A noob driven Total War!

Post descriptions of your brilliant successes and unfortunate demises.

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AlbertN
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A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

Greetings.

With due premise, this game is played by 2 humans and not in solo. We trade the save via skype or e-mail and play via sessions being on voice on Skype, sharing the vision of the phasing player screen.
Also both players are at their first experiences (We tried some Barbarossa and Guadalcanal, started Global War and opted to wrap it due to many mistakes at Summer '41, started a second Global War where my opponent left Gibraltar empty, which was taken by surprise by Italians ... well that caleld for a new restart! So we're at our 3rd start - to see where it leads).

Another premise, instead of going step by step of what is done, as we play in sessions, I'll just post updates of situations now and then. So probably you'll get a situation of Timeline X, and next a situation of Timeline Y, maybe 1-2-3 turns later more so than impulse by impulse session!

Optional Rules:
We play with everything that is allowed by what is coded except:
Defensive Shore Bombardment
Food in Flames
Construction Engineers

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AlbertN
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

Sept - Oct 1939

The Axis starts to pound Poland with German forces.
Poland planes are bombed as well Warsaw and Lodz - the Stukas (Lucky shot gave German both 5 Tac Value Stukas firsthand!) nailed the defenders of the Cities, but the Poland planes emerged unschated from the bombing runs. One of them though was in position to be attacked, and German forces overrun it on the ground. The other will flee to the Baltic States, providing a free pilot to UK.

Evaluation: Those planes are 4 PPs for UK in terms of pilots. Probably it is better to take one impulse more to take Poland but deny the planes to UK. The starting deployment of Poland allowed them to be seized both but the German starting deployment did not brought in enough punch to where the planes where. To set them deeper in Eastern Poland could be wise for the next game to ensure their safety.

Blessed with a long, and sunny September (5 Impulses each!) brings the Japan main offensive, dedicated to crack the Comunist Chinese to surround Sian, and pose a threat to their western holdings.
The Chinese suffer the loss of 3 units (Warlord, Garrison and something else, Militia I think - Mao and the Infantry survive) for some Japanese militias. But Mao got shoved off and disorganized, in open plain (2 Hexes west of Sian).
The Japanese pour in more forces via rail, leaving in Manchuria and Korea only 1 land unit (local militia / territorial)

The forces starting in Japan are shipped to Canton and Hainan, to advance slightly and set just a perimeter. Corollary units seize all the costal hexes of China, just to avoid cheap debarking of hostiles later. The 1-4 Marine division, too precious to be committed in combat, fits the role well.

Evaluations: In a previous game the Nationalist Chinese tried to advance toward Canton, exploiting their mass of weak units, but if they get in plans or even worse coast, the Japanese can still mount up an offensive punch against the exposed units. The Communist Chinese probably will do much better if they deploy in the mountains about Tianshui already, forfeitting Sian.

Both the Japanese, and the Anglo-French air commands issue strategic bombardment respectively of Chinese and German factories.
The BEF lands in France.

UK has left Singapore empty, placing an INF corp in Gibraltar, artillery and ENG unit in Egypt, and shipped Indian forces in Egypt.
France keeps a weak infantry unit in Tunis, trying to prevent Italy to seize it in case, and keeps a healthy garrison on the Med-Front in their homeland, as the Italian army is deployed to threaten an advance inland.
Italy evacuates of the regular troops and supply unit the Horn of Afrika.
Germany, seized Poland, rails and / or moves troops toward France. Netherlands and Denmark fall with no losses, so Poland does the same. Flawless for now!

SCREEENSHOT - March / April '40, post deploying new units and before to do any Impulse.

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AlbertN
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

SCREEENSHOT - March / April '40, post deploying new units and before to do any Impulse.

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AlbertN
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

Nov / Dec 39

The Germans after their conquest of Netherland - of which they also bombed the fleet in port by surprise, do the same with Belgium. The good weather of october apparently went in also the earnest of November, sunny skies and dry ground saw the Wermacht march in the Flanders and overrun the Belgian defenders (not overruning in in-game terms) with grand aid of the Luftwaffe to top the odds.
Von Bock is spent in leading the assault on Antwerp, where the strongest Belgian unit has been placed.

Evaluation: This is something I've learnt from my first game, where I was trying to disrupt the Holland and Belgium units. On Surprise, the doubling of Tac-factor on ground support often ensures a neat +2, meanwhile the +2 coming from disruption is a gamble of dices.

At the same time, Italy declares war only on France.
The allmighty Gabbiano strikes Marseille, where the French fleet is anchored - inflicting damage to the Bearn (Which probably won't see any action as France has other concerns right now), and amphibious operations are performed to land east of Algier (To cut the railway from Tunis, where the French land unit is.), two divisions (large unit split) are debarted together to then march into Algier later unless the French reinforces from elsewhere.

