SSupras vs Kragdob - CEAW 2.10 - GAME STOPPED AFTER 15 TURNS

[SSupras]

So... After playing a couple of vanilla games and a couple of GS 1.x and 2.0 games I'm starting my first AAR and my first game in GS 2.10.

I don't participate in beta tests, but I got copy of GS 2.10 and RC17 from my friend, Kragdob, who said that this beta "is not some Fort Knox" and we can play it without me officially participating in beta test. So I hope everything will bo OK with that.

The general goal of my game is not to win (I can't win with Kragdob, I'm just realistic ), but to achieve something I haven't achieved in any of my previous games. I will tell about this, when time for that will come.

Turn 1 (I don't have screens):
Heavy fighting in Poland. Heroic defense of Army Lodz was broken only after being attacked by 4 corpses with heavy losses.
The defenders of Westerplatte and Danzig Post Office stopped German assault and Danzig remains free city (this is my first game when I didn't 'liberate' Danzig.
On 8th September German tanks attacked Warsaw. Panzers entered the Ochota and Wola districts. Nazis were stopped by barricade built by citizens in the crossing of Opaczewska and Grojecka streets. 6 tanks were destroyed by molotov cocktails and anti-tank gun. The other tanks withdrawed and will try to finally occupy city in next two weeks.

Barricade on Opaczewska St. in Warsaw

German tanks in Warsaw

The situation after turn 1 of my opponent.

[SSupras]

Total disaster! Poland was not conquered yet! Rundstedt will be puinshed - he will not become a field marshall for that... Poland can now rail troops. Probably there will be heavy fighting with Polish counterattack near Warsaw.

Have I missed something or are there more Polish units in 2.10 than in 2.0? I haven't moved third panzerkorps in those two turns (I railed it west instead), but I did it always and it worked... Saving too much fuel becomes dangerous for me...

Situation after my move

[Cybvep]

You should have taken Lódź first and thrown everything at Warsaw during the second turn. Poland will fall in almost all cases like this, unless you get extremely unlucky.

[SSupras]

I never took Lodz and I always won in 2-nd turn (sometimes in first).

May it be some cause, that Kragdob told me that on the main screen he can see RC11, and on mine is RC17?

[SSupras]

Turn 3:

Poland and Denmark conquered (with some troubles with both countries) - Kopenhagen fall only after sea invasion attak and Warsaw was taken with my last availble unit.

Norway invaded. I see now, what mistakes I have done because of long lasting Fall Weiss - invasion in Norway is without any leader and only one bomber is in range. The Oslo garrison is weak, but I don't think I have chance to defeat it in one turn. It probably will be hard fighting to conquer Oslo when winter will come...

Last day of independent Poland

Landing in Norway

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I see only 2 armor units in the east. Where is the third one? Railing it early to the west makes no point unless you want to do an early blitzkrieg of Holland and Belgium.

Warsaw falls almost every time on turn 2 with the strategy made by Ronnie for conquering Poland. The key is to get Lodz on turn 1 so your armor units can attack Warsaw on turn 1. I send 1 tac bomber and maybe 1 fighter against Lodz and 1 tac bomber against Warsaw. Lodz can be attacked with 2 corps and 1 mech and should almost always fall even if the land attacks are across river. Then both southern tanks can reach Warsaw once the garrison west of Warsaw is dealt with.

I think it's a good idea to try a solo hotseat game a few times until you find a strategy to always take Poland on turn 2. Even if you fail it's not a big issue if you're doing sitzkrieg.

[SSupras]

Thanks for your suggestion. Conquering Poland in 2 turns is not a big trouble for me. The trouble for me is how to do that with less than all tanks. I used to attack with only one panzerkorps. Then my opponents learned how to defend against it and I needed 2 panzerkorps. Now I see, that they learned how to defend againt that too, and so I will need 3 tanks.

So I must "say good bye" to taking Holland on Turn 2 and Belgium on turn 3 or 4... Or use many PP to rail troops west fast after Fall Weiss. Normally I was doing this during fighting in Poland, saving fuel and PPs.

