Terif Posted December 18, 2004 Share Posted December 18, 2004 Here the next set of games in mirror mode. We played with bid 275 in 1:5:30 (i.e. 275 mpps UK, 1375 USA, 8250 Russia). First game Dragonheart was Allies. Second game will start next week. DOW+Landing rule+AA rule. Briefing: - no breakthrough in Poland, LC surrendered turn 2, Denmark and Poland turn 3. - Allies used a corps defence for France to save mpps for an operation in the eastern Med. France fell June 30, 1940 after Paris survived the turn before at str 1. Several units escaped. - After France Malta AF battled with the german Luftwaffe in Sicily to be able to spot the invasion fleet for Algier. Malta AF survived air and naval bombardment at str 1. Axis hurried to conquer Vichy so the UK carriers could not arrive in time to interfere the invasion, so only UK battleships and cruisers attacked the italian transports near Algier, sunk a corps tp and damaged an army tp heavily – nevertheless Algier fell in axis hands. The next turn Allies moved aggressively towards Sicily, destroyed the italian sub and the damaged army near Algier but lost also a battleship to the german air. - Egypt: Allies sent strong reinforcements (the survivors of France...) to their colony: 3 AFs, Wavel HQ, half a dozen corps and also a cruiser. Fortunately they missed the opportunity to occupy Beirut since Axis conquered Vichy one turn earlier than expected. Italian battleships sunk the UK cruiser near Suez, an italian corps protected Beirut. After the UK air showed up, Germany immediately sent HQ + 4 AFs to help the italians. They came in time to save Beirut from falling and after some heavy battles and the loss of Alexandria, Allies had no choice than to disband their HQ and to sent their 3 AFs back to England. - After this everything went as usual: Skandinavia, Hungary + Romania joined March 16, 1941, Spain, preparing for Barbarossa. After the expensive losses in Egypt, Allies were not able to fight any more before Barbarossa and concentrated on research, same as Axis. Unfortunately Allies were more successful: until Barbarossa they developed Jets 1 and LR 2. Germany catched up in LR, but not in jets. - Barbarossa started February 8, 1942: A strong axis armada was standing at the border...units worth around 15.000 mpps entered Russia and destroyed everything in range. Only one AF escaped the slaughter. - Russia bought 5 additional AFs and lots of tanks/armies to counter the german invaders. So there were heavy battles in middle Russia and in Finland which had been attacked by Russia, but not as costly as in the last game. Since Russia concentrated its strong pieces and the AFs in the north, Axis started an offensive in the south, conquering Sevastopol and the mines near Rostov. - Tech area: After Barbarossa german scientists researched LR like crazy (reached level 4 with only 3 chits and no catch-up..), but neglected jets totally, not even executions and the threat of beeing thrown in gulags if they would not change priorities helped . The few allied scientists in contrary fully concentrated on jets: Russia developed lv 1 after 2 turns, USA lv 2. Some turns later Germany finally reached jets 1, but this was the signal for UK to develope lv 3 and Russia level 2...Germany needed until March 1943 (!) to reach jets lv 2 , but USA already developed lv 4 some turns ago (with 2 chits and no catch-up). Near the end when the war was already nearly over, Germany finally reached jets 3. After the war, the german scientists were executed as saboteurs and war criminals – they had 4 chits in Jets until some turns before Barbarossa and then even 5 chits + catch-up bonus (usually 2-3 levels behind) i.e. 35-40% chance each turn for the next level and this for nearly 2 years ! - West: D-day started shortly after Barbarossa. Due to the US jet advantage (lv 2 vs 0) Germany had to withdraw its air from France and fully concentrated on Russia (lv 1 jets vs 0, but only 6 russian AFs vs 11 german ones) while using a corps defence in France. Since western Allies invested most mpps into AFs (4 UK air, 3 US) and had not enough ground units, they were not able to gain ground in France for a long time, only to kill some corps each turn. - To disturb the allied offensive in France, the axis med fleet started an invasion of USA. Italian fleet bombarding US units near Washington, transport at the coast...in the following naval battle the italian commander underestimated the allied presence in the area: all 4 italian ships lost, only 2 UK ships sunk in return. This opened Allies the way into the Med and in the following months ships were bombarding Portugal, Gibraltar, Algier and Malta. Transports screening the Med for open cities – Axis had to divert a lot of mpps to protect them all with corps. - Allies built a lot of corps and sent them on commando missions to land and cut axis supply. One corps died near Oslo after it captured the mine, some in Denmark, 1 LC, 1 NE France and 2 in Algeria. End of 1942 finally ground reinforcements arrived for the front in France and Allies were able to liberate Bordeaux and Paris around christmas 1942. - In the meantime Axis had thrown Russia back to Caucasus and Ural, Stalingrad