Cohen vs Enrico - AAR nr. 5

[AlbertN]

Greetings,

We've started again, and due to shortage of time I've been unable to write the AAR, so you'll get a "condensed" version of the facts leading to where we got, May / June '41 starting.

A rather peak-time for this version of WW2, you'll see why soon.

We play with our usual "House Rules" which you can refer to the other threads; and pratically almost all the optional rules coded except a few (namely the Food in Flames, and Defensive Shore Bombing).

We have added 2 new house rules for now.

One is an alteration of the previous House Rule where an airplane needed an Air-to-Sea factor to call for Naval Air (Which meant old fighters and such could not be parked in Seychelles or so to waste 4 surprise points to Submarines).
It has been changed to something that relates to the movement of the plane wasting surprise points pratically to avoid Naval Air combat. (Pratically a Gladiator operating from land bases can hardly cover the whole route of a convoy across a sea. A Naval Plane with range 14 or 20 can easily patrol the route instead).
So pratically a fighter with short range in the 0 box warrants a 1 suprise point wasted in order to avoid Naval Air combat, and so forth.
How to enact this in the game?
When the side with the airplane is asked "Do you want naval air combat?" it says "No thanks." and then the one who is avoiding Naval Air combat has to -not use- (but must have, obviously, at avail) the amount of Surprise Points required by the airplane range.

The other is about Surface Combat. We felt it truly silly that the owner of the losses was picking all the destroyed and damaged stuff. All the crap cruisers were sinking first, and that would gradually leave the fleets with the best ships around in general. But a BB usually tries to shoot to another BB and so forth. Surely not on the screeing CL.

So what we do is similar to the Naval-Air combat, where the target is picked at swings. But meanwhile in Naval Air the owner chooses second, and the damager first; in Surface combat the damager first, and the owner second (or if you favor, the owner the ODD damages, and the owner the EVEN damages).
Aircraft Carriers, Convoys, CPS, and Surface ships with troops loaded cannot be targetted in Surface Combat. (Unless surprise points are spent. There could be the Gamey issue of loading BBs with troops to not have them targetted but I trust both me and my pal to not play in that fishy way - if sending them in a naval battle without the need to land troops somewhere).
We got in situations where convoys were involved - and they were immolated for a Destroy result (Which is cheap when it's only 1 CP, or even 2 if you could get something more juicy instead).

With logical hindsight, if you get into a naval combat, your combat ships would move ahead to screen the troop transports or the carriers. If you want to hit these, spend surprise points. Fair and square.

[AlbertN]

Germany Chronology:

1939
In September / October 39 the Germans punished Poland, with pratically the whole of their forces at avail except the few required for manning the Siegfried Line, and seize Denmark.
What was expected to be a smooth takeover of the Polish grounds costed me an INF-Div, when a +19 attack to Poznan was rolled 3.

The game always starts well when you lose a unit in Poland. Where you should lose none!

Denmark and Netherland fell smoothly - Von Rundstedt was used to reorganize 4 reserve units and the Ju52 another - that was the force to seize Netherland.

In Nov / Dec, despite the bad weather the Germans seize Belgium as well. (A possibly wrong move, since in '39 the chits are much stronger than in '40)

It's noteworthy I was overconfident, and placed the Kriegsmarine at Kiel, which was nailed during the surprise impulse with very bad rolls by my side. The AMPH unit was bottomed for good.

First Half 1940:

In Jan / Feb 1940 the Allies win the initiative but have the Axis start.
Fatal mistake as there is a hex in France where there is only a 4-3 MIL (Lyon). Germans struggling in the mud fire an O-Chit and rampage through the French lines with relatively poor results.
Germany lose a MOT-Inf division, and blitz south of Lille in Paris direction, ZoCing the French Capital; meanwhile two hexes south another breakthrough is made, but as there is no road no blitz can happen.
The Germans destroyed 1 MIL and shattered 1 INF and 1 MIL. A very poor result, but pocketed in the middle 3 french units.

