My First Decisive Axis Victory

[Dgold]

or those who think the game is too difficult playing as the Axis, I just received my first Axis Decisive Victory.

I played the 1939 Campaign as Axis with the Allied AI having +1 spotting and 10% to production

Although I have been a beta tester since early this year, I have never played the Axis past 1942, nor the Allied past 1941, as we testers received so many builds to test – which made saved games incompatible.
Therefore most of the Allied AI moves were a surprise to me, and I had very little idea of the Allied production potential.

Although the Germans were receiving 1200 PPs a turn by game end, I never ran out of units to build. Most of the Axis PPs in 1944 and 1945 went to rebuilding my air units after these were attritioned each turn by the Allied air forces in England.
I also spent a fair amount of PPs on research, as well as operationally moving units around the Eastern Front to defend against the continual Soviet counterattacks.

Even though I had conquered all of European Russian and the North Caucasus by the end of 1942, the Russians were still attacking my most turns, forcing my to keep large forces on the Western Front.
I captured Moscow in August 1942. The Capital then moved to Kuibyshev - which I captured in Sept 1944. The Capital then moved to Perm - which I never captured.

Game Chronology:

1939 East Front:

Attacked Poland on 1st September turn. Captured Warsaw and forced Polish Surrender in three turns.

1940 West Front:

Attacked Benelux countries on May 28th turn
Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium capitulated on first turn
Paris fell and France offered an Armistice on the Aug 18th turn

1940 East Front:

Attacked Yugoslavia from Austria and mainly Hungary on Nov 16th turn
Belgrade captured and Yugoslavia capitulated on the Dec 8th turn

1941 East Front:

Soviet Union (SU) attacked on May 29th turn:
4 HQ (one more came on early July)
4 tank
4 mech
6 army
10 corps
2 para
1 special forces
2 heavy artillery
2 fighter
3 tact
2 med bomber
plus usual Hungarian, Romanian and Finnish units
plus Italian special forces unit

Lwow captured Jun 20th
Riga, Minsk, Rowno captured July 8th
Daugavpils captured July 22nd
Kiev, Dnepropetrosk, Ostrov, Polotsk captured Aug 5th
Orsha, Odessa captured Aug 19th
Parnu, Mogilev, Konotop, Kharkhov, Kherson, Pskov captured Sept 2nd
Tallin, Chernigov, Vitebsk, Stalino, Simferopol captured Sept 16th
Smolensk, Bryansk, Taganrog captured Oct 4th
Luga, Narva captured Oct 26th
Vyazma, Rostov captured Dec 9th
Leningrad, Rzhev, Morozovsk captured Dec 31st

As the Russian Fleet was destroyed by late Fall, I moved the entire German navy including 3 sub units to interdict the British – SU convoy route.
I also had a maritime bomber unit in north Norway as a raider.
These units were attacked periodically by British cruisers and destroyers.

1941 Africa:

El Alamein captured July 22nd
Alexandria captured Aug 5th
Cairo captured Sept 2nd
Beni Suef captured Oct 26th
Suez captured Nov 17th
Port Said captured Dec 9th

1942 East Front:

Novgorod captured Mar 25th
Volkhov, Tikhvin, Belgorod captured May 8th
Sumy, Kaluga captured Jun 21st
Tula, Stalingrad captured July 19th
Salsk, West hex of Moscow captured Aug 2nd
East hex of Moscow captured Aug 30th
Kursk, Stavropol captured Sept 13th
Kalinin, Maikop captured Sept 27th
Elista, Vladimir, Ryazan, Voronezh captured Oct 19th
Vyshniy Volochyk captured Nov 10th
Krasnodor captured Dec 2nd

1942 Middle East:

Gaza, Beersheba captured Mar 25th
Jerusalem, Haifa captured Apr 16th
Amman captured Jun 21st
Ar Rutbah (Iraq) captured July 19th
Ramadh (Iraq) captured Sept 13th
Tikrit (Iraq) captured Sept 27th
Baghdad, Najaf captured Dec 2nd
Kut-Al-Amarna, Amarna, Nasiriyeh captured Dec 24th

1942 Africa:

Allied invade Vichy North Africa Dec 2nd
Italian and German reinforcements rushed to Tunis Dec 2nd

