Slitherine

Ronnie, why don´t you try a strategical withdrawal in the south to the romanian mountains? This way you could conserve the most part of your army in the south, keeping more troops in the 3 hexes distance between the mountain hexes and the swamp russian hexes and also in the romanian plane in Constanta.

Turn 81. January 18, 1944.

The following is an excerpt from a decoded intercept of a wireless communication from London to the Allied invasion force in France. German intelligence places a confidence of 99% that this is the voice of PM Winston Churchill.

To Commander, Allied Invasion Force. Your sacrifices in southern France are of the utmost importance to the Allied cause, and although victory in this theatre may elude our grasp for the moment, you must know that ultimate victory will be ours. Even at this moment, the Russians are breaking through the Axis lines near Smolensk, threatening the same near Kiev, and further south have destroyed two complete corps of the Hun. In addition, the liberation of Algeria seems near at hand, with help from our American brothers, and Montgomery's forces are closing in on Jerusalem. Everywhere, the forces of darkness are retreating before the mighty sword of light and justice.

The following is a translation of an article from the London Times. This paper was smuggled out of the UK and to Germany at great risk.

London Times, Dec. 29/43: "British, American and Free French forces have now surrounded Algiers, and sources indicate that the city is expected to fall at any moment now. Wireless contact has been established with Admiral Cunningham in Malta, and he was reportedly very pleased to hear that his efforts to keep the remaining Royal Navy submarines of the Mediterranean force in supply have paid off again, with a very damaging attack against naval units of the Vichy regime. Admiral Cunningham advised that the defenders of Malta are tired, but defiantly unbowed."

Publicly the OKW refutes both these claims as blatantly propaganda. However; privately senior OKW commanders admit that both these paint an accurate picture of the current war situation. However; no hint of these private assessments are leaked beyond this small circle of senior commander.

leridano wrote:Ronnie, why don´t you try a strategical withdrawal in the south to the romanian mountains? This way you could conserve the most part of your army in the south, keeping more troops in the 3 hexes distance between the mountain hexes and the swamp russian hexes and also in the romanian plane in Constanta.

Thanks. That's my Alamo. I will do that when it looks like he's about to completely cut my forces in Russia in two.

Turn 82. February 7, 1944.

The push in the middle from the Russians continue. Thank goodness for the marshes. In the south the Russians have crossed the river line and I've pulled back towards Odessa. Next turn will likely start the general retreat in the south.

The allied beachhead is being reduced. It looks like, for now at least, I've contained another allied landing on the western front. But spring isn't far away.

My defenses are set in the middle east. I still have some powerful offensive power there and if Jim gets careless I may get a chance to destroy his armor. But I doubt it.

One thing you might consider is placing new corps in the mountains near the border with Rumania to start setting up that defense. Then, when you are ready to retreat or are forced to retreat - you will have some entrenched units with which to anchor your defense. From experience with pre-GS versions of the game and the mod, I'd say you have a good shot at riding out most of '44 defending your core areas (Poland and the Balkans) if there is no large-scale threat from the West. Those mountains, a limited front, and sufficient airpower could really tie up the Russians.

Turn 83. February 27, 1944.

Not much action this turn. The allied beachhead in France has been destroyed and the allied tank corps cut off.

No combat on the Russian front. The Russians used last turn to repair and so not much movement there either.

In the Egypt the axis are dug in west of the canal.

I did make a bonehead error. In the rush to finish my turn I forgot to deploy four new German infantry corps that I built last turn. Add to that three new German and one new Italian infantry corps that I built this turn. So I'll have 8 infantry corps ready for placement next turn.

This game shows us how difficult is to successfully land in France without an appropriate air support. The landing in the north of France could be more foreseeable than the landing in another Western Europe zones but at least if you land in Britanny, Normandy, Calais or even belgium coast you can count with a massive (if you have built enough air units) air support for the operation. The air support will provide the allies a very important assistance to the landings and in the other side the massive bombardment of the axis units can take away effectiveness to the Wehrmacht for making counterattacks to the landing allied forces.

Turn 84. March 18, 1994.

The axis finished off the the isolated allied armor corps in France officially closing the book on the last allied landing in France. The only other action in France and Spain was dealing with partisans.

In Russia, the axis destroyed a Russian mechanized corps advancing towards Odessa and recaptured that hex. They also reinforced their defenses.

