Storm of Steel AAR

[Colin I]

AAR Storm of Steel Axis AI vs Human

I don’t normally AAR solo games but this was entertaining and illustrates a few things about this scenario.

As the UK I gathered all the UK forces in the Med and stockpiled MPP like crazy, sacrificing unwanted technologies. France moved two armies, HQ, air force and tank towards Italian border after reinforcing them.

Axis took down Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark in short order. In late 1939 Italy entered and lost most of its fleet to a preemptive UK/French strike.

In 1940 it got interesting. France invaded northern Italy killing an army and an air fleet. The French armour blocked any operational move to Rome whilst the British hit Rome with everything they had. Rome fell after 3 turns of pounding but Italians refused to surrender. This meant French couldn’t operate back to reinforce Paris. The Germans had come in the usual route and took Paris July 1940. Vichy was not created so French repositioned capital to Algeria and fought on!

Italians held out for an amazing 3 turns after Rome fell, but British held fast against German counters and the Italians eventually threw in the towel. But the UK was exhausted and after a bitter fight Italy was liberated. UK was utterly devastated, and could barely manage defend the UK, its convoy routes infested with subs and most of its navy sunk by this juncture.

However, France was able to cover North Africa and Gibraltar, rebuilding all those destroyed armies at half cost and is spoiling for a return match with Italy. The Russians are massing and plan to fight on German soil.

Its an obvious allied win, and I know a human Axis would do better, but a few points:

France can be quite formidable given a bit more time to plan, build and position. It has enough MP to develop a strategy. Here against Italy, against a human player putting a few antitank units or flack units in place early enough to be useful.

The extra early turns do add to the game, you can develop more interesting strategies – I think favours the Allies. Both sides have more flexibility but not the MPP to do too much and Axis cannot deviate too far from history except accelerating the fall of France. But the ability to reposition the allied navy for an offensive operation, coordinating amphibious transports, is a big bonus for the UK. Suggest Axis get their third HQ on the stack in compensation.

IW2 comes even earlier - need to do something here to make this less predictable.

Vichy Event – as others have said is not a big decision right now.

Variable surrender adds a lot of excitement - the Italian bulldog spirit really threw off my calculations and added a lot of tension.

I still maintain Dtorm of Steel is the best part of PDE.

[Hubert Cater]

Colin, thanks for the AAR and I'm glad you enjoyed the campaign as it was a lot of fun piecing that one together

Hubert

[Colin I]

Update: The entertainment in the game continues to come from the French. Barbarossa is in progress (late '41), Germans are making some headway but the fierce Russian defense is inflicting quite some casualties. France has taken Sicily and is holding it against a German army group - taking out armour and infantry with support from British air in Malta and the pitiful remnants of the UK navy.

Franch invest in technology - will this be the only game ever that certain icons for French units are used? There can't be many games where French technology investment is continuous.

[SeaMonkey]

Well Sombra.....you did ask for a more entertaining French campaign!

[Colin I]

Mid 1942

French are the only thing holding back the Axis in Med. Spain enters in support of Germany and attacks Gibraltar but French rush an army in and hold it. Meanwhile, the heroic Gaul's (apparently aided by a certain Druid) kill 2 German armies and an Italian one in the straits of Messina. Most remaining UK navy is sunk by German TAC, only a British fighter unit in Malta gives help.

Having learnt from 1940, French are busy rushing antitank guns to Sicily and will build some AA. I think AA is underestimated, its useful when fighting a sustained but low intensity conflict with too few MPP to replace fighter cover.

Axis stalled in Russia, US not in the war. these theatres are uninteresting.

[Colin I]

Can't resist finishing this. French-American invasion of Spain finishes matter with a L4 French Tank liberating Paris.

There are some interesting possibilities here.

Still looking for a PBEM game ;-(

[arado234]

Colin I any human player just has to move his Italian ships to port.Its alot harder to sink them.He can also abandon Africa and move those extra troops back.

I played as the Allies against the A.I. and I was suprised that when I abandoned Africa with my Frenchies it moved in with Italians and took all of French N.Africa.France finally fell in late Aug.What I couldnt understand is why it accepted Frances Surrender.It had all of French N.africa except Syria and it took Vichy.It would have been better for it to say no and have conquered all that extra territory.I only had 1 Frenchie left at that point.

What is fun as the Germans is to go against what the Germans really did.The Russians get really pissed when you tell them your not going to accept the non aggression pact.

[Colin I]

Arado - yes I know this game would not work the same way against a human player but I think it would have still be interesting. The extra time to prepare before all the fighting starts definately reduces the predictability and lets you test more extreme strategies.

I tried hitting Russia VERY early and not accepting the division of Poland. It was interesting, in the first year I hammered the Russians - we both had less forces but Germans had a good edge. Once the siberians came in it was tougher - relative to the force pools it was a big reinforcement and I'd taken out fewer minors so Axis MPP were quite low.

On the whole I like this scenario. There are some things that need fixing - early IW2 is too obvious a move and not all the decision events are real decisions and they rather peter out later in the game. But in some ways I'm sad (especially with the Pacific theatre coming out as an additional distraction) that this game was not adopted by the skilled players as it needs there efforts to fine tune it.

[arado234]

Colin I you might be able to pull off some neat moves with the Allies(HvH) if the Axis arent expecting it.

I tried the samething you did with regards to attacking Russia early and got prettywell the same results.

Have you tried ignoring Poland and going after France right away?

[Colin I]

Yes, France first works. It has the advantage that basically the Poles have less defensive terrain (no Maginot) and no armour so you should be able to finish them fairly predictably just before iRussians start to show interest once the French are on the ropes.

Hitting both can just work with IW2, one HQ on each front, most air vs France, 1 armour each front and care not to over extend too fast.

I now wonder if anyone has delayed the start of hostilities until after the historical date? How long can game go with no major power in conflict?

[arado234]

I tried attacking France first and against the A.I. I was able to take France Belgium,denmark,Poland and I told the russians to drop dead with the Nazi Soviet pact.I attacked russia in 1940 and I was also attacking in Africa.Its 1942 and it looks bleak for the Allies.

One thing I couldnt figure out was that Canada never declared war on Germany.I checked the settings and it was on random which usually means a couple of turns at the most.I had to declare war on them in 1942 to get them into the game.Has anyone ever had that happen before.I know Mackenzie King was a doofus but that was the first ive ever had that happen.