K man (Allies) v Colin (Axis) AAR

[Colin I]

Von Manstein leading, and what is now L5 armour doesn't help either. Your air is deadly and numerous but mine is just good enough so it doesn't bite fast enough to decide things. Italy is not such a great place to defend - its good that its narrow for access by your navy to my land units, but its hard to shuffle units in and your ports are now in the South and the air gets to sit in poorly supplied islands.

This turn Germans kill one more corps and sink a UK carrier and advance into Italy. General partisan chasing elsewhere and a rather disastrous assault on the new UK garrison.

[The K Man]

I Surrender! Outlook was bleak for the Allies. There's not much more I can do at this point. I still have some land forces, but they just can't hold up against the German forces. It will cost too much to reinforce the planes. In retrospect, (defending Italy) I should have kept the forces down behind the river. Would it have made a huge difference, probably not. The game really went south for me with not having the Russians in a defendable place, especially since my initial techs were inferior to yours. That started a domino effect, that I was unable to recover from. The UK/US did come back strong, because even without the Britain Isle, I was getting some good $ from Africa. Unfortunately after taking Italy, I didn't have but a scattering of forces at other locations, so I couldn't launch a (successful) attack elsewhere. I did have an operation planned to start around the time you attacked Yogo, but that never happened when the Italy defenders started getting pounded...

It was a fun game still. Congratulations on moving on, and good luck! My advice to the next opponent: Don't make any mistakes (I made my share,) because Colin will take advantage of them.

[Colin I]

It was a great game. K-man’s tenacity and skill, esp. with Naval and air aspects lead to an absorbing match despite his initial setback and bad luck (losing the UK air, along with redeploying his bomber to Malta contributed to the Sealion opportunity). When Russia didn’t surrender, but Italy did, I thought I might lose. Maybe add one thing about Russia: I think K-man had motorization 2. If you are going to do that then you should use it; his units were mostly static and entrenched so he could have well built more motorization 0 infantry and dug them in. I think motorization 2 plus production technology is one counter to Axis air superiority – build fortifications to protect units or hide them in bad terrain then swarm the Germans when Western Allies make their move. He rebuilt his air and spendt points reinforcing it - I wouldn't have bothered. I had 9 air fleets (6 German, 2 Italian, one Balkan)> I really cared about reducing fortifications and breaking up armoured assaults. The 2 rebuilt defenders didn't make much difference - the points were better spent elsewhere. Do a red surge right and you break through to vulnerable units in the rear area and can complete encirclements. But you need lots of units.

[The K Man]

Colin's an excellant tactician, and knows how to take advantage of ones mistakes or bad luck. I actually forgot about losing that initial fighter (setback $200 mmps) The delays for doing the Italy Attack really cost Russia its life. I did have motorization of 2 for Russia, but not until I was down defending the Caucasus/Stalingrad. When I finally rebuilt most of my forces, I felt I had to split them between the Caucasus and Urals. Just didn't have needed units to launch a good attack (always playing catchup.) A big part of my problem on our first big battle in Russia, was not having any motorization, plus an inferior IW/AT. Yeah, agree that the planes were kinda useless. But when I had finally got up to IW 3, AT 2 and motorization 1, I had put 3 chits into AF (I was currently at 2.) Figuring I could make a difference if I got the added tech hits (thats why I rebuilt them.) I'm guessing that was 43, and never did get any hits for the rest of the game. Intriguing, none the less.

[Colin I]

Italy was my biggest error - after losing the fleet I should have fortified around Rome. I'm actually not very keen on Engineers for Axis - I think using them is an admission that you are losing the strategic initiative, and the Allies can normally find somewhere else to land. However - in the case of Rome, where a fast KO is possible, I'd make an exception. I did think about redeploying the Italian fighters when I saw his carriers head into Med. but had made a decision not to relent on Russia.

Incidentally, I've never seen Italy fight on past losing its capital, nor Germany. Does this mean that the rule we discussed where combat units can delay surrender doesn't work for Axis?

Germans got long range air early - this was very useful. Few Allied surprises and very safe (rear area, good supply) but flexible air power in Russia.

[Terif]

Congratulations to Colin - sounds like a very interesting game for both sides .

Russia is in deed a land power and main priority has to be increasing the strength and numbers of its ground units. Airfleets are offensive weapons with the main purpose to reduce readiness and morale of enemy ground units before an offensive and have only neglectable defensive capabilities as long as they don´t have Jets 3+ (which to research is expensive, needs time and is only worth the research with enough airfleets that Russia doesn´t have at the start). So as long as Russia is in the defensive it doesn´t need air - before it invests into air it has much more urgent things to invest into and before it first achieves a stalemate on the ground or can take a necessary breath by a second front in the west will usually not have the ressources to build other things than ground troops. Same applies for motorization: this is an offensive tool and as long as Russia is fighting for its bare survival a luxury it can´t afford .

Question of delayed surrender:

Combat units only delay surrender when they are in their own country, which is why Russia usually continues fighting (all remaining units are in Russia and therefore increase the chance to fight on) and Germany or Italy usually surrender as most of their units are out of the country (e.g. in France or Russia) and therefore have no influence on the question of continuing to fight. With Rome in enemy hands, only the italian units that are in Italy give each 3% chance to continue to fight...and Italy can´t build many units in any case, so even if it would operate all units back, it never can reach a significant chance of fighting on.

[The K Man]

Its funny, after I finished retaking Ireland & Britain, and capturing Norway, I had to decide on what the objective would be for the next summer (44.) And at first Italy was only a thought. But I brought my bomber back to Malta, to check out what you had there, and with only an Italian army on Rome, I figured lets go for it. What's funny, is the carriers were my biggest concern, as far as bringing them down (without giving away what I was doing.) I knew my troops could go thru the port of Casablanca, (operate to the cities) and not be seen. I almost didn't bring the carriers due to the element of surprise... But since I would only be able to strike Rome with one fighter (from Malta) I figured I might need them (if I want to take out Italy in one turn.) Which was the objective, because I figured worse case two turns, but you would be able to operate troops into the top two cities.) I did attack the corp on Gibraltar with the carriers going by, hoping you were thinking my attack would come there again. Then I see you move the Italian corp and minor corp next to Rome, and I was like, crap, is he on to me? But I was already too committed to change my plans. One thing I noticed in the attack though was that I didn't need to waste any troops or air on attacking the Italian corp to the northwest of Rome. He would have disappeared with the surrender. It was probably the right decision to keep up the pressure on Russia with your planes.

I noticed you only had one fortification in the game (near London.) I do like using the forts for Germany, Italy and Russia. Just to make for a tougher defense...