[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Well - this is getting white hot. I must admit I was shocked to see level 4 Russian armour in play so early. That is a blow... and I thought I had been quite fortunate to get to level 3 so fast! Still - never mind, that's war.

Now - to the turn in hand.

First of all to highlight one of my major headaches:

For newcomers to the game these crossed out partisan symbols show that actual partisan units wont appear, but that supply can be hit by "invisible" units unless they are garrisoned. I am probably 2 turns away from getting a decent supply line into my main theatre of operations, and I need to make sure it is protected. That takes units, and it is an expensive business!!

This turn there was some major fighting. The main battle zone finished like this:

I threw the kitchen sink at Marc this turn, with 3 Soviet armoured units destroyed on the areas marked with crossed swords, an air unit on the "A" and one more garrison on the G. I was annoyed not to get the second air unit in behind the defensive fortification, but the dice didnt roll my way.

You will note that 2 of my panzers are hanging out to dry, so to speak. Correct - they are. But right now I am in a trading frame of mind. I have a very powerful luftwaffe supporting me, and more armour still in reserve. Marc will probably need to use 2 armour units himself to destroy these 2, and in turn his own will die. Crucially, even if we swap armour units down to nearly 0 I have a very large force of fully upgraded infantry, and I am especially aware that possibly the progress he got in getting level 4 armour may not hold in terms of infantry, and that is an advantage I may hold for a bit longer yet. We will have to see. Also while units in poor supply take longer to rebuild, I am conscious of the calendar: winter passes fast in this scenario and anything I lose now will still be rebuilt by April 1942 even if it is a more expensive rebuild. I cannot allow fears over supply to slow me down at this stage - if I sit tight and do nothing while I wait for supply the game will surely be lost. And I still hold an economic advantage and believe that gap will widen further in the next few months of play.

And like any decent strategist (I hope!) I launched another offensive in the northern part of the front and seized Riga. Like a boxer throwing combinations - keep him off balance. Apologies for no graphic - somehow my copy and paste on that one got deleted by mistake. He seems to have very little at all in the north, and that is something I intend to exploit now. My force there is not so large, but large enough to make a dent.

So how am I feeling? Tense... a little unsure... I have not played this scenario before as I have bleated a number of times, but the lack of knowledge as to how it plays is nerve-wracking... Marc has skillfully hit me when my supply is at its weakest and made the Wehrmacht pay in blood... but this final graphic still has me relatively happy:

His army is taking a hit, and although the loss of 2 armoured units has hit me also my relative advantage is still growing and I have taken 4 mine squares in the south that will begin to produce income soon.

By winter's arrival I hope to be further forward on the map from where I am now - and in Spring 1942 my army will be ready again, hopefully even bigger in relation to Marc's than it is now, and ready to deliver the killing blow. I must also be wary of operations in the West - there is no way he has enough firepower in the west yet to sustain anything major, but by 1942 that will start to change and I will need to be ready.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

More advance, more destruction of garrisons. The main drive in the south finished thus:

Marc has put up a decent line across my main line of advance, but it is not difficult at present to bypass it and such is the force I have at the point of attack that I cant see it holding. 2 more mine squares fell that turn which will hit his income fairly hard and raise mine reasonably well I hope over the next few turns. There is pressure on all sectors - in the North my navy and army around Kaunas is ready for a bit more action too.

I am puzzled that so far I have not encountered any armour or army units. I know that Marc will want to choose a battlefield of his liking, but nevertheless I did not expect to find the Donetz mines so lightly defended in general. I am well on schedule at present, and in approaching 2 years of war have yet to lose a single German ground unit. That may well change this turn or soon after as I am bracing for some kind of counter attack, but at present all is going well for the Axis. Finland has also dramatically leaned my way - a Finnish declaration would be perfect right now: and certainly historical so it has to be a possibility.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

OK - getting to the really crucial stages. Here is the unit analysis now:

This is gradually swinging in my favour, but this is also very important:

Note how the USSR received a massive mpp boost when I invaded. I have now captured 3 industrial centres: Kiev, Odessa and last turn I started my northern offensive and took Kaunas but this is only scratching the surface: what I really need to do now is deal with this:

Note the 6 mine squares on this shot, each holding a great deal of resource. My fast advance has got me to Krivy Rog, the first one, but there are 5 more here and another just off the the South East, and these are now a priority. There is some mighty fighting coming up.

