Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 18:11:28 +0000

From: "T.J.Ringrose" <T.J.Ringrose@rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk>

Subject: GR: Mussolini isn't talking to Hitler

G'day all,

this is the first part of the account of our current game.

Hopefully not too many incomprehensible Anglicisms this time.

The players have one change from the "Storms in the East" and "World in Fl" games which I posted at the end of last year.

John Sloan, who ran the old WiF list, has dropped out for now and been replaced by Mark Norman.

Me, Tim and Mark P have known each other since Uni, we met John at a London game 4 years ago, he introduced us to Ian 3 years ago, Ian has now introduced us to Mark N, who turns out to have gone to school with a bloke that me, Tim and Mark P were at Uni with. Small world eh?

There's a rather extensive list of house rules listed in this first instalment, which I'll omit in later ones.

HR S/O 1939 N/D 1939 J/F 1940 M/A 1940 M/J 1940 J/A 1940 S/O 1940 N/D 1940 J/F 1941 M/A 1941 M/J 1941 J/A 1941 S/O 1941 N/D 1941 J/F 1942 M/A 1942 M/J 1942 J/A 1942 S/O 1942 N/D 1942 J/F 1943 M/A 1943 M/J 1943 J/A 1943

GR: The "Mussolini isn't talking to Hitler" Campaign

****************************************************

Played in Swindon (halfway between London and Bristol).

Session 1, August 3/4 2002

Germany - Ian Coupland

Japan/Italy - Tim Grindley

Commonwealth - Trevor Ringrose

Russia/China - Mark Price

USA/France - Mark Norman

For the first time myself and Ian are on opposite sides.

This should help balance things a bit, since we are always the ones who get the most drunk during these sessions, which are played over a weekend with a fridge full of beer.

Note the unusual allocation of France and China here. We thought it worked well, giving a better distribution of work between Russia and USA. Once France surrenders, USA will take over China.

Using:

Deluxe; oil; limited overseas supply; presence of enemy; SCS transport but with only MAR Divs allowed to invade; first loss must be a corps; isolated non-reorg; PatiF maps.

Not using:

Advance building; Defensive shore bombardment; carpet bombing; scandinavian and african maps; LiF

House Rules (Tactical):

Combat is on the usual 1D10 table, with attacker's die roll determining defender losses #and# flipping (*s), while defender's die roll determines attacker losses only. We like the roll-a-die-each rule as it increases variety and also reduces the effectiveness of low-odds invasions, but the standard version is grossly pro-defence as it massively reduces the chances of a *B or *S result (e.g. 30% to 9%). Our version keeps the former good bits but avoids the bad bit.

Fractional odds, but straight and with percentage dice. Hence if its 2.378-1 then you have a 37% chance of getting it to 3-1. This speeds play greatly, reduces the effectiveness of defensive ground support and helps the attacker. All very good things in our book.

I very highly recommend this rule.

Rationalised ground support ranges. It has always annoyed me that bombers can react at full range, and that in addition this allows fighters to magically react at full instead of half range!

Hence we play that all defensive fighters and bombers are at half range (unless flying CAP).

FTR in a sea-box need non-zero air-to-sea rating in order to count for combat choice (unless enemy LBA present) and presence of the enemy. Its far too easy to negate PotE and protect CPs using some crappy FTR in the zero box.

Allied attacks can't choose Blitz table until 1943 if defending hex Contains any German corps or AT. (You could argue that CW forces should never be able to choose the blitz table in attack, and US only from 1944).

CVP can only fly from CVs, but stack for free.

House Rules (Strategic):

Apart from the initial USSR/Ge and USA/Japan deals, MPs can only lend each other resources/BPs if they are at war with a a common enemy (MP).

No `peacekeepers', you have to be at war with an MP if you want to enter a minor country that it is at war with.

Japan surrenders when nuked twice and has no red factories or resources outside Japan;

No such thing as incomplete conquest of an Axis major power, it is automatically complete.

