Terif Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 This one is an extraordinary game – therefore the AAR : It started completely unspectacular with Hellraisers Axis using the Poland first strategy, marching their units into the west and attacking LC late in April 1940...Axis sub got sunk near Canada as usual...France fell in July 1940 after the 3 french and 2 UK chits scored one hit in Iraq - but convoi didn´t start till the second hit in January 1941 with 4 UK chits and only lasted 2 turns before the coup . Turnaround came in August 1940: surprisingly the Axis navy went onto a rampage tour, 3 german cruisers bombarding the UK bomber east of London...what seemed first as kamikaze mission, developed into the largest naval battle ever seen...resulting in 15 destroyed naval vessels. German scientists had been extremely successful in those few months and shipyards also busy building and upgrading subs....in August 1940 Germany already had upgraded its pre-war subs to level 4 and also built 3 new high tech subs. Simultaneously it also got successful in LR air and combat techs for its ground forces...and so the first naval battle begun after the destruction of the UK bomber in England by german air and cruisers. Royal Navy was divided into 2 task forces (Gibraltar and Brest) when the battle started, the first one got surprised by the german super subs when it attacked the 3 cruisers near London and was immediately eradicated: half of the Royal Navy went to the bottom of the sea in one day without enemy ships lost ! But soon the rest of the fleet arrived...ready to revenge their comrades and now informed about the enemies wonder weapons....starting to fight the battle with flying colours....luring the enemy fleet towards Scotland – away from the german air - in the process...german subs were diving like crazy and nearly impossible to destroy (sub str 1: diving 4 times, sub str 2: diving 5 times...etc.)...lots of damages...german shipyards repaired a total of 37 sub strength points during the battle ...but only one of them got sunk by accident when it run onto a british shipwreak... the german surface fleet on the other side fortunately had no diving abilities and therefore no chance to survive: all 3 german cruisers (despite 9 str points repairs) as well as Bismarck battleshipgroup destroyed....nevertheless the german subs took a horrendous toll....5 UK battleships, 1 free french battleship down, 1 carrier destroyed and 3 cruisers...the rest of the fleet heavily damaged. And so when the italian fleet broke out in the Atlantic and joined forces with the Kriegsmarine, Axis ruled the sea and raided all convois for the next 2 years...the remaining british ships hiding first in Scotland, then Iceland and lastly west of Greenland...meanwhile Axis was passive in Europe on the ground...only Egypt got conquered (Algier secured by UK immediately after France fell and not threatened till Mid 1941)...every mpp obviously went into the naval war and research...which was extremely successful on the Axis side: Germany Subs lv 4, IW 3, AT 3, LR 3, Jets 2...Italy GLR 2 are only the visible ones...but Axis diplomacy was not far behind: despite no mpps for diplo before mid 1940 they achieved with minimum effort maximum result...3 (Mega-) hits and Spain joined Axis. But convincing Spain into joining lastly also laid the cornerstone for Axis defeat and so in the end these bustling diplomats even doomed the Axis as the future would show...without the Pacific fleet, things would have looked different in the next naval battle... To counter the Axis naval threat – especially the german subs level 4 and italian navy with GLR 2 – USA invested heavily into ship technologies and bombers...UK meanwhile built ground troops to counter a possible sealion... In August 1942, the now combined US and UK armada - strengthened by the Pacific fleet – set sail to win back naval dominance...US ships had been equipped with ASW 4, carriers with LR 2...US bombers were spotting from Ireland, UK carriers running ahead to spot the enemy...and so the second and last huge naval battle of this era begun southwest of Ireland in the middle of the Atlantic where both the axis and allied fleet clashed on each other: In the wild battle...soon shifting towards Portugal...Axis used several transports for scouting and as support vessels... a spanish army and 2 corps didn´t survive their missions and now are at the bottom of the oceon as a warning example for future generations...but in the end Axis naval supremacy had been broken and the enemy nearly completely destroyed: 2 enemy battleships, 2 cruiser and 4 subs sunk...only 2 axis battleships survived with damages and fled into ports (the last sub is busy in Baltic together with a spanish cruiser that had been shot down there to str 1). So in the end Axis still lost the war at sea despite all those massiv investments into its navy: researching subs lv 4...building 3 new subs... upgrading all italian ships to GLR 2...repairing in total more than 60 sub, 20 battleship and 15 cruiser strength points... On the ground it therefore was extremely quiet...Axis had no land forces when Barbarossa started in September 1941...if it can be called a Barbarossa ...in the first turn Axis didn´t dare to enter Russia and in the second only had enough units to take the empty Riga ...Odessa even stayed russian till summer 1942...maximum axis expansion: the 4 russian border cities taken...meanwhile Russia conquered Finland in October 1941 and Sweden. Strangely Germany later sent a full task force into Finland in May 1942, supported by 5 airfleets from Riga. Russian tanks made short process and destroyed german HQ, army and 4 corps...a Para jumped to the swedish mines where it is just about to die without supply...we are in September 1942, right after the lost naval battle and Axis already sent diplomats to negotiate about surrender...no ground battle fought during the whole war except for the lonely task force in Finland... . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellraiser Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 Actually lr and jets came post barbarossa Axis had lr 1 pre barbarossa, only. Weird enough, the last battle was a surprise - I was moving the ships towards portugal-west africa but got intercepted by super LR carriers In Finland it was weird as well - terif captured finland and prepared to get sweden with 2 red paras and support from uk troops from norway, leaving in helsinki only a lousy partisan unit One turn before, I spotted his paras and prepared amphibs to try to counter the attack on sweden but instead i captured helsinki Eventually the axis troops from Finlad got killed with only 2 red tanks and one corps killed. But the most annoying thing was that he captured Ireland just before my amphibs would have landed and get it. I planned to establish an air base in Ireland to support a Sealion. A little correction - Axis had ground troops -> full complement of corps bought - but they lacked HQs Ref Spain - I only put chits there to force UK waste cash as well - I never intended to get Spain via diplo because it triggers those extra US ships and I was damn sure they had massive ASW already. But I simply forgot about the chits invested in Spain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted May 27, 2007 Share Posted May 27, 2007 I had a similar game to this vs Rambo a time back. He had gotten great Super Subs, they are virtually the Teflon Don's of the Sea, but if you do not follow them up with a Sea Lion, they really bare no outcome to war. Seems to be that HR had the upperhand here but he didn't take his primary objectives thus lost the war totally and utterly! Spain really screwed him, I just defeated Rambo, never brought Spain in, took Allies until 1944 to obtain Naval Dominance. This cost them the war and about 5,000 MPPs, as in the end I could only spot 3 or 4 Surface Allied ships operational at all... No Pacific Transfer and this strategy could meant no Cigar Allies, and a good bomber on Liverpool, you might afford a passive Eastern Strategy... Might... Though Terif is the Master of Making good with what you got... and he'd of made Russia a Monster without England or the USA... P.S. Usually Spain has a possiblity of joining for free if you take England!!! Those two free Cruisers and an immediate DOW on the USA killing the US Fleet Techless in Port is a strategy I might use, Subs have a Nasty effect on ships in port and keep supply well in the Great Artic Expanse... Then defense vs USSR Anyone else VS HR here probably would've capitulated due to depression :mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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