Aussiematto (Allies) v amandkm (Axis) AAR 1.07 full game

[amandkm]

Late Aug, 1940. The Italian Navy, absorbed with evading RN task forces, stumbles across a convoy reinforcing Egypt, but is too spent to do more than minor damage, as the Wermacht takes a well-earned rest after forcing the French surrender.

Fortune smiles upon the greater East Asian Co-Prosperity sphere, though, as the Japanese drive past Changsha gains momentum, taking Hengyang and with only disorganized remnants of Chinese corps facing them, one of which is destroyed by the quartet of elite Japanese armies. Fighting also picks up near Chengchow as well.

[Aussiematto]

All hands to the wheel! Man the pumps!

The torrent of aggression laps at the shores of England but, no doubt, the bruising long campaign in France has earned the plucky Brits a reprieve from invasion. While the BEF deploys back home , bolstering already impressive defences, Lord Gort undertakes a perilous trip to Egypt, barely escaping the Regia Marina’s attention. He is accompanied by at least one infantry unit, building our desert army and ensuring full command and control.

The RM, eager to sink that transport, falls into the eastern med trap, losing a sub, destroyer, and battleship! Meanwhile carriers appear west of Malta and another of Mussolini’s outmatched battle wagons sinks, torped by destroyers. The med looks to be a bright spot in the gloom, with 3 indian corps hammering on Baghdad’s front door and carrier borne fighter-bombers hitting the Italians besieging Kismayo. The out of supply Italians simply fold and die, 7 to nothing in one turn. Addis is cornered, and low. massawa will be longer ... a corps digs in.

China is ... poised. Yes, Changsha has gone and some rear guards were brutally slaughtered, but Nanning and Chengshow still hold. It is October and the weapons factories are beginning to work now. 8 corps and 4 armies have perished but a line of forts awaits those elite Jap infantry. The weather will turn to our favour too. The continued quietude of three Japanese armies near Yanku makes us ponder what the real plan is?

Side note: all four french units in Brit territory fucked off when Paris surrendered. At. Least i have some forts, but I doubt I will ever use them ... o’Connor is planning the desert ride!

Jolly good fun, against a testing opponent!

[amandkm]

Oct, 1940

The Netherlands, having hoped to avoid the war, find that, when their turn came, they were all alone. They fall at the first onslaught. Heavy losses are inflicted upon the British Army in Western Egypt, while in Asia, the Japanese encounter the last Chinese line (until the next one) defending Kweichow. Another city changes hands as Kwelin falls, and more Chinese are lost than their economy can replace.

Spirits are high in the Axis capitals

[Aussiematto]

O Connor makes errors in the desert and Churchill demands answers! Of course,it was Churchill who initially demanded aggressive action....the sub hunt goes on, with one downed off Scotland, and now the RN needs to find the one off Spain. Meanwhile, nothing can be done about the one in the Indian ocean, since the med remains a dangerous place. The Luftwaffe slaughters the Albacore torpedo bombers over Sycracuse ... east africa is stubbornly defended. Only the prompt conquest of Iraq (which Germany gave up on in the face of 3 Indian corps) is a bright spot to a bad month.

China digs in. Forts block the Southern road to the capital, while the engineers are sent north. Kwelin indeed falls but Nanning will be defended to the hilt. New weapons are provided and at least some comfort comes from the slow progress around Yanku. Mao remains inscrutable, however...

[amandkm]

Nov, 1940 The Italians absolve the British Army of any responsibility for their actions with a series of attacks that smash the unit beyond any hopes of rallying together. The desert is stained with Italian and British blood, and to what end?

German forces move southwest through the alps, skiers no doubt, looking for a jolly holiday near Sarajevo, or Belgrade, perhaps...

In China, the advance begins to slow, but attacks are launched with the goal of further attrition the Chinese defenders.

[amandkm]

Jan, 1941, A convoy of tanks bound for Egypt is intercepted and sank by the RN. As the lines freeze in place, word from the Balkans of the fall of Belgrade sends shockwaves through Europe.

In the East, the attack on Southern China begins as wave after wave of Japanese planes pound the corps holding Nanning, followed by attacks in Echelon from three sides. Battered, the corps disintegrates and the city falls in a month, severing foreign trade with the outside world.

[Aussiematto]

The Nazi horde has stormed into the Motherland and all comrades are called to arms! Comrade Stalin leads the heroic defence of the workers and peasants paradise himself!

It is July, and the reports flood into Stavka of the necessary measures that Marxist Leninist doctrine demands we take.

