Catacol Highlander

March 1944. The weather wasnt perfect, but for the sake of people logging in to check on how this is going I am not going to keep you waiting any longer. Time for the action to wind up... So - as my juggernaut gets going I thought it worth looking first of all at the sort of information SC Gold can give you to allow planning of operations. Here is the military strength graph which can be pulled up at any time: I think it is best to see this as the product of the work of your intelligence services, giving you a picture of what the global strengths are. In a future SC incarnation I think it would be good to have these graphs affected by intelligence tech levels, and a margin of error introduced. How cool would it be for a player to THINK he has superiority in land forces via his intel graph, but actually find that his own low intel score, and his opponents high intel score, means that the info he gets is not accurate?!! However for now the graph is accurate at all times, and allows accurate planning. Anyway this graphic tells me three things: 1. My Red Army could nearly win the war on its own. With help from the growing US Army, a few units of the British Army based on home soil, and the big allied air force my ground offensive starts with a major advantage. This will be made all the better by the garrisons that Marc is forced to keep on major ports around the continent. 2. My US Navy is bigger than the IJN without any major investment really, and should be able to mop up the pacific once Germany is dealt with especially with the Royal Navy maintaining such an impressive size. 3. The Japanese Army is large and represents the forced reaction to the success of my Chinese counter attacks. In a good axis game the Japanese would want a much bigger navy by now to help defeat or see off the US, but Marc has not been able to do this. 1944 should therefore be the year when victory is achieved. Then - spotlight on US technology. Here is my US tech level screen: What I hope this shows you all is that I made a huge priority of tech throughout 1942 and 1943 at the expense of unit purchase. My research level, as you can see, has dropped down to 775mpps, but this is because I pretty much have all I need now. Units are gonig to roll out of US factories and bases very fast through the spring and summer, so that any losses in the west can be quickly replaced. So what about my turn itself? It was raining - again - in the East. I decided I didnt want to start my attack without having air power at the ready, so instead started a limited offensive in the West. The start position was this: The allied and axis line is quite clear from this, including the gap in the allied line where a canadian corps had been positioned. Notice also the massive air force sitting in the UK. The landing of some more armour and some more attacks later and this was the final position: 2 armies destroyed as revenge for the loss of the canadians, some minor damage caused by air attack on the visible panzer corps, and an underlying knowledge that attritional swaps like this work perfectly in my favour. Marc now faces the inevitable reality of a huge attack in the East on the horizon combined with sustained, nasty, air power led mayhem in the West. The more he strips from the East to meet the growing threat in the West the easier it will be for the Red Army to cut loose. So - it has begun, all be it without much action in the East. Next turn I hope the weather allows me to focus a bit on the East and show you just what I have been preparing there. In China I hit Chengchow again, reducing the 10 strength army in residence to 1. Rangoon was hit again too. Gentle attrition on the Japanese continues - nothing new, and an impossible situation for the Japanese High Command to deal with effectively when they know that the US Navy is looming to the east.

Feb '44 and the snow and ice are everywhere. I could do very little other than prepare for Spring a bit more, and get ready for that post I keep promising you prior to my jump off. I was unable to get any retaliation in outside Paris due to snow, and so contented myself with reinforcement. It was evening snowing in China. Talk about a severe northern hemisphere winter! - it does feel as though we have had an awful lot of snow/mud/ice turns at this point in the game! The calm will break soon...

Jan 44... but all is pretty quiet. US armour in France destroyed a German army that had decided to gamble and set up camp next door, but elsewhere it was ice and snow all over and a turn of more preparation. Very little else to state at this point, but the big turn analysis I promised is getting closer... All we need is some daffodils and spring weather - and the dogs of war can be unleashed!

Hi Peterk I'm happy to play you if you like. Got enough time at the moment. Send turn to anderson@email.wellington-school.org.uk if you want the challenge...