Finally here is something else for Marc to concern himself with, as I do not intend to make a Rookie mistake and give him only one area to defend. As well as my advance in Lithuania here is one arcing northwards from the Ukraine up towards Bryansk:

Plenty therefore going on!! Elsewhere quiet...

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

OK - turn 2 of Barbarossa and German units flood East. Kiev is taken after a major multi-unit assault, and I will admit that I made a last minute change of plan and diverted units to the Black Sea to seize Odessa - I had originally intended to bypass it for now.

Turn ended like this:

So far Marc has allowed me territory in order to wear down my supply and take me on when/where he sees fit. As I approach the resources of the Donetz Basin I think he will have to stand and fight... Elsewhere some land based artillery damaged a UK sub and I moved around a few other bits and pieces.

I'm having a ball. I am in Kiev quicker than I believed would be the case, and from my angle that is good news.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Barbarossa is here. Bang on the long term plan I declared war on Stalin on 9th May 1941, and immediately headed for Kiev as per intention. Very kindly Bulgaria joined the axis immediately before my declaration: more good news. The only disappointing aspect was the poor weather which grounded the Luftwaffe, but at least even in rain air units can now be moved and redeployed, so it was not a disaster.

Here is an image of the front line in the south at the beginning:

Fast units have sped along the north road, and to the south Stalin has chosed to leave a packet of useful units ready for action.

Once I had destroyed the forward air unit it turned to this:

German units surrounded the pocket, and the panzers, revelling in their new machines, finished off the job. A major blow to the Russian army.

At the end of the turn the front looked like this:

You may wonder why I did not use the Romanian border as my major jump off point. I did ponder this, but did not want to leave any Russian units behind to the north of my major thrust, so decided I might as well hit hard across the whole front, and especially in the sector to the north of Romania.

What next? No genius required to work it out: I will drive hard due East until I run out of supplies or hit my objectives. Meanwhile there is the northern sector of the front to consider, and I will being that into play when I am good and ready...

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Probably my last post of nothing much - from here on in it is going to get white hot. I scared the British Sub in the Adriatic and moved some air power down there to give my Navy some covering support - otherwise little in terms of battle. I did scout some U-boats up towards the Russian naval bases near Leningrad just to see what could be seen...

However, on the eve of big things, here is the unit picture:

As you can see my German land forces are now large, about as large as I wanted them to be at this stage, and they will be able to do some serious damage in the next few turns wherever I unleash them. What you wont be able to see from this is just how many high quality units I have gone for: I have very few corps in my army: it is mostly armour, special ops and full armies on good upgrades - I am gambling on being able to make quality pay a dividend and smash whatever is in front of me. My air force is also substantial now. I also have 4 HQs at maximum experience which should help.

There will be no more lull...

(Harry - Yugoslavia is at 45% in favour of the allies at present. It would take an awful lot of diplomatic work to turn that around: instead Yugoslavia will have to be conquered.)

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Ho hum - a mistake made there in the Adriatic, the result of me not being aware that subs do not block other subs as they used to in SC. An expensive mistake too, and an annoying one as I would not have left my fleet like that if I thought they could be searched out.

You live and learn - wont make that mistake again!

Elsewhere I took Gibraltar after 5 or 6 shots of artillery and an armoured assault. The weather will turn, I hope, in around 2 turns time and then the serious part of the game will start.

Russia has grown her army substantially according to the graphs, although I am still very unsure what index the graphs use. How does a garrison match up against an armoured corps on those bars? Good question! Cant see it in the manual, but a bit of Fog of War on those report options is no bad thing.

MPPs up over 600 each turn now, which is good. Will it be enough?

lhughes - it would be a brave player who attacked Russia in 1940...! The Allies may well go on to win the war, but I dont think it will be the result of the timing of any attack on them, or lack of it. In every game of Global Conflict that I have played where the German player attacks Russia in 1940 the Germans go on to lose. There is a critical moment that has to be caught right, where the Germans have enough force to make big gains but havent waited too long to allow the Russians to grow too big.

Anyway as soon as my next major offensive begins I will pull out the graphics again. Until then you will have to do with Marc's pictures of North Africa, an area I am quite happy not to contest at this stage so far.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Turn of the year 1941 and all is very quiet. Not a shot fired this turn...

