Road to Where: Axis

[gwgardner]

Having never done an AAR before, let me know if I can improve as it goes along.

I'm taking the Axis countries in the PBEM game with cpdeyoung. Germany and Slovakia currently at war, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria as probable Axis members in turns to come.

Opening turn Germany's primary goals against Poland were: take Poznan and it's supply and communications nexus, grab resource-rich Silesia, and launch a spearhead deep into the core of the country aimed at the southern reaches of Warsaw. In the north I intended to take Danzig, to eradicate the Polish Corridor, and advance towards Warsaw, while being careful to avoid opening up any kind of opportunity for the Poles to advance into Prussia.

After hammering Poznan from the air, the city fell early on. Taking Silesia was a cake-walk, as German and Slovak infantry pinned the defending Polish forces up against the foothills of the Tatras Range of the Carpathians. That left a wide open avenue into central Poland.

Unfortunately, I was unable to search out the Polish air force. I suspect it was based to the west of Warsaw, but it still had enough cohesiveness after the air battles over Poznan, to assault and almost destroy Hoepner's tank corps. That was a heavy price to pay, to learn the fighting instinct and tenacity of the Poles.

I did manage on turn two to rescue Hoepner's command. It will take two weeks to refit and reinforce it. The High Command is furious, and a well-known carpet-eater is now suffering from indigestion.

In the west, the Westwall is standing firm. We are wondering of the French will come out from behind their Maginot fortresses.

This is actually the beginning of turn 2, before the German move:

[gwgardner]

At the end of turn two, after the rescue of Hoepner's Corps and continued advance towards Warsaw. The rescue cost me lots of PPs and time.

Not sure why they Poles decided to abandon Lodz and Cracow without a fight.

[gwgardner]

The Westwall after German turn 2.

[gwgardner]

Poland fell, but only after exacting too high a cost from the German armored spearheads. German commanders were too aggressive, taking objectives by brute force, when surround and starve would have sufficed. Lesson learned, hopefully.

It is now Feb, '40. German forces have almost completed their transfer to the west, where it appears that the recalcitrant British and French were not impressed enough by the lightening advance into Poland, and are not yet convinced that the war should end.

The High Command briefly considered an off-the-wall plan to attack through the Ardennes in order to spoil the expected British and French move into Belgium, when hostilities heat up on the Western front. Unfortunately, reconnaisance has revealed that the French have unexpectedly advanced several corps to mask any approach through Luxembourg. In light of that, something more akin to the Schlieffen Plan seems more likely to succeed. German armor will be concentrated in the north, aiming for a flanking movement against Brussels and a deep strike from there into France, with the expectation that dividing the British expeditionary forces from their French allies will make for a quick and decisive blow. If Paris can be taken quickly, and the British army can be backed up against the Channel and destroyed, the war may end by mid-summer.

[gwgardner]

Reconnaissance up to late April showed that the French had maintained multiple infantry corps behind the Ardennes, so the German High Command could not pursue that option. The decision was to invade the Netherlands, and position the German army for one of two subsequent approaches:

1) if the French remain behind their borders, we will attack through northern Belgium, outflank Brussels, bypass it if necessary, and drive straight south to encircle the French and British in France.

2) if the French and British pressure Belgium into declaring, and push forward their armies to defend that country, the German army will smash through just north of the Ardennes and encircle the enemy in Belgium.

Here is the situation map upon the declaration of war against the Netherlands.

[gwgardner]

The situation after the invasion of Netherlands.

The Dutch ringed Amsterdam with their entire army. We will take Amsterdam in the second week of May, then reposition for the ensuing major episode against the French and British.

[gwgardner]

On week two of the Big Show in the west, Belgium dawdled and remained neutral. Therefore I decided that the Germans had to go with the drive straight south to the West of Brussels, into France. No reason for delay, since my infantry could clean up the Netherlands. My armor was already positioned for the strike south.

The French and British have surprised me by keeping their air units totally out of range for intercepting my attacks on Amsterdam and Brussels.

Meanwhile, I have started to pressure Spain to join the Axis. I will need Italy's diplomatic points to pull it off, when and if they join.

[gwgardner]

A note on overall strategy for the war. While I want to fight it out on somewhat historical lines this first time in PBEM, the game system requires some ahistorical choices.

