Another Morris AAR

[Schnurri]

Ok - Morris asked me to post another AAR. After experiencing several Morris Barbarossa openings (and being saved only by the latest upgrade) I agreed. Going to try something different and be aggressive from the beginning. You can save all your troops and then have so few PP's and Morris so many that you lose anyway. I'm going to use Stalin's tactics and see what happens - he won afterall.

Pretty standard Morris opening. I timed an invasion of Norway to coincide with Barbarossa on turn 3 and it did catch him by surprise - not that it will have a huge effect but should reduce his PP's somewhat and provide a staging area for bombing the German heartland eventually.

I made an initial mistake. Knowing he doesn't build subs and is concentrating on Russia I should have had DD's to protect the Murmansk convoy at the start - no point in protecting English convoys as he won't go after them anyway.

After cleaning up NA I'm moving everyone to England - you can never take Italy out with his strategy so why beat your head against a wall in Sicily.

[Schnurri]

Barbarossa Turn 2 - Morris continues, stymied a little around Lvov, takes Odessa and bypasses Kherson. So far I haven't slow him at all.

[Schnurri]

Barbarossa Turn3 - Morris got a little sloppy and I encircled two ARM groups - only hoping to slow him a little. Progress in Norway.

[Schnurri]

In the North we may be able to save Leningrad. I replaced the GARs guarding Leningrad with INF and now moved a MECH in there. If the Finns can't clear the Karelian Isthmus and bring their INF to bear without a river Leningrad should hold. I've neglected Moscow only because it is quick to reinforce and must do that soon.



In the south my delaying tactics haven't been that successful. Morris will clear out Rostov next turn and then on to Stalingrad/Maikop. Just too many fair weather turns left.

[Cybvep]

Fighting retreat doesn't work well in CEAW in the East - it's probably best to just leave GARs in all cities and resource areas and start defending deeper inland. The problem is that Morris attack in the south is totally overwhelming and Soviet units are very weak during first turns of Barbarossa, so he just obliterates everything easily. Clearly he wants to make sure that he is able to capture the Caucasus in mid-1942 at the latest, as his oil expenditure is high.

I guess that in order to beat Morris you have to be very aggressive yourself. The problem is that the Allies are a bit weak in 1941, so they won't be able to do much damage.

[massina_nz]

It's been a while since I posted here, but still lurk on the AAR posts.

I found in a past game that if the allies can get Strat bombers into Norway they can lay waste to all of Germany, especially Rail cap. There are some incredibly juicy targets in central Germany.

[peterjfrigate]

Looking back at the JoeRock AAR, Morris seems to be about 6 hexes behind schedule. In that game he was well over the Don and almost adjacent to Stalingrad. I guess this means your strategy has delayed him at least 1-2 turns which might be too little for the effort.

[richardsd]

Looking back at the JoeRock AAR, Morris seems to be about 6 hexes behind schedule. In that game he was well over the Don and almost adjacent to Stalingrad. I guess this means your strategy has delayed him at least 1-2 turns which might be too little for the effort.

maybe 1 turn due to defence, maybe 1 turn due to the new supply rules?

[kaigab73]

but how many units you lost (obviously excluding the ones near the border) ?

[Schnurri]

Haven't lost too many other than those which couldn't escape. A bunch of GARs as roadblocks but not many corps or MECHs.

Yes, I think Norway will be very useful once secured. I can have most of Germany in ruins to counteract the PP's he gets from Russia. Also, can threaten Denmark with good TAC cover.

[richardsd]

Haven't lost too many other than those which couldn't escape. A bunch of GARs as roadblocks but not many corps or MECHs.

Yes, I think Norway will be very useful once secured. I can have most of Germany in ruins to counteract the PP's he gets from Russia. Also, can threaten Denmark with good TAC cover.

yes, I think Norway is a good idea, it is certainly part of my revised plan!

[Schnurri]

And don't forget - you can ignore the other transports but have your DD's ready for an attack on the Murmansk convoy - in fact, if you build enough DD's, which you can since Morris will never Sea Lion, you can take out his sub force quickly. This was also the idea behind the Norway assault - his subs are up in the Canadian Arctic.

[richardsd]

And don't forget - you can ignore the other transports but have your DD's ready for an attack on the Murmansk convoy - in fact, if you build enough DD's, which you can since Morris will never Sea Lion, you can take out his sub force quickly. This was also the idea behind the Norway assault - his subs are up in the Canadian Arctic.

yes, in my game all thats left of the entire kreigsmarine is a lone sub, which hasn't shown itself for a long time!

[Schnurri]

Good job. The key to Morris is he focuses on just a few things - so you need to find the weakness. He covers Italy by abandoning NA and putting everything in Sicily. I've done the same myself and it is almost impossible to take in that case. He also puts forces in France to take on the obvious counterstroke of an early invasion of France. But, he has to sacrifice something and that is Norway and subs. He can't be everywhere...

[richardsd]

Good job. The key to Morris is he focuses on just a few things - so you need to find the weakness. He covers Italy by abandoning NA and putting everything in Sicily. I've done the same myself and it is almost impossible to take in that case. He also puts forces in France to take on the obvious counterstroke of an early invasion of France. But, he has to sacrifice something and that is Norway and subs. He can't be everywhere...

yes, you are quite right, I thought that he wouldn't have enough in France to take on the combined UK and Africa Brit forces - I was wrong

I want to try a differnt plan, which I have had in mind since mid my current game, which I think has a chance so long as no fine weather in April 1940!

[kaigab73]

Norway is good but just because usually allies don't attack and so Germany don't defend. I mean, if axis wants to defend, given the terrain a couple of Inf and 1-2 gars is enough to make it very hard for allies.

[rkr1958]

Norway is good but just because usually allies don't attack and so Germany don't defend. I mean, if axis wants to defend, given the terrain a couple of Inf and 1-2 gars is enough to make it very hard for allies.

The problem for the axis is that the RN and even the Russian Baltic fleet can interdict any German reinforcements of Norway. He can certainly move air units and do airdrops to reinforce; but that would weaken his Barbarossa.