Solitaire game starting late '42

[EUBanana]

The Commonwealth adjusts dispositions in Italy slightly, and gets ready to hit Naples with everything they got as the Wimpey got in some disruption. Partisans that were in Salonica even come out in Greece. Not sure if they can back up regulars, we'll see... Canadians and an armoured division land at Citavecchia as the lucky invasion force presses in to make room.

Looks like partisans can't attack with regulars - you learn something new every day.

Nationalist China can't really do a whole lot without air support so they stay put in the mountains mostly, same goes for Mao, who doesn't have spare troops to throw away any more.

The paratroopers were permitted to drop but a huge air battle breaks out over Naples in the ground support stage as bombers and fighters of both sides scramble... The US did their bombing last impulse so are not present this time.

[EUBanana]

The italian bomber gets through, but the CR42 is shot down and the Whirlwind gets through. Then the Swordfish is shot down which is a blow, probably shouldn't have committed it as the risk/reward there was not good. With only fighters left neither side is eager to continue and both sides go home.

[EUBanana]

An average roll isn't enough to get through Fortress Naples even with paras/naval support. That Italian bomber helped a lot as it happens... Attritional warfare is the name of the game in the bloody boot. I guess the Italians came out of that slightly better overall given 1st Airborne and the Swordfish cost a fair chunk of time and effort to return, but seems to have been a draw mostly.

[EUBanana]

The state of Italy as this impulse draws to a close... Wavell is too bad a commander to reorganise his troops for another go unfortunately for the CW. the airforces of both sides inthe Med are now worn out, matters more to the Allies I think. And I'm not sure the Axis have enough land power for a counterattack on that landing by Rome which isn't absurdly risky.

[EUBanana]

Germany and Italy go for land actions. With American subs suddenly everywhere and not many land units to move given Malaya got bogged down, the Japanese go for a naval action.

Marianas/Solomons get Japanese naval air in the 4 box, the Marianas has subs/convoy point in it so sinking the convoy point seems worthwhile.

The Japanese admiral eyes what forces can be brought to the New Zealand Sea... there's 26 naval factors at Rabaul, and a 14, a 20, and a 9, and no air cover, in the New Zealand Sea in 2/3/4. But the Japanese would be in the 2 box. It doesn't seem that good odds to me (but the Japanese only have 4 ships due to being high quality which would cut losses... but I suppose there would be American air power in the Solomons/Coral Sea fairly soon so I guess now is the time for some surface engagement. So... may as well.

Yamamoto is at Brisbane (!) feeling vulnerable as the USN comes his way. Japan sends a TRN from Canton to pick him up - and a couple of cruisers as escort, not that I think much can attack the TRN but just in case, maybe the Aussie navy can rustle up something or a few spare US cruisers can get that far. A couple of IJN cruisers go to the Solomons to help the Nell sink the convoy point there and blockade Tarawa, which has a US garrison. Kaga/Akagi/Chitose move from Canton to the BIsmarck sea where they meet Haruna in the 3 box as the IJN shifts eastwards. Some carriers will remain at Canton to keep the CW out of of the Bay of Bengal next turn.

Hata and some infantry load into AMPH/TRN in the Sea of China with a fleet of old BBs. In an ideal world they would invade the Phillippines but I'm sure that would be a disaster with such a tiny ground force but I'll check the odds.

A lot of potential combat but its mostly single convoys being attacked/attritted, only the New Zealand Sea is interesting really. I assume most of the convoy points will survive but I don't know, the Japanese ships are very fast and there's a lot of air power involved, so not like the uboats. I'm sure they'll be way more effective...

[EUBanana]

Well that's a bit weird, the Japanese tried to initiate in the New Zealand Sea and it said there were no committed units, as if there were submarines there. As it was right after the American subs in the Marianas decided to engage, I'm inclined to think that was a bug...

Also the Kate I had defending the China Sea has vanished. I fear I accidentally set it to kamikaze into the US sub there which it did kill and I didn't notice. I notice kamikaze mode is default sometimes, will have to watch out for that.

So... a bit anticlimactic.

There was quite a lot of butchery of convoy points though, clearly while sea combat is often 'and nothing happens' it happens often enough in the Pacific that unguarded CPs will have a short life expectancy.

[EUBanana]

Back to the Eastern Front as its Germany's go.