1) I did take Denmark, in Nov. 39, for the PP value of Copenhagen. I am not going to try for Norway. The game system makes that impossible in my opinion, without either strong airborne forces or a friendly Sweden. With the current system, the German navy will be wiped out, and possibly any amphibious force would be wiped out also, in attacking Oslo and going for the resource hex in northern Norway. It's too costly to build airborne forces, and I just don't have the PPs anyway, since my invasion of Poland was so costly.

2) Il Duce has had a bright moment, and will cut his ties completely to Ethiopia and Libya, and any dream of a North African Empire. By choosing to go with the Axis, Italy is completely at the mercy of the Germans, and only if they do well against the British, will Italy invest anything in Africa. Yugoslavia and Greece will be the target of Italian efforts, because of their high PP value.

3) The Axis will expend its early pool of diplo points on Spain. If Spain comes in and the Axis can take Gibralter, perhaps that will open things up for North Africa.

[gwgardner]

Things didn't quite work out as hoped. The French and British have committed all forces to the Belgian border, making blitz tactics rather difficult. I have no airborne units, so either I build up some PP for that, or try to hammer an opening for my armor to break through and encircle.

[Redd]

Hey GW! Been reading both AARs and loving them both. Looking at your screenshot things don't look so bad. The area south of Lille looks pretty weak. Also, your units are much stronger than most of his. I would line up some of your better infantry corps in this area, with All of your motorized corps behind them and your armor behind that. Pound a couple of holes in his 1 factor inf. divs and then leapfrog your motorized and armor into the holes. Just don't go so far that your units can be cut off.[;)] Hope this helps. Will be looking for updates daily!

[gwgardner]

Great minds think alike.

[Redd]

Sweet. Can't wait for the next turn. Thanks.

[gwgardner]

Situation June 1

Germans have a spearhead east of Lille, and actually punched a hole in the French lines, but the enemy were able to bring up reinforcements to plug the gap.

[gwgardner]

I forgot to get a pic of the front after my turn, but I continued the advance east of Lille, and again blew a hole in the lines. My forward units ran out of steam however, and could not exploit the opening, so I fear the French will be able to maneuver to close the gap again.

The entire German navy has taken to the North Sea, escorting two divisions of infantry destined for either Edinborough or the North Atlantic, from which they could assault the west coast of France. This is a desperate tactic to pull enemy units off the frontlines, rather than any serious attempt to establish a bridgehead.

[gwgardner]

Situation at the beginning of 2nd week in June. I took the pic just after hammering the 4-4 unit circled in red, with my air forces. At that point I launched a blitz attack to encircle a goodly chunck of the British army along with Lille. If I can take down Lille, this whole encircled group should fall quite easily. I just hope my thin line of armor can hold out against any attempt at relief.

[gwgardner]

And after:

[gwgardner]

Meanwhile, the amphibious assault was ordered against Edinborough. To my complete surprise, the city was undefended. I got greed and advanced on Glasgow too. Then the British intercepted and destroyed my followup forces, so Edinborough is ripe for the repicking. Three more divisions have been loaded on transports, and one more division on amphibious assault craft. The latter is currently in that Baltic, so will not be available till the end of June.

Will this suicidal assault turn the trick? Will it pull British forces out of France? Or will the British retain enough PPs to build a counterattacking force quickly? I could kick the back side of whichever general ordered the advance on Glasgow. If Edinborough is lost, this assault is over before it started, unless I can place a mulberry port. It's something the German navy has never tried before.

Oh yeah, there was a terrific naval battle in the North Sea, with over half of the German high seas fleet and all of its submarines destroyed. The rest, heavily damaged, have gone to port in Kiel, leaving the remaining sea-borne assault troops to elude the Royal navy by themselves.


I have no idea why this particular pic doesn't show up. click on the link.

[gwgardner]

Finally, a tactical withdrawal from the Maginot has been undertaken in the hopes that the enemy will advance, leaving their fortresses either for reconnaissance or for gain. Attacking the Maginot fortresses, which give a 100% bonus to the defender, is impossible. (actually, it should be seen as 1000%, since a 1.0 strength unit becomes a 10.0 strength.)

[gwgardner]

It should be noted that the German air force has had complete air superiority. Either the enemy has moved his air to Africa or to Cornwall or deep southern France - I don't know. Is it possible that he scrapped them and used the resulting resources to build infantry? (I haven't checked the manual to see if that is possible.)

[gwgardner]

Situation at beginning of turn, June 16th.

The enemy was able to withdraw his encircled forces. Where will they withdraw to?