Metolius (Axis) vs Morris (Allies) (Morris Welcome!)

[metolius]

16-August-1942

OK. The Russians are pouring men across onto the Hungarian plain. I can't see yet whether they intend to swing south and finish off Romania first, or west and north, and go right for the jugular:

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The northern half of the front has been locked in place, with the Axis using air superiority to inflict some nasty casualties on the Soviets:

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Just for fun, on the African front, the English and Italians are keeping each other busy. The Italians have held onto Tobruk, and are keeping a superior Allied force at bay:
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Nothing much to write home about on the other fronts. The Allies are massing troops in Spain and Portugal, and should be ready for a bold move there shortly:
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[metolius]

25-September-1942

The Russians go for the jugular, with a mass of mechanized forces headed from Hungary into Poland, forcing the Germans to fall back and consolidate a line near Krakow:

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The casualty numbers at this point:
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[metolius]

4-November-1942

Muddy weather in Central Europe helps us stabilize the front there a bit. Also, we are not being savaged by the Russian winter, which helps:

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At least we have a lot of PPs to work with, and the Italians are making steady progress on their research:
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The Allies have really concentrated their efforts on the Peninsula, and have blown pass our light defenses around Porto. The Axis are concentrated on Madrid, hoping to use the excellent defensive terrain to hold things up here, at least until 1943:
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[metolius]

3-January-1943

The situation in Poland and Hungary have stabilized, for the moment:

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The Russians are obviously just preparing for another crushing assault, but the defense has established good lines in Poland. Hungary is weaker, and we've had to pull a couple critical units down to Spain, where we are preparing for a little excitement.

[metolius]

23-January-1943

The Germans conduct an air assault and capture the Allies supply hub at Porto!

This would have been a crippling blow to the Allies, but we needed one more turn to get the forces assembled and delivered then the Allies gave us – they just captured Seville and Cordoba, securing alternative supply from the South.

Nevertheless, the German airborne assault destroys some new units arriving by sea (after the German and Italian U-Boats have done their bit, of course).

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The Germans are well dug in around Madrid, and in the winter, the weather conditions in the mountains strongly favor the defense.

Also, a German tactical air unit is now on hand in Spain, and it has a prodigious tank smashing capability that is proving useful in slowing down the Allies.

Gibraltar seems safe for the moment, even with only a garrison in defense. Axis air superiority would make an Allied assault on the Rock pretty hard. Still, that would open the door to the Med, and we are soft, soft, soft there.

The Eastern Front is still extremely critical, but we are buying ourselves some time with the Allies. Have to think of some other ways to harass them... cheaply!

[metolius]

24-March-1943

The Russians seemed to have decided, correctly, that weakest place in the Axis line is in Hungary. I pulled the units in Budapest out to reinforce Madrid (mostly because they were within rail range), and now I'm left with a garrison force, with almost no prospect of reinforcement. The Russians are coming with guards units:



It doesn't look good. I expect to lose Hungary in the next few months, so I pulled the Hungarian fighter up from the Med for some final attacks. Romania also looks threatened, and I'm hoping to get some reinforcements in there before the rail links are cut.

At least I can count on Axis air superiority – the Russians aviators are still licking their wounds, it seems. Also, there are some Russian paras lurking, so when the weather gets nicer, I'm going to need to keep an eye on them. Fortunately, their organizational strength is probably going to make it hard for them to actually jump.

[metolius]

13-April-1943

Hungary is overwhelmed, even faster than expected:



The mechanized formations arrayed in Hungary can now push directly into Germany. The Axis will defend Vienna stoutly, but it that will only buy us some time... how much?

On the bright side, the Axis are poised to survive past mid-1943. The question now is, can they make it to the end of 1943?

[metolius]

I kept good records of Axis manpower and oil levels until the end of September 1942, when the records ministry was bombed, and the high command decided that it didn't really want to see the bad news, anyway.

As is clear from the chart, our late Barbarossa start made it possible to amass quite an oil pile -- it looks like it may be enough to see Germany through 1945.

[metolius]

12-June-1943

This map gives a good idea of the general situation in the summer of 1943:



The Russian have concentrated their forces on the drive for Vienna. There is almost nothing left in Poland, and only a small force in Romania.

Germans have put as many units as they have available into the Vienna-Prague line, but this is clearly going to give.

Meanwhile, the Romanian situation looks hopefully, and the Axis control the oil for now.

Off the map, the Axis have the Allies on the run in Africa, and Egypt is wide open, while in the North Atlantic, the Axis have smashed the majority of the Allied combined fleet. Allied reinforcement of Spain will be more difficult.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Does it really help keeping the Allies at bay in Spain or taking Egypt if Berlin is about to fall? You need to do whatever you can to halt the main Russian thrust towards Berlin and Hamburg. The Allies need to take Rome as well so you can use the Italians to prevent Italy from falling too soon.

Having a German armor force in eastern Germany can deal with the Russian mechs.

