Defending the Reich - the war is over

[Plaid]

My eastern front "holds" for now, only 1 breach near Warsaw. I had neither oil nor reinforcements to fill the gaps, so I didn't counterattack much - only finished russian armour off (note odds)





Soviet troops are also battered (air especially), they can't maintain this pressure for long without break, I hope.

In the west allies land in northern France without much axis resistance and soon will be near our position. Max entrenched hungarian corps will make stand at Paris, but it will hold maximum 2 turns...

In Italy allied offencive stopped for a while. One more turn won, without casualties even.



Got 6 lvl subs upgrade and upgraded my UF. Lab was sold out at once. Next turn I will have 6 lvl tank destroyers and will sell 4 armour labs aswell (max level reached in all 3 areas)
My garrisons still have 3 surv, by the way, so I think they can be still used to men forts at least.

If I remember correctly I have already denied ultimate allied victory

[Plaid]

Battle in Poland rages on - significant casualties for both of us. I was initially going to pocket all this soviet troops south of Warsaw - not like I will be able to maintain pocket for long, but it will be blow to their mobility and effectiveness. But this 1 step mech ruined operation - it survived and didn't retreat even (attack with 10 step armour, 9:2 results in my favour). Anyway, I destroyed armour, couple of corps and maybe something else, donr remember exactly.

I will fight here as long as possible, because neither I have oil nor land to retreat any further.

Also destroyed little soviet bridgehead near Danzig.



Transports spotted in the Northern sea were attacked by air and naval assets. If they were garrisons, it just drained my oil and PP, but if not its good effective attack. I think its rather desperate attempt to land something into germany because western allies are running out of time to reach German mainland, but who knows.

In the south and in Italy very quiet, almost no action.



I continue to buy corps infantry. Even found couple of PPs to repair one fighter and TAC in the east to full strength to maximise damage per oil, if I will use any air support. My oil reduced to "inborn" 16 income (all oilfields have 0 value now). Hopefully couple of MUD turns in the autumn will allow me to regain poitn or two on some oil wells.

[massina_nz]

Hang in there mate, you're doing a great job IMHO. One of the closest AARs IIRC. These tense-ending-games are rare and should be savoured IMHO again.

[afk_nero]

This is my favourite AAR - I am amazed at your defensive play.

Could you not ship more corps from Finland - replace the line you hold with Gars?

Anything is useful now.

[afk_nero]

This is my favourite AAR - I am amazed at your defensive play.

Could you not ship more corps from Finland - replace the line you hold with Gars?

Anything is useful now.

[Plaid]

Soviets captured Warsaw and pocketed my armour again, but I still were able to counterattack them inflicting reasonable damage.

Looks like one armour will be left behind, while another will be saved at least, but if russians manage to capture Krakow I will lose both...Well, don't have oil for them anyway.

In the west allies rush to the Holland, where one mech was destroyed and another - pocketed. (I counterattack because if I give initiative to allies and will just wait, they will use lots air support and make my low-quality troops simple useless.)



Ziegfried line is finally filled with "mixed" troops.

In Italy allied offencive strated...If I had oil, I would start evacuating this troops for more important fronts.



I sold 4 armour labs this turn, but PPs were mostly used to repair fighters holding fortifications (-60). On a good side my units will always fight back direct attacks, no matter how low my oil is (its true for air aswell).

There is no corps in Finland - only garrisons left. I see no point to ship them paying with PP and oil, and suffering damage from soviet sub time to time.

Mud is possible 2 turns ahead...We must hold.

[afk_nero]

Potentialy a waste but you have the Vichy garrisons to annoy him by landing behind the lines.

Of course this costs PP and Oil so may not be worth it.

[gerones]

There must be a way to avoid this kind of situations in CEAW: I mean those huge landing fleets trying to land anywhere in north Germany and Denmark. Does anyone think that the allies had the capability to launch such amphibious operations in german reguard? I would say no from both a strategical and logistical point of view. If D-Day landings took the allies many efforts to consolidate the beachheads and the distance between english coasts and Normandy was rather short, what to say about these landings many miles away from the embark points?

Might be with effectively reducing amphibious capability per year so no more landings are allowed in that concrete year: I mean removing 35 PP´s penalty when amphibious capability is exceeded (allies at the end of the war have a PP´s excedent and sometimes is really worthy for them to spend them in exceeded landings)

[massina_nz]

There must be a way to avoid this kind of situations in CEAW: I mean those huge landing fleets trying to land anywhere in north Germany and Denmark. Does anyone think that the allies had the capability to launch such amphibious operations in german reguard? I would say no from both a strategical and logistical point of view. If D-Day landings took the allies many efforts to consolidate the beachheads and the distance between english coasts and Normandy was rather short, what to say about these landings many miles away from the embark points?

Might be with effectively reducing amphibious capability per year so no more landings are allowed in that concrete year: I mean removing 35 PP´s penalty when amphibious capability is exceeded (allies at the end of the war have a PP´s excedent and sometimes is really worthy for them to spend them in exceeded landings)

Well in my games I've noticed that attempted landings in Northern Germany or Denmark have rarely been successful, wheras landings in Normanday and Brittany have had a very high chance of success. So my observation is that the game engine seems to reward the historical strategy.

