World at War AAR-MrPlow vs. jjdenver (No jjdenver allowed)

[gerones]

USSR has lost its initial initiative and it would be very diffilcult for the allies to win this game... After verifiying low allied progress in Sardinia (defended by a single garrison unit), how it would be once in Italy mainland, with more terrain obstacles and a large army defending it?

[raffo80]

USSR has lost its initial initiative and it would be very diffilcult for the allies to win this game... After verifiying low allied progress in Sardinia (defended by a single garrison unit), how it would be once in Italy mainland, with more terrain obstacles and a large army defending it?

allies in '43 have many units and hopefully lot of tacticals. they just need to invade south france/north italy using sardinia and corsica as air bases (but tons of tactical are needed.

[OzHawkeye2]

This has certainly been an entertaining AAR. Well done.

I cannot help but thing regardless of his success in Iraq, the German player is doomed on the Russian front, which in the end, is the only one that really matters.

Hmmm.... Not sure that I agree. In the BJR mod, it's possible for Germany to hold out much longer than in the vanilla game. Here the Allies have made some serious missteps that may make it impossible to take Berlin & Rome by deadline.

Instead of going after relatively valueless Tripoli, why didn't the Allies head straight for Egypt? They could have perhaps caught the Germans between a rock and a hard place. Now Axis has got the oil and it's possibly too late.

The Russians have paid a terrible price for their first offensive. Now the German has had time to profit from his considerable production advantage. He'll probably be able to repel any Red Army offensive in 1943. That means the Allies will have only a year and a half to blast through somehow to Berlin and Rome. That's a tall order, looking at it from where I sit.

I must admit, I had not considered the 1945 deadline when making this remark (I tend to play my game out to a conclusion regardless of date). In that light, the German player is in a much better position to hold on, I still believe though that Germany isn't capable of defeating Russia in this game (short of serious mistakes on the Allies part), and as a result of that, they are ultimately doomed.

Now, will they be able to hold on till '45? I think that much more likely to be sure. Either way I look forward to the next installment of this extremely well done and entertaining AAR.

[MrPlow]

I really appreciate the discussion, support, and compliments you all have posted throughout this AAR. This game has been tough for the Allies, and they are woefully aware of their situation and shrinking chances of victory. Whatever the outcome, Allied Command will see this war through and hope for the best. It has been an eye opening experience playing a PBEM, with so much more strategy and thought going into turns opposed to what was needed against the AI. On a personal note, I feel outplayed in every aspect, like my opponent knew what I was planing and how to easily counter it. He has played remarkably well and I respect him greatly as an opponent. I look forward to meeting him on the battlefield for the next 2 and a half years in campaigns that hopefully swing things in Allied favour. The Allies will prevail, not just to salvage my reputation, but to free all the subjugated peoples under Nazi tyranny!

Thanks everyone!
MrPlow

[MrPlow]

February 12, 1943

Eastern Front

Front is static as usual expect for Soviet advances near Helsinki.

North Africa and Iraq

Sardinia is finally captured, though maybe only temporarily, as an enemy transport lurks offshore and our navy fails to destroy it. Allies advance towards Tobruk as heavy enemy air attacks harass our troops and ships. It looks like Iraq will fall soon, though there is a chance Allied Reinforcements may make it on time.

Central Mediterranean

[MrPlow]

March 4, 1943

Eastern Front

Preparations for summer offensive continue...

North Africa, Iraq and Future Plans

Allied Command HATES this theatre, it is so FRUSTRATING. The terrain sucks, the transport time sucks, and the massive enemy airpower that destroys our units sucks. We are done with this theatre, the Afrika corps already has the oil fields so whats the point? Hopefully our units that landed in North Africa can at least reclaim some Libyan and Egyptian cities. We will shift our Naval Assets to the Atlantic, and focus our efforts there. The french coast has much better territory to land troops. We will build up, and then launch an invasion in Mid to Late Summer 1943. Hopefully this can occur at the same time as the Soviet Union's summer offensive. This time we will build enough aircraft to at least achieve air parity in order to buy our troops some time to capture cities. Also, we will build more armoured units and land in force, instead of piecemeal like prior invasions. Allied Command hopes that the enemy will not be expecting an invasion of France and instead assume we would invade England beforehand. With luck, we will catch them off guard and unprepared for the important initial days of the invasion with their troop concentrations will being in the Mediterranean and along the Eastern Front. This the Allies last chance, Nazi tyranny must not be allowed to survive!