and Moskov conquered, Caucasus cut off, siberians arrived and mostly destroyed. Due to the strong russian air (7 AFs with siberians, jets 2 vs 1), many german armies got lost when they tried to cross the river NE of Moskov. Nevertheless in the end the last russian defenders had to capitulate. Russia surrendered July 4, 1943 (the new german independence day ). - Until the russian capitulation, Allies were pretty successful in the west, Liberated whole France except Marseille, turned immediately east, occupied LC, conquered Hamburg, Cologne and Essen. - When the axis veterans from Russia arrived, a heavy but short battle started. Within 2 months Axis reconquered 2 of the german cities and the mine + SW France including Bordeaux, killed most of the US armies and depleted the allied mpp stock. Axis lost many many tanks and armies in the process, but a nearly endless flood of them operated from the russian battlefields back to western Germany . When the allied carriers were not able any more for battles, Allies surrendered the turn after August 29, 1943. Total losses: Allies: 136 units Axis: 101 units Known techs at the end: Germany: LR 4, Jets 3, IT 2, AT 1 UK: LR 2, Jets 3 USA: Jets 4, AT 1 Russia: Jets 2, AT 1 [ December 28, 2004, 04:52 PM: Message edited by: Terif ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonheart Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Yep nothing more to add here..this time i started with allied and got slaughtered again but the difference this time is that i face a huge bid for allies in my upcoming axis game. Will be a tough thing to win ag my master with 275 Bid (1:5:30) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_j_rambo Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 @DH --- Dude, Terif is your master? Lol Finally, the truth is out of the bag, we will battle in the future, after my vacation. @Terif --- Nice AAR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonheart Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Hehe as many ppl are calling me clone ---> many tks to you ....and Terif is called Yoda ...then this is the only solution. Concerning the game if have something to add. I had no chance for a surprise or a hidden tactic with russia....Terif was flying near the border and the hole map was visible for him. LR is really a bad ass tech...it is not that dangerous like AA, but it can also drain some fun as its like playing without FOW. Maybe we all should consider also a restriction in LR with Limit 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terif Posted December 19, 2004 Author Share Posted December 19, 2004 Yep - could be a useful restriction to have a game with more surprises and without the air beeing able to reach everything . If you want we can use this restriction to lv 2 LR in our future games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desaix Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Maybe a "No LR" tech rule can be used in the same way "no AA" was implemented... Desaix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terif Posted December 29, 2004 Author Share Posted December 29, 2004 2nd game – Dragonheart Axis: Briefing: - Dragonheart prefers to go through northern Poland and to operate Rundstedt west, so Poland is able to build a better defence line and surrendered a bit later in turn 4, Denmark T 3, LC T 2. - surprising move with the atlantic subs: Ireland corps moved to spot a british carrier, one sub got stoped by a cruiser, the other one damaged the carrier. The whole allied navy took revenge and immediately sunk both subs as retaliation. - Since Axis abandoned Ireland to spot the carrier, Ireland surrendered the next turn. - Allies had now a lot of (irish-) mpps and decided to go for a strong french defence this time: french and UK HQ built, heavy battles in France. Since Dragonheart knows how to counter a double HQ defence in France this was no problem for Axis and France fell end of June 1940, nevertheless Germany lost 2 tanks and 3 corps. Allies evacuated french HQ and 9 corps – all french armies had to die for their country . - mid game: no remarkable battles, the usual minors + Egypt conquered, all 3 minors joined early, Spain attacked March 1941. Yugoslavia late, only a few turns before Barbarossa. - Tech side: Allies had very lazy scientists, in August 1941 they catched up in LR (lv1) – their first tech advance at all – Germany already at lv 2 jets, UK researching jets with 5 chits...when Barbarossa started November 16, 1941, UK still had to fight with lv 0 jets vs lv 3 german jets !! Therefore western Allies had to delay D-day to first catch up a bit in jets... In April 1941 UK finally got jets 1, USA jets 2, June 41 UK jets 2. - So the first D-day started in July 1941 – Allies still in the disadvantage with now jets 2, LR 1 both USA and UK vs lv 3 german jets with LR 2. But they had no choice than to open a second front now to give Russia a necessary relief. - East: all border armies, both tanks, cruiser and an AF killed in the first strike in November 1941. Until Allies started D-day 1 Axis conquered Riga, Minsk, Kiev + Odessa, standing 2 hexes in front of Leningrad. - In the south/Middle