The Luftwaffe did a poor job disrupting the French, but earned aerial victories, shooting down both French FTR and LDN as they scrambled to defend their troops. (the LND was pretty vicious, if it was going to pass that 4-3 MIL would have got to 6 combat power).

The 2nd impulse the Germans liquidated the pocket that was OOC and reached Lyon, willingly leave Paris exposed to be retaken. But to do so the French would have to move a MOT from Lille, leaving there a HQ and an ART disrupted already.
So Paris get back in French hold with a MOT and a Cameron TERR, meanwhile Lille is seized by the Germans.

At the Maginot the French pull back into Metz and Strasbourg after a successful counterattack against the Germans - costing the Germans a GARR.

The tally of German losses is 21 BPs atm (including O-Chit)

The Germans methodically start to hammer down the French losing 2 more MILs in the process - raising the lost tally to 25 BPs, until France opts to surrender in after May / June 1940.

Luckily enough their good BB in production is won by UK, a nice addition to the Royal Navy.

The BEF arrived, and departed from the UK safely, and in the while the Kriegmarine suffered more beating, losing one of their Battlecruisers and some cruisers by the hand of a small squadron of the Royal Navy. That pretty much denied the Axis some extra push to shore bomb the BEF if they were to attack it.

[AlbertN]

Germany Chronology - Jul / Aug 40 to March / April 41.

As per usual I deem Gibraltar policy better than a Barbarossa '41 - though in this occasion a Barbarossa '41 could have been very very juicy and tasty.
Alas Germans were nowhere near ready for that.

Struggling with OIL - in order to favor production, for 4 turns the Germans were limited in what they could use. Usually having 1.X of oil requiring units not being reorganized. The fleet was not very needed but Von Leeb HQ sat in France for all these turns, not being reorganized.

After France, Spain comes. Especially as with Italy a new strategy was tried (one that did not left me much convinced admittedly).
But the Italian ally was in dire need of assistance, and the best way was to close the Med. Actually the only way, besides sending some planes for the Med.

Spain defended upfront, deploying a reserve in Saragossa and the rest in the mountains. The Germans performed three attacks in the opener - losing a MOT-Div there - but otherwise succesfully unhinged the Spanish defences.
With sour disappointment, the Spanish MOT in Saragossa was free to act.

The Spanish and the Brits were quick to react - the Germans performed an amount of landings on the European Coast of Spain. Barcellona was left unmanned in order to attack one of these divisions and the Brits moved out of Gibraltar to do the same with the one more south. Germans lose two more INF-Div (German tally lost 31 BPs + Ships which are not too relevant, but then you can count 1 BB, 1 Amph and 2 CA ontop of that).

The Germans got to the doors of Madrid and surrounded it BUT with a roll of 1, Jul / Aug ends (luckily for the allies) at the 7th Impulse.
That saved to the Allies an amount of losses. The Brit INF that fought the German division was disrupted in the mountains and could have been easily isolated. Madrid had only 1 unit defending, and would have fallen the next impulse - now it will get as well a MECH unit, and is going to delay the fall of Spain of a whole turn. (And mostly on the Japanese front, the Soviets had a bad roll in an attack, had all flipped in Manchuria and the Japanese encircled them with 1 unit, cutting their supply. If I had 1 more impulse, the Soviets would have lost 9 more BPs, an INF and the grounded and spent LND4).

The Germans did not lost their spirits anyhow, and seized Madrid in Sept / Oct '40, and stormed Portugal too. The RAF loses an airplane over Madrid, unwisely sent there to protect the Spaniards. For the better it was shot down in the air, and the pilot saved. Having 3 range, an abort result would have produced a much better outcome (as where it would have landed, the Germans would have got it.)