I'm going to keep you all waiting by not posting a graphic of this turn. I destroyed one more Japanese army in China, and failed to take Rangoon - again. Other than that virtually nothing happened that was visible, not least because ice and snow covered the whole European continent. However lots and lots has been going on behind the scenes. One of the keys to success in SC is not actually the unit moving and battle fighting - though that it in itself is fun. Massively significant is the long term planning and objective setting, something I have tried to make clear in my posts regarding planning. You will remember that I put together a plan post at the point where I felt I had ridden out the worst of the axis drive. That plan was to destroy Germany first - Japan later, especially given the context of Chinese strength. Well - I am nearly ready to pounce. It is January 1944 - I probably wont be pouncing next turn either because the weather is likely to be bad still, but soon after that it will happen and I am preparing a very big, detailed analysis for you all to see how I have plotted Germany's demise and, as a result, the likely end of the war. Can it be done in 1944 alone? The whole war - probably no. I doubt that I will be at the gates of Tokyo, Seoul or Manila by Xmas 44 because I havent planned to be there. That will come in 1945. But I do intend to be at the gates of Berlin by that stage. We will soon see if my objective setting was about right, or overly ambitious...

Always on. A must to make the game a true test of strategy.

The squeeze gathers pace... In France air and ground units destroyed the first German Panzer corps, and another Canadian corps was landed into the beach head. It's interesting how this particular game is playing out much like the real history of 1944. The Germans are now waging a war of attrition in France that they cannot afford to throw everything at because of a fear of the Red Army steamroller in the East. So it was in 1944 when DDay could certainly have been shoved straight back into the English Channel... but 85% of the Wehrmacht was tied down trying to prepare for the Russian onslaught of Operation Bagration. France finished thus: And in Russia Marc has good reason to fear the Russian juggernaut. My problem here is that there simply are not enough hexes to cope with the number of Russian units on the ground, and with the weather so poor I had to make do with a slow advance out of Moscow and a lot of moving things around. It is the middle of winter now 1943/44 - I wont be launching anything for a couple of turns now while both sides ride out the ice and snow, but when the hammer falls it will be a mighty blow. Here is the tip of the Russian iceberg as units queue up behind to follow the front line forces into battle once Spring is here: Finally in Burma I launched another attack on Rangoon - and failed again. The defending Japanese are fighting a courageous rearguard. I also destroyed another Japanese army just south of Chengchow. Graphic here: you can see the Japanese army that was destroyed as I took this screenshot just prior to starting my Chinese attack. I am also strong and able to do major damage on the route into Indochina if I so wish, although to be honest I still have my eyes on Shanghai. All in all the position for the axis is becoming tougher by the turn. Prior to my Spring jump off I will do a detailed positional analysis for you all so that you can see my strength and the position I was aiming for. I am very nearly there.

London is on the list for a major axis victory, but for a minor victory London is not required.

I dont think you can do it in 1941. Either you do it very early in 1940, or you get really adventurous and do it in 1942 if you have hammered the Russians enough in 1941 to allow yourself a breathing space with lots of long range tac air and lots of Uboats in support. Personally though I wouldnt do it at all. It is a big risk. Perfect execution in 1940 to allow a full invasion of Russia in 1941 is the desirable path if you want to try it, but conquering the UK in 1940 is really tough. The only thing I would say though is that in a pbem game it might be worth a go if your opponent sends his entire fleet into the Med to try and wipe out the Italian Navy and commits large amounts of ground strength to North Africa. Then, and only then, would I be tempted with an attack, but I would want a minimum of long range air 1.

I'm up for a tourney. What's this about China being a superpower in Gold? The amount of mpps she gets may be worth looking at along with the cost of tech chits, but I am playing a game as axis and have cut her up as easily as was ever the case in Vanilla GC. Seems no different to me in game play terms. Certainly dont see anything buggy in the way that China is performing.

I dont think the naval side is out of whack. The UK gets 5 carriers by mid 1943 - and a whole hatful of crusiers, BBs and destroyers. EVen with a fully tanked up Italian Navy joining with the Kriegsmarine the RN should be too strong for that axis combination. Bill's point about land based air is also valid. If Germany loses U boats then the Brit player will just transfer the power if the RN to the Pacific and that will unbalance the pacific war. No - leave it alone. As allied player either destroy the Italian navy early on, or dont lose Gibraltar. Fail to do either and the RN should certainly find it tough as your screenshot shows.

