NetPlay BarbAARosa - rekm41 (GER) v PeekingDuck (SU)

[Peeking Duck?]

This AAR is a NetPlay game between rekm41 (GER) and PeekingDuck (SU). It was played using v1.03. The following notes are from the Russian perspective and were written at the time of play. Hopefully, rek can add some thoughts from his side. *Note: I am certainly a novice level player having played the 5th Edition back in the late 80s early 90s. My opponent has a little more experience than I, but I'm not sure how much - probably best to let him comment if he wants to address such.

We are playing with the 'standard' optional rules although we're using the 1D10 charts and 'Blitz Bonus'.

[Peeking Duck?]

Setup - My idea is to slow Germany down and pray for rain. Have set up the bulk of my armoured/mobile forces near Bessarabia A) to fulfil setup restrictions, and B) to possibly pull a cheeky move on Romania if possible. Also, depending on how his attacks go, I might push them (my southern armoured force) forward to pressure his supply lines. I've also taken a risky decision (ie, sacrificed) to place one of my two HQs in the Pripet Marshes to keep the garrison units somewhat in supply. I found through playing solitaire this strategy gave me fits, so I'll try it against a human opponent and hope for the best. If anything, these units (near Brest-Litovsk) should at least prevent a mad dash forward either through the Ukraine or through Belorussia.

See below for how things stand after setup. Fingers crossed!

[Peeking Duck?]

Axis Imp 1 - M/J 41

Axis selects a Super Combined - . His super combined caught me slightly off guard as I was unaware the benefits, namely unlimited Air and Ground moves, aside from Rail. All but 2 of his 7 ground strikes are successful!

I got some good results from my 2 factor corps set up in the forest hexes near Brest-Litovsk. Both were killed, but each achieved a disorganised result, flipping many of his units and forcing the him to decide whether to use his HQ to reorganise early in the turn or push on without them. He decided to reorg his land units and push on but he now has three disorganised German HQs

See below for screen of End Axis Impulse 1

[Peeking Duck?]

Allied Imp 1 - M/J 41

Russia retreats to the Dniepr. I thought seriously about pushing forward into Romania in a bid to knock them out, but it would have resulted in the death of all my mobile forces. Bad idea. I figure that with his offensive chit used he'll have trouble forcing the river, at least not in appreciable numbers. If I can a reasonable line set up but the end of this turn I feel confident I can make crossing the Dniepr a massive pain for him - especially without that offensive chit.

W00t! Storms in Arctic and Rain in temperate. He gonna have fun with his HQs disorganised trying to keep everyone in supply. Serious blow to his early intentions.

See below for screen of End Allied Impulse 1

[Peeking Duck?]

Axis Impulse 2 - M/J 41

He's having real difficulty moving and remaining in supply with the weather effects and his 3 German HQs unable to move forward.

Also, for some reason the game would not allow him to invade with his transported corp floating in the Baltic. He even tried selecting different actions but alas, the game would not allow. It simply skipped over the invasion phase and we decided to ignore it for the time being. Germans align Finland and set up their forces.

No screen - sorry! Got confused whether I was doing the screens before or after each impulse. Doh. Thought I had the screen from End Axis 2, in fact, it was the screen from End Allied 1 [:(]

[Peeking Duck?]

Allied Impulse 2 - M/J 41

Not many changes in Russian positions. Shuffled some units along Dniepr line. No Screen

[Peeking Duck?]

Axis Imp 3 - M/J 41

With the weather cleared he is on the move again, but impaired by the distance from his HQs. He positions for attack on Kaunas (Lithuania) and Vilnius (Eastern Poland) in the north and on the two Russian Garrison corps impeding his advances north and south of Pripet. Only Axis attack is on a 3 factor corps at the entrance to the Pripet Marshes. Attack roll is 2, a 3-1 Russian Garrison corps is destroyed, but many of his units are disorganised. He's going nowhere anytime soon without HQs to reorg. He's moving into position to rid the Russian Mountain Corp from what's soon to be his rear. Germans align Finland and set up their forces.


See below for screen of End Axis Impulse 3

[Peeking Duck?]

Allied Impulse 3 - M/J 41

Allies select a with hopes of sinking the transport carrying the German 7-3 INF in the Baltic. Then the game kept crashing every time we got to the naval combat phase. We again decided to forego this aspect of the game in order to keep things moving. No other land moves to speak of for SU.

No screen.

[Peeking Duck?]

Axis Impulse 4 - M/J 41

Three Axis attacks. Vilnius is taken but Kaunas holds out and disorganises several of his units. Not much else for them to do as most of his units are disorged. In the Carpathians, the Russian Mountain Corps is surrounded by no less than 12 corps and attacked, but the die roll is a 1 - Axis lose 2 units and all remaining attacking units is disorganised. Yay! That's pretty much it for May/June. Even if the weather turns good (which I know it will) he's disorged across the whole front with no HQs. MMmm. Excellent Smithers! The Germans drop off the 7-3 corps in Helsinki.

See below for screen of End Axis Impulse 4

[Peeking Duck?]

Allied Impulse 4 - M/J 41

SU selects a Pass/Prays for rain. No Luck.

[Peeking Duck?]

