Joe v. Morris Round II (Joe's AAR)

[richardsd]

It varies widly I am affraid, I am on the recieveing end of something like 9 units with nearly half over 5 steps

Yes, I've seen that before, but never something like this. What's the point of even revolting if you only have 7 steps worth of troops? Those rebels could have just hung themselves and saved the government the trouble.

Ah, well, it won't have any real impact on the game. I just thought it was a little odd.

of course in my game the Axis is crossing the Canal

[Morris]

8 pp is very expensive for UK now !

Wow, this UK must be in very bad economic shape then.

Yes , it was very bad . Before Aug 6th , Uk is poor without middle east . After Aug 6th ,Uk is also poor with out Britain !

[richardsd]

It varies widly I am affraid, I am on the recieveing end of something like 9 units with nearly half over 5 steps

Yes, I've seen that before, but never something like this. What's the point of even revolting if you only have 7 steps worth of troops? Those rebels could have just hung themselves and saved the government the trouble.

Ah, well, it won't have any real impact on the game. I just thought it was a little odd.

of course in my game the Axis is crossing the Canal

here is the latest revolt gaianst me 16 including 2 at ten steps ! and the Axis is at the canal

[joerock22]

Now that's an Iraqi Revolt!!!

BTW, I will start posting turns again soon, probably tomorrow.

[Morris]

Now that's an Iraqi Revolt!!!

BTW, I will start posting turns again soon, probably tomorrow.

Everyone is looking forward to your Babarosa !

[joerock22]

Turn 33 – June 2, 1941

Okay, this time my excuse for not posting for awhile is that Barbarossa started, and I didn’t want Morris to see some of the things I was going to reveal until the campaign was almost over. Specifically, composition of forces and comments on overall strategy. Now that Barbarossa is essentially over, I promise you’ll see posts quite often from me until we catch up.

The British manage to kill a 9-step German corps in Scotland. Not too happy about that. If the British are going to get those kinds of results, perhaps I need a different approach.

England






On a brighter note, Barbarossa finally gets under way. The German army consists of the following:

- 6 tanks
- 4 mechs
- 3 fighters (1 arriving from France this turn)
- 6 tactical bombers
- 1 strategic bomber

These are supported by the Axis minor air units, an Italian tank and mech, all the Axis minor corps, and several Italian corps. Not a bad force. In a normal game, I would try to have 7 German tanks and 6 mechs, but I didn’t have the PPs to build those extra units, and I also don’t have the fuel to keep them running.

USSR North





USSR Center





USSR South

[Cybvep]

Not bad. It's not uber-awesome Barbarossa, but it's not uncommon to see worse ones in standard games...

[joerock22]

Not bad. It's not uber-awesome Barbarossa, but it's not uncommon to see worse ones in standard games...

Yes, it's not my best. I recently did one in a standard game that I think might have been my best--captured Leningrad and Stalingrad and almost Moscow in 1941. But considering the successful Sea Lion and stiff British resistance, I'm pretty satisfied.

[joerock22]

Turn 34 – June 22, 1941

Time to reveal more of my original goals:

#3 – Dominate Atlantic with 7-10 subs, plus KM
#4 – Barbarossa in June 1941

#3 obviously didn’t happen. It was folly to think that I would have enough PPs for that, plus a 1941 Barbarossa. Maybe if Morris had given up England without much of a fight, but he most certainly did not do that! At least goal #4 was accomplished.

Barbarossa continues, with good progress on all fronts. The Luftwaffe is repositioned and focused in the north, where my major objectives are. Goal #4(a) is the capture of Leningrad in 1941. I view the south as more of a side show, though I have deployed several elite German units down there. I also think Morris will get aggressive at some point, and it is much more difficult for the Russians to mount a surprise offensive in the forests of the north than it is on the open plains of the south. Above all, I must avoid suffering a catastrophic defeat in 1941.

In the west, Belfast falls at last and an interesting development with the Royal Navy…

England





USSR North





USSR South

[Morris]

Not bad. It's not uber-awesome Barbarossa, but it's not uncommon to see worse ones in standard games...

Yes , it is not uber-awesome Barbarossa , but Joe played it very effective ! As wel as an uber-awesome Barbarossa !

[joerock22]

Turn 35 – July 12, 1941

Barbarossa continues, and the KM moves on to a new target.

