AAR, Rambo vs. Jollyguy, Axis Rambo in Full Retreat in Africa

[Jollyguy]

I am the Allies, Rambo the Axis. Given all the discussion about the importance of the Med I decided to try something different, not too outside of the box, but just to use the units the Brits are already provided a little differently than in SC 1, and to use the British capital moving to Africa as a backstop. We were able to tcp last night from a running pbem game.

Early game went as expected. What was different was that I moved my bomber to Egypt and hit Tobruk on the first turn of Italian entry, knocking it under 5, which I was able to see as at the same time I hit the emtpy port with a BB, and knocked it down to 2 or 3. Then I got lucky with Malta, and that interdicted Italian supply all around. The next turn I hit the city with the bomber again, then the port with the BB and backed up, as you never know with Rambo, he may have dispatched amphibious transports to hit my bomber that was too near the coast. Rambo, resilient as ever, invaded Tunisia for its port, and had all three of his Germans planes at the boot of Italy, with every intention of still going for Egypt, but with the Italian cities knocked down they couldn't get there. I also had moved a couple extra ships to the Med, to screen landing zones against amphibious landings. Then I got long range air and could hit Tobruks port and city at will from a safer position, without the risk of an amphibious landings. Then Malta kicked in again, and both city and port were disabled, but more importantly, his air had to go the long way to Tobruk, giving me temporary air superiority. Long story short, the strategy worked, as IMO it delayed his Africa expedition by probably six turns or more, and gave me time to recover from having spent 375 on five Spanish chits. I was able to reinforce everything untouched and research a bit.

To be safe I sent several more ships to the Med plus my upgraded fighter from the Home Islands, and had time to reinforce and upgrade my African fighter, which was all good, because sure enough, here came Rambo. Late 1940, almost 1941, but he still came in force. He had been able to get an HQ and a tank and a fighter down there the slow way, and a quick battle ensued. He hit my front corp that was blocking the gap at the depression and knocked it down to 3, and deployed the Italian Navy, and landed an Italian army amphib. And BTW, knowing Rambo, I had researched anti-subs, so I had an upgraded cruiser at ASW 2. That turn I concentrated on his navy with my fighters and my navy, knocking his sub to 3 with my damaged cruiser (ASW works), and sinking another ship and damaging the rest. But I still hit Tobruk with my bomber, as I didn't want any more of rolly polly Goring's flyboys to show up than necessary. Anyway, Rambo got the worst of it. At the same time I hit his tank with my tank and the fresh Australian corp, and reduced it to 1. The next turn he backed up all around, but I went after him, and took out his 1 strength tank and found an Italian army all amphibed up and ready to go, and hit that, knocking it down to four. I would lose a weakened carrier. Then my army garrison at Alexandria left its entrenchments and I took out his Italian army and hit his air force after it intercepted, and he was in full retreat. I took Tobruk and the other Italian city to the west, but did not pursue him to Tunis although I saw an Italian corp there. At the same time I blocked the gap between Greece and Africa with my beefed up Med navy, so he could not slip an amphib by me.

Meanwhile, he was getting success with Uncle Joe, plying him with plundered brandy I suspect, a nice change from Russian vodka I am sure. Rambo, knowing I was weak in the Home Islands did a delayed Sea Lion, but I had already evacuated my Army and as I mentioned, my air force and navy, so all he got was three corps. It took him probably four turns to subdue the headstrong Brits, but that old sot Winston made it safely to Africa with a ship load of whiskey and cigars, despite him not liking that hot weather all the time. Uncle Joe was able to break away from planning his latest Pogrom long enough to join the fray, and the US is in, which is where we left it, because I believe Rambo fell asleep.

We will continue pbem, but IMO hitting Tobruk was effective, and really tossed a wrench in the Axis timetable. I will leave it to other players to modify this strategy, as there would be Axis counters, but then there could be Allied counter-counters also. But the point is that this is a new game engine and there are other ways of doing things. IMO the Allied player does not have to just sit there passive and wait for the Hun hordes to come at Alexandria, although the Allied player does have to be cautious at first. But there do seem to be moves that the Allies can make that cause the Axis pause, which is exactly what the Allies need until they can gather their strength.

Bob

[Blashy]

Yep, that's what I did a few times, the bomber has a strike range of 8, so you can safely park it and hit Tobruk without needing LR tech.

The key is the Navy and Spain, you need more ships AND have to block Spain.

You do these two and you can force them to take the long way around and in poor supply once they get there.

[Jollyguy]

Another thing that was interesting was after England fell a prompt came up that Franco was, "mobilizing his forces. But then Rambo hit Vichy France, and another prompt came up that said, "Spain shocked at aggression against Vichy France." So I think if Rambo had waited one more turn he would have had Spain, but now its readiness has been knocked backwards.

