AAR Dave Axis vs Colin Allied

[Colin I]

WEST: Russians continue to move through the Balkans. Belgrade falls. Russian armour supported by air blitz through to Vienna and destroy the defending army but lack the action points to enter the city. The US arranges a long-range paradrop to complete the job, using air bases in Southern Sweden. Elsewhere the Russians kill a Tiger and stormtoopers (with some help from UK carriers in the Baltic). If the weather doesn’t turn I believe I’ll be losing some of my lead elements to his TAC bombers but its still worth it, a high casualty slugfest can only suit the Russians. His core air cadre is great but Russian fighters are higher tech (though less experienced) - its more attrition of land units that is likely to be critical here. On the downside he will take Vichy France next turn. Spain is already drifting to the Allies but its a long way off joining.

EAST: Japanese continue to destroy China and bring in air to counter Allied rescue attempts. A minor UK vessel is sunk by an IJN carrier. But US is taking a central group of islands to support their navy.

SUMMARY: The Yin-Yang theme, East vs West continues. The Germans continue to fight well but have major strategic problems like not owning any of Russia or the Baltic! The Japanese may be at or near high water mark – they will nail China sooner or later but probably will concede more territory to the US – and will be a tough cookie to defeat.

[Colin I]

WEST: Russians roll forwards into Germany with air support from UK carriers and ground-based air in Sweden. Allied units within 2 tiles of Berlin. He still has good armour and air but German position is unsustainable.

EAST: US continues to take islands and Canadians bomb Borneo and Dutch East Indies. US subs attack convoys. US air tries to interfere with Japanese taking last Chinese capital - Japanese deploy excellent air to counter. I think China will just hold but its going to be close. Stand-off in SE Asia.

[Bill101]

It's interesting how this game is working out, thanks for doing this AAR for us all!

[Colin I]

WEST: Russians are within 1 tile of Berlin. Two Tigers are killed by air power and Von Manstein assassinated by 2 paratroop units. Germans show Jet Fighters but too late.

EAST: UK continues to support the last few Chinese units and the US consolidates its island positions plus keeps sinking Japanese convoys.

BILL: no problem. In part I wanted to contradict a few threads that suggest that certain Axis strategies are automatic victories.

[Colin I]

WEST: Russians enter Berlin and US carrier kills 2 German TAC air. Germans destroy Russian paratroopers in revenge for Von Manstein. Spain moves towards Allies.

EAST: Not much action.

[Colin I]

WEST: Russians hold Berlin, take Benelux (paratroopers) and destroy a few German units plus taking Venice from the Italians. US paratroopers take Ruhr. Spain at 50% Allies though it is rather academic now.

EAST: Russian build up on Manchurian border. Chinese have a few units now and actually dare move forwards and attack a Japanese fighter unit. A big problem in the Japanese conquest of China was the lack of a bombing campaign. Chinese got hammered but had enough MPP to recover a little. Canadian bomber hitting Borneo is doing excellent work hitting his ports and oil. Really like the oil now - big sources of MPP making it unnecessary to have a separate oil system. US and others (Dutch, UK) hit Japanese convoys.

[Colin I]

WEST: Germans lose a TAC bomber and Tiger plus a few corps and cluster their defense around Munich. Western Allies land in Benelux.

EAST: Bombers interdict convoys, Chines look like they will hold on.

[Colin I]

WEST: Milan falls as does Breslau. German Jet and Italian bomber downed. Otherwise bad weather slows the conflict.

EAST: American bombing raids and British cruiser reveal Japanese carrier positions. No big fight though but USN prepares. Lots of convoy routes are down. US air destroys a Japanese special forces in China. One more island falls to US marines.

[Colin I]

EAST: US launches air attacks on Japanese carriers. These fail because he has L5 CAP from his carriers and US (Canadian and UK too) casualties are high. But it literally clears the air and US carrier strikes across Borneo and Philippines sink Japanese carriers. For some reason his lead carriers were not running CAP - perhaps to conceal their location but US bombers knew where at least some were. USN will take major casualties next turn unless there is bad weather but its still worth it to bring him into a stand up fight. UK loses a few scouting vessels trying to find his remaining carriers.

Japanese L5 air attacks US L5 fighters on China India border. There is something wrong with ground attack here - he should have done more damage than he did. Perhaps same issue as people have remarked upon with carriers? But important thing is Japanese fighters were not on Borneo or Philippines - if they had been USN carrier strikes would have failed.

IJN has lost almost no surface vessels and has quite a few carriers left plus a bomber to spot. I expect casualties. If he had attacked 3 or 4 turns ago it would have gone badly - US only upgraded from L2 to L5 fighters and L0 to L2 long ranged air and got ground aircraft onto islands the last few turns. Plus carriers were distracted bombing Japanese on islands.

WEST: Russians liberate Vichy France and sink some Italian vessels in port. Not much action in Germany - weather too awful. Spain continues to Allies.

[Colin I]

EAST: Japanese has very bad luck - USN is covered by bad weather and IJN retreats. USN breaks off engagement too after supporting a landing on the Philippines. Russians build up on Japanese border.

WEST: Bad weather mostly halts the fighting except for a few skirmishes.

[Colin I]

WEST: Rome falls to Russians and Spain should join the Allies soon. Did not see an Italian surrender. Rest of Europe deep frozen.

EAST: Russian build up continues and Russian air reveals Japan to be packed with defenders as expected. US marines raid and torch Borneo oil fields.

