Supermax-Moriss restart (Game stopped)

[supermax]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. We are now in January 1941. I havent posted many because nothing is really happening. I am building up for Barbarossa and once i am ready i shall post some stuff.

I really like the Italian sub strategy. I have been producitg several corps for some assist from the lame Italians (rear action partisans fighting), but now i will concentrate on subs. They can get 1 sub every 3 turn they have 27 of revenue.

The reason i have been reinforcing Sicily is to make sure Moriss cant get it easily. All the hexes are now occupied so no possibilities of landing anywhere unless he destroys the troops in the hexe. That means a lot of stuff he has to bring th the area.

Also, he has been transferring all his troops to the Atlantic for what is now sure to be a 1941 landing in France...

We will see how that goes.

[Crazygunner1]

How is your Barbarossa coming along, preparations going according to schedule?

What kind of force do you plan to have at the opening?

[supermax]

Well well well. Moriss is concentrating all his forces in England. Guess for what? A 1941 landing in France thats for sure. Wow that guy is playing in extreme... He just moved the 2 planes from the MED under HEAVY escort all the way to england... Well at least there is nothing to fear from the eastern MED for the whole game now. I am organizing defenses in the WEST. I should have at least 5-7 INF corps (Italians, Germans, Spanish) + 1 or 2 MECHS, + 2 FTR.

My revenue is 129 per turn. Once we get some Russian territory, it should be going to an interesting level (140-150?). Manpower is still at 970 as well. Oil hovering around 400.

Couple screen capture below, but i have chosen to keep my barbarossa preparations off the screen for now.

As to forces, i should have:

(Germans)
5 TAC
2 FTR
6 ARM
8 MECH
10+ INF
1 PARA



(Italians)

1 ARM
1 MECH
4 INF
1 TAC
1 FTR

+ a score of minor rabble as always.

[Crazygunner1]

Don't think you should worry to much about Casablanca and NA, even if you should loose Tunis your plan is to keep the Italians in the war with a lot of subs and that will help you no matter if he lands in France, Spain or Italy.

Good jobb on the escort from the Med, think he will have trouble supporting any troop landings in France. If the allies somehow get ashore and manage to take a port, they are way to weak to maintain a prescence on the mainland anyway. So i think this will only be a waste of troops on his part, good for you...getting the experience.

Interesting to see your Barbarossa, i have a couple of ideas that i want to try out as well, with this new Paratroopers there are a lot of new options....adds to the fun.

Crazyg

[Crazygunner1]

Just a note on western defense you are building up. I think you can save your fighters and put them on the eastern front or build something else instead. I would go so far to letting him have airsuperiority(only in 41) and not slugging it out repairing expensive fighter points. To deny him air superiority you would probably need around 3-4fighters so 2 won't be enough.

I would do a "von Runstedt strategy" in France, build 1-2 tanks or 2-3 mechs, put them in france, let him land and just make sure he doesn't get a port, armoured strikes would destroy his forces quickly even without airsuperiority. Results in heavy losses for the allies and for little or no effort at all.

Crazyg

[supermax]

Well, sorry for the long delay in posting i was in Moab Utah for work. Benn busy, and the game just wont run on my windows 7 work computer.

Anyway... We are now february 2 1941 and Barbarossa preperations are going according to schedule. Troops are being produced at an interesting rate. I now have 9 MECH either ont he map or in prod and 6 tanks. 5 TACs on the map as well. Infantry is being produced at a amd rate right now. Pretty optimistic as to the campaign to come.

In the Atlantic, heavy battles continu to rage. Moriss was able to get his fleet across, but i was able to sink another DD this last turn and seriously damage a BB as well. Too bad, couldnt do more with my subs Moriss had put some in and around his ships, so wasted 2 subs on that!



The game should go faster now, i expect to be able to launch barbarossa this weekend.

[Plaid]

By the way game somehow runs on my win 7 laptop.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I run Windows 7 as well without any problems.

[supermax]

Kaunas, Vilna, Brest-Litovsk, Chisinau and Sebastopol falls to Axis forces.

So, we finally launch Barbarossa. The whole game has been directed toward it.

First off, the plan and the initial setup:





Then, the attack itself(sorry i forgot to screen capture army group north/Center):

[Kragdob]

I think you are making another exploit here. Imagine what would happen if Soviet observe huge German/Italian transport fleet at the Black See..

I think that Soviet should not get effectiveness penalty when attacked and there is any Axis transport on see within x hex radius from Soviet coast.

[zechi]

I think you are making another exploit here. Imagine what would happen if Soviet observe huge German/Italian transport fleet at the Black See..

I think that Soviet should not get effectiveness penalty when attacked and there is any Axis transport on see within x hex radius from Soviet coast.

I don't think this is an exploit. In fact its the same as with the huge Barbarossa build up at the Soviet frontier. The Allied player does not see this build up, so the Soviets are not aware of it. The is the representation of the element of surprise in a turn based game through the fog of war.

Furthermore, this is not really an exploit and can rather easily be countered. I always build at least 1 (sometimes 2) Soviet INF before Barbarossa can start and place it near Sevastopol to foil any amphibious landing operations and a quick capture of Sevastopol. As the Axis will only have the Romanian navy (a DD) to support any landing operations, this is also quite a risky strategy, especially if the Axis amphibious forces fail to capture a city on turn one. I don't know how the odds are to capture Sevastopol in one turn, but I would be surprised if its a sure thing.

