SOE 1939 (Allies) - Will vs Ash - AAR

[Will95]

Well, here we are again. Hope we aren't cluttering up these forums too much but making these AAR's is not only good fun for us but we're also getting really valuable feedback from you guys reading, so thanks for that.

So, after a relatively short game where I stood in Hitler's shoes, I will now be commanding the Allies, while Ash takes command over the Whermacht- let the games begin!

Each time we've done a campaign, I've tried to add a bit more planning to the mix. I've been reading a lot of AAR's dotted around the place for various SC games and scenarios and planning is everything- this is nothing new (just generally) of course, but SC planning is a little new to me. Last time I had a rough plan compromised by a lack of knowledge of the scenario, but now I have a better idea of what to expect. So....

Aims

1. To invest in anti-sub technology ASAP for the British to fight off raiding on my trade and dissuade Sealion after France.

2. Refit all French armies and position them to slow the Axis advance as much as possible (duh) although with as much British support as I can muster. I figure any casualties inflicted now, even if I take some in return, will pay dividends in the future to weaken or delay Barbarossa.

3. Invest in infantry/armour/air power for the Soviets to fight off Barbarossa.

4. Invest in navy/infantry power for the USA so as to get a handle on the Kriegsmarine and prepare for an assault on the Normandy beaches

Partially, things depend on what Ash decides to do after France- my guess is straight into Barbarossa, as that was the conclusion we came to after a debrief from our last campaign as the best way to go about things. This will mean I move a bunch of British troops to North Africa and set about making gains down there, while the US starts preparing for a European invasion.

So, to turn 1. Poland takes massive losses but the Germans haven't yet reached Warsaw. I expect it to fall next turn so anything extra is just gravy. The French start bringing their troops up to full strength and their navy is mobilized for an attack on the Italian navy. No point showing images at this point, so far so standard invasion of Poland.

[lettowvorbeck]

No worry about clutter. These are just as much fun to read as Tom vs. Bruce and we didn't have to pay for a $13,500 Kickstarter campaign to get it.

[Will95]

Haha cool

Well, into turn 2 and Poland fell. A little early for my taste but we took a few strength points out of the panzers in return for their swift advance. The Brits invested a point into anti-sub warfare and the French prepare for the coming onslaught. The Maginot Line armies are being thinned out to hold the Belgian line.

[Will95]

Turn 3 and we continue to shore up the Belgian line with French forces. With Poland out of the picture (although their destroyers still in active duty) the French leaders now wait with bated breath for the blitzkrieg. The BEF is getting ready for frontline service, and we are attempting to entice Italy into the war by evacuating the French/African holdings so that we can inflict some damage on their navy with the doomed French ships.

[Will95]

The main development this turn was the spotting of Italian transports en route to North Africa. With Italy still not in the war, and the Anglo-French alliance not quite ready to sour US relations by declaring war, we wait for Mussolini's warmongering to lead him into war for us so we can start attacking transports. For now, we blockaded the African/Italian ports in preparation.

[Will95]

Italian transports still on the move, but we're now in December and Hitler has yet to turn his sights to Belgium or the Netherlands- could he be trying to smash his way through the Maginot Line?! At any rate, the French armies are in somewhat of a better position than they were in September. The first elements of the BEF have now landed in France to bolster morale.

[Will95]

Turn 6, and still no sign of the Germans. To give you an idea of the kind of defense prepared for the Panzers when they eventually arrive:

It's not much, but along the line at Lille troops are getting heavily entrenched. There was a slightly bizzare tactical bombing of one of the armies on the Maginot Line which achieved little, but may possible signal an attack straight into the French fortresses- if that is indeed the German plan, it is an unusual one...

We continue to invest into anti-sub warfare for the Brits, and we replaced the dire level 4 HQ with Alexander (7) who promises to bring a little more fight to the table.

[Will95]

The snow is gone, and replaced with rain....but the sounds of the Panzers are no closer to Paris than they were months ago...

However, we reached level 1 anti-sub for the Brits, a major break this early and will really help to clamp down on the damn sub raiders. Italy now joined the Axis and continue to transport their troops to North Africa.

