Message: 15

Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 16:05:57 +0000

From: "Daniel -" <daniel_au_japon@hotmail.com>

Subject: France invades Japan V

GR France Invades Japan (V)

This game is played in Tokyo by 3 French gamers.

Globar war campaign. We use half of the optional rules, esp. limited overseas supply, fractional odds, PiF, SiF, AMPH, Chinese attack weakness, Pacific ZOC. No intelligence, no oil rule (except for saving ressources and build points).

The line up:

Daniel: Axis

Marc: USA/CW/China

David: USSR/FR

1939 1940 1941 1942 1943

1939

SO39

Germany takes Poland and Denmark with some casualties in Poland. Japan takes Chenchow. A counter attack by the nationalist turns into a disaster and most of the south of the country is lost to Yamamoto. Italy DoWs CW only to invade one undefended hex: Gibraltar. Egypt is attacked. Spain is aligned.

Naval battles see an English CV and numerous Italian SCS sunk. USSR claims Bessarabia, Germany denies, Russian attack is stalled after a 14 and an audacious Rumanian counter-attack. Germany aligns Hungary and forces peaces.

ND39.

Axis gain initiative but let the Allies start first. Bad weather starts all other the world. Balbo enters Egypt to the gates of Alexandria. Major naval battles take place in Eastern Med, ships are sunk and planes shot down on either side giving CW a marginal victory.

Germany takes the Netherlands and Belgium in spite of strong resistance of locals. German panzers under Von Leeb’s command start crossing the Alps.

France tries to keep a continuous front line. No BEF. Japan takes Nanming and threat Chunking. US start Chinese aircrafts and escort convoys in the East Coast.

1940

JF40

Bad weather, snow in north temperate.

Wavell leaves Alexandria to Balbo and start building a defensive line behing the Nile. Naval reinforcement are sent to the Eastern Med for more naval battles. Big casualties on both sides without decisive victory. CW reinforcements land in Egypt. Italian sub sunk 10 English CP in the Atlantic. France and CW’s all out air operation fails to stall German advance. Germany takes Nice, Lille and blitzkriegs up to Rouen. French try to fill the gaps as soon as they can and choose to ungarrison the Maginot line. Chinese abandon Chang-Sha to the Japanese and step back in the mountains. Two oos corps are killed by Yamamoto’s troops. US ship ressources to China and to Western Allies and give destroyers to CW.

MA40

Axis loses initiative, France lend leases all its BP to CW. CW reinforces Egypt. Italy’s first attack on the Nile fails with large casualties.

Massive air operation against the Germans give poor result. The Maginot line is crossed, Strasbourg and Metz conquered. Italy DoWs France, and takes Marseille and Toulon as Spanish attack Toulouse and rush to Bordeaux. German blitz again in the north. French only concentrate on the German front and Paris. Marginal Italian naval victory in Eastern Med. Japanese mechanized corps lands in Canton. Morocco is conquered. US grab Iceland and Greenland.

MJ40

Germans blitz across the Seine, surround Paris, assaults and take the city but do not call for Vichy. Italians and Spanish secure South France and all Atlantic ports. The French fleet can’t rebase and is destroyed. Japan successes in a blitz west of Chunking and outflank the city’s defenders.

Major naval combat in Eastern Med leads to heavy casualties and Italian victory, damaging one CV. Tunisia is conquered. CW succesfully starts to strat bomb Germany.

J/A 40

France keeps lending all its BP to the CW. Axis get the initiative and the weather is clear.

The German army, who had stupidly lost some units in its very last attacks in France, becomes much more conservative. French still hold a few hexes between Vichy and Lyon with 8 units and a plane. Germans attack two isolated units at +18 or better odds. Bulgaria is aligned (US object) and Von Leeb rail moved to the Greek border. Italy sends its complete navy to the Eastern Med, no fight occurs. Japan moves around Chunking.

The CW tries a port attack on Kiel but the solid anti-air aborts all the bombers. In the Eastern Med the task force built around the Eagle (box 2) gets some extra SCS. The Ark Royal leaves Britain and starts the long trip around Africa. Some more reinforcements land in Egypt where Wavell guides a multinational army made of New Zealand, Burma, Australian, South African and Indian troops. France does nothing and China put as many troops in Chunking as possible.