[SSupras]

Turn 4:
Mud weather in north region. German forces breaks Norwich defense near Oslo. I thought that rail in minor countries is only possible in 2nd turn of invasion and no possible to enemy ZoC now, but as I can see, he managed to rail Norwich troops on turn 1 and into my ZoC. Luckily for me, it wasn't a big advantage for him, but Oslo will probably hold 2 more turns.

Situation in Norway

Wehrmacht concentrates near Benelux countries. I will wait for Stukas and then for first turn of fair weather and I'll try to occupy both countries in one turn. So it looks like I'll have sitzkrieg - I have never fought with this strategy yet, but "everybody has to have their first time".

[SSupras]

Turn 5:

Norway conquered. I had luck, because central Europe had fair weather and my bombers could more succesfully bomb Oslo.

I decided not to attack Netherlands yet, since My bombers are still in Denmark.

Unfortunately I hadn't take any screenshots.

[SSupras]

Turns 6 to 9:

Nothing interesting. Sitzkrieg. Some fighting in Atlantic (convoys, subs, destroyers). RAF in Norway disappeared and Bergen became automatically German only after some turns - maybe because Kragdob had RC11 and installed RC17 some turns later.

[SSupras]

Turn 11:

Offensive through Benelux countries. Belgium, Holland (and of course Luxembourg) conquered in just two weeks.
Dutch defenders were quite effective, the Netherlands capital has fallen after second attack.

Royal Navy massacred escadre of my destroyers, after I forgot that I don't have air cover for them now. So now I will have to stay those 2 corps in Norway or I will find some other way home than through Oslo port.
Battle of Skagerrak Strait.

[SSupras]

Turn 12:

Entrance to France - situation after move from Belgium
I don't know yet if I'm gonna land in Algieria or create Vichy, so my goal now is to destroy as many French units as possible and take small loses. No rush to Paris, so I'm not gonna to lose some units by being flanked after chasing.

I attacked some forts in Maginot Line, because Kragdob had very little organisation or no entrenchment there. I had some luck not taking losses in those attacks.

Paris was bombarded by 3 points without any loss in strategic bombers, so it's a quite good turn without enemy fighters.

[SSupras]

Turn 13:

Battle of Lorraine
After destruction of two GARs that entered empty hexes I chased there with INF. I didn't mange to destroy Lorraine INF in spite of attacking with 2 TACs and 3 INFs, but I managed to conquer one of the forts of Maginot Line. This was achieved with minimal losses and should give me a broader front for future assault.

I see that Kragdob spams many GARs. For the moment this strategy pays for him well, but if I wil not create Vichy (pretty tempting now for me), he will have just countless useless units to bump my experience.

In the north my BB spotted English SUB. This means, that it isn't Near Oslo now. This could help me with evacuating forces from Norway. But unfortunately, this means that I will lose my last non-sub ship.

Canadian convoy
I spotted the convoy. I don't want to attack, because this will be a suicide. I will just try to slow them down, but my subs aren't fast enough...

[SSupras]

Turn 14:

La Manche offensive.
Disaster. Panzergrenadierkorps lost. Counterattack destroys BEF and one french mobile corps.

Turn 15:

Total disaster. Second panzergrenadierkorps lost. For a few moments I thought about giving up this game, but I will play and show how hopeless lame at this game I am . I wonder if I can make it to '44.

Italians march on Nicea and Marseilles and try to land in Africa after joining the war. Another two French corps destroyed and now they have only one.

Unfortunately I don't have any screens.

[SSupras]

Turn 16:

I give up because of this:
Africa landings

I played like in GS2.0, Casablanca and Mareth was empty and everything was going well. And then - crap... I didn't realize, that in GS2.10 there is possibility of railing in Algeria. Sunking transports at Algiers was OK, because I took it in mind in my plans, but railing troops to Mareth and Casablanca ruined whole my plan and my game. I will not continue this comedy of mistakes, so I give up the game.

The end situation in France is like this:



Congratulations to Kragdob for overmaneuvering me in the whole game. Why have I not listened to him, when he told me to practice GS2.10 before playing PBEM?