Plus, I finally got success in Spain and knocked it down further, as I suspect he drew off chits to use against Russia. But then I used chits from the US against Sweden, and knocked that down, so I believe he'll lose his Swedish mpps.

Bob

[Blashy]

That is a "rookie" mistake on his part, you take UK and Spain will join you just have to wait.

That could severly cost him, as taking Spain he could take Portugal and Gibraltar which would cause Allied troops in the MED to have reduced supply (Gibraltar Axis effect). AND the tons of Spanish troops with the 3 cities (40mpps) + Portugal = 56mpps.

JJvR making a rookie mistake, priceless

[Desert Dave]

Be interesting to see how this finally plays out.

After all,

Sleepy-head is only ONE Capital away

From a "major victory," IE,

Only needs Moscow now.

Need to hear from Axis perspective.

Where was the full-strength and experienced

Italian Air Fleet during all

This easy-as-you please bombing

Of Tobruk?

Half-hearted effort by Axis down in Afrika

Is not gonna get it done.

(... plus, your Malta Effect hit at appropriate moments, to be sure; might not happen so very fortuitously next time around)

Or,

Where the Italian HQ which, IMO, you'd best

Assemble BEFORE wasting MPP's on all manner

Of other "iffy propositions"

Like them helter-skelter amphib Ops.

First patch will change some of the dynamics

Down in Desert Sands,

But,

Gotta hand it ya Jollyguy,

Some real fine tactics you come up with. :cool:

Trouble being... you've lost your

SUPER CARRIER, IE,

That "floating launch platform" known as

United Kingdom.

No more convoy routes,

No MPP's sent to Russia.

U-boots and - upgraded?

Kriegsmarine can defend in a wide arc,

Then you mean to scratch & claw

Yer way back onto Old Continent.

Well,

Should be interesting, but,

Losing UK, I don't know,

Might be hard to overcome?

Little Commonwealth Kingdom in East Afrika

Could help out,

Depending how well Axis

Can protect those 5 other Capitals

Needed for that Major Victory:

Rome, Berlin, Warsaw, London and Paris.

Only Moscow left to get.

We'll see what, I guess.

[Liam]

I recall in our game, you kept getting Malta effect for at least 10 turns! Without a Bomber, I swear to god, not 1 turn did I get a relief. It took until near Summer of '41 to take Egypt. That really hurts...I had just taken Egypt and then Barby kicked off... It was impossible with such low supply to take Egypt.

Originally posted by Jollyguy:

I am the Allies, Rambo the Axis. Given all the discussion about the importance of the Med I decided to try something different, not too outside of the box, but just to use the units the Brits are already provided a little differently than in SC 1, and to use the British capital moving to Africa as a backstop. We were able to tcp last night from a running pbem game.

Early game went as expected. What was different was that I moved my bomber to Egypt and hit Tobruk on the first turn of Italian entry, knocking it under 5, which I was able to see as at the same time I hit the emtpy port with a BB, and knocked it down to 2 or 3. Then I got lucky with Malta, and that interdicted Italian supply all around. The next turn I hit the city with the bomber again, then the port with the BB and backed up, as you never know with Rambo, he may have dispatched amphibious transports to hit my bomber that was too near the coast. Rambo, resilient as ever, invaded Tunisia for its port, and had all three of his Germans planes at the boot of Italy, with every intention of still going for Egypt, but with the Italian cities knocked down they couldn't get there. I also had moved a couple extra ships to the Med, to screen landing zones against amphibious landings. Then I got long range air and could hit Tobruks port and city at will from a safer position, without the risk of an amphibious landings. Then Malta kicked in again, and both city and port were disabled, but more importantly, his air had to go the long way to Tobruk, giving me temporary air superiority. Long story short, the strategy worked, as IMO it delayed his Africa expedition by probably six turns or more, and gave me time to recover from having spent 375 on five Spanish chits. I was able to reinforce everything untouched and research a bit.

To be safe I sent several more ships to the Med plus my upgraded fighter from the Home Islands, and had time to reinforce and upgrade my African fighter, which was all good, because sure enough, here came Rambo. Late 1940, almost 1941, but he still came in force. He had been able to get an HQ and a tank and a fighter down there the slow way, and a quick battle ensued. He hit my front corp that was blocking the gap at the depression and knocked it down to 3, and deployed the Italian Navy, and landed an Italian army amphib. And BTW, knowing Rambo, I had researched anti-subs, so I had an upgraded cruiser at ASW 2. That turn I concentrated on his navy with my fighters and my navy, knocking his sub to 3 with my damaged cruiser (ASW works), and sinking another ship and damaging the rest. But I still hit Tobruk with my bomber, as I didn't want any more of rolly polly Goring's flyboys to show up than necessary. Anyway, Rambo got the worst of it. At the same time I hit his tank with my tank and the fresh Australian corp, and reduced it to 1. The next turn he backed up all around, but I went after him, and took out his 1 strength tank and found an Italian army all amphibed up and ready to go, and hit that, knocking it down to four. I would lose a weakened carrier. Then my army garrison at Alexandria left its entrenchments and I took out his Italian army and hit his air force after it intercepted, and he was in full retreat. I took Tobruk and the other Italian city to the west, but did not pursue him to Tunis although I saw an Italian corp there. At the same time I blocked the gap between Greece and Africa with my beefed up Med navy, so he could not slip an amphib by me.

