Terif

June 29, 1941: German corps is no more - WD tank made short process...Tripoli fortified, no landings east of it possible any more.

June 22, 1941: UK corps near London killed, BEF army near Manchester damaged, 4 german AF + 1 bomber flying sorties over England.

June 8, 1941: Invasion on the way: - Prinz of Wales attacks an italian corps from Scapa Flow port, the corps lands and together with a german sub kills the battleship - 2 german corps land in middle England and supported by several AFs kill a UK corps near Manchester - Anson battleship killed in Manchester port, german battleships and cruisers bombard some corps at Manchester and Edinburgh, AFs join the bombardements and attack the defenders of Edinburgh (str 6) + London - Queen Elizabeth battleship killed in Gibraltar by a combined italian-german task force, the rock is empty and will be occupied soon - 2 UK ships + 3 carriers left vs 6 axis subs + 8 ships - Readiness: USA: 52%, Russia: 84% (will start rising next turn)

June 15, 1941: - Kesselring moves too close to the front near Brussel and gets some RAF bombs on his head - Tripoli is full entrenched, so nothing to fear. German corps in the desert trains how much bullets a safety west can hold up - reduced to str 4. - at the end of the turn UK developes jets 1 - Readiness: USA 33%, Russia: 82% (will start rising next turn) [ January 18, 2005, 02:01 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

May 25, 1941: - German air in Brussel, UK battleships retreat - Italian corps provides new space for british troops after a canadian army and 3 AFs convinced it to test how long someone can live in the desert without water...not very long. The german corps will be sent to other tests soon.

May 11, 1941: - since the Queen doesn´t like to immigrate south, Germany prepares a comfortable accomodotion further north: north pole should be a nice place for livetime holidays. - 2 more british battleships sunk near Manchester by german air (5 ships left) - London bombed by several AFs, entrenchment reduced, preparations for invasion... - transports along the british coast from Scapa Flow to London

April 27, 1941: - U-Boot not ready to take over all passengers + cargo (bombs/shells from UK air and battleships): sunk due to overweight (Axis navy now only consists of one last german surface combat ship - probably at str 1 if not reinforced + the new built italian sub) - Allied settlers in Africa demand for more territories since they have not enough space. 10 combat units are now packed in this narrow landscape. Some of them move west to convince the 2 lonely axis corps to provide more space.

April 13, 1941: - Malta occupied - Yugoslavia surrenders - UK cruiser in Edinburgh port sunk by a sub - UK bomber in Edinburgh under attack by 3 AFs and 2 surface vessels: reduced to str 3 - UK carriers show lv 1 LR (2 of them intercept), but german air got LR 1 the last turn too. So Montgomery is still in range of several german AFs and doesn´t survive the bombings - Valiant battleship spotted near northern Spain and sunk by 2 german subs (now 14 UK ships + 3 subs sunk, only 7 ships left)

It depends on the situation - but usually it is better to first attack with your ground units. After this you see (according to the real results) where you will be able to kill enemy units and where you can efficiently use your more flexible airforce (AFs have a range of 6+ hexes and can choose on which target to strike, while ground units have to use certain spots and often have no choice). Nevertheless in some situations it will be better to attack with your air first (e.g. if you want to test enemy air presence in the area before you send your ground units in...or against an entrenched Paris garrison - here both your ground and air units will do no damage until you reduced the entrenchment. But since without enemy entrenchment armies can do up to 4 damage in average and AFs only 2, it is better to use the AFs first to reduce entrenchment and not to waste the more valuable armies for this job ).

March 30, 1941: - UK corps in spanish Marocco sets sail, transport moves west - channel: Type IX B sub got support by a Type VII A sub. Royal navy + 3 AFs attack, sink Type VII A and damage the surviving one. - Tobruk: UK armies destroy a landed italian corps east of the city. Connection to Egypt reestablished. Since the transports along the coast are no feint and 2 more axis corps landed in Africa, 2 canadian units operate to Tobruk to strengthen the defences.

March 16, 1941: - Malta still under attack, entrenchment removed. - Training lessons for german pilots in England: Montgomery standing south of Manchester ready for target practice. - UK cruiser moves to Edinbourgh port. German survace vessels close the port and start a blockade. Together with AFs from Norway it gets reduced to str 3.

March 2, 1941: - Wavel and 2 armies + 1 corps operate to Tobruk and block the possible landing sites - In the channel Prinz Eugen tries to flee east, but is not fast enough . 2 UK AFs and Resolution battleship finish it off. A german Type IX B sub in Brussel port also got some AF hits - Axis invest a lot of mpps in the naval warfare, reinforced most or all understrength/damaged ships and even starts a new ship building program with italian subs. These mpps will be missing somewhere else... .

February 2, 1941: - German cruiser damages the british bomber in Edinburgh. Some bombs are falling on Montgomery´s head, no RAF responds. - Malta attacked by the italian navy and german air - they have enough experience so expected results are 0 for them. Both sides have slight losses, Malta entrenchment reduced to 4. - Bulgaria joined

December 8, 1940: - UK naval forces moved into a trap: 6 german AFs, bomber, 5 subs and 3 surface combat ships were ready to strike back. 3 UK battleships sunk, Sargo sub sunk, UK AFs and a carrier damaged. [ January 13, 2005, 02:20 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

January 5, 1941: - spanish mine reocupied by the last spanish defender. The remaining UK forces operate to Gibraltar. Spain will surrender next turn. - The brave Trident sub fullfiled its task to stop the german blockade runners in the channel. Several UK fighter squadrons from England descent on the german ships, hidden UK battleships join the battle: The hunt for the Bismarck was successful. After a hit in its steering by a heroic swordfish fighter the pride of the german Kriegsmarine got sunk in the morning hours by the fire of the hunting british battleships .

