Minty

Paras and commandos. love 'em. British commandos land on German north coast est of berlin and start smashing up his air with support of russian fighters. Yankee Paras take Vienna. We empty konigsberg. hordes of cheap german corps are blocking our way and being covered by very expensive looking fighters. Admiral graf spee is last German ship to die in the Baltic. Siegfried line holding for now though. Yanks land in Borneo and take the oil. British commandos that retook Milan last turn advance on empty venice.

This is looking like the most balanced of the 3 UFC matches so far, Axis still in with a chance what with the large sub force, some decent progress into Russia, the Jap offensive etc. My money is on allies still but we'll see

Oh and "That turn of weather just meant the game". Really? Nothing to do with your Strategic choices early on that don't seem to have worked out too well? Or perhaps that Minty isn't too bad a player? No clearly it was the weather on one turn. This has been an awesome game ,please don't cheapen the effort I have put in with such comments.

wax my tanks with what? your fighters? you have 1 TAC air in theatre in the west, maybe 2 and the american fighters are covering the 6 tanks units with advanced air level 5 so how effective do you think they will be? Your fighters are good and do some nasty expensive damage to my TAC when they get a chance to fly. Rain is also saving your ass in Asia if you haven't noticed none of my carriers have attacked borneo in what seems like months and your burma boys have pushed 500 miles north again with my TAC air grounded. " Allies have too much time for minor victory." Trust me Rambo this won't be a minor victory. Want to bring the victory condition in a year or two? End it 46 or even 45? The name of the game is STRATEGIC command. My strategy appears to be concentrate on Germany first. Just like Roosevelt did. It seems to be working but we'll see.

He does moan about the weather a lot doesn't he? Brussels, Copenhagen, Minsk and Warsaw. Not all goes so well, a Red army TAC bomber is shot down by the luftwaffe and some paras gamble on taking belgrade but find it occupied. 6 allied tanks in Belgium and northern France pushing on Hamburg. Japanese are having a great time though. All allied focus is on Crushing Germany though

Rambo gambled in Russia and lost. His big counter attack is smashed by a much larger one, 2 Luft Tac air destroyed on the ground, lead tank, a SF and manstein all smoked in a frenzy. looks like remaining troops in north will be cut off and his southern push is very narrowly supplied. No more interest in reinforcing siberia, we retreat west, hopefully the japs will follow as it is further from Tokyo. Russian Paras take Lulea cutting off the swedes who are chasing my corp in the norwegian mine and British paras land in germany destroing forts that are empty. UK corps commado land on german coast and take Dusseldorf. They won't hold it but it stops him reinforcing france or belgium for a turn or two, Paris also easily falls to combined UK and Yankee tanks. more tanks arrive to attack brussels but it holds for now, cut off from the fatherland by my paras and commandos. Rain stops play in borneo and Burma denying my killer Tac air and carriers. pacific still quiet.

Uncle Joe has decided to give up on siberia, he's done his job there and tied down enough Japanese for the Yanks to make it almost to Borneo without seeing too many japs but enough is enough. Time to get his hands dirty and make a Nazi Omelette. Sure a few million russians will be the eggs he breaks but that's half the fun of being a meglamanian dictator. Russians push west, trying to trap Germans in a pockets around Minsk. Mostly just positioning now due to rain. When it clears we'll see who is top gunski. In the West the real D day arrives. French port falls and 3 tanks land plus HQ , armies, corp etc. In indonesia an african amphib outflanks the jap army attacking the mines to north. We take his oil leaving the japanese out of supply in the middle. Still he's a tough army and we have just 2 low supply boer corps. Burma is a fun shooting range for my Tac air. blast an army down to 1. will smash it again next turn Pacific calm for now....

Any Jap / Russian action in this game?

Winter still. USN getting pinged too much next to Chinese coast.german U boats protecting Jap carriers, dont want to lose advantage so pull back to other side of Borneo. Juts sent turn and realised I forgot to reinforce Milan. Nuts. on plus note crack burmese units taking a pounding.

