Slitherine

It looks like you have completely destroyed the southern front and the highway to Berlin or where ever you wanna go is open Good job

May 28th 1942 fair


In the east , Axis continue to run away as quick as possible but leave a lot of minors & Italians as cannon folder . The red army just eliminate them & move forward after them . We are arriving Romania , where will they stop to fight ?


In Med , we land & conquer Tunis & Marsille .& try to set up a landing area in mainland Europe . Although the landing troops are weak , but they have strong air support from Sardinia .

June 17th 1942 fair


Axis continue their retreat , we follow them & found that no one defend Romania ?? !! (most Romanian troops were already destroyed )

In Med , we try our best to send reinforment to our bridgefortress around Maseille .meanwhile attack all dangerous targets closing to us by the airpower in Sardinia !

Free French troops will come to retake Casablanca .

July 7th 1942 fair


unfortunately , I seems lost the screenshots of this turn . So just brief the situation :

The red army rush into Romania & Axis sent a little reinforcement to there , but We will kick out Romania next turn .

In France , we land more troops there & we will launch attack from there to Berlin & Rome .

July 27th 1942 fair




Romania change side ! & the Red army rush towards Hungary & Bulgaria .

Meanwhile , more allies airforce transfered to France & we will try to take a Altlantic port in France so that reinforcement can be transported from UK to France !

TURN 50, AXIS

Here I am again. Morris knows the reason for the break I had to make.

Here you can see, how it looked like behind axis lines. A kind of "how did they make it".

LABS

Ready to make upgrades for attack, but have no pps.



MEDITERRANEAN

After

Oh no, some air units have arrived back from east. Are they useful here, either? The defense in Italy is based on gars. That is, Italy has spent a lot of mp.




WEST

This is how it looks like in France:





RUSSIA, NORTH

Before

Plenty of tacs to give fire support. He has no fgts in north.




RUSSIA, SOUTH

Before

Blue circles show the missing units in defense line. Romania is totally empty. I was fooled by the idea that I don't have to defend Ploesti for oil.



After

Theoretically I have a double line for the next turn. No longer, of course.



CASUALTIES

After

Yes , it was a double line defence position ,but it was composed of Gars ,minors & Italians & few Germany units without any entrenchment & aircover. It was just like a egg in front of the Soviet steamroller .

When I noticed that I didn't have enough corps, I decided to save my arms and mechs, and buy time with the slow ones. This was the decisive turn in south.

TURN 51, AXIS


MEDITERRANEAN


After

In Italy there are some German units next to rail ready to be moved where they are needed.




WEST

Before

This is what I have in France.




RUSSIA, NORTH

After

Withdrawal from Kalinin. Altogether three panzers in north.




RUSSIA, SOUTH

Before

It's time to save my motorized units.



After

Motorized units are saved. I didn't have enough troops, so now Soviets have agree passage along Black sea coast. The army group is doomed.

I've drawn the next defense line with light blue. There are 6 cities between it and Red army. One gar for each would have cost only 90 pps, less than 1 tac. But I wasn't able to buy them in time.

Let's compare this to Soviet defense in 1941, where it makes sense to slow Germans with leaving gars behind. Maybe I should have invested in a defending cities with gars, instead of hopeless attempts to keep double defense line, where I lost those gars anyway?

It's only May. He's got all the summer to go...

Aug 16th 1942 fair


Axis make another massive retreat . The red army is closing to Budapest & Sofia .

Meanwhile , Allies sucessfully conquer the Altlantic port !

Since the situation of Axis is a little bit hopeless ,to make the rest of the pbem more interesting & give Axis more help , we make a house rule as follows ：Allies dow Sweden , Ireland & Portugal . Axis can just use these minor troops to defend their homeland & Demark & Finland .

Interesting ! Let's see what will happen !

Sept 5th 1942 fair



In Russia , Axis run away & Red army rush into Polland & close to Warsaw .



In southern France , Allies troops divided into two group : one group to liberate France & Paris , the other to kick Italy out !

Before the start, I had an idea that later in the game we could attach some countries to Axis, if that is needed to increase balance. But Morris wanted to exclude that option, so the idea was to continue with the original setting to the very end.

But, the situation changed, so I introduced a real peace negotiation process about a separate peace agreement between Sweden and Soviets. (An extension of what we really had between Finland and Soviets in 1944.) This time Sweden wanted that Soviets would accept the borders of the 17th century Swedish empire (for instance Finland and St. Petersburg), and in turn Sweden will remain neutral in the war between Soviets and Germany.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Empire

As a result, Allies dowed Sweden, but didn't attack Finland, Estonia, Latvia nor Sweden. Sweden didn't give military support to axis, only pps.

Conclusion: in "historical variants" approach people can agree about anything.

This week I'm going to cover the Russian front retreat, turns 51 to 56.

Here comes the retreat from Kiev to Budapest, from turn 51 to 56 (September), before and after, altogether 12 maps.

Any ideas how Axis could have executed this phase in a better way? The original problem was that there were too few German corps. And I don't know where I put those pps!

51
I can't hold the line any longer. I decide to evacuate motorized units:


I've pointed the weak links of chain:


52


I didn't have troops to from a line from Odessa to Chisinau. And I thought that Morris could flank me anyway. But now when I look at the map, there should be a fresh German gar in both cities. Now he is able to advance so fast.


53
Vinnitsa pocket = the units that were too slow to flee.


With six more units I could have established a Carpatian defense line. Should I have?


54


Defense line along Wisla river start to form. Next turn Morris will enter Bucharest. My Romanian tac is in Belgrad!


55
Blue circles: there should be a gar to slow down Soviets?
Red circles: I didn't destroy Romanian air forces in time.




56
I wanted to take Beldgrad because of rail network, but I think it was totally wrong idea. Only Brits/Americans are after Belgrad so they can rail their units, right?


I've left 2 gars for those three cities to slow down Soviets.

Wisla defense line is ready, only 3 units needed for double line. Southern part to Wien is in progress. How should one defend Brunn? Depot is the weak point among rough hexes.

Good lord the Reds are moving fast through The East...

Sept 25th 1942 fair


The Axis retreat back into Poland & Germany . We liberate Sofia this turn & meanwhile we liberate Brest & Nante ,We also push Italy to the edge of cliff .

Oct 1942 ----Nov 4th 1942 mud



Since the mud weather all over the battleground , just slow progress .

In France we close to Paris , In Italy we close to Milan & will encircle Turin .Italy is dying .

In the east , the red army close to Warsaw & will enter Germany from the Austria direction .

If you make into '43 with Morris you're one hell of a player, especially as well formed as your battle line are right now

Nov 24th 1942 winter



slow progress .

Dec 14th 1942 severe winter



Since the war is moved into central Europe , the severe winter doesn't hurt Axis any more .

We almost arrive Paris & will liberate it soon . In Poland , Axis set up a defence line around Warsaw . We will attack it in winter !