Colin I

WEST His navy continues into the Med and takes Vichy Algeria. American transports head for Suez. Some partisan control in Western Russia. Tunisia declare for the Axis. MIDDLE EAST Squeeze continues with Russian army and corps destroyed by Tigers. One UK Allied corps also destroyed. Japanese carriers harass British HQ. EAST Japanese run riot. I think his whole fleet is in the Med so there are few limits. Also, several more Soviet cities fall including Vladivostok. I think JG might save Suez but bear in mind its taking massive resources to do this and the Japanese really only have any opposition in India as a result of the US carriers floating West.

General JollyGuyovitch's command vehicle was snowbound so no turn yet. Basically Japanese and Germans try to carve up Russia and Middle East before the US gets land forces into play. Have to say, Japanese long range strategic bombing into Russia is deadly in terms of disrupting communications. More to come....

WEST Allies continue to invade the Med in some force. MIDDLE EAST Turkish army killed but Russian paratroopers are destroyed. Germans reinforce their Tigers and grind South in the Caucausus. Japanese bomb into this region and attack Allied air force which is present in Western India in some force - think their supply cannot be that good though. EAST Japanese take 2 Soviet cities and are now eyeballing British troops in India.

I believe the slogan in WWI was "It will be all over by Christmas" without defining which Christmas. Similarly, I'm sure WWI SC will be released by Christmas, not sure which one..... :-) I've mixed feelings here - looks a good attempt at the period with building reserves and shell stocks secretly. But fundamentally, WWI was not the war of lighting advances WWII was at times, so it will not be as dynamic for game play. There was a rather good WWI mod a few years ago for SC which might be worth a look as a template.

No, the lead IJN battleship is just South of Suez. Poor grammar on my part. Does lead to interesting potential Naval conflict around the Med.....

WEST We brace for Allied invasion of Med. He is coming faster than I expected, but hopefully not fast enough..... MIDDLE EAST Major conflict as the Axis squeeze the Caucasus from Turkey, Iraq and Russia. Two Russian armour, a fighter, an army and a corps plus a British armoured unit are eliminated - mostly by TAC air and Tiger tanks. Italian and Japanese navies bombard in the Black Sea and also around Egypt and southern Iraq. In Russia, Sevastopol, Maikop and Vologda fall to the Germans. EAST Japan advances on Russian and British Indian possessions and contribute strategic bombing to Russian misery.

WEST He kills the last subs and Allied carriers start to attack Fortress Europe. MIDDLE EAST Axis attack into Iraq and Caucasus killing armour, HQ and 2 corps with a combined arms approach. Axis troops land in Syria to reinforce this effort. Japanese join in, taking a southern Soviet city. Benghazi falls to the Italians and Malta is finally taken by a German corps. JG is hardly passive here, a Soviet paratrooper takes Iran and his armour destroy an Axis paratrooper. He stops trying to defend the river line around Rostov. Meanwhile Italian and Japanese navies conspire to isolate the area. EAST Japan advances in India. UK has accumulated a lot of forces around Delhi but is not very active elsewhere in the sub-continent - I'd suspect MPP limitations. Ceylon falls to the Japanese. Apart from the incursion into Russia mentioned above, a second Japanese attack near Mongolia is rather ineffective.

WEST Kriegsmarine is sinking fast. MIDDLE EAST Need a new category. Broadly the USSR and UK are in the Caucasus, Eastern Turkey, Iraq, Egypt. Axis are in Syria, most of Turkey, Cyprus, Tobruk, Libya and strongly in Russia north of Rostov. furthermore the Italian Navy has the Med and Japanese Navy the Arabian Sea. The Japanese army has China SE of the Middle East. Basically, the Middle East is strongly Allied but encircled on a global scale. Axis chips away here - killing a W. Allied corps in Iraq and in Russia heading South from Stalingrad, stripping away defending corps. Italian navy sinks Russian Black Sea fleet. This is a huge encirclement, his Navy can break it but I'm not sure it will arrive in time before the Anglo-Russian force is really quite stressed. The Russians have combat power but not manoeuverability, the British have air strength but not much punch on the ground. EAST Japanese run riot in India, British accumulate their forces around Delhi. Rest is quiet.

WEST He hits the Kriegsmarine hard around the UK. We try to flee, sinking a couple of minor ships but it was always the case that wherever he deployed the RN it was going to smite like the Hammer of God. A lot of submariners went under for the last time. Turkey may be a stalemate but we see opportunities in the Middle East - bombing the Suez canal to disrupt convoys and, finding Tobruk to be empty, landing an Italian corps (en route for Malta) and retaking the place. The weather rather channels the Germans in Russia. Stalingrad is subjected to a massive air and armour assault and falls. Russians could use motorization about now, to be faster on the counterattack. The Russian engineer, an unlucky unit, gets in the way of an armoured assault for the second time. EAST Japan advances into India and shuts down convoys to the UK.

