Ragnarök - (Back to) 4 Player Global War

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: brian brian

Thank you all, nice to see humans playing the game against humans.

I think a four impulse, 3 Fine Weather, S/O 39 is OK for the Axis. The up side to an opponent passing to increase the end-of-turn chance, when it works for them, is this gives them a false sense of security that this will work again when their forces are in a tight spot. When a all-Major-Powers-Pass fails, you get a double turn, which can be devastating at times. Or possibly a triple turn, if you go first on the next turn. So when an opponent tries this, I hope at least a little bit that it works for them, and we'll see what happens, next time.

It was 1 pair of impulses with fine weather, and 2 pair of impulses with rain. [:@]

[fearlessdylan]

To be fair, and to be accurate for the record, the turn would have ended on a 4, not a 3 as originally stated. A little less dramatic but accurate
Dylan

[paulderynck]

Agreed. I have never bought into the theory that any chance lower than 50% will never happen. [:)]

[NCommander]

Just as a note, we're still alive, just got to production screens. Timing een difficult this weekend

[Courtenay]

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

Agreed. I have never bought into the theory that any chance lower than 50% will never happen. [:)]

Baseball games would be very boring if that theory were true. [:)]

[NCommander]

We ran into some serious bugs, but we've got it resolved and managed to get things rolling again:

End of Turn - Production
* CW - Continue building two CVs, two pilots, continues CV (I think?, I didn't note this properly), all CVP-0s
* USSR - builds PARA and a INF
* USA - 4 convoy, 2 BB, and an AMB, CV Horent
* GE - four pilots, HQ-A
* IT - saves build points
* China - Saves (I think?)
[/b]

Neutrality Pacts
* Ge - One offensive, one defensive
* USSR - One defensive

Trade Agreements
* UK -> France: 5 resource, 3 oil, 1 turn

Conquest
* Poland fully conquered
* Denmark fully conquered
* Greenland, Iceland, and Faroes become independent countries

[NCommander]

Initiative

Axis +2, Axis wins the roll, and goes first

DOW
The game seriously broke here due to Romania becoming a full axis ally (bugs in tech support). We were able to work around this, but discovered any minor DOW would crash the game since Romania still required setup. Ge WANTED to DOW Hungry and Bulgaria, but failed. We ruled it that Germany will not DOW this impulse, USSR may not align Bulgaria this impulse (to compensate for this bug)

Romania setups up. United States doesn't care.

[Tjalfe]

Here is the situation in Germany at the start of N/D 1939. The Axis has the initiative.

[Tjalfe]

Overview of the Chinese Theater

[paulderynck]

The first impulse weather for ND39 is Fine weather all over the world and the Axis powers rejoice!

German Flying Boats put in an appearance over Manchester seeking industrial targets and to put a fright into the British public.

[paulderynck]

Unlike the Japanese raid on Chungking last turn, damage was superficial, although there was an outcry in the Press about inadequate fighter cover for the home islands.

In China, the Japanese army relentlessly attacks on all fronts, but south of Lake Poyang their ground support aircraft find the flak to be thick, heavy and effective. 83.2% of the time, the lowest one of 5 dice will give a result less than 4, but this is not one of those times.

[paulderynck]

In southern China the Canton Militia meets an untimely end. Combat roll was 11.

The other combats in northern China were also successful although all attackers were disorganized on one of them and a division was lost. But Nationalist China lost the Canton and Peking militias and their 3-4 cavalry army.

[paulderynck]

In the ensuing Allied impulse the CW attempts a raid on Kiel but it goes badly wrong. The British bombers were lucky to escape.

[paulderynck]

The weather for Impulse 3 is an 8 with Snow in the Arctic and Temperate zones, but continued fine weather in southern China. Germany declares war on Hungary and Bulgaria and her forces quickly surround and subdue the defenders of Budapest.

[NCommander]

Couple of notes:

With agreement, the USSR and the USA traded players, now I'm running CW/USA and Nationalist China, and my co-patriot Dylan is running France, USSR, and Communist China I really wasn't on my A-Game this session combined with my general inexperience with WIF, and I made some serious tactical mistakes in China; that port raid could have been a disaster but I was able to abort before anything got shot down.

I wanted to note here information on victory:

Axis Victory

Total Points: 0

Tertiary Targets Held: Warsaw (1/3 turns, worth one point)

Allied Victory:

Allies end the war by achieving an automatic victory. Currently, Berlin, Rome, and Toyko remain firmly in Axis hands. All other automatic cities remain Allied controlled. The Allies score points based on how quickly they end the war.

[paulderynck]

Nov/Dec 1939 Summary

Although only the first two impulses saw beautiful weather, the weather favored the Axis with two more pairs of impulses with Snow in both the Arctic and North Temperate and Fine in the North Monsoon. Rain set in for the Axis last impulse and a 2 was rolled after they moved, so the turn ended with an Initiative shift toward the Allies.

After denying their claims for Rumanian territory, Germany DoW'd Hungary and Bulgaria, and disposed of the Hungarian army despite the frosty weather. Victorious columns of German troops marched - some westwards toward the French border, and some southeast to support their Rumanian allies against the still resisting Bulgarians.

[paulderynck]

In China, the Nationalist Army collapsed in the south and the Japanese outran their supply sources, gobbling up territory. Battles were fought around the area of Wuhan that saw disrupted Chinese units cut off and destroyed piecemeal. The remaining Nationalist forces in that area appear to be retreating to the northwest; into the arms of their erstwhile enemies led by Chairman Mao. His forces meanwhile, pressed in upon the lightly held Japanese northern flank, but bad weather prevented any significant damage being done, thusfar.

As the turn ended, disaffected Chinese civilians sprang into revolt east of Suchow and denied the Japanese increased production rewards from their hard fought victories. The Japanese Army has announced there will be severe punishment for this outrage.

[paulderynck]

All was quiet in the Med, with Italy still neutral but both sides are positioning forces for anticipated future operations...

[paulderynck]

Finally, Marshall Stalin has announced the opening of military maneuvers along the border with Persia for "strictly peaceful purposes".

[paulderynck]

The deceased of NovDec '39.