Can we save the Bear, Richardsd vs Morris (no Morris please)

[richardsd]

so I guess the strategic question from here is 'what about Italy?'

Spain gives you a massive head start as you get very good air cover over half the Med.

One to think about

[Cybvep]

Denmark may have been a mistake. You don't have enough forces and a PP reserve in order to follow the invasion of Denmark with an invasion of Holland/France. Spain... Well, I have mixed feelings about it. I mean, what do you gain strategically by conquering Spain?

In Russia, attrition war works better for the Allies in the long term. I think that Morris will forget the South now.

[trulster]

I think Denmark is a great idea, cant believe Morris let you capture a supply source. All of Germany will be flattened by strategic bombers now.

[richardsd]

Denmark may have been a mistake. You don't have enough forces and a PP reserve in order to follow the invasion of Denmark with an invasion of Holland/France. Spain... Well, I have mixed feelings about it. I mean, what do you gain strategically by conquering Spain?

In Russia, attrition war works better for the Allies in the long term. I think that Morris will forget the South now.

Denmark may by a tactical level loss, but strategically its great, there's a lot of Axis units tied up there (string strategy) that aren't in Russia or opposing my landings in the South of France.

I am about to post where I have killed a German CORP in Denmark as well - we are very happy to exchange units with the Axis, in fact we happy to kill an Axis CORP's anywhere

[richardsd]

more of the same







I didn't get a Denmark after, but I did kill the German CORP's

elswhere we are trying to kill units/manpower as our primary goal even if it is tactically a loss






we press on in Spain where I am sure Morris will swap out the damaged CORP

[richardsd]

so November brings the bad weather, winter in Russia and mud elsewhere





Morris keeps coming in Denmark



and swaps the GAR into Madrid as expected



in the north we mop up some weak units and rebuild our northern strike force - we also get a little grumpy as our fantastic airforce fails to kill its TAC target



in the south we just concentrate on killing things as we wont be able to stop him railing from Stalingrad



in Denmark we swap in our CORP for the MECH but notice that we have failed to upgrade the CORP so its life could be short



in spain we maybe catch a break as Madrid falls even though he swapped in the GAR - the mud wasn't enough to stop us and we didn't need the CORP

we also take our first French port



all in all not a bad 42 for the west

[richardsd]

argh, the weather gods hate us fair weather in Europe gives the Axis a chance to squash my little Danish adventure



more of the same elsewhere





we try to bolster our Danish adventure as best we can, but forget to supply half our troops (I blame the Ore issues!)



in the North we do some more mopping and upgrade our Northern MECH contingent



just mopping in the South

[zechi]

Despite the setback in Denmark I think your strategy works well and you will have the upper hand soon. Spain should give you a nice extra income and will make the campaign in France easier as soon as you launch D-Day. If possible I would try to invade Vichy France. You will get the Free French as free extra units and you could get from southern France into northern Italy skipping Sicily.

[richardsd]

Despite the setback in Denmark I think your strategy works well and you will have the upper hand soon. Spain should give you a nice extra income and will make the campaign in France easier as soon as you launch D-Day. If possible I would try to invade Vichy France. You will get the Free French as free extra units and you could get from southern France into northern Italy skipping Sicily.

it is definately time to start thinking about a go forward plan

[richardsd]

severe winter hits in Russia and my Danish adventure is slaughtered - darn weather









in the north we inch forward and pocket a few weak CORP's



in the south its the same although our FTR is exposed



we are building nicely in France, one more turn of inaction from the Axis and we won't need a DDay

[Cybvep]

I think that Morris will pay for his reckless aggressiveness. You are already encircling many of his units which should be entrenched in forest hexes and/or dug-in behind rivers, really. This doesn't look a usual game at all, since Morris seemed indifferent to the prospect of facing severe winter in Russia not in defensive positions.

However, he knows what he is doing and looking at low strength of your units near Moscow and in the Caucasus, you are not really in a much better position than him. The only thing that works to your advantage is the severe winter.

Still, in the Baltic states Morris looks surprisingly weak. I don't know whether it's a deception or whether he just doesn't have enough troops to cover the whole frontline properly, but you can both strike eastwards and threaten his units in Smolensk and other areas OR you can push forward and hope that you will manage to bring enough troops to force Morris to withdraw from Russia.

Denmark was a failure, as predicted. I don't know whether losing so many units was a good idea, but you certainly bought yourself some time. In France, you are well-positioned for a strike on Vichy France, but it will be hard to take French cities in Southern France because of preponderance of rough and mountain hexes in that area.

Anyway, the game can end in a disaster for Morris if you play your cards right. Just don't drink too much.

[richardsd]

I think that Morris will pay for his reckless aggressiveness. You are already encircling many of his units which should be entrenched in forest hexes and/or dug-in behind rivers, really. This doesn't look a usual game at all, since Morris seemed indifferent to the prospect of facing severe winter in Russia not in defensive positions.

However, he knows what he is doing and looking at low strength of your units near Moscow and in the Caucasus, you are not really in a much better position than him. The only thing that works to your advantage is the severe winter.

Still, in the Baltic states Morris looks surprisingly weak. I don't know whether it's a deception or whether he just doesn't have enough troops to cover the whole frontline properly, but you can both strike eastwards and threaten his units in Smolensk and other areas OR you can push forward and hope that you will manage to bring enough troops to force Morris to withdraw from Russia.