Italy doesn't get to fight on from Albania or Iraq! This rule is particularly necessary given that there are no rules for Axis minor powers pulling out of the war or defecting.

Synth oil plants just convert a normal resource into an oil resource (but build cost halved);

PM of +0.25 for enemy attacks in homeland only applies to China, but Russia gets +0.5 for enemy inside homeland;

Supply units can be expended to negate effect of isolated non-reorg;

S/O 1939

********

Germany sets up massively against Poland and easily takes it in one turn, the Polish pilots escaping to join the RAF. Gort and some chums land in France.

Japan builds up in southern China, and commences a strategic bombing campaign against China which regularly reduces Chinese production to about 2. This is a stratagem which Tim tried in the very first game he played as Japan (in 1994), and was delighted that the new strategic bombing chart means that it now works!

N/D 1939

********

Germans redeploy west, conquering Denmark. Most of the Danish fleet Escapes from Friedrickshaven, but the cruiser that had to base at Aarhus sails into the Baltic and, together with the French sub, sink one and abort 2 CP before they sink due to absence of bases.

J/F 1940

********

Its winter, nothing much happens.

There are now two partisans occupying Indian resources and another on The Burmese oil. Ungrateful sods.

M/A 1940

********

Germany invades Belgium as soon as the weather is clear, but are kept east of the Dyle, allowing the BEF (Gort, Wavell, 2 MOT, 2 MIL) and surviving Belgians to occupy Antwerp, Brussels and the hexes SW of there. The German paras are used to effect a crossing of the Meuse instead. I think Ian made a serious mistake in not taking out Holland first and thus outflanking the Dyle.

Japan takes a Chinese resource in the south.

Russia DOWs Persia but doesn't take the capital so the militia reserve arrives next turn. Persia is controlled by Italy who DOW Russia and send Balbo through the Suez canal to occupy the oil. After an allied conference the CW resist the temptation to DOW and try to attack the undefended TRS carrying him.

This may seem odd, but our thinking was that we were quite happy to see Italy go east, instead of DOWing France and putting pressure on the south.

In previous games we've seen the Italians be a major help by tying down French units which are needed against Germany, and our view was that Keeping France alive as long as possible was top priority. In addition, this means they aren't exploiting Wavell's absence and going for Suez.

M/J 1940

********

The first German OC is aimed at the CW southwest of Brussels. After a Large aerial battle a lone Hampden makes it through, reducing the odds to "only" 5-1 so that a roll of 3 is only a 1R. A breakthrough would have allowed the overrun of Gort behind the lines and left most of the BEF surrounded.

Not much other progress is made, since the CW/Belgian forces hold so much ground that the French line is more solid than normal.

The two Hampdens in fact put in star performances throughout the session, in defensive ground support, ground strike and even a bit of strat bombing.

J/A 1940

********

More steady but slow German progress in France. They are advancing south of Brussels and north of the Maginot, with a 2 hex wide penetration of the allied lines. The new HQ reorg range rule is a big help for Germany in this case. The second OC is used against the French.

The only hexes taken this summer are as a result of the two O Chits, flipping every time. Germany got through the Ardennes and then tried a massive pincer movement that spectacularly flipped them all.

The Japanese take the other southern Chinese resource and continue to bomb the Chinese factories into the stone age.

A partisan appears on the Sumatran oil, making the CW player realise that he'd been getting this oil throughout the game, but had forgotten and hence hadn't set up CP to get it out.

S/O 1940

********

A breakthrough in the CW sector pushes the BEF back to the channel ports.

A 4-1 GARR is left in Lille to cover the retreat and Gort, Wavell and a MOT are picked up by the navy before they can be blitzed into the sea.

Antwerp has fallen so a CW MOT and a Belgian MIL are cut off in Brussels. Meanwhile France is gradually stripping the Maginot and concentrating its best units around Paris.