Yamamoto launches the first major, total assault of the war by tossing an OC on Chunking, securing a +9 assault. Japanese army goes through Chinese corps as if they were shadows. The Emperor sets an exceptional national holliday the following week, Yamamoto becomes member of the most famous order heroes of the fight are celebrated all other country and this heavy publicity just makes the US angry (1 chit). Germans build up on the Greek border with land and air troops.

As the Italians try to ship some mechanized elite to Egypt, they come across the well informed Royal Navy. An Italian escort aborts after the first round of combat. The Royal Navy finds again but the complete Italian surface fleet is now together and heavy anti-air turns the Eagle’s air fleet into dead meat. Both sides stick to the sea but chance turns. Italian fall on the British like Nelson once did on the French and they sink the unprotected Eagle. The British abort the fight, leaving full control of the Eastern Med to Italy for the first time. Spain secures Algeria.

CW tries again to port attack Kiel, this time with 4 bombers. The anti-air has just become more efficient than before and a CVP is shot down...

Strat bombing is succesful again and cancels 2 production points. Gort lands in Senegal. Chinese, which are about to be surrounded, out of supply in the east of Chunking, go back north. The communists offer Si-An to Chiang as the most needed supply source. The US land some troops in Iceland.

German and Italian combined troops immediately jump on Malta before the supply line is back. Spanish rail move more units to Gibraltar. The first bomber reaches the Greek border. German start to build bunkers on the Atlantic beaches. The Luftwaffe attempts to ground strike Portsmouth and disrupts a few ships. Japan kills a Chinese cavalry in the mountains, taking another hex on Si-An.

End of turn. Partisans appear in Indochina and force the French fleet to rebase. US start land based escorts and embargo strategic materials to Japan. Algeria is conquered.

SO40

Axis win the initiative, weather is fine.

The Graf Zeppelin joins the Kriegsmarine and, although no CVP is available, the complete fleet (including an AMPH and some CPs) sails to the Faroes. No interception in North sea but an air-to-sea fight occurs thereafter, and a British destroyer is damaged. The Royal Navy aborts the zone. Von Leeb crosses the Greek border and takes the unprotected Salonique. The US object again to this violation of neutrality (they really get all the possible chits in this game). Italy goes for a naval, spreads subs in the Atlantic but does not find any convoy, and surprises a lonely Queen in Suez, giving her a quick trip back to Britain (via the repair pool of course). Freshly built naval bombers are rebased to Malta. The Luftwaffe tries again to port strikes Portsmouth in an attempt to paralyse the core of the Royal Navy.

Unfortunatly, the RAF is now in range and the German bombers are efficacely destroyed.Japanese make another attack on the remains of Chiang army south of Si-An.

They trade their most crappy garrison againts two Chinese corps. Japan moves back its marines to the coast and rebases CVPs on their CVs.

The CW sails a major fleet in the Faroes but fails to find the Kriegsmarine. An empty Transport is damaged on its way back from Africa. The Ark Royal enters the Eastern Med but does not search the Italians (is he frightened or what ?). A mechanized unit joins Gort in Senegal. France does nothing, China rebases its aircraft to Kunming.

Weather is still good and Germany immediately rebases its fleet to Bordeaux.

Timoschencu is rail moved in the area to provide supply. Von Leeb advances slowly in the Greek mountains. Japan pulls back some troops from the Chinese front line.

The CW goes for an air and launches an all out strategic bombardment campaign, hurting the last uncovered German factories (Munich and Stettin).

Above Lille, the Luftwaffe is humiliated in a fight against the Hurricane.

German best pilots are killed and the bombarment itself is a great success. Germany loses totally 3 PP but would have lost 6 if the target hexes had more than one factory each. The Greek ship joins the Ark Royal task force.