The British send a BEF into Ferrol, swiftly reinforced by more Brits. They don't get to bring 4 corps in time though. A total of 1 MIL, 1 GARR, 1 MOT, 1 INF-Div, 1 FTR and 1 LND2. The LND2 will be moved later on to Gibraltar - the rest of the Brits will get butchered over time; the MIL in NOV / DEC, as it moves in Ferrol to get an additional port to ship more units ... but that is a different weather zone - and the MIL is smashed in 1940.
For Ferrol the Axis has to wait for the March / April 1940.

In the while, in South Spain the Brits perform bombing runs - where a Blenheim is shot down (with pilot) by the Luftwaffe. That is when the Fairey Battle is rebased from Ferrol to Gibraltar.

The Luftwaffe has slowly and gradually moved in for the kill - many combined actions during the winter turns. The Royal Navy dominated the seas, and shot down an Alcione - more losses for Italy and their poor economy.
Very little to no results were provided in the winter turns but in March / April a batch of 4 Bf110 arrived too in the area, ontop of the HE112, both condors and 2 He115, and an amount of Italian Navals.

Churchill was basking in his tranquillity of how the Royal Navy kept safe the sealanes. At the start of March / April the situation on the map looked good.
He had a grandtotal of 5 FTRs in Spain (ontop of the 1 lost in Madrid), 1 LND2. 2 INF + AT in Gibralatar, the MOT + GARR + INF-Div in Ferrol.
Ships in abundance, including 2 Carriers with 2 Gladiators strong 3 and more carriers with more "naval oriented" squadrons.

The Kriegsmarine raids in the Atlantic not only were met with insuccess, but the Royal Navy intercepted the German ships returning to Lisbon, sinking 3 cruisers; and the Bismark was damaged as well.

Churchill had to pratically abandon the Mediterranean where he was overly successful as well, but he was confident. And still had 10 convoys in Bay of Biscay and 5 in Cape St. Vincent.
The Italian submarine fleet was reduced to only 1 submarine, and the Germans lost 2 submarines out of 4 - damaged or destroyed.

That is where and when the tragedy struck the Commonwealth, and the blessed star of luck kissed Hitler's forehead.

Finally the Axis found with their planes the Brits, repeatedly so. In Bay of Biscay the UK got an amount of damaged cruisers, lost 5 convoys and got the rest aborted. Leaving the zone vacant. The Germans lost though a HE115.

A submarine raid gave in to more convoys, sinking 4 more of them before the submarines got expelled, in the North Atlantic.

In Cape St. Vincent the UK lost a carrier, both gladiators, a fighter, and all of their convoys; damaged ships and 2 cruisers sank. All for a BF110 gunned down by a lucky flak roll.

The Germans had prepared closeby Gibraltar their siege artillery, and struck heavily the airfields there, pinning down a FTR and the Fairey Battle (LND2).

Even at Ferrol the RAF failed to defend the land troops. (But as per Madrid, their fighter got shot down in the air, and the pilot was saved.).

Over the March / April turn the Germans storm Ferrol, destroying all the defenders with no losses.
Gibraltar comes next once it is put OOS. Airborne landing, HQ support, and lots of Stukas.
The Germans conquer Gibraltar, destroy 2 planes on the ground and 2 cruisers that were aborted earlier fail to flee.

UK in March / April 41 turn suffered immense losses. But has delayed Germany for a lot, and Marocco is still not secured yet.

Churchill mourns but look ahead with a bright smile to future perspectives. The Axis has been severely slowed down, is ill prepared to seize Aden as well.

[AlbertN]

Italian Chronology - Il Duce's Glory and Misery

Italian Imperialistic Desires were quickly triggered, mainly by the forced hand of the Royal Navy, which introduced itself at the outskirts of La Spezia quickly in full force.

The point was pretty easy - either you declare war or you get war declared and you get a Super-Taranto on you.

Italy declares war to both France and UK in the assumption that will shrink the US Chits by one on the long run (A choice I am still repenting of), and a new strategy was tried.

To go for Egypt first. (A strategy I don't like, no.)

Italy found itself immediately outclassed in everything, and despite having 2*4 Air to Air fighters, the Gladiators at strength 3 were more than enough and able to get in higher boxes.

