From: "T

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

Subject: GR: "Storms in the East"

Getting back on topic, here's a GR for a very long campaign, a forced Sitzkrieg which we played all the way to 1947.

It took us no fewer than 9 full weekend sessions to play.

Its rather long, so I've split it into 5 posts.

The first two are from a while ago and have already appeared on the old WiF list, but I'm including them as well for completeness.

By the way, thanks to everyone on the list who takes the time to put GRs up. I really enjoy all of them.

GR : The Campaign Without a Name Yet

1939     1940     1941     1942     1943     1944     1945     Post Scriptum

CW - Trevor Ringrose (me)

RU/FR - Ian Coupland

USA/CHI - Tim Grindley

GE - John Sloan

JAP - Mark Price

ITA - Mark Price/John Sloan/Richard Dagnall

Using:

Deluxe, oil, limited overseas supply, presence of enemy, rail lines count as clear terrain, SCS transport but with only MAR Divs allowed to invade, first loss must be a corps, isolated non-reorg

Not using:

Defensive shore bombardment, carpet bombing, scandinavian and african maps

SESSION 1 (Oct 9/10 1999)

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****

Germany begins conventionally, with a fairly strong attack on Poland which conquers it with minimal trouble. However, Holland is attacked immediately (since CW gets the NEI oil anyway) and although the Dutch are quickly dispatched, a couple of CW Mot corps are dropped into Rotterdam behind the river, hoping to stuff up the invasion of Belgium. However, a prompt lowish-odds German attack kills them immediately (they were out of supply, with one flipped), along with a CW LND.

The Russo-Japanese border is quiet and Japan makes the usual slow progress in China.

****

Belgium is mopped up during a clear impulse in the winter, so that Adolf starts M/J 1940 on the French border. Gort and the BEF man the north coast while the Italians mass on the southern border.

Germany and Italy both attack France in M/J but progress is slow.

We are using the standard CRT, but with each player rolling a die for the other player's losses. Since the attacker needs to roll high to clear the hex and also have the defender roll high so that he stays face up, this means that the chance of taking a hex face-up is the square of what it would normally be. In a high-density front like France this makes it very difficult to make progress, since there is rarely room to have A HQ adjacent to the hex that has just been taken to reorg the units.

Hence despite the use of 2 OC Germany only crawls through France, relying on massive airpower. The year ends with France still holding out although the Germans and Italians both have footholds and Graziani has marched all the way across (ex) French North Africa.

Italy decided to use its fleet in the Med and not just cower in port waiting for the French to go away. The CW Gib fleet, noticing at one point that all of the Italian planes were flipped so that the SCS had no air cover at all, sailed into the West Med with 3 CVs (OK, so they are only CW CVs). The French couldn't help as they needed a land impulse, but it seemed worth the risk. However, Mark (playing IT at the time) was following his usual "be lucky" strategy and surprised them massively. Both sides took losses, and the Ark Royal survived an X roll by one. The CW retreated to Gib, only for the French to sail out next impulse and again get surprised and trashed. By the end of 1940 the Med is a virtual Italian lake.

The Russo-Japanese border is quiet and Japan makes the usual slow progress in China.

SESSION 2 (Nov 27/28 1999)

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1941 and early 1942

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As the weather clears Germany at last starts to make progress in France as the French airforce is attrited away. However, just as this happens and the French retreat to shorten their line, careless Italian deployment allows French forces to invade Italy via the northernmost gap in the Alps!

(Using the the rail lines count as clear rule).

Most of the north is captured without opposition (the Italians are all in southern France) and the French are on the verge of being able to align Yugoslavia when the Germans finally succeed in gutting the French line around Paris, and the Allies realise that aligning Yugo to France will just give it to the Germans for free. France falls in M/A 1941 and suddenly the Axis have a whole summer to go after Gibraltar.

Germany had 2 OC to align Spain, but instead tried to take Gib using Italian and German PARA and MAR. Graziani had captured NW Africa unopposed (I hadn't realised that CW units can enter French territories without HQ commitment) so shedloads of German planes and Italian NAVs suddenly appear in Morocco and Gib is remorselessly groundstruck while NAVs and FTR fly into Cape St Vincent. The first assault is GE and IT MAR supported by massed Italian shore bombardment, the second GE and IT PARA ditto. Much to the Allies' relief, the attacks failed.

Gib was defended by 2 WP corps and a gun, plus some Mosquito FTR. A corps and the gun died but were replaced immediately by a corps and a DIV.

Hence the defence was always 14 with +3 to the die, and since the Italian PARA/MAR are only 4 pts this meant the Axis PARA attack was 3*(5+4)=27 for 3-2, though the MAR attack was 2-1 thanks to the MAR DIV.

The rules chosen made a huge difference here, since the absence of defensive shore bombardment and use of both limited overseas supply and `no free reorg if cut off' meant that keeping the CW defenders face up was a nightmare and there was no way of supporting them except with CVP (since planes in Gib were flipped and/or out of supply the whole time so only got to fly once).