A satisfied reader willing to spend his hard earned cash. Hubert WILL be pleased... :-) As has been the case for a while now we have 4 ongoing theatres of operations, and my game plan for the foreseeable continues to be to juggle each of the 4 as and when forces and weather allow to gradually wear down the axis position. The particular focus is Germany, and mpp spending priority remains with eliminating the Wehrmacht. This turn in Burma I pinged the Rangoon army again with air, but spent time rebuilding local ground forces to have another go soon as reinforcements were required. However in China I was able to push on and liberate Hong Kong. My Chinese Army is now very strong, and as I suspected many turns ago it is gradually winning the war with Japan on its own. I have an HQ on 4* and 2 armies on 5* plus some very experienced air and ground units in general. Having taken Hong Kong my objective will now be to swing east and see if areas around Shanghai can be liberated too. This will be much harder due to better terrain for Japanese air attacks, but I can afford to be wasteful as the constant wearing of Japanese reserves is simply helping to make the future USN offensive in the pacific easier and easier. No action from the USN - still biding my time. Southern Chinese Army positions shown here: In Europe it looks as though Marc has split his forces a bit. I think I saw some armour head west, and fighter cover in the West has certainly grown. This is gradually opening the door to the Red Army, but the weather was foul with snow and mud so I was unable to effectively drive forward. Instead Zhukov used the time to upgrade all Red Army units to full motorisation and push gently forward as far as the weather would allow. In the West Marc took out my harbour in Belgium, but I had expected that and had amphib units ready to land to reinforce the bridgehead. I landed 2 more units, pushed on a bit and destroyed an Italian Army that was moved up to the front. My advance US army is likely to be destroyed, but I am hoping for a bit of luck here: if Marc moves his armoured reserve far enough forward to hit the US unit then my Tac Air comes into play... IF the weather is fine. That is not a good gamble for winter really, but I deemed it worth taking and it allowed other units space to get ashore. The overall key for me here is to push just hard enough to force Marc to shift forces around: this allied army wont win the war: the Reds will do that. However it was not all good news. The Kriegsmarine had sallied and attacked my fleet in the Channel - I decided to respond with a full strength carrier, but got my gamble wrong on rain grounding all the Luftwaffe's fighter cover. You wont see any Kriegsmarine ships in the graphic below - both were sunk - but my poor carrier had its air power totally wiped out. Not good, and expensive to replace. The German ships werent really any threat to my naval power - I would have been much better using cruisers and battleships only to take them out, but I made a mistake. SC is a game of mistakes - make none at all and you win. However this is impossible... and I just made one that will cost the British 120mpps or so. DDay graphic finished like this: So the allied position grows in strength as we approach 1944. I got another Turkish diplomatic hit too. All going well.

OK - it was time to hit France a bit harder this turn. Marc seems to be holding his armour in the East. There were no tacair hits in the East last turn so it is possible he has moved them west. Either way in order to free my hand more in the East I need to push harder in the West - so I did. I had waited a few turns for this as you know. As we reach October there are a few reasons for doing it now. The weather will turn bad soon - good for me in terms of getting units ashore that will be fairly tough to dislodge in mud or snow. In addition my production queues in Britain and the US are beginning to really churn out stuff, and I have plenty to throw around with lots more on its way. In addition I spy that rail gun and can see that it is likely to try and reduce my harbour to less than 5, making it hard to land anything quickly. So I landed a couple more US units and also put ashore a British HQ with some armour. I suspect this will force Marc to respond - the US armour has been at sea so long it has no tech upgrade and the UK armour is only at level 2 thanks to yet more slow work by British tech specialists. He will want to try and pinch out this beach head if he can. However my air blasted out another army, I forced a corps to retreat from the beach head and also did some damage to engineers in the area. If he brings up big forces and the weather stays good then I will wreak major damage next turn... and in the East my Red Army will see the window open just a crack. End of turn beach head looked like this: In the East the fighting over Rostov and the Donetz Mines continues. Red units destroyed neighbouring German defenders and retook both squares, and my sights are very firmly fixed on the defensive line below: Here is the biggest concentration of German armour I think in Europe. Next turn it will be interesting to see if it is still there... If so I hold fast and try to punch hard in France; if it suddenly thins out then my Red Army reserves may decide to surge forward. Nightmare position for the axis... Elsewhere Brazlian troops in northern spain have now attracted 3 units including Spanish armour to try and dislodge them. Handy. China attacked Hong Kong and Chengchow again doing yet more damage, and the UK began a serious assault on Rangoon reducing the defending army to 4. I'll post more images of the Asian Front next turn when I suspect I will have a bit more success to illustrate. And the US fleet? Hiding behind squadrons of land based fighters and submarine patrols. I moved it a bit just to avoid presenting a stationary target, but it continues to grow in strength and is waiting for the "go." Having taken Nauru last turn it will certainly look for another soft target in the near future. No hurry here.

