GD 1938 v 2, testgame

[lion_of_judah]

LOL....yeap this is the hero of Minsk

[Jeffrey H.]

With the imminent demise of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Turkish front, England seeks an end to hostilities with Germany. Terms are TBD but we hope that the Germans and the English can reach suitable peace terms.

[ernieschwitz]

ORIGINAL: Jeffrey H.
With the imminent demise of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Turkish front, England seeks an end to hostilities with Germany. Terms are TBD but we hope that the Germans and the English can reach suitable peace terms.

ORIGINAL: Flash Gordon, the movie.
Long Live Flash! You´ve saved your Earth. Have a nice day.

Or in other words, I think the Fat Lady sings now... and Lion of Judah has won.

[lion_of_judah]

once moscow has fallen, we can talk of a possible peace deal. Here are a few items to contemplate......

item 1- ALL ALLIED FORCES WITHDRAW FROM SPAIN, INDIA AND THE NEAR EAST
item 2- ITEM 1 IS NEGOTIABLE WITHIN TERMS SET FOURTH BY BERLIN

[lion_of_judah]

Why are the allies crying uncle so early? just because the Soviets are about to collapse doesn't mean I have won the war. The British and Americans can still try and break through and head for germany. Just because it looks bleak now, doesn't mean all is lost guys

[ernieschwitz]

Actually late march 1944, is not very early to call it quits.

That is some 80 turns into the game...

[lion_of_judah]

yeah but the British and American could still beat me. I myself wouldn't give up till at the very least my captial was taken but that is just me

[lion_of_judah]

[:@] we can begin negotiations..........

[lion_of_judah]

let us do some summing up for this game.....what did the allies do wrong and what did the axis power do right, also what did the axis powers do wrong and vice-versa.

I would like to know what each player thinks about the strengths and weaknesses of each player in this game so we can learn not to repeat those same mistakes again or repeat if possible those actions which helped victory become a real possibility. I'll go first

the British..... in my opinion if the British had kept up the air war no matter the loses and was more aggressive in their land campaign then things may have turned out different. By the British stopping their air war when they did, this gave me the time to rebuild my Luftwaffe cause I will tell you, the western front air war was on the verge of defeat for me as I was truly nervous and worried...

The Americans...... blockading me in the Atlantic should have been heavier and control of the sea's is a must. The Americans were blockading the hell out of me in the pacific and while I had built up a very large reservre of infantry in China those reserves were being eatten away at by my offensives. I was losing over 50-100 infantry each turn when i was sending them too my China command HQ becquse of those American subs....

The British stopped me in Spain, but then stopped. If they had of moved more mobile forces there while it was still just italy they could have been in France and at the Rhine in no time. As all my German forces for the most part were on the Eastern front and I did not have much in the way of infantry stopping or much else that could have stopped them. Their pause again, helped me to bring more forces too bear and basically stop the Allies. This gave Italy time to rebuild and there you have it, Turkey finally fell.

In my opinion pausing for very long once you have begun your offensive is not good, especially when you have the enemy on the ropes. That is when you go all out and defeat the enemy. The Japanese while it was beginning to look promising and victory was again looking like it might happen was only thin, a little more of a push from the Allies in this theater and My front line forces for the Japanese were paper thin in most areas and a good push a time or two would have cracked this baby and opened a hole for a major breakthrough if the allies had just been more aggressive.

The Soviets, I must say had me biting my finger nails when I first took over, but because of ernie and him getting production to 125% I was able to produce bombers and fighters and stopped the soviet advance cold which saved the germans big time. The soviet player was very smart building those AA'S as this began causing me large losses in air craft.

[ernieschwitz]

I think it was a tremendous help towards the German cause that their factories produced at 125%. That was one of the last things I did before the Axis was taken over by lion of judah. The upgrade basically allowed Germany to build 4 factories, and get 5 factories production out of them, while saving 200 PP, by not having to build that 5th plant.

I also found that the Allies, early on should have blocked the naval passageways to the North Sea, and through the Channel, with their subs, to prevent german Uboats from escaping into the Atlantic. It´s about 5 hexes that need to be covered, with submarines. Having to fight those submarines each turn to get out, was one of the worst things I have ever tried.

I also think that the allies gave up to early on the Night Bombing campaign. Early on the only defence Germany had was about 20 Night Fighter Is and 2 heavy flak in each obvious target. I also think that it was dead stupid to try and bomb somewhere that had a navy parked in it. As the navy gets to shoot back.

I found that in the beginning speed was of the essence, that Germany had to keep a good pace, and do surprising things, so as to constantly keep the allies guessing, and had the Soviets tried early to attack the Germans, especially while they were occupied sweeping through Europe that would have been the end.

I think Frank essentially wasted the German fleet, in an attempt to send it towards Britain. It should have stayed in the Baltic, and shelled everything along the coastline there... Also I was very frustrated that Stockholm was not overrun...

Lastly, and not applying to later versions of the game, since counter battery has been removed from the game. The French essentially wasted their artillery, in the maginot, bombarding the German artillery across the river, thus losing alot of it.