Meanwhile, he was getting success with Uncle Joe, plying him with plundered brandy I suspect, a nice change from Russian vodka I am sure. Rambo, knowing I was weak in the Home Islands did a delayed Sea Lion, but I had already evacuated my Army and as I mentioned, my air force and navy, so all he got was three corps. It took him probably four turns to subdue the headstrong Brits, but that old sot Winston made it safely to Africa with a ship load of whiskey and cigars, despite him not liking that hot weather all the time. Uncle Joe was able to break away from planning his latest Pogrom long enough to join the fray, and the US is in, which is where we left it, because I believe Rambo fell asleep.

We will continue pbem, but IMO hitting Tobruk was effective, and really tossed a wrench in the Axis timetable. I will leave it to other players to modify this strategy, as there would be Axis counters, but then there could be Allied counter-counters also. But the point is that this is a new game engine and there are other ways of doing things. IMO the Allied player does not have to just sit there passive and wait for the Hun hordes to come at Alexandria, although the Allied player does have to be cautious at first. But there do seem to be moves that the Allies can make that cause the Axis pause, which is exactly what the Allies need until they can gather their strength.

Bob

[aesopo]

Nice to see Rambo getting out played but we'll see how the USSR holds out. On the other hand, he has to divert a lot of resources to gaurd his underbelly as that is where the next blow is coming.

Mainland UK is not needed as the South can now be hit. UK can't afford to give up Med and give Germany time to mess with the USSR.

UK must make a stand in the Med.

[Fartknock3r]

Originally posted by aesopo:

Nice to see Rambo getting out played but we'll see how the USSR holds out. On the other hand, he has to divert a lot of resources to gaurd his underbelly as that is where the next blow is coming.

Mainland UK is not needed as the South can now be hit. UK can't afford to give up Med and give Germany time to mess with the USSR.

UK must make a stand in the Med.

Didn't work for me

[Yohan]

Umm, Rambot, any replys Mr. Legend...

[Jollyguy]

It could be luck, but I wonder if some of the random events need to be tweeked. I.e., I've played probably five games as the Allies, and have yet to receive a single Free French unit. As to Malta, perhaps they get more proficient interdicting as time goes on? I just read the script, and it says 10%, but IMO it seems to happen more often than that.

Bob

[SeaMonkey]

Ditto that FF units JG. Has anyone acquired any Free French units at all?

I've been through about 5 French surrenders and never a one. Tried moving some to UK, no luck.

I wonder if I parked some naval/transport units in the Cape Loop?

[jon_j_rambo]

Okay, I'm here now. I did fall asleep in this game, thanks for the write up. I played Liam the night before until 4 a.m.. Fell asleep against Yodl at 6 a.m. last weekend

Yep, I got stopped in Egypt, I went in weak, lost 2-units if I remember right. JollyGuy put everything down there. So I took England in about 3 turns.

I'll take that any game...give you Egypt and a couple of units in order to make UK my playground for sin.

My only mistake was DOW vichey after Franco was going to join Axis! Ouch, stupid! I was asleep at the wheel. No worries, I'll be headcracking them, personally.

Without UK, the RN has nowhere to supply. I'm sure the USA will be sailing thru Suez for this game, because my fleet is all over my coastline with some LF support...

I'll give you hint, I will be taking Spain anyhow, despite my big screwup. I wasn't expecting a Franco donation, my first SeaLion & still haven't read rules.

[Kuniworth]

Originally posted by Jollyguy:

As to Malta, perhaps they get more proficient interdicting as time goes on? I just read the script, and it says 10%, but IMO it seems to happen more often than that.

Bob

Yeah it happens all the time. In a game vs Comrade Trapp he got it like 6 times in a row. My 3rd german army couldnt get out of africa at all.

[Fartknock3r]

I'm really lucky with free french units, every french surrender i usually get 1 of there curisers or battleships

[Blashy]

Free French is 20% chance per unit, if they are on friendly land, for ships that is not necessarry.

Malta is 10% but it checks twice per turn for 2 different locations.

[jon_j_rambo]

Two Spanish cities captured. Ireland plundered.