On the plus side for the Allies, the 2-dice combat meant that the Axis needed to Shatter the defenders *and* not lose both their units too.

The CW tried to keep Gib supplied with the fleet and TRS, but in practice this caused hideous attrition on the CW CVP (and also on the Axis NAVs) as the Axis rolled relentlessly low for naval search.

Several ships were sunk, including the Queens, and several were forced to abort to Gib, where they were out of supply and hence unable to reflip.

<rant mode on>

We were playing a slight variant of the standard naval combat abort Rule here, saying that the abort must be to the nearest port *which was in supply at the start of the impulse*. However, this still meant that ships were forced to abort to Gib while it was supplied, but all these aborting ships meant that the rest of the fleet had to abort back to Scallyville to avoid being trashed by the NAVs. The Gib ones were then out of supply. The more I think about the naval combat abort rule the more barmy it seems. Planes which are involuntarily aborted can rebase anywhere they like, and if doing so from a sea area can often do so to a hex which it would have taken 2 or 3 impulses to get to normally. Why the hell do ships get forced to go to the nearest port? John told us about some examples on the list where Japan has deliberately left Manila unconquered so that aborted US subs have to go there and sit flipped and unsupplied until the US reconquer it. That such appalling rules-lawyering exists is profoundly depressing, not to mention a crime against god and nature. However, amongst all the obvious bad points about the rebase rule, I can't think of any real pluses.

If we just played that ships can rebase anywhere they want, just as in a voluntary abort, we gain a lot, but what do we lose? Nothing that I can see. This is how we had always played it in the past (i.e. we had never read the rule before) and never had any problems, and only now, even playing a toned down version of the rule, have we had problems. The only addition to that you might play is that when aborting during a trying-to-fight-through combat you have to go back to the port you started in.

<rant mode off>

In retrospect it looks as though, when not using defensive shore bombardment, it is counterproductive to try to supply Gib with the fleet since you just give a huge tempting target for the Axis NAVs.

It seems better to just stick a single CP in and hope for the best, with the fleet only sailing when needed to guard a TRS carrying reinforcements. It certainly would have been better in this game, since although the Axis rolled consistently low against the fleet, they rolled consistently high against unescorted CP.

(They were doing this simultaneously in the Bay of Bengal, leading to Axis complaints that the CW were using Stealth Convoys).

After giving it their best shot, the German reverted to their original plan of using 2 OC to align Spain, atacked Gib from both sides, bounced the first time at 1-1+3 (it was in supply for once), reorged and tried again and took it with 3-2+3. With crushing inevitability, the CW CV that had been forced to rebase there was captured (along with Richelieu, but I didn't care about that).

The Germans promptly start rebasing to Poland while the Italians toddle off to Syria and thence to align Iraq and Persia. Only after this happened did we realise that the Russian player didn't know about this rule, and hence hadn't understood why the CW and USA kept badgering him to attack Persia while Germany was engaged in Spain.

The Italians then returned to capture a reasonably well held (4 corps plus 2 TERR) but unsupplied Suez. This was helped by a CW blunder on the one impulse they were in supply, when Alexandria was weakened in order to strengthen the Suez front, forgetting that although the Italian forces in the desert were weak, they had shore bombardment support and hence could scrape up a 3-1. This rolled high and the rest of the forces were then surrounded and doomed.

Meanwhile the Battle of the Atlantic was really hotting up as the Germans built every sub they could lay their hands on and the CW was using its entire cruiser force and most of the CVs to guard the CPs, which had been set up according to the non-Med setup in the recent LOC.

Since the CPs were generally well-guarded (planes/CVs and cruisers in 0 and 3/4 boxes) Germany mostly concentrated on a single huge wolfpack in the North Atlantic area, so that if they found the CP they did a lot of damage. However, the CW had built some CP and abandoned the Africa route once France and the Gib fell (can't recall the exact timing) so that it was down to only 4 sea areas to guard (resources were coming from Aus and New Cal via Panama, though).

In early/mid 1942 the German surface fleet sails into the Faeroes gap, avoids the CW force which comes out to meet it and then aborts to Lisbon, which was captured for just this purpose.

After making little progress in China the Japanese annexe Indochina and Madagascar from the Vichy and then DOW the CW (only) in late 1941.

The CW Stealth Convoys around India mostly survived and a big Japanese fleet sailed for India. Japanese take Rangoon from the militia and then walk into the Burmese oil, carelessly left unguarded by the CW, while Marines storm ashore in Sri Lanka and then cross the straights into India. Meanwhile an attempted Japanese landing at Aden fails, but Singapore falls as usual.

Final position after 2nd session

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

We ended just before the first impulse of J/A 1942.

