AAR Rambo (Axis) vs Terif (Allies)

[Terif]

Poland surrenders turn 2 after an average kamikaze mission. Now Axis is not in a hurry and waits till spring to attack in the West. In the meantime Germany invested in diplomacy: Spain 53% September 1939 followed by 63% in November 1939. UK invested every mpp into counter diplo after turn 1, so 5 turns later they also had 5 chits. Nevertheless this left them no ressources for any other actions and they had to sit in England from now on.

In February 1940 Germany conquered Benelux. Denmark and Norway stayed neutral and never got attacked till we made a break in 1941. Good weather for Axis resulted in mass dying of the french units - one german corps could be taken with them. Kamikaze orders were executed perfectly, so not a single french unit survived the massacre and the defenders reached their main goal: to kill themselves . Therefore Axis was only able to plunder 300 mpps when France surrendered July 14, 1940. Some turns before the surrender, Royal Navy and 2 french cruisers found the german Atlantic sub in the northwestern corner near Greenland and sunk it.

After this it was pretty quiet, except for a short german attack against the allied Brest with several armies and 2 AFs. After they lost an Army to shorebombardment + BEF army and some other units got a taste of english battleship guns too, they retreated.

Everything quiet in Egypt until Axis invaded Syria directly with amphibious transports and conquered it. After this it went fast – 2 german tanks, 2 AFs 2 armies and several italian forces entered Egypt and killed everything that was not able to jump in the boats in time (Tank+corps rescued – HQ had to be disbanded, one italian corps destroyed). English battleship trapped in port and lost – italian navy also lost 16 strength points, so not a too bad trade .

Axis minors (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria) joined as usual between November 1940 and February 41. Iraq also joined in April 1941. We saved the game in June 1941 – Egypt will surrender next turn.

[Desert Dave]

Great!

Better a day late than not at all!

[Desert Dave]

... so not a single french unit survived the massacre and the defenders reached their main goal: to kill themselves

Ah, terif,

Penalty flag!

For "piling on."

As said some time ago, you surely know this has already been fixed?

[Terif]

Yep, will be fixed in a patch - but at the moment this is the important (and funny ) aspect of the french campaign and therefore belongs into an AAR: if the french managed to kill themselves or not and how many the germans were able to rescue and survived .

[Desert Dave]

Yep, will be fixed in a patch - but at the moment this is the important (and funny ) aspect of the french campaign and therefore belongs into an AAR: if the french managed to kill themselves or not and how many survived

OK.

I was just thinking... some who are new

To the board MIGHT

Get the impression

We have a problem,

When there isn't one.

Bitte , play it as you wish, I'll mostly desist.

Now,

Where is Captain America's

Posse riposte! :confused:

[Terif]

Rambo first needs some sleep - he fell asleep over the keyboard (literally) at 6 am in the morning after playing the whole night .

So at the moment he should be sleeping deep and tight .

[jon_j_rambo]

Terif, I'm awake now.

[Terif]

Do you want to continue ?

[Desert Dave]

Rambo first needs some sleep - he fell asleep over the keyboard (literally) at 6 am in the morning after playing the whole night .

So at the moment he should be sleeping deep and tight .

I KNEW it!

Not only a superior game player,

But... Der Meistersinger as well!

Well well.

Maybe.

After all - you ARE a... Myth. :cool:

Sehr Gut!

Mighty exciting contest resumes once

Rambo Jr has arisen anew!

[Terif]

Game continued:

In Juiy 1941 Germany attacked Brest with full force (conquered it) and even brought its fleet into the channel (battleship bombarding Brest, subs south of London) to break into the Atlantic - was the moment we saved. Allies had prepared a nice trap with the whole RN around England to kill all german ships in one strike if they had moved to Brest, but Axis unfortunately changed its mind and headed back in the crucial moment.

So Allies could only follow the fleeing ships, damaging Bismarck to 5, sub destroyed after it sunk a UK battleship - the rest of the german fleet escaped. UK revealed Anti-Sub Tech level 1 during this operation at its cruisers and carriers .

After this small battle it was quiet phase and building up for Barbarossa that started October 5, 1941:

Russia immediately declared war to Finland and conquered it without much resistance after a few turns. Riga + Minsk had been abandoned, occupied by Axis. Kiev and Odessa defended - german corps killed at Odessa, 2 Romanian armies reduced to str 1 and 2 before Odessa and Kiev finally fell.

Germany at Infantry Weapons 3, Anti-Tank 3, Motor 1, Heavy tank 1 - only 2 german tanks in action. Russia IW 2, AT 2 and HT 2.

