The tortoise and the hare (War is over)

[massina_nz]

The Luftwaffe units have been taken off sentry duty so I’m able to successfully engage them and reduce them significantly by first drawing them out and then attacking then a second time. I am then able to cross the Rhine and attack the Hague, by forcing the defending unit to retreat, then destroying it and then advancing another unit into the hex the defending unit had vacated,

Next turn I expect that the newly formed Panzer corps will counter-attack, bringing them in range of my TACs.



I begin the process of attritioning the German troops in the Alps, but my real aim is to break-out and attack Hungary and Romania. The only real difficulty I have here is making sure Eisenhower is in command range of all my US troops, as I’m basing the TACs in Central Italy to benefit from the permanent FAIR weather zone.



I’m able to take Krasnodar, isolating a German INF, but fail to take Stavropol



In the centre I’m not taking the Germans heads-on. They already seem to have left Stalingrad. And now I’m attacking the Germans northern flank to then sweep down to pocket the German forces. I would expect my opponent to realise this and withdraw, so I’m merely encouraging him to do so.

[massina_nz]

Expected German counter nets a UK MECH unit, but not all tanks were moved – I suspect Germans are low on oil



This turn I don’t want to advance into the hex west of Arnhem, instead I take the Hague and bomb the German armour. As well as destroying two FTR units and reducing another, the German manpower is so low now that the replacements sent to the German FTR units are severely reducing their effectiveness. I also notice that a couple of GARs in the Siegfried line are very low quality and I could break through there.



It’s slow progress across the Alps.



Germans got the hint from last turn and withdrew



Kursk and Stavropol taken. A couple of German MECH units are eliminated. At some stage I will have to take Stalingrad.

[massina_nz]

Germans counter attack is successful, but I think this is the last hurrah of AGS.



And in the Alps the Germans attack.



I eliminate another German FTR and another one down to 1 step. I take the Hex to the west of Arnhem. The German panzers were reinforced, but I target them again with my TACs if they attempt to counter they will be weakened. I don’t push further in the north so my troops are not exposed.. Strasbourg is taken and one GAR in Siegfried is reduced to 2-steps.



We advance another couple of hexes into the Alps, it may be better to just push north into Germany and ignore Hungary.



I destroy several German units, heedless of my own casualties. Stalingrad is also liberated.

[massina_nz]

Allies begin break-out onto North German Plain, My TACs have been used to pummel the Panzers into ineffectiveness. My line looks weak where the 4-step MECH is west of Arnhem.



Progress continues in the Alps – I made a mistake last turn and had paced Montgomery’s GAR next to the isolated German INF and he got wounded last turn. Dumb and unnecessary on my part; and unlucky to boot as the GAR only got knocked down to 7 steps.



Southern Front has evaporated

[massina_nz]

Germans retreat and the Allies enter the North German plain in force.



There is almost no opposition for my forces in the south.

Looks like the game will end in a few turns.

[massina_nz]

German counter-attacks do some damage.



This turn I don't push too hard with the Brits as I replace some losses to the RAF.

[massina_nz]

Sorry no screen dumps from turn 74.


The ring of allies tightens further. Should be a couple more FAIR weather turns left in 1943, enough to see me in Berlin before Xmas?

[massina_nz]

Germans are really forced to counter-attack with massed panzers, it's not like they any good at defending. So I lose three units but the German's comeback is shortlived -



- as Berlin is surrounded and most of Poland liberated.

[massina_nz]

Yep the war ended on this turn. Inevitable once Italy fell so early? It certainly didn't feel like that in the Summer of 1941 as Barbarossa rolled on. But leaving the back door open in Spain really helped me get a solid foothold in Europe. As long as I could keep my Russians intact it was probably only a matter of time.

[trulster]

Nice AAR. In addition to the Italy gambit, surely the fact that the Germans did not contest the Atlantic at all must have been decisive. When the Brits do not have to build DDs and can pour all those convoy PPs into offensive units, well, they become a *machine*

[Clark]

Wow! You know it's bad when the Germans have approximately the same casualties as the entire Allied forces combined. Also, the Italians only have 10,000 dead! What a strange game!

[gchristie]

No disrespect to Max, but this game makes me feel a little better in evaluating my own meagre performance as Axis. Though unlike Max I've yet to win as Axis. If Max had garrisoned Italy, or Massina hadn't scouted around with his GAR and found nobody at home, this could have been a very different game and we'd be praising Max' audacious amph invasion in the Med.