Axis Impulse 5 - M/J 41

He's move some units in position for an attack next turn on Minsk. Although 3 of said units are now out of supply. Should I ground strike them? Hmmm Only 1 Axis attack this turn. Soviets fly in ground support(from Byansk no less!) for the attack on the Southern 4-1 Garrison Corps in the forest just outside Pripet Marshes. Having spent his fighter force as bombers in ground attacks he has nothing that can reach for interception. The Soviet bombers are cleared through and change the attack odds to a 3/1. Result is the Russian Corps is destroyed and all attackers flipped.

See Allied Impulse screen in next post for reference.

[Peeking Duck?]

Allied Impulse 5 - M/J 41

SU selects a Pass. Turn Ends.

See below for screen of End Allied Impulse 5

[Peeking Duck?]

Thoughts at Turn End. I, as the Russian player, was exceedingly lucky in this first turn. Although his ground attacks were effective, he was unable to get many of my units out of supply therefore they had their full defending factors, albeit with a table shift. Tactically, I *think* I'm OK, but there's still the entire July/August turn which will most likely have good weather. The road to Moscow and Leningrad is bare and I desperately need to get some reinforcements into those areas ASAP. Fortunately, I've built a ton of garrison units, hopefully some with high combat factors, and will flood the area shortly. If anything I can at least provide some speed bumps for his advance, and if we can make it to Sept/Oct relatively intact, I like my odds then.

Unfortunately, the game session ended here. We spent 5 hours setting up and playing this scenario, with numerous crashes and restarts during that time. I'm not trying to knock the game, just giving some perspective. We ultimately called it a day during the end turn sequence as any of the same game files we tried would always hang when it came to 'place new units' phase. I think my opponent posted as much in the tech forum so I won't repeat it here. Ultimately, we were enjoying it but it would be nice if we didn't have to restart so many times - I'll throw a rough estimate at about 20 restarts due to crashing. My hope is that we can continue with 1.04.

Other Notes: One thing stands out in this game that really seems strange to me, and that is the defender rolls the dice in any attack. I'm not talking about picking which table to use, I mean in every attack he made, it was me, the defender, clicking the roll dice button. It seems strange as whenever I played the board game we always had the attacker rolling the dice. I know it doesn't ultimately matter as it's controlled by the programme, but it just seems the attacker should get their chance to put 'the mojo' on the dice roll, no? If it's in the rules and I've simply overlooked it then so be it. Otherwise, would love to hear opinions on this.

[brian brian]

If you had the Amphibious Transport optional rule turned on, an INF could not invade from a TRS...

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: Peeking Duck?

Other Notes: One thing stands out in this game that really seems strange to me, and that is the defender rolls the dice in any attack. I'm not talking about picking which table to use, I mean in every attack he made, it was me, the defender, clicking the roll dice button. It seems strange as whenever I played the board game we always had the attacker rolling the dice. I know it doesn't ultimately matter as it's controlled by the programme, but it just seems the attacker should get their chance to put 'the mojo' on the dice roll, no? If it's in the rules and I've simply overlooked it then so be it. Otherwise, would love to hear opinions on this.

It's not in the rules. It has to do with the design of NetPlay and the ultimate plan for more than 2 players and needing a "team leader PC" for each side.

[Zorachus99]

With such a slow opening turn, it was a bit of a mistake to leave any units in the USSR.

It would have reduced the production multiple of the USSR by .25

Just as good as removing units from the map.

[Peeking Duck?]

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99

With such a slow opening turn, it was a bit of a mistake to leave any units in the USSR.

It would have reduced the production multiple of the USSR by .25

Just as good as removing units from the map.

Hi m8. Can you elaborate a bit on this? I've not come across it in RaC yet.

Cheers,
Peek

[Centuur]

ORIGINAL: brian brian

If you had the Amphibious Transport optional rule turned on, an INF could not invade from a TRS...

It could be the weather preventing an invasion. You can't invade in storm, snow or blizzard...

[Centuur]

ORIGINAL: Peeking Duck?

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99

With such a slow opening turn, it was a bit of a mistake to leave any units in the USSR.

It would have reduced the production multiple of the USSR by .25

Just as good as removing units from the map.

Hi m8. Can you elaborate a bit on this? I've not come across it in RaC yet.

Cheers,
Peek

The USSR get's a bonus of 0,25 times his production points in the calculation to build points available if there are enemy units in the USSR itself. So if you would have left the USSR at that point (because you couldn't advance properly in the first turn, you could have caused the USSR to have a couple of units less to build this turn...

[comsolut]

ORIGINAL: Peeking Duck?

Unfortunately, the game session ended here. We spent 5 hours setting up and playing this scenario, with numerous crashes and restarts during that time. I'm not trying to knock the game, just giving some perspective. We ultimately called it a day during the end turn sequence as any of the same game files we tried would always hang when it came to 'place new units' phase. I think my opponent posted as much in the tech forum so I won't repeat it here. Ultimately, we were enjoying it but it would be nice if we didn't have to restart so many times - I'll throw a rough estimate at about 20 restarts due to crashing. My hope is that we can continue with 1.04.

While I may never be able to invest the time in Net-Play, hopefully the issues will be resolved.

And a BIG THANKS for taking time to write up the AAR!!