AAR, Terif vs. Jollyguy; No Egyptian Gambit

[Jollyguy]

Terif is Axis, me Allies. Early game was normal, I took Norway and held Brest and evacuated the Middle East. For the first time ever I sunk his Atlantic sub, but lost a cruiser in the Middle East when I got sloppy and left him in Alexandria’s port to resupply one turn too long, as following my Egyptian Gambit he showed up down there pronto to clean me out. Got my Desert Air Force and finished my evacuation.

Terif followed a different strategy this time, and although he diplo’ed his minors, he did not attack Spain. The Brits researched the standard IW and AT and LR air, plus fighters. I also kept bombarding Brussels and Copenhagen, shuttling in fully supplied RN units. I took some damage, but have kept the two cities close to 0 almost the entire war (it’s late 1942.)

At the onset of Barbarossa I setup a defensive line in the Caucusses, and fell back from the Dnieper towards Rostov and Stalingrad, where I had a tank each fully entrenched and some fortifications with fully entrenched infantry. IMO this is a better strategy than facing him head-on, a painful mistake learned from my Egyptian Gambit game.

In this game my Russian scientists had been busy, and the one chit I put in motorization had hit, so my Siberians arrived with level 1 motorization. As to IW and AT, I had slow research on IW. I started to get nervous, as I was sitting at level 1 two turns before Barbarossa, when I got a timely hit, after I piled in 5 chits at one point. AT was amazing though, I hit level 3 during 1940 on 3 chits. Luck of the draw.

Terif crossed over the Dnieper and came at me headlong into that U shaped area of the rivers, where I was waiting. My units counterattacked as the Winter of 1941 turns hit, effecting his supply, and I think I took out 6 or 7 of his units at the cost of 3 or 4 of mine, and he had to retreat. He came back during 1942 though as expected so I retreated toward Stalingrad and in another turn or two I started a headlong pullback toward the Urals, abandoning the Caucusses also. The Urals is wall-to-wall units, which is good, but that means all of his African and Middle East hexes will go up to 8, as they now connect to Berlin.

Meanwhile he finally invaded Vichy and Spain, so I invaded Ireland, and had the Brits and Yanks start intense air attacks of Copenhagen to reduce the entrenchment, making as if I was going to land there. But the next turn the Allies took out their anger on the poor Swedes instead as the allure of those bikini models is strong. I was calculating that with Terif occupied in Spain, and engaged deep in Russia, that he couldn’t react to Sweden by amphib’ing in reinforcements which he’s done to me before. I disabled the Stockholm port with both the US and RAF bombers, and Sweden fell in two turns.

The next turn I moved all Nordic airpower east, and caught one of the Kriegsmarine’s cruisers in the Baltic and sank it. I followed that by using my two bombers to hit that close to the German border Russian city and Leningrad, suffering no losses, so he has no AA there yet. Now that they’re reduced I’ll use those cities as target practice for awhile, to build experience.

Meanwhile, down at the Rock. After two turns of attacks I’m about to lose my corp garrison, as it’s taking longer for the Axis to defeat the proud Brits without any airpower, which is all in Russia. But my USN is exacting some damage in return, while btw the Italian navy bombards Gibralter and its port from the East.

It’s October, 1942, and that’s where we sit. Brits have LR air ?; jets 3, IW 3, AT 2. The Yanks have LR 1 and jets 0. The Reds have IW3; AT3; jets 1; motorization 1. I have a few other techs, but those are State secrets.

[TaoJah]

So, you defend in Rostov and not in Kharkov ?

I like Kharkov because it's only 4-5 hexes wide and has good protected flanks. Plus, often you can keep the mines too for a while, at 20 MPP per turn each, they're worth gold.

But I am starting to see that defending further west is better IMHO. Next games, I think I'll fortify Rostov instead of Kharkov too.