Solitaire game starting late '42

[EUBanana]

Chaos on the eastern front as it pretty much dissolves under the onslaught, but the Soviets look exhausted and it's fairly early in the turn still.

And that's about it for this impulse...

[EUBanana]

Germany does a land, Japan does an air.

Beware the strategic bombing flying boats... now that's an odd strategic bomber.

I wish WiF had the submarine recon planes Japan had, that would be cool. [:D]

[EUBanana]

Need to get into the habit of more air actions for China/Japan. They have fairly large airforces now, which they have precious few actions to use with naval/land actions, which is their norm.

Anyway Japan's air action means there's an unusual amount of air activity in the far east... and some air to air combat even. China's lend leased airforce is no slouch at this stage though.

[EUBanana]

The Kittyhawk and the Nate bounce off each other, that's theo nly air to air.

The actual bombing part is a bit lacklustre.

[EUBanana]

German efforts around Leningrad are essentially... attritional/line straightening. If they can smash up those Russians there that's quite a few units freed up, even if they only do it partially. But taking Novgorod and Leningrad will stop the Russians constantly threatening this area.

That and the fact it's logistically easy. German reinforcements arrive in Konigsberg after all, and control of the Baltic make supply easy.

Anyway progress is made.

[EUBanana]

The jolly green giant is rolling, but Allied air power is starting to run down here. Unfortunately a lot of German disorged units means a general retreat would abandon quite a few units, hence the reason for the deployment like this... on the one hand a line is forming over the Seine, on the other hand, the guys havn't pulled out of the front entirely, merely tried to concentrate a bit. Because otherwise they'd be abandoning units to their fate.

More fighters are moved to around the Paris area.

And a couple of really bad MILs go to Kiel for transport to Norway (!). It's bad enough that the Norwegian garrison is better off in France, and the 2 factor MILs can deal with Norwegian partisans instead.

[EUBanana]

The eastern front is still quite a jumble. Again, disorged units everywhere. Manstein in particular is stuck by the Dnieper totally exposed, I didn't want to abandon him. (he's in that 3 stuck just NW of Voronezh).

Some air power got moved up from the south around Sevastapol to more like Bryansk, for potential counterattacks, as the Soviets are out of steam there. The Soviets still have less organised armour than the Germans do in the south so I think the southern edge is fairly safe for the Axis right now, but we'll see i guess, things can change fast in this game with an unusual roll.

[EUBanana]

So impulse #6, Allies go.

US takes a naval, their first naval action as no Supercombined. Seems like France isn't going to deteriorate if left an impulse.

CW a land, so they can finally progress a bit up to the tip of Italy.

China a land - shoulda been an air, see my memory is so bad I literally forgot something I wrote 15 minutes ago, that's how I manage to play with myself, the mind autowipes at the end of every impulse...

SU a land of course.

The US navy moves to the Marshalls again, to support an attack on Kwajalein, again. They ponder raiding the Marianas, which has a convoy point and 2 CLs - but it also is in reach of the main Japanese fleet, and is ringed by LBA, so it's probably not worth it. Unfortunately the US subs are currently at Eniwetok, out of supply. Supply in the Marshalls at least absolutely has to be guaranteed it seems.

Nimitz is moved from Pearl to Rabaul.
Macarthur is moved from the West Coast to the Hawaiian Islands - has an escort of his very own too.
The repaired CV Lexington sails from the west coast to the Marshalls to assist in escorting there, and as part of a general 'return to theatre'.
New Zealand's MIL is loaded aboard an AMPH in the Coral Sea, they are just going to hoover up island hexes in the Solomons because they got nothing else to do, plus more airfield space is never bad.

Currently two MECHs are loaded at the Bay of Biscay, 2 MOTs and a MECH off the East Coast and an Airacobra off the East Coast - destined for France. The West Coast has another P51D and Hodges loaded up.

Trying to move CVA without the carriers to the front too on transports, so backup CVA is ready after the inevitable casualties.

[EUBanana]

Amusingly the first thing the new Essex CV does in theatre is hunt down the Japanese cruiser raider, a small task.

Certainly a task within Lexington 2's power though - CA Kako is sunk. With the Japanese fleet currently mostly in Tokyo it feels safe...

[EUBanana]

The USSR still has 3 sturmoviks to use, and a couple of fighters. As the Luftwaffe is down to the dregs that says something I think regarding relative balance of power...

There's a pre-emptive bombardment from Pskov which rules out the Germans taking it this turn I think, though it's always a bit of a tossup between trying to break up attacks and having your arty stuck in place I find with WiF... either way the Germans were gathering and I felt something should be attempted, and those rolls probably justified it.

Various targets of opportunity on the eastern front though I'm not sure whether it'll translate into land attack opportunities.

[EUBanana]

Chiang happy to be Mao's support fire again... Mao probably / maybe doesn't need it but the thought counts....

[EUBanana]

Ugh, see, I forgot just why the Japanese risked a convoy point in the Marianas again.

This is why. Kwajalein is in supply. And the bomber actually hits finally too! ugh.

[EUBanana]

Well, the attacks start coming in. Germany chooses a blitzkrieg here for the chance of Manstein actually surviving.

And he does!

[EUBanana]

Actually Manstein is this one. [:D]

He's not getting away that easy though... hence the 'convert to retreat', it's only impulse #6 after all, can have a chance or two more.

[EUBanana]

This one is actually quite bad for Japan. There's not all that many units in that area around Peking, there's going to have to be reinforcement i think, which means units not facing the Americans.

[EUBanana]

Probably the big news though is that Genoa falls to the Commonwealth...

[EUBanana]

Rokossovsky and Vatutin encourage a few more units.... still got Chernyakovsky near the front and mobile for supply purposes...

[cfinch]

you mentioned ge in lennigrad area have it "easy" as in supply and reinforcements... if Ru has a bit of a land lull a combined with the lenningrad fleet sailing into the baltic may disrupt GE's idea of "easy" and possibly cost them a few transports needed in winter for the ore

[Courtenay]

Also, capturing Leningrad will not happen. Leningrad's terrain is incredible. Capturing Leningrad has to be done far earlier in the war if it is to be done at all.

[Centuur]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

Also, capturing Leningrad will not happen. Leningrad's terrain is incredible. Capturing Leningrad has to be done far earlier in the war if it is to be done at all.

Only if the Soviets are sloppy. But if they put 2 corps and a division in there, the place can only be captured during a snow impulse, using an offensive and a lot of attacking units. But even than, the attack has a good chance of failing.