The K Man Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 Yes, 1944 should be an interesting year, and see some big battles. Planning has gone well for the US/UK, but poorly for Russia. (Coupled with Colin's great focus on Russia.) Yeah, probably the only real (minor) land battles won were in Britain/Ireland. The naval battle did really help me out. But I can't fault you for bringing them out. Some games I leave the fleets in the docks or safe areas (for awhile,) and start to think, where is that getting me? The allies still tend to run around everywhere... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin I Posted June 16, 2007 Author Share Posted June 16, 2007 1944 opens fairly quietly. The Allies raid on Denmark was beaten off by German air and Italian paras dropping into Copenhagen to relieve the siege. They are still bombarded by the Navy but are holding out. Meanwhile the Germans make their first air attacks on the Urals for morale purposes and clean up a few Russian cities. The USSR definately has a fragmentation problem - subdividing into small enclaves with the most notable being the Caucausus. Meanwhile British carriers are sighted entering the Med. Western Allies are worryingly quiet. You have the sense of them prparing for a big effort. The Russians certainly hope so.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin I Posted June 18, 2007 Author Share Posted June 18, 2007 Whew, gripping game. OK, so Germans assemble 9 airfleets and assault the Urals. Russians are dug in but can't withstand that. Germans TAKE last Russian capital and......Russians don't surrender and launch counterattack from Caucausus. They counterattack in Urals and too retake their last Capital!!!! AND he does what has been worrying me for a while - massive land/air/sea assault on Rome - Italy surrenders. BUT Germans counter in Urals, take his last city there and this time Russia DOES surrender! So in a single turn both Italy and Russia exit the game. I very much doubt Western allies can break out of Italy in time to take Berlin and so on before the tired (but victorious) German army returns from the Russian front - but we will see. Nail biter. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retributar Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 The 'Quiet' before the STORM!!!' ...Then they come out ..."Kung-Foo Fighting...as quick as Lightening"!. ...'Like a Coiled-Serpent'!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blashy Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 So the Allies have Africa and Italy? They have MPPs, but I do not seem them making a push in Germany. Simply because when they loose a unit it has to ship all the way back while the Germans reappear right at the front lines. Still a good idea to play this out, you never know he might have another armada ready to come in from England! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Ranger Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 UK and USA just dont have the force pools to stop germany with USSR out. They might hold onto Italy and England but getting on mainland Eroupe (France) and defeating the DDR is very unlikely to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The K Man Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Yes, the suspense is killing me. Look what it did to the Russians. Heading to the fall (Oct) of 44. Italy and Denmark are under allied control. Yes, it may be little to late. The Russians and the rest of the world wanted to know why. Allied command had made the decision to go for the soft underbelly of fortress Europe. Original plans had the attack starting by mid June. However two US armies got delayed from their port of origin, so the attack was pushed to 2nd week of July (fate.) Felt it was acceptable, and Russia would hold. (Russia did, but when US armies did arrive, fate struck 2 more blows on consecutive turns.) Tobruk was suppose to be the launch point but due to a rare Gibraltar (effect) hit, they could not operate there. The only other area available, was Alexandria. So after operating there, the "effect" (fate) struck again the following turn, and the port of Alexandria could not support an amphibian operation. Eventually the attack got underway, but by late August. Russia was just unable to withstand the fine coordinated attack of the German machine...(although, I was shocked when Russia didn't surrender right away when its last capital was captured.) Thought that was an automatic... But the allies will fight on for the moment. (I know its quite an uphill battle.) The german army is battered from the Russian Front. A corp unit moved to garrison the empty city in Vichy France is destroyed. More destruction is sure to follow (on both sides.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin I Posted June 19, 2007 Author Share Posted June 19, 2007 I'd quite like to have the Russian surrender rules explained (Terif?). I was surprised here too, and then figured I needed to hold all three capitals for x turns so was dismayed when he recaptured. Having said that some uncertaintly here is a GOOD thing IMHO. Anyhow, Germans rebuild with captured Soviet equipment and start taking the train back to the Fatherland...... Interesting to see the reason for the delay K-man faced. I was wondering why he wasn't faster with the Rome attack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n0kn0k Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Isn't it dependent on the number of units still alive? Sometimes I get Poland right after capturing and when there are a bit more units left over they won't surrender. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin I Posted June 19, 2007 Author Share Posted June 19, 2007 I know thats true for Poland and France which only have one capital. I wasn't aware it was true for UK/Germany/USSR which have fall-back or secondary (or tertiary) capitals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bromley Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Yep. If it's unchanged from the manual, once no capital remains in that country's hands, the chance of delay is 3%*number_of_units. Against the Russians that can be quite a high percentage . Minors are either 5% or 6% per unit (a typo in the manual means that it's not clear ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin I Posted June 19, 2007 Author Share Posted June 19, 2007 Seems logical. K-Man had quite an enclave in the Caucausus, his Navy and a few scattered units in isolated cities such as Leningrad and Murmansk. My guess is that his surrender chance was 40-50% then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmo Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 According to the manual only units in the home country count so his Navy may not have been factored in unless they were in home ports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terif Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Yep, conquering all capitals is only the necessary precondition so a country can surrender - but the combat units alive then also have some saying : - for minor countries: each unit in home territory gives a chance of 6% to continue the fight - in major countries every unit in home territory increases the chance by 3% i.e. if Russia still has 34 units in its home country when its capitals are conquered, it will continue to fight with 100% certainty - each unit less will increase the chance of capitulation Concerning victory conditions: In order to win, Axis first needs to liberate Rom, or the maximum it can achieve is a draw. To achieve an early major victory it also needs to conquer London and Cairo which could prove to be a problem if I read the AAR correctly... . In