But as the Duce started with said plan, that cannot be changed easily. The options were 2: sit in Italy and wait for Germany to get to Gibraltar or fight through the waves of the Mediterranean to let your forces get to Suez.
Confident in the Italian Airforce, I picked the latter - and as per usual opened the game by producing more airplanes - Gabbiano, Alcione etc are all in the plans.

To put it shortly, the Royal Navy over time litterally TRASHED the Italians.
With extreme effort the Italians kept the supply lines at hiccups up with Afrika - that costed them 3 FTR2, 4 Gabbiano (yes, they've been rebuilt all over), 2 BBs damaged, an amount of cruisers sank and damaged, 5 CPs, 1 TRS sank, 1 TRS damaged.
Currently the Regia Marina consists of the 2 Littorios, and 5 Cruisers, and 1 CP.

On the land, Il Duce had a degree of luck - mostly in the first battle in Egypt. It was done out of desperation to be honest - a do or die move, and by then, when the Regia Marina was more intact, a failure could have simply meant to wait for the Germans to arrive and save the day.
But Balbo, Graziani, the Italian MECH and other troops were already in Lybia. Thanksfully it went good enough and the Italians lost their INF and smashed both Wavell and a S.A. TERR sent there.

That litterally uncorked the defences of Egypt, and then the Italians poured max effort to keep the supply going as the land forces advanced, mincing through the few Egyptian TERRs, and Indian MIL and the Royal Engineers.
Suez was conquered by the half of 1940.

The Italians set their eyes on Iraq where they Soviets were racing to it too. The Italians managed to align Iraq the impulse before the Soviets were ready to invade (admittedly we had a small discussion here where my friend said to have misunderstood the rule, thinking Italians needed to be adjacent to Iraq and not in a country adjacent to Iraq. But seen my crippled situation by then I did not want a go back! Axis badly needed these oils and resources.)

Il Duce swiftly wanted more oil and embarked in the conquest of Saudi Arabia despite the lacking logistics; in the while he managed to secure Malta and Cyprus too.

The Regia Marina, now queen of the Mediterrean (a poor queen but a queen nonetheless) has just got replacement convoys and new TRS to operate with.

Italian losses have been absurd. A total of 8 planes and some pilots. Tons of ships and 1 INF.

In Africa Orientale Italiana (AOI) the Italians seized undisturbed Sudan, British Somaliland and Djibuti.

The Russo-Japanese War in Persia

Having learnt from previous experience, Stalin wanted a sanitary cordon to protect Baku.
In 1940 Zhukov was unleashed in Persia, making it fall pretty easily and smoothly with no losses.
But by then the Soviet Union and Japan were at war, and Tojo was pretty quick to send troops in Persia - a rather ill prepared expedition that included a Japanese MECH unit that was elsewhere destined.

I remember I laughed at my friend and thanked him to have solved Japanese oil problems. I litterally understimated the logistic problems of having troops so far, to keep them supplied and reinforcing them.

That litterally absorbed Japanese shipping for long, and got them only recently (in Mar / April) a TRS damaged.

When the Japanese first arrived, the MECH and a 4-3 MIL, found themselves pressed without any air cover; with lots of Soviet forces descending from Theran to the coast.
But for the Soviets the Persian affair revealed to be more a bear trap than Afghanistan.

The first go is at the Mech, that was landed in Bandar Shapur. It gets shattered.
The Japenese MIL was moving to reinforce the position from Busher, and got destroyed on the way.
Japan pours immense effort to reinforce the place, having often to ship in the same impulse units from Japan to Canton, and from Canton in the Persian Gulf.
Over time the Japan brings in a white print 6-4 INF (Destroyed), then a 2-3 AT, then a 4-3 INF (Destroyed); and ultimately the same 6-4 INF + Umezu.