A German attack on the Maginot fails and it all goes quiet again there.

N/D 1940

********

Very short, Germany gets a second hex on Paris.

J/F 1941

********

The "hero city" Brussels finally falls as a Stuka hits the CW MOT making a 10-1 easy.

There is now no BEF left, but attrition on the French army has been so light that a new BEF would just get in the way. Not much French air force left, though.

The fall of Belgium removes a real thorn in the German side, as up to now it has been very difficult for the Germans to make progress against France.

M/A 1941

********

The weather clears a little but the Germans make no further progress.

Japan, after a long buildup, finally DOWs Russia and surrounds Vladivostock, plus (obviously) cutting the trans-Siberian railway. No attacks, though.

Russia attacks the (Italian occupied) Persian oilfields and fails.

Wavell returns to the desert and drives around in Syria a bit.

Situation at the end:

*********************

Germany has 2 hexes on Paris but no OC and the French line is still solid.

However, massive air superiority and the summer should see Paris fall Sooner rather than later.

Italy holds the Persian oil and has aligned Iraq. The large Russian army has bounced once.

The Japanese have shuffled over the Russian border, but not done much yet.

Two Chinese resources have fallen, but they will soon have another FTR to protect their factories.

Russia is in two wars, but fortunately neither is against Germany.

CW lost a lot of units in France (mostly MIL and GAR) but has been rewarded by being able to use the Biscay route for longer than normal (no Axis sub

Attacks at all yet). Gibraltar has 2 white-print corps and a flak, Egypt has 6-7 corps and India has 5-6 corps.

USA is miles back, having seemingly drawn terrible chits and only just Been able to take any options other than interning Bearn.

On Sunday afternoon a Lancaster flew over the house. Which was nice.

May/June 1941

*************

Germany gets a third hex on Paris, but an assault on the city bounces.

CW and France DOW Italy, the Egyptian Territorial (supplied by Wavell) leaps across the desert (its the speed 4 one) and takes Mosul, capturing an oil and cutting the rail line from Iraq back to Italy. It is 6 hexes from Baghdad, so Iraqi units can't attack it.

Some CP are sunk, but Graziani, in an unescorted TRS in the Western Med, is not found by the CW ships!

The Italians in Persia (HQ, MTN, 3 Terr and a supply) are now totally cut off by the closure of Suez, as are a TRS and several CP.

Japan, having taken the 3 resources, takes Vlad.

US freezes assets and embargoes strategic materials.

July/August 1941

****************

Germany finally takes Paris. French counterattacks do minimal damage to both sides, so that the remaining Vichy army is huge. The French fleet evacuates to Dakar and Fr Eq Af as usual, though not before an Italian port strike sinks the TRS.

To Allied rejoicing, West Africa, with its huge fleet of cruisers, and Indo-China, both go Free French. The rest behave as normal.

US player now takes over China from Russian player, leaving Free France to the CW.

Sept/Oct 1941

*************

German forces redeploy eastwards.

Japan takes Khabarovsk.

CW strat bombing knocks 2 points off German production. Prior to the Fall of France the CW planes were mostly groundstriking German tanks and HQs.

Nov/Dec 1941

************

Short, bad weather, Germans deploy eastwards. Where could they be going?

Some minor CW strategic bombing.

Italy captures Cyprus with a MAR DIV.

CW sends 4 BP to Russia (allowed since both are now at war with Italy) but they all get sunk by the 5 German subs.

Jan/Feb 1942

************

Short, bad weather, Germans deploy eastwards.

CW re-establish the 4 CP link to Russia, and the 2 cruisers in the 4 box sink 3 German subs in the turn (in each case by getting two succesful damage results against a single sub).

March/April 1942

****************

To everyone's amazement, Germany DOWs Russia. The weather is mostly snow, which allows full movement while the combat effect isn't that important since the turn is mainly spent hoovering speedbumps, and no cities fall.