France appears to be more interested in chasing the Regia Marina convoys and few cruisers that sailed out to debark the troops (only 2 CLs!), praising in General Winter to come to aid in the north and relying on the valiance of their troops and the bunkers of the Maginot line. (He picked a Naval Impulse, thus leaving his lands units pinned as they were, scattering his French Navy in all the Med sea zones hunting for convoys.)

The weather indeed worsened, but there was a single hex (West of Metz) manned by a 4-5 MOT unit. The Germans brought in engineers and other units at avail, only a mechanized unit for the blitz combat but sufficed.
German bombers challenged the hostile weather (Rain) to bomb other targets such as Lille or the French-Belgian border.
The French fighter flew up to intercept, only to be gunned down in a one against one fight (in terms of units!) by the counter-intercepting Me109s. The French pilot saved itself although, and will return the next turn!

The French line was then penetrated as the land attack was a success, with no losses by German side.
The French high command panics, and order general retreat for a new position behind the Seine.
The German give pursuit, as the Maginot was abandoned too, Metz is taken first, and the next impulse another Garrison of the French is butchered in the open by the advancing Germans. Also two armies and one artillery were all disrupted by bombers previously (Lucky shot, a bomber with 3 Tac-factor, 2 in Rain nailed all the 3 rolls pinning a whole stack! Lille though was free to move, HQ included, and escaped the grim fate awaiting!).

The Germans infiltrate further in the gaps, surrounding by 5 hexes the Disrupted pack (The sixth containts French units) and storm it, causing the loss of 2 units and shattering the latter. Result is converted in retreat though, favoring to have that remaining 6 strenght corp in reach for destruction.
The French keep retreating, but with bad weather the Germans struggle to attack well, only that already disrupted corp is dealt with.

The Italians scatter their divisions to take Algier and march to Morocco with one, and the other gets toward Algier alongside forces coming from Lybia (Including the AoI starting INF Army that was brought there.)
Regia Marina sails out en mass to engage one of the smaller formations of the scattered French Navy. Italian fleet finds the French, and engage with success, losing only one cruiser, meanwhile sinking and damaging a total of three enemy units.

Japan jumps on Mao the very first impulse, destroying it; and maneuvers to storm Sian.
Nationalist Chinese warlord and cavalry forces march northward to threaten the southern flank of the Japanese advance, but they're too few and too weak. The Cavalry is actually brought too close and is mercilessly attacked as the mistake of placing it in woods and not mountain is made.

The strategic bombing campaign continues, merciless. Japan on China, and France and UK on Germany.
Although the French bomber lands in Metz and is disrupted (This was the Impulse after Belgium fall). Thus later in the turn it is seized on the ground and destroyed.

SCREEENSHOT - March / April '40, post deploying new units and before to do any Impulse.

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yvesp
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by yvesp »

woah... The axis is rolling! Nothing resists!
China is going to be conquered within two or three turns at the current rate...
And France, well, it is already virtually fallen.

What does the axis expect to do next ?

Yves
AlbertN
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

Jan / Dec 40

The German opts to not upgrade thir Battlecruiser (Ingame a BB!). Lots of scrapping happens and both sides are merry to get rid of pathethic excuses of airplanes.

In France the Germany keeps infiltrating deeper and deeper, but lacks the force (due to bad weather) to pounce on French units, managing to isolate some in the mountains, and out of supply.
The BEF opts to go for the run meanwhile the France shelters its units in cities, opting for a total turtling (In the last game I went for conquest of France, and heck to take Lyon was a pain in the arse!). German forces gradually surround Paris.

As the Alp Front is left undermanned and with holes, Mussolini orders swift advance for a land-grab and to deny a resource to the France.
In the while Djibouti falls to the Italian AOI territorial Army, and reinforcements are shipped in Afrika to deal with Tunis where the French are digging in for a last stand.
The French TP is sent to Dakar, where their Foreign Legion quality troops (Senegal Elite Militia!) is waiting. I dread it will be shipped in Morocco, thus the Italians send submarines out in the Atlantic in hopes for an interception if necessary.
The UK (after some player evaluations of a DoW on Italy) remains passive toward Italy, not confident with the forces in Afrika to succeed against the garrison of the Tobruk - Bardia sector; although Gibraltar Fleet is reinforces from the homeland with more carriers and battleships.

It seems Vichy is an alluring option to save lots of time, especially with whims to go in Spain and take Gibraltar.
And with UK peaceful to Italy, it means Germany can safely use Italian ships to get to Vichy Syria with land units too.
Alas the only tradeoff here is that I'd have to collapse Vichy pretty soon after its installment.