any case - this game here could get pretty interesting, depending on how strong western Allies really are at the moment. If they do it right, they still have a good chance to win the war - Axis needs to leave a lot of garrison units in Russia to prevent partisans and the main/combat forces of both sides should be not too far away from each other concerning combat strength... So the outcome is still not decided as long as nobody prematurely surrenders - even if Axis is superior in numbers, that means nothing if Allies fight the right battles and with their naval superiority they can choose when and where to fight...by fighting at the right time and place anybody can easily defeat a 2 or even 3 to 1 superior enemy if necessary... . But here this shouldn´t be necessary anyway - USA and UK with Africa + Italy conquered should get around the same amount of mpps as Germany if not even a bit more and can potentially lead an equal combat force into battle with even superior airsupport... Summary: Should develope into a really interesting game with chances and possibilities for both sides - which one will win, depends on their abilities on the battlefield - at the moment still everything should be open according to the AAR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZGungHo Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Wow - what a game! Wish you could post some screen shots on it! You guys are running wild!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The K Man Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Terif, thanks for the info on the capitals. It is good to know. I would have done a few things differently on that last turn. (Especially with the money.) Thanks for the vote of confidence on the allied cause. There are a few options... I was going to post some screenshots of the 1942 allied attack on Spain (failure) and naval combat southeast of Gibraltar (success.) But for some reason, I'm unable to upload the pics to my web page. I will have to try again tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The K Man Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 Well I guess its a start. My site would only let me upload one pic, so here is the first one. The date was 08/16/42. Allies needed to take off some of the pressure on Russia, so here is the pre-attack formation, for the attack on Spain. Guess I'll try again another day for the other 3 pics... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin I Posted June 21, 2007 Author Share Posted June 21, 2007 This was the attack I'd have held off with until Spring 1943. As it was I was able to deal with it without changing my plans much. I was already ending the campaign season in Russia. If you had waited until I was moving in on Stalingrad in Spring '43 (and fortified Stalingrad a bit more) you would have given me the dilemma of holding off on Stalingrad for a year or losing Iberia. Now we both have advantages. Its a fascinating game and one which hold's to Terif's Law of "Don't give up too early". The Allies are in a horseshoe around the Axis - great for finding locations to attack but with slow communications - Axis can operate anywhere in their Empire. You should have the latest turn - if it didn't come through OK (I sent it from work which is unusual for me) then say. I'll capture some screenshots - not sure how to display them yet as I don't have a webpage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The K Man Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 Colin, sent you an email. Didn't get the last turn. Yes I agree with you on the attack. (But with Russia taking a pounding, I thought I might lose Stalingrad during Aug-Sep of 42.) I didn't believe I would survive the attack on Spain, but figured I either lose Russians or US/UK troops. Opted for US/UK. Had I not gone for Spain, I would have gone after Ireland & UK island in Aug 42. Would have been interesting to see how long Russia would have held. (I think they would have fell in Summer/Fall of 43 instead of 44.) Yeah, should be fairly quiet until the spring of 45. Very interesting game... Yeah, screenshots can be difficult depending on the software. Trying to use the web page software, but as you can see, having problems uploading. Will try some old WS-FTP software, I use to use years back, which always worked great.(Don't feel like purchasing the latest now.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin I Posted June 23, 2007 Author Share Posted June 23, 2007 UK launch winter raid on Prussian coast and Russian partisans are active. Germany denied passage through Switzerland so take it in the Winter - not too difficult with IW3. We await the Spring....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The K Man Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Finally...able to upload the other 3 pics...another long story...but here they are: The allies have landed in Portugal. The minor corp eliminated. The axis has transfered troops in to commence with the land battle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The K Man Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Although the allies had liberated Portugal, the axis move in effiently threading the allied forces. (The only plus here, was the fact that Russia was able to regroup.) Also all of the axis ships have come out of their ports (probably to cut off any transports.) But the allied navy is strong... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The K Man Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Only the Italian battleship remained. Some of the injured allied ships are off screen (heading for the US east coast for repair.) This was also the end of the land attack. All 3 units remaining were destroyed quickly. Summary: Failure on Land, Success on the water... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin I Posted June 25, 2007 Author Share Posted June 25, 2007 Meanwhile the Axis get Tigers across the Alps amnd hit the Allies in North Italy. Allied air is formidable but ground forces continue to be fragile and he loses several armies and corps. Think the next turn must see a major withdrawal - his air in Italy is threatened by Axis land forces. Meanwhile Germans chase Partisans, counter the raiding UK corps and create a new partisan problem by taking Yugoslavia..... It flashed up awaful fast but Allies are into diplomacy, previously Sweden, not sure where this hit was. Allies have the problem they have had all game - simply no land forces that can match the German ones. Therefore I choose the staightforwards slugfest in Italy over more subtlwe options. In Italy no Allied armour spotted and the Alps actually helped my attack (made his air less effective). Nice screenshots. Sometimes FOW is good. If I realized how big your forces were I'm not sure I'd have attacked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The K Man Posted June 26, 2007 Share Posted June 26, 2007 Yes, the land forces can't do much of anything. Most of the allied land forces lack the necessary experience to put up a decent fight. The planes atleast can fight back. The battered UK corp leaves Konigsberg on the next transport out. However, fresh troops arrive to garrison the city. Yes, I wish those "flashes" would stay on the screen until you hit a keystroke. Sometimes I've missed them, especially when there is much to read. But regarding the diplomacy, the hit came on Yugo, turn before you attacked. I had actually put it in, last August, the turn I attacked Italy (to give you something else to worry about.) Didn't get any hits, even though I had 11% in, till now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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