The weather turns very bad on all the planet. No air operation allowed on most of the map. Japan decides to align Siam (surprise: US don’t care) and sends 3 corps in Bangkok and on the Malaysian border. The German sub fleet was not aware Brest was mined and gets badly hurts in an embush as it tries to sail (a lonely English destroyer kills one and aborts the other one on a 1/10 split naval combat, these British are terrible sometimes). Rommel rails moves to Bucarest. Italians, who have concentrated 4 naval bombers and 2 fighters in the Eastern Med, trigger a fight against the Royal Navy. Both sides anti-airs act like bullet proof armors and not a single factor clears through. But on the next round, once again, luck is on the Italian side and a 1/9 split combat results in the death of the Ark Royal. The British CVP does not even realize its CV is sunk for the strong Italian anti-air cut it into pieces. The Royal Navy aborts the zone once again.

End of turn. No partisan. US freeze Japanese assets and escort in the North Atlantic. Japan builds an OC. Initiative shifted to +1 Allies.

ND 1940

Battle of France: Spanish, Italian and German armies reduce the French territory to 3 hexes around Lyon (no BEF, no Vichy). Italy takes French

North Africa. Germany takes Greece, Crete. Paratroops invade Malta.

British stop Italian on the Nile. Italy gain total control of the Eastern Med after repeated and (very) bloody naval battles with the Royal Navy. BOA and CW strategic bombing start and enjoy good initial success. German fleet relocated in the Med. Japan breaks an OC on Yamamoto and takes Chunking.

Siam is aligned and Japan builds up against the CW. US start to repair CW ships as a much needed cooperation effort.

1941

Axis lights the world in flames. Japan Dows the CW, takes Singapore, Honk-Kong, Burma, Rabaul, the NEI, Ceylon and enters south India. CW loses CVs and TRS in naval battles against Japanese and Italians, reinforces Australia and India, cuts Japan-US pipeline twice. BoA very efficient in the Atlantic and strategic bombings very efficient against mainland Europe.

Germany aligns Yugoslavia, Italy conquers Cyprus, Syria, Palestine, Suez, Sudan, Iraq. Barbarossa starts in MJ and, in spite of very short summer, goes up to the Dnepr and a Leningrad-Vitebsk line. USA DoW Japan in ND and immediately invade the Marshals.

1942

JF42

Nimitz HQ moves to the Marshals. Japanese navy tries to cut his supply but suffers major defeat in the Marianas and the Marshall Sea, losing 2 SCS, 1CV and 3 CVPs for almost no US casualty. The RN is not as lucky and loses ships here and there. Chinese take the Burmese oil. Some strategic bombing damage in Germany. Russians give up Vitebsk before they get surrounded. They send Timoschenko and their whole air force to the north. Manstein leads several attacks, finally killing Yemerenko. Rommel succeeds in an audacious assault on Dnepropetrovsk. Russian lines are breached on both fronts.

MA42

Axis initiative and long turn. Japan conquers Philippines thanks to a lucky ground strike, invades Aden. No major battle naval but lots of CP hunting in all oceans. US DoW Euro Axis, align Brazil and Mexico and succeed in an audacious invasion of the Bonin Islands, 3 hex from Tokyo. Germany pushes hard in the USSR, uses an OC to reorg HQs, kills plenty of Russians, taking Smolensk, Kalinin, Crimea peninsula and being close to Stalino. Persia is aligned and Italian-Germans secure 2 hexes on the Turkish border.

MJ42

The USSR uses its OC to shatter Rommel west of Stalino, and performs successful suicide attacks to delay Turkey alignment. Following German

attacks in the East have little success but more corps are air transported to the Turkish border. The US invade Northern Denmark. Japan cuts supply to Pearl for the first time in the game. Japan aligns Indo-China. Chinese flip a Japanese OOS INF and kill it near Chunking. Allies pass and turn ends as soon as possible.

JA42

Germany aligns Turkey, reorgs HQs with an OC, gets a lot of successful ground strikes, kills quite a few Russians and grabs Tiflis and Gomel.

Rommel blitzes the Denmark beachhead but has no time to rest as a carpet bombing has just cleared the way for Western Allies to cross the Channel and advance as deep as Antwerp. Italians rebase all FTRs to this new front.

Little happens in the Pacific under stormy weather. Allies pass and turn ends as soon as possible.

SO42

Zhukov blitzes the German lines in Ukraine and Rundstedt fixes the lines thanks to an OC, killing lots of Russians. Front is stalled thereafter.

Gort and Ike land in northern France. Chinese take back Chunking and communists kill Umezu. Efficient BoA.