Well Marc pulled off a really good counter in Russia last turn. Watching the replay it looked as though I may have got some of my HQ allocation wrong, so easily were a couple of the units demolished, but no way of checking that now, and I was faced with an interesting few minutes of reflection following the replay. At the end of that period of reflection I decided to make my response very muted indeed. I know I could have destroyed 2 or 3 of Marc's armour units, but I also know that my own armour would then have been left out to dry and possibly almost wiped out in return by a combination of Tac Air and surviving German Tigers. That would not have been good, even bearing in mind the ability to repurchase over the winter and have it all ready to roll again in Spring. No - instead I played it coy. The other reason for doing this is that I only just got motorisation. I need my armies and armour to have the extra range it gives to be really effective, and I also found my tac air slightly too far out of reach to be able to hand back some of the damage Marc did to me. So I hit some of his weaker units out front, and otherwise carried out a limited retreat. I did, however, decide to wipe out the annoying and pesky airborne unit sat on my oil in Maikop. End of Russian front turn therefore looked like this: I now have some motorised units, have all of my Tac Air in range of the front and can respond properly next turn. As I see it Marc can hammer forward and hit me hard again if he wishes, but then I should be able to do a lot of damage in return and be left in a reasonable position at the end of it. I suspect he will fall back and try to catch me out in Spring the same way he just caught me out last turn. It is the way the Wehrmacht fought in real life - good to see it being replicated in SC! The other more distant reason for playing it coy is that I am still jockeying for the absolutely perfect position in France. I unleashed my air power again and took Brussels, landing a US Army this time. I am not ready yet to create an enlarged bridgehead in France, so holding back my Russian armour in the east seems like a delay worth making. The attrition in the West will gradually annoy Marc on its own anyway... Position in France finished like this: Elsewhere it was tough on the Japanese. The Chinese are closing in on Hong Kong and areas further south. The Army on Chengchow was wiped out this turn also. The attritional impact of all this is good for the allies, and at sea the US navy decided it was time to leapfrog forward ad island and took the mines at Nauru back following carrier assault and a landing of armour. China finished like this: ... and in Burma more attacks caused more casualties for the Japanese to have to deal with, the position finishing thus: So to sum up all is well in the Pacific and China. The limited pinpricks around France continue to have the desired effect, but the Red Army took a break. Maybe the very long time left in the game is making me soft: I would normally play much more aggressively than I have done the last 9 months or so of game time, but the quiet voice of common sense keeps telling me that the longer it goes the easier it is going to get, so it seems wise to play it calm.

