Slitherine

Remember that the Axis will win by holding on to Rome if you manage to capture Berlin and Hamburg.

Stauffenberg wrote:Remember that the Axis will win by holding on to Rome if you manage to capture Berlin and Hamburg.

But if Hamburg and Berlin both fall to the Soviets that will mean that Germany surrenders and then, automatically both London and Paris will be liberated and Rome, conquered. Instead, it will be an Allies victory by controlling all capitals.

there is definitely a change somewhere in the versions, Rome did fall automatically in 3.1 but not in some previous versions - haven't got that far in 4

ok so another turn where the crucial combat doesn't go the way we need

photobucket is down so will post later

Have the Italians surrendered in this game? They can remain alive if the Germans surrender if the requisites for the Italian surrender hasn't been met. That means taking Tunis, Libya, Sicily and Sardinia.

Stauffenberg wrote:Have the Italians surrendered in this game? They can remain alive if the Germans surrender if the requisites for the Italian surrender hasn't been met. That means taking Tunis, Libya, Sicily and Sardinia.

I wish! we are making progress though and I would expect to have a good chance at it by the end

right starting positions - with photobucket!







you will see Max has brought FTR's to defend Britain, as it happens most of the south is a distraction to draw forces away from the north where we wanted to make a serious beachhead for winter - still those FTR's hurt





in Russia its just not going our way combat results wise - frustrating!

You simply need to keep the meat grinder going. Russia can afford to repair their units. Germany can't. Just cycle depleted units away from the front so new fresh ones can attack every turn. That keeps pressure up. SAme with air units. I've seen the front line move very fast westwards once the wall crumbles. So never give in. You can still attack in the bad weather that will come soon.

Duncan, if possible could you capture in the screen shots info. on the dates, etc? Helps to have some perspective to know what turn it is, see the minimap, etc.

Cheers

Now I get it. Italy is still alive so all that Max needs to do is to hold and garrison Paris and London with Axis units not from Germany (Italy, Hungary, Romania, Spain), just in case of a Germany surrender. I wonder if he knows about that.

Diplomaticus wrote:Duncan, if possible could you capture in the screen shots info. on the dates, etc? Helps to have some perspective to know what turn it is, see the minimap, etc.

Cheers

for the next turn I will do a complete sit rep - just waiting on Max to send his turn

in the mean time some comments on this game:

1. 4 is very different in the early game, lots more options for the Axis and correspondingly the Allies have to be much (much) more careful

2. even though I made some strategic mistakes in this game, there was (not now really) still a chance to take this game to the wire

3. despite all my mistakes this has been a really fun game and although its been lost for a long time, we will still keep Max on his toes to the end

I tend to think that closing the Med, Sealion or rejecting French armistice strategies are now quite attractive choices for Axis. In fact, they are becoming some sort of ways of winning with Axis. Like we did before several years ago with Fall of France stats, we could do something similar with the games in which Axis player has used mentioned strategies. I'm confident that a big majority of those games turned to be Axis victories.

So I understand duncanr when he says that Allies (in fact UK acting alone during 1 year and a half) can really do little when facing such Axis strategies. In fact it's what really happens.

This makes me think about several things:

1. Some changes in France 1939 OOB as mentioned in other posts, wouldn't hurt and would add some deterrence factor on Axis player. Right now Axis player is so daring of launching 1939 offensives because he knows he will be facing mostly harmless low effectiveness garrisons in France.

2. Maybe we could consider to make USSR entry at war a more random event than the excessively fixed event of may 1942. Axis player using those strategies appears to be excessively confident on the fact that the USSR will be doing nothing whilst Germany conquers the entire Europe and the Middle East. Doubt it that real Russians wouldn't have done anything about it let that be on a diplomatic or on a military level. Besides, more randomness would add more challenge for Axis player: right now he rather comfortably crushes the Brits whilst also comfortably builds a double defensive line of units along the rivers of Barbarossa borders.

3. To make the conquer of Poland slightly harder by adding the fortified hex of Modlin 1 hex N of Warsaw. Only the ZOC created from doing so would suffice for a couple of panzerkorps not being able to reach adjacent to Warsaw on the very first turn.

I do think we need more time to asses, but I also think we could tweak US and USSR response to a crushed UK and conquered Iraq. i am pretty sure the Russians wouldn't sit and do nothing while Germany rolled up the rest of Europe and Iraq.

I was thinking a small change in each case:

1. USA - if UK capital moves to Canada - usually means successful Sealion (although maybe it should be UK casualties), then small increase in war effort

2. USSR - if Germany enters Iraq, then small increase in war effort

in both cases you can easily rationlise the behavior so just a matter of a small change, may be in PP's or maybe something else - lab organisation?

arghhhhhhh the weather gods hate me &^%$#@@@###$hit - all we need was not to get mud the first turn

of course all my planning goes out the window as we get mud on the first turn grrrrrrrrrrr

of course max takes advantage and ruins my plan by killing an awful lot of FTR steps (you would have seen a lot of 10 step FTR's last turn who were to move to the Europe zone) grrr, talk about nothing going right!









ok, focus - what can we do, we have to still move forward in Europe, but only a couple of select attacks and some dodgy screen capture





we decide to pick on the 4 step FTR in Belgium and find it has a friend, we miss the first but get the second, which you can't see but was next to the fort



and whats happening at the end elsewhere





I really really did not enjoy that turn

sheesh - of course we get teh fine/mud combination again! makes it really hard to do anything at all

we can't let this continue so we move the air force to the front line - all sports of things could go very wrong

mud again for us! shesh at least it was winter in Germany and Max focused on rebuilding

still we have to grind a little despite the mud, taking a hex in the north and south





hard work for little return

finally after three turns of mud we get winter! darn 1 step tho as we hardly make a dent

Max shrinks his line a little and we nibble a little, a small and short lived victory





we also take port siad - a nice but little xmas present

It seems to me the Germans are weakest from Krakow and a bit south since there are no rivers to hide behind there. So if you can make a hole in the line there then you can ooze tanks through the hole and attack the river line in Poland from the rear. That would force a general Axis retreat. Even the defense line in Romania will have to be abandoned if you move south from the hole in the center.

I think Soviet paras should come into play soon to help with a breakthrough in the center. It is important to ensure that you make retreats in the center so the line is pushed back. 2 airstrikes per hex should make the units susceptible to retreats. Since the line is partially double you need to eliminate the front units and the force retreat on the rear units. unfortunately armor units do not move fast in rough terrain. Waiting for the fair weather to come back is too late.

Most likely Max will hold Berlin to the very end, but you might score a smaller victory by cracking the German line so you know you would have reached Berlin a few turns later. Liberating London is also nice to accomplish before the game end.

next turn - January, will be a big turn for us as we will have our full airforce available for the turn, if we are really lucky Max will need to use the Luftwaffe to finish off my MECH that has crossed the river and we will get a shot at them as well - we pinged a TAC and FTR he had to use last turn

although the game has been long lost we want to retake Britain and have a shot at getting Italy out (tough though)