Passive Axis gameplay so far - Russia left an open Corridor between Moskow and Kharkov, but Axis entrenches at Smolensk and Kiev instead of moving forward. So Siberians are triggered by time and arrive in June 1942. All axis air was stationed in the west to prevent an invasion till last turn, before they now operated to Romania. USA got convinced by italian diplomats to stay out of the war a bit longer - game saved in July 1942, USA at 87% now. Both sides building up for a gigantic battle that has to start sometimes in the near future .

[ April 30, 2006, 11:35 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]

[jon_j_rambo]

What has war come to? Politicans & Scientists? The German war machine is making toys & trying to talk their way into friendships.

Very, very slowplayed game by the Fritz.

[Tagwyn]

Why waste playing a game that needs more patches than Raggedy Anne and Raggedy Andy? Rambler, you need your sleep to attack the DaVinci Code?!! Do something worthwhile. Tag

[Sombra]

Originally posted by Tagwyn:

Why waste playing a game that needs more patches than Raggedy Anne and Raggedy Andy? Rambler, you need your sleep to attack the DaVinci Code?!! Do something worthwhile. Tag

:confused: Why do you think that this game needs many patches? The game seems very stable, nearly no people have serious problems to run the game. The only discussion are to tweak the game mechanics in some areas and it is already fun to play SC2.

[Terif]

Game ended pretty fast:

USA was about to join and Axis passive in Russia, so it was clear Axis would try to collect the neutrals now and Allies prepared a preemptive strike at Skandinavia and Denmark (still neutral). So Axis run into the middle of the entire Royal Navy when they tried to invade Norway one turn too early (USA at 87%). After a little slugfest Axis surrendered. Only 2 german tanks spotted in the game, no axis defence in the Middle east and russian siberian reinforcements about to enter the area.

After this we played some more games:

Second game with Rambo Allies:

Rambo went all in during France, sending its entire fleet into the Baltic when Denmark survived the Axis attack at str 1. Also landing UK army + corps around Kiel and in Denmark. UK airfleet even operated to Paris to defend the capital in the last days. But Allies only lost all ground troops, battleship, 2 carriers, airfleet and alarmed Sweden with their manoevers in the Baltic. France surrendered May 5, 1940 and so did Allies after they sacrificed everything. Defending France is not possible in SC 2 .

Third game – Rambo Axis:

After conquering Poland and France (Plunder 473) he split his forces, attacking Brest and Alexandria simultaneously. So he didn´t have enough forces at both places and his tanks and armies got slaughtered one by one at Brest and Egypt and he surrendered in November 1940.

[Terif]

Fourth game was a full game this time with Rambo Axis:

Poland and France (Plunder 490) went like usual – France was a bit fast due to good weather for Axis (sunshine in the Winter ) so he was able to nearly march through when he attacked in November 1939 and France surrendered May 5, 1940 – only one str 4 french unit was left.

In the sub hunt Allies had to search every single hex of the Atlantik and even got stuck in the ice Northwest of Greenland during Winter 1940 until they finally found and sunk the sub in the southwestern corner of the map south of USA.

This time he also conquered Denmark after France. He obviously learned his lesson concerning Brest too, left the city for now to Allies and conquered it later in Mid 1941 when Middle east was history and he was able to concentrate his forces there .

In the middle east campaign he used again his Syria first strategy – worked well in the first game, but this time Allies were prepared and able to evacuate everything from Egypt (HQ, tank, army, AF, 3 corps) with only one single corps lost in Amman. While Axis was busy, Allies tried a counter landing in northern Italy around Torino – but since ships have only a spotting range of 1, they had to sent their forces in without reconnaissance. So their first scouting unit (Gibraltar corps) had to report italian forces defending the city and invasion got cancelled. Gibraltar corps delivered a last heroic fight when several axis units operated to the battle and Royal Navy retreated after the Bomber at Malta spotted the italian fleet approaching.

Diplomacy caused early Iraq convois to UK and after several diplomatic successes it never joined Axis by free will and they had to conquer Iraq with Barbarossa. Axis invested into Hungary and Romania that also joined Axis early. Allied diplomats convinced USA to raise their readiness by 14% in July 1940. Spain got a hit to 49% before Allies countered with chits.

Barbarossa started in November 1941:

Front cities undefended except Kiev and taken by Axis. Iraq conquered by 2 german armies and 2 tanks, Iran not much later by Paratroopers. Russia declared war to Finland and conquered it after a few turns. Axis known techs: Infantry weapons 3, Anti-tank 3, Motor 1, Heavy tank 2, Advanced Air 4, LR 2.

