Slitherine

Turn 98. December 23, 1944.

The DAK will make it back to Europe but will lose 5-steps (at least) in the voyage. An allied invasion fleet is positioned off the coast of Sicily and the Russians push into Poland and are close to taking Warsaw.

A US infantry corps south of the French Alps and pushing towards the Italian border was cut off and is now out of supply.

Turn 99. January 12, 1945.

The DAK transport was one hex too far north, which put it in rough seas, and was unable to disembark. So it put into Venice and will disembark next turn. However; this will likely come at the price of its screening force, which is the remaining Italian BB squadron, a garrison transport and the badly depleted 1-step Italian sub group.

The cut off American corps near the French-Italian border broke out. However; it was attacked this turn by two Italian corps, which knocked it down to 6-steps.

Warsaw fell to the Russians and eastern Poland is firmly in the grips of the Russians. Except in the eastern Med at the Suez Canal and in Spain the axis have pretty much been pushed back to their pre-war borders.

There are 6 more allied turns left to the end of the game. If I can get lucky on the weather then I think I have a chance. If I get unlucky and next turn is fair then I'm in deep trouble.

This game is coming down to the wire.

Turn 100. February 1, 1945.

The weather in central Europe is Fair!!! It's February 1st and the weather turned fair!!!

The allies made little progress but; the axis casualties continue to mount. The screening force for the DAK was unsuccessfully. The DAK disembarked at 1-step. The tactical error I made two turns ago by moving the DAK transport 1 hex too far north cost me the DAK and an Italian garrison.

Allied invasion transports are lined up off the coast of southern Italy and an allied corps crossed the canal to the west. It was counterattacked and reduced to 1-step.

In the last screen cap a keen eye will see a German garrison transport next to the undefended port city of Bordeaux. It originated from the Spanish port city La Caruna. If it goes undetected until the weather turns fair it could cause some havoc. It's a long shot but really the garrison was wasted defending La Caruna.

6 allied turns left to the end of the game. However; this fair weather turn is not good news.

Turn 101. February 21, 1945

Thank goodness for mud this turn. The screen caps below represent and inventory of the axis armies. Army Group East faces the Russians and gets the highest priority as the Russians are closest to Berlin. Army Group West faces the British and Americans and for now have them under control. The Italian Home Defense Army Group is composed entirely of Italians and have their situation, for now, under control.

The Desert Army and Spanish defense forces are now on their own and will not receive any additional reinforcements or help. Their orders are to stand and hold to the last man. Whether or not they are successful, which the won't be, in no way effects the outcome of the war. I suspect a number of axis soldiers in these two areas will surrender within the next two weeks.

5 allied turns left. I'm hoping for mud again next turn but with only a 25% chance I'm not betting the house on it. Also, the German garrison transport threatening to invade Bordeaux was severely mauled and has return to La Caruna.

Turn 102. March 13, 1945.

Even though throughout this game beginning with Poland in October 1939 I've lamented the bad luck I've gotten with the weather I caught a REALLY big break with weather when it meant the most! It was mud (and rain) in central Europe this turn!!!

Not only does the weather slow down the allies movement and reduce their ground and air attack strengths it creates rough seas and prevents amphibious invasions. The Russians have three invasion transports lined up next to the northeast coast of Germany and next to Copenhagen that will not be able to invade this turn. If the weather had been fair the Germans would have been able to block the landings but would have had to move the two German infantry corps in Stettin and south fort hexes to block (in addition to railing in or building another unit adjacent to Stettin). While these corps would have been replaced they would have lost the entrenchment level 4 that they have. Because of the weather I was able to rail one infantry corps and deploy two newly built garrisons that will be able to move next turn to block this landing into northern Germany and maintain the level four entrenchments in the two fort hexes.

The Italian home defense army group continues to hold. They too don't have to worry about invasion north of hex row 45.

On a sad note the axis desert army "surrendered" this turn to the multi-national allied force. The Suez Canal is once again British.

The Spanish defense forces are still holding on to Madrid; however, Madrid is expected to fall this turn. Also, the 4-step Italian infantry corps in Barcelona was evacuated to Civitavecchia (the port north of Rome) to reinforce the Italian home defense army group.

4 more allied turns left. I'm beginning to see a chance for a minor victory; however, I'm still not out of the woods yet.

The major chance for Jim to win this game is to break through your positions in Austria and then to enter via southern Germany with the Red Army. I wouldn´t be much afraid of the landings in northern Germany and Denmark: the russian units that would disembark in the coast of Germany would have low supply and they would have insufficient strength to take Berlin or Hamburg, keeping in mind that you also can avoid the landings railing and moving units to the landing hexes. So if I were you I would reinforce as much as I could the southern of Germany.