The position is:

Germans massed on the borders of Russia

Italians have Suez, Iraq, Persia, and can now go for Greece and Aden

Japanese have Singapore and Burma and are ashore in India

USA has just DOWed Japan

Russia has just DOWed Italy and is massing to invade Persia

CW is readying to support Russia but is very worried about the massive wolfpack in the N Atl and the massive German fleet in Lisbon

In other words we are about to take a trip to S**t-Hitting-The-Fan City

Arizona.

SESSION 3 (Feb 26/27 2000)

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J/A 1942

********

The German army spends most of J/A 1942 sitting on its arse as a wave of rain and storms engulfs the arctic and temperate zones. This was just after John had told us that some people prefer a J/A Barbarossa since you should get more clear turns than in M/J, so I suppose it was inevitable that this would happen.

Meanwhile, in a rare clear impulse, the CW land a MAR and a MOT at an unguarded Rouen, hoping to drag some Germans away from Russia.

More INF and MIL are landed.

Russians slog towards Teheran, and Ian learns some more about how the supply rules work!

The US DOW on Japan doesn't do much damage to his convoy lines as it was during a storm, but USA already seems to be going for a Pacific first strategy. Escort carriers and a few cruisers stay in the Atlantic while the rest of the fleet sails for the Pacific.

Rabaul is garrisoned by the Aussies, and much rejoicing is heard throughout America.

S/O 1942

********

Germany DOWs Russia, but contents itself with gobbling up the Russian speedbump units in Poland and the Baltic States.

A similar attack on a unit in Bessarabia is cancelled after I point out to John that this is presently counted as Russia!

The turn ends with the Germans lining the borders of Russia but not entering. Meanwhile Teheran falls to Russia.

The CW landing in France expands to include Lille and Calais (Germans didn't surround them immediately, so they were able to slide in) but after a rapid and substantial build-up Germany retakes Rouen.

The USA sends reinforcements to the Phillipines and starts to attack (very successfully) the Japanese CPs using NAVs and LNDs based here (the Bolos perform sterling work) and subs.

N/D 1942

********

Since the Germans don't seem to be doing anything in the east, the Russians start to redeploy westward.

The heaviest fighting is around Lille, where all of the CW airforce and a fair chunk of the German one battle for the skies and the Germans launch a failed assault.

The Italians take Aden.

Japanese and US forces both land in the NEI, with Japan taking Sumatra and the USA taking Java and Borneo.

J/F 1943

********

The US Atlantic fleet (escort CVs and cruisers, mostly) cruises off Lisbon, threatening to port strike the German fleet there.

Germany has a Cunning Plan and DOWs USA with Germany (i.e. not initiating US Total War) and sallies forth, but fails to find (as usual for the surface fleet which consistently fails to find or be found - apparently only the subs are allowed crew with good eyesight).

USA DOWs Italy anyway.

More fighting over Lille, which holds out as one of 3 CW-held hexes.

Germany occupies Bessarabia to get the river line, giving Russia its first production boost. Otherwise nowt much happening in the east.

After a long conference (with the Allies banished upstairs) the Japanese pull out of India, presumably having just been told that the Italians weren't going to be reinforcing them. John was now GE and IT and had decided that they would be horribly out of supply very shortly, and Japan was a bit thin on garrison. In addition the Italians had got bogged down by the Russians in Persia/Iraq.

M/A 1943

********

Up to now the aerial battles had favoured the RAF, with the front German fighter repeatedly being shot down by the RAF's 7-point spitfire.

This time the tide turned with a vengeance, with the RAF losing no fewer than 4 LND3 and a NAV3 in fighting over Lille. (The aerial fights were pretty bloody overall, despite the fact that both of us tended to abort once the factors were worse than about +/-2). However, their sacrifice is not in vain as Lille holds out yet again (another low German roll).

Italy conquers Greece and aligns Yugoslavia.

Suddenly the east comes alive! The Russians reckon that the German army is a bit out of position and hence throw their OC into an attack in south-east Poland. Progress is made and the German line looks a bit shaky before railed reinforcements and turn end shore it up.

Russia also outflanks Italy in the middle east and seizes an Iraqi oilwell, cutting the rail route back to Italy for the other.

SESSION 4 (March 25/26 2000)

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M/J 1943

********

To no-one's surprise the Germans use their new OC to wipe out the Lille salient and banish the CW from the shores of NE France.

However, in the next impulse the CW invades Brittany, eventually consolidating a 6 hex area once the lone corps in Brest is killed.

Germany suffers massive attrition in this turn, with an OC spent and units lost in France, many units lost in Russia and several naval losses, albeit mostly Spaniards. The Allies start to think that maybe things are starting to go their way.

J/A 1943

********

Feck! Arse! Drink! Girls!

Russia launches a big attack in the southern sector in impulse 1, with minimal success. Unfortunately none of us had noticed that Germany had *another* OC, which is promptly used in a counterattack which may well qualify for the title "most effective ever use of an OC".

