reiver

November 29th 1940 The Vichy French battleship Jean Bart was sunk with heavy loss of life whilst valiantly engaging superior Italian naval forces. 1st Free French Army launch an attack on the Italian beachhead at Suez, followed up by Air and Corp level probing action Italian army now at 40% strength. Another Italian army West of Alexandria withdraws toward Benghazi. It looks like the Axis are commited to taking the Med – it is going to get messy. In the Western Med HM battleships Warspite and Valiant accompanied by Cruisers Gloucester and Suffren (Vichy) engaged Italian warships South West of Sicily and West of Malta. Reports are coming into the Admiralty that a heavy concentration of Axis air units are present on Sicily – **** **** **** – we are expecting heavy losses. And finally UK gets Industrial Tech Level 2 - could really use Air Attackproof Warship Tech. Reiver

September 1st 1940 A lot happening this turn – Axis lands forces West of Alexandria and at Suez - fortunately reinforcements also arrive. The defender outnumbers attacker plus Allies have some air support. Manstein finally puts down his dry martini and gets into the Vichy French, they take Marseille but the Cruiser Suffren escapes and near Algiers an Italian Corps gets bogged down. The French battleships indignant crew sortie from Algiers and attacks Italian naval units off Malta. Malta receives reinforcements. RN units ship anchors and sail - destination CLASSIFIED Commander at Suez ****s up his dispositions and withdraws West but Free French Army (newly arrived) stays put. Free French air takes a couple of points of the Italian Army at Suez. Reiver

OBSERVING THE SABBATH Being Church of Scotland, all this theological stuff got me worried - But its OK because Wargaming is like sex you can do it on a Sunday as long as you dont enjoy it. Reiver

August 18th 1940 The freedom loving people of Sweden fall under the Nazi yoke. The 5th Italian Army were spotted and strafed by Free French Air units just North of Suez, whilst observers have noted that the 10th Italian Army is cruising of the coast due west of Alexandria. Pity the Royal Navy is not in vicinity or is it? Reiver

hurtzDonut Your game collection sounds like mine - Squad Leader, Pacific War, The Fleet series, Vietnam , great games! I liked the aesthetics of the large map and all the counters but always struggled particularly with Pacific War to leave it set up long enough to play the big campaigns - bloody children/wifes/dusters/hoovers. Reiver

I'll have a bash! Reiver

August 4th 1940 German forces pile into Sweden. The Swedish 2nd Army attemps to destroy an understrength German Army that has landed south of Oslo and even with the assistance of 2 corps it gets mauled but no kill. With a massive air campaign Ireland finally surrenders to UK forces, the plunder is gratefully deposited in the Bank of England. Still along way from seeing USA (37%) or USSR (58%) in this fray Reiver

July 28th 1940 Axis launch a very slick and effective strike against Greece, Athens falls whilst bulk of Greek army sits up in the North waiting for an attack that does not come. Malta still holds out against air and sea bombardment. The United Kingdom has launched a preventative strike against the Republic of Ireland for “Strategic Reasons” Royal Navy carriers Ark Royal, Courageous and Glorious carried out bombardment of Irish positions along with the gig guns of HMS Royal Oak from the mouth of the River Liffey. 2 RAF fighter groups and all of bomber command also contributed to the operation. Dublin was heavily damaged with the defenders taking 80% casualties according to the international red cross – yet the defenders grimly hold out against what they consider to be unprovoked aggression by the British Empire. Meanwhile in Liverpool Field Marshall Wavell took up his new duties. Reiver

Not much to report Malta still being hammered the Italians brought up some planes, but those guys are hanging tough. Manstein is still sunning himself in La Bell Francais. Where are those pesky Nazis going next? As for me being suspicous I certainly am - after playing Rannug, Friendly Fire and Curry Cook to name a few you really need to be cos those guys are good. Reiver

Turn 8 or 9 (I think) The brave Danish defenders of Copenhagen finally succumbed to the overwhelming fire power of the German invader. However there intel was correct and Norway was indeed the next objective, my war cabinet decided that intervention would only risk high losses on an already stretched Royal Navy – we looked on in anguish as yet another democratic country was conquered by the Nazis. Operational security prohibits me from describing UK troop movements and the large amount of alcohol I consumed at the barbecue this afternoon means that this may not be the most coherent AAR you’ll read on this illustrious forum but… …Malta is still getting hammered by the Italian Navy , but the Axis will need some serious air to knock out the defenders and reduce the defences. Also my long range recce picked up Mansteins HQ in central France – perhaps a strike against Vichy is in the offing? Will find out soon enough! Reiver