[jon_j_rambo]

Spain surrenders, Portugal DOW, they tumble next turn.

[Jollyguy]

Yes, Franco was all talk, not much action, he folded fairly quickly. He grabbed a truckload of sangria and headed to Gibralter, which wasn't the brightest move, as both the Kriegsmarine and Italian navy's were waiting.

Meanwhile, Saddam Hussain's father, Goddamn Hussain, was quickly subdued by the Brits, but in a move that would make his eventual son proud, Goddamn Hussain hit the oilfield and knocked it to 0. Shades of the present day. And up north, the Finns, the eventual makers of furniture you assemble yourself (or is that the Swedes...Ikea), well, I know the Finns make those great Nokia cell phones. Anyway, they lasted a few turns but did surrender.

And in the heartland of the Fatherland of Uncle Joe's Russia, fairly quiet so far, a couple cities taken, a million or so people lost by my estimate, just a warmup for 'ol Uncle Joe! Hell, he's capable of putting far more comrades than that in early mass graves!

But those Spanish veterans are headed east, and it's going to get bloody, more to Joe's liking I'm sure.

Meanwhile, FDR has upgraded his wheelchair to motorization 2, and braced his leg braces to heavy armor 3, and has Eleanor out on the stump, which of course leaves more time Lucy Mercer. And 'ol FDR is going to need all the help he can get. It's going to be a long war.

Bob

[Liam]

No we owe Fins the creators of the only hair regrowth formula in the world if you're a not so bad sufferer of hereditary Propecia it'll work.

Swedes, they make good Icecream, Hagen Daaz?

and the funkiest automobile on the planet, the SAAB

Oh, and the best Tennis Players in the World..

Originally posted by Jollyguy:

Yes, Franco was all talk, not much action, he folded fairly quickly. He grabbed a truckload of sangria and headed to Gibralter, which wasn't the brightest move, as both the Kriegsmarine and Italian navy's were waiting.

Meanwhile, Saddam Hussain's father, Goddamn Hussain, was quickly subdued by the Brits, but in a move that would make his eventual son proud, Goddamn Hussain hit the oilfield and knocked it to 0. Shades of the present day. And up north, the Finns, the eventual makers of furniture you assemble yourself (or is that the Swedes...Ikea), well, I know the Finns make those great Nokia cell phones. Anyway, they lasted a few turns but did surrender.

And in the heartland of the Fatherland of Uncle Joe's Russia, fairly quiet so far, a couple cities taken, a million or so people lost by my estimate, just a warmup for 'ol Uncle Joe! Hell, he's capable of putting far more comrades than that in early mass graves!

But those Spanish veterans are headed east, and it's going to get bloody, more to Joe's liking I'm sure.

Meanwhile, FDR has upgraded his wheelchair to motorization 2, and braced his leg braces to heavy armor 3, and has Eleanor out on the stump, which of course leaves more time Lucy Mercer. And 'ol FDR is going to need all the help he can get. It's going to be a long war.

Bob

[jon_j_rambo]

Axis will capture "The Rock" next turn. I own the West, he owns the East & USA. It's January 1942, snow on the ground.

[Blashy]

He owns the East? Russia and Middle East or Arica as well?

How are you doing in MPPs? You still have Norway and Sweden supplies?

Is Ireland still neutral?

Basically just tell us what countries are under the Axis flag and which are Allied controlled.

[jon_j_rambo]

Lets be a little bit more specific:

Axis have:

Poland

Denmark

LC

France

Norway

UK

Ireland

Spain

Portugal

The Rock

Axis minors

2-cities in Russia

Yugo

Vichey France

Tunisa

Western Libya

Allies:

Finland

Eastern Libya

Egypt

Iraq

Neutral:

Swiss

Sweeden

Turkey

Iran

[Blashy]

Damn, why not go for Iran, probably will next turn.

And Greece for the Axis.

And I could see a fight for Sweden.

Very interesting game, letting Russia build up while gobling up other countries.

[jon_j_rambo]

German naval units chase Russian cruisers into Lennigrad area.

Small battle North of Swamp, batch of Gerries are in the woods too, lets see if Russians feel like a fight. The weather is Mud/Snow.

[Jollyguy]

Yes, the Rock fell, and there was a prompt about British supply. But I took Iran and shoved a Russian corp through, so we have land link to Moscow, but Iran surrendered anyway, and at the end of the turn my mpps were higher than last turn, so will I be penalized supply wise anyway? I'll get a look see next turn.

Also took Syria. So it's been a wild game of grab ass, each of us collecting minors as quickly as possible.

And in Russia, Rambo did invade late, so winter set in within a couple turns, then came the mud, so he's only taken two cities, so summer and the real war looms.

Bob