East it looked better for Allies: Turkey got invaded immediately after Barbarossa. Axis decided to defend the turkish capital this time and operated units in – this weakened the defence of the Middle east, so Iraq and Beirut fell very fast (June 1942), 8 axis armies/corps + 4 turkish ones killed in the Blitzkrieg-style battles . An italian battleship got sunk in the Black Sea near Turkey, russian cruiser also lost. - Second half of 1942: 5 of the 9 german airfleets were busy in Turkey/Egypt when Allies invaded France, 4 in northern Russia. Russia got lv 2 jets in the meantime (4 chits) and therefore was able to stay in Iraq and fight with its 4 AFs against the 5 german jet lv3 ones. In August 1942 Germany got jets 4, USA+UK+Russia fortunately got just in time nearly simultaneously jets 3 after the german advance – due to Germany beeing ahead in jets (up to 3 levels...) + LR during the whole game, Axis already gained a huge advantage and was way ahead in units – the successful Middle East campaign changed at least the mpp situation in favour of Allies. Italy already researched AT 2, now Russia catched up to AT 1, Germany AT 1, HT 2. August/September 1942 important battles took place: - Leningrad lost, Finland joined Axis - Western Allies liberated LC, Brest, Bordeaux, french mine and cut off Spain near Marseilles - a last huge naval battle near Portugal takes place: the last 2 italian battleships destroyed, sub sunk, USA looses one battleship. The last surviving italian ship (cruiser) bombards russian forces near Sevastopol. - Germany operates half a dozen tanks (lv 2) and armies to the area around Marseilles/Spain. Heavy battles at the spanish border: Allies several times cut off the axis supply, axis forces reestablish it – british carriers can only occasionally take part in the battles since they lack the necessary LR, so finally Allies have to retreat from Marseilles and establish a defence line Bordeaux-Switzerland-LC. Winter42/Spring 43: - Germany moves all 9 AFs to Italy and strong ground forces including many armies/tanks. Axis units stay out of range of the carriers, so the 8 allied AFs (inferior in tech, lv 3 jets vs 4, LR 1 vs 2) have to fight alone and loose air superiority in a few large airbattles. Several US armies get destroyed – Axis also looses a lot of armies/tanks...-, in April 1943 the defence lines break, 3 allied AFs got lost vs only 1 german air and most of the allied strong ground units. When also a US HQ got killed, Allies had to retreat. They rescued as much as possible and used the rest of the units to delay the axis advance to enable evacuation. - In the southeast Russia used the time and the absence of german air to start an african campaign. 10 veteran units + 2 HQs from the Middle East wars liberated Suez, Alexandria and conquered Tobruk. - In northern Russia a second offensive was started with the other half of the russian strike forces. Russian forces entered Finland – killing some german corps in the process -Leningrad under attack. Mid 43: - in the West strength point losses of the AFs were severe for both sides. So Germany needed some turns to reinforce its air before it was able to use it again. Allies (5 AFs left) killed a second german AF in France before Germany withdrew the surviving 7 AFs towards Russia to help the besieged Leningrad. Also some axis ground units got killed near Brest and since the german air moved elsewhere Allies decided not to evacuate the city but to hold it as a bridgehead for the next D-day. USA, UK and Russia now catched up in jets (lv 4), Russia also in LR (lv 2), USA AT 2, Italy still ahead with AT 3. - After the conquering of Tobruk, Russia shifted all strong forces north and attacked Finland and Leningrad full scale. A german elite army defended Leningrad and survived 2 turns the attack of 3 ground units and 11 russian AFs (both times the remaining attacks redirected after the first 6 attacks all did minimum damage). German 3 star cruiser and some armies/corps in Finland killed instead. - Before the 3rd attack at Leningrad, the reinforced german air arrived to take part in the battle of Leningrad. End of the war (winter 1943): - The largest airbattle in history started in the area of Leningrad-Minsk accompanied by a russian ground offensive. 18 airfleets battled against each other – at the end of the day 3 german and 3 russian AFs bite the dust, but also several german armies/corps got killed and Leningrad was finally liberated. - During the decissive airbattle of Leningrad western Allies started the second D-day: 3 US armies, HQs and a dozen corps landed and liberated LC + France (including Bordeaux+Mine). Russian transports swarming the Med, looking for open cities. - After Axis lost the battle of Leningrad, they had to retreat to Riga-Minsk. After heavy losses in Finland and a russian breakthrough, the german HQ and the remaining armies started evacuation, the last cruiser protected Helsinki port to enable evacuation. Around christmas 1943 the german Oberkommando surrendered unconditionally. Both fronts were on the retreat, russian transports in the Med, most of the german armies and tanks destroyed, only 5 AFs (1 newly built) left, Axis inferior