Winter, not a lot. 3 TAC air units start pounding the japanese in the jungles of burma. All else fairly quiet, few USN shells landing in indonesia and borneo.

IJN pays the prize for it's boldness. RN seafires from the west draw the japanese fighter cover in Jakarta away leaving the seas wide open for USN carriers to attack from the east and go in full naval attack mode. Brutal damage for almost no loss. BB, Sub,CA x2 and finally a Jap CV go down. Only a mix up on the flightdeck of the lexingtion arming full CAP instead of naval attack spares IJN from further pain. Don't want to get sucked into the gobi desert. 2 USSR heavy tanks pull back from Ulan bator after smashing the veteran japanses attack force. Rain , rain, rain eslewhere.

I think all three UFC matches will end with allied victory. #1 and #3 are not quite foregone but heading that way. #2 could possibly still go Rambo's way but he'll have to have a real turn around.

Jap BB down. Soviet weather grounds nazi aircover leaving Russian tac air free to smash another of Rambo's supertough Armies. He's lost a lot of veteran troops this year but still holding his ground.

Akagi just survives bombardment from RN's two Indian fleet carriers and shelling from a very understrength RN BB. When I say just I mean just ship 1 air O. He brought in fighter cover which made the difference and bluntened by swordfish attacks. RN only have NW 0 yanks try from the other side but german uboat protecting her rear. Very fearsome Jap BB in jakarta harbour looks menacing. Yanks land tanks next to manilla to shoot up Jap airfields. whole island is full of ship busting Tac air. More u boats death in Atlantic. My DD have really come good and been patiently positioned. He made the same mistake twice in a row though - focus Johnny focus!

Russia reinforces in the West to hold Smolensk but gets greedy and tries to pop off a weakened tiger. oops thought I had aircover and TAc air shot right out of the sky. Ouch We sense blood and invade Mongolia. His super tough Jap armies have taken a pounding from my artillery and KV1s and are startingt to crack. He'll have to reinforce them soon with green recruits. I land some Kiwis on coast of Malaysia to try and take bangkok. Bump into Big Jap Army. Kiwis won't make it home. oh well , worth a shot. I'm still pleased with taking Milan which is holding nicely for now. IJN is one side of Borneo in Java Sea popping off the RN while USN is other side phillipines, SF from US and AUS take Daveo with Carrier bombardment. Will a shot at my carriers tempt him out? He is heavily outnumbered but could cause a lot of damage. Not a lot elsewhere, more sub hunting in south Atlantic , smash a sub down to 2. I have lots of DD. my sub that scuppered the italian BB is trapped on east coast of Italy and willnot make it home. Brave boys.

Rambo, if it makes you feel better the sub tied up a lot of hardware for months. I had my eye on it from canadian long range bomber out of Algeria and 2 DD positioned such that you were pretty certain to bump into either as soon as you left port. So it may have died right away but it did take the commitment of 3 british units for about half a year. They could have worked round africa and joined med fleet or pacific where are much needed. in the words of Admiral AkDernitzbar-"It's a trap, we'll never repel firepower of that magnitude"

War is Hell. We are at the height of this with both sides at their peak in summer 43. Death and carnage on a global scale. subs sunk in atlantic, Couple of Axis rentanazis wiped out by the increasingly tough US TAC air in England. thought I had got the kill on the Italain BB last turn but it goes this turn. Rest of the world is just massive attrition from Japan to Mongolia to Burma and Europe. USN has IJN bottled up so RN is surrounding Indonesia and smashes port to reduce supply. Soviet corp also takes swedish mines. USN continues to soften up Phillipines and Iwo Jima and paras land on east of Borneo to take oil. Have I mentioned how tough Axis troops are? Rambo has one Gerry corp on str 14 with 4.5 stars of exp who basically headbutts russian Artillery shells for fun. I throw absolutely everything at him and he loses a couple of str points. Japs also have a tank lv4 on str 12 with 4 exp who looks so hard and indestructible he is basically the Yamato on wheels. Expected losses in attacking him across the river were something like 10-0 even with AT2 so I thought best not to.