[lion_of_judah]

you are correct, I'm not very good at naval strategy and I did waste those ships. It was you who pushed me into using my subs more and I'm glad I did. Those german subs of mine was a pain in the butt from what earlier AAR's had said. I also think that your doing the production was a great help as well.

[ernieschwitz]

About the Italians.

They had the victory condition to take large parts of france and spain. It all looked good, until they failed to take Malta. (which every Italian player must). When the fleet evaporated, and the Spanish diplomacy was lost, it seemed that that was out of reach. Not sure if the Italians could ever take Malta, and not entirely sure that they could clear Spain of allies.... but, they had a boxers chance.

[ernieschwitz]

Things the allies did right:

Well firstly, it was a great idea to build those factories in India. It is possible to get from India to africa pretty quick, and also from India to Burma and Indonesia quick as well. Especially I think that it was going to be very annoying for the Japanese ...

Secondly Bombur, playing the soviets for a while, stopped the German offensive, using masses of artillery to stop the germans from attacking. It was a great ploy. I thought it had made the game a stalemate actually, not sure what happened to change this.

Getting the Italians out of Libya, was also a good ploy. Getting that closer to Italy felt dangerous. Getting Spain to join the allies was also not very polite as was the portugese alliance with the allies.

Also it seems like that the allies learned from the Germans how to use subs against the Japanese.

I think that the allies might have had a better time with their transports across the atlantic, the way things were, by using actual transport ships, and loading them, and convoying them with actual destroyers. The transfers of units simply cost, in my view, too many troops, and the assigning of US troops under the flag of the Soviet and British was a waste, cause they fought only at 80% of their strength.

[Twotribes]

Still think the kiss of death was absolutely no bombing by the USA. Germany was free of attrition on their production centers and from what I got from the updates was skimping on air defense because of it.

[lion_of_judah]

I wouldn't say The Germans did not have much of an air defense, as I was building each aa unit up with 8-10 aa pieces in each unit and they were heavy aa. My factories were producing more fighters than anything else aircraft wise but I was able to produce 1 heavy AA piece each turn

[lion_of_judah]

I think what helped the Italians was their producing the torpedo bomber which took a heavy toll on allied ships in the European theater. Also their production of level 2 tank destroyers as I was producing them enough to outfit 2tankdestroyer units every 2 turns. The Japanese were building cruisers again and they were about ready too come out in force. Also the Japanese level 2 torpedo bombers took their share of allied ships, so all in all the tide of war was very much turning in my favor on all fronts. That is at least my opinion

[ernieschwitz]

ORIGINAL: Twotribes
Still think the kiss of death was absolutely no bombing by the USA. Germany was free of attrition on their production centers and from what I got from the updates was skimping on air defense because of it.

Imagnine if the Germans had, had to develope Night Fighter IIs or above. That would have been costly. And building them even moreso. I agree that the allies should have waged a bombing campaign on something... as MacArthur said, hit them where they ain´t.

There was no way the Germans could have covered the entire area of France, Germany and the BeNeLux, along with the deeper areas of Middle/East Europe, from being bombed (if the Allies had used the air bases in Norway and Sweden), without it having an effect on the Soviet front. Also a Bombing campaign against the southern part of europe might have brought Italy to its knees.

You can´t just send fighters in over land, and expect there to be interceptors. If there is no threat of bombing, why keep those interceptors there at all?

[kombrig]

After the Allies stopped their air offensive in Europe the Soviets did not have real chance anymore. It was possible to keep the Germans back until they researched Medium Tank IV and especially V. Until then the German armor did not impress much, the Soviet T-34 M40s were able to deal with them without much problems even if they were less in numbers than the German armor. However the Soviet industry was unable to keep pace in arms research.

[ernieschwitz]

ORIGINAL: kombrig
After the Allies stopped their air offensive in Europe the Soviets did not have real chance anymore. It was possible to keep the Germans back until they researched Medium Tank IV and especially V. Until then the German armor did not impress much, the Soviet T-34 M40s were able to deal with them without much problems even if they were less in numbers than the German armor. However the Soviet industry was unable to keep pace in arms research.

Yeah. That has been remedied somewhat in the newest version. The Soviets get more base production, that is bigger prodcution sites, and the cost of evacuating cities of industry has been lessened. Also where the staff levels before were about 10% they are now at about 75%. However there is a cost ... the soviet soldier fights at 80%, until the first soviet city/production site, that they start with, is in enemy hands, then after they play a cheap card, they get slowly back up to 100%.

I think that the soviet union was alittle too weak in this game.

[Jeffrey H.]

ORIGINAL: lion_of_judah

once moscow has fallen, we can talk of a possible peace deal. Here are a few items to contemplate......

item 1- ALL ALLIED FORCES WITHDRAW FROM SPAIN, INDIA AND THE NEAR EAST
item 2- ITEM 1 IS NEGOTIABLE WITHIN TERMS SET FOURTH BY BERLIN

Rhetoric aside, I will not continue to play. I am willing to pass my game to Bombur or anyone else for that matter if they wish to continue the game. The British are in better shape than you might think.