Turn 103. April 2, 1945.

The weather is clear in central Europe and mud in northern Europe. At first glace I didn't think that the weather in northern Europe mattered anymore. However; after further examination I see that 8 of 15 of the visible Russian air units are based in the northern European weather zone and will be hindered by the mud (and rain). Every little bit helps; especially in a game like this that's coming down to the wire. While there were no counterattacks against the Russians the Germans did move corps forward to cut off two Russian corps south of Prague. Also, they moved two units to block against the Russian transports threatening invasion. The hex south of Copenhagen was purposely left undefended to free up a unit for higher priority defense responsibilities.

The allies have crossed the Rhine and breached the west wall in the center. I expect the western German defenses to be seriously comprised next turn. If the allied turn goes as expected the remnants of Army Group West will be used to defend Hamburg and Berlin.

The Italian defense is holding but is also on the verge of collapse. The allies only need to capture one more Italian city in mainland Europe to force an Italian surrender.

It looks like the liberation of Spain is given a low priority by the allies. If that's the case I expect Madrid to hold out one more turn.

3 allied turns to go for a victory and 2 allied turns for a stalemate.

Turn 104. April 22, 1945.

The Russians make a breakthrough in the south near Munich. Supported by allied carrier wings they also land and capture Copenhagen.

The western allies also land on the western coast of Denmark and threaten Hamburg. The west wall has crumbled and surviving units are performing an orderly defensive retreat or are redeployed to the defense of Berlin or Hamburg.

Italy is near surrender. The weak point is Naples. If Naples falls then Italy will surrender. Again, all Jim needs is to capture one more Italian city to have the three required for its surrender. Note that Cagliari on Sardinia does not count.

The Germans finished the turn with -36 PPs and -380 manpower. They MAY get enough PPs to repair one unit next turn. All German research labs have been sold so there is no more revenue. It's official this turn that Germany has totally collapsed.

The allies have 2 turns left.

Turn 105. May 12, 1945.

The war ends "unexpectedly" at the end of Jim's turn with an axis major victory, which means that I control two major capitals (Berlin and Rome). This ending was a bit strange because in my game against Borger (see viewtopic.php?p=126417&sid=3971ff6b9b5a ... e50#126417 ) we both got to play the May 12, 1945 turn. However; this game ended when Jim ended his April 22, 1945 turn and he got the below screens. I've included Jim's email to me describing his last turn and the ending of the game.

Jim wrote:Hi Ronnie

The ending of the game seems a bit sloppy in the way it implements.

As it turned out, April 22 was my last chance; the game ended. I have printed the victory and stats screen, as well as the only portion of the map that was available to me.

The ending went like this:

When I clicked on "end turn", the victory screen popped up. After printing it and the stats screen, I then clicked on "return to map". It returned to the part of the map I was focused on when I ended the turn. But, it would not allow me to scroll around to see the rest of the map. At the end of a game, it would be nice if the other parts of the map were visible too, so that both players could review the final situation.

Anyway, I took the required three Italian cities, but failed to capture Toulouse (I cleared it, but had no movement points left). Also I did not capture Madrid. I was closing in on Hamburg, but was still three hexes south of Berlin, and certainly would NOT have taken it even if I did have one more turn.

Congratulations on a well-played game, and a very innovative and imaginative strategy. It's clear, to me anyway, that closing the Med can be an effective strategy.

NOW, I can go read your AAR

I really enjoyed the game and it did literally go down to the last turn. It was a squeaker and literally went down to the last turn.

Thx for the AAR! Your victory grants hope for my own Med strategy AAR

trulster wrote:Thx for the AAR! Your victory grants hope for my own Med strategy AAR

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. Oh by the way my personal record under the GS expansion is 2 wins and 1 loss and I currently have 4 games in progress.

Interesting AAR that I´ve been reading almost everyday. Congratulations, Ronnie for your victory. As I posted above in this AAR thread I saw you as the winner with the current victory conditions from late 1944. Simply is very difficult for the allies with the last bad weather turns to arrive in time in Germany. And to complicate more the things all those fortifications that can only be passed through after 5-6 turns. By the way, why this fortifications are only in the 1939 scenario and not in the rest of the scenarios? Do you know which is the reason? I propose to reduce this fortifications since the Sigfried line was half built and the Ostwall was a group of fortified cities with no continuity. The fact is that in the 1939 these defensive lines are represented as they were Maginot defensive german lines and this is not real. On the other side, about the victory conditions, nothing to object to your victory but is seems like a strange victory: I mean that the axis forces are severely mauled since the allies has plenty of power and ready to annhilate the axis forces which they would have done if the game would have lasted a few more turns. May be the current victory conditions are a little bit unrealistic. I saw your AAR against Borger and in this case, there´s no doubt about the axis victory. In your case, I have to recognize that it would more adecuate to consider this game a draw.