[schwerpunkt]

There must be a way to avoid this kind of situations in CEAW: I mean those huge landing fleets trying to land anywhere in north Germany and Denmark. Does anyone think that the allies had the capability to launch such amphibious operations in german reguard? I would say no from both a strategical and logistical point of view. If D-Day landings took the allies many efforts to consolidate the beachheads and the distance between english coasts and Normandy was rather short, what to say about these landings many miles away from the embark points?

Might be with effectively reducing amphibious capability per year so no more landings are allowed in that concrete year: I mean removing 35 PP´s penalty when amphibious capability is exceeded (allies at the end of the war have a PP´s excedent and sometimes is really worthy for them to spend them in exceeded landings)

Well in my games I've noticed that attempted landings in Northern Germany or Denmark have rarely been successful, wheras landings in Normanday and Brittany have had a very high chance of success. So my observation is that the game engine seems to reward the historical strategy.

I think the issue is the allies being able to do Denmark/Northern Germany at the same time as France. For v2.00 this may be an issue as units cant block landing sites any more.

I've always been successful doing landings in Denmark/Northern Germany so I do it as par for the course now.... The key is to pin German forces down elsewhere (Russia, France, etc) so that they cant respond with enough units. I also tend to build quite a few carriers for the US so air support isnt an issue....

[Plaid]

Well, our eastern front collapsed. I have to save what I can before all this troops will be destroyed. Southern front will be closed as soon as possible - all forces are needed in central Germany for last stand there.

My italian armour was close to be pocketed, so I attempted breakthrough. Unit didn't manage to force weak free french corps to retreat (well, it did good damage, but who cares?) so I simple lost 6 oil for almost nothing.

Armour in Poland left to its fate without any other options.

In the west my infantry also ended overrunned by lots and lots of allied mechs.

I sold all my labs, but got only 10 PP per lab. Anyway, additional infantry can help.

I have to admit, once I lost Britain and soviet convoys started to pass, this heap of soviet PP become something to much for me to handle. (To say nothing about western allies, which got their convoys through entire game) Its just to many units everywhere, hopefully I will hold a bit with help of bad weather, but hardly for all this 11 turns left.

[Plaid]

Well, looks like we are reaching the end (two turns ago all looked "normal" more or less - but maybe only because I can't afford air recon )

All my troops are fighting its way to central Germany. Model's AGS veterans (including my last armour, which hopefully can be used - rest are ZoCed or surrounded) are my last hope to deny strategic allied victory and make in major.



This turn I got MUD actually, but only in the eastern zone. Some soviet air still based there and will have troubles, but nothing great. I still hope to slow soviets down with this ostwall, but this horde of allied mechs in Holland can't be handled. Their advace will be limited only by move speed...I don't know why Zechi built so many ground forces, while having relatively few TACs (I even noticed some manpower penalties on british units), but seems working anyway.

We still have PP income around 100 and will field 2 fresh corps next turn. My last mini-challenge in this game will be to prevent russians from taking Berlin and leave it for western allies (well, its sorf of germans actually wanted to do)

[Plaid]

Its still fair so we will see more allied advance everywhere soon.
Troops are gathered around Berlin, Model's HQ, armour and mech all did it to the capital aswell.



I even destroyed soviet armour crossed Oder and threating Berlin diretly.

Looks like soviets don't bother to fight my pocketed troops and rash to the west.

Western allies maybe will not capture Hamburg this turn.

I still have almost 100 PP income and 16 oil income, despite all my oil fields are conquered or destroyed.

Got 3 german partisans this turn - but mostly in useless spots.

[Plaid]

Hungary surrenders and soviet tanks approach Berlin from the south...
I got fair (!) weather again, so this rough terrain alone will not stop them greatly.

If I want to deny allied strategic victory, I have to survive 3 more allied turns, 2 of them will be bad weather though...

[Plaid]

Unlucky with weather one more time - I got winter, meaning that russians will have now advantage over my troops.



My armored reserves throw russian force awat from Berlin one more time - tank and mech are destroyed...

I way underestimated my ostwall forts... They all still hold on.

In the west looks like allies will have Hamburg next turn, but most of them can't make it to Berlin in time to reach victory before 1945.

[Plaid]

Last 1944 turn - weather is still winter. I don't think that any comments are needed to this picture...

[joerock22]

I think you've done well to (probably) limit the Allies to a Major Victory. If the weather had turned in your favor rather than Zechi's, then I think you would have had a good shot at only a Minor Defeat. In close games, the Fall 1944 and Spring 1945 weather often plays a huge role in determining the final result.

[Plaid]

Well, allied strategic victory denied, but I don't think that I can stop major one by any means.



Berlin will fall at first fair turn, or even faster. I lost most of my PP sources aswell, and can't draft new units any more.

[ncali]

Plaid - an early thanks for your AAR and good job with this game! I thought you were in serious trouble in late '41 - early '42, but you conducted a skillful defense and made Zechi work hard for his (anticipated) win!

[Plaid]

Here is the end - allies conquered Berlin just in time to get their major victory.
In this game we both did lots of suboptimal decisions and mistakes, but as we can see, allies still got their victory.

Thanks to my opponent for this close and interesting game.



As you can see I succed in both my mini-challenges - deny allied strategic victory and not allow russians to take Berlin.
Since I managed to evacuate good units from Model's army group from Hungary both things were real to do.