NOVEMBER DECEMBER 1942. WALLIES BEACHHEAD UNDER PRESSURE

Axis gets the initiative in spite of a reroll.

Rainy weather. The fresh Wermacht corps have got a training assessment before Russia: getting rid of the Anglo-American beachhead. After Italians have distracted the RAF in a failed port attack on Calais, Stukas flip 2 US corps between Lille and Antwerp. US call for air support but Churchill pretends not to hear –the total Axis FTR could intercept in a +8/-8 air fight- and nothing stops the brand new panzers from blitzing the Americans. Germans also kill an INF south of Bryansk. Japanese move out AMPH, TRS and the bulk of their fleet targeting the Australian shore but are stopped cold when it becomes clear notional get the SB bonus per landing unit.

Operation is cancelled. CP hunting gives very poor results all turn (more than 15 unsuccessful search rolls).

The US move their fleets again, shipping troops to Pearl while also sending 1 INF across the Atlantic around Italian SUBs. Ike, sitting by itself on the Channel coast is reinforced by a PARA from Antwerp. The CW loses a SUB in the Bay of Bengal and sails massive SB to the North Sea. Strategic bombing gives good results. The Red Army moves reserves up to the front, leaving an empty hex north of Kursk.

Weather gods support the Axis: storm in North Temperate means no shore bombardment. The Wermacht easily takes Antwerp back in a combined impulse. One German SUB and 2 British cruisers are damaged in the North Sea. Spanish long-range destroyers are sent after a TRS cruising in the Cape and sunk it brilliantly. Japanese Navy moves invasion troops to Rabaul. US Pacific supply is cut again.

All Allies pass except the CW that goes naval to sail CPs out and embark some US units in the West. No fight is triggered.

Rainy weather again. Germany sends some fresh troops to the East as the France campaign goes fine. The Luftwaffe loses again another FTR and fails all ground strikes. Assault is launched on Lille where Brits resist (2/1 result, 2 German MIL lost against a US MTN). Italians build up on the

Portuguese border. Japanese invade the Seychelles, lose a SUB in the Marshals Sea and damaged an old BB in the Marshals. A Catalina survives

from a +5/-5 air fight in the Marianas Sea, even aborting the Zeros.

All allies pass again, except the USA going naval. North Atlantic pipeline is upgraded to 10 CPs. After Pacific supply is resumed acrobatically, CVs sail out in order to hurt Japanese supply and hopping there won’t be another impulse. No search roll succeeds, but turn ends indeed.

No partisan. Seychelles is conquered.

1943

JANUARY FEBRUARY 1943. WALLIES EVACUATE FRANCE. JAPAN SINKS 2 CVs.

Allies get the initiative thanks to a reroll.

Weather goes from bad to worse during the turn.

The USSR front is calm this winter. Russian land and air reinforcements Get in position but almost no movement occurs. Germans hardly move any counter.

Vatutin kills a flipped Persian CAV north of the Caucasus and sets a line along the railway to prevent any infiltration. Western Allies have decided

to re-embark their expeditionary force back to England. Ike goes first and escapes from German NAV in the North Sea (1 escorting CW CV is damaged and a Condor shot down). The US PARA stays in Lille to keep the line while Gort waits for a lift in Calais. Meanwhile, half of the American carriers sail to the Bismark Sea in order to cut supply to Rabaul.

While Germans easily assault Lille with much regret for missing Allies HQs, action heats up in the Pacific. Japanese cannot believe 3 US CVs are in range and gang up in the Bismark Sea with whatever floats of flies. Fleets found each other with a net zero surprise, but with 9 CVs+3 LBAs, the Imperial Navy has huge superiority. When smoke clears, Entreprise and Yorktown CVs are sunk together with 1 SCS while the Zuikaku is damaged.

Americans are bold enough to stay at sea for another round of combat and then find and sink the CP they were originally looking for.

(something very strange happened to me that precise week. On my other WiF table –Japanese WifCon-, exactly the same naval battle occurred. 3 enemy CVs were doing whoever knows what in the Bismark Sea and I sent my whole fleet against them. Search rolls were identical in both games, ending with “everybody finds but zero surprise” which, with 12+ planes against 3, also led to 2 sunk CVs.