OK - the destruction of Germany has started. One point to note: Germany is strong! This wont happen quickly, especially as we are now already into August 1943. I predict it will take me until the end of 1944 to complete the job - but destroyed she will be. The key now is careful harvesting of units, splitting of German strength and being prepared to swap the right sorts of unit via combat. I have decided to hold nothing back from these graphics now as I dont think Marc can stop what is going to happen so intel means little. So - tactically how does one win a massive engagement? Put simply it is all down to armour and tac air; this was always the case in vanilla and it is certainly the case in Gold also. Here is the graphic at the end of my turn in Russia: The units I pushed forward were destroyed, but in return I destroyed 3 armies and damaged the forward panzer unit. 3 of 3 is a ratio I am very happy with. Note my armour is 1 tech level up from the Germans, and note also my tech level for air. I have been hamstrung a bit by lack of motorisation: I have just received that tech so can soon plan to have very fast attacks just like the Wehrmacht, but I must admit it was annoying as the research % for motorisation got all the way to 98% before it clicked. That happens sometimes... Grrr... but it will only delay the inevitable by a few turns. The key to it all is pinning down units in the west. Now in this area another tech deficiency has also held me up, and this time I had to get it to 95% last turn before it finally clicked: US long range air. Without level 2 the tac air in the UK cannot really run roughshod over the Germans, but now that I have it I can really cut loose. The graphic below clearly shows my tactic - it is a solid and total air offensive that can destroy 1 or 2 units at a time while also wearing down the Luftwaffe fighter strength. I have no space left to deploy anything so will gradually put all my land assets to sea, ready to constantly pepper away at the French mainland while tying down units the Wehrmacht would dearly love to use in the East. I am pleased to see so many German units here, and I gave the armour in shot a good pasting - I suspect it is heavily damaged. Future armoured units that show up, now that my full air power can be brought to bear, will be destroyed. The combined weight of allied air plus Russian ground forces will seal the fate of Germany. Just for good measure intel gave me the location of the last Italian battleship in the med and I sank it. Total sea control is very important for the allies in the west, as so many ground units at sea at any one time would make tasty pickings for U boats, but the axis U boat fleet is sunk. Further East? The Chinese continue to fulfil their role as the number one slayer of the Japanese Army and advance further towards Hong Kong as well as wearing down Changsha. The beauty of this is that Marc cannot ignore it - if he does I will have Chinese corps at sea ready to land in Japan and generally cause all sorts of problems, so while Japanese mpps and air power are directed at holding back the Chinese my US fleet is steadily growing, upgrading and waiting for their time. I honestly have no plans to throw it forward until well into 1944. Why bother? The longer it goes the stronger I get and I have years and years to burn here. Chinese graphic below: Finally the Burma sideshow. I dont intend to let this lapse: I have enough British mpps to keep everything where I want it and still invest in this area so I will continue to attack. It helps drain Japanese mpps further and that is all to the good: Turkey also swung further to the allies: when she finally joins my pressure on the Germans will grow further. So all in all very happy. Winter will force a pause and allow the Germans to regroup a bit, but 1944 should get very nasty indeed for the axis.

Well - all of you looking for big action will be disappointed with this post and so I have not bothered with a graphic. We are still engaged in 4 theatres of operations: Russia, France, Burma and China and all 4 were pretty quiet. I expanded my advance in southern China a bit destroying yet another Japanese Army, but the weather in Burma was bad so I held off, and I scratched my head for a bit in Europe and did little. Why? A few reasons. 1. The intel my advance D Day has given me is that German Armour and Tac Air remains in the East. That is probably wise of Marc - to have shifted it West would have meant an open door for the Red Army. 2. That being the case I need to really hit the front hard in France... and I am not absolutely totally ready yet. If I go too early from here and lose a hatful of stuff it will set me back. I have very big air power, but ground tech and units are not all exactly where I want them, and even my air power needed some juggling to get it best positioned. So - I pinged a corps in NW France and otherwise sat tight. In the East my slow advance continued, but nothing of note. Marc has fallen back quite a long way in Southern Russia so while the Rostov Army was reduced to 3 I couldnt quite take it, and elsewhere I moved up and positioned myself ready for next turn. One weird thing - the Paras I surrounded on the Maikop Oil Square had supply 3. I had always thought that resources did not give direct supply... either that or some weird "Rostov Trail" through my lines has seen German black market suppliers getting food in!! A bit annoying - the paras therefore live for one more turn. Elsewhere got another Diplo hit on Turkey, and also landed some troops in Northern Spain taking the port there. Let's see if I can bait another hook and get him to transfer forces down to Iberia! Nothing in the Pacific. US Navy sits tight. Finally the Brit Army now in Turkey is getting no supply from Tehran - Stalin really can be a bas*ard sometimes! - so it is slowly making its way out. It has 2 or 3 choices as to what it does next in the Mediterranean Theatre, but it will be a good few turns before it is ready.

I think we are beginning a debrief WAY too early. There is a lot still to be done, not least the Red Army / Wehrmacht clash, and the pacific slugfest between the US Navy and the IJN. Everything else so far has been window dressing... though it is certain that the allies have the mpp advantage now. That, however, is not the whole story. Read Richard Overy's "Why the Allies Won" - an alternative take on the "victory was inevitable becuase of economic advantage." Victory has to be won on the battlefield - if my Red army gets turned over then the mpp advantage becomes rather irrelevant and will be quickly reversed anyway. Should have my turn done within 3 hours - at work now with my laptop, but have a break coming later this morning...