Wow...talk about taking things down to the wire! A few turns ago I thought you had things in the bag, but Jim almost snatched victory away from you. Thanks for the very entertaining AAR. It shows that between two good players, a GS game can be fun and meaningful right up to May 1945.

Ah, I think the victory conditions are spot on as they are. It was a nice tight game to the end. Thanks for putting up the AAR, I really enjoyed it!

joerock22 wrote:Wow...talk about taking things down to the wire! A few turns ago I thought you had things in the bag, but Jim almost snatched victory away from you. Thanks for the very entertaining AAR. It shows that between two good players, a GS game can be fun and meaningful right up to May 1945.

Thanks. In terms of having the victory in the bag I've been on the wrong side of many axis collapses. And the thing that this has taught me is that when the axis start to collapse it really happens fast. While I thought I had a chance it wasn't until the last turn where I knew I would at least get a minor axis victory. You and Borger (and Supermax and Dave) are in the upper echelon of GS players. While I'm certainly not in the bottom I'm not up there with you guys. One day though I hope to beat you or Borger. And on that day I know that I've arrived.

By the way, and I need to read back to find the exact date, but at some point in this AAR in 1943 I thought I'd be lucky to make it to 1945. It goes to show you to never give up. While you might still lose, like I did against you in our AAR from last summer, if you give up then you're assured to lose.

jjdenver wrote:Ah, I think the victory conditions are spot on as they are. It was a nice tight game to the end. Thanks for putting up the AAR, I really enjoyed it!

One thing that I think these victory conditions do is to give the axis player incentive to fight on the bitter end. One could argue that the Germans after D-Day knew that they were defeated. Why did they continue to fight on? Well, I feel our victory conditions simulate this fighting on even in the face of certain defeat. While it is true that if you view our game from a real world perspective the axis would have been totally defeated; however, this is a game and we made a design decision in GS to measure victory in games terms against the historical end date of the war in Europe.

trulster wrote:Thx for the AAR! Your victory grants hope for my own Med strategy AAR

Except you seem to have even better success with it against me, trulster!

Loved the AAR BTW.

Congratulations Ronnie on a very well played game. This went right down to the last turn, although I could see about three or four turns back that the Russians were not going to get to Berlin in time, unless you made a mistake. You didn't, and a victory is your reward

I just finished reading the AAR; what an epic! Entertaining, informative and well presented. Thank you for doing it.

It was interesting for me to now see what your thinking was with regard to the Med strategy. Frankly, I thought it was a mistake on your part, and I also thought you concentrated too much on the Russian convoys, thus letting the British back into the game. However, it became clear to me after awhile that the Russian research and building was lagging, thanks to your efforts against the Murmansk convoys. And despite the embarrassment of riches that the British were enjoying, in the end it did not help as much as I had hoped for.

In retrospect, I think I should have not bothered with going into North Africa, and should have sent everything into France that I could in 1943. With a bit more effort in the west, perhaps the Russians could have jumped off a bit earlier.

So my second loss in GS (I'm 0-2 so far). In my game with Joe, it's too early to be sure, but it ain't looking good for me

Thanks for the AAR which i read almost daily and congrats with the victory!!!

joerock22 wrote:Wow...talk about taking things down to the wire! A few turns ago I thought you had things in the bag, but Jim almost snatched victory away from you. Thanks for the very entertaining AAR. It shows that between two good players, a GS game can be fun and meaningful right up to May 1945.

Joe, you're absolutely right. Played by two players with similar experience and capabilities, GS is a LOT of fun, and will almost always go the distance.

rkr1958 wrote:

joerock22 wrote: You and Borger (and Supermax and Dave) are in the upper echelon of GS players. While I'm certainly not in the bottom I'm not up there with you guys. One day though I hope to beat you or Borger. And on that day I know that I've arrived.

Well I'm happy to see that I am not the only one who has trouble with Joe and Borger

It's interesting to see how quickly you have increased your capabilities with CEAW/GS however. I remember that our first couple of games, way back when, were victories for me. I think they were my last against you however. While our games are frequently close, and always entertaining, I would be feeling like I have "arrived" (or returned, perhaps) if I could get beat you one of these days