England





USSR North





USSR South

[Cybvep]

I'm pretty sure that you will capture Leningrad in 1941, unless you are very unlucky. The key is to start bombing the city early. Leningrad is by far the easiest out of the 3 important cities (Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad) to capture, since Moscow is usually heavily defended and cannot be isolated quickly and Stalingrad is in the 3-supply zone, so usually it's only feasible to take it when the Soviets are already overstretched.

I wouldn't leave Odessa undefended for long. Recapturing it can be very annoying.

[joerock22]

Turn 36 – August 1, 1941

The Axis close in on Novgorod, despite some difficulties due to Zone of Control. Ground, air, and naval combat in the U.K.

England





USSR North





USSR South

[pk867]

Hi Joe,
The black bar means you are missing the map tile. To correct this go into image/background and image/backgroundnames and delete the 3 files - map25_nogrid.dat, map50_nogrid.dat and map100_nogrid.dat .Then launch the game. It will take a minute or two depending upon the speed of your system. This will force an update to the maptiles.

If you switch between the maps with no river names it will cause a delay while it is updating. Just be patient.

PK

[joerock22]

Hi Joe,
The black bar means you are missing the map tile. To correct this go into image/background and image/backgroundnames and delete the 3 files - map25_nogrid.dat, map50_nogrid.dat and map100_nogrid.dat .Then launch the game. It will take a minute or two depending upon the speed of your system. This will force an update to the maptiles.

If you switch between the maps with no river names it will cause a delay while it is updating. Just be patient.

PK

Thanks a lot! Deleting those files seems to have fixed it. You'll still see them in the screenshots until the 11/29/41 turn.

[joerock22]

Turn 37 – August 21, 1941

Flush with success, the Germans continue their attack in Scotland. With air support and strong infantry, I may be able to cripple the British in this sector so they are easy to finish off next year.

In the east, the assault on Leningrad begins. I bring my offensive in the south to a halt and shift in a new direction.

England





USSR North





USSR South

[joerock22]

Turn 38 – September 10, 1941

An interesting message from Morris before my turn:

Good progress in Barbarossa, you will achieve Sevastopol, Rostov, Leningrad! I hope you won't take Moscow & Stalingrad before winter!

Notice that Morris mentions Rostov. Well, I’m confident that he only says I “will achieve” Rostov because he wants me to try to capture it! The screenshots prove it! And Stalingrad? Now that would truly be foolhardy! A clever piece of gamesmanship by Morris, but it won’t work on me.

England





USSR North





USSR South

[Morris]

hehehe ... Joe knew exactly what I wanted ! & He did no mistake to retreat on the perfect time . Actually It is easy to defeat a warrior like Halsey , but it is difficult to deal with a general like Spruance ! Tribute to Joe !

[joerock22]

Turn 39 – September 30, 1941

The Axis try to make good use of the last guaranteed fair turn in the east. Operation “Grind Down the British” continues in Scotland.

England





USSR North





USSR South

[Peter Stauffenberg]

It seems like you're crushing Morris. I just can't see why Morris is doing what he is doing in Scotland. He would probably have been better off building a defensive line there with corps units with +1 defense leaders. If the units are placed well they should not be able to be attacked from 3 sides.

By keeping a presence in the far north supported by Scapa Flow these units can prevent UK from dropping in efficiency. These units can later be activated when USA joins the Allies and liberation of England begins.

It seems that Morris'es strategy to is be aggressive with the UK units in order to bleed the Germans so Russia get an easier task. Well, if you lose most of the Royal Navy and most of the UK land / air forces then there won't be a second front for Joerock to deal with for a long time. So you actually don't help Russia much by sacrificing the units you need for a future offensive.

Joe has made decent progress in Russia, but nothing overwhelming. That is natural since Sealion was started. So Morris has a lot of ground to give in the Spring of 1942 without being seriously threatened. So if the UK forces had survived then the Allies could have launched a strong invasion of England in 1942. Now that doesn't seem possible. So Joe can now build for a very strong 1942 German offensive. Maybe he will go for Moscow and Omsk or he will go for Baku.

It's not always the best strategy to bleed your opponent. You have to look at your own casualties compared to the casualties you inflict. The Royal Navy is the bread and butter for Britain so losing the CV's and many BB's / DD's is a disaster for them.

I don't say Morris has lost the game yet, but Joe definitely has the initiative. Morris has to have some aces up his sleeve to get the initiative back. Joe is too good to fall for any traps (like Rostov) so Morris will simply have to outplay Joe to get the upper hand. Good luck with that, I say. I tried the same against him and failed.