in numbers. Allied now had an mpp advantage of ~300 mpps/turn. Finland one turn before surrendering. This was an excellent and interesting game. Very well played by Dragonheart and he was several times very close to victory. Before D-day 1 it looked very dark for Allies, during D-day 1 they regained the advantage for half a year until they got crushed in the air- and ground battles in southern France. The allied mistake to start an attack at the wrong moment – combined with the axis good move to start a counter at the right time – costed Allies the frontline and most of their strong ground units, so they had to flee and evacuate. This was the second huge chance for Axis, fortunately the german Oberkommando didn´t recognize this opportunity to crush the allied resistance and after some months Allies had rebuilt their strength (with Middle East and Egypt they got enough mpps) and were able to launch the more successful D-day 2 while in the east the russian veterans crushed the core of the axis forces. Until nearly the end the game was open, Axis were still able and had enough veteran units to crush one Allied side and later the other one – the lost battle of Leningrad where they lost the core of their forces decided the fate of the Axis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desaix Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 Very nice game and AAR... Thanks for posting it. Desaix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonheart Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 When moving the bid up to 275 i had already the bad feeling that this will end my glorious days with axis against Terif and it proved so. The pre-Barbarossa game was quite well, i gambled with irland+subs this time as i wanted to kill one carrier early but unfortunately one sub was blocked. The result was a damaged carrier and damaged cruiser but the allies got irland early and the result were a tougher defence of france where i lost 2 tanks+3 corps. But atleast i got it in time. During the first Barbarossa turns i was missing my usual LR as i had only LR 1 therefore my attack was very cautious and slow ...but finally i got all border cities and my spearheadsreached and took leningrad. Although i knew that the turkish thing will come i did not prepare enough units for the defence of both..irak and turkey...my first big mistake and then a reacted to late....regrouped armies and air for nothing. As i told Terif during game...i had no plan i was starting one idea and then i abandomned it or executed it with half effort or stoped it. And this was not only a loss of mobility but also a loss of mpp and a loss of time. So Axis lost more and more the upperhand and the MPP advantage went to the allies. My last good plan and well done action was to free LC and France where the western allies lost alot of their ground forces. After that i was only able to react to allied actions loosing more and more ground so it was a thing of time when to loose therefore i surrendered. So i did not change history this time,expected date of fall of Berlin was mid 1945. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellraiser Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 seems a lot of allied players attack iraq via turkey dow ... what axis player can do to prevent it? I used in several games air spotting based in romania but this won't prevent reds from getting to iraq...it can only save istanbul and allow axis to operate units to mid east. The problem is, when axis do this and try to defend the mid-east they are in danger of losing the momentum of their thrust in Russia's heartland. And usually the Reds attack with 3 HQs, air and a swarm of tanks, corps , armies the mid east so the defence of the mid east is problematic even if axis operate in that area...only if axis operate the main forces they can fend off the communist onslaught...but this will stall the offensive in russia itself and moreover prolong the war to a point where the western allies may become a real threat. So what is your opinion over this 'defence - or - not of the mid-east' ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terif Posted December 30, 2004 Author Share Posted December 30, 2004 @Hellraiser: This is a matter of your priorities, how the other fronts look like and the overall situation . If Axis want, they can defend the Middle East, but then they will be in the defensive at the other fronts. It´s the old situation: there are several fronts and Axis will not be able to be strong everywhere if Allies play right - both sides have limited ressources. Where they use their ressources depends on their strategy and what the player thinks is necessary in the current situation . In the Middle East area the geographical situation is in favour of Russia, so Axis will have to use overproportionally more forces to fight in this area than anywhere else and will suffer high losses - usually there are more attractive theaters where they can use their limited ressources with better efficiency - but like always it depends on the situation and the opponents . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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