Colin I

WEST Really calm before the storm - its very quiet. EAST Japanese force themselves Westwards into the remains of China. It'll get more interesting soon, honest..........

Nice idea - suggest following modifications: UPPER CASE 1) Campaign World at war, alternative Nupremal’s World or World in Flames. IF PLAYERS CANNOT AGREE DEFAULT TO GC WORLD AT WAR. 2) Playing time up to max. 150 turns, Player wins when victory conditions reached in time. 3) Every round has to be finished in 90 days. If not 90 days either 150 turns, side wins that have 50% more income as opponent at this time. Otherwise it is a draw. (Example: Allie 1200 mpp vs. Axis 800). SURELY THIS FAVOURS THE ALLIES - EVEN IF AXIS IS DOING GREAT IT IS HARD WORK EXCEEDING ALLIED MPP. BUT I DO NOT THINK YOU CAN ALLOW A DRAW IN KO PHASE - NEED A DECISIVE RESULT FROM ALL GAMES.

WEST Germans drift towards Russian border. Germans DOW Vichy France which is taken. A lot of bad weather rather slows the action over the UK. EAST Chinese must really wish they had built another of those nice high walls across the country. Japanese continue to head West with some ferocity.

WEST Really strangely quiet. British are steamrollering North Africa though. EAST Snow in China - fight slows down predictably. Curiously, China choses this moment to unveil fighters and Flying Tigers. Both units are shot down by elite Zeros. Japanese general has a chance to think about suicidal air attacks. "Hmm, maybe lousy against infantry but great against ships". Thus the concept emerges - like other things the Chinese think of it first but the Japanese intend to perfect the idea......

WEST To mark the year, UK invade Iceland and keep going in North Africa, starting to look dangerous. Axis are kind of quiet. EAST Lanchow falls thanks to some decent weather, air power and some monstrously experienced Japanese units.

WEST Rain stops most activity. British take Tobruk very efficiently, though. EAST Bad weather in China too. Japanese start to indulge in Strategic Bombing deep into China.

WEST Port au Prince looted. The Axis unit was getting a bit seasick waiting for the port to be repaired and the Australians to go away. Usual bombing, raiding our side and RN trains by bombarding Iceland. EAST Indochina taken. Gosh, there are a lot of Chinese corps in Western China - Japanese rearm and inch forwards.

Interesting perspective on who won the Naval war. I lost 5 squadrons - 2 subs and 3 cruisers. He lost a cruiser and 2 carriers. Its quantity vs quality but I'm very glad he can't group all his carriers, the leverage is formidable. WEST Greece falls to the transport-krieg - the port of Athens falls, the city is cleared and its taken via sea transport. Meanwhile the italians discover all those reverse gears work on their ships too and back off, though not before torpedoing the Greek cruiser. Two Balkans allies, impressed by the carve up of Greece and Yugoslavia, join the Axis. More Blitz over London. More sub raiding. EAST ChungKing falls. Lots of corps crowding Eastern China. Indochina joins the Allies.

WEST Its Greece next, Germany fights its way down South from Yugoslavia. Meanwhile the RN bombard Iceland and the Australians Navy hit Port au Prince (would never have predicted that!) and the Luftwaffe hit the UK. Some signs of UK ground and air activity in North Africa. Now, I reckon I know where his fleet is, especially the carrier, its a long way away. So send the Italian navy in to bombard. They mostly miss by a mile though a NZ corps seems to get hit particularly hard. EAST Japanese keep steadily crunching through China like a silkworm on a leaf.

WEST British do not pursue fleeing sub but head off to bombard Iceland. Fort of France is also getting some attention in this respect. UK is fortifying but Axis are bombing it from Norway and France. EAST More Japanese pressure destroying a fortification and starting to isolate capital of China. He manages a nice counterattack (Japanese lead unit outran HQ support) but thats now fixed and the targeted unit survived. Partisan trouble though near Hong Kong.

WEST Yugoslavia is finished off. In the North Sea the RN hunts down two subs. However, Axis air from Norway helps sink a cruiser that is part of the force confining the remaining L2 sub - this gives it a path clear and it leaves, post haste. London is rubble from bombing. Convoy raiding continues. EAST A Chinese engineer dies and the Japanese land units start to surround the capital. A partisan is killed near Hong Kong.

Agreed - too much unhistorical balancing in this and other aspects.

WEST Air Sea battle in the North Sea continues. UK has around 10 ships there supported by a bomber. The Axis only a bunch of subs plus some air from Norway but with good weather it is enough to sink a second carrier. I reckon he will take out at least 2 of the subs next turn, but figure it was worth it. Also, London is bombed and there is raiding elsewhere. Meanwhile Germany attacks Yugoslavia, upsetting Turkey. EAST Naning falls. The oil is about to run out, lets see if Japan has invested wisely. In the North of China it rains and not much happens.