Germans blitz Russians and break through both just south of the Pripets and in northern Rumania. Suddenly a huge section of Russian line is threatened with being pocketed and the only units behind them are flipped planes. The Russians try to redeploy but are not fast enough and several corps are inside when the pocket is sealed, while several flipped planes are overrun.

Germany attacks and takes a hex in Brittany, but they are flipped and a CW counterattack retakes the hex. After that both sides decide to sit it out.

German ships which rebased to Bordeaux are port struck, fairly ineffectively, and decide that this is too close to the CW so they rebase to Gibraltar.

The Italian send some motorised troops over the Hejaz to Iraq and retake the oil wells. Meanwhile Persia is stalemated with the Russians holding the capital and the Italians the oil.

S/O 1943

********

Germany reduces the Russian pocket, with massive Russian losses, including several GB Armies and many planes. Truly hideous.

The Germans lose almost nothing in doing this, as they are usually attacking groundstruck and unsupplied units.

Noting that Lisbon has been cleared of Germans so that the Italian fleet (having redeployed from Aden/Greece) can move in (the German fleet has gone to Gib) the Allies throw 2 MAR and a MAR DIV at the one corps in Lisbon, taking it for the loss of the US MAR. Though flipped, the Axis have nothing to counterattack with so that this important naval base is kept out of Axis hands.

Of course the Italians just went to Cadiz instead, but this keeps them out of the Faroes and means that they can only go to the North Atlantic.

The CW finally gets the Aussie Beauforts out, rebases them to India and, escorted by the Hurricanes (Indian!), finally cuts the Italian supply line to Persia.

N/D 1943

********

The east is fairly silent again as the Germans, damage done, retreat back out of Russia to deny Uncle Joe his much-needed PM bonus. A huge German sub fleet trashes the Faroes convoys while the Italo-German surface fleet sails to the North Atlantic, only to be caught and heavily surprised by the Home Fleet. However, this is a good illustration of the soul-destroying nature of guarding convoy lines in that, even with lots of surprise against a big fleet the CW still only inflicts a kill and a couple of damages and the Axis simply abort back to base ready to sail out next turn.

At least the kill was the German CV and a damage was the ex-CW CV captured at Gibraltar.

Russia takes the Iraq oil again, but isn't yet in a position to take advantage of the Italians in Persia being out of supply.

We put the J/F 1944 reinforcements on and then stop.

An even bigger German sub fleet appears in Kiel. This is getting silly.

We now bring you a special broadcast live from Japan:

1943 The Year of Living Dangerously

The US DoW brings the need for some serious build up in Japan the Garrison units are looking very puny.

The CP's take a bashing and I definitely could have done with more At least oil isn't a problem so the fleet can sail whenever I need it.

A last minute garrison in Truk helps to keep the US in Rabul They close in pretty quick though and I soon find I cant keep open both South China Sea and Sea of Japan?

Getting the oil from Burma and NEI soon becomes a hit and miss affair.

I eventually ended up with the fleet stuck in Canton and Tokyo.

A small carrier group off Japan got jumped by the US fleet All my land based NAVs flew in support and I think my air force took more stick than the navy but I lost an carrier and some escorts.

Next impulse was stormy so my battleships sailed out of port to tackle The US fleet. Definitely a be lucky move but I got the best of it and the US pull back to Philippines. Still I've now got every plane in Japan Flipped and all my ships at sea an expensive oil turn that highlights the need for a HQ in Japan. I'm also now running out of fighter cover and some of the reinforcements are very duff. The far flung jap land units start to Pull back from NEI, Burma and Singapore to try to reinforce China.

The US keeps sending reinforcements to the Pacific - one carrier group Looks tempting with a light escort, not many FTR factors and no land based Air cover. Its max range for my 4-6 carriers and escorts but I dash out. I Fail to find them and have to wait while a bigger US fleet now comes after

me. I manage to damage a carrier as he fights past two of my subs and he fails to find my fleet so its back to Tokyo ASAP. The US surround the NEI oil and a couple of quick turn ends catch me before I can dash out any CP's to pick up the oil. Things go strangely quiet for a turn, a lucky jap FTR sweep clears out US NAVs and FTRs from some sea boxes and I manage to knock out a mar div in the Bonin Islands that had been annoying me for a while. It takes a momentous Army, Navy and Air Force combine op to do it, much to everyone's amusement.

The NEI oil garrison eventually falls with 4 oil stacked on it. Now I Can add the synth oil plant to the list of things I should have built earlier.

Time to check the piggy bank and see how long the oil will last (not telling). The US now moves in a CP to transport out their newly won oil But a lone jap sub sinks it ha!

<end transmission>

Final position after 4th session

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

The CW (and some US) are ashore in Brittany (where three Para corps sit looking threatening) and Lisbon, but the North sea coast is very heavily garrisoned all the way to Denmark.

There are now quite a few US units in UK and the CW/US airforce is huge, but then so is the German airforce facing it.