Evaluations: The Hiberian Peninsula, with the sheer amount of resources there appears most interesting for the production boost sake. 2 Red Factories, and 4 if not 5 including Portugal resources seems a boon. Much more of what one can take from Russia if we look at the historical perspective of conquest. Yes, it will bring the USA in quicker. But it will also feed the ever-hungering Axis factories with much needed resources. To me, it looks like a no-brainer choice, sadly.

The Communist Chinese got his elite infantry, but only one city remains to them, and with 2 Japanese corps around, it cannot leave the city unless it risks to be ZoC'ed and thus bringing the Commie out of supply. The Communist Chinese bunker in the City waiting for brighter times (if they will ever come).
The Nationalist Chinese seem to want to maintain their southern line, even if from the Sian area Japanese troops begin their long march across the mountains for the happy production oasis ringed by those high peaks!
Yamamoto, having got minor reinforcements - but enough to hold a vague perimeter, unleash an attack at Hengyang, suceeding in conquering it (and ZoCing a Chinese Resource).

The situation for the Chinese looks quite grim (at least in my perspective), and France has been pratically occupied well in advance than the historical timeline. (Although I believe major contribute to that was the choice of my opponent of the Naval Impulse. In Nov-Dec 39 he had his reserves organized and able to be moved. He should have arranged his defensive line instead of running after the Italian ships - of which, irony of sort, found none and thus did no damage!).

In this game also I think I got some more wisdom - besides possible luck of the dice. The Germans have litterally lost no unit whatsoever unit now. Not doing anymore attacks just because "Oh I could be lucky and...". That's the kind of attack you do only when the prize is high. (Such as the +10 or +12 attack against the 4-5 Mot Unit earlier).
On the other hand they have shot down a UK plane performing strategic bombing, nailed down some Holland cruiser and Belgian convoys.

SCREEENSHOT - March / April '40, post deploying new units and before to do any Impulse.

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composer99
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by composer99 »

Looks like an Axis romp of a game so far.
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Centuur
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by Centuur »

Well, a sunny sep/oct has it influences, but if I look closely at things, there are some evaluations I'm missing... [;)]

But I'm having fun with reading this. It reminds me of the time when I didn't know how to play this game (however, do I really know how to play it?)
Peter
AlbertN
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

USA / Soviets & Production

The USA extracted McArthur from Philippines, and built the relative Territorial.
Otherwise USA is performing an intense naval build up program. (The player deems - and I agree to that - current planes and land units a bit weakish to be produced, meanwhile ships takes their time so best to do that.).

Also USA seized Iceland, made convoy pipeline to supply it; brought also Nimitz and an AA to Honolulu along with McArthur (Double HQ there!).
Also USA is already feeding the UK with destroyers! Even if German Submarines have been kept all quiet in their docks.

The Soviets seized Eastern Poland and the Baltics, but they refreain to take Finland or Bessarabia. (My friend and opponent wants to not risk losing USA Entry Chits!). The Soviet production is focusing on land units.

France and China produce land units for the most, and Petain is cherishing the arrival of his armoured army!
Next turn China should get a nasty Commie mountain unit. But Japanese is planning to just "shield" the resource and let the Chinese build up there meanwhile they go for Factories. The Commies are lacking means to disrupt the Japanese therefore in mountain even mid-weak units will manage to resist well.

For 2 turns in '39 the UK has built only convoys. (I believe the player got traumatized in a previous game where one Bay of Biscay got in reach by Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine of surface and under surface his production dropped sensibly and he has lost a ton of naval units out of the blue trying to protect his convoys). UK surely wants to be ready for a switch to a deeper in the ocean convoy route, further away from the German interdiction.

Italy is producing NAVs and Pilots. Way to rule the seas instead of those old BBs, which are still good for Shore Bombing though. Maybe, at some point, they will be put into production!

Germany started with fixing in '39 both the Synth.Oil plants, the Panzer-HQ, and other stuff. Once the '40 kicked in, both Condors were put in production.

It appears both players in '39 avoided planes to a good degree unless they had the certainess to not take in one of those nasty "wandering mines", as we call them, being some crappy plane that we can scrap in 1940. (Ju86 anyone?).



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AlbertN
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

USA Entry Status

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yvesp
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by yvesp »

ORIGINAL: Cohen
Nov / Dec 39
Evaluation: This is something I've learnt from my first game, where I was trying to disrupt the Holland and Belgium units. On Surprise, the doubling of Tac-factor on ground support often ensures a neat +2, meanwhile the +2 coming from disruption is a gamble of dices.