The Soviets have done hell and flames, interdicting the sea lanes with their LND (Ultimately losing a FTR2 and a LND3 when damaging a single TRS); when the Japanese had to use Carriers as extra escorts and endangering them prematurely.
Mostly the Soviets over many ground attacks lost already an amount of units, including 2 Siberian INFs, 1 INF, 1 ARM-Div, 1 Mot-DIV.

The Persian campaign had its costs, but now the Allies have the initiative and the defenders of Busher are finally out of supply. Will the Soviets manage to seize it? Maybe not, as they have little ground forces to launch the attack.

[AlbertN]

The Japanese Legend Begins - up to March / April 1941

Again, like for the Mediterranean, a new strategy was tried here in China.
Exploiting the fact my opponent deployed as how he suspected I'd play (as per swinging the attacks on the edge of the weather zone, to optimize the offensive uptime of Japan); he put the Communists upfront at Sian about, thinking I'd go south.

Then instead of having a rear-position by the mountains the Nationalists were deployed very upfront at Changsha to protect the factory and resource.
Cavalries in the north at Nanyang, and a screening veil for Canton.

The Japanese opted to maul straight away Mao, that was deployed upfront.
The first impulse both CAVs of the Nationalists got hammered down, and Mao bombarded in the mountains east of Sian.

The Japanese marched already, destroying Mao already the first turn, and sending the communist forces in a hasty retreat toward the mountains protecting Lanchow.

That left a wide gap which was promptly exploited by the Japanese, sending a 5-4 INF across the mountains even at the cost of disrupting the HQ Umezu there to allow one more move to that infantry, bringing it in supply for one impulse, and move it again from OOS the next impulse.

The Chinese had -nothing- to shield Chengtu and Chunking, which both fell at Jan / Feb 1940 in Japanese hands.
In the while the Japanese were also having a successful venture in Siberia, seizing Vladivostock and other resources around. After all Zhukov and the Siberians were placed at the Persian border.

Soon enough China is deprived of a production. By half 1940 the Japanese have got Yamamoto with more troops pressing from the South meanwhile Umezu deals with the Communists once and for good and start to head back with his army.
After a dire battle for Changsha and Hengyang the Chinese forces are mauled and forced to withdraw toward the mountains.
A partisan in French Indochina denies them a precious resource, and shortly after the same happens to the oil in Birmania.

The Chinese end up with 0 resources total, and some factories they cannot use.
The cherry on the cake is when Japan moves last in Jan / Feb 1941, and first in March / April 1941.
The same 5-4 that conquered early on (unopposed) the central productive fields of China, now got a double move, from Chunkings to Kunming that was left vacant (Two chinese units were unwisely screening the 1-4 Marine you see, just a hex or two away from Kunming).

Kweyang suffered similar fate, albeit defended, the Japanese crushed the mountain defenders south of Chihikiang (2-3 hexes south) and once they got the initiave in March / April there was only a 3-3 unit in the last factory owned by the Chinese.

Chiang, feeling his power collapsing under his rear, ordered the last attacks - which led to the destruction of a Japanese INF.

Japan over time lost some MILs and 1 INF across the campaign of China, which was extremely successful and allowed them to keep a very healthy production.

The Russo-Japanese war in Manchuria

The Soviets as per the previous games, defended Chita and left the rest in the free hands of the Japanese.
Then once the Soviets have built enough forces there started to move in Manchuria.
Japan this time defended in the mountains, just a MIL reinforced by a white print 4-1 GARR. On the railroad.

The Soviets by Jul / Aug 1940 wrapped them and attacked - destroying the MIL and losing a GARR-Div themselves. But they were all disrupted.
The Japanese by then rallied their Manchurian armies (1 HQ and all the Manchurian TERRS, and 1 MOT) to unleash a counteroffensive after the MOT unit went to cut the rail and bring all the Soviets OOS too.
A Soviet CAV was destroyed.

That is the Jul / Aug ended with a 1 roll - or an INF and the LND4 would have been smoked too.
The Soviets start to retreat slowly toward their resource and a riverline, luckily winning the initiative and avoiding the Japanese MOT to get to sit right into their rail. The Japanese maneuver slowly and manage to smash an INF at the cost of one of their TERRS after it got disrupted and OOS'ed, but then they lose their MOT.