Neither CW nor US has built an OC yet, almost certainly a mistake.

The East is static since Russia just doesn't have the numbers to launch a meaningful attack.

Japan is reduced to almost exactly what it started with, with all the resources coming through Korea, the rest of the Pacific having been swept clean of Japanese CPs. However, Japan is well held and the fleet is almost intact, so its a question of how long the stored oil lasts.

SESSION 5 (Sept 23/24 2000)

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J/F 1944

********

The Allies hold a conference to decide how to play this session.

Normally in 1944 you would want to be forcing the pace, attacking all over the shop, and attriting the Axis wherever possible, even if you are losing more than them. However, we decided that Russia had been so completely gutted by the German counterattack in 1943 that there was no way they could mount any kind of non-suicidal offensive until the end of the year at the earliest. Since the CW/US was in no position to mount a land war against an undistracted Germany, we decided to build up our strength, launch a strat bombing campaign and try to bring the sideshow campaigns (Iraq, Japan) to swift conclusions. This will of course mean that when we do go onto the offensive in Europe, the counter density will be hideously high (favouring the defence) and all those nasty German fantasy-fighters will be on the map.

Not much happens this turn, except that a big German sub fleet rolls a '1' during storms in the US East Coast, and the CW/US have only just enough CP to restore the line. The line across the atlantic is only 10CP, so the CW is building at only 16*1.5=24.

However, total CW income is only 21 resources, so there doesn't seem much point in sending the 5 oil from the US over the atlantic when they can be burned in reorgs just as well from Canada.

M/A 1944

********

The last of the Russian pocket is finally removed, so that Zhukov can now be rebuilt. More Italians pour into Iraq (thanks to a 3HQ supply line across the desert), while Italian FTR from Aden rebase to cover the Persian Gulf CP against the Indo-Aussie planes based in/near Karachi.

In the Pacific, a daring US amphibious invasion captures Port Arthur, but a lost corps means that the hex does not ZOC those around it, so that the Japanese have an impulse to surround it and keep the supplies running (Japan now holds only the Sea of Japan, so supplies have to go via Korea).

The CW/US start their strat bombing campaign, and despite the rain manage to destroy a factory in Hamburg.

M/J 1944

********

A CW/US force invades Denmark, which is defended by just 3 garrison units (the Hungarian militia having just railed from Copenhagen to Spain).

The Germans decide that its not worth opposing it so the units are destroyed for no loss and the Baltic is open to CW ships. CW NAVs and FTR fly to the Baltic, supported by the Russian navy, and fight it out with the German planes guarding the convoys. The hoped-for CW port strike on Kiel is cancelled when the Komet (strength 10, range 0) appears there!

Meanwhile the Lancasters hit their stride, as CW air impulses allow 1000-bomber raids (i.e. ones using the 25+ column) on Essen and Dusseldorf. The Germans have slight fighter superiority (i.e. a better front FTR in each case) but, after much aerial duelling and the loss of 2 LND4 and 3 or 4 FTR for the CW/US (inc all the pilots) to 4 or 5 German FTR (inc at most one pilot) both raids get through, brave the heavy flak and rubble 3 of the 4 factories.

The raids were mostly 3 Lancasters plus a flak/abort-absorbing Liberator.

In the middle east the Italians abandon and burn the 1-oil hex in Persia, but still hold the 2-oil hex thanks to the 5-strength Italian mountain unit, which has survived at least half a dozen Russian attacks now.

The US expands its Port Arthur bridgehead and the ChiComs try to link up to it. The Russians DWO Japan, with a huge far eastern force of two garrisons and a cavalry division, later joined by a railed infantry corps. The subs sail but find nothing on the surprise impulse.

Chinese planes successfully groundstrike the Japanese WP INF corps on the Burmese oil (which had been there for about 2 years and cut off for at least 6 months), allowing the Indian army to retake it and send the oil to the Chinese.

Russia launches a few desultory ground strikes and attacks on the Polish border, but its wet celery all round.

J/A 1944

********

The US and Chinese forces meet up in northern China, and there is now no supply line from China to Japan, since the only sea area with Japanese CP in is the Sea of Japan.

The Germans now have a big fighter force in Germany, so the CW/US now switch to France and Belgium, rubbling Metz and Brussels.

CW NAVs and FTRs based in Denmark finally clear the Baltic of German CP.

Now there are hardly any Japanese CP left the US subs redeploy to India to try to cut the Italian CP line to Persia, but again the Italians show that they have successfully copied the CW's early war Stealth Convoy technology.

A bit more wet celery on the eastern front, albeit with some fairly large air battles. The Russians continue to bang their head against the brick wall of the Italian MTN corps.

This must have been the most peaceful J/A 1944 ever in a game of WiF.....

S/O 1944

********

As soon as it starts snowing the Russians begin to attack, as the army (though not the airforce) has been rebuilt fairly well, and Uncle Joe has 3 OC in his kitty.

