Vokt (axis) vs JimR (allies) 3.0 AAR

[Vokt]

Turn 1. September 1, 1939.

New AAR with 3.0 now very close. I will play axis and my opponent, JimR will play allies. Typical first axis turn with the main advance and progress around Lodz. The only variant was the panzerkorps in Pomerania linking with german forces in East Prussia instead of advancing to Warsaw. This way polish garrison 2 hexes NW of the polish capital remained intact. Strat rebased to help in second turn operations. Bought first naval lab and also a paratrooper unit.

[Cybvep]

More 3.0 AARs. Good . I will be monitoring this one closely...

[Vokt]

Turn 2. September 21, 1939.

First, last allied turn moves in Poland, a weak counterattack north of Krakow and polish army units concentrating around the capital.



Shot below is at the end of axis turn. A german tac 3-steps hit on Warsaw defenders helped to take the city easier. It was not necessary to force the retreat of the polish fighter to get an additional 4th hex for attacking the capital since a corps finished off the polish infantry unit. One of the last turn attacking panzerkorps in Lodz was railed to the west. Bought infantry and air 1st labs.



Spotted a 21-steps northern convoy.

[Vokt]

Turn 3. October 11, 1939.

Denmark was invaded and conquered this turn in which I bought 1st armour lab. Northern convoy was spotted again and soon it will be at range of the 3 starting german sub units.

[Vokt]

Turn 4. October 31, 1939.

Bought a tactical bomber and railed more units to the west. The two starting german sub units coming from Baltic ports are now at range of the still spotted northern convoy.

[Vokt]

Turn 5. November 20, 1939.

November brought the breaking of the fair weather enjoyed from the start of the game. I won't be doing blitzkrieg so no deal there. Anyway, bad weather did not keep the subs operating in the Atlantic from sinking the northern convoy. Pictures below show situation at the start and at the end of axis turn.





General lab completed german tech investment for 1939.

[Vokt]

Turn 7. December 30, 1939.

Skipped turn 6 in which nothing really worth to mention happened. This current 7th turn brought some ASW action for the first time in the game when an escorting DD north of Ireland made a swept at the end of its movement and got a contact with an u-boat. Evading occurs so no step was lost in both sides. Escorted convoy at 13 steps is likely the central convoy. Shot below is at the start of axis turn.



In axis turn subs moved southwards and when convoy movement phase was completed, a southern convoy at 15 steps ended its movement near of one of the german subs thus being spotted.

[Vokt]

Turn 8. January 19, 1940.

Same things happening in this first 1940 turn than in 1939 last ones. Southern convoy at 15 steps was strongly escorted by RN so no way to attack it. Pic below is at the start of axis turn.



Subs moved north again just to spot a weak northern convoy at 9 steps when this ended its movement in the convoy phase. I will try to keep some track of the convoys sunk or damaged vs the convoys that succeeded to make their way to UK. From a total of 49 PP's carried in by convoys so far, german subs have caused to fade out 21.

I bought a fighter unit this turn. Forget to mention that I bought another fighter unit in skipped turn 6 (it will be deployed in the very next turn) so actually 2 figthers in german production queue. 3rd tac was already deployed.

[Cybvep]

I will try to keep some track of the convoys sunk or damaged vs the convoys that succeeded to make their way to UK.

That will be hard, because you will never spot all convoys. This is very accurate BTW. FINDING convoys was one of the hardest things that the submariners had to do, especially during the early war period.

[richardsd]

I haven't played 3 yet, but its pretty brave to have the RN out and about

[Cybvep]

He is only using DDs in escort duties. What's so brave about it? If he loses 1 DD (unlikely, because it's not easy to sink a DD with 3 0-lvl subs), he will simply withdraw the other ones to port and wait until more are built (one DD now costs 50 PPs).

[richardsd]

He is only using DDs in escort duties. What's so brave about it? If he loses 1 DD (unlikely, because it's not easy to sink a DD with 3 0-lvl subs), he will simply withdraw the other ones to port and wait until more are built (one DD now costs 50 PPs).

what does 6 steps of damage cost to repair?

you only have to invest a little as the Axis to stop the Allies doing this

[Vokt]

Turn 9. February 8, 1940.

First a pic with situation in the Atlantic at the start of axis turn.



Slim northern convoy at 9 steps shown in the image was sunk with a single hit thus making 58/30 the ratio PP's carried by convoys/PP's fade out by subs so far.

That will be hard, because you will never spot all convoys. This is very accurate BTW. FINDING convoys was one of the hardest things that the submariners had to do, especially during the early war period.

Of course this will be rather roughly and on the other hand I will be focussing in the convoys reaching UK. I assume that it will be harder to control southern convoys sizes when these ones begin to sail to USA instead.

I buy 2nd air lab this turn.

[Vokt]

Turn 10. February 28, 1940.

First appearance of RAF in Atlantic battles. A strat based on northern Ireland bombed the german sub that last turn sank northern convoy. U-boat unit lost 1 step. Below is how it looked before axis moves.



I moved Kriegsmarine subs south seeking for the central convoy and avoiding the strat range. One of the units at 10 steps first spotted a british DD and then the sub at 9 steps located the entire naval group containing central convoy and its escorts.



A 5th fighter unit was built so it will be able to participate in the upcoming western Europe campaign.

[Vokt]

Turn 11. March 19, 1940.

Bad weather ended this turn so western campaign has begun. Luftwaffe started with 3 fighters, 3 tacs and 1 strat and no land units were bought so we have here the initial 11 corps, 3 armoured and 2 mechs units with which Wehrmacht starts in september 1939. Image below shows disposition of mentioned forces.