I hope so. :-) - what I want is for his tac air to leave the East. That graphic doesnt show how much fighter air cover I have anyway - US fighter tech is higher than the modest UK level 2 - so any attacks on the carriers would be opposed. German tac air is key - be assured that wherever it isnt I will attack... and if it is split then it wont be enough to stop me in either theatre. A little bait is never a bad thing...!

OK - this was a very big turn for the allies, bigger than I expected. Helps balance out the disappointment of last turn and the bad weather! Nothing I can do other than list the successes and show you 4 graphics: 1. Persia fell. I dont know if Marc forgot to reinforce Tehran or just gave it up as lost, but the corps in there was easily destroyed without reinforcement, the UK plundered a bunch of mpps and promptly the USSR seized control of the country giving them another oil resource and a capital. Very nice. :-) We will soon see now whether GC Gold has resolved any of the rather bizarre supply problems that used to dog a conquered Persia in Vanilla... 2. Colombia joined the allies.Very timely, and more lovely oil. Saw the mpp boost immediately at the end of the turn. 3. China launched further attacks in the south to try and pin down, attrite and generally annoy the Japanese High Command. Another army was destroyed and the front looks like this, not good for the Japanese.. 4. The offensive in Burma made ground. A Jap Sepcial forces unit was mauled and forced to retreat, and I pushed forward far enough to damage the Japanese HQ in command. 5. The Russians rolled into.... empty space. Marc has evacuated the south of Russia, condemning a para unit to destruction next turn and one of the Donetz mines to easy liberation. Graphic here... (now where is my armour???) 6. Finally D Day was launched, rather cautiously admittedly. I didnt commit any major forces here - just 3 cheap UK corps without even an HQ - but I want to see just how much Marc has held here, especially in terms of tac air and armour. If he comes hammering back at me with armour then I will wreak what havoc I can (especially with powerful tac air) and unleash the dogs of war in Russia with real purpose. If he holds tight then I will be a bit more cautious in Russia and unleash hell here in Europe. Really he is caught between a rock and a hard place now with not too many places to go. Invasion graphic here: Ultimately my only failure was in Turkey where I didnt get a diplo hit. I have been investing very heavily in Turkey, maybe too heavily, but if the axis had pushed on into Russia then an ally declaring to my side on the southern edge of Russia would have been very handy indeed. I think they currently stand at 33% allied having come down from about 88% pro axis. More hits will follows - they will be an allied power before winter arrives for sure. So basically the beginning of the end game has already started as far as I am concerned. The IJN remains untouched, but my own US navy is growing, and well protected. I had 9 units arrive out of the production queue across my 4 major powers last turn, and that kind of production Marc simply cannot match. It is only a matter of time...

Agreed SM. My error with the Desert Rats was partly caused by combat though - they had driven the Italians out, invaded and taken Syria, done the same in Iraq and were therefore rather battleworn. Initially I had them in supply 6 or 7 just prior to the invasion of Persia - what I should have done was leave them there for a turn or two... but actually your post about oil a page or two back possibly triggered me earlier than I would otherwise have done. Wanted to show you we were on the same wavelength!