Interestingly, the weak side chose 2 different air tactics. Michael flew all CVPs as fighters, trying to limit the A2S, but had to abort the fight after losing the front CVP. This in turn allowed me to target and sink the CVs which were carrying planes. On the other hand, Marc decided to fly 2 fighters and a NAV and was lucky enough to be cleared through in a +5/-5 fight (I rolled a 10). He did not abort the fight until all his CVPs were shot down but did not lose pilots. While I was sunking his empty CVs, his last CVP was hitting my Zuikaku and could safely return to base to the only remaining flat top.

The lost air BPs were therefore completely different: Michael lost 3 CVPs+ 2 PIL but Marc only lost 2 CVPs and no PIL.

Oh, by the way, on this other game, I play the USA, not Japan. And 4 CVs in a week is sign of good WiF time :-)

Allies end the retreat of France. All in all, they saved 4 corps, including HQA, HQI and MAR. Time will tell if this strategic diversion changed something in Russia. The US Navy resumes supply in the Pacific but not as far as Ponape where Nimitz feels a little lonely. McArthur lands in

northern Australia to prevent any Japanese invasion.

Japan goes naval again, garrisoning locations here and there and missing US CPs. Germany does another combined impulse and massively rebases aircrafts to Russia, while Italy goes for an air impulse and spreads FTRs all other European factories. All Axis SUBs are out and finally get a nice 1/10 split in North Atlantic, reducing the pipeline from 10 to 1 CP (they had 5 SUBs in the zone).

Turn ends before Allies get a chance to resume supply to Nimitz or to strengthen Atlantic pipeline. A 3rd partisan in Indo-China. In spite of the new 1943 force pool, Italy and Germany run out of SUBs. Even Vichy has started building some. CW's production is down to 7 PP.

MARCH APRIL 1943.

Axis gets initiative thanks in spit of a reroll.

Axis enjoys a double move. Japan launches a combined impulse to take back Ponape, where Nimitz was left alone face down (supply was cut accidentally the turn before). MAR+GAR invade only supported by 2 slow BB from Truk and maximum ground support from LBAs. Nimitz dies, but Japan has some previous lift undefended at sea. Germany moves SUBs and refits the Atlantic wall.

Chinese keep on attacking. After a successful ground strike on Kwei Yang and another banzai assault, the city is liberated. Nationalist now lack

units.

Russian sail the Black Sea fleet and optimize the front line. Wallies go for naval impulses, moving tons of stuff everywhere and keeping the TRS as

far as possible from SUBs and raiders (Austral Sea, Polynesian Sea etc.).

As expected, the US carrier fleets patrols the Solomons but cannot find the Japanese transports.

Weather turns bad. Japan and Italy send SUB for CP hunting and miss 13 search rolls. They find once and damage a British TRS in East Coast.

The USA, much more efficient, trigger fights in 2 zones and succeed in cutting off Japanese supply to Rabaul and Truk. Japan strat bombs China.

Germany does little.

The CW reroutes the Atlantic pipeline through Iceland and Canadian Sea.

Axis tries to intercept any moving unit and fails something like 20 times.

But the very last search roll, to trigger combat, succeeds in Faeroes and reduces Allies pipeline from 9 to 4 CPs. USA miss again in the Solomons.

Brits find and hit an undefended factory (Budapest).

Good weather. Japan aligns Madagascar. Umezu and Hata land in south China building a strong defensive line. More strat bombing succeeds.

Meanwhile, Italy, which has been preparing for months, DoWs Portugal and easily seizes it. British are happy with the Azores as a LBA base in North Atlantic. Some Italians enter Mozambique. Action resumes in Russia after months of trenched warfare. A partisan and a couple of Russian corps are eliminated in the North while Kesselring leads an assault on Stalino. All Russian ground support clears through, against no German (Luftwaffe loses FTR+TAC), lending with a net +8. DR is 15, right enough for the city to fell.

The US miss again the Japanese lift in the Solomon (they had around 20% not to find 3 times in a row). CW does an air impulse. Strat bombing? No way.