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

December 1940 and all (nearly) is quiet. Around Gibraltar I could not resist destroying a UK corps in North Africa that showed itself. This may not have been a wise move on my part - every turn is precious now, and by allocating 2 strikes to get the job done I had to put back my assault on Gibraltar by a turn. It may even be that I put it back even further - the air power down there will be needed elsewhere soon, and needs to be moved, reinforced and allowed some rest. I might have to go about cracking Gibraltar a different way...

Elsewhere more movement, and more purchasing. I will be honest here - I have still not decided upon the exact point of my attack, but that decision will need to be made next turn as I will need the remaining time before Spring to deploy correctly.

Ironically the weather in December 1940 right across Europe is good. When I needed it good in 1939/40 it stayed horrible right until the end of May. C'est la vie - and C'est SC!

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Marc and I will just have to agree to disagree on that land forces chart...! There is a lot going on underneath the surface in terms of army development for both sides, and I am quite happy at present with that comparison. We will see what we will see - he has the greater experience for sure in this so perhaps my assessment is way off. Time will tell.

Very quiet turn - nothing bar movement. I suspect it will be quiet now until winter is gone.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Not much point showing a map pic at present - air skirmishes, operational movement etc etc all rather dull.

However for new players here is something else to note about the game. Personally I am unsure about the wisdom of the graphs that follow: for me they provide too much intelligence on the other player and what his war machine is up to, but they are in the game and are critical tools to use when planning future operations.

Here is the first interesting graph available to players (there are many of these, and I have chosen a very small sample):

This first graph allows me to see how much Marc has been spending on research in Russia. From looking at this it seems likely to me that he has invested a total of 6 points totalling 1100mpps. I did not bother to save the UK chart, but I can confirm also using the intel tool that he has not spent any money at all on UK research.

Then next look at this graph:

This one then allows me to see his total USSR mpps acquired so far in the game. Doing some simple maths allows me a rough guess at how many units he may have bought since game start, and it is clear that he has been heavily investing in tech as a proportion of income, much more so than me. It is also useful to be able to see that roughly the USSR is getting just over 200mpps per turn.

Here is a slide for the UK showing mpps also:

The increase in mpps totals went up when I invaded Spain, but now with her surrender you can see that the UK is down at around 180 per turn.

Now my final slide showing German mpps:

You can see that last turn Germany earned over 540, and I can confirm that as Spanish city supply grows that will rise.

The obvious conclusion is that Germany is currently winning the economic war quite considerably, and that is without adding Italian mpps to the total. It leaves me with an interesting quandary - do I leave my declaration on the USSR a bit longer? Should I take on the UK first? Once I declare Russian industry will be bumped up, and the longer I maintain an economic advantage the wider in theory I can make the gap in the relative sizes of forces.

I have spent quite a bit on operational movement of course, and must also now spend some more on garrisoning key areas, but I am happy that whatever my next move may be I can afford to lose as many units as my opponent and still widen the gap - at least until the USA enters of course.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Weather stayed fine, and on Sept 20th 1940 Franco was forced to surrender. A Tac Bomber hit the garrison removing the last 2 entrenchment points (Tac Air seems less powerful than in GC to me, but does reduce entrenchment fast...), the garrison was then hit with 4 armoured attacks and to finish off the job Fallschirmjaeger dropped in to Madrid.

Winter moves pretty rapidly in this game, so Spring 1941 will arrive in no time at all, and I need to be ready. My techs have cashed in so quickly I am now left in a frustrating position of wanting to reinvest to try and surge ahead, but needing to buy as many units as I possibly can for operations in 1941. Cant have it both ways despite my high level of mpp acquisition now.

I was reading in a book by Matthew Syed the other day that in a game of chess there are more possible permutations of the layout of the board in the end game than there are atoms in the universe. Now - my maths brain is not too bad, but struggles with that concept: I wonder how many possible permutations of a setup and situation there are in this scenario come 1945? Surely must be more than in a game of chess, and this just makes the mind boggle. Let's hope that I can put together a setup in 1941 that causes Marc as much trouble as possible as well as putting me into a winning position for the end game. :-)

I noticed the post above - I am new to this scenario but as far as I can work out from unit properties the Anti Air tech provides a boost to both air defence and anti tank capability, so it is a one size fits all tech. Makes it quite important...

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Another post without an image as little has changed at the Front. The Madrid garrison has been battered down and lost 5 of its entrenchment, but it will take another turn at least to wipe out. If the weather holds then it will fall for sure next turn, but if the Luftwaffe is grounded then it may be more attritional. On the flanks of my advance other German corps have fanned out and captured a number of Spanish towns left undefended.