Lancasters again hit the French factories, but someone appears to have hidden Lille, which is repeatedly missed. Still, any excuse to bomb France repeatedly.

SESSION 6 (Oct 14/15 2000)

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N/D 1944

********

Finally the Russian fightback really begins, with 2 OC (Zhukov and Koniev) in the south making a hole in the line in Poland and getting them over the river and into Rumania.

I can't remember anything else much happening. Anyone?

J/F 1945

********

Russian attacks continue whenever it snows, and although there are no Dramatic gains the Germans are at last starting to take some attrition. The CW/US are mostly twiddling their thumbs and preparing for the summer offensive.

Americans, in particular FTR2 and LND4, pour into Britain, with the result that its starting to get difficult to fit them all in. The south of England is basically full and newly-arrived bombers are having to base as far north as Leeds. This despite the fact that there are about 12 planes in Denmark and maybe 8 (plus 3 ATR with Paras on) in Brittany. Mind you, there are now 20 FTR guarding Germany alone, let alone all the ones in France, Poland and Rumania.

Tim foolishly lets me do the Chinese builds while he fries some bacon, so a Chinese CV is laid down!

M/A 1945

********

Russia uses its last OC, but rolls a 1 in a good attack on the Persian oil.

Japanese fleet sails and misses.

The Italian navy gains the North Atlantic in a storm, so the CW switches to the northern CP routes, so that the Italian fleet cannot now reach any area with CP in (the CW capture of Lisbon keeps them out of the Faeroes.

Russians sink German CPs in storm, but the German surface fleet sails into baltic to sink russians, then 10 CW planes fly in and trash them.

Meanwhile its D-Day in Normandy. US and CW marines and infantry land in Normandy in impulse 1, these are quickly encircled as the US/CW ground strikes fail to paralyse the german army as hoped, and then in the final impulse more US INF and MOT land around Cherbourg in the area vacated

by some of the encircling troops. The CW/US beachhead now looks pretty substantial, with the short-range (mostly CW) fighters based in France and the long-range (mostly US) fighters and bombers in Britain.

M/J 1945

********

The CW finally have an OC, built at least a year too late. However, Germany's policy of only sailing the subs when there is a storm, and then rolling ones, has been very successful in keeping a huge German sub fleet intact and CW production low.

For the first time in living memory, the CW take a land impulse, while the US takes a combined, and Operation Market Stall is launched. CW and US Paratroops land on the two (unguarded) artillery units behind the German Brittany front line, while CW armour attacks the north end of the line to break through to them. Success would see 2 German stacks surrounded by double-stacked allied hexes, with only von Leeb able to put them back in supply via the south end of the line. However, a mixture of German defensive ground support and poor dice mean that the northernmost attack only gains one hex, the CW Paras die in their drop and the US Paras are, next impulse, blitzed off the map with a German OC. However, the number and frontage of CW/US troops forces a German withdrawal and the toehold is now a foothold. Plus, that's only one German OC left, a source of great relief to Russia.

Russia continues to attack in Rumania, and was about to have a decent Attack on Ploesti when the turn ended early.

The Japanese fleet sits in Osaka with a grand total of 3 oil to power it.

Japan is well garrisoned with planes and land units too, and has the synth oil.

China is now almost totally overrun, with a few pockets of unsupplied Japanese left to be mopped up.

The US now unveils its Cunning Plan. A US CV force sails from Singapore into the Red Sea, past the rather startled Italians in Aden.

A two-division invasion is announced on the unguarded Suez hex, but it then transpires that the Axis players thought that Suez wasn't a coastal hex, hence the fact that they garrisoned the hexes south and east of it, but not Suez itself. In the rules we couldn't find anything definite, although a glance at a (real) map shows that Suez is very definitely on the Red Sea coast. The US player magnanimously agrees not to attack, even though he'd been planning this for (real) months! The US fleet contents itself with trashing the Italian CP, leaving the troops in Persia very definitely out of supply.

SESSION 7 (March 17/18 2001)

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Jul/Aug 1945

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

Although Market-Garden wasn't a total success, it persuaded the Germans to pull back from the coast in north-west France, retreating to the river lines around Paris. The US and CW both played mega-combineds in their first impulse. It was probably a mistake for both to do this, but I reckon that for both those players this is the best use of an OC, unless they can really get by without a naval impulse in that turn. As expected, the German army was ground-struck to buggery, with much of the front line flipped.

The Allied forces in France were mostly CW land forces but with airforces about even in CW and US, so the attacks were somewhat muddled in later impulses due to the US wanting to take combineds in the Pacific. Much terrain in France is occupied, but no more resources and no heavy losses in either side. The Italians form a line along the Alps and the Spaniards form laagers at Bilbao and Barca.

A rather optimistic CW-US landing in Holland gets pushed back into the sea by von Runstedt and friends, in a classic demonstration of the importance of having tanks on hand to blitz beachheads.