Mixed turn for allies. I try another war winning gambit to take out Italy in one as my subs and DD scout all around the coast. . Rome unsurprisingly occupied but Venice and Milan empty. Rhoedesian LRDG now really long range as they enjoy expressos in Milan square and wait for fashion week. Desert boots are so in this year darling. Downside is I'll lose a DD next turn for getting too close to Italy , maybe a sub too that could get trapped up east coast. I did finish of his last BB although it was only on a 1. Milan is way too close to Germany to hold for more than turn or two but. still a distraction for his overstreched german forces. Russians in west advance and pursue a clausewitzian strategy of engaging the enemy where he is strongest for a decisive result. It takes rockets, TAC air, inf and Str 11 KV1 but we destroy one of his super str 12 4 star armies. We shall not see their like again. B Day is getting what it deserves - very little. Allied TAC air pings some germans for practice Russia is bleeding in the east but finally put a big dent in his super samurai vet army that has been chewing through T34s like they were made of cardboard. two Lv4 jap tanks are going to start pushing along from V stock Not much at sea, my subs are getting wittled down but have at least confirmed the IJN is confined to the chinese coast. USN starts pinging Iwo Jima and Philipines. Royal Navy pops up and try to shell Dutch east indies, lands South africans at top mine to north of indonesia. Burma is a stalemate.

Finally some action. Zhukov's KVs and a SF take smolensk albeit just from some rock hard german who is now toast. I need to kill those vet units , they are so tough. There will be pain next turn from stukas but red air force becoming respectable now and giving some cover. First red army victory in the west. German armies best hope is the insanely tough Japanese who are increasingly drawing more of the Red army east. 2 Jap armies with no AT smashed my lv2 Tank T34-85 down from 10 to 2. What did they use? sharpened bamboo? Mr Miyagi's crane kick? Soviets back off a bit but still hold most of their ground apart from Vstock. My jap para has just made it back over the border through the chinese mines but some badass 4star vet army has been running after him all around west china in some benny hill style chase. Asia is hotting up. More russian sent to vladstock area but they spot a new huge sprite. Jap tanks must be lvl 4 at least. we'll find out soon enough. Burma a stalemate. both sides not even bothering to attack. It's like some Paul McCartney music video but with bamboo and malaria. Allied invasion less of a D day and more of a B day. still it is holding up most of his minor krauts and providing some painful flying lessons for the allies. Despite brutal aircover from veteran axis air my tac air pops off another little gerry. Turkey / Romania front is most ridiculous international affair you have ever seen. How anyone can coordinate anything is a mystery. He's got germans , swedes and I think Italians and maybe bulgarians holding off my russians , brits, americans and australians in turkey. Both being cagey and not committing our big tanks. It is the one theatre I have air superiority so going to soften him up a bit first. USN subs are roaming at will but IJN tucked up in port. more 16 inch shells thrown at tokyo but we'll need something bigger. Now what was that clever german sounding dude saying about pollytonium again......

Fairly quiet turn. Fin corp approaching leningrad dead courtesy of KV1. Tiger tank getting pinged as I try and break west out of turkey. German engineer trying to fortify west of paris killed by RN shells and US tac air power from over the channel. Line of allies troops now stretches from north of paris to Hamburg. Japan surrounded by subs. USN starts shelling west coast including tokyo down to a 6.

you sent me wrong turn. hopefully a sign the fuhrer is cracking under the pressure