WEST Situation is reaching boiling point in the Middle East. The UK and Russia have moved in on Turkey en masse. But the Germans aren't fazed, they do not blink in the face of a potential onslaught. In fact, that old-blitzkrieg-spirit is still alive and Syria is liberated by paradrop with heavy TAC support. REALLY hope its bad weather there next turn - spot even more UK and US air power in the region as the turn goes on. I'm hoping the mountains take a lot of the sting out of his attack. Rest of Russia thaws and the Germans take Verozneh and are now adjacent to Moscow. We bomb his front line down South and bombard the coast of Turkey with the Italian navy. UK is still swarmed by U-boats. EAST Japan takes Burma and Hong Kong. There is serious strategic and carrier bombing of India. It turns out Japan is at War with Russia. When did that happen, neither of us DOWed? I guess triggered by US war entry? Not sure. Anyhow, we steal that isolated island city in the far North from Russia with a sea landing. Hmm. JG seems to be concentrating in a few key locations and letting others go to hell - the other interesting point is where the Western Navy is. I think I can guess - there aren't that many possibilities. The UK has to be hurting, USA must be huge and Russia doing not so bad.

WEST Lots of bad weather slows Russian and Turkish conflicts. Anglo-Russian force take the Eastern Turkish city. Axis retaliate by attacking the Russian fleet and killing the UK army. A big fight is building here. Germans mostly chase partisans in Russia. UK still surrounded by U-boats. EAST Japanese advance towards India supported by long range air. Japanese amphibious units retreats from Wage Island which the US garrisoned. Overall a quiet turn - in part due to weather and Japanese recovering from China. Its March not Feb btw - not sure how to edit the title.

Was discussing with JG - sometimes scripts really cause reinforcements to show up at the wrong time. As this is often in situations where there would be some control over deployment suggest the following: Scripted reinforcements come with a 2 option DE. Accept reinforcements now vs delay. If you pick delay they are delayed a random 1 to 10 turns then arrive for sure. Gives some choice but not complete control.

WEST U boats swarm UK coast and kill a carrier being launched. It looks like JG has routed his Indian builds to the UK. This makes me think his main fleet is heading to the Far East or the Middle East. UK corps in Malta killed by TAC. Axis forces in Turkey menace the British, hitting the WDF with armour. Russia still frozen, but action soon. EAST China gives in. Burma garrison destroyed by carriers. Lots of bombing into India. Hong Kong garrison destroyed.

Ooops - I mean January 1942

WEST Kriegsmarine continue to swarm around the UK and it looks like he has shut down his convoys. Axis air (with Italian navy) concentrate on reducing Malta. Britain moves on Turkey from Syria but Germans reinforce their new allies and bomb UK special forces who look to be trying an amphibious assault in the Eastern Med. German engineers fortify Paris. Russia is frozen solid. EAST Probably China surrenders next turn. Malaysia and Philippines surrender and East Timor is annexed. A US cruiser sells itself dear. Japan cuts the Burma road and takes Mandalay and starts to bomb British India. Japan spots a US sub off New Guinea but it dives. Dutch navy either flees or is sunk. Lets see what the US intends.....

Bear in mind JG beat me repeatedly in SC2 and he is ahead in wins overall. I had the advantage of playing WaW and PTO so got used to the new stuff slowly. Thanks for the game, JG and I doubt I repeat this. I'm curious as to one point - where was the UK fleet towards the end of 1941? I had it spotted off Iberia earlier, and figured that it was heading back to the UK. This made my move to blockade risky but I thought it had to be done now, given Japan was about to trigger US entry. GC is an excellent game with a gradual build towards total conflict and a full range of strategies. Particularly like that Germany does not have to cripple Barbarossa to pursue an effective war of the Atlantic. There are quite some interesting strategies to be revealed. Would ask a few changes from Hubert. One is that amphibious assaults against an occupied tile should be far more bloody - basically you either get ashore or are mauled trying - its do or die. Right now, neither side takes much damage.

WEST Kriegsmarine swarm UK home waters despite defending bombers from UK and Iceland. Turkey joins Axis. EAST Japan takes East Indies, New Guinea, Solomons, Brunei and Thailand. Lands in Malaysia and Philippines but no take out. Most goes smoothly but Philippines is botched (no HQ and rain kills air support and paras from Formosa). Last Chinese HQ killed from the air. There was no Pearl Harbour - he had obviously been shifting his fleet. Carriers were used to ensure the big prize, Dutch East Indies, fell.