USA joined June 1942 and Axis started collecting minors: Switzerland, Yugoslavia and Tunesia conquered.

Axis offensive targeted Leningrad – city was well defended and Axis needed several months of siege by heavy ground forces, 5 german airfleets and a romanian one before it finally fell at June 28, 1942.

Since Axis obviously invested heavily into air, it was very weak on the ground and so Allies started their counteroffensive in July 1942 after Siberians arrived and they catched up in infantry weapons (now also level 3), Anti-tank was not necessary (only level 1) since there was no single german tank in Russia:

Russia moved forward fast in the south, liberating Odessa in the first strike, Kiev under heavy attacks. Simultaneously UK landed in France, liberating Brest and Bordeaux. UK rescued nearly all forces from Egypt, was therefore pretty strong on the ground and also invested into air: 2 bombers and 3 AFs in action, commanded by Montgomery while O´Connor supported the forces in France. When UK liberated Paris, several US armies and Eisenhower joined the fight.

As used from Rambo, he immediateyl sent all his forces into counterattacks – leaving his entrenched positions in the Siegfried line in the west (7 corps were entrenched there) and moving his fleet into the battle of France. He also conquered Vichy France within 2 turns, and all his 3 tanks attacked from Marseilles the US forces at Bordeaux. In the east he operated his units from Leningrad to Kiev and Romania where he attacked in the open field between these two positions.

An extremely bloody but short battle started – within less than 2 months the german Wehrmacht and also their fleet got fully destroyed:

In the west Paris and Bordeauxs got lost, but the combined UK and US fleet made short process of the german surface fleet and their subs. So when Axis forces reached the coast and were in range of the UK air in England, they made scrap metal out of the 3 german tanks and their supporting forces with shorebombardement and the help of 3 carriers, 3 AFs and 3 bombers.

In the east Russia started an additional Offensive with its northern task force as Germany shifted its forces to the south, conquering Smolensk, Leningrad, Riga and Minsk while the southern task force destroyed the bulk of the axis forces in the tank battle at Kiev – only that there were no german tanks, but 7 russian ones .

German airfleets took out several russian tanks, but in the end they had no protection by ground forces any more and got attacked directly despite their long range when strong russian forces surounded Warsaw and Königsberg where they had their airbases while another task force entered Hungary and Romania. Since Axis moved its forces from Iraq to France, Russian forces that were placed at the border for defence, now also started an offensive there, attacking the last axis defenders and conquering the Iraqi oilfields.

During this last big battle, Axis lost Manstein in the mountains of Romania and 26 ground units in the open field. Western Allies lost 4 units, Russia 10 units.

When Axis surrendered in September 1942 there were 7 axis airfleets (5 german, 1 romanian, 1 italian) in the east at Königsberg and Warsaw, but only 5 damaged german ground units left (2 of them cut off) to defend them – russian tanks already west of Warsaw approaching Berlin.

Summary:

Rambo made the same mistakes as in SC 1 and invested too much into air. 5 german airfleets were definitely too much, especially since he fully researched in LongRange (lv 2 reached) and Jet tech (lv 4 reached). So combined with too much tech investment in general and too much operating/transporting he had not enough mpps left for his ground forces. Only 3 german tanks built in this game – but in SC 2 the emphasize is on ground warfare.

Nevertheless, minor collecting still works and as soon as USA is in the war, Axis can conquer all minors in range without any penalty – so Axis was economically again stronger than Allies in this game. Fortunately the Axis commander was not patient enough to go in the defensive when it was time and sought the battle in the open field, counterattacking at the strong points of Allies. Without the loss ratio of 2:1 in favour of Allies in these battles it would have looked pretty dark for Allies in the long run.

[jon_j_rambo]

Yeah, I went nuts in some of these games, no patience.

Mistakes:

1) Allies can't do squat early on, boring. Don't charge into Denmark (SC1, RAI move).

2) Don't leave the Sigferd line, dumb. I was fully entrented with 6+ corps.

3) Don't go crazy on tech spending. It's fun to have all the tech, but I had no units

4) If you play the Allies & plan to win against Yodl, it will take 24+ hours to properly play & complete.

[Blashy]

JJvR, you are aware that Jet Tech is only good vs. other planes right?

It has no bearing on bonuses vs. ground units.

I find Jet Tech pretty useless myself if you keep your AFs away from the enemies AFs you can easily get away with no tech.

Bomber tech on the other hand, now that can kick some ass.

[Liam]

"Now they say you don't tug on Superman's cape

You don't spit into the wind

You don't pull the mask off an 'ole Lone Ranger

And you don't mess around with Terif"