German builds have concentrated massively on land units, so that Germany has every MECH on the map or the spiral, but no OC.

He later admitted that he'd forgotten that AT guns nullify the effect of MECH on combat choice.

Russia forces a peace with Japan, saving the last Siberian resource just in time. However, 5 corps are stuck in Blag and lots of Japanese can redeploy to the Pacific, so that when the Allies sober up the next morning they realise that this was a mistake.

Skirmishes in the western Med.

US embargoes Japanese oil, the Japanese fleet redeploys to Truk.

May/June 1942

*************

Japan DOWs the CW and France, declaring the mega-combined and taking the NEI, Singapore, Rabaul and French Polynesia. The south Chinese resources

are abandoned to free up units for the Pacific, as is the CP line to Persia.

Most of the Japanese fleet ends based in Papeete with an amphibious force, apparently aimed at Panama.

In a previous game Japan had also done this, and we had counted a DOW on Fr Poly as a DOW on Free France, even though they are Vichy. We only just noticed that this rule was unnecessary, since if Germany collapses Vichy then Fr Poly goes Free anyway and the whole thing works fine. However, since Japan had done all of this without bothering to read the rules or consult his ally at all, this came as a surprise to Germany, so the allies allowed him to delay the collapse for a turn.

The CW invade Denmark, which has a corps in Copenhagen and one in the north, and a rebased FTR escorts half the CW CV fleet in a port strike on Kiel which sinks Scharnhorst and damages the AMPH.

CW Strat bombing rolls badly and only knocks off 3 PP and a factory.

Russian subs demolish the CP route to Finland and German production is reduced to 24.

Germany takes Minsk and ends just outside Vitebsk, Pskov and Smolensk.

In the south the Dnepr is crossed SE of Kiev and SW of Dnepropetrovsk.

Lots of crappy Russian units die, and a handful of Germans, although The air war results in attrition for both sides.

The Italian fleet sails to the E Med to escape a CW port strike, and troops mass in Cyprus and the Egypt border. Since the fall of France the CW has been building up forces in the Med, in particular getting two white print units to Malta, but there is nowhere near enough to think of invading yet.

Session end

***********

Russian line:

northern swamps - Pskov - Vitebsk - Smolensk - Gomel - Kiev - Dnepro - Sevastopol

Japanese fleet, marines, HQ in Papeete. Old Battleships in Singapore.

Japanese army in China or redeploying from Manchuria. US fleet has Redeployed to Pearl and the US must have a chance of DOWing Japan.

Italians massing in E Med, CW fleet massing in W Med.

Production: Ge 24 Jap 15 It 5 ; US 30 Rus 39 CW 23

Next turn may decide the game, but we'll have to wait at least 4 months for it as both Germany and USA are in the throes of moving house and hence find it difficult to get away. Aargh!

J/A 1942

********

Initiative is Axis +2 but Allies win initiative thanks to Stalin's inspired die-rolling. This allows the USA to DOW Japan (90% chance) before the Japanese could do anything nasty to Panama. The Pearl fleet mostly spreads out to guard the CP and provide PofE around Panama, while a few ships fail to find any Japanese CP (its a consistent Feature of our games that CP are never found in surprise impulses).

However, when the Japanese come out to kill the lone BB in the Sea of Japan, it surprises them massively, sinks 3 CP and teleports home damaged.

The Japanese fleet also spreads out to kill CP, and also fails.

The Japanese also re-land in the NEI to kill the partisan which is on the Sumatran oil, but they fail to capture the totally undefended Phillipines (Dugout Doug ran away even earlier than historically!) due to storms.

At the end the Japanese fleet rebases to Truk, having abandoned the Panama plan. The speed 5 and 6 US ships go to Pearl, the speed 4 BBs and Bearn to Malta and Langley to Edinburgh to guard the Arctic convoys.

