Magicmissile (Allied) vs Malkarma (Axis) Malkarma welcome :)

[MagicMissile]

On the central front I do what I said I would. I go for the German armour. Managed to get 2 corps down to like 2-3 combat strength. Only 3 full strength arm corps left on the whole eastern front I think.

[MagicMissile]

And the best news this turn happens in the south. With the Rumanian and Bulgarian black sea ports not garrisoned the Soviets invade. I manage to cut rail to Bucharest and the arm corps north of Bucharest cant reach so maybe it Rumania could fall but there might be reinforcements to deploy so we will see. Either way should be another front that opens up which should be good for me.

[MagicMissile]

June 19 1942

In Finland advance continues and I caught a 3rd full size Finnish corps hope to make it surrender next turn.

Red Air force already lost 50% by 4 fighters, taken huge losses and xp on airplanes just up to 38% I really dont know what to do with USSR air forcve they are hopeless [:)].

[MagicMissile]

Northern part of USSR continue to hunt for German arm units with decent success.

[MagicMissile]

In the southern part I got Bucharest but as ususal it would be good to know the rules. You also need Galati which I dont have so no surrender here. At least I got across Dniestr river and the landing open up another front for a while which will draw some resources.

[MagicMissile]

In the middle east not much going on this turn. I again lose supply in Iraq so I skip the idea of getting anything done there and start to withdraw.

[MagicMissile]

Lots of Axis ships sailing the oceans [:)].

[MagicMissile]

In the USA the UK corps and the reserve corps that spawns makes things looking a little bit better. The German units are all divisions so there is hope to get them out eventually.

[MagicMissile]

Game Ended July 3 1942

Game is ended but I can show the final positions anyway.

In Finland I managed to get the Finnish corps to surrender. Dont know when Finland might have fallen but they are in trouble.

[MagicMissile]

Central front I retook Minsk and overran a ground attack unit. Here I feel I advanced a bit too far and if we had played on a couple of corps could have been lost to counterattacks.

[MagicMissile]

In the south the advance was also maybe a bit ambitious but the beachhead in Rumania would have been an headache for the Axis over time I think.

[MagicMissile]

In the Middle east I also attacked anf got 2 corps down to 1 attack strength but none shattered and here too maybe a bit too open for counterattacks.

[MagicMissile]

In the US the situation is kind of under control but yeah was scary. Those National guard corps that arrived was critical.

[MagicMissile]

Again Thanks Malkarma for a nice game. I felt very much under pressure the whole game and I have learnt a lot. Especially respect landbased air against Naval units its really bad . Also maybe garrison the US somewhat especially in a game with axis focus mostly on the western allies.

A bit annoyed with myself for not adapting very well. I played as if it was a normal game which it clearly wasnt and I feel I took maybe too big risks sometimes.

Was so sure for example when I got the whole French navy that it would be easy to attrition down the axis navies but no not that easy facing enemy air and ports inherent defense. And I lost basically the whole UK/French navy. A feat not seen on these forums I think [:)]

But in the end Axis air and naval losses were pretty big and having the Soviets safe in 41 makes them really hard to deal with. Their units not so good in the beginning but having 24 mech units you can still achieve a fair amount.

Interesting is seeing how Axis will play henceforth. I think Malkarma showed what can be accomplished. Allies beware [:)].

[malkarma]

Last turn screenshot can be a bit biased because I didn´t play my last turn. I limited myself to write the in-game mesage and sending it.
Ireland DOW was a mistake because, Lords knows why, I disabled the weather button so I didn´t realized that we were under rain. Should I had stayed in NorthenIreland thing have been better.
The shatter issue have grinded my gears for good. I my allied game, 2 or 3 of german units survived by miracle after receivi9ng several 7:1+ attack. Here the same, even some of them have survived a couple of 10:1. My units were not so effective in that department.
We played under a weird bug that didn´t allowed me to recovcer efficiency on Axis planes with German trucks. And since Axis minor trucks goes to the german pool...that needs to be fixed.
Finland could have been stabilized should I had remeber that axis minor needs their own air transports for Air Supplies missions...ooops.
Usa invasion is no so antihistorical when you sink 80% of the Royal Navy. Let´s say that the Atlantic is free game for everyone.
I was unable to protect one of the captured USA ports by a missclick that I was unable to9 undo due finish adjacent to an enemy unit. I need to be more careful.
I was fully aware olf the surrender terms for Rumania, but anyways those ports should have been covered. Actually most of the game they were. Seems that I moved the units there and forgot to replace the...dumb move by my side.