[supermax]

I think you are making another exploit here. Imagine what would happen if Soviet observe huge German/Italian transport fleet at the Black See..

I think that Soviet should not get effectiveness penalty when attacked and there is any Axis transport on see within x hex radius from Soviet coast.

I don't think this is an exploit. In fact its the same as with the huge Barbarossa build up at the Soviet frontier. The Allied player does not see this build up, so the Soviets are not aware of it. The is the representation of the element of surprise in a turn based game through the fog of war.

Furthermore, this is not really an exploit and can rather easily be countered. I always build at least 1 (sometimes 2) Soviet INF before Barbarossa can start and place it near Sevastopol to foil any amphibious landing operations and a quick capture of Sevastopol. As the Axis will only have the Romanian navy (a DD) to support any landing operations, this is also quite a risky strategy, especially if the Axis amphibious forces fail to capture a city on turn one. I don't know how the odds are to capture Sevastopol in one turn, but I would be surprised if its a sure thing.

Exactly my point i would have said the same thing!

[Crazygunner1]

Furthermore, this is not really an exploit and can rather easily be countered. I always build at least 1 (sometimes 2) Soviet INF before Barbarossa can start and place it near Sevastopol to foil any amphibious landing operations and a quick capture of Sevastopol. As the Axis will only have the Romanian navy (a DD) to support any landing operations, this is also quite a risky strategy, especially if the Axis amphibious forces fail to capture a city on turn one. I don't know how the odds are to capture Sevastopol in one turn, but I would be surprised if its a sure thing.

If you got 2 tacs in range and a Rumanian DD 2 mechs as Max had i would say it's almost a sure thing....i have tried it a couple of times and never failed so far. Like previously stated this is easily countered by plasing a couple of Corps in strategical points. Max could easily see this tough before he sent his troops by scouting the area first so no valuable PPs would be spent if this was the case.

Nice to see how this unfolds....lot's of distractions for Morris to handle.

Max, as always just be careful when winter get's there so you don't get caught with you pants down as most Axis players do....

[Kragdob]

After rethinking I agree with you.

[Diplomaticus]

I think you are making another exploit here. Imagine what would happen if Soviet observe huge German/Italian transport fleet at the Black See..

I think that Soviet should not get effectiveness penalty when attacked and there is any Axis transport on see within x hex radius from Soviet coast.

I've wondered about the same issue myself, but as pointed out already, the Soviets somehow were oblivious to the massive buildup on their borders, so this is much the same. Also, I think I remember reading that the Germans did some operations (e.g. invading Copenhagen) where they had concealed troops in a freighter or similar vessel and then emerged by surprise at H Hour. Can anyone verify that?

[PionUrpo]

I've wondered about the same issue myself, but as pointed out already, the Soviets somehow were oblivious to the massive buildup on their borders, so this is much the same. Also, I think I remember reading that the Germans did some operations (e.g. invading Copenhagen) where they had concealed troops in a freighter or similar vessel and then emerged by surprise at H Hour. Can anyone verify that?

Can't confirm but considering that Copenhagen was taken with battalion sized force the scales don't really compare. 600-800ish troops could be stacked in a ship large enough but two corps worth, not so easy to conceal.

Instead of the Sevastopol OP which is easily defended against, a more annoying (but hardly gamebreaking) OP is the 'Tallinn Gambit' which can't be defended against as troops aren't deployable on non-core territory.

And good luck to supermax.

[zechi]

I think you are making another exploit here. Imagine what would happen if Soviet observe huge German/Italian transport fleet at the Black See..

I think that Soviet should not get effectiveness penalty when attacked and there is any Axis transport on see within x hex radius from Soviet coast.

I've wondered about the same issue myself, but as pointed out already, the Soviets somehow were oblivious to the massive buildup on their borders, so this is much the same.

The Germans were also very able to conceal their troop movement. The Soviets even did have information about Barbarossa (from Sorge in Japan), but Stalin would not listen to him.

Of course the massive use of transports in the Black Sea does not seem very realistic. The same goes for many other scenarios where transports are employed (Operations Sealion for example, but also massive use by the Allies). In the real war, an amphibious invasion needed very careful planning, prerparation and could not be repeated easily. Invasion forces could also not search for a good landing spot for several turns. In GS amphibious invasions can be done rather easily and the use of transports is quite common. They can be used in any theaters. But I think this is OK, as otherwise the playability would suffer.

From my point of view the possibility of massive use of transports and threaten to land on several places is an abstract way of representing the uncertainness of where and when an invasion could occur.

[supermax]

[zechi]

I think most of his transports could be GAR. Concentrate on the transports with amphibious invasion capacity. Furthermore, you should be very careful if you allow him to land any sizeable force in France. If he gets a supply source it could be difficult to push him back into the sea. Also do not forget that any units in the west are missing in the east. Expect the main focus of Morris in the east, not in the west. I would only bring fresh air units from the east to the west as soon as winter hits.

Cheers Zechi

[Crazygunner1]

That was a bummer...Sevastapol is no supply. It use to be....makes this option even less of a choice unless a link up between army group south can be made real quick.