WEST Encouraged by the lack of opposition the U-boats try and shut down Allied convoys by blockading the UK. If his fleet is within striking distance this is a mistake - last I spotted it was off Iberia but have lost track. If its not too close might manage to reduce the ports. Russia - more bad weather - doubt there is much action until next year. EAST China goes slow. No Pearl Harbor yet.

Quiet turn, in part due to rotten weather in Russia and at Sea. WEST U-boats encounter Russian navy around Iceland. Guess he is probing the Kriegsmarine using expendable units. There are a lot of subs at sea - am expecting big Allied response soon. Allies knock over Iraq but Turkey quite irritated and shifts to Axis. Finns batter Leningrad. Snow comes early - combined with mud shuts down the action in Russia. EAST Very quiet rather ineffectual turn.

WEST Portugal falls. Massive sub raiding. In Russia, Soviets mass heavy armour in the South and kill a German army in counterattack. Germans back off Rostov and secure Kharkov for the winter. We could push to the historical extent of the Axis advance but I think the result would also be historical. The Finns are angry at the Russian threat to their homeland and start to pound on Leningrad with German air support. Germans deliver weapons to the Finns, stoking the fire. EAST Japanese kill more Chinese corps and occupy some mines in West China. Elsewhere, Japanese labour to create a world beating fighting machine under conditions of oil limitation. this cannot be endured....!

WEST UK DoWs and takes Syria. Axis takes Gibraltar and DoW Portugal. Lots of U-boat raiding. Soviets back off Finland which is reinforced by the Axis. U-boat finishes the Soviet Baltic fleet. Smolensk falls and panzers range around the place looking for targets. This includes a low grade HQ around Stalingrad. He has 3 L3 armour now distributed fairly evenly. Axis have 6 L2. One panzer gets out of supply but is resued. Basically, Soviets are hurting but far from finished. I'd expect a few more cities to fall before the big freeze. EAST Japan takes another city and are one tile from the last Chinese city.

WEST Allies catch and kill the Axis sub and destroyer in a nicely executed envelopment. But the Axis are reducing Gibraltar fast. Russia is the real action - lead panzers are close to Smolensk, Moscow, Kharkov and Rostov. A Russian paratroop unit is caught in the open and killed plus a couple of corps. Meanwhile, he is lining up on Finland with formidable heavy armour (L3). The Finns have foolishly just entered the game. A German sub hits the Russian Baltic fleet. Its an interesting problem - Jollyguy can certainly take the Finns - he has the firepower. Hopefully his lack of motorization will help the Finns a bit in the forests but they cannot win. However, meanwhile, the damage the Axis will do elsewhere is extremely large - given there are still a few turns of good weather and there is little opposition. The panzers have little to fear and can let rip..... EAST US cuts off oil. More action in China.

WEST Spain falls to the Axis. It seems like there is a British naval presence off the Iberial coast - Axis sub clashes with a British battleship and the Italian destroyer contacts its British counterpart. Italian battleship shells Gibraltar harbour. In Russia, lead armoured formations drive on Smolensk and Rostov. In the vicinity of latter, the Russian engineer is overun before it can dig in. Neither Rostov nor Smolensk have been assaulted but it looks possible next turn and its becoming important where the Russian reserves are being held. Kiev falls. Russian Black Sea fleet tries to slow down the German advance. US continues naval movement against the advice of some members of Congress. EAST Japan has China on the ropes - a Chinese HQ and a combat unit is destroyed. OTHER Peru declares for the Axis.

WEST Barbarossa – Odessa, Minsk, Riga fall. At Kiev, defending corps destroyed but unoccupied. German L2 armour moves forwards towards Smolensk. His forwards defense is not very strong. I suspect the Soviets may try something aggressive elsewhere such as Finland or most likely (given UK focus) Middle East. Axis at the gates of Madrid. No sign of Allied intervention - I'm convinced there is a UK counter operation building...... Usual sub raiding - UK navy is quite quiet which is always worrying..... ELSEWHERE UK – takes Mogadishu and Fort of France amphibious assaults US Isolationists upset - but not very. EAST Japan kills a Chinese army with some long ranged air support. He is retreating towards his final capital.

WEST Axis starts to move. DOW Spain - major ground, air and sea assault killing a Franco corps, army, HQ and cruiser. The smaller size of "major minors" that have good defensive terrain and troops (e.g. Spain, Turkey) are rather more vulnerable under GC - less mountains to hack through to reach their capitals. At sea submarine raiding starts again. US is starting to get concerned (55%) and seems to be shifting troops (by sea?). EAST China continues to fade. We can't be far from the big bang East and West.