I remember to deploy units in my build queue and placed 8 infantry corps this turn. I also repaired back to full strength two German infantry corps that were supporting the counterattacks against the allied invasion in France.

In Egypt, the axis responded the UK sub group that attacked the Italian BB in Alexandrina knocking it down to 4-steps.

I end my turn with 84 oil points after using a number oil burning units. This is 1 point higher than I ended last turn. I'm starting each turn with around 134 points. Even though by most typical game standards this will be considered low oil because of the primarily infantry force composition I feel I have plenty of oil to do what I need to do.

Turn 85. April 7, 1944.

A very quite turn; especially on the Russian front. I used that quite to move several more corps into the south and central areas to bolster the defenses these.

In England I don't know if I'm seeing transports arriving from the US or if Jim is forming an invasion. I see one armor and two mechanized USA corps in English ports.

Turn 86. April 27, 1944.

No invasion! The USA armor and two mechanized corps transports that I saw last turn in English ports were apparently arriving from the US. Though my u-boat fleet is devastated and incapable of carrying out attacks against convoys or allied warships AND surviving can still provide an important intelligence function of keeping up with allied naval and invasion movements.

The allies apparently have stopped one hex short of the axis defenses in Egypt. I'm not sure what's going on there.

In Russia, I lost a couple more corps but I easily replace them. I'm building on average, 3 1/2 corps per turn.

The allies also continue to push in west North Africa and are close to taking Tunis. Even though the Med is still close I now must begin worrying about an invasion of Sicily or Sardinia. Though he has no way of supplying any invasion I still must make some preparation for that threat.

I also finished off three remaining partisans this turn. This is my second full and complete game as the axis under GS v1.02 and with the new partisan model. The other game I squeak out a minor axis victory. While I find the partisans a pain in the butt I actually find them somewhat easier to deal with IF you deal with them. What I mean is that they only appear as garrisons and a lot of time less than full strength versus in the vanilla game, which they can appear as garrisons or corps and always at full strength. In PBEM or hotseat play the only way partisans get out of control is if the axis ignores them and doesn't designate enough effort to countering them. Another secondary impact is that they may require the railing of one or two units every now and then to be dealt with. This takes away from rails that could be used to reinforce other fronts. Indirectly the partisans have degraded axis rail and this is historical too.

Turn 87. May 17, 1944.

The only real action was that Jim hit French ports with bombers looking for German u-boats. He found the remants of three flotillas and destroyed two of them. The surviving one plus two others he didn't attack moved out to sea along the French coast to do their coast watching duties from there.

No units were destroyed in Russia. I moved three more infantry corps to there and deployed another three newly built ones. I also built four new German and one new Italian infantry corps.

Oil is no longer a problem. I started last turn over 200 points and ended it with 198 points. Manpower is the problem! German manpower is now down to 9%. I have been builds LOTS of infantry. Next turn, I will build leaders to help with my effectiveness.

Getting back to the Russian front, one thing that concerns me is the disappearance of his offensive units (i.e., air and armor). Jim is up to something and I guess I'll find out soon. Though, I'd rather not be surprised.

No movement in Egypt. Everyone seems to be standing on their positions one hex apart. I assume Jim didn't make contact in order to be able to upgrade his units. However; this has allowed me to upgrade my front line units twice. So I guess this works both ways.

Your quote about partisan's indirectly impacting rail capacity reminds me of the AH Russian Campaign boardgame. Partisan units were always placed on rail hexes where-ever possible by the Russian player.

Now you have exactly one year of fighting so I have a feeling you might actually make it this time. The main reason is that the Allies haven't landed yet. But I foresee that they will soon. Bombarding ports spotting for subs is a prelude to transports swarming your coast line.

Have you started to man the Siegfried Line? You don't need to man the Ostwall just yet, but if your eastern line collapses then it's time to do it. Both fortress lines can buy you a few turns before they collapse.

Stauffenberg wrote:Have you started to man the Siegfried Line?

I haven't yet. Thanks for the tip. I do have a larger number of units in the west that I'll start transferring there.

Turn 88. June 6, 1944

The western allies sweep the English Channel catching and finishing off the u-boats that I had move to sea. This can only mean one thing. Invasion Fortress Europa. To that end I've started manning the Siegfried Line.

