Tourney game amadeus (Axis) vs Mika (Allies)

[LLv34Mika]

Hi everyone!

A new game has started a few turns ago. Amadeus is challenging me to join our tournament. I will try to defend my last place in our ladder. Maybe there will be the one or other attempt to make a step forward

What happened so far?

Germany moved into polish territory. Obviously the Germans were not using everything they have. It was not as effective as it could be and the Polish army was able to attack a German HQ.

A few weeks later it was clear where the rest of the Wehrmacht was located. Germany declared war on the Netherlands. Belgium instantly joined the Allies to help but the Netherlands were overrun and surrendered after two turns.

Belgium is still alive. The armies protecting Bruxelles are still there and the fortress is still in allied hands. The readiness and morale of the soldiers in the fortress is dumping quickly and there is no hope that they can stop the Germans but maybe they can provide some more time for the French Army to prepare.

The good thing: France sent its diplomatic staff to Spain the first days of war and they were able to convince Franco to stay out of the war for now (diplomatic success --> Spain moved 11% towards allies)

Battle at sea

Amadeus plays pretty aggressive. His Kriegsmarine left for the Atlantic in the first days of war. The Allies were able to locate one submarine very soon. The boat is damaged (Str 6) and will probably not get away anymore. Waiting for calm sea to drop some depth charges.

To my big surprise more u-boats are hunting the merchants. Two heavy cruiseres are already sunk. No allied ship sunk so far but two damaged. I still count that as a clear victory so far. Still have to be careful... those sneaky subs are extremely dangerous with no ASW available at the beginning.

[KorutZelva]

what's the date? Poland held for how many turns?

[LLv34Mika]

Poland held for 3 turns causing a bit more damage than I thought.
Especially the 3 hits on the HQ were a nice thing. Got another 1 point hit with my damaged bomber the following turn.

That Belgium is still alive (will fall this turn, maybe one turn later) is also a nice bonus. But all in all he is playing the Blitzkrieg pretty well. We have January 1940 and the Netherlands surrendered, Belgium will surrender this or next turn. That means he will be able to start sweeping the French in February or March. Depending on the next turn and weather. Speaking of weather... was pretty lucky in Europe so far. Snow and rain helped a bit. The last two turns were pretty quiet (due to weather) so I think he was repairing and reinforcing his planes and armies. Maybe there will be the one or other elite unit too.

The sea weather was not so lucky. Almost no calm sea to attack. What is REALLY annoying: a destroyer with full suply/morale/readiness showing 0:0 predictions when attacking a submarine. That should be changed again. Even without ASW tech a destroyer should make at least 1 damage vs a sub with no experience. I attacked many times anyway just to force him to dive and reduce supply. He just sits there and enjoys being invulnerable. If you ask me increasing the dive chance from 20 to 40 percent is maybe ok (I would love to see 30%) but decreasing the attack value for destroyers vs subs was no good idea. It takes an incredibly big armada to sink just one sub. That makes every sub an extremely dangerous weapon. I'm just happy that I already sunk one heavy and one battlecruiser to decrease the danger for my sub hunters.

Btw... got some good battle results with my army in Brussel. Combined attacks from the French and B.E.F. were just enough to destroy one German Corps. Better than nothing!

[LLv34Mika]

March 1940

Because of the cold and long winter Belgium is still alive (to my big surprise). I guess the army protecting the capital will fall now since the clouds and the snow are gone and the Luftwaffe is ready to strike again.

The decision of the Allies was to make an attack to cause some damage to the German army southwest of the capital. It was a bloody fight for both sides (both took 2 damage) but it should be a good trade for the western allies.


battle at sea

Lost contact to the damaged sub in the atlantic but still have contact to the one that was raiding the canadian shore merchants. Another sub is raiding the Canada-UK convoys. I guess I will have to tolerate that. I don't want too many ships hunting while the Kriegsmarine prepares for a sneaky amphibious assault to secure a port for an easy sea lion.

+++Braeaking news on the diplomatic front+++

Germany decided to annex Lithuania. Stalin was not happy about that. (is at 33%)

Soviet attack on Finland thwarted since UK and French special forces arrived in time to assist defending versus the Russians. Mannerheim celebrates the victory and the Finnish swing towards the allies!

Much to think about that. I only wanted the "cheap" special forces for the UK and French (especially UK). Now I got something more. The good thing is that the Germans will have to use diplo chits to get Finland on their side again. The bad thing... well, Mr Stalin was not too happy about that. Will have to wait for next turn to see how the USSR readiness was affected. I'm still not sure if it was a good idea to send the special forces to Finland. And I'm still not sure if I should be happy about their success.

Feel free to comment that!

[LLv34Mika]

the losses so far

the two own ships lost are the two ships the Netherlands used to provoke surprise attacks. At least one battlecruiser or heavy cruiser (not sure) took some damage.

[Amadeus]

Pretty cool report so far. Mika plays an aggressive defense. Unfortunately the winter was long and on his side. Same to diplo but this is how the game goes.