That brings the front to a stalemate - but where the bulk of Japanese forces freed from China will go now?
Surely the USA got pretty much angry and Embargoed the Japan in March / April 1941.

The USA now can DoW Japan at 40%!
And they do not have yet the 2nd Gear up nor Pearl Harbour! (They'll gear up in May / June 1941 though).

[brian brian]

Great report so far.

Very good stuff on House Rules for surface naval losses. A more straight-forward rule calling for random results in surface combat has been proposed even via ADG publications but it never catches on. Most players of this game are most interested in panzer campaigns first and perhaps carrier battles a distant second. It seems funny when your planes are able to magically pick the TRS with the HQ-A onboard from a wide mix of lift targets. A screening rule for surface naval combat has been proposed as well, this might appear in WiF8 I think, when it ever gets released. (This year?)

Anyhow, random results at sea make for good gaming too. The Battleships do become very important and the "Save" die rolls are very interesting.


Also I would note that the Germans lost something like 10 ~ 15,000 Killed in Action in Poland and twice that in seriously Wounded. So about one solid INF corps in WiF. They probably also lost a FTR2 counter as the Polish air force was dispersed in advance and fought as hard as they could, though at difficult odds against the newer, better German aircraft designs.

[AlbertN]

Planes can still pick their target though.
That is only for Surface Battles.

And in-game terms Poland in my eyes should be "perfected" as per no losses for the Axis.
Even 1 INF corp is 3 BPs, that's 1/5 of Germany's production - which is A LOT!
Losses Axis simply cannot afford to have.

[Centuur]

I don't know. What if the Polish general staff had been more realistic before war broke out. Let's face it: the Poles thought they could conquer Berlin. They thought they had at least 3 weeks to mobilize the army. They put their units in the field in attacking positions, not in defensive ones...

Look at it this way: if one would setup the French army as it was historically done in 1940, one would say that the French player is an idiot...

So: no Gamelin in the French army also means no Rydz in Poland. And that means that Poland should not become an automatic victory for the Germans.

If a German player puts all but a few border troops against the Poles in the first turn, one gets usually a conquest without losses. However, the players want to go for Denmark and the Netherlands. Perhaps even Belgium too. In reality, the German army was only focused on Poland...

[Barbuesque]

I am not sure that the poles were in offensive positions as much as they were protection their most valuable industrial areas. Giving them up for more defensive positions was probably unacceptable for political reasons.

[AlbertN]

Mid of May / June 1941

Europe & Atlantic

The Germans moved on - storming the rocky shores of Tangiers with ferries and whatnot from Gibraltar.
The luck of the roll blesses them - it was a measly +6 attack despite the disrupted, and tons of planes beeing over the French MNT unit.
The magic roll of 18 happened (no losses for the attacker and 1 for the defender). That put to a temporary halt the advance in Marocco but uncorked their defence.

Mussolini's forces started their long march from Tunis toward Algier, now that the Mediterranean is secured.

Greece was DoW'ed. Bulgarian tactical airplanes bomb Athens, pinning all the defenders.
German divisions shipped via the Regia Marina, now uncontested in the Mediterranean, land in different ports and Crete. Two quality German corps are ready to follow suit, remaining embarked in the Mediterranean.

The first German impulse was combined, Condors went into North Atlantic, but without luck.
The next impulse was a naval! (Yes, Germany taking a naval) The Atlantic was ripe of convoys under relatively light escort.