[zzodr]

True, but the weather is nice.
Beats bouncing around in a Tin Can in the North Atlantic.

[OzHawkeye2]

I'd take just about anything over the Russian front....except maybe a job as a German submariner. 95% loss rate throughout the war....ouch.

[zzodr]

I thought it was around 75%

[OzHawkeye2]

I thought it was around 75%

I stand corrected. I had thought the loss rate was closer to 95%, but apparently it was "only" around 75%.

[gerones]

USSR has lost its initial initiative and it would be very diffilcult for the allies to win this game... After verifiying low allied progress in Sardinia (defended by a single garrison unit), how it would be once in Italy mainland, with more terrain obstacles and a large army defending it?

allies in '43 have many units and hopefully lot of tacticals. they just need to invade south france/north italy using sardinia and corsica as air bases (but tons of tactical are needed.

As air bases!? Look to all this fighters and tacs in Sicily, do you really think allies could gain any air superiority in this scenario?

[raffo80]

I don't know as i play mostly axis (due to most of my opponents wanting to play allies) but everytime i get invaded, i see 4-6 BS, 4-6 carriers, 6 fighters and then tacticals.

If you use that fleet, i think you will gain air superiority. In this game i don't know why, but allies in '43 seem to have far less units than in any of my games.

[MrPlow]

An interesting development has occurred that I thought I would share with my esteemed AAR readers. Unfortunately Nazi Germany misunderstood one of the "Geneva Convention" rules and has been attacking my fighters more than the allowed 1 attack throughout the war. I was wondering why my air force was getting completely destroyed because without a turn replay, I'm not able to see how much a unit has been attacked, just if a unit was attacked. This helps to explain why my airforce was getting destroyed and how my troops were getting highly damaged and destroyed as a result of no allied air cover. Luckily jjdenver realized this mistake and I thought it was very noble of him to bring it to my attention. He is a great opponent to play with! As a result, we have decided that he will bring 7 of his FTR's back to central Germany and "release" them back to active duty over time. Here is what he suggested, and what I think is a great idea:

"I'll send away 7 FTR's. They will return at this rate:
Sep 43: 1 FTR returns
Nov 43: 1 FTR returns
Jan 44: 1 FTR returns
Mar 44: 1 FTR returns
May 44: 1 FTR returns
Jul 44: 1 FTR returns
Sep 44: last FTR returns"

Although this wont "turn back the clock" and maybe Allied invasions and attacks that failed may have succeeded, I think this is fair compensation. Hopefully these developments will open up opportunities for Allied Command to exploit throughout this bloody war....

[gerones]

I was wondering why my air force was getting completely destroyed because without a turn replay, I'm not able to see how much a unit has been attacked, just ifa unit was attacked. This helps to explain why my airforce was getting destroyed and how my troops were getting highly damaged and destroyed as a result of no allied air cover. Luckily jjdenver realized this mistake and I thought it was very noble of him to bring it to my attention.

If I were you I wouldn´t continue playing this game... After discovering such a thing like this, all could be different and for me it wouldn´t have any interest. As you correctly say, a last turn replay would be a very suitable pbem enhancement allowing us to see exactly what our opponent would have done, making it possible to verify if BJR house rules are observed or if "other things" are observed...

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I think MrPlows fate with his fighter proves why we need the house rule of max 1 air attack per airbase per turn. Without such a rule it's too easy for the side with air superiority to annihilate his opponent or force him to completely withdraw the air units. So it's hard to start interfering with the enemy's air superiority until you have built so many air units you can claim air superiority yourself.

I think this mistake has had a very big consequence in this game. It meant the British lost air units in England, Egypt and even more in Russia. That means the Axis side has succeeded with conquests they might not have otherwise.

But people play to have fun and it takes some time to learn all the house rules. So I would have continued the game if I were MrPlow. They both learn alot about the BJR-mod they can use for future games. E. g. MrPlow is now about to learn how the Allies claim initiative and start pushing the Germans back to Berlin.

We have got help from a guy who knows Java programming very well. He will have a look at the different class files and implement some of the house rules so people don't have to remember about them.

The first issue on our list was to not let the Axis oil supply get below 0. This means the Allies can't use the cheesy strategy of forcing Axis fighters to intercept so the Axis oil supply drops to a big negative number. That means the Germans can never again move any oil consuming units.

