Colin I

Naval skirmish around UK - one Axis sub has been sunk though Axis nailed a UK Battleship. UK reinforces Egypt with Western Desert Air and (probably) UK Airforce, and one suspects a rebuilt BEF soon. USSR and USA are both above 50%. British armour closes in on a depleted Tobruk. So far not unlike the game with K-man though SeaLion was earlier (pre-Spain). This time I'd better not blow my Navy :eek:

Allied fighters redeployed to South coast of UK, take some battering from German air so retreat. Allies seem to be making a move in Middle East (bombing Tobruk). Italian air creeps forwards and cannot see any UK forces in Southern England (two British ground units were just lost in France, this might explain it). The Italians reports this to the German paratroops waiting in France. Paras drop North of London and walk into the city!! Transports reinforce this move with ground troops. The British navy is hardly to be seen. Its August/September 1940. SeaLion is GO

AAR: Germans get good spring weather, take down Benelux and Denmark (with paratroopers) then head into France. British troops are spotted manning the Maginot line so the Germans take it cautiously, expecting serious resistance. Despite the careful advance, the Anglo-French counter takes down a German army from full strength. After that the German take out the British troops and storm Paris.

Jesus/DAK: Hope you had a good holiday. Think your mailbox is full, will send turn 11 when you've had a chance to empty it....

OK! Got it. I sent turn 3 this morning.

Jesus/DAK sent you turn one as Axis - did you get it? cheers Colin

I certainly see hitting the French fast as good - I have done this. But, as others have pointed out, you can get caught by bad weather and actually not take France much more rapidly. I can see this either way. Liam - what would your response be, as Allies, to a slow burn Axis movement West?

Up to a point, Liam. I'm actually a fan of moving West as axis slightly more slowly but making a lot of Tech investments very early (1 in Turn 1, 2 chits in turn 2 with sacrificing rockets etc.). This means you can have a frightening edge post-France but pre-Barbarossa; the critical period.

Jesus - guess we are next. Suggest if you played the same side twice you switch, otherwise choose and if its Axis send turn 1?

Italy was my biggest error - after losing the fleet I should have fortified around Rome. I'm actually not very keen on Engineers for Axis - I think using them is an admission that you are losing the strategic initiative, and the Allies can normally find somewhere else to land. However - in the case of Rome, where a fast KO is possible, I'd make an exception. I did think about redeploying the Italian fighters when I saw his carriers head into Med. but had made a decision not to relent on Russia. Incidentally, I've never seen Italy fight on past losing its capital, nor Germany. Does this mean that the rule we discussed where combat units can delay surrender doesn't work for Axis? Germans got long range air early - this was very useful. Few Allied surprises and very safe (rear area, good supply) but flexible air power in Russia.

It was a great game. K-man’s tenacity and skill, esp. with Naval and air aspects lead to an absorbing match despite his initial setback and bad luck (losing the UK air, along with redeploying his bomber to Malta contributed to the Sealion opportunity). When Russia didn’t surrender, but Italy did, I thought I might lose. Maybe add one thing about Russia: I think K-man had motorization 2. If you are going to do that then you should use it; his units were mostly static and entrenched so he could have well built more motorization 0 infantry and dug them in. I think motorization 2 plus production technology is one counter to Axis air superiority – build fortifications to protect units or hide them in bad terrain then swarm the Germans when Western Allies make their move. He rebuilt his air and spendt points reinforcing it - I wouldn't have bothered. I had 9 air fleets (6 German, 2 Italian, one Balkan)> I really cared about reducing fortifications and breaking up armoured assaults. The 2 rebuilt defenders didn't make much difference - the points were better spent elsewhere. Do a red surge right and you break through to vulnerable units in the rear area and can complete encirclements. But you need lots of units.

Von Manstein leading, and what is now L5 armour doesn't help either. Your air is deadly and numerous but mine is just good enough so it doesn't bite fast enough to decide things. Italy is not such a great place to defend - its good that its narrow for access by your navy to my land units, but its hard to shuffle units in and your ports are now in the South and the air gets to sit in poorly supplied islands. This turn Germans kill one more corps and sink a UK carrier and advance into Italy. General partisan chasing elsewhere and a rather disastrous assault on the new UK garrison.

Meanwhile the Axis get Tigers across the Alps amnd hit the Allies in North Italy. Allied air is formidable but ground forces continue to be fragile and he loses several armies and corps. Think the next turn must see a major withdrawal - his air in Italy is threatened by Axis land forces. Meanwhile Germans chase Partisans, counter the raiding UK corps and create a new partisan problem by taking Yugoslavia..... It flashed up awaful fast but Allies are into diplomacy, previously Sweden, not sure where this hit was. Allies have the problem they have had all game - simply no land forces that can match the German ones. Therefore I choose the staightforwards slugfest in Italy over more subtlwe options. In Italy no Allied armour spotted and the Alps actually helped my attack (made his air less effective). Nice screenshots. Sometimes FOW is good. If I realized how big your forces were I'm not sure I'd have attacked!