Strategically more good news, as my research investment continues to bear yet more fruit. The sudden rush of techs has been amazing. At this point I am unable to recharge this investment as maximum effort is now being given to developing and growing a massive Wehrmacht for future operations. I think I have timed this well and will give a full analysis of what I have been doing on the eve of my next big assault. Once I have the army I want I will heavily invest in tech again as I think it is a crucial aspect of success in SC.

For now it is mopping up in Spain.

Anyone wondering what I am doing in Italy?? I'll tell you all later... :-)

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

My first quiet turn - did some reinforcing and moving in Spain, plus some more strategic redeployment elsewhere. Madrid comes with a 6 entrenched garrison corps which is a blow, but I moved an infantry army adjacent to it and pepped up my armour and air, so next turn I will begin the assault and either take it then, or the turn after.

Looks like it will be done just before winter arrives - timing so far is not bad...

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Turn 2 of the Spanish Invasion. The turn ended like this:

I drove a Spanish corps from the south side of the river north of Madrid, though my armour has been damaged in the process. As you can see the Luftwaffe is pouring south to lend support, and a second wave of support units has gathered to the north east to flood into Spain behind my Mechanised thrust.

From here I may need to rest up for one turn to take on reinforcements and also get fighter support to my bombers. We will see - depends on what Marc does next. Elsewhere I destroyed another British corps, this time sat tight in Cherbourg waiting to be captured. My panzers happily absorbed the experience.

What I have done is a gamble but in the blink of an eye other aspects have gone my way, namely research. Having got next to nothing for the best part of a year I got 4 tech returns in one hit, a reasonable one for the Italians, another reasonable one for the Germans and 2 very good ones indeed for the Germans. I am smiling again on the technology front, and feeling generally much happier...

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

OK - big throw of the dice here. As I said before I dont really know how this scenario punishes extravagent play like this, but I have done it anyway - the invasion of Spain is on.

(Sorry Bill - forgot to turn the grid lines off...)

Immediately 3 things happened:

1. The USA got angry, raising activation from about 40% I think up to 53%

2. The allies promised to defend Portugal...

3. Vichy said it was unhappy.

2 and 3 dont worry me at all - 1 is more of a worry as I dont know anything about US entry/timing etc, but so be it.

The invasion itself went ok, though not perfectly. To discuss what I did:

1. Smashed the garrison on the border with armour and drove hard for Bilbao as objective 1.

2. Found a garrison and a cruiser in Bilbao. Pondered destroying the cruiser for NM benefit, but chose to hit the garrison instead. Keeping my second armour unit in reserve I pounded Bilbao with Stukas and then 2 infantry armies, destroying the garrison.

3. Tough choice - be conservative and take Bilbao with my reserve armoured unit, or push on for Burgos. Ever the non-conservative I decided to leave the capture of Bilbao for next turn and landed some paras next to Burgos to see what was what.

4. To my horror I found a Spanish armoured unit. Yuk. My first game in this scenario - hadnt expected Franco's mob to have a full power armoured unit. It was vital I try and destroy this, so committed my armoured reserve to battle, and on the field outside Burgos the men of the Panzer Divisions destroyed the unit but took 3 valuable points in damage in the process. Not happy about that, but it cleared the city and allowed the paras to move in and take Burgos.

So Bilbao will fall next turn, and I now hope to be able to take Madrid in another 2 or 3 turns.

Strategically, while it may bring the US in earlier, the capture of Spain brings more mpps but more significantly than that it makes operations in the Mediterranean much harder for the allies. I am thinking big here - if my invasion of Russia goes well I may be able to commit a second force to the mediterranean in 1942 to support my fairly large Italian Navy, and thereby further distract Marc from any thoughts of an early D-Day.

All high risk stuff, but lots of fun. High risk strategies in SC can lead to swift defeat - and if that is what happens in this AAR then I apologise to you all, but they can also lead to big rewards, and it just may be that aggressive land warfare will give me a significant edge.