Both attacks are 2-1 and get the R result (50% chance) needed.

In the East the Russians continue to beat their heads against brick walls, with a surprising number of combats producing wet celery all round.

Ploesti hangs on, and the Germans don't burn it since they are desperate for all the oil they can get. In Persia the Russians seem to have given up on taking Busehr, and get a nasty surprise when four of the dreaded Italian 16-range Piaggio bombers descend on Baku (from bases in Iraq) and trash its entire oil supply for the turn.

In the Pacific theatre this is the moment of truth! After 3 years of planning the US forces are ready to leap out of their bases in India and descend, screaming, on the thinly guarded beaches of Suez!

Unfortunately a 4-strength Italian fighter is in the 0 box of the Red Sea so the whole thing is called off.

All in all this turn would have been rather different if the Allies had won the initiative and been able to go first.

Sept/Oct 1945

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The CW continue to grind forward in France, with a clear impulse seeing a crossing of the Seine north of Paris. The US start to take over the southern part of the front. Russia keeps attacking without achieving much thanks to German air superiority.

Nothing much happens in the Pacific, except that US and Chinese bombers reduce Japanese production to zero (from 1 resource in Korea, 1 in Hokkaido and the Synth oil).

Nov/Dec 1945

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

German subs sally forth as soon as the storms start, and with a 1-10 split destroy 6 and abort 2 CPs in the Faroes Gap, plus sinking a TRS for good measure.

Holy Belgium! The CW roll 20 in successive air combats, shooting down the Bat and an Me262 with pilots! Amazingly, they had rolled another two 20s in the previous turn, having failed to kill more than a handful of German pilots throughout the whole war up till then.

Despite the crap whether, the CW continue to throw themselves at the German line, and are rewarded with some good dice and R results in low-odds combat. Typhoons, Tempests, Thunderbolts and Lightnings descend hungrily on any hex with an ARM or MECH in.

Meanwhile the US troops start going the other way with Patton and Bradley heading into Spain. Andorra is overrun in a lightning campaign while CW ships land more USers around Porto to link up with the Aussies who've been sunning themselves in Lisbon for over a year.

As soon as it starts snowing the Russians start throwing OC on Zhukov and Koniev, and Ploesti finally falls, with Bucharest following soon after.

There is minimal movement, but some attrition, elsewhere in the line.

To everyone's amazement the enormous Japanese fleet finally leaves port and sits in the China Sea, forcing the US surface fleet to run away since the carriers are still in Singapore. This prevents many US planes from reorging at the end of the turn.

The US builds 3 OChits.......

Jan/Feb 1946

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

The invasion of Spain proceeds apace, with many Axis troops having run away to Italy or Germany leaving just the Spaniards and garrisons.

Having complained that the CW hadn't bombed Berlin for a while the US decide to nuke Madrid instead, and both factories go up in flames, including the red one that the US should capture shortly. The CW had wanted to nuke Paris instead, just on principle. However, further CW progress north of Paris made the Germans abandon it to shorten the line, and British tanks and lorries roll through the streets, doubtless picking up many grateful young French ladies along the way. Having lost Ploesti, and facing the Meteor IV without the Bat, the Luftwaffe mostly stays at home this turn.

In the east the Germans fall back from Rumania leaving Bulgaria and Greece with minimal guards, while the Italian-aligned Yugoslavs line the Danube. In Poland the Russians gain a couple of hexes with losses on both sides.

The US and Japanese fleets sit in the China Sea with neither wanting to search for the other. The US have stronger CVs but the Japs have a shedload of NAVs.

End of Session

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Germans hold lines in eastern France, eastern Poland and western Rumania, Italians hold Iraq, Aden, Suez and the Alps. Spain is minimally held With just garrisons and locals in the factories, though Gib is held by the Inevitable full house of mountain troops.

Japan holds itself, except the SW islands and a northern port, plus Seoul and a few pockets in China.

SESSION 8 (June 23/24 2001)

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March/April 1946

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After a strategic discussion the US decides to make the south end of the German line in France its main target for OC, best units and HQs.

The US line gradually expands north during the session, taking over hexes from the CW. The main reason for this is that the US has shedloads of OC and the CW don't (two or three per turn to one every other turn).

The Allies ready themselves for the good old CW-air-impulse-and-US-land-OC ploy.

Spain is left to Patton with a few corps while the Italians in the SW French mountains are screened.

The turn sees the inevitable Allied attacks and massive air battles but nothing decisive occurs apart from the disastrous loss of the Meteor IV to the Bat on the last impulse. Feck!

May/June 1946

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

Finally the Pacific comes alive! A large US fleets sits in the Sea of Japan and the Japanese, hideously short of oil and with the synth-oil hex being repeatedly and pretty unsuccessfully nuked, decide to come out and play with their kamikazes. The inevitable happens and, although the US take some losses, the Japanese fleet is totally gutted, with most of it ending up in the repair pool, with no BP to repair them.