The bomber command has spotted an undefended HQ-A (Graziani) hiding in a forest in Brittany. As if forest were of any use against 12 STR... Hit with 50+ factors, poor Graziani is sent back to the force pool. Axis player is durably impressed and wonders if Allies will soon be able to do the same under rainy weather...

Turn ends. PART in China. Portugal is conquered.

MAY JUNE 1943.

Axis gets initiative thanks to a reroll.

Bad weather for a start, fair afterwards. Germany sails 7 newly arrived SUBs to the high seas but finds nothing. Luftwaffe aborts a ground strike on Kharkov after losing a FTR. Italians grab South Mozambique. Japanese SUBs sink a CP. Reinforcements to China.

Russia also tries ground strikes. A 4 round air combat leaves no casualty and bombing fails. CW considers port attacking Aden only to realize the

Italian fleet has rebased to Madagascar. American move lots of stuff and seem to build up something in the Timor Sea (McArthur on the Australian northern coast by the end of turn). Japanese CPs escape SUBs but a fierce battle takes place in the Solomons, where a Catilina is shot down, US supply cut and some SCS damaged. US were surprised 3 times in a row by a couple of SUBs escorted by a zero.

Japan goes land, kills a partisan in Shanghai, refits its Chinese line.

Italy supports German campaign by doing an air impulse. Baku, successfully ground struck, is at last assaulted. More reinforcements reach the Russian front. Italian air force builds up in Africa.

In the Caucasus, Germans had to stretch their supply line too thin for audacious Vatutin not to try a coup against Tiflis (a Russian 8-1 WP GAR,

cut-off but still face up, sits on a key rail connection SE of Tiflis and Axis never bothered getting rid of it). The daring attack succeeds: German

PARA is killed (again) and nice ATR overrun while Vatutin sacrifices himself to let the Stalingrad MIL enter the city (Vatutin would have been

flipped oos, whereas the MIL is still face up). Meanwhile the US SUBs hit the Japanese pipeline in South China Sea but suffer heavy casualties

elsewhere (3 SUBs lost). Nationalists being exhausted, it is now Communists that attack and liberate Chengchow for no casualty. The CW declares war on Vichy and extensively bombs the stockpiled BPs.

[This Vichy thing is absurd was fortunately fixed in RaW 7. But we play RaW 6.01, and the US had to DoW Vichy to reach total war, making it active so that Germany could LL maximum resources. Vichy was quickly filled with stockpiled BPs that are to return to Germany eventually. Western Allies decided to strat bomb Vichy, probably considering that they have a fair chance to destroy everything within 2 summer turns. They especially like it because no Axis FTR can cover Vichy’s factories. Still, the whole thing should not have happened in the first place.]

Japan takes a combined to send even more troops to China, rail moving Umezu to resume supply to the north. And, while the Turks retake Tiflis,

Germany cannot resist tossing an OC on super HQ Manstein. The 5 point gun is doubled for an auto ground strike (let’s enjoy that before we shift to new rules) but Germans lose another 2 FTRs in the real air fights. All available armor is gathered and strikes at the big mechanized defensive stacks dispatched in plains. Red Army suffers heavy losses for almost no Wermacht casualty.

Germans are next to Tula.

Western Allies strat bomb Vichy again and move their lift in the Atlantic.

Americans embark their last unit (a MAR) from the Caroline and suffer more submarine losses against strong Japanese escorts. Chinese never stop attacking and never stop succeeding in +4 attacks. This time, they get Wuhan and overrun 2 planes.

Turn curiously does not end although it could have. Italian SUBs reduce the CW pipeline to 4 CPs but suffer unusual casualties. All Russian air force has been used up and German can enjoy maximum ground strikes followed by a couple exploitation attacks and a well managed assault on Kharkov.

Turks secure North Caucasus oil fields and their MECH makes a run through the desert to Stalingrad where it overruns the first Russian plane of the game: the last long range STR.

Turn ends. No partisan. Mozambique is conquered. Russian lost 67 BPs, Germans around 20BPs + 1 OC. American naval gearing is…14. CW production is 20BPs, still lower than Italy’s. Russia has only 17 usable resources and no more stockpiled oil.

Next GR in 3-4 weeks. We've already done half an impulse of MJ (some may have understood that the US just took Menado).

Daniel