It all hinges on Russia of course, and in the background preparations for that invasion are well underway.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Not much to report this turn - refitting, moving, new plans etc etc. One British Corps that unwisely stuck around in France was destroyed - 2 others sitting in ports will follow the same way if Marc leaves them there much longer. My defeat of France took longer than I hoped, but quicker than might have been the case had I waited until spring, so now I must make best use of the extra time available. My only simmering disappointment so far is the lack of research progress. I invested in this early and I am at max points for Germany and nearly max for Italy. In return I have had very little indeed. As I said in a recent post this makes SC uniquely different every time you fire it up, but for this AAR I need my luck to turn otherwise future operations are going to suffer badly.

However for any newcomers to SC here is something to take on board - the power of paras. My one major move this turn was the conquest of Norway done like this:

A classic long distance combination of force. Paras land, identify the enemy, Tac Air swoops in to launch a telling blow, paras finish them off and then occupy.

It is a devastating tactic in any circumstances, and with paras at a base range of 8 in this scenario it is one with much potential. Defence in any of the recent forms of SC is required in depth becuase a good player using long range air recon will quickly seize undefended cities with paras at range.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Well, somewhat belatedly the weather turns fine, and France falls. With French morale at 0 I didnt bother to do much at all other than eliminate a couple of easy units in search of more experience. I also sallied forth with some U boats to kill 2 French ships: the National Morale boost is handy (to anyone new to the latest SC incarnation destroying enemy ships provides very good NM boosts for the side that does the sinking...), although in this ww2 scenario I dont know if NM is something that will need to be massaged in this way. Anyway - I did it, and hope that any British naval revenge will not be sufficient to stop my U boats escaping.

Now I must take a long look at the map and decide on my next moves. One of the problems I have is that I have never played this scenario before and dont quite know how the game plays. Every wargamer knows that, no matter how well balanced a game may be, there are things worth doing and things definitely not worth doing, and I am in the dark here. Still - that's part of the fun in this AAR!

One piece of luck that turn too - a diplomatic hit got a big return in Romania leading to an instant Romanian alliance. That's good news: Romanian oil at a slightly earlier stage than expected will come in very handy.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Morning all - no image for you this time as it would look almost identical to the last. Curse upon curse - the weather stayed bad and mud meant I could not get my second wave of units to Paris. As a first time player of this scenario I am interested to see just how many units France has. I wonder how difficult it would have been to attack in May/June 1940? There seem to be a lot of French units in the field!

(note to developers - has anyone actually been to Western Europe at the end of May? As I live there I can tell you categorically that is is almost never muddy at the end of May...!)

Anyway I settled instead for crushing as many French units as possible, and 4 armies plus 2 corps were dealt with and French morale was reduced to 3% - but they did not surrender.:-( French Armour was also pounded by Stukas. Altogether this will help a great deal with experience, but it has put me behind timetable so I am pondering my next move a bit now. My attack on Norway is nearly ready so that will go ahead whatever.

My quandary actually is Spain. I am very tempted to invade, but to do it properly it looks on this map as though I would need at least 5 turns of decent weather to get to Madrid. Will I get that now? Should I instead look to the Balkans, or North Africa? You will remember that my initial plan was not to attack in North Africa, but that may need some reevaluation if there is not enough left of the 1940 summer season to conduct operations in mainland Europe.

Either way I am still looking at an invasion of Russia as early as I dare do it.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

OK - the weather is still doing its best to throw me off the rails with mud still widespread in May, but it hasnt hampered me too much this turn as I should now be able to take Paris next turn. The dog leg assault I spoke about last time has worked a treat - his units have moved away and recentred around Paris without entrenchment, although I am disappointed to find that he did not make a mistake and leave Paris without a fully entrenched garrison. This turn my armour drove hard for paris, some airborne infantry supplied a bit of extra punch and an army plus an anti tank unit were destroyed at the city gates. I did not have the support units to take Reims also, but other towns on the way have also been mopped up so with luck my supply next turn will still be good.

End of turn finished here:

No arrows required - you can clearly see how he has evacuated his stronger flanks as the full power of blitzkrieg has jinked and then driven to Paris, and French units surrounded along the way have been wiped out.

I have enough units/air in range now that I am hopeful of an end to the war in the west next turn with the fall of Paris. With the extra time I have bought myself I am now considering my options. Strike early at Russia? Perhaps hit Spain? I am preparing an assault on Oslo in the wings and marshalling my U boats just in case an opportunity presents itself. Ultimate goal, however, remains Moscow in 1942.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

OK - spring not quite here yet, but the advance continues and once the fine weather returns Paris will fall quickly. Turn ended here:

I have successfully driven a wedge as I described last turn in between the newly formed French line near Amiens and the Maginot line. Verdun fell this turn, as did Luxembourg which really I could have taken earlier but used as a block to any French counter attack against my Belgian campaign. Overall this spells curtains for the French - anything that moves to block my drive on Paris will lose its entrenchment, the skies will clear (I hope!) and casualties will be heavy. The overall operation has taken me longer than I wanted as the weather was not kind, but I have gained a few precious turns. I predict Paris will fall in 2 or 3 turns from here.