Was not sure how close Bob's other carrier was but guess I will take a carrier and a cruiser in exchange for three cruisers (one strength 5) if thats where it ends. It might not, will not know until next week - the weather will be critical.

I would suggest very few changes to war engine but a major overhall to the political (and by extension) diplomatic model. Plus allow players to automate a few tasks (long ranged sea transport springs to mind) to reduce micromanagement.

WEST London is bombed for 10 MPP. British air force is holding London but does not sortie - makes you wonder where his ground forces are. RN moves to bombard Bergen - however I guess rest of his navy is returning from Bordeaux as there are not really escorts deployed. Meanwhile the German U-boats (one L2) are returning to Norway so cruise up behind this ensemble get a couple of free shots on a carrier and sink it. Encouraged, the Kriegsmarine sallies from Kiel and kills another cruiser. EAST Chansha is taken, Naning is seriously reduced.

WEST Continuing flight off Bordeaux - Germans hit another UK battleship quite hard from the air. Land troops take Bordeaux from the Canadians. Paratroops take Norway. A little sub raiding in the Atlantic. UK is in rain so little air action. EAST Chinese HQ destroyed and two land units (including one in Chansha) badly damaged. The Japanese are through to the central plains now. As Bob says its strategy that matters - its why the game holds attention like it does.

WEST UK refuses to accept Vichy France. The UK still has forces in France and Axis air spots some lurking battleships - Jollyguy is plainly planning on making a fighting withdrawal. As I said last time this is a tactic which veterans will remember from the SC1 and 2 days. We bomb a battleship to give him some incentive here. EAST Japanese mount a huge assault on Changsha but it holds - though it did start at Entrenchment 4 so we had to start somewhere. However, we continue to force our way through the centre, after flanking it last turn Sian is taken.

WEST France finally throws in the towel though UK have a corps in Brest (an "old school" move, that!) and Denmark in annexed (I would have taken it but weather was too lousy). EAST Japan continues to move, takes another city (Foochow?) and shows long ranged air on the carriers to hit deep into China.

French attack from Paris. the city falls to the German counterattack but the French hang in there. Elsewhere the Graf Spee survives multiple British cruiser attacks but next round it is dead. The colonies send Anzacs and South Africans to Egypt. Japan keeps the pressure up on China.

Might as well start another AAR so we can contrast how Jollyguy destroys both Rambo and myself.....! Axis do a fast takedown of Poland (Turn 1), Belgium (Axis Turn 3) and advancing into France by November 1939. The Allies then throws a corps in front of Paris, which has entrenched armour, as the weather turns bad. The Blitzkrieg slows – I’m more cautious than Rambo (not enough Legend….!) but it was a textbook opening. The Axis pause in France to upgrade their armour, operate some air forwards (its too bad weather to rebase normally) and grind laterally along the Maginot line to reduce his counter-attack potential. Meanwhile the Japanese upgrade their long-range carrier planes and hit Central China – he loses 3 armies and a corps – no big deal, he will get it back – but also a city (think it was Chenchou) and a fortification which may matter more. Chinese seem to be falling back. This is a battle of slow advances, isolating a single entrenched unit and then removing it – rather like forming an eye in Go, surrounding a unit on enough sides to isolate and destroy it. Various despots get interested. Mussolini is motivated by something going on in the Med but won’t say what – we figure it's the French moving colonial units back to France but cannot be sure. Stalin notices some careless deployments from Manchuria – silly man – he should look towards Germany for the real threat even if he did just partition Poland with Hitler. I think India declared for the UK. Allied strategy is not yet clear – he in bombing the Norwegian convoys in the West and has vessels out sub hunting. A French sub probes Kiel. Going by the high troop strength in France I think I can confirm he has stripped the French Colonies for manpower. But pretty much all I’m seeing is French forces – the British are not clear in their intentions. By January 1940 the cat and mouse game at Sea is picking up intensity - Graf Spee and a L1 sub are found but currently still afloat and the French are raiding Norwegian convoys. In France, the Germans show L1 armour and systematically clear the way to Paris. We took this one slow after seeing what happened to Rambo who went in hard and fast. But its a steady destruction generally killing 2 French units a turn despite the weather. Also in January, Italy declares for the Axis.

Jollyguy - OK will play. Not sure I still have your email but will PM mine. I'm assuming patch is 1.03? It will be quite like old times.......

Hmm, nice to see the old timers returning. Any of them want a game, I might be persuaded.......

I'm enjoying this one - some nice asymmetry and differences from the games I've played. Would appreciate mentioning the date.

Love this AAR - especially the newspaper.