[Will95]

Now into May, and still no sign of the Germans- have they all packed up and gone home? I was almost tempted to invest into research for the French, but came to my sense and instead put their spare MPPs into persuading Iraq to see our side of things. It will no doubt prove useful if Italy launches major offensives in North Africa.

We skirmished with the Italian navy but no major clashes yet....I feel this is the calm before the storm!

[Strategiclayabout]

- Diplomacy on Iraq O_O ? That's a first ! I wonder if it's worth the cost but why not, let's see if you get something out of it .

- I think the Germans have researched silent mode for panzers after finding it worked so well for subs, now panzers advance without a sound .

[Will95]

Well, I basically had about 180 spare MPPs for France and nothing to spend them on- research wouldn't have the time to kick in before Paris is blitzed, new units wouldn't arrive fast enough...I figured why not spend a little on diplomacy? Iraq seemed like a sensible enough choice at the time as they were already at 20% and with what seems to be the entire Italian army in North Africa, I reckon any support I can get down there is worth it.

This turn, I pushed for ANZAC troops to arrive early in Egypt in case of early Italian aggression. Aaaaaaand....

The blitz began! German troops wiped out Belgium, Holland and Luxeumbourg all in one turn

The French and scant British presence quaked in their boots at the sound of the awesome power being fielded by the Germans, and dug a little further into their foxholes...

British air and sea power started hitting Belgian supply ports in what may prove to be a fruitful attempt at slowing the Blitzkrieg, and the first French tanks arrived.

[Strategiclayabout]

Stupid question: I don't see any french anti-tank unit, any in production ?

For spare MPPs, you can always stock them to reinforce/rebuild units later once Germans begin to vaporize your units .

[Will95]

No anti-tank, except the French tanks themselves. Also good point about stocking MPPs!

I was kinda unsure of how to approach the French tbh. I kinda see their vaporization as inevitable, so they just seem like expensive doorstops in the way of the great Reich invasion D:

[Will95]

Well, large chunk of the French armies were destroyed somewhat abruptly. Besides the as-standard molestation of most corps, a combined attack from the British and French forces managed to take out a German special forces unit, a nice win this early on.

We also continue to refit our destroyers and cruisers with the latest in anti-submarine technology, before making the trek over the Atlantic to find those dastardly u-boats causing havoc on the Canadian coast.

[Will95]

Gah, those tanks advance so quickly....

Alexander's HQ was hit badly, and the rest of the British troops have been mustered to defend his retreat. Losing an HQ now would definitely be a blow. As for the French....well, we're leaving them to their doom. Paris is under direct attack but stands for one more turn. The delayed German advance does at least mean that Paris won't fall until August, and the drive towards the capital without stopping to mop up the isolated French troops means less experience for the Axis commanders. Every cloud...

Soviets got a quick hit off of Industrial technology while the US continue to advance in just about every way possible, so there is yet light at the end of the tunnel. Right now the priority is evacuating the BEF + HQ out of the country.

[Will95]

Meh, horrible turn. Lost the HQ and will shortly lose probably the entire expeditionary force. They say the war isn't decided on the western front in 1940, but....

1 HQ down, 1 army about to go down, but 2 corps might make it out...yay.

[Sapare]

Meh, horrible turn. Lost the HQ and will shortly lose probably the entire expeditionary force. They say the war isn't decided on the western front in 1940, but....

1 HQ down, 1 army about to go down, but 2 corps might make it out...yay.

To be hones, No one can really fault you there. I honestly expected that british army/corps to hold their ground. Only smarter thing you could have done was just to use the railway system to operate the HQ to the far west of france after it got hit so badly(if that was possilbe).

[Will95]

Ah yes, didn't think of that. It's a horrific loss for the Brits this early, but at least with things in France dragging on for another turn or two (Bordeaux has become the alternate capital) Barbarossa should be quite delayed. Early anti-sub tech for the British fleet ought to keep Sealion at bay too, but now most spare MPP is going to have to go on rebuilding the BEF.

Also, I looked in my production tab and realised I couldn't rebuild Alexander (I mean I could, but only for full price), any reason for this?