November 10, 1940: - Trident sub moved into London port. Gneisenau follows and destroys it while its crew is eating dinner in a London bistro, watching the shells exploding in the harbor. - Romania + Hungary join

November 24, 1940: - Iraq surrenders - UK corps operate to Madrid and replaces the lost defender, spanish forces attack Manstein HQ. Still all spanish ressources in allied hands - Prinz Eugen and Bismarck spotted in the english channel, moving towards Brest...british carriers stop bombarding in Spain and disappear to an unknown location in the dusk...

October 27, 1940: - after some carrier training spanish forces reoccupy their mine and cut off one of the invasion force armies - a german bomber in Albania revealed its position by attacking Warspite. Too much german air in the area, so the UK naval task force retreats towards Africa - Baghdad under attack from 5 sides and down to str 3, will be surounded next turn and fall in 1-2 turns

October 13, 1940: - axis forces move cautiously forward in Egypt looking for enemy ships or troops and they find: nothing ! No defenders left, no ships east of Alexandria...the question is: where are they ? Scouts reported at the beginning of the Med war 3 ships + carrier east of Malta and the street of Sicily had been closed. - Italian navy swarms the eastern Med to find the UK ghost fleet...Warspite battleship found and destroyed near Istanbul...searching for the rest of the fleet.. - in Bergen are no ground units, but some AFs protecting the area . 1 UK subs move close to Norway another one to Hamburg. Both subs under attack by the german fleet and 3 AFs: Shark sunk, Trident survives heavily damaged - UK obviously spent a lot of mpps repairing its fleet since they are at full strength again after they already got nearly sunk in previous battles.

September 15, 1940: English army in Alexandria destroyed, city conquered, pyramids will be examined by axis scientists.

September 29, 1940: - Last italian battleship destroyed by 3 UK battleships, another one bombards a german army in Greece. Italy has no navy any more, only 4 italian ground units left on the map - UK Med squadron enters Iraq (DoW) to get the necessary oil for further operations. UK tank occupies one of the oilfields, 3 armies and 2 corps approaching Baghdad. - UK carriers train at the former spanish mine (now occupied by germany - tank moved out of range). - Spanish forces move towards Bordeaux and cut off again the german task force in Spain, this time together with the HQ. Brest garrison lost to ground and air attacks, but this saved the live of a spanish str 1 army in Bilbao -> reinforced to 8. Fresh troops from Africa arrive around Madrid.

September 1, 1940: - spanish forces start an offensive from Madrid and Bilbao against the invaders, supported by UK carriers. 3 armies + tank cut off from supply and HQ command. German HQ attacked by spanish ground troops, tank damaged by some carrier strikes - Greece: italian and german army under attack by greek ground and UK naval forces

August 25, 1940: - all swedish defenders destroyed, Sweden surrenders - bad combat results when attacking the UK army west of Alexandria with ground and naval forces, so the german air marshal orders to redirect the AF attacks to Wavell HQ in Alexandria. Obviously the british HQ got no reinforcements (starts at str 4), so it didn´t survive the 3rd bombing.

Breakthrough via Caucasus and the narrow pass: here it is as Liam wrote - usually not a good idea, Axis only need a few units to stop this invasion. But a normal Middle East invasion via Turkey will work and is a good allied strategy if executed well and under the right circumstances . (@Liam: if you want to see it used for victory, then you need to continue (instead of surrendering) your games even if you have not absolute superiority in all fields . Otherwise it is clear that in the few occasions Allies do an invasion it is only a desperate act, since they have already lost - would also improve your win-loss record since a lot of the games you surrender I am pretty sure you still would have a good chance to win if you would continue and fight ) - often the threat of an invasion can be more valuable than the real invasion - so when Axis prepared against such an invasion and placed a lot of units in the Middle East area: forget an invasion. But these units will be missing somewhere else: look for the weak spot and strike there. - as long as Axis throw all forces against Russia, it is also not the best time to start a Middle East invasion. The right time is when Axis shift their forces West to fight against D-day. Then Russia can choose where it is best to strike: Finland/Skandinavia, central Russia or Turkey/Iraq - this depends on where the weak spot of the Axis is. When Russia starts the invasion: - first target is to cut off the Axis supply + operation possibility near Istanbul. 2-3 turns cutting off are enough for the most important second target: - securing the border between Turkey/Iraq. Will be accomplished within 2-3 turns and after this it doesn´t matter any more if Axis can operate again into Turkey. The turkish capital can only be conquered if Axis don´t defend it, so this is only a bonus, but not the target of the operation. - Target is to liberate Iraq/Beirut and since there is only open terrain, Russia should be able to do this within a short time. How long it takes depends on how much ressources Axis are willing to sacrifice there. But in the end Axis can only hold the Middle East if they are willing to throw most of their forces into battle and therefore to loose the war at the other fronts. [ January 08, 2005, 11:19 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]