The class file is now changed and we're playtesting it. It works great and the Axis can't in his turn move or attack with an oil consuming unit that would bring his oil reserve below 0. But in the enemy turn the Allied player can only bring the Axis oil reserves down to 0. All Axis defenses when the oil reserves is down to 0 will be free.

At the start of the Axis turn they will get a small amount of oil late in the game. If all oilfields are captured (Ploesti, Nagykanitsa, Scholven and Leuna) then the Axis will get 14 oil at the start of each turn. So the Axis can then move e. g. subs, some armor units. But if the armor units are upgraded to max tech then they will use 6 oil for moving and 6 for attacking. So you can only support one armor attack or 2 armor moves. This means it's possible to repeat the Battle of the Bulge.

The next issue on the change list is to automatically check if a hex has already been attacked by 2 air units and not draw a white circle in this hex (meaning it's not an eligible target for bombardments). This house rule is being looked into and I don't know when it's finished.

[rkr1958]

An interesting development has occurred that I thought I would share with my esteemed AAR readers. Unfortunately Nazi Germany misunderstood one of the "Geneva Convention" rules and has been attacking my fighters more than the allowed 1 attack throughout the war. I was wondering why my air force was getting completely destroyed because without a turn replay, I'm not able to see how much a unit has been attacked, just if a unit was attacked. This helps to explain why my airforce was getting destroyed and how my troops were getting highly damaged and destroyed as a result of no allied air cover. Luckily jjdenver realized this mistake and I thought it was very noble of him to bring it to my attention. He is a great opponent to play with! As a result, we have decided that he will bring 7 of his FTR's back to central Germany and "release" them back to active duty over time. Here is what he suggested, and what I think is a great idea:

"I'll send away 7 FTR's. They will return at this rate:
Sep 43: 1 FTR returns
Nov 43: 1 FTR returns
Jan 44: 1 FTR returns
Mar 44: 1 FTR returns
May 44: 1 FTR returns
Jul 44: 1 FTR returns
Sep 44: last FTR returns"

Although this wont "turn back the clock" and maybe Allied invasions and attacks that failed may have succeeded, I think this is fair compensation. Hopefully these developments will open up opportunities for Allied Command to exploit throughout this bloody war....

Note that under the BJR mod it's possible for a fighter to be engaged twice per turn. But only one of those engagements can be from a strike against the fighter base. For example, the Axis player attacks a ground target with a bomber (or fighter). One of your fighter intercepts but is in turn countered intercepted by one of his fighter. Note that so far all the fighter combat is automatic (i.e., it's done by the CEaW game engine). After this, assuming he has an unused fighter in range, he can then attack the airbase that (your) fighter. Thus, your fighter was engaged twice. One in air to air combat as it attempted to intercept the Axis bombers. And the second one by a direct strike against its airbase.

By the way, this is the method I use when I have an advantage in fighters and want to degrade my opponents fighter.

[MrPlow]

I think MrPlows fate with his fighter prove why we need the house rule of max 1 air attack per airbase per turn. Without such a rule it's too easy for the side with air superiority to annihilate his opponent or force him to completely withdraw the air units. So it's hard to start interfering with the enemy's air superiority until you have built so many air units you can claim air superiority yourself.

I think this mistake has had a very big consequence in this game. It meant the British lost air units in England, Egypt and even more in Russia. That means the Axis side has succeeded with conquests they might not have otherwise.

But people play to have fun and it takes some time to learn all the house rules. So I would have continued the game if I were MrPlow. They both learn alot about the BJR-mod they can use for future games. E. g. MrPlow is now about to learn how the Allies claim initiative and start pushing the Germans back to Berlin.

We have got help from a guy who knows Java programming very well. He will have a look at the different class files and implement some of the house rules so people don't have to remember about them.

The first issue on our list was to not let the Axis oil supply get below 0. This means the Allies can't use the cheesy strategy of forcing Axis fighters to intercept so the Axis oil supply drops to a big negative number. That means the Germans can never again move any oil consuming units.

The class file is now changed and we're playtesting it. It works great and the Axis can't in his turn move or attack with an oil consuming unit that would bring his oil reserve below 0. But in the enemy turn the Allied player can only bring the Axis oil reserves down to 0. All Axis defenses when the oil reserves is down to 0 will be free.

At the start of the Axis turn they will get a small amount of oil late in the game. If all oilfields are captured (Ploesti, Nagykanitsa, Scholven and Leuna) then the Axis will get 14 oil at the start of each turn. So the Axis can then move e. g. subs, some armor units. But if the armor units are upgraded to max tech then they will use 6 oil for moving and 6 for attacking. So you can only support one armor attack or 2 armor moves. This means it's possible to repeat the Battle of the Bulge.

