Slitherine

I and Supermax have challenged each other in CEAW GS. Supermax will play the axis and I the allies. Supermax is a much more experienced player than me, and I guess playing the allies will allow me to make a few errors without being doomed. I find playing the axis against humans quite hard without making any crucial mistakes. Thus I left this to Supermax Perhaps he might teach me a couple of tricks.

I got CEAW GS late last week, and have not much experience with it yet. Besides this game, I have a game against trulster (allies) with me as the axis and another one against the AI just to get familiar with the game (also as the axis). So far my conclusion has been that I need to read the GS instruction manual some more (especially the bit about weather and how it affects combat and movement).

The game options are:
- oil comsumption, on
- fog of war, on
- end in May 1945, on
- random reserach, on

Me personal goal for this game is not to let Britain, USA and Russia surrender. I do not expect to be able to capture Berlin, perhaps force Italy out of the war and get Rome.

Let the war begin!

1. September 1939, War!
Germany declares war on Poland and attack the Polish army. Wehrmacht troops storm across the border and devastate the Polish army along the border. My Polish army makes some limited counterattacks in a futile hope to damage some infantry units. The remnants of the Polish army withdraw towards Warsaw. I let the Polish air force stand in front of Warsaw. This way Supermax has to fight his way through it. I guess Poland will last another two turns.


Mobilizing has started on the Western front. The British commander is placed in London and the French commander is placed in Paris. The French army moves towards the Belgium border. I start to sail French garrisons from North Africa to France.


One thing I noticed is that the British fleet isn’t as large as it was in the vanilla and BJR mod, but the French fleet is larger. The French fleet in the Mediterranean sets sail towards the North Sea. Two British BBs travel towards Wilhelmshaven in order to attack it.

The Brits buy a General Tech (Industry).

The German BB is positioned outside Copenhagen, and I assume Denmark will be attacked and conquered next turn.

PanzerGeneral wrote:One thing I noticed is that the British fleet isn’t as large as it was in the vanilla and BJR mod

It is. What you're not seeing is that the UK Med fleet "shows" up when Italy activates. The UK gets 1 DD, 1 BB, 1 CV and 1 sub in the Med. And when Iraq enters the UK get 1 BB in the Persian Gulf.

The reason we hold these UK naval units until Italian entry is that in the real war the UK would not have known when Italy was to enter the war and would have kept their Med fleet there as a counter to the Italians. However; in CEAW the Allied player knows to within one turn the date of Italian entry and could deploy the Med fleet without risk to the Med. Therefore; the UK Med fleet is assumed to be on guard in the Med until Italian entry at which time the Allied player may employ that fleet as they see fit.

PanzerGeneral,

I also posted this request in Supermax's AAR.

I'd like to ask a favor. I'd like to include stats from your game in the fall of France stats that I've been collecting.

Reference: viewtopic.php?p=117495#117495


If it's not too much trouble would you mind providing me with the fall date, German losses and UK (only) losses when France falls? The key to the Allied stats is excluding non-UK losses (e.g., Polish air loses).

rkr1958 wrote:

PanzerGeneral wrote:One thing I noticed is that the British fleet isn’t as large as it was in the vanilla and BJR mod

It is. What you're not seeing is that the UK Med fleet "shows" up when Italy activates. The UK gets 1 DD, 1 BB, 1 CV and 1 sub in the Med. And when Iraq enters the UK get 1 BB in the Persian Gulf.

The reason we hold these UK naval units until Italian entry is that in the real war the UK would not have known when Italy was to enter the war and would have kept their Med fleet there as a counter to the Italians. However; in CEAW the Allied player knows to within one turn the date of Italian entry and could deploy the Med fleet without risk to the Med. Therefore; the UK Med fleet is assumed to be on guard in the Med until Italian entry at which time the Allied player may employ that fleet as they see fit.

Thanks for the clarification

rkr1958 wrote:PanzerGeneral,

I also posted this request in Supermax's AAR.

I'd like to ask a favor. I'd like to include stats from your game in the fall of France stats that I've been collecting.

Reference: viewtopic.php?p=117495#117495


If it's not too much trouble would you mind providing me with the fall date, German losses and UK (only) losses when France falls? The key to the Allied stats is excluding non-UK losses (e.g., Polish air loses).

No problem. I'll let you know the stats when France falls.

21. September 1939, Poland surrenders, Holland is attacked!
The autumn weather.


The Poles have surrendered. That was a swift and impressive victory over Poland for Supermax.