Denmark was a failure, as predicted. I don't know whether losing so many units was a good idea, but you certainly bought yourself some time. In France, you are well-positioned for a strike on Vichy France, but it will be hard to take French cities in Southern France because of preponderance of rough and mountain hexes in that area.

Anyway, the game can end in a disaster for Morris if you play your cards right. Just don't drink too much.

I think Morris is just trying to grind the Russians so that they are no threat to Germany for a year whilst he deals with the western allies.

i have formulated my plan and even started some of its execution, timing will depend on what Morris does this turn.

No matter what Morris does though, I will continue to force him to defend over long distances and fronts. Spain/France is hard to deal with because he has to rail twice to get there all the while trying to evacuate Russia. The reason he doesn't have a continuous line is that the line is way to long given his losses.

[richardsd]

and its not the drinking thats the problem its playing a turn afterwards

[ncali]

and its not the drinking thats the problem its playing a turn afterwards

Haha! I think we're on to something. My prediction for this game:
0-1 drinks before turn = Allied Strategic or Major victory
2-3 drinks before turn = Allied Marginal Victory
4 drinks + = Danger! Axis victory.

[richardsd]

ok so 43 dawns and I think we won the battle of 42, can we win 43

here are the starting positions









med first for a change, my BB ran into an Italian sub last turn and lost 2 steps, so this turn we run a DD upto the position to see if it stayed there. It did and the combined DD, BB and a TAC finished it off



In the north we press forward looking tyo complete a giant pincer (very slowly )



in the south its just mopping up as best we can



in europe we keep up our bombing as best we can in winter, slipping in the odd upgrade



but the major news for this turn is ..................... we built 2 new Russian MECH's

and decided that Vichy France will indeed be a target and the major engagemnet route for Italy

[richardsd]

we are now well into preparations for our western offensive in 43

The Axis continues as before!







in the North we manage a little pocket and press on



we miss a shot in the south, but we were conservative and rebuilt mostly apart from finishing off the 2 step MECH

in the Med we start DD sweeps and baiting for SUB's

[massina_nz]

This reminds me of my notorius game versus Supoermax where I took Rome in 1940, with a sneaky GAR.

[richardsd]

Feb arrives and with it good weather, but we aren't ready to use it and take a turn upgrading and getting into position

Morris continues as exepcted and is getting a reasonable river line defense in South France (won't really help him we hope )







in the North we press on, a little pocketting and some forwards manouver - quite important for next turn



in the south its more of the same, but with our MECH''s arriving!



in the Med we prepare to execute operation Vichy!

[richardsd]

this turn explains to me why Morris now feels he is beaten - has offered surrender

the befores







and after











and some partisan success



Morris clearly just doesn't have enough troops left, soon all of Russia will be in a pincer - not that there will be any axis left in it!

also I missed a shot of a single Para landing in Europe

[Peter Stauffenberg]

The front line in the east surely looks messy. It must be a nightmare for the Axis to not have a pretty straight defense. So being overly aggressive in the south is not necessarily a good idea if you don't have units for it.

I also noticed another weakness in his strategy. It seems he doesn't bother to garrison his rear cities. That means you get lots of Russian partisans that can move and cut support to Axis units. That is very dangerous. I always try to garrison cities and contain garrisons asap. Axis minor units or Italian units are great for that.

Richardsd is playing very well and exploit the weaknesses in the Axis strategy. It doesn't matter that invasions here and here are crushed. If you can spread out the Axis forces you can take advantage of areas where the Axis aren't strong enough to halt the situation. Spain was such an area. Losing Spain will lead to an early destruction of Germany.

I think you need to have a healthy strategic reserve as the Germans and place them in Germany so they can be railed to all theaters of operations in one turn in case of an emergency. I also believe the Axis will not last till 1945 unless the Luftwaffe is at least as good as the Allied airforce. The Axis will lose air parity in 1944, but if they lose it earlier then the Allies can attack at will.

Morris doesn't build extra subs in many games (including not getting more sub tech). I believe that is a major mistake. I always build at least 3 more subs so I get 6 or more. I get 2 labs in naval with sub focus (I can sell the labs later when tech is maxed out). The reason is that the Allied navy isn't strong enough in 1939-1942 to escort all convoys. If the subs can harass the convoys then the Allies get a lot less income and that means they will have units for invasion later. So by ignoring the battle of the Atlantic you simply invite the Allies to gain the initiative early.

Still, Morris has shown how potent a concentrated Axis attack in Russia can be. Now players are getting used to in and find counter measures. I guess Morris is back on the drawing board trying to fix the weaknesses in his strategy. I expect him to be even more dangerous in his next game. He's very good at finding new opportunities with the current game rules. That is actually a good thing because it means the replayability of GS is good.

In my view the key to Axis victory is the ability to know how many units you need in each front section to control the situation. You have to know when you will be overwhelmed and retreat before it becomes critical. If you put too little effort in one front section then you will suffer. E. g. Libya is important because losing Libya means Allied control of the Med and Italy will come under pressure. The west is important because the Allies can land in France, bomb Germany industry etc. The east is also very important and it's probably too tempting to put too much effort there to crush the Russians. The best Axis players know when they have captured what they can in the east and then switch to defense mode. There are many rivers in Russia it's possible to defend behind. If you attack for too long then you won't have a good defense line and the Russians will grind you down. This is something Supermax has understood in his Festung Europe strategy with his Axis. He focuses on finding a line he can hold instead of getting as far into Russia as possible.