Slitherine

Spain activates August 21 1941

I can probably trap and kill most of the RN in the West Med now. Those fresh INF
will also be trapped.

Rats, partisans take cities in the UK. Lesson learned.

And DAK has an airforce finally.

You seem to have the upper hand right now. It will be very interesting how your Barbarossa 1942 will play out. With Spain and Britain under Axis control you should have a really high PP income. How about your oil level?

A bit under 500 barrels - note the upper left of the first shot of the Uk for this turn.

September 10 1941

UK pacified and about to move on Alexandria.

Notice the UK forces are now trapped between the land and air forces in the east and the HSF near northern Portugal.
That transport will be sunk too.

September 30 1941

They are running but it's too late. Meanwhile, in egypt I'm about to assault Alexandria.

October 20 1941

Just mopping up in Algeria now. With the RN gone it will be tough for the US to land in Europe.
Morris still has a strong airforce in Egypt, but maybe he doesn't have the PP to keep it repaired.
I'm also building up for my 42 confrontation with Russia.

November 9 1941

Just one shot for this turn since all other fronts are pretty quiet now.
The UK INF corps in Algeria are isolated and not a problem.
Alexandria falls, but the UK holds the line for now. I'm going to be a bit cautious since
Morris will be looking for a chance to hit back.

Seems that you will need more tacs for your campaign in the Nile. Anyway, you should be able to finish north african campaign within a turns and to start increasing the units deployed for Barbarossa.

Your NA campaign is waste of resources for me - you burn a lot of oil and PP and still you have no chance to get to Persia before Russians do.

Even capturing Suez will cost you much and you have much cheaper option of capturing Gibraltar. I would set strong defensive postition around Tobruk and focus on taking Gibraltar before May 1942 + building a lot of INFs to defend on the East.

Where are you planning to reach within SU ?

Kragdob wrote:Your NA campaign is waste of resources for me - you burn a lot of oil and PP and still you have no chance to get to Persia before Russians do.

Capturing Iraq (with Basra) is already nice, since it will completely seal the MED from western allies, and provide some oil and PP.

Nice job Peter. Don't think you have time to reach either Baghdad or Basra. Even with no resistance you couldn't march straight to Basra and capture the open city, let alone fight for Suez then fight your way through. There just isn't enough time. You also have to detour to take out Syria or Morris will rail units to your rear when you are advancing into Iraq. He will almost certainly try to send US ARM units to Basra - these you should be able to block with your control of the sea. I know the oil sounds nice in Iraq but IMHO you are better off taking Suez and Gibralter, let the Russians fill your oil tanks til May, launch a minimal raid against border forces in Russia and then build defenses. Good luck.

abumax54 wrote:Nice job Peter. Don't think you have time to reach either Baghdad or Basra. Even with no resistance you couldn't march straight to Basra and capture the open city, let alone fight for Suez then fight your way through. There just isn't enough time. You also have to detour to take out Syria or Morris will rail units to your rear when you are advancing into Iraq. He will almost certainly try to send US ARM units to Basra - these you should be able to block with your control of the sea. I know the oil sounds nice in Iraq but IMHO you are better off taking Suez and Gibraltar, let the Russians fill your oil tanks til May, launch a minimal raid against border forces in Russia and then build defenses. Good luck.

I agree. Oil you will burn to get to Iraq will pay off not so soon and it is worthy the run only if you manage to take Persia and set a strong defenses in Caucasus. For that you are to late so I expect you to reach Iraq only to fight second front with Soviets coming from Iran mountains. With their resources they outmaneuver you easily in Iraq.

Some math:
Your forces (4xFTRs, 2xTAC, 1 ARM, 2 MECHs) burn like 28 oil per turn of heavy battle. Assuming 7 days of such before you take Suez + 5 for Mosul/Baghdad/Basra then total is 334 + what you spend for moving between Suez to Iraq. Say it is 350. Income from Iraq is 15 so you get your payback after 23 turns from time you reach the target. This will be some around late 1943. Will you hold Iraq this long against combined UK/US/Soviet forces when Europe threats will be pulling all your resources at that time?

To be honest. In GS 2.0 I find NA campaign totally unprofitable (if you look on what you can gain vs. what you spent to achieve it). Great way for Allies to divert Axis from their main objectives in Europe.

November 29 1941

Thanks for all the advice. This AAR still needs to catch up to our game, and so unfortunately the game progressed before I had a chance to consider it. Anyway, here's a shot of the Axis pushing ahead in Egypt.

December 19 1941

Harassing convoys and the UK starts to crumble in Egypt.

January 8 1942

MIght as well push on in West Africa. There's another fleet action of the Nova Scotian coast,
and Egypt is going well. Note the paradrop from Cyprus - hoping to trap his mech and tank.

January 28 1942

I'm getting the worst of it in this navy battle. I've purchased no additional
subs or surface units. Rats, and I may have dropped my para too soon.

February 17 1942

Five shots this time, highlighting preparations for my belated Barbarossa. One measly sub helps replace the loses the Axis have suffered.

The naval battle has migrated to the mid-atlantic.

And the Axis races to punish the UK for its mistreatment of the paratroopers.

His air is still quite strong which makes sense since I've seen big convoys getting through.

March 9 1942

I've still got the upper hand in the mid-east. Meanwhile things are getting interesting in French West Africa.

March 29 1942

Ok I think I can catch up to the remnants of the UK army in Palestine.

In the West I've lost track of where I am (Morocco I think?). Anyway, the Brits
just keep coming - look at that! Another whole army group is about to land! Didn't
I just wipe out one like that?

April 18 1942

Barbarossa is about to begin. I have over 500 barrels though my airforces are still scattered over the map.
Algeria looks to be a dead front which is fine; besides the FF will show up eventually so there's no point struggling there.
In the Mideast the UK tank dies.

Finally, this AAR is still a bit behind the times, but I should be caught up in another day or two. I think I should build a redoubt in the
rough terrain forming the bottleneck in Palestine instead of advancing towards Iraq which is surely a lost cause.