In an air and then a combined the CW strats knock off 7 production points (rubble 1 in Hamburg) and 3 oil. With partisans in the Ukraine and Poland, Germany would have had only 15BP if it hadn't burned some oil in the factories.

In Russia the German round 1 attacks kill Russians but flip themselves, But in later impulses they roll well, especially in the north. Vitebsk and Novgorod fall while Kiev and Dnepro are totally surrounded. It could Have been worse for Russia if Guderian hadn't been successfully groundstruck in the first Allied impulse. The Russian line is looking very thin and Moscow and Rostov are in sight for the Germans.

A CW portstrike sinks the German TRS in Kiel so that Copenhagen, with Only a militia, couldn't be reinforced and duly fell to the CW, opening the Baltic to CW ships. Despite this, half the CW CVs rebase to Gibraltar to join in the war for the Med, now that the CW have some FTR in Malta.

Vichy is collapsed to make the invasion of Papeete retrospectively legal, the Germans get to keep 2 French ships and an Italian aero-naval invasion captures the port north of Beirut. These guys were going to drive over the desert to retake Mosul from the heroic Egyptian Terr, only to realise next turn that one HQ wasn't quite enough. For a short time Suez has no supply from either Britain or India but the Italians don't attack, maybe because their supply route is just as tenuous.

A lone CW INF invades Sardinia, taking the resource (shipped out to Britain) and grabbing some nice airbases, while US Paras+ATR rebase to Tunis just before an Italian Terr makes it. Another US Inf arrives later and the poor Terr gets killed at 10-1 before it gets a chance to run away.

Russia, in serious trouble, insisted on CW/US/Chinese passes, and to general amazement it actually worked, with a 4 being rolled on a raw 3 for turn end. This is the first time in about 10 games of WiF 6^th that I've seen an all-but-one-pass actually make a difference. Mind you, I think its a really crap rule from the point of view of both playability (its very boring indeed for the passees) and realism (the way to help your allies is to do absolutely nothing) and will be pressing for a house rule abolishing it next time.

S/O 1942

********

Japan finally takes the undefended Philippines and New Caledonia, retakes the NEI oil and kills the Dutch TRS in a portstrike on Sydney.

They sink a US cruiser in Polynesia but lose Hiryu to a massed US fleet after it failed to find any CP in the US West Coast (the US is short of CP and Pearl's supply route would have been cut).

North China had looked dodgy last turn, with Si-An falling to the newly-reinforced Japanese, but has now stabilised.

CW starts with a combined and launches a MAR+INF+MAR DIV invasion on Helsinki, guarded by only one Finnish corps as the others were just about to help Rommel's men in an assault on Leningrad. This was 4-1+1 and succeeded for the loss of the Inf with the marines flipping. Since the Baltic is free of German CP the other Finns are now out of supply and hence can't counterattack the marines. This has the stunning success of persuading Germany to take a combined, trying to sneak 4 CP out.

Fortunately the CW carriers find them and sink the lot. If they had Survived then the German MAR could have walked onto the Danish island and Attacked Copenhagen, guarded by only 1 CW unit, and had a chance of retaking the city and cutting several CW ships off in the Baltic. A very dodgy attack on Gort in southern Jutland also fails (2/-) and Finland's fate is sealed.

Mind you, I'm sure they're quite happy to have an excuse not to be on the German side any more. This allows the Petsamo resource, plus one more, to be sent to Leningrad in addition to the 4 going through Murmansk.

However, a long clear turn allows Germany to take Kiev, Dnepro, Stalino, Kharkov, Smolensk and Kalinin (all had 2 Russian units in). Russia loses about 20 land units though Gomel, Kursk, Bryansk and Sevastopol hold out behind German lines. The turn ends with Germany investing Leningrad, screening the Crimea and with a main line running 2 hexes west of Moscow to one hex west of Rostov. A short and stormy winter is imperative for Uncle Joe.