As the attacker, you often do Ground Strikes. Even though they're a gamble, they bring more punch to an attack. And possibly prevent a serious counterattack should things turn bad.

A 5 factor bomber will 75% of the time give you a +2 bonus. That is worth it if the bombed stack is more than 5 (modified by terrain) factors ; i.e. almost always.

Even a 2 bomber is more useful in attack by ground striking.

Ground support is usually worthless in attack, just using your planes for little. That's why unlike Ground Strike, Ground Support doesn't cost any air action. The only situation where I use Ground Support as the attacker is when I want to bring fighter that are within range, but not within interception range.

On the other side, Ground Support is the only tool available to the defender, and it is also quite effective, especially to blunt high odds attacks.

Yves
AlbertN
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

I specifically ment in the Surprise Rounds though.
Vs the Holland corp that is 4 Strenght, or the Belgians, depending also how they're deployed.
A Stuka vs the Holland Corp is 8 or 10 added to your factors (like a +4 or +5) against a 75% of a +2. That's what I meant.
Not that I'd have a Stuka there as they're at Poland, but even the Me109s or the Me110 can help a lot to easen the fall of Holland.
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yvesp
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by yvesp »

ORIGINAL: Cohen

I specifically ment in the Surprise Rounds though.
Vs the Holland corp that is 4 Strenght, or the Belgians, depending also how they're deployed.
A Stuka vs the Holland Corp is 8 or 10 added to your factors (like a +4 or +5) against a 75% of a +2. That's what I meant.
Not that I'd have a Stuka there as they're at Poland, but even the Me109s or the Me110 can help a lot to easen the fall of Holland.


Oh, there you are right: you are better as Ground Support: a single 4 factors inf isn't worth a Ground Strike! Even when not with surprise.

In your specific case, you roll twice (with strike) to get an uncertain +2. As ground support, you unconditionaly get a +8 to attack factors (with a 4 factor stuka), which is in itself worth a +4 on the table...
AlbertN
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

Today we squeezed in one more turn.

Paris fell, Germans lost their ENG unit there, first unit loss of the game for them!
Vichy was instated, with Mussolini having claimed already for himself Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

We realized that the Senegal French Militia cannot go in Morocco. Probably something about foreign minor troops not being able to get in other colonies!
Also the Vichy France convoys got all scattered in Out of Supply bases, making it impossible for Vichy to collect their resources oversea.
Worst, Italy reverted to a peaceful country not at war with any Major! UK has a juicy naval squadron in Gibraltar which could be subject to surprise attack, though the USA Entry will skyrocket with Vichy collapse, Italy DoW on Commonwealth, and the imminent attack on Spain.
Ontop of the collapsing Chinese country. Axis won initiative, and Japan is to seize fully the productive oasis of China, and to claim French Indochina too.
USA got 2 chits for Vichy'ing France, thanksfull both of them were Value of 1!

Incoming screenshots of May - June, Axis initiative, units deployed but no Impulse played yet.

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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

The North Afrika situation.

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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

The China losing its factories --- soon!

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yvesp
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by yvesp »

With China and France already gone, the allies are doomed.
Japan can go on a rampage unrestrained...

Russia will lose Siberia within turns, and then the Imperial Army will be able to prepare itself against the Allies, with a production that will shoot through the roof!!

But with so many Chinese cities captured, the US entry should be high, isn't it ?
AlbertN
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

We played part of the next turn and it is not that bad. China is shaping up a good defensive ring to hold 2 Factory Cities. Not much but better than nothing still!
And Jap troops in China will need eons to elsewhere locate truth be told.

AlbertN
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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

Session ongoing, will upload only some screenshots for now of the start of Nov-Dec '40 Turn.

Here Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar fell.
The UK has not put up much of a fight this time here and evacuated the fleet and the ships pretty quickly after the invasion of Spain started with a joint offensive of the Nazi-Fascist forces, the first crossing the Pyrenees and the latter landing in ungarrisoned ports; and invading via land Spanish Morocco.
Brief aereo-naval combats took place in the Cape of St. Vincent sea zone, but the Italian torpedo bombers expelled the UK forces after their naval cover (performed by the allmighty spanish Chirri) was blown up by their Reggiane 2000.

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RE: A noob driven Total War!

Post by AlbertN »

With the fall of Gibraltar, the fall of Suez should follow suit.
It's in the plans for the 1942.
Although UK is producing Indian forces to be shipped there, but currently they rely for naval cover on the Free French fleet at the anchor in Beirut; and have litterally no air cover. (on the other hand UK focused on a strong convoy pipeline elsewhere, having all factories pumping war materials).

Italian colonial troops also occupy Khartoum, conquering the Sudan.

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