unexpected, impulse..

New weather is a 5 (4+1) which means storm and rain.

No declarations of war. Germany was eager to declare war on Belgium since getting a double move is now a likely possibility and if that happened then Belgium would have been overrun without Allied interference. But the high US entry chits during '39 made me delay with this DOW. But somehow I feel doubtful that this was the right call.

Japan selects land while Germany and Italy go with combined.

No Port Strikes. No naval air.

Germany rebase the fleet in Memel to Kiel.

Italy sends two TRS to the West Mediterranean loaded with HQA and one MOT. The transporters are escorted by one battleship and four cruisers.

Edit: Note that the Italian fleet can not reach higher than the one box. [:(]


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #13 (Axis) - Naval Movement

[Orm]

Italy elects to not search for the enemy. France, however, do search in the hope of gaining a bunch of surprise points so that a TRS can be targeted. Getting so many surprise points is unlikely but you can never win if you do not play.

Italy reacts and sends out a NAV2 to escort the fleet.

Both sides roll low and find and there are no surprise points at all. Italy decide to make it a naval air combat. This inflicts two abort result on the French ships but France rolls well on the defence so the result of the combat is no effect. Both sides stay for another round of combat but both search roll fail this time... much ado about nothing.



Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #13 (Axis) - Naval Combat

[Orm]

Italy bombs Marseilles strategically meanwhile Germany bombs Metz. France sends a FTR2 to Metz and Germany counter intercepts with a FTR2 and a air combat commences. The result of the air combat is that the French fighter aborts but they had succeeded in removing the +1 on the die roll and are fairly happy with the result. A two is rolled in both raids so strategic bombing now falls in the category "why bother" for the Axis.

No ground strikes.

Germany rail the Kiel militia to Karlsruhe.

Japan moves their forces in the south to attack the Peking militia. They also move to capture a unguarded resource.



Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #13 (Axis) - Land Movement

[Orm]

Italy debarks two land units into Tunisia.

Japan attacks the Peking militia.

Germany is out of patience and attacks Rotterdam despite lousy weather and even lousier combat odds. But now, at least, Germany has two "loss units" in the attack. Maybe I should not do this attack because I asked myself if I felt lucky and my answer was that I didn't feel lucky at all. I rather feel that I must attack.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #13 (Axis) - Land Combat Declaration

[Orm]

von Bock attempts to provide offensive HQ support.

The Royal Navy provides 11 points in defensive shore bombardment.

Germany fly all available aircraft in support of the attack and so does CW.



Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #13 (Axis) - Ground Support: Air-to-Air Combat

[Orm]

The air combat over Rotterdam is extremely bloody and almost all bombers gets cleared through after all fighters are destroyed. Note that CW had the option to destroy their air transport instead of a fighter but I decided it was more important to keep the ATR.

The real winner here is France since Luftwaffe is severely decimated by fighting RAF.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #13 (Axis) - Ground Support: Air-to-Air Combat

[Orm]

Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #13 (Axis) - Ground Support

[Orm]

HQ support fail.

The attack ends in one division destroyed for CW. Much effort for no real gain at all. But it could have been a lot worse.


Picture from Nov/Dec 39, Impulse #13 (Axis) - Land Combat Resolution