USA DOWs Italy and Germany. Mark/US then does a naval in the Pacific while I/CW do the Helsinki invasion before the Med. Only then do I notice that the Italian fleet is unprotected in Taranto, well within range of the US Paras in Tunis. Unfortunately, they've already rolled dice in the Pacific, so we lose the chance of a 4-1 surprise paradrop with a 70% chance of sinking or capturing 40% of the Italian fleet. Aaaargh! Of course in retrospect we should have been looking out for potential drop sites in the surprise impulse anyway, but as usual we were so busy thinking about how to fight Germany and Japan that we forgot about fighting Italy.

The US fleet from Malta (5 old BB plus Bearn) do a sterling job against the Italian CPs and NAVs (you can't help loving the US ships' AA factors, even on the old BB!) but the CW FTR covering them are eventually all driven off and they have to retreat to Malta. The CW are too busy in the Baltic and strat bombing to do much with their 6 CVs, but when they eventually get into the Italian coast with a 6-plane port strike against the unprotected Italian fleet lined up, they have to pass twice more to help the Russians!

This time it doesn't work, as usual. Everyone's CP survive.

N/D 1942

********

Allies get initiative (Mark/Russia's dice again), weather is fine except for Rain in Arctic (at last!) Russia redresses its lines, CW strats kill only 4 PP and US Malta fleet kills Italian CP.

Weather steadily worsens and Germany finally makes little or no progress, sludging over the Don north of Voronezh but failing to take the hero city Gomel.

Constant scrapping in the Italian Coast, with Italy finally getting to pick up a unit from the Middle east back to Italy, though at the cost of a FTR and a range-2 LND. The CW FTR all get aborted again but survive.

A newly built Italian sub sinks 2 CP in Cape Verde basin (which is what happens when you let the French do the escorting).

In the north Finland and Denmark are reinforced (the marines rebase to Cagliari, joining their US brethren there) and a portstrike damages Bismarck.

The Pacific and China seem to involve a lot of fannying but not much action as the US wait for the Essexes and the Japanese conserve oil. An optimistic US sub raid in non-stormy weather gets gubbed by the Japanese NAVs.

Position at end of Session

**************************

Russia is in deep trouble and desperately needs a rainy winter and spring.

The Russian line is roughly Moscow-Voronezh-Rostov, with a few Hero Cities west of that. Production is still pretty good, since all the non-red factories got out and CW lend-lease has made it through on all except the first turn.

Ian/Germany is clearly going all out to kill/cripple Russia, and hence Denmark and Finland were vulnerable, while the only German units in Italy are a NAV and 1 or 2 MIL. France is fairly strongly held, though.

This makes it a very high-variance game, which is fine by me. Its been a very entertaining session for us all, despite only playing 3 turns in a whole weekend (roughly 11PM-5.30AM Friday, 1PM to 2AM saturday, 11AM to 4PM sunday).

The Italian fleet and airforce are intact, but it is seriously short of oil and has several units totally cut off in Persia, with several more in Egypt and Syria on the other side of a sub-infested eastern Med.

The US has sent its slow BBs and subs, plus paras, marines and a few other units, to the Med, while the `good' fleet and the pre-war builds are in Pearl and Samoa. Japan has taken the Phils, New Cal, Singapore, NEI and the Seychelles, but is largely just protecting its perimeter.

Jan/Feb 1943

************

Axis win initiative, weather is 10+2=12, the first time we've seen it get up to "move along 4". The German fleet sails into the North Sea and rolls 2 v 10, sinking Prince of Wales but losing Scheer.

German subs go to Norwegian sea, roll 2 v 9 and sink 2CP.

Italians sail into the E Med, roll 1 v 10 and sink a CP.

In fact this was typical of the whole session, where the Axis consistently totally outdiced the Allies on land and sea (they admitted this themselves, its not just us whingeing). The only exception to this was that the CW BBs sail into the E Med and roll 1 v 10 against the Italian fleet guarding loaded TRS and AMPH (pulling people out of Syria), but both save Xs and the retrieved corps teleport home (with free fuel).

