Slitherine

Jyri and I are playing a vanilla game with me taking the helm of the Axis forces, and Jyri leading the Allies. This is our second game.

Jyri is far more experienced at CEAW than me and crushed me in our original matchup, managing to take Ottawa in the late spring of 1940. At this point I don't expect to even play for pride - I only hope that I can learn enough in this game to match up better in future games. If I actually challenge Jyri, so much the better.

We're already at the end of 1939 in our gameplay, so these first few posts catching us up to "present day" (taken from screenshots in earlier rounds) will come more quickly than the others.

I don't have a screenshot of the first turn or two, but everyone here basically knows the drill. Germany invades Poland and Poland does its level best to give as good as it gets. I recall that Jyri briefly cut off a tank and mech infantry for the second turn, but on the 3rd turn, on Oct 11, 1939, Germany is set to overcome Polish resistance in Warsaw.

20 November, 1939. Germans redeploying westward to face France. Two divisions set to spring into Copenhagen.

Two turns later, Germany has repaired all units and begun redeploying them toward the French/Belgian/Dutch borders. Two infantry head north to invade Denmark, and aircraft are in position to support German units both in Denmark and in the Netherlands. I'm a little wary of Jyri committing the Royal Navy so heavily into the North Sea right now, which is why I took the precaution of putting two fighters so far north.

Unfortunately, my fighters aren't deployed far enough to cover the High Seas Fleet as it moves into position to bombard the Danish defenses in Copenhagen. Jyri attacks with a CV and knocks 3 steps off my BB.

Clark,

I also enjoy reading AARs. I look forward to seeing how things turn out.

In your first post are those Polish units near Berlin? Did they actually attack the city?

10 Dezember 1939. German redeployment westward nearly complete. Further HSF losses off Denmark.

I was right to be wary of the Royal Navy's incursion into Danish waters. After declaring war on Denmark and sending two infantry in a lightning quick amphibious strike toward Copenhagen, I had to withdraw the HSF in the hex behind Kiel's port in order to keep it safe from the advancing British naval forces. The British CV still managed to knock off 3 more steps, which caused me to withdraw the HSF offscreen to Königsberg. Luckily for me, Jyri had a British rather than a French BB in Copenhagen's port when it fell. If a French battleship had been in place, Jyri could have sacrificed it in the hunt for the HSF with the knowledge that it would disappear with the rest of the French military with the fall of Paris. A British BB trapped in the Baltic for the duration of the game wouldn't have been acceptable, however favorably the Russians would have viewed it later on in the war.

In any event, the High Seas Fleet is out of commission for the foreseeable future. I may divert some valuable PPs sooner rather than later into repairing it if Seelöwe looks feasible in the spring.

The good news for me is that my submarines were free to knock 10 steps off a convoy and then slink away unencumbered into the North Atlantic.

rkr1958 wrote:Clark,

I also enjoy reading AARs. I look forward to seeing how things turn out.

In your first post are those Polish units near Berlin? Did they actually attack the city?

Thanks! I've enjoyed your AARs immensely, and hope that I can manage something comparable to your latest AAR and game.

In answer to your question, Jyri cut off the supply lines to two German units (a panzer and mech infantry) which ultimately enabled him to destroy the mech infantry in the second round. The Polish infantry never seriously threatened Berlin, but their work in cutting the supply line was far deadlier. Also, I like to rail the infantry division in Berlin into place for a quick attack on Copenhagen, if it's convenient, and that Polish unit in the vicinity of Berlin prevented me from doing so.

15 Januar 1940. Germans end Sitzkrieg, storm into the Netherlands.

While French battleships continue to pound Wilhelmshavn, German panzers and mechanized infantry pulverize Dutch defenses outside the capital and pound Dutch infantry in the Hague. The last stragglers from Poland redeploy to the Rhineland.

Rommel will begin his command for the German invasion of Belgium tentatively scheduled for next turn. A tactical bomber is also in the build queue.

8 Februar 1940. German forces trade blows with Dutch ground forces and French navy.

As usual, my opponent shocks me with what he's capable of doing with even a weak hand.

Jyri decided to reinforce Holland with troops and naval cover, with excellent results. As you can see at the beginning of the turn, the surviving Dutch forces have been reinforced, while British and French ships have moved into the coast to shell the attacking panzers and infantry.



Despite adding Rommel to the command, the panzers are still unable to wipe out Dutch resistance.

A couple of turns have passed without much excitement, so I'll just summarize to catch those of you who are reading up to date.