And Borger's post - "Problem with GS v1.07 was that when the Germans crumbled they crumbled fast. So you had to prepare for going on defense already in 1942 if you wanted to have a chance to keep the Allies at bay. If you pushed hard in 1942 and tried in 1943 then you didn't have enough units to hold once your defense line cracked" - makes me feel like I'm not a complete failure as Axis as he could be describing every Axis PBEM I've played so far.

Though it by no means lets me off the hook 'cause plenty of players overcome this problem and win as Axis.

Thanks for your efforts with this AAR, very entertaining and once again I've learned quite a bit.

[rkr1958]

but this game makes me feel a little better in evaluating my own meagre performance as Axis. Though unlike Max I've yet to win as Axis

In my experience it takes a very well played game to win as the axis player against an experienced allied player. The elite players, which I do NOT consider myself one of, can regularlly win as the axis against good players, which I do modestly consider myself to be in that class. I've NEVER beaten Borger, Joe, Neil or Max as either the axis or the allies. Though their playing styles are widely varied they execute their styles and strategies VERY well and, in general, frustrate my stategies and plans against them to no end.

With all that said, I do think that between two equally match non-elite players (i.e., good -vs- good or average -vs- average) and with GSv1.07 that the allied player will win at least 3 out of 4 of those games. The upside in these games for the axis player is that early on you are the aggressor and you control the flow of the game. The downside is that you have very little margin for error and very little opportunity to recover if you do make one. Whereas as the allied player you do have the time and resources to recover.

We don't have the data to evaluate how all this changes in GSv2.00. On the surface it appears that the balance of all the changes have tweaked game balance towards the axis. The $64 questions is has it been tweaked enough or too much? Only time, and lots of playtesting, will tell.

[gchristie]

"With all that said, I do think that between two equally match non-elite players (i.e., good -vs- good or average -vs- average) and with GSv1.07 that the allied player will win at least 3 out of 4 of those games."

This certainly puts things in persective, and it will be sweet once I win as Axis, though I'm not even in the 1 out of 4 league...yet.

By no means a knock on the work of you and your colleagues. A great mod that just keeps getting better.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

This game is not normal because Supermax forgot to garrison Rome and didn't notice when an Allied garrison transport showed up adjacent to the city. Without that huge mistake I think the outcome would have been very different. Maybe Massina would still have won, but then only a minor victory. This proves how important Italy is to the Axis.

[massina_nz]

Nice AAR. In addition to the Italy gambit, surely the fact that the Germans did not contest the Atlantic at all must have been decisive. When the Brits do not have to build DDs and can pour all those convoy PPs into offensive units, well, they become a *machine*

Very perceptive, indeed there was no battle of the Atlantic, so all those PPs went into TACs and MECHs and ARMs, made my job easier.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I think Supermax put everything in one basket. He sent what he had hoping for a miracle that he could force a Russian surrendere before the Allies would crush him in the Med and west. That didn't happen and then he crumbled faster than he otherwise would.

If Supermax had accepted defeat due to the mistake and defended the best he could then I'm sure he would have lasted till 1944 and maybe past the first half. But I guess he had more fun trying for a miracle than playing to reduce the defeat. At least he could show for awhile how dangerous the Germans can be in Russia. He surely made the AAR a lot more interesting by doing that.

[Crazygunner1]

What most Axis players does is overextend, they try to do so much fancy stuff before Barbarossa so it affects their operations in the east and that is why they loose the game to quick. Mostly i see operations against countries that are not the major powers, that means you are not really hurting the other player but avoiding a conflict to come later in the game when the allies are stronger. One have to balance taking smaller countries with as little effort as possible and going up against Brittain, Russia and US to cause greater damage. Going after the major powers is ofcourse risky but the reward is also greater since they loose valuable PP and you gain some(doubble effect).

Tip to axis player to get a good bearing:
-Don´t try to much fancy stuff before Barbarossa
-Plan your operations a little better since axis can´t afford to many setbacks early
-Keep your forces together to leave no or little gaps for counter attacks
-Master Blitzkrieg, focus tanks, planes and Mechs on a smaller area to get breakthroughs and better affect. Don´t forget to protect your gains and valuable units.
-Last but perhaps the most important, only fight battles you know you can win, getting into a "sluggfeast" of attrition is exactly what the allied player is looking for.

Crazyg