[KorutZelva]

With the Finnish expedition success, the USSR will move 8-12% towards the Axis. To me it seems a steep price, especially if Finland is allowed back in the axis fold...

[Amadeus]

I do not really know what you guys discuss there. Mika invest another 200 mpp in diplo. So Finland will stay on Allies side I guess. But he will not need this advance if he plays so smart he did until yet.

[LLv34Mika]

Of course I won't tell you where the 200 are invested. Confidential



May 17th 1940

German paratroopers tried to secure a port behind the HQ of the B.E.F.
British troops already retreated to prevent that and a part of the landing unit was shot down so they touched French soil at low strenght (4 points). The B.E.F. rushed in to shatter the remaining part as long as they are cut from supply. With those paratroopers shattered the danger of a sealion is decreasing significantly!

French troops crossed the Westwall north of Switzerland and occupied Stuttgart. The idea was to spread confusion in the German command and distract them a bit to change their plans. To my big surprise the Luftwaffe was located very close. I guess they are on their way south to Italy to attack and seize Malta. Unfortunately there is not much to do about it. If he wants Malta he will probably get it.

General Gamelin decided to redeploy the troops from the Maginot Line around Paris. Morale is low and dropping further but it is necessary to delay the Germans as much as possible. The only good thing is that the advancing German forces are not in perfect condition. My hope is that too fast attacks will give me the one or other chance to destroy another unit.

Amadeus' plan to be quick is still a big danger to me. Yes, he lost a Corps, the paratrooper but it is only May 1940 and I guess France will only hold until sometime in June. No need for him to rush for Paris and risk more than necessary. A few ships, one sub and two other subs are at supply 0 (btw, would be a good idea to prohibit diving as soon as supply drops to zero). The battle at sea seems to turn to my favor right now. But maybe I'm missing something...

Let's see if he goes for Malta what would be my guess or if he still tries to invade England with one paratrooper less. Would be pretty risky without the surface ships and subs that are sunk or somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. I have to deal with both anyway. Britain already ordered some more units just in case he is playing the risky way. Would have loved to invest the MPPs somewhere else but it is just not worth the risk.

My screenshot shows the intended moves of my French units going deeper into Germany while the others relocate back to Paris. The orange line around the Germans just shows the damaged units. So far much more than I hoped.

[Amadeus]

I am sorry I could not upload any pictures. I got "File Uploaded Successfully" but the file does not appear in my posts. Any help is pretty welcome.

[KorutZelva]

What picture hosting service do you use? I never have any trouble with flickr.com.

[Amadeus]

No hosting service at all. I assume small pics could be uploaded as they are!?

[wie201]

Was there any loss of morale for Stuttgart?

[Taxman66]

Pictures can't be in .png format if you saving from MS Paint, change it to something else like .jpg
You also have to click on the embed picture toggle so that it is checked.

[Amadeus]

ORIGINAL: wie201

Was there any loss of morale for Stuttgart?

Moral loss were at 5 but the value drops down. Thus this was a good gambit of Mika. He is a smart and concentrated opponent. Will be a hard task to beat him.

[LLv34Mika]

Concerning Stuttgart:

I had no more room to redeploy any more units around Paris so I thought going east is the only thing that could bring a small advantage.

And yes... it hurts his economy (a bit) and he had to use some units that might do some other important things instead. My troops would have surrendered anyway so let him destroy them on German soil was my only option worth trying it.

[LLv34Mika]

+++ July 1940 - Germany declares war on Yugoslawia +++

That is a big surprise! Stalin is furious (going up to 33%) that his Slavic friends are attacked.

Another German U-Boat was sunk in the Atlantic near Canada. At least one more is raiding the routes. Hard to prevent that without leaving the UK unprotected. I guess I will wait a month or two and see what Amadeus is planning next. The B.E.F. has secured a few towns in western France but left for home to defend the Island.

Everything else is pretty quiet. No attacks on southern England, no attacks on Malta, Italian and British forces are sitting at the border and watching each other carefully.

The screenshot shows the losses of the Wehrmacht. Should be expensive to repair that and it should delay any thoughts about sea lion (if there are any).

[KorutZelva]

Wow that's an early Yugo grab! Hungary is still neutral is it not? It is an italy driven push?

It's awesome to see so many tourney player relishing taking the game off the tracks of the standard script! [:)]

[Amadeus]

Oh, yes no standard script. But I did it in a match before. I still do not know if this works here too. Many losses Mika gave me in France. Pretty expensive. He did a great job and I have the feeling I will get a stick anyway.

[LLv34Mika]

Thank you for the compliments! But the game is not won yet but I have to admit that I can be happy with the situation so far. There is still much to do and to decide. What will happen in north Africa and what aces will you have up your sleeve as soon as Barbarossa starts?

Finland already turned around and has a pro Axis leaning again. At least it was very expensive (I hope) and using all chits on Finland means that Spain won't join the Axis pretty soon or at all.