All of the remaining German naval units, surface or submarine, sailed out of their ports.
Even the old BBs - which went to patrol Bay of Biscay (along with an Italian NAV) and Cape St. Vincent.
From Kiel the KMS Deutchland sails to try to embattle a picket cruiser of the UK; and some convoys are sailing out along.
The KMS Graf Spee had similar task but is intercepted in Bay of Biscay and opts to remain there instead of battling the single UK cruiser.
The KMS Gneisenau and KMS Leipzig sails out of Lisbon and join the Condors in the North Atlantic, but they get to the 4 box. And the W.Allies have 15 CPs. 1-6 I find - and the Axis found 4 times in a row. Both the German ships and 1 Italian submarine were dislodged from the sea zone, but they left behind an amount of smashed British units. No Convoys, but 2 CVs (Eagle and Ermes), and the Condors prosecuted to prey upon the Brits that were left without aircover. An amount of Commonwealth cruisers also got to the bottom of the Atlantic (2 Spanish ones) and others limped damaged back.

For no Axis losses it was clearly a victory. Alas the submarine wolfpacks in Cape Verde and East Coast did not achieved any result.

[AlbertN]

Mid of May / June 1941 - Arabian Tales of One and a Thousands Night

A really calm sector here!
But one of the sectors where the Italians are operating.

Clearly the Pope must have summoned forth a new Crusade to conquer the sacred places of the infidels.
The Italian tankettes got to Rhyad, and did not advanced after combat (supply reasons). It is much better to simply move them in the next impulse, get the hex and move away toward their next destination!

The Soviets instead lack land forces to push against Umezu, that is well entrenched in Busher by now, with an AT unit, and another White Print INF. Their bombers took action, but with limited success.

[AlbertN]

May / Jun 1941 - USA at war.

The conquest of China was not well received in the US.
Under pressure of the "China Lobby", caring for the many investments and interests of the US in China, now just turned into a thin tumble of smoke, President FDR declared war on Japan.

The US were not exactly ready for war. Their carriers not armed with planes (Not that Japan is in much better state, their carriers were getting armed with fighters to fend off the Soviet bombers in Persia. Figure out)

The US quickly ships troops ahead, including a TRS with Marine in Pearl Harbour - promptly reorganized by McArthur.
The Japanese are caught pants down. Their land forces are still inland in China, their islands are not protected. Their carriers not ready for naval battles except few.

It shall be an old style battle for the most - blazing guns of ships against each other. And mostly, a battle of cruisers.
The Japanese have a minor edge though, as they've some carriers and 2 land based NAV in Truk.

Across 4 impulses the sides operate.
In the first impulse the USA attack the undefended convoys of Japan, but fail to do, and get presence in zones.
The Japanese in their first impulse retaliate, winning in Solomon sea damaging 2 cruisers.
In the third impulse the USA sink a troop convoy loaded with a MIL unit (8 BPs gone for Japan in a single go) before they could reinforce Kwajalein. And being OOS - the VP island is conquered by the Marines with ease. In the naval battle for the supply line the USA loses a cruiser though. (one of the good ones)
The Japan retaliates by declaring war to UK - as they were preparing troops to send to Rabaul as well. Japan invades Rabaul with the single division they've at avail before it's too late - and gets the USA cruisers in Bismark sea, sinking one - the other attempts to return to its bases to not remain out of fuel, but is intercepted on the way.

Til now the USA lost 3 cruisers and got 2 damaged ones; against the TRS of Japan which though will cripple how quick they can ship units to the fronts.

[AlbertN]

May / June 1941 - Raids on Australia

The UK was preparing an Australian expedition to reinforce the islands - supposedly the major base of Rabaul or other targets.
Japan could not let this happen, and quickly dispatched 3 fast battleship, 1 cruiser and 1 carrier based in the remote distance of Canton to the zone (The carrier is mainly needed to feed up the search roll).

Cruisers were sent to search in the Australian - England pipeline of convoys as well.

A bad day for Churchill - the Japanese battleships find their target (which contained too a convoy) and open fire with their guns. A convoy, a cruiser and a TRS of UK are all sunk along with a division and a territorial.

That will slow down as well the Commonwealth way to reinforce its own holdings and possessions.

[AlbertN]

May / June 1941 - Indian Ocean

The Japanese sent small task forces there, with the surprise impulse, in the hope to find the UK convoys.