Arngrim vs Reiver (Derek) This is my 1st AAR so bare with me. June 9th 1940 The Danes have survived a major assault including Air and Sea assets, ground down to a mere 1 strength factor they survived – that Carlsberg brewery must be defended at all costs! OK so they are reinforced back up to 5- don’t know if they’ll survive another turn. But they did spot a large number of CENSORED heading CENSORED probable objective CENSORED. Meanwhile in the Med Malta holds on against similar Air and Sea bombardment surely earning that George Cross! Further East still my Air catches sight of an Italian transport presumably about to disembark troops for a Middle East offensive, we’ll see about that. Manstein and Rundstedt have both been seen on vacation in Western Europe and otherwise things are quiet. UK has been moving its assets around however this falls under the official secrets act so no details can be revealed at this time. For the wider picture Axis has conquered Poland, France, LC and is tryingto take Denmark, while US is at 14% and USSR 40% war footing. Hope that wasn’t too boring. Reiver aka Derek

Jersey John I agree with your comments on Barbarossa - The German Forces swept through the Soviets with a string of encirclements and victories that in terms of prisoners taken and equipment destroyed/captured are quite staggering. I beleive that if Hitler had left things alone and not held up start of Typhoon (Operation to take Moscow)they would have got to Moscow and secured it before the Winter set in. This in tandem with a more pragmatic approach to the conquered population and POW's might have been enough to topple Stalin and his regime - who were not exactly the model of a caring progressive government. On another note and you have made reference to this many times - I read one account that suggested that the very policy of Concentration Camps and Genocide ensured that economically the 3rd Reich could never win, due to the loss of manpower, the waste of resources and rail capacity, sheer ineficiency of slave labour and amount of guards who could otherwise have been of fighting the Russians. Regards Reiver

Bill101 Good idea for a house rule - I am sick of just losing my subs within a couple of turns, must try that. Regards :cool:

Exel / Kuniworth Thanks for the clarification. All I knew was that I used to be able to buy aircraft kits with historically correct decals but since the 80's every kit I have purchased omits the Swastika - anyway I purchased sheets of them from a Polish Company. On another note the PC Game Medal of Honour doesnt have any but Return To Castle Wolfenstien is full of them! Political Correctness!!

Jon J Rambo I agree with your coments I think Germany would have been well advised to have concentrated on USSR. "Royal Navy brave and clever" - Praise indeed!My grandfather and both his brothers were all serving with RN in the Med in 41 and 42. USN were no slouches either. Reiver

I understand that the Swastika is an illegal symbol within the European Union and this manifests itself subtly in that if you buy a model kit of say a WWII Luftwaffe aircraft you have to go to order in the Swastika decal for the tail from decal makers out with EU. Its really annoying with the Kreigsmarine flag cos at 1:350 scale it is awful hard to mark in the offending symbol in the little white blank in middle of the flag they give you! I'm way off track for SC2 cant wait to get my paws on it! Regards Reiver

Like Grapeshot I dont post much, usually cos someone has already said exactly what I would like to say but more eloquently and in much more detail. I am really looking forward to SC2, a huge map, a big ocean to fight out the battle of the Atlantic and the possibility to have a East vs West post WWII scrap....its all too much!! I hope my fiance doesnt get jealous of the time I'm going to spend playing this game. Regards Reiver

I tend to lurk and not make many posts but... I cannot wait to get my hands on this game!! I'd have preferred hexes that seems to be the subject of intense debate further down the forum but if Hubert's gone with tiles well he must have had a good reason. As I say cant wait! Reiver

You do not access the editor from the main programme - instead you go to "my programmes" etc on your desktop until you get to Strategic Command and then select Campaign Editor. Happy creating. Reiver

I agree with you both - the way Naval units get chewed up in the game is not good. I mean if you have the Mediterranean bloodbath you are having the largest naval battle since Jutland but with massive casualties (bigger than Jutland or Leyte) - fleets would retire before they had got to that level of damage. Maybe in SC2 the navies could get some sort of AI retiral factor built in to reflect the Admiral at the sharp end but not necessarily with the full picture deciding that discretion was the better part of valour and bugging out. Regards Reiver ps to jon_j_rambo it would be great to pop over for a game of Squad Leader but I live too far away - Scotland, however if I'm ever in Idaho...