Little to no action on the other fronts. I use most of my PPs this turn for some repairs, one mechanized corps for the western front and mostly for upgrades. I'm getting around 160 to 170 PPs per turn now. Oil finished above 200 points this turn too.

The most important hexes to man in the west are the hexes behind the Rhine north of the Siegfried line all the way to the North Sea. You need good units here and armor and infantry in reserve so you can quickly destroy any units getting across the Rhine. Jim will have to bypass your fortress line and he must do it near Arnhem.

Jim can also try to make an amphibious landing north of Holland, but he has to do it before the bad weather begins. France is probably lost, but it takes some turns for Jim to mop up everything and get to the Siegfried line. You can send units to the French cities so he will spend time taking out these cities before he can get to the Rhine.

I have a feeling you're actually going to make it to the end. The Russians seem to have been halted a bit and your line there is strong enough to keep them at bay for awhile. So new units can be built for the west. You can also withdraw units from Italy and Spain to France to delay the Allies. When you run out of land units to put in the way of the Allies you can always fly in air units to the front line to stop him. Air units in rough or mountain hexes are not so easy to kill. It takes a few turns to destroy the unit.

I wonder what happened in the east. Jim had the momentum and you were on the run, but for some reason his attacks stalled. Did he lose a lot of air and armor steps?

Turn 89. June 26, 1944.

The allies launch Operation Overlord. In sync with Overlord French Resistance spawned a 10-step partisan and Spanish Resistance spawned two partisans. I rushed a number of units to coast to block as many landing hexes as possible; especially those adjacent to city and port hexes.

The Russians destroyed two corps on the Russian front and slightly depleted a few more. I replaced the lost corps and repaired the others.

I also posted screen caps of all my fronts to give the full view of the axis situation.

Next turn I will have 1 mechanized and 4 infantry corps for placement. Most if not all of these corps will go to the western front. Guderian was back in action this turn and has taken overall command of the western front.

Turn 90. July 16, 1944.

The allies make it ashore in force and captured Cherbourg. The axis finished off the French partisan and deployed more units to the western front to defend France and the Low Countries. Looking at the situation I really don't see an impressive number of allied ground units. The ground units that I can see (either on land or transport) are certainly sufficient to recapture France and the Low Countries. However; I don't see the forces to crack the German defenses provided I can get sufficient ground units myself in place.

Four more partisans popped up in Spain this turn. That's a total of six in the last two turns there. I finished off two and either attacked or responded to the other four.

The Russians launched an attack across a broad front in support of the western allied landings making some; but minimum gains. In the south the axis counterattacked destroying a Russian armor and mechanized corps.

All but one corps shown in the build queue last turn were deployed to the western front. That corps went to the Russian front. This turn, the axis built one infantry corps and four garrisons. Two of these newly built garrisons were deployed to the Russian front and the other two to German for the western front.

Oil is no longer a concern. The axis finished this turn with 214 oil points. German manpower is! It's barely above 0% at 8 points. It looks like it's garrison building time.

Borger gave me hope in his post above that I have a chance. However; I just don't see how I can hold on for the better part of a year. But, I will try my best and see where that gets me.

Interesting and fun AAR to read. It really does look like you can survive to me. You're not broken on any front and it's mid-44. I guess manpower might be a problem though. I've never had German manpower dip that low.

One thing that I've been wondering about lately is whether the ease of moving Soviet troops into Iraq and strengthening of Commonwealth in Africa and Mideast makes a push for Iraqi oil really out of the question now as a viable German strategy. If Germany commits to N. Africa then they probably can't pressure USSR enough to prevent their intervention in Iraq. If Germany pushes Soviets hard they don't have the strength to go through CW forces to get the Iraqi oil.

I guess that there is still some value in a mid-east push to seal the med if you have Gibraltar, but not as a route to oil the way it seemed to be in BJR mod.

Thoughts?

JJ, i think you are right there, it might be a little too easy for the Russians to help reinforce the defenses in the middle east.

The only viable solution in this case is for the Germans and Italians to make a strong landing in Syria as early as possible before the Russians are in the war. If it succeeds (reasonnable to assume it would), then the Germans can push real fast into Iraq before the Russians or americans can intervene. It would have the effect of not bein stalled for the better part of 40-41 and 42 trying to take the Suez canal and that damned bottleneck that prevent the axis from deplying sufficient troops to overwhelm the british

I think i will try that strategy in my next game