Time of Writhe - Allies

[Flaviusx]

I've had entire games where it doesn't happen. US in war for years and years as a cobelligerent, but not an ally. You need a ridiculous amount of diplomatic points to accelerate alliance entry, an amount that doesn't exist in game. In that situation the easiest thing to do is simply to go nuts with lend lease. If you do insist on committing the US to Europe, it has to be on an entirely different front than either Britain or Russia or the logistics will be impossible to manage. Note that as a cobelligerent US cannot draw supply from British controlled ports (and vice versa), it can only do so as a formal member of the Western alliance.
 
Fixed in patch, but a pretty major bug for 1.5. In the patch the US immediately joins the allies when it goes to war with Germany.
 
 

[gwgardner]

hmmh, then I guess I'll have to declare war on Spain or Sweden. Thx for telling me. I missed it if this was reported as a bug. Dang, that's not going to work, because of the mulberry bug in 1.5.

I'll have to consult with Choco and see if we can break the house rule in our game, that no country can send more than 5% of its PPs to other countries, with the exception of lend-lease.

NOthing like bending history!

[Tomokatu]

I've had entire games where it doesn't happen

I had the same thing happen during my first game in WWII:RtV. The USA was a co-belligerent only and invaded and occupied Norway as an entirely separate front. No damn use to the Alliance at all.

[gwgardner]

After my disastrous Winter and Spring, in which I lost half my armor and air force, I think I deserve a memo like this one, sent by Stalin to General Yeremenko on the Bryansk Front, Sept '41. Keep in mind while reading this, that Stalin had a nasty habit of having failed generals shot.

quote:
I noticed that 108th Tank Division got encircled and lost lots of tanks and equipment. This could only happen as a result of bad management on your part. You shouldn't send a division into the offensive on its own, without reinforcing its flanks and giving it air cover. If aircraft can't fly because of bad weather, you must cancel the tank divisions offensive ....

The note went on in some detail on what comprises good air cover, how low the 'Sturmoviki' could fly, a demand for rescue of the division, etc. And they say that Hitler had his hands too deep into the direction of the war!

Yeremenko survived the War and Stalin.

the above from 'Absolute War' by Bellamy

[Fishbed]

It's ok. Losing brave people is ok, as long as old Andrey didn't step back [;)]

[gwgardner]

July 1, '41

The Imperial Army is on the run across the steppes. The weather has been good. Very good. And the Germans are taking advantage of it, smashing their armored columns through the tenuous Russian lines at will. Kiev has fallen. Kursk is now in the crosshairs, as are hundreds of thousands of soldiers who cannot outrun the Panzers.

A huge gap in the Russian defense has opened up northeast of Kursk. It is a great void there, with few supply sources. Stavka intends that the German army will lose itself there taking much land with little gain.

that remains to be seen however. If the front collapses anywhere else ....

As can be seen from the map, the withdrawal from the Bryansk pocket has failed, and it is feared that huge numbers of soldiers will go into the German POW pens.

[gwgardner]

mid August, '41

Kursk has long since fallen, and the Germans are running amok in the Don Basin, capturing vital resources. Even with Siberian reinforcements and lend-lease, the Imperial Army is hard-pressed to simply fill the front-line gaps with fresh bodies. The mobility of the German forces makes it incredibly difficult to fall back in order, thus the method has been to keep setting up new lines along rivers and uplands.

The Odessa Pocket will soon be pinched off. Hopefully many of the troops there can pull back into the Crimea. Rostov and Stalingrad are quick becoming the focal points of defensive lines farther east.

The much more stable northern front is very quit with only piecemeal probing attacks by the Germans. What is left of the Russian tank corps - only 4 out of the 9 that were available in January - are attacking south of Moscow in the hopes of drawing off enemy forces farther south.

On the Mediterranean and Balkan fronts, the UK is making small progress against the Italian holding force in Greece. Shore bombardment from a powerful UK fleet, containing 16 BBs, makes mincemeat of Italian units on the coast. [note, with the bombardment bug in 1.5, I only use 20% of any available BBs in a given fleet.]

[gwgardner]

This AAR is concluded.  We were playing with 1.5, which had some serious limitations, especially for the Allies. 

1) I couldn't use mulberries - no supply from them
2) The US could never join the Allies, so had to fight as an independent, requiring it to wait till it had lots of diplo points to declare war on either Spain or Sweden. 

Finally had to quit because of a CTD related to the US naval movements after I declared war on Spain and invaded.  So on to the more recent patches, which have resolved the above problems.

This was a truly fun PBEM, with a titanic struggle in Russia.  At the time of the CTD, I was spending 350 PPs per turn in Russia just to keep up with losses.  German armor was devastating wherever it showed up.  I figure Leningrad would have fallen in '42, leaving only the Urals base.  The Allies were locked up in the mountains of Turkey and the Balkans.  And the US was crippled in its options.  So I think Chocolino would have won within a year.