I thought I would also talk about about one of my pet frustrations in the game - Tech. Here is a slide of my current research investment:

I am a huge believer in tech advance as a key to victory, but luck plays a huge part and for any new or potential players out there this is the one feature that will certainly either drive you up the wall or make your day. One thing is for sure - it ensures that no two games are the same, and that has to be a good thing in the end.

Anyway in this game so far I discussed my strategy earlier. Fast, aggressive ground assault. This tech slide shows that I have invested heavily in ground assets, though so far without any joy. That's the luck part... I have had one hit so far - in intelligence, a crucial factor for speeding up research acquisition so I have reinvested another chit to try to get to at least level 2, and of course I have a chit in the must have area of industry. I will hope for a bit more luck soon, otherwise my overall strategy will be in doubt, and I want to be able to transfer some of my research to my U boats later on. My air power is strong enough for now, but as a secondary priority I would also dearly love to get my tac air and fighters to level 2 prior to spring 1941 so I hope my scientists wake up and get a move on!

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

Ice and snow covers the flat ground of northern France and Belgium, slowing up further the axis advance. This was always a risk and a likely result until March, but worth the gamble in terms of an early invasion.

As Spring approaches the Wehrmacht is deployed like this:

I notice that Marc scrambled units to form a very WW1-like line to try and halt me. Doesn't work in WW2 of course! So using mobility I have changed the point of attack, taken Sedan and will drive at Paris over the next 3 turns mainly from the East. He will have to move again to block me, and that will reduce entrenchment, an important factor if the rains return and ground the Luftwaffe. Stukas and artillery had to be used this turn to secure Sedan, but I deemed that a necessary use of resource and a risk worth taking in terms of any Luftwaffe losses: I got lucky and all my bombers came home unscathed.

Spring to follow now - my next report should see me closing in on Paris.

In the meantime my forces in the East have marched to the Russian border and formed a staging position for future operations. In the North preparations are underway to seize Denmark, an easy operation I would expect.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

New Year 1940 - German tanks slowed up in the ice and mud of Flanders, but forces further north secure the surrender of Holland. Wont bother to post an image as the advance into France was geographically rather unimpressive. Mauberge was captured, however, with the loss of another French corps and the first point of damage inflicted on the panzer spearheads by perhaps a rather rash assault on Lille in the ice.

Bring on Spring!

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

The advance continues. This zoomed image shows the front line now just prior to Christmas. Destroyed a French Army next to Lillle and also a British Corps in Ypres. The door to Northern France may well now be open, and I decided to try and speed that up by diverting my last panzer corps, not yet upgraded, away from Holland to strengthen the thrust in Spring. Holland will fall in its own time - actually I will not be too upset if Marc pours reinforcement mpps in to it as it is a dead end for the allies now.

[1939 Storm over Europe - AAR]

OK - now the main event is about to start. Here is my Western Front disposal at the beginning of November:

Conventional military wisdom would dictate that I wait for winter to pass, but every turn is going to count if I am to be ready to invade Russia on time, and also prepare for the possibility of an angry Stalin starting hostilities of some kind even earlier than that. I am always keen to look at other opportunities too, maybe an invasion of Spain or even an adventure somewhere else. One thing is certain - I want France out the war before we get close to the end of Summer 1940 at the latest, so as to give me time to invest, refit and consider my options prior to March/April 1941.

The turn then finished like this:

Taking the conventional Schlieffen Route through Belgium I can confirm that Belgium surrendered at this point, despite the fact that rain meant my Stukas were grounded, and Holland will fall next turn. The destruction of a Dutch naval unit in port gave me a handy National Morale doost. I destroyed the frontier Belgian Armies with infantry strikes, and then used the panzers to wipe out the Brussels Army and Belgian Air Force behind. I saved my artillery shells for future softening up of predicted French armies to my South West. I will be in Northern France before Christmas, spearheaded by 2 upgraded and still full strenth panzer armies.

A decent start.