Istanbul falls, that's 2 dead panzers in 2 turns for the russians for no loss of Soviet tanks. ( 2nd legend panzers got tag teamed by T34s east of Smolensk the turn before) however air recon reports tigers in Romania. Hmm , and some very new tank sprites in China that I haven't seen before. I may have to send some of my new KV1s east as I only have 1 tank unit in siberia at the moment. Mad Mintski 1st paratroop brigade of soviets flies across mountains by silk road to try and recapture china. After all who would bother defending it? Who would be crazy enough to try this stunt? Well it was empty a turn or two ago when my bombers checked it out but someone must have got wind of my plan as a 4 star 13 strength Jap army is in it now. Ah well would have been a top move if it had worked - China liberated - I can dream. at least it's good entertainment for the folks watching at home. Jap army look like the toughest SOBs in Asia so my paras run away west instead and take a chinese / japanese mine back. More coal for my soviet steel mills USN subs start hitting convoys too. As I'm maxed out on land unit to build we see a Soviet sub popping up in Baltic and pings swedish cruiser. What next commie carriers? US sub appears off Vladdystock and pings the fuso for 2 points. 2nd madmintski suicide soviet paras land in Japan to cut off Sapporo from mainland and gain control of that naval passage. Lots of Japanese in Japan. Shouldn't really be a surprise I suppose. My para won't last long. Other stuff, usual people killing each other but none decisively so. North west europe coast looks like WW1 with lines streched out from Hamburg to Dunkirk. neither side commiting heavy units to that theatre yet just an airwar and light corp gaining exp against each other as both sides entrench.Rmabo has built a lot of forts in west europe and multiple U boats pinging convoys again in Atlantic. This one is going the distance. Cracking match so far

sorry my comment not meant as a criticism at all! A brave decision indeed. what was USA/USSR reaction?

Seems normal to me if not a little light. He'll need every penny against Rambo. China falling before USA entry is a big deal. US was able to island hop a long way against almost no resistance in our game as he was fighting china and without their MMP until 8 months later. on the other hand if Xwood can reinforce singapore. dutch east indies etc then it will be a major blow to rambo not getting that oil.

Ok so summary as we start 43 Fritz has made little progress into Russia albeit at huge loss to the endless hordes of Russians. His few german units are rock hard but not unstoppable, they just take a lot of killing. He is poised to push in the North in Spring and will probably make some progress towards Leningrad or Moscow, maybe swing down to Kursk. Nothing in the South, Odessa still holds and Kiev is firmly entrenched US has done almost nothing in 42 on the ground except land a couple of lightly armed armies and a HQ in Belgium. It's 2nd rate allies vs 2nd ratenazis puppets in western europe so far but that may change in 43. I still hold Bergen. BEF have been there since 39 and not moved. Some super vet 14 corps pinging them for the last 2 years Japanese armies are huge in number and exp but are close to their limit. All original russian and japanese cities are under usual control after a year of desperate fighting. It has taken a lot of units to contain them. Same in Burma. I think we may have reached high tide mark for the empire but he does have 3 vet tanks that are free now china has fallend so if they arrive somewhere en masse they could open it up again. The IJN though is in tatters, he lost 2 carriers and at least 5 maybe it was 6 BB. Yanks controll all the outerlying islands up to Iwo Jima. IJN not out of it but is hiding in ports somewhere around china coast. USN has lost only the 1 BB , no carriers and now heavily outnumbers the japanese. Med has been quiet apart from Istanbul where a lone panzer (well around 300 probably) are trying to hold back a combined Russian / british force. This is not as bad for Rambo as it all may sound. His units are helluva tough. USN may have leapfrogged to close to Japan but there is no way I can land major forces in Tokyo any time soon AND Normandy. He has many new forts across France and Germany and the luftwaffe are on full exp and inflic brutal damage on my aircraft with these damn double intercept rules. Russia is powerful but fighting at her limit having to hold back the full weight of the germans and the japanese on land. It could crack before the yanks arrive and if it does would go quickly with such tough mobile enemies on both front. We're even fighting on china / russian border in central asia by caspian sea. Finally although his u boats have never appeared at any given time in large numbers they are still around and I don't like that. less of a hinderance for my MPP but a major concern for getting troops across Atlantic and remember he controls spain and gibraltor thus splitting my sub hunting force in two while he can move from atlantic to med and back. costing me a lot in destroyers and upgrades