Meretskov commands the northern front, with two armies and two corps holding the line between Riga and Daugavpils. He holds firm as two or more panzer divisions approach, with infantry in support. Our armored train harrasses one of the panzer units without effect and withdraws. Timoshenko reports he has arranged a strong defence at Orsha, covering the Smolensk defensive works. While Zhukov is unable to stop the defeat of Kiev’s defenders, attacked by bombers and tanks, the Germans are unable to occupy and XVI corps marxhes bravely to its doom to reoccupy the city. There is no time for them to entrench, so their fate is sealed next month. Will they buy time for the 2 corps and 2 armies behind the river! Dnepropetrovsk is handily covered by an army which reminds a Bulgarian corps how tough the fighting will be. And, in Leningrad, Voroshilov screens the Finnish attempt to recover the ithsmus while engineers dig and dig to thwart the impending panzer thrust from the south. The Baltic fleet cuts off possible German naval movement of troops to the north. Heroes of the revolution! We cannot say more for fear of spies but there is movement and planning across the great socialist nation.

The Brits are now redeploying from East Africa. Siwa oasis is back in the hands of the desert army but more importantly, Indian troops counter the italians from Mersa Matruh. Tactical bombers and carrier borne attacks destroy the battered 10th Italian army. 7th armored charges forward, bashes a german corps, then swaps so the Indians dan dig in. The germans appear to lack an HQ so more indians flood forward. Benghazi and Tobruk are blocked by the RN. Most of the Regia Marina is sunk and thus the RN controls the sealanes. All goes well, though Turkey’s growing closeness to Hitler is a concern and our diplomats go to work with sacks of gold...

On the arctic convoy route the RN also shows its mastery. Older class U boats, no tech, start to be picked off. Carriers and destroyers work in tandem, with battleships used for spotting. The cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk sink a destroyer that should be back in port, but then run into the Bismark. Ouch! We also deploy destroyers south, noting subs off Spain and withdraw from the blockading in Brittany. The RN strategy has been patience this game, aided by early defeats of some KM assets which mean we have a lot of superiority in numbers.

Meanwhile, in China, there have been some reverses but the line is strong. Xue has four armies and two corps, many in forts, holding kweichow and chungking from the south. Peng still holds the line at Wuhan, with three armies and several corps. Xue counter attacks against Chengchow doing damage but a few survivors hang on! We still have weapons parity so China feels safe for now. The USA took a dim view of Japan invading Indochina last turn ... when will they join?

[Aussiematto]

Churchill is staggered by the sudden appearance in England of 3 FSJ divisions AND some elite Nazi special forces! Home Guard mobilises and the RN is recalled to help defend these green and pleasant lands. The shock is overwhelming, all the more so because the Western Desert is full of the main British force, battering away at stubborn German units around Tobruk. The campaign in the desert is slow, this time, because a German army and corps, even without HQ, take some shifting. India is doing its bit but now we wonder if some might be needed back home?

The Sealion invasion may have something to do with the slow Axis progress in China and Russia. It's December 1941 and although the Dnepr is cleared, comrades hold strong positions before Rostov, the defences at Smolensk and Gomel are not even in the front line, and only now is a blitzkrieg developing towards Leningrad. China struggles on - not doing that well, but better than sometimes. A stray army sits in Canton maing sure Hong Kong is safe, for now. Key cities remain in Allied hands as the main effort of Jap aggression shifts to the pacific where the DEI have fallen, New Guinea surrenders and the Phillipines and Hawaii are under threat. My error in defending Singapore lightly will prove an error - it falls next turn.

the war is at a tipping point now: Germany has opened up its own second front on the beaches and playing fields of England. What to do?????

[Aussiematto]

In case anyone is wondering, Sealion has taken on a distinctLy Welsh flavour. Hampered by the poor performance in Russia, this daring gambit has produced a maelstrom of Nazis in the UK. All of wales is now occupied by italians, romanians, slovaks and germans, with paras and special forces holed up in England proper. However, i managed to get battleships into action at Bristol and the port is stuffed now. Supply has run out and my mixed bag of brits, mostly AA, Home guard, RAF and a couple of armies are starting to get on top. Canadians transported into Plymouth and the US 1st army arrived. I THINK i have saved the Uk.

This probably spells the end of the game. China is static, the IJN took a pounding off Hawaii and while Singapore has fallen, we snuck into Thailand and are threatening Indochina. The Chinese army in Canton did sterling, work holding up the attack on HK so Thailand did not fall. Phillipines still in allied hands though SF swarm the islands! Turkey lurched to the far right and my Indians in Iraq now have some work to do ...

[Aussiematto]

Thanks to amandkm ... gave me a real fight and fright in this one.

We end up with the Germans battered into submission in Wales, at some cost to the Allies in production, research and a Few naval assets. Russia is holding as planned, around Smolensk, Leningrad, etc. only Rostov is under threat. Finland under pressure. Turkey came in but, because I had parked a large Indian outfit in Iraq, plus Sudanese, this probably was not a wise move by the Turks. We are landing Brits on the coast and, I suspect, Greece will soon join the war on our side.

Only the Japs are scoring well ... but China remains a stalemate. i still have Chengchow, for now, though it falls next turn.but i am breaking through towards Henyang (all the armies are up north), and the Chinese light tanks are scooting up the Indon highway. The big win was Hawaii, but at thr cost of 3 CV

Oh, and French partisans took Paris for a turn before they were wiped put by pzgrenadiers!