The next issue on the change list is to automatically check if a hex has already been attacked by 2 air units and not draw a white circle in this hex (meaning it's not an eligible target for bombardments). This house rule is being looked into and I don't know when it's finished.

Don't worry, I said in a previous post that Allied command will see this war to the end no matter what the circumstance. Again Stauffenberg I would like to thank you, rkr1958, and Happycat for the work and effort you all put into the BJR mod. I can not express how much enjoyment I get from it as you all managed to make a great game even better! Again, thank you all for the tireless effort you put into play testing, developing, and tweaking the BJR mod. You guys are the best!

A very appreciative fan
MrPlow

[MrPlow]

Note that under the BJR mod it's possible for a fighter to be engaged twice per turn. But only one of those engagements can be from a strike against the fighter base. For example, the Axis player attacks a ground target with a bomber (or fighter). One of your fighter intercepts but is in turn countered intercepted by one of his fighter. Note that so far all the fighter combat is automatic (i.e., it's done by the CEaW game engine). After this, assuming he has an unused fighter in range, he can then attack the airbase that (your) fighter. Thus, your fighter was engaged twice. One in air to air combat as it attempted to intercept the Axis bombers. And the second one by a direct strike against its airbase.

By the way, this is the method I use when I have an advantage in fighters and want to degrade my opponents fighter.

Yup we both understand that rule and have both done this strategy. However, this is what jjdenver (who i think is a great opponent to play with) said:

"I would fly a FTR to air strike a ground unit, let your FTR intercept, then fly 2 FTR's to strike your FTR at its base. I was combining the phrase
"If you attack another unit and a fighters intercepts then this attack is not counted
as an attack on the fighter’s airbase."
with
"All other air attacks are limited to two per hex "

As you can see it was an honest misunderstanding, and it was very honourable of him bringing it to my attention after he found out!

[MrPlow]

March 24, 1943

After a serious of disastrous defeats, there is a feeling that 1943 will be the year of the Allies and ultimately, freedom!

Eastern Front

Glorious Red Army troops stormed Helsinki and liberated Finland from the Fascist menace. In the process, a Wehrmacht unit was trapped to the East of Helsinki and well soon face its horrible fate. The Red Army continues to grow in preparation for the Summer offensive as Soviet troops mass near Minsk. Also, it seems the cowardly Luftwaffe realized how powerful we were becoming and retreated back to Germany, leaving the frontline almost devoid of enemy airpower! New Soviet tanks and aircraft will soon be assisting our glorious troops to victory over the Fascist dogs! Glory to the Motherland!

Africa and North Atlantic

Iraq remains in allied hands as reinforcements arrive to help bolster the defence. In addition, Allied forces are poised to capture Tripoli and hopefully begin a long campaign to liberate North Africa. Furthermore, Allied Naval units are beginning to withdraw from the Mediterranean, as the Italian Navy has been practically destroyed in combat, and will begin to concentrate along the North American coast. Now is the time to strike as the Western Allies also notice a lack of German airpower along the French and English Coasts. Allied Intelligence, using Ultra 2.0 , has cracked German transmissions which reveal that the Luftwaffe will begin to become more active sometime in September after they solve "fuel and manpower issues". We are preparing a large force, which will include more air and armour units then previous invasions, to liberate either England or France. There is hope that our trusted "Neutral" advisors can assist Allied Command with suggests for troop depositions, invasion targets and Strategies. The Allies are now in a position to reclaim lost territory and pride. We will strike hard and use their own successful tactics and strategies against them. We will have a "schwerpunkt" instead of spreading our operations haphazardly, we will prepare and use overpowering force against enemy positions, and we will free the subjugated peoples under Nazi tyranny!

[OzHawkeye2]

Dear General Plow,

We write this letter from our main underground resistance cell in the East End of London. Your liason officers have suggested that a large Allied force is gathering, preparing to commence the liberation of Western Europe. We write this letter to urge you to make the liberation of the English homeland your first priority. Our productive capacity once liberated will present to the glorious Allies are more substantial bonus than the occupation of conquered France would.

We are sure that with our homeland once again seeing the light of freedom spread across our lands, the people would rise up in solidarity and provide, along with the English Resistance, valuable supporting units to assist in the liberation of Western Europe.

Sincerely,

Agent Havok
English Resistance
East End, 74 7EE UK