Second impulse weather is the same, but Germany still takes Gomel in a blizzard.

Nothing much else, just the usual CW-Japanese skirmishing in the Arabian Sea as the Japanese try to get CP to the oil in Persia which the Italians Are trying to send them, while the CW try to keep supplies going from India to Suez.

March/April 1943

****************

Axis win initiative, clear everywhere. A German OC on Manstein slaughters the Russian lines south of Moscow, killing 6 air and 7 land units, including Koniev. I think Mark made a serious error in committing the Russian air force here. I always reckon that its usually not worth sending planes against OC attacks since the main reason to reduce the odds is to flip the attackers, but with an OC he can reflip them all in effect for free anyway. The LL line to Murmansk was also cut so now only the stuff through Finland to Leningrad is getting through.

Later in the turn the Germans break through NE of Rostov, and Zhukov uses the OC to repair the line, though its still only 4-1. Another Russian mistake, I think. Tula also falls, and Russian losses start to really pile up, even though the line had looked pretty good at the start of the turn after the largely event-free Jan/Feb.

In the Med, CW and US marines land in Syracuse (no Italians in Sicily).

Axis planes based around La Spezia go into the W Med to cut supply, However, they are found by the 7(12) Mosquito and a German NAV dies, while an Italian NAV is shot down by Fulmars in Italian coast. This leaves only one Axis NAV. Sicily is occupied, while US troops walking from Tunis, with CW and FF shore bombardment, take Tripoli.

The Pacific continues with low-level skirmishing as the US slowly pushes forward without taking risks and Japan conserves oil.

Japan abandons Canton to the Chinese.

May/June 1943

*************

Allies go first in good weather, a CW naval puts a large fleet in the Italian coast and a US combined lands MAR+INF in Bari. The Russians mend the lines a bit. Nothing much in the Pacific as CW and US impulse types are dictated by wanting to get rid of Italy asap.

The Italian NAV, plus FTR, fly to W Med again and sink a French CP, though the ships that went with them were aborted by the CW escorts. The Allied land forces in Italy are now out of supply, since the Japanese have cut the other route to India. The rest of the turn is spent in repeated battles in the W Med as the Italian NAV repeatedly finds the Allies only for the French ships in a high box to find as well, or another French CP to sail out next impulse. This was much harder for the Allies than it should have been since I had stupidly sent all my CV and FTR into Italian Coast, and when I sent a BB+TRS force into the W Med I even more stupidly put it into the 0 box, so that if the Italians sank the CP and turn ended all of the face-down planes in Sicily would not reorg and the garrison limit for Italian surrender would not be met. I didn't even have the excuse of tiredness or drunkenness for these mistakes, as it was afternoon and I hadn't started on the tinnies yet.

Allied land forces spread out in southern Italy and eventually get a 10-1 against Taranto, while almost the entire CW strat bomber force rebases (for garrison ratio purposes) to Sicily, which by turn end is literally full of planes.

The turn eventually ends (when 3 was needed) with Allied troops in supply in Italy so that (Tripoli, Taranto, garrison ratio) Italy surrenders.

We play a house rule that this is complete conquest, so that they can't just move their capital to Baghdad. The Italian fleet had all rebased to German-held hexes (La Spezia, Nice) and so becomes German, and German forces in Italy are 4 MIL and 1 MTN.

The entire Italian campaign featured a grand total of 5 Allied land attacks.

1) 10-1 on a Terr near Tunis

2) 7-1 on a notional in Syracuse

3) 7-1 on a Garr in Tripoli

4) 7-1 on a notional in Bari

5) 10-1 on Inf, Mil and Div in Taranto

I'm curious as to whether this is typical or not. I've not seen many Italian campaigns as in our games Germany usually takes Gib.