I can see where you are all coming from on the Partisan question. I think that the big difference between Western Europe and Eastern Front/Balkans is that in France essentially as was pointed out the resistance carried out acts of sabotage, intelligence gathering, assasination and helping shot down fliers evade capture - in the East though much larger partisan groups operated actually attacking German rear echelon units and their supply train. I believe that the game reflects this difference in that the Germans need to leave units to garrison cities in the Balkans and USSR or the partisans move in - this abstractedly creates the effects of the partisans tying down large numbers of units who otherwise would be better employed at the front.

Ah good old Avalon Hill and Squad Leader - I've still got all the original SL modules and ASL. I'm with you on this one I would love to see ASL as a PC game. Also how about Victory Games - Vietnam 1965-1975 and Pacific War (although I think Matrix games may have already got a version of this) Hexagons rule OK. Also I think anyone who read and understood all of the ASL Rules should receive a Diploma - if you have you'll know what I mean.

France has just fallen and I thought hey with the French Navy out of play lets deploy German surface units to the French Atlantic bases for a spot of surface raiding. I deployed 4 air fleets into N France to cover the inverse Channel Dash and merrily sent Gneisnau and Scharnhorst around Denmark. OK so what happens the RAF Bomber unit picks them up around Wilhemshaven - ouch! followed by the entire Home Fleet descending from Scapa Flow for the kill. It would have been cool if it had worked. Anyway in future I will retain my 2 cruiser units in the Baltic to take out the Soviet fleet. I have also taken to hiding my U-boats and avoiding action until after France capitulates and there are less Naval units hunting. Any advice/experiences on best things to do with the German Navy would be gratefully received. As a historical footnote about the Channel Dash, when Scharnhorst, Gneisnau and Prinz Eugen sailed at speed from Brest to Wilhemshaven under a Lufwaffe umbrella. The British had anticipated such a move by the Germans but had made the contigency plans so secret that when the Germans made their move no one new what the plan was. My grandfather was on a mine sweeper in the Channel on that day and remembers having an argument with a fellow sailor about the identity of the bloody big warships steaming by in the distance - "there German" "dont be soft there ours". Fortunately for Grandpa his skipper took nothing to do with trying to intefere with the Germans. Ironically Grandfather was Petty Officer on The Duke Of York (a battleship) at the Battle of North Cape when Scharnhorst went down with her colours flying and very few survivors. During the Channel Dash itself a squadron of Swordfish bi-plane torpedo bombers attacked with much bravery ( a VC being awarded to the flight leader)and little effect. Mines on the final approach to safety did more damage to German Naval units.

I have I think exhausted all the possible outcomes against AI opponent and now I want to fight it out with a real opponent. I have registered with the Cases Ladder PBEM site so what do I do next? Here are my questions. Do I just challenge a likely candidate? What sort of timescale do games last - I live in UK so I would visualise doing one turn a night and firing it off - is that OK? Any advice would be gratefully recieved. Reiver

I am currently playing Jersey John's Plan Z campaign - I really like it. My forces are just to the West of Moscow and I have secured Leningrad, Sevastopol and Rostov but have bogged down due to supply problems caused by scorched earth. War went along usual lines - Poland - 2 turns, Denmark and Norway 2 turns (the Carriers really helped), low countries 1 turn France 3 or 4 followed by Vichy France. At which point the Yugoslavians had a coup and took out my newly allied Hungarians (I'm still raging!!)Lesson - never leave an allies capital ungarrisoned. I then mopped up Vichy North Africa with Rommel HQ and took out Malta (eventually) with about 7 air fleets, folled by conquest of rest of N Africa and Middle East - courtesy of Erwin again. At this point I launch a particularly effective assault on USSR and am promptly DOW'd by USA. Game On! Which is where I am now currently fending off an Anglo American landing in France - unfortunately for the Allies the Luftwaffe is pretty powerfull and I found that I could use Rockets in an anti-ship role! Which I am really pleased with. Needless to say I am building half a dozen batteries for coastal defence. Anyway I'm about to start work for the day so I'll wrap this up. Excellent campaign Jersey John!