But the 2 more important things:
1) Those thing of "keep pounding Gibraltar" is plain bullshit. I was losing over 6 steps per plane, and since you can only recover 5 , your units will be worse every turn. Also since ships at port can be bottonned, your efforts can be futile. My last two turns werelike this:
In order to sink a CA and a DD i losed 40+ planes, and Italian CA, and got hit points in several other surface ships. And the bloody CA had to be sunk 3 times due a couple of "Bottonned" results in a row. So, after realized that you only had 18 fleet points left I breather a bit...until I discovered that those 18 points were a CV and 3 BB's that wipèd the remmants of the Italian Navy when entering Gibraltar.
That was the moment in wich I say "fuck this". There is a difference between making Gibraltar and making it a hell. If the goal is the second, as well remove the blockade rules to avoid lure german players in the belief they can do it anything there. Also, my unit there was losingefficiency like a champion even if I had it always fully supplied by Air Supply. I think that that issue needs to be fixed.

2) NEVER, NEVER, NEVER I will full conquer France again. Not only my opponent and didn´t know that colonies will end in german hands, but Also the whole french fleet for UK. If I had done a Vichi conquer, I had been the ruler of the seas by 1941 due the obliteration of the whole Royal Navy.
Honestly, is better to spent 150-250 PP in conquering NA then giving over 2000+ PP in free ships to the Royal Navy. We need something toi replicate the Tolon events, when the Germans collapsed Vichi in '42.

3) Surface raiders are overpowered. I can understand the destroyers protecting a convey running away from the Bismark or the Scharnhost...but runnin away from a CA group or a DD group that actually can be smaller that the convoy escort group? No way. Also as soon the jeep carriers started to acompany convoys, any surface ship wanting to attack could have been greeted with a nasty surprise. The surface raiders convoy attack need some tweaks.

[MagicMissile]

Screenshots were from my last real turn July 3. On the next turn july 17 you wanted to end the game instead of counterattacking and kicking my bum [:)]. Then I sent you another turn just to write the final message July 17 turn but I didnt move anything then.

Can confirm the Axis supplytruck airunits bug. I started the 1942 scenario and I can use supplytrucks on Axis minors land units no problem but not Axis minor airunits.

Concerning the invasion of the USA. Dont want an argument if it could have been done or not. But for me I think even with basically no enemy opposition could the Axis really supply a force across the Atlantic. It feels doubtful. But I dont mind it. The game allows it. It is easily stopped basically just put a division in each major city. But I didnt and had to face the consequences. I thought it was good play and the surprise and fear when I saw there was 11 ships outside the coast was well worth the whole game [:)]

Concerning 1) I felt pretty bad sending in ships there all the time just to see them get sunk but yeah I understand the pain those 6 AA hurt a lot. Too much? Maybe, I would have to try and take it myself just to see how it feels and goes. English naval size was at 35-40ish I think. When fleet are in transit between redsea and the Atlantic they disappear from the Force size. So I was also worried and didnt quite understand why it said navy down to 18 or so but there was a reason.

Concerning 2) I agree conquering France makes not much sense as you also take a fair amount of losses finishing off the French. So wont do that again.

Concerning 3) As I understand it they are a bit easier to find after the update. And I might have noticed it as in the end of the game I actually did find some German ships.

[malkarma]

The ones that you found at the end where because they ended in fleet mode after the disembarks. I could have save the two german bb's by moving them to open sea before the division´s disembarks.
My points is that ecorsts should have a chance to damage the surface raiders also. Maybe low chance, and maybe not much damage. But enough to don´t let you roam the seas for free in a several months merchant marine slaughter.

[MagicMissile]

Yes that is not an unreasonabe idea for sure.

Thanks again for the game [:)]

/MM

[Harrybanana]

Historically, often when the British were faced with surface raiders in the North Atlantic they had a simple solution, they added BBs to their convoy escorts. So this should somehow be worked in to the game as an option.

[MagicMissile]

Mm that could be a good idea but as usual I never know how hard these things are to code or how long it might take [:)].

But maybe if you put an BB on a convoyline maybe could add support to the escorts there but then they would also be effective vs subs. Of course I guess BBs usually had a DD escort so maybe not completely unreasonable.