Kesselring and a couple of divisions are railed to Dnepropetrovsk. A Stuka tries to bomb some troops near Rostov but a Soviet FTR-3 was to my surprise in range and intercepted, causing it to abort. von Manstein reorged some railed in SS armour last impulse so those guys are free to see if any bits can be pierced... best odds are +6 on the roll which isn't that good when you're risking 12 point panzer divisions against Russian MILs.

So there are no attacks aside from antipartisan operations in France.

Of some slight interest might be the MNT on the plains of Russia a bit out of place - he's moved to a Stalino to rail to Italy where he'll be much more useful.

Turn ends. Everywhere's fine weather bar the Arctic. Global warming came early.

[craigbear]

As to the New Zealand Sea weirdness, perhaps you used an undo during naval moves... that sometimes causes problems. If needed, it is likely better to redo moves from a save rather than doing undo.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: craigbear

As to the New Zealand Sea weirdness, perhaps you used an undo during naval moves... that sometimes causes problems. If needed, it is likely better to redo moves from a save rather than doing undo.

Maybe. I do use undo quite a lot and sometimes get myself into a jam in so doing.

In fact last impulse with the Germans I did some poor placement that i assumed I could undo but couldn't, one reason for the no attacks. But I think my failures at playing the game at least apply equally to both sides... [:D]

[EUBanana]

Impulse #5, Nov/Dec 1942
Everything Fine except rain in the arctic.

Brazil aligns to the US. The snake is smoking. Most of their stuff is set up in the north of the country so it can be deployed to Europe more easily on the off chance there's a spare transport.

Starting to run out of available units, so we're onto the dregs.

US takes a combined - got Efate to invade, and also bombers in Europe to use.
CW takes a combined - bombers is all I can think of right now but there's only a couple in the UK so don't need an air action
China - land
USSR - land
FF - pass, as always

CW port attacks La Spezia with carrier air from the WMed and Italian Coast. Risk isn't zero as there's an AA gun at La Spezia for this sort of thing. USS Ranger is in the Western Med and joins in with an SBD and F4. AA fire is intense, surprise points lower it from lowest 1 of 1 to lowest 1 of 2. 4 is rolled, so that's basically half of the naval air factors. 1 Destroyed 1 Damaged (this is why the Italian fleet keeps sortieing against the odds). An old Italian BB is damaged.

[EUBanana]

Looking for things to do a bit, the CW moves a TRN from Gibraltar to Liverpool for future reinforcement transportation, and 2 AMPHs to Faeroes Gap hoping to rebase to somewhere like Newcastle and threaten Europe. (There's an American AMPH in Plymouth already).

The US sends 2 TRN's with fighters to the South Pacific, wanting to get fighters ready at Efate if they take it but not wanting to get mixed up with the Yamato. I think that's out of range of the Japanese's effective combat radius... CPs in the China Sea and Bismarck Sea withdraw as clearly keeping the PI supplied is a pipe dream, the 'scatter' approach really doesnt work, and with the IJN already deployed to hunt them there's not a whole lot of point leaving them to be found.

CW tries strategic bombing Germany but it's a bit of a disaster, an old model Bf109 awaits now. Shuolda night bombed.

[EUBanana]

US moves its motorised artillery to the front in Italy... atm only divisional sized units there, the main contribution is in the air... for now.

Shoulda taken a land action for the US, so much to debark/invade this turn! Invading Efate takes all their remaining actions. A little bit of defensive shore bombardment from the IJN... a lot from the USN. +7 odds in the end, a roll of 8 makes it bloody but successful.

Without his bomber, Chiang rebases his P40E south where there's a lone Japanese GARR surrounded by weak Chinese who can only really attack disorged units. The communists are not attacking any more, after all, so why not, plus all the IJA's fighters are in the northern Chinese area.

Over to the Axis...

[EUBanana]

Germany is running out of things to do, but wants to rail that MNT in Stalino to Italy and also deploy its submarines, so that means a combined. I like spreading the subs out but that won't be possible is the only wrinkle.

Italy has some tiny bit of rearrangement to do so does a land action.

Japan does a combined action too, will consider invading the PI with a single corps, but I suspect they'll just debark it to China instead and wait for the marines in Malaya to be free. Hopefully it will happen next turn. And, combined, because it's navy is alert for targets of opportunity with their fast cruisers.