Well - a turn of moderate to above moderate frustration. I was ready for some decent success this turn, and the beginning of Marc's journey down the slippery slope, but it pretty much failed to materialise! Firstly - Persia. Now: this little sideshow was supposed to be over by now, but it's not and I thought it a good case study for any new players out there to try and grasp the importance of supply. I attacked Tehran and here is the graphic at the end of the attack: You'll notice the defending corps is badly damaged, but I have deliberately let you all see the stats at the bottom for the mighty Desert Rats. Ummm - not good. Now the key here is supply. Ideally at all times you want units on a minimum supply of 6, and 8 or above is much better. However to do this HQs are vital - they carry supply and draw it from nearby towns and cities. Trouble is here that my HQ is not near enough to a supply centre, so its own supply has dropped to 5, and my adjacent armour is now down to 3. This is not good - cant easily reinforce (as full reinforcement is only available if you have supply 6 or better) and my readiness and morale will fall under these conditions. The special forces unit next door is in much better shape, but taking Tehran has become a case of underestimated resistance. In my hurry to take it I failed to reinforce my armour to 10 prior to invasion, and also miscalculated the speed of my armour initially, and by not getting it to Tehran straight away it allowed Marc to upgrade the weapons of the Iranian Corps. Whether I can take it next turn I dont know - we will see - but it will probably now require an adjustment of deployment and that is annoying! ... and then to Western Europe. Aargh! Rain across the UK grounding all my air and saving the next defensive Brussels unit sent in by Marc. That's annoying too... ... and the East??? Bloody mud at the end of May. Huh - that's not good either, and it postponed my planned action. So all in all 3 areas I had wanted to start off, and none done. However I did manage to kick off the next stage of my "annoy Marc in the Pacific and deny the Japs time and space to properly prepare for the US coming onslaught". I pressed in Burma still, and launched a counter attack in China. In the South I destroyed a Japanese Army and positions finished thus: In the attack I found several Tac Bombers as you can see, so I guess that confirms where Marc is intending to squeeze me next. Further north another Chinese attack reducing the Chengchow Army to strength 5: So Marc will continue to have to pump mpps into this theatre, and my US navy will grow. 3 ships last turn; 2 this turn. Before long I will be able to sweep into the central pacific, but there is no hurry yet. :-) So mostly frustrated, but some limited success in the East. Just as soon as the damned weather sorts itself out in the West we should have lots more to report!

:-) - we will see. I guess I've slipped into slightly conservative mode as time is so much on my side I dont want to do anything daft and put myself back, but rest assured that as soon as I have struck in Europe and got the Germans in trouble I will strike in the pacific. To be honest once Germany is crushed the Pacific will be a cake walk from the geographical position that is currently in force. All I need do for now is hold my shape.

OK - the turning tide continues to turn. Algeria fell - nice mpp boost for the UK, and also I invaded and conquered Ireland, another small and handy mpp boost. Next on the graphic list is Burma. While everything cranks up against Germany I would be foolish to let the Japanese off the hook entirely, so while the Chinese continue to chip away (2 Japanese armies mauled over there this turn) I went onto the offensive in Burma. Didnt bag the special forces unit targetted, but Marc cant put fighters and mpps everywhere so it is all part of a gradual squeeze. And what about Germany? It's May 1943. I'm not quite ready to launch my move, but air power destroyed the replacement corps in Brussels and it will be the case that as fast as Marc moves units in there I will destroy them. This will drain him by 10% mpps at least every turn so this alone is worth the effort. Also allied bombers began raids on Europe, with US bombers in Africa targetiing and damaging production in Athens. It is a slow start to my campaign against Hitler, but no need to go mad yet - these things are all useful in the final analysis. Bagged a Spanish cruiser in the Med too - I reckon that is nearly it for the last of axis naval power around Italy. And the Pacific? Holding pattern, but got given 3 ships last turn and the US fleet is growing and growing. No hurry in this sphere yet - time is on my side.

Next wave - Britain invades Algeria. 4 carrier strikes and 2 Anzac attacks did for the garrison, and next turn it will fall. Graphic here: Elsewhere US forces took the Azores, creating a mid atlantic base for operations, and in China more counter attacks in the south made a mess of another Japanese Army. ... and perhaps signs of my 1943 strategy emerging in the main theatre against Germany. My air force units operating out of England took on and destroyed the corps in Brussels. In Russia 4 air attacks did some damage to German fighter cover. Can Marc's air force defend both east and west? We will soon see, because a fair part of my 1943 strategy is indeed to use air to cause as much damage as possible. I have good air tech on both fronts with a lot of chits invested to try and maximise the air power available. My Russian ground units have max tech in air defence, and before long allied bomber units will begin to wear down mpps and perhaps stretch axis air cover even further. The success of this tactic will depend largely on how many fighter units Marc has bought - it is an outside chance that he may have too few to cope, and he wont have time to rebuild before the winter. We will see. This is just an opening gambit on my part, to test his strength and purchase pattern. If it doesnt reap big benefits then there are plenty of other options available! In the Pacific? Still a holding pattern. I will nudge and push here and there to keep the IJN busy while all the time building and reinforcing my position. For now happy to let the Chinese tie down as many Japanese troops and mpps as possible.

Unit swap - without a doubt the single best improvement for making defence easier and more realistic. Huge improvement to the game.