UK launch winter raid on Prussian coast and Russian partisans are active. Germany denied passage through Switzerland so take it in the Winter - not too difficult with IW3. We await the Spring.......

Love the weather. If you read accounts of WWII then, like most periods, the outcome was hugely influenced by the conditions. Waiting for a break in the clouds or getting mud during an armoured offensive is just so crucial and it takes a really excellent commander to plan for all eventualities in this respect. I'm less enthusiastic about the development of Stalingrad. On the whole the small games are much less interesting and well tuned than the strategic game. They inevitably lack the options and long term strategic potential. Would rather the effort was kept focussed on the main game. If I want to play a more operational game then the Battles in Normandy engine is far more appropriate to the scale. Let the modders develop the other stuff. How many of us regularly play anything other than 1939 strategic games and strategic mods such as the Third Reich variant? I make an honourable exception for Kunniworth's Waterloo which somehow works brilliantly.

This was the attack I'd have held off with until Spring 1943. As it was I was able to deal with it without changing my plans much. I was already ending the campaign season in Russia. If you had waited until I was moving in on Stalingrad in Spring '43 (and fortified Stalingrad a bit more) you would have given me the dilemma of holding off on Stalingrad for a year or losing Iberia. Now we both have advantages. Its a fascinating game and one which hold's to Terif's Law of "Don't give up too early". The Allies are in a horseshoe around the Axis - great for finding locations to attack but with slow communications - Axis can operate anywhere in their Empire. You should have the latest turn - if it didn't come through OK (I sent it from work which is unusual for me) then say. I'll capture some screenshots - not sure how to display them yet as I don't have a webpage.

Seems logical. K-Man had quite an enclave in the Caucausus, his Navy and a few scattered units in isolated cities such as Leningrad and Murmansk. My guess is that his surrender chance was 40-50% then.

I know thats true for Poland and France which only have one capital. I wasn't aware it was true for UK/Germany/USSR which have fall-back or secondary (or tertiary) capitals.

I'd quite like to have the Russian surrender rules explained (Terif?). I was surprised here too, and then figured I needed to hold all three capitals for x turns so was dismayed when he recaptured. Having said that some uncertaintly here is a GOOD thing IMHO. Anyhow, Germans rebuild with captured Soviet equipment and start taking the train back to the Fatherland...... Interesting to see the reason for the delay K-man faced. I was wondering why he wasn't faster with the Rome attack.

Whew, gripping game. OK, so Germans assemble 9 airfleets and assault the Urals. Russians are dug in but can't withstand that. Germans TAKE last Russian capital and......Russians don't surrender and launch counterattack from Caucausus. They counterattack in Urals and too retake their last Capital!!!! AND he does what has been worrying me for a while - massive land/air/sea assault on Rome - Italy surrenders. BUT Germans counter in Urals, take his last city there and this time Russia DOES surrender! So in a single turn both Italy and Russia exit the game. I very much doubt Western allies can break out of Italy in time to take Berlin and so on before the tired (but victorious) German army returns from the Russian front - but we will see. Nail biter. :cool:

1944 opens fairly quietly. The Allies raid on Denmark was beaten off by German air and Italian paras dropping into Copenhagen to relieve the siege. They are still bombarded by the Navy but are holding out. Meanwhile the Germans make their first air attacks on the Urals for morale purposes and clean up a few Russian cities. The USSR definately has a fragmentation problem - subdividing into small enclaves with the most notable being the Caucausus. Meanwhile British carriers are sighted entering the Med. Western Allies are worryingly quiet. You have the sense of them prparing for a big effort. The Russians certainly hope so....

It seems to me those ports and cities are logical and reflect the choices the Allies had. So, we need another counterbalance here - I'd rather tweak something else to balance. Something like bunkers - fortifications with an intrinsic and fixed manpower? Thats pretty much what existed in the West Wall. The Germans can't affort the Corps to dig in along the whole coast but if it was possible with something like this then the Allies struggle to get a good foothold and can't exploit inland too fast which seems both fair and realistic. Also, do these cities give Germans extra MPP? The ports also might facilitate Sealion.

Its partly tenacity and good planning by K-man. This is coupled with a strong German focus on Russia and a bad decision with my fleet. Having said that, he's doing well with raids, air strikes and MPP drains but has yet to win a major land battle.

Not too much to add. This turn the US corps attacking Copenhagen gets some harrassment from the air and Germans advance towards the Caucausus. I think we can confidently expect some quite serious battles pretty soon.......

western Allies keep on coming - now in Norway and bombarding Copenhagen. impressive.