In Spain Patton and his army flip on impulse 1 attacking the mountains near Madrid, and nothing more happens.

In the east the Russians rain corps and OC on the German line in Poland, but German airpower, and the bloody awful Russian FTR, means that there is no breakthrough, but heavy losses on both sides.

In France a CW air impulse with US land OC followed by CW land OC with US mega-combined do the Germans plenty of damage, but the devastatingly good German front fighters mean that the CW/US need to fly twice as many FTR as the Germans to get parity. The carnage on front fighters is incredible as Me262s, Shooting Stars, Mustangs, Spitfires and Meteors go down in flames. The Bat survives every time, though, and is reorganised 3 or 4 times in both this and the following turn, irritating the hell out of the Allied players the whole time.

After a heavy strategic bombing campaign in 1944, when there wasn't much else the Allies could do, German cities escaped much damage in 1945 since the Lancasters and Liberators were needed in France for ground strikes and Germany was stuffed full with FTR. However, by 1946 the overall German FTR strength was lower and all the best ones were at the front, so it was decided that the time had come for the allied bombers in Denmark to stop bombing the crap out of German cities and, more importantly, oil. Lancasters were escorted over Berlin and the north while Superfortresses and the awesome Cheesemakers bombed anything that didn't have a 10 point FTR near it. A decent number of PPs and stored oil were knocked off, as it became clear that the colossal German airforce was consuming oil faster than an American car.

July/August 1946

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In the Pacific the US continue to land a few more units in Japan while nuking the synth-oil hex, finally managing to destroy one of the two factories covering it.

In Spain Patton really lives up to his dynamic, hard-driving reputation by again flipping his entire army in impulse one, albeit having just taken Madrid, still glowing after the nuke.

SESSION 9 (August 13/14 2001)

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Sept/Oct 1946

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This is it! Most of the German airforce is face down due to lack of oil (a grand total of 2 oil made it to German units last turn, and nearly all of the oil-dependent land and air units ended the turn face down).

Germany wins initiative but the weather is fine. The Germans redress their lines a little but then US and CW both take mega-combined impulses and bombs rain all over Germany, both oil-bombing and groundstriking. The Russians are now close enough that Anglo-Allied planes from Denmark can ground strike to support them. The ground strikes are not enormously successful, due to the highly effective German tactic of hiding. However, waves of Allied troops throw themselves at the German lines with some effect while in Spain Franco is finally destroyed. However, the US forces simply screen Gibraltar and Barcelona and return to France, deciding that it isn't worth the effort taking Gib, since the Italians aren't really doing anything anyway.

CW and US units land in East Prussia, which disclocates the German line sufficiently that Saint Georgi makes a major breakthrough (a 9 and a 10 on low odds blitzes) and suddenly the German line in the northeast is well stuffed. The following rains prevent the Germans sealing the breakthrough off, but also prevent the Russians fully exploiting it.

After impulse 1 the weather goes bad and the turn ends early so that Most German oil (including all of Italy's oil lent to them) survives and the Luftwaffe starts to turn face up again.

Nov/Dec 1946

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

A short and stormy turn but Zhukov and his chums keep making progress whenever it snows, while the western allies keep throwing O-chits at the gradually thinning German line. German production is pretty low now.

The US keep making paradrops whenever they can, since with a land OC This makes a one-hexside attack very doable.

In the Pacific the only action is that the US nuke the Japanese synth-oil every turn, eventually taking out the factories it is hiding behind but not the oil plant itself.

Jan/Feb 1947

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Another short and stormy turn. See above. Italy and Japan are often passing.

March/April 1947

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Finally some decent weather. As so often before, the Anglo-Allies start with a CW air (or mega-combined) and a US land OC on Ike, while the Russians throw OC on Zhukov and Koniev, with the occasional air impulse to bring their pathetically short-ranged planes to the front.

Although the Luftwaffe is mostly face-up, there's not much left and the Allies finally make real progress on all fronts, with forces from Denmark Finally attacking and taking Kiel, CW attacking into Holland and north Germany, US forces in Bavaria and Russians all over the east. German is clearly on the verge of collapse, and only an early turn end (again) prevents a Russian 3-hexside O-Chit attack on Berlin.

Thus ended the game. We decided there wasn't much point recording the positions and restarting since Germany was unlikely to survive the summer, let alone the year, while no-one could be bothered carrying on just to finish off Italy and Japan.

Postscript

After everyone else had gone I'm afraid I couldn't resist continuing the game solo, and Germany did indeed surrender in Jul/Aug 1947, the last city to go being Nuremberg. More surprisingly, Italy also surrendered then, as the US forces in Bavaria sneakily charged through the mountains to take

Trieste while most of the Italian army was in the middle east, Yugoslavia or the Alps.

Massed ground strikes prevented Italian reaction and a US armour and Para force took Rome with CW planes providing the garrison value.