I can't really bring myself to write much about Russia because the Russians got absolutely wasted. Relentless high die rolls by Germany and low by Russia meant that the Germans sliced through all the Russian defences all over the front, taking Moscow, Ryazan and Voronezh, plus the remaining hero cities.

The Germans hardly ever flipped and hardly lost anything, while the Russians suffered incessant 1B and 2S results. We reckon Ian didn't roll worse than 8, except where the attacks were 5-1 or more. Since his low(er) odds attacks were so successful, he didn't need to make many of them, and the Russian line totally collapsed. By the end of the turn the Russian `line' does not deserve the name as it consists of a handful of double-stacked units three hexes apart trying to stop the Germans just walking into the Urals and the Caucasus.

Jul/Aug 1943

************

Axis first, shovelling Germans towards Italy and Yugoslavia. Germans had arrived to garrison Hungary just in time and could then attack the Yugoslavs, who had been aligned once there were 4 CW corps in Italy. By the end of The turn Yugoslavia was conquered, just in time to prevent the CW reinforcing them.

CW play their new OC for a mega-combined. There are invasions and landings in northern Italy and southern France, though shortage of transports meant That all were small. Three flipped OOS German MIL were hoovered up and the Southern French coast cleared, although the 4 Italian ships which survived all the forced rebases could get to Trieste, held by a German MTN. Too many CW and US corps are still in N Africa and S Italy - in retrospect we both underbuilt TRS.

This, plus a landing in Estonia after the CW MAR had rebased to Finland and walked over the water to seize a port, dragged 3 German HQ and several corps out of Russia, but sadly too late.

The German juggernaut continued unabated with Russian forces scattered to the four winds like, er, things which fly on the wind and are very fragile.

By the end of the turn the Russians were almost completely driven off the European map. All that remained were 3 units in Leningrad and 2 or 3 corps holding the western end of the Caucasus. Yes its really that bad. The Russians have about 8 corps in western Siberia and 4 or 5 in the eastern Caucasus, plus a handful of planes, and that's it.

To make it worse, the desire to knock Italy out meant that the CW weren't able to take the air impulses required to properly proscute the air war, so That strat bombing knocked off only a few PP. We decided that this distraction of Allied force away from Germany was probably the most useful thing Italy had done in the war.

End of session

**************

Russia is dead meat, holding just Leningrad, Siberia and the Caucasus, though probably not for long. Ian went all out to stuff the Russkies and succeeded just in time, as he will now have enough spare troops to rush back to block the CW/US invasions before they get very far.

He was running very short of oil, but will soon have the Caucasus (he's already got Maikop) and more oil than he can shake a stick at.

The W Allies have Italy, southern France, Denmark and Estonia but are Spread out with no force de frappe. This seemed like a good idea when we did it, to pull as many German HQ and corps out of Russia, but now that he doesn't need half his forces in Russia, it starts to look not so good.

The only good thing from the Allied point of view is that Italy has gone.

We have to hope that loss of those counters and action limits hinders the Germans more than the gutting of Russia helps them. Probably not, is my guess, but its Mark/Russia (who *never* gives up, no matter how bad the situation) who is most insistent that we play it out.

In the Pacific the two sides mostly just stare at each other, while Japan pulls out of China. Japan managed to get some Italian oil out of Persia for one turn before it surrendered, and now has both MAR sitting in Saudi with a newly-free CW Med fleet with nothing to do but keep them unsupplied.

Unfortunately this will be it for a while, since Mark/USA will be out of action for a few months and we are unlikely to be able to resume before October or November.

However, we hope to start up a new 4-player game in Sheffield (me, Tim, Ian and Paul, who hasn't played WIF6 before) in a month or so.

Fortunately I have two copies of Deluxe, so this doesn't require unbagging the counters from this game. So, watch out for the "Hitler goes mad" (i.e Tim will be Germany) campaign coming soon......