[Colin I]

WEST: Russians enter Munich. they now hold this and Berlin but Germany hangs in there. British carriers destroy 2 German fighters and land units nail a TAC bomber. Italy surrenders and Spain enters for the allies. The end is VERY near in Europe.

EAST: American armour advances in Manila but its well defended. Japanese show L5 armour in China. Russians mass on the border. Japanese have big concentration of force in Korea and Japan. Both sides repair carriers and generally prepare.

[Colin I]

WEST: British and US carriers plus ground troops destroy the last German air and take Paris. France is liberated. Germany surrenders.

EAST: USSR turns on Japan though its a bit slow getting going. British advance through SE Asia. US armour advances on Manila.

Err - anyone know when the end date of this is? USSR will trash Japanese land forces (despite the latter having L5 armour its only 1 strike and less numerous - plus the Soviets have more MPP than is decent) and IJN is unlikely to survive long but taking Japan will take a while.

[Colin I]

WEST: Only the Finns remain. Surely they would have switched sides by now. Is there a script?

EAST: Russian armour directed by Zukhov blitzes the Japanese in Manchuria and liberates it. US armour drives on Manila. Rain slows other progress.

This game the US/UK sacrificed a lot to supply the Russians even when the Soviets were clearly winning. The reason is the Russians can most effectively attack Japanese mainland holdings. Whilst the Russians did do this (in a rather desultry way) I do think mistrust towards the end of the war would limit Allied support. Perhaps lend lease should cease when Russia tops 500 mpp per turn or there should be some scripting?

[Colin I]

WEST: Pretty much Soviet.

EAST: British liberate Indochina. US sinks most remaining IJN carriers and fights on Philippines. Soviets reach Mukden with lead armour. There is a lot of Japanese air waiting on the mainland but I suspect not enough. In an MPP air war the Soviets have resources to burn.

To repeat my question - anyone know the end date for the 1939 scenario?

[alexandre le grand]

if i remember ending date around may 1947 if all axis major powers didn t surrender at this time...

[carverrt]

WEST: To repeat my question - anyone know the end date for the 1939 scenario?

--> 7 May 1947

It has been fun reading this thread - thanks for sharing.

Robert

[Colin I]

Thanks to you both - then Japan will not survive.

The Russian role is interesting. In Pacific Theatre it really only weighed in late or if Japan was careless. Now the potential to shift its weight East or West in a single operational move is quite striking - compare this with the US which takes far longer to commit and engage. Of course it is vulnerable on both fronts too. In this game China really sucked Japanese resources but maybe Russia is a better target.

I have a couple of proposals. I feel Russians should have more fighters at start or on build stack. They need something to deal with German TAC - plus fighters should have double intercept. In WaW the Russians had more air plus AA. I do not miss the AA, it does not suit the game scale, but there does need to be more interception possible. Secondly OP move needs a limited range (that increases with Infrastructure). So it may take 2 moves to go Berlin to Vladivostok (something I just did with about 10 units) or shift air over the globe. Right now its too fluid.

And to repeat an old proposal I'd like to see some method that Japan can make peace with China. This could cost a lot but it opens up game potential. Also, the China grind is not the most fun part of the game even if it really was like that.

[Colin I]

EAST: Apart from a few raiders IJN is all sunk. Russians continue to pour into Manchuria.

MIDDLE EAST: Iraq drifts towards Allies.

[Colin I]

EAST: Russian jets attack Japan killing a TAC. Russian air gathers near Vladivostok. USN denies mainland supplies. Cities liberated in China by a mix of UK and Russian forces.

[Colin I]

EAST: Air war over Japan. Japanese have six or so impressive L5 fighters (at least one at 5 bars experience) plus TAC, a carrier and bombers. But Russia is also maxed out on air technology and Zukhov is at 5 bars experience too. After a lot of dogfighting Japanese lose 2 TAC air.

Hong Kong and Philippines are liberated. Russians and Chinese roll forwards on the mainland.

[Colin I]

Russian air force mostly halted by rain but enough gets into the air to kill a Japanese bomber in Japan with help from an Amphibious assault from the sea. I assault then kill the bomber with a TAC fighter only to find amphibious unit cannot land in vacant tile - not sure why - perhaps lack of high level Amphibious technology? Russian paratroopers land instead - they won't survive but Russia gets 800 MPP a turn so is past caring. First foreign troops on Japan. Lots of bombardment of Japan. Elsewhere its just mopping up.

New Amphibious rules are a huge improvement but I notice attacking an occupied tile with a combat unit does not lead to a high casualty rate for the attacker. In the past you take losses whilst landing. Direct assault from Sea should be risky - maybe increase casualties here rather than later?

[Colin I]

Russians kill a TAC bomber and US destroys last IJN carrier and advances a little more. Russians now have a few units on Japan but these are just cannon fodder.

Fighters attacking TAC air bases even with defensive interception are lethal. Fighters attacking other fighters does very little. Something to fix I think.

[Colin I]

The Divine Wind and other bad weather limits the Allies swarming around Japan. Russians get a second wave ashore after killing an HQ with help from US carriers. US sets up TAC bombers on a nearby island and mainland China is largely Allied.

[Colin I]

Lots of bad weather but the North Japanese Island is clear. So russians kill an HQ from the air and carriers hit a fighter. Carriers seem much deadlier vs fightyer bases than fighters do. iraq joins Allies. US moves TAC bombers within range of Southern japan.