[metolius]

Does it really help keeping the Allies at bay in Spain or taking Egypt if Berlin is about to fall? You need to do whatever you can to halt the main Russian thrust towards Berlin and Hamburg. The Allies need to take Rome as well so you can use the Italians to prevent Italy from falling too soon.

Having a German armor force in eastern Germany can deal with the Russian mechs.

Excellent points! My thoughts, well, exactly. I'd love to have all my units pointed east.

The biggest challenge is that at this point in the war, my German armor just gets turned into tin cans whenever it comes in contact with the Russians. I had a couple of nasty incidents in 1942, and decided to move my remaining two armor corps to Spain and Africa. In Spain, my unit is at least on par with the Allies, while in Africa, it has destroyed a UK armor corps and 3-4 infantry corps.

The main point of keeping the Allies heavily engaged in Spain and even Africa is that I'm able to fight them there, instead of in France and/or the UK. With a pretty limited commitment of units, I've essentially pinned down the entire Allied war effort. Meanwhile, the Axis navy is dominating the Atlantic and sinking all the Russian convoys it can find (surprisingly few, but that is a separate matter).

Still, that doesn't leave much to prevent a Soviet breakthrough into Germany. I'm now assuming that the Soviets WILL breakthrough. The question is, how long can I delay them? And how long can I hold Berlin and Hamburg as 'citadels'?

Need to hold them for 2 years to win... and that seems... challenging.

[metolius]

22-July-1943

My attempts at a counter attack near Warsaw, where the Russians were temporarily weak, have been crushed, but I did manage to kill a few corps, and drew off a number of units from the main thrust in the south.

The Russians appear to be bypassing Vienna, which is defended by a strong mech unit, fully entrenched. I think they want to break through first and crush the city later. That's OK, since it will make it a little harder for the Russians to bring up reinforcements.

Also, the Russians dropped a para in to help there advance in the south -- first use by the Soviets this war, I think. Fortunately they are still pretty range limited, and the Luftwaffe has been dominating the front lines, making it hard (or impossible) for the Soviets to drop their units in my undefended cities.

[metolius]

11 August 1943

The Soviets have rolled around Vienna and are headed into the German plain. The spearhead force, however, was smashed by a German counterattack.

Meanwhile the Soviets have destroyed the German forces near Warsaw, but now find their way to Berlin blocked by strong forts and rivers.

And the Germans near Prague are in very good shape:

[metolius]

11-August-1943
The Spanish Front

The Germans, Italians and Spanish continue to mount a furious defense of Madrid, while the Allies have stabilized their supply situation and beat off various counter-attacks. American armor is now pushing around the east side of Madrid, either to cut it off by joining with units from Valladolid, or to head directly to the Mediterranean cost. The German Kriegsmarine has crushed the Allied navies off the coast of Portugal, so Allied reinforcements around going to take a bit more time:

[metolius]

20-September-1943

Meanwhile, in the Egyptian desert, the Axis have mowed down all the UK units and are pushing hard for Cairo and beyond. The early capture of Beirut and Cyprus has helped the Axis divert some Allied units, but it looks like Cyprus will finally fall to insurgents now.

When any luck, this activity will draw off some Allied reinforcements and keep them away from more vital parts of the Reich. Also, plugging the Suez will prevent a direct attack on Italy via that route.

[metolius]

10-October-1943

The Russians attempt to move their strongest force straight through from Poland to Berlin, across the Oder. In this, I think they will fail, as the Axis have (mostly) air superiority, and good defensive positions (rivers, forts). Plus, the weather is going to get bad.

In the south, they have sack Vienna, but the rest of the front is quiet, given the Germans some time to recover.

Victory in 1943 is now (short of surrender) out of the question for the Allies.

[metolius]

30-October-1943

The Germans hold the Russians on the Oder, but they make progress in the south:

[metolius]

19-November-1943

The Russians move deep into Germany, seizing some of our oil production. Fortunately, oil is pretty much not a problem for the Axis. Off map, the Axis still holds the oil in Romania, where the Russians have only enough troops to prevent the Axis force from advancing. Germans garrison more German cities for final defense.

[metolius]

29-Dec-1943

The Axis have clearly exceeded expectations -- in the sense that we have lasted longer than any of the voters in our earlier poll predicted!

As we enter 1944, the situation is grim, but the Soviet steamroller has lost a bit of its steam, and the Germans are fighting on home terrain, with full supply. Speaking of which, there is a small bug that gives the Soviets in central Germany supply level 5, but that's a minor point.

[metolius]

18-January-1944

1944, and the Axis on on the defensive in Egypt. The Allies have fielded a force of American mechanized and armored units, and have battered the Italian and Axis forces.

The Italians did manage a surprise march down from Beirut, however, cutting off rail movement from Basra, and limiting additional reinforcements.

In general, this front has drawn in at least a handful of Allied units, which is a modest success for the Axis.