The Kriegsmarine rolls a 1 and the Allies a 5 in the North Atlantic, so it's going to be a bad turn for Allied shipping. 3 subs vs 3 cruisers in the 0 box and a whole lotta targets.

A lot of the surprise points are spent on defending the subs, which still suffer 1 damaged + 2 aborts. Every armour roll passes though so one sub aborts and thats it. Uboats sink 3 convoy points.

Then both sides roll a 6 and the combat ends. A nice haul for the Kriegsmarine though for the cost of one naval action.

[EUBanana]

The Japanese fleet in the New Zealand Sea gets to attack now for some reason and it all works. They even roll 1, and get to do what they want. That cuolda been bad last turn with loaded transports, as it is they are looking for easy kills, so they go for the cruiser squadron in the 4 box.

Raleigh is damaged and aborted, Richmond destroyed. But Maya is also aborted.

The Japanese decide to fight on, and are found... by the remnants of the cruisers, now hugely outgunned. But with only 3 surprise points they can't evade combat, so the cruisers and the Yamato slug it out again despite the Allies rolling better. Honolulu and Detroit are both damaged and aborted, but so are Hiei and Haguro (aborted that is... not damaged), leaving just the Yamato on its own. The Japanese decide that's enough and get out of Dodge... or the New Zealand Sea as it happens... and return to Rabaul. The three damaged American cruisers go to Pago Pago, the rest of the battlewagons and the convoy point stay put, not having seen anything.

[EUBanana]

So, remember what I said about how those two transports carrying American fighters in the South Pacific were safe...

... not really. Turns out BB Kongo could sail out from Truk on its own and reach the 2 box there, and given the US fleet in the Pacific is entirely deployed do so with impunity. So it has a go. It doesn't find the TRN's but that's a bit scary for the American part of my brain.

The Pacific theatre in WiF is easily the part of the game I know the least, I've only got this far before once. The uboat war I think I have a handle on, the Mediterranean, well, I know how it always seems to play out with the Italians being butchered no matter what. But the Pacific is a new one.

I guess the importance of covering absolutely everything if possible and leaving some back to catch raiders like that has been learned so far.

It's stuff like this that inspired me to make this AAR, as the shape of the middle/late war is pretty hard to see with most AARs spending much time invading France. And for some reason the Guadalcanal short scenario doesn't load on my computer, so global war it has to be...

[EUBanana]

A Lily and a Helen in China, running out of things to do, decide to try strat bombing. The Lily is in Canton and bombs Changsha - in the night, as a P36A is in Changsha. The Helen is in the north and bombs Sian in daylight at extended range, which is unprotected by fighters.

The P36A is very unlucky and gets shot down at night... maybe the bomber shouldn't have been so scared after all.

The same applies to Chinese fear of Japanese bombs, as both bombers miss the factories so the lost fighter (and pilot) is the only damage done.

[EUBanana]

It's late-ish in the turn (#6), and without a Soviet HQ on the Moscow facing front, there are some unsupplied units which means even in the rain it might be worth a go with the Luftwaffe in the north who so far this turn have been just sitting on their butts. Disorged out of supply units should be in trouble even in the rain after all.

[EUBanana]

Well, got one... the MOT ended up disorged NE of Gomel.

Attack will happen later in the turn if the odds are decent.

[EUBanana]

Hata debarks to China.

I keep the militia in the China Sea on the amph to test an invasion of the Philippines. +21 is predicted, which confuses me, but 'okay'. It's only militia so if some notional unit can pop up and make it -4 I don't really mind TOO much.

But no, the notional unit keeps it at +21.

I don't understand why that hex is easy to invade, but the plain hex next to Rangoon wiped out the entire IJN's marines back in summer.

Elsewhere the Japanese fly a 13 range Reisen to Rabaul, where there's already a Val and those four big warships that messed up the USN's cruisers just now.

[EUBanana]

For some reason no attack from Germany, I think I must've used all my land move points. Dahhh! <insert Hitler rant against Halder here>

The unseasonable Hot Winter of 41/42 comes to an end as well. Such timing. <insert another Hitler rant>

But the turn does not. Must Remember US Land Action to debark lots of things here. Aside from that the Axis want time more than the Allies (move the Japanese militia on the PI, potential attack from Germany) so all the other allies may well pass.

Time for a slight break.