Operations in Low Countries went as expected and with really low losses so only 1 step lost by land units (a corps attacking at Liege) and 2 steps lost by a fighter unit when being intercepted by french air forces. No french army unit was attacked which land forces were partially spotted. Pic below shows positions reached by the germans once Hague and Brussels were taken.



4th fighter unit was deployed in the fortress hex south of Cologne and 2nd infantry lab was built. Italian labs are progressing too so to the initial infantry lab already on the go it would have to add naval lab bought this turn.

Land operations launched this turn did not interrupt convoy battles in the Atlantic. Pic below shows last allied turn moves around the 23-steps central convoy.



U-boats went after southern convoy so the 9-steps sub moved southeastwards spotting the convoy and ending its movement in a adjacent hex. Picture below shows mentioned event. Since in naval rules spotting and attacking by the same unit can occur I torpedoed the convoy reducing it in 9 steps and then it was finished off by the sub positioned exactly 10 hexes northwest.



Remaining sub unit searched for northern convoy and found it.



Assuming that the central convoy at 23 steps will have made its way to UK with no problems and including the recently sunk southern convoy score now is 92/41(45,05 per cent of convoys sunk till now).

[Vokt]

Turn 12. April 8, 1940.

French army made a shy move into Belgium holding its positions in the rest:



Germans first objective was to remove those well entrenched garrisons in the centre. With good air support those mentioned units were destroyed or forced to retreat. French garrisons that moved Flanders were completely overrun so mobile german units reached Calais. Air combats that followed mentioned combats scored 4 steps lost in both sides with the french fighter appearing to have been repaired to 10 steps in last allied turn and RAF fighter unit stationed in Rouen.



Back to Atlantic where action continues. First a shot with last turn northern convoy movement.



Sub watching for northern convoy torpedoed it for 8 steps (108/49) and u-boats positioned west of Brest in last turn moved northwest just to spot another RN naval group this time containing a transported unit.



Bought 2nd armour lab.

[Cybvep]

You should attack this transport with 3 subs, if you can. With the new evasion rules, it may just be worth it, assuming that a FTR is the transport.

[Vokt]

Turn 13. April 28, 1940.

No french army counterattacks for now. Only offensive allied action was a massive naval bombardment in Pas-de-Calais which caused the mechs there to lose 3 steps. A garrison moved from Maginot line to close the gap formed in Lorraine. French fighter was repaired again.



Wehrmacht focussed in the capture of Lille and succeeded with 2 french garrisons destroyed and 2 french corps damaged (one of them badly) as a result of the combats for the seizure of the city. Air combats scored again a stalemate with 2 steps lost in both sides. Breakthrough occurred in Lorraine. Shot at the end of axis turn with the 5th fighter unit already deployed.



Arrows in the pic below shows the intense allied naval activity east of Ireland.

You should attack this transport with 3 subs, if you can. With the new evasion rules, it may just be worth it, assuming that a FTR is the transport.

I decided to focus in finishing off northern convoy instead since we don't know if that's a garrison or a fighter what is transported there. So I needed 2 subs for destroying the remaining 8 steps of the convoy, one for spotting it and the other one for sinking it (108/57). Third remaining sub searched for central convoy and spotted it. It was a 15-steps one. At the end of convoy movement phase, southern convoy at 20 steps ended its movement inside the spotting range of the sub positioned SE of New Foundland.



I bought 2nd general lab. I am thinking twice about buying 2nd naval lab but I will be likely doing so since new naval rules make it worthy.

[Vokt]

Turn 14. May 18, 1940.

More naval bombardments and more trying to fill the gap in Lorraine were the most remarkable things happening in last allied turn. Screenshot below is at the start of axis turn.



German army forces this turn progressed significantly. In Lille sector, 2 french corps were destroyed and Somme river line was completely reached. In Lorraine a major breakthrough occurred with several Wehrmacht inf corps now in a good position to reach Paris from the SE and with an additional french corps and garrison destroyed. Air combats favoured Luftwaffe this time with 5 steps lost in the allies air forces (RAF fighter lost 3 steps) and 3 in the german ones (steps lost by tacs are not included in these comparatives). Furthermore, a paratroop division was dropped to attack french air base forcing the fighter unit to retreat and reducing it to 5 steps. Pic below shows axis moves this turn.



Let's come back again to naval operations. RAF strat continues to operate from northern Ireland for ASW duties since in last allied turn a german sub was bombed and lost 1 step due to the mentioned air unit. RN DD's focussed in escorting the 20-steps southern convoy:



If the central convoy at 15 steps, that in last turn moved to a non-spotted area, was escorted or not couldn't be told since some of the arrows that showed allied naval moves could mean that escorts had been sent to protect both convoys. So I sent a first spotting u-boat and then the two other subs finished the convoy making the numbers now 123/72. Later, in convoy movement phase, 20-steps southern convoy ended its turn adjacent to one of the subs attacking units.



Couldn't buy naval lab because not enough PP's. Anyway, that lab purchase will be delayed a little since I am going to build a 2nd strat unit in the very next turn. Plaid's game show me that for the germans to have 2 strats allow them to put pressure in the brits once France falls and later in the eastern front the same happens when Moscow is reduced to 1-2 steps of production. In both cases, this means many PP's lost turn by turn.

[Cybvep]

Ah, Calais. The hex of doom. I NEVER put my heavy units there. Never. I hate it when I lose 2-3 steps due to shore bombardment alone and in that dreaded hex, your heavy unit can be attacked by THREE naval units AND by air units.

I think that the Allied player is making a mistake by trying so hard to defend so far east. He should disengage and force the Germans to waste an additional turn or two.