Holland fell to the Germans after a whopping two more turns, but not without more pain inflicted on German panzers from the combined Allied naval forces. The British have invested a few PPs each turn in reinforcing the Dutch, and the French have sacrificed several steps from a battleship. For this modest investment, they've managed to inflict knock the XXX Corps down to 3 steps at one point, as well as a couple of steps off virtually every other unit that has entered Holland. Not to mention the fact that it's now May, and I'm only now recovering enough to push into Belgium and beyond. I've spent a full two turns restoring my forces to full strength. No doubt my opponent has spent his time bolstering his defences and preparing a counterstroke.

've made a lot of mistakes that are meaningless when playing the AI, but against a resourceful player like Jyri, they are adding up to disaster. My very modest goal right now is to take France with the Germany Army intact enough and with enough lead time to start Barbarossa on historical time. The first step is to take Belgium in a single turn - I don't want Jyri to have any more toys to play with in my path to Paris.

28 April 1940. Germans march into Brussels.

First good news of the war - the Germans swatted away the Belgian defenses before Brussels, then pounded the capital, taking it on the third ground assault, all within a single turn. I forgot to take a pic, but almost every single unit is at full strength, save for a panzer, a mech infantry and an infantry corps all at 8 steps. Very pleased with my performance this go round.

Still, it's the beginning of May, and the full French army stands before the Germans and Paris. The defenses are set up on a double line that straddles the Somme, with garrisons posted to the north of the river and stronger units to the rear. With Jyri's wiles and adequate time and PPs to prepare, I'm worried that I'll ever get to Paris. In an e-mail, he claimed that it's almost impossible to stop the Germans from marching into Paris at some point, but I've stopped the AI from doing so more than once.

18 Mai 1940. Contact on the Somme.

The French and German armies finally have their long appointed meeting in the fields of northern France, with more than a whiff of 1914. The Allied naval forces continue to pound my forces near the North Sea and Channel coasts. I can now see that the French have four infantry units forming the center of the defense on the opposite side of the Somme.



I attacked his western flank, a sea of garrisons. My panzer is down to 5 steps, continuing a trend in which my panzers get ground up in almost every assault. (I have a feeling I'm doing it wrong!) The panzer will get some R & R if they can make it through this turn.

Since there's been no activity here in a while, I decided to "cheat" and check it out. I'm also posting the current turn info if anyone is interested.

Jyri

Just wanted wrap up this AAR and connect the dots between my last update and Jyri's, since I stopped posting updates when the game became a static war of attrition in France.

The German troubles in France did not end in May. I lost several units when pushing hard for Paris and only finally took Paris at the end of 1940. And the problems in France still did not end there, because Jyri had occupied several cities with British units, and it took me some time to gain them back. Beyond that, the RAF and RN managed to pulverize a seemingly adequate force sent to dig the British infantry out of Brest. The Germans never managed to gain control of Brest the entire game.

The upshot of the delays in capturing the Low Countries and France, not to mention several lost units, was that Germany had to scramble to cobble together something for Barbarossa. There was no time nor PPs appropriated towards taking Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece, or any other minor country. I don't recall my lab purchases, but they were relatively small compared to what I usually buy as well.

So the Germans waited until October 1941 to invade Russia, and Jyri had the nice surprise of a massive offensive into Finland at the same time. Worked like a charm because the harsh Russian winter didn't apply to Finland, and my invasion force had been concentrated in the south to try for Caucasus oil as fast as I could. In short, Soviet armor ran roughshod over the paltry Finnish infantry, while the Germans advanced quickly on all fronts. But the Soviets managed to build a strong enough defense line to slow the German northern advance until Finland had been dispatched and all units had been repaired. (Ironically, I was setting up a surprise German offensive through Finland in another PBEM game I was playing at the exact same time.) In the south, the German advance nearly reached Rostov before being bottled up, outflanked, then surrounded and destroyed.

The bright spot of the game was the Italian performance in North Africa and the Middle East, mostly because Jyri abandoned the front to them. After taking Egypt, Beirut, and Iraq, the Italians feinted towards Iran then surprised Turkey. But as the Soviets had the Germans wrapped up pretty well in the Soviet Union, they were able to support their new Turkish allies and advance through into the Middle East, ultimately destroying the remnants of the Italian invasion force as they retreated toward Baghdad and Beirut.

Oh, and did I mention that the Brits managed to take an undefended Copenhagen in a dastardly (and brave) sneak attack before invading France?

All in all, a major whipping. When you're the Axis, each error compounds itself as you move forward in the game, especially against a skilled player such as JyriErik.

Also, I'm playing a new game now against JyriErik, with me as the Allies this time. We're several turns in, so I'll soon start from the beginning with a new AAR. If things get a little bit slow as they did in our last game, I'll edit out the sitzkrieg and trench warfare so that the development of the game is a little easier to follow.