1943 East Front:

Jan to Dec – Axis defending against Soviet offensives. Axis still pushing slowly towards Astrakhan and into the Caucasus.
Yaroslav, Gorki captured Jul 22nd
Borisoglebsk captured Dec 31st

1943 West Front:

Allies invade Brittany with 6 units + 1 HQ – Brest captured June 2nd
Allies invade Cherbourg peninsula with 4 units – Cherbourg captured June 2nd
Axis begin to counterattack Allied beachheads in France Jun 24th
Brest, Cherbourg recaptured Aug 5th. Only 1 Allied unit left in France
Last Allied unit in France killed – Aug 19th. 6 Allied units as Amphib units off French Coast.
Two Allied units land in Brittany, subsequently killed on next Axis turn – Sept 2nd
One or two Allied units - as Amphib units - are sunk off French Coast by Axis air units each clear weather turn, as coast hexes are mostly covered with Axis ground units

1943 Middle East:

Basra, Ahwaz, Persian Oilfields captured Mar 18th
Mosul captured Jun 24th
Mehabad (Persia) captured Jul 22nd
Tabriz (Persia) captured Aug 5th

1943 Africa:

Quarna, Tebessa captured Feb 4th
Bone captured Mar 18th
Phillipville, Constantine, Bougie captured Apr 19th
Algiers, Orleansville captured Jun 24th
Oran captured July 8th
Fez captured Aug 19th
Rabat captured Sept 16th
Casablanca, Safi captured Oct 26th
Agadir captured Nov 17th
Marrakech captured Dec 9th. Only OOS Allied air units left in NA.

The Italian Fleet started to transit the Straits of Gibraltar to the Atlantic on Aug 5th.
I moved these units and formed a line, with 4 German sub units, 12 hexes or so west of the Azores. I was successful in interdicting many US transports headed to North Africa or England.

1944 East Front:

Jan to July – Axis defending against Soviet offensives. Axis still pushing slowly towards Astrakhan and into the Caucasus.
Stavropol, Maikop, Armavir captured July 22nd
Astrakhan captured Aug 19th
Kuybyshev, Georgiyevsk captured Sept 2nd
Kerch, Grozny, Verkhniy Baskunchak captured Sept 16th
Uralsk, Makhachkala (Caucasus) captured Oct 4th
Derbent captured Oct 26th
Astaria captured via Persia Oct 26th
Kizlyar, Tbilisi captured Nov 17th
Sevastopol, Baku, Kirovobad captured Dec 9th
Axis units from Persia and from the Eastern Front make contact near Baku in the Caucasus – Dec 9th

1944 West Front:

Allied invasion of Brittany – 4 units, Cherbourg peninsula – 2 units, 2 para units dropped behind Axis lines, on May 7th
Axis recaptured Cherbourg peninsula, killed para units, part of Brittany on May 29th
Axis recaptured remainder of Brittany on Jun 20th
Allied invasion of Brittany with 2 units on Jul 22nd
Axis recapture Brittany on Aug 5th. Axis leave 2 open hexes (not ports) on French Coast to tempt Allies to invade there.

1945 East Front:

Leninakan, Guryvev (Caucasus) captured Feb 11th
Yerevan, Khoi (Caucasus) captured Mar 25th

1945 West Front:

Gibraltar captured by destroying garrison unit with bombers in Morocco, then performing an amphib assault with an Axis unit from Morocco on Feb 11th.
In retrospect I could have captured Gibraltar in 1944 but it did not occur to me as it was not a threat.
Moved all bomber and fighter units close to French Coast in April. Started targeting British air units in England.
Destroyed garrison unit in London with bombers, then captured London with an Axis para unit on Jun 21st turn.
Just in time as I was advised that a large American fleet was transferred to the Europe theatre on the next Allied turn.
I was advised that I had achieved a Decisive Axis Victory on the next Allied turn.

Unit Losses:

Brit – 161
Fr – 20
US – 134
SU – 387
Po – 11
Germ – 20
IT – 9

End of Game PPs:

Br – 420
US – 800
SU – 560
Germ – 1200
It - 280


End of Game National Morale:

Br – 25
US – 46
SU – 26
Germ – 134
IT - 125