Only in Bay of Bengal their search suffices - and only their carrier finds. Obviously, once again no carrier planes apt to sink the 2 CPs present; so the carrier simply goes in firing with its artilleries against the harmless CPs and sink them both!

The CW has 4 ships in Bombay, which could sally forth to retaliate.

[AlbertN]

May / June 1941 - NEI

Japanese movements in the NEI sector.
Japan Imperial Guard (MAR unit) landed in Philippines too - which was undefended.

Not much to add, as presently the Japanese lack forces, but with their Supercombined moved divisions on the coast and moved cruisers into their respective bases - Yamamoto being spent into reorganizing them.

[AlbertN]

May / June 1941 - Destroyed Pool - and Repair Pool at the present.

[AlbertN]

May / June 1941 - Europe (Impulse #5 #6)

The W.Allies found KMS Deutchland in North Sea, and damaged it.
The Italian Sparviero found the RN Calipso in Bay of Biscay, and sunk it.
German submarines in the Cape Verde Basin screw up, are found by a battle squadron composed by French BBs, and suffer severe gunnery. 1 submarine destroyed, and 1 damaged.

German troops land in Greece, and Bulgarian forces descend from the north toward Athens.
Italians seize Algiers unopposed and keep advancing westward.

German HQs reorganize troops in Tangiers and Luftwaffe planes in the zone of Gibraltar / Cadiz; after bombing missions to disrupt the remnants of the W.Allies in Marocco.

[AlbertN]

May / June 1941 - Japan (Impulse #5 #6)

The US have sort of exhausted their forces for the time being (as per no more ships to move), meanwhile the UK brings out their battle squadron from Bombay, but with no results.

The Japanese play offensively still - with a naval impulse.
The cruisers and divisions set ready to invade get to their locations; it is imperative that the oil wells of the NEI are seized, at least in part - or the Japan can suffer of a serious issue of mobility soon. Their oil stocks are not very ample.

More naval battle ensue, seeing the Rising Sun still victorious (damaging 1 US cruiser and sinking 2 CW CPs for no losses).

But the Japan is struggling to catch up with the desires defensive perimeter, which could be hard to achieve if the W.Allies reinforce quickly enough.

And the US production this turn will skyrocket.

[AlbertN]

End of May / June 1941. - Clearly the turns end on Allied Impulse #7, on a roll of 1.

As the bold text hints, I am -fuming-.
It was a 10% chance to happen, and it happened. Again.

Axis has plenty of things to do - plenty. 3 divisions ready to land, a MAR to march into Manila and another to march in Surabaja, and tons of other movements to be done. But no. The turn has to end.

On a frigging ONE out of 10.

Obviously that fucks up Axis royally - especially Japan, which should manage thanks to 7 oils stocked but otherwise.

The only thing that makes me meekly rejoyce is that the USA at the moment are totally not prepared for war. You can see here their Carrier planes (All of their carriers have no plane) and they've just 6 pilots plus one coming the next turn.

Give them some turns though and they'll unleash hell.

[AlbertN]

Jul / Aug 1941 (5 Impulses played, with Axis going first)

The Euro-Axis has its ups and downs.

The Condor Force (in this case, not the Condor Force of the Spanish Civil War) strikes down enemy convoys in the North Atlantic, strongly reducing the UK production - but that at the cost of a Condor itself; and an Italian submarine too meets a hollow end.
With that the Allies pratically even out their convoy losses (9 BP total lost for Axis).

Aerial battles in Cape St. Vincent where the French Navy under air cover from RAF elements based at Cisneceros was trying to intercept German convoys headed in the Mediterranean. The RAF gets defeated and is repelled from the skies.

Athens is assaulted by Bulgaro-German forces and falls into Axis hands. German flags are rising on the Acropolis.

The victorious Italians from the Saudi Arabia campaign are making their way to Aden, a strategical keypoint for the desired Indian Ocean warfare.

German troops quell down the last resistance of the Anglo-French units in Morocco (1 AT and 1 French INF).