[Will95]

Well, we managed to evacuate 1 corps from the French mainland, with the possibility of getting another out, given the panzers are almost entirely out of supply. The Soviets continue to mobilize, slowly, and we're building up a wall of AT guns...

[Strategiclayabout]

I think it's because Alexander HQ was destroyed after being reduced several steps so its base supply was reduced below the value allowing half-purchase .

So you want AT guns now ? Sorry that was mean .

[Will95]

Hey hey, AT guns for the SOVIETS

bastard...

[Will95]

Well, we managed to evac a second corps from the mainland, leaving us with a grand total of 3 corps and the home guard to defend against a possible invasion....

On the plus side, we did heavy damage to a cruiser in the North Atlantic, and continue to make technological advances with the Brits and Americans with advanced aircraft and infrastructure respectively.

[Will95]

We are now into an interesting naval-based phase of the war. We chased the damaged cruiser to the Axis base in Iceland and continued to shell the docks. Elsewhere, our ships flood the channel to keep an eye out for any untoward activity that might suggest Sealion.

We continue to pump research chits into the Soviets and Americans, the former of which should soon be reaching new levels of infantry and armour superiority. When Barbarossa begins, whenever that may be, we hope to take a stand at Brest-Litovsk before falling back to fortifications at Minsk- engineers are working on the barricades now.

[Will95]

The last couple of turns have been pretty dry combat wise, but crucial for technology. I'll post my tech screens for the US, Brits and Soviets next turn to show you the advancements being made- but sufficed to say, we are steaming ahead with Intelligence across the board, although the tech gods have yet to grant us a hit with infantry or tanks for the Soviets, which they sorely need as we head into the closing months of 1940.

The Germans span their globe and pointed at Yugoslavia, which is currently being conquered, and Hungary has joined the Axis (Churchill wiped the sweat from his brow, London is safe for now). I expect the next few turns to be a fairly standard blitz of the Axis minors over the winter and early spring of 1941, before Barbarossa begins in earnest as soon as the good weather arrives.

This turn also saw some Canadian bombers being operated over to the UK, and their job for the forseeable future will be the focused and consistent bombing of key Axis targets in Germany.

In Egypt, we are mounting for an offensive on Torbuk now that we have hit a new level of artillery tech, and the British tanks have arrived, although to ensure that the nasty Nazi's don't arrive, we will wait for Barbarossa to mount the offensive in full.

All in all, a crucial 'build-up' stage from now until the war season of 1941. Soviets are pretty much maxed out on tech right now, so we will focus on building up our armies, AT weapons and anti-air.

[Will95]

To give you guys something to look at while we wait for the USSR to get taken over a barrel in about 8 months time, here are the tech screens for the allies so far, with a bit of reasoning given behind the choices...

UK

Attentions for the cash-strapped UK are turned squarely at the two areas they excel at; bombing stuff and killing stuff at sea. The powerful part of the German navy lies in its u-boats, and good investment into anti-sub tech is a core part of my strategy to keep raiders off my trading lines (so far, quite successfully- haven't had a single raid in months). Other investments go into industry (duh) and heavy bombing, which paid off this turn and rewarded us with level 1 heavy bombers- crucial for hammering the hun's economy while he's busy in Russia!

USA

The USA is even more abstract- their infantry based intervention is probably another year away at minimum, and even then their target will likely only be the relatively low-tech Italians. Therefore, we are pushing for more industry as a long term investment to power the expensive but powerful troops that we will start producing in '42-'45 and into Intelligence so as to keep the Germans from getting too much of a hand over the Soviets too early (indirectly forcing them to invest in Intel themselves to keep pace).

USSR

The Soviets are going to be in direct combat in less than a year, so all attentions are turned into the purely practical elements of war- Infantry and Tanks. We started off with an Intel chit that paid off at the end of this turn and Industry is, of course, always useful. We've been unlucky so far in that our Infantry tech has yet to kick in, and between now and '41 our MPP use is being turned more and more away from tech and into raw manpower. We expect the Germans to be at level 2 by the time they invade, so we need to have at a bare minimum level 1 if we're going to avoid too many casualties too early.

The defenses at Minsk should be completed by early next year, at which point we will start reinforcing other frontline cities. Fun times ahead!