Magicmissile (Allied)vs Battlevonwar (Axis) Battlevonwar welcome

[MagicMissile]

Sep 1 39

Out second game in our mirrormatch.

One big question in this patch of course is how to defend France. Feels like a completely lost cause as it should be maybe. Losing out on 3-4 corps of 50 xp units will make a difference. I usually send 3 British corps if I want to replace the lost French ones I need to send 6 and that is just to hold status quo compared to before. If I want to try to make it harder I need to send even more. Not sure what to do? What do you dear readers think?

Anyway on turn 1 I manage to surround the Northern pincer in Poland and march proudly into Konigsberg but as will be seen to no use.

In the west I set the airforce to cover the Netherlands. The British in reach of Amsterdam and the French cover the rest.
In the Maginotline I start to exchange the 50% units with 40% units( something I noticed Battlevonwar did not in our other game)

[MagicMissile]

Turn 2 15 sep 39

Poland and Denmark falls. I continue to move around some fleets. And continue with replcaing units in the Maginot line.

I was thinking of withdrawing from Africa not sure if one should be so afraid of an Italian DoW but the Middle east is lightly held. The Germans can send a unit or two to Egypt and I think the chance of it falling is not insignificant so I think I will pass on that idea.

[MagicMissile]

Turn 3 Sep 29 -39

The Netherlands falls and the allied airforce dont do too well unfortunately. So German losses similar in both games but the allies are a bit worse off in this game.

In the atlantic German subs are moving way out west pursued by two carriergroups. It is different than my style. I mostly move between north and south Atlantic fairly close to Ireland. However the outcome here is also pretty similar.

[MagicMissile]

Turn 4 october 13 -39

Everything settling down and things will probably be quiet until spring 40. We will see if Battlevonwar will try and gobble up Belgium if he gets a cold turn in the fall.

My plan for the Sovietunion will be different from before. I have started build corps from the beginning to try to use up as much manpower as posible. In my other games I have liked to save up production and build like 12-15 armies on the first turn of Barbarossa. It has worked out fine but it has the drawback of immediately set Soviet manpower in the high 60 low 70 range and from there it really never recovers. This is a fairly big drawback and so I will try this idea instead see how it works out [:)]. I set all 20% corps into garrison mode and will set them up at the border at least for now.

[malkarma]

After reading Manowar in some threads, and readingg Sveint AAR agaist him, I made an specific approach to the allies build up in France that i'm testing in a hotseat game. If the weather is bad for the germans, the outcome can be a real nightmare.
France will fall, but germans will bleed.

[MagicMissile]

Yes the trick is not to bleed too much of course [:)]. I only tried in hotseat once with a large British contribution and it didnt change much and allies chances for counterattacks limited but maybe I played badly with the allies.

[MagicMissile]

End of 39

Battle doing better than I in the Atlantic, but I have suffered worse convoy losses in other games so I think it is ok. My escorts scored a couple of hits as well. Otherwise not doing that much still ponder how much to send to France. I think I will send 4 maybe 5 corps more than my normal 3. But I feel like the real French high command slightly demoralised not sure it if there is that much I can do [:)]. In a way might be more interesting if I go for a lower BEF than one can more easily compare between the games what might be the better approach.

[MagicMissile]

April 40

Battlevon havent had the same luck with the weather but he finally did get a cold turn on the last turn of April and he took out Belgium.

Battle of the Atlantic goes really bad. I dont mind the merchants sunk but he gets an escort basically every turn so Canada and Britain build basically only escorts and upgrades for the moment.

I did get a bit of revenge sinking 14 merchants outside the coast of Norway.

[MagicMissile]

May 40

The Germans storm into France but on a fairly narrow front so I see one opportunity to try and take out a German arm corps. After suffering a lot of losses in the air the BEF advanced and on the 3 rd round of attack managed to make the arm corps retreat and shatter. After that the British forces are already almost a spent force so I start to withdraw them.
That is a nice outcome one less arm coprs in Russia maybe will make a difference.

Also hade a really good turn for my convoy escorts sinking 6 subfactors in one turn. That came as a nice relief. As I was losing a lot of escorts earlier.

[MagicMissile]

August 2 1940

Hmm seems I forgot to take a lot of screenshots in this game.

Paris fell first turn of July. Without a big British commitment I would say that is as good as it gets for the allies also Battlevonwar got a bit unlucky with the weather not taking Belgium until last turn of April I think that might have cost him one turn. Germany have invaded Vichy France. Italy invaded Vichy North africa. It is still holding out there were no invasions around Alger. The Canadians have occupied Morocco. I hope to maintain a foothold. We will see how that works out. The British have occupied Vichy Syria. Most likely all Vichy territories will have a very short lifespan [:)]. British navy steams down to the Mediterranean hoping to catch some italian fleets outside the coast of North africa.

Of note British intelligence have spotted 2 italian arm corps and one mech. Stalin takes notes [:)].

[MagicMissile]

September 13 1940

The Axis conquers Vichy North Africa. No chance holding on so I try to retreat in bad weather. Think I might lose a canadian unit here. Axis also pushes hard in Egypt but I got a couple of corps there in time so the Al Alamein lock is there so I think it should hold.

There were some naval action in the western Mediterranean. Some Italian subs intercepted my carrier fleet. They lost 4 factors to 1 British. Then I launched a Naval Strike on Oran catching Littorio and a CA I think inflicting 7 points but not sinking anything.

Boa going better, Got the five escorts from the US and with what I built can now fully escorts 2 lanes and have some leftovers. Been inflicting some sub losses so the threat feels a lot less now. German launched surface raiders. They have caused some damage and I have yet to intercept them.

Looks like Battlevonwar have no plans of taking Malta or Greece as of yet anyway.

[MagicMissile]

September 40

Not much happening. Weather in Africa really bad first rain then heavy rain so retreat really slow.

[MagicMissile]

I spoke too soon. The Germans did break through in Egypt but they were expensive combats and I think I have enough reserves to manage. Still well done I have just giving up on Egypt in general as Axis but seems it can be done [:)].

[MagicMissile]

In the west I manage to sink a sub in harbour. Good for my morale since German surface raider are now wreaking a bit of havoc. Interestingly a German fighter intercepted which indicates he is teching the long range fighter upgrade.

[MagicMissile]

I probably should have seen it coming but Battlevonwar is full of surprises [:)]. The Axis is going for Gibraltar. Wont be easy without going through Spain and it is bad weather season but it will cost me a lot of the Navy if I want to contest the water around Gibraltar.

[MagicMissile]

In Egypt the Axis makes one more attempt to get through but losing 12-5 in one combat breaks off and looks like the start of a retreat.

[MagicMissile]

Gibraltar holds so far but I lost 5 cv factors and 9 sub factors to Naval strikes.

[MagicMissile]

Gibraltar still holds. Axis retreats a bit in Egypt so I thought we could turn east. Soviet defense is forming up. Not that much German presence in the east so far.

[MagicMissile]

And the Mediterranean

[MagicMissile]

Dec 1940

1940 comes to an end. Here to start with is a screenshot of the British economy. The turn before I turned off the North Atlantic convoys since the raiders killed like 6 of them per turn the cost to replace them is almost the same as the lost resources. It is a trick Battlevonwar used against me so I wanted to try it too. Here is what I dont understand. I only turned off North Atlantic because thats where the raiders are. But my income went from 200 to 70 and merchants in use of 180 is 0. Something I dont understand or maybe a bug?

Also notice the very low oil after first sending fleet down to Gibraltar and then chasing raiders in the Atlantic.

I have built something like 50 merchants and 25 escorts so Battlevonwar done really well I think in pressuring the British.