The big surprise this turn was the Wehrmacht attack on Holland . This threw me completely off my guard. The korps in Hague is badly damaged, but I spend my PPs on repairing it. I need to delay Supermax as much as possible. I spot that he has already redeployed his Luftwaffe and part of his panzerwaffe to the Western front. This means his quick victory over Poland is even more impressive.

The French have managed to build a defensive line. After inspecting the line I need to pull back some units so that I can use the river defence bonus for more units.

A British BB receives a beating near Wilhelmshaven and returns to port.

11. October 1939, Holland surrenders, the Royal navy receives a beating
The autumn weather.


Holland has surrendered. The French defensive line has been redeployed. I have lost a couple of valuable turns, if it had been deployed as I wanted. Sob, which means less time for entrenching.

I had deployed my Royal navy way forward. Supermax has punished it severely. He almost sunk a CV. My Royal navy returns to port for repairs. A French BB engages the German destroyer, both lose 2 steps each.


The British strategy will be to preserve strength so that it will be in position in which it (hopefully) can defend itself after the fall of France.

When will Supermax attack Belgium? Hopefully the muddy autumn weather will arrive next turn.

It seems you have not installed the Haettenschweiler font. Look at the weather menus. It can be downloaded freely from the Internet.

http://www.font-zone.com/download.php?fid=846

Or here if you want Cyrillic or Polish letters:
ftp://ftp.carrier.kiev.ua/pub/windows/fonts/unicode/
Download Hatten.zip

Stauffenberg wrote:It seems you have not installed the Haettenschweiler font. Look at the weather menus. It can be downloaded freely from the Internet.

http://www.font-zone.com/download.php?fid=846

Or here if you want Cyrillic or Polish letters:
ftp://ftp.carrier.kiev.ua/pub/windows/fonts/unicode/
Download Hatten.zip

Thanks Borger. The Haettenschweiler font did the trick.

31. October 1939, Belgium surrenders, more heavy losses for the Royal navy
When will the autumn weather arrive?


Supermax has continued his blitzkrieg in the nice autumn weather. Belgium has surrendered.
The French defensive line is complete, but with the attack on Belgium the French morale is very low. The defensive line is too weak to withstand a Wehrmacht attack if the nice weather continues.

Supermax used his uboat to sink my weak CV which had escaped to port. Another French BB is sunk off the German coast. The Royal navy has received a serious blow.

20. November 1939, France is attacked
Argghh! The computer weather gods are against me.


Supermax continues his blitz into France. Lille is captured by the Werhmacht. The French spend all their PPs on repairs. A French infantry korps attacks and kills 3 steps of a panzer korps. This should force Supermax to pull it back for rest and repairs.

The convoy with the Canadian fighter has reached England. The Canadian infantry is ready to be shipped from Canada.

I've played thru the opening turns several times and never seen fair weather right through like this.

Blathergut wrote:I've played thru the opening turns several times and never seen fair weather right through like this.

Supermax has been pretty lucky with the weather, but by being super-aggressive and invading the west early, he puts himself in a position to take full advantage of any good luck he gets. Even if winter or mud had hit, the French would still be in a fair amount of trouble. It does suck though. It's already tough enough playing against supermax, even if the weather is on your side. PanzerGeneral has his work cut out for him.

I've found that trying to invade early like this, if mud hits, everything gets tangled up, unable to move. Belgium holds out for turns on end because the German units can't move into place, and if the armour is up front, then it is taking the worst of the weather effects and has very little punch.

Maybe the trick is to keep Mech. Corps in the forefront. They seem to suffer a bit less from the mud combat effects.

10. December 1939, France is defending itself
Finally winter arrives in Europe.


The winter weather is not stopping the blitz through France. My French armor is annihilated. All French PPs are used on repairs. The French defensive line is ready to crumble. I wonder if I might get the dubious title of the guy who lost France in the early winter of 1940

I move in the French sub and block the escape route for the Kriegsmarine. A French BB run into a German uboat near Cherbourg.


Britain receives its first convoy of 19 valuable PPs.

USA and Russia buy their first tech: General (Industri).

My suggestion would be moving your 2 British fighters to the hexes south of London, as numerical superiority in fighters is about all you have going for you at this point. During winter it will still be had for supermax to do much without air support, so make it difficult for him.

Panzergeneral,

I think you are in serious trouble this game and need to decide now what to do with your UK forces and what you wish to defend. At a minimum I believe you need to pull the RN out of harms way and preserve what you can. I agree with Joe that you should move the two UK fighters in position to provide cover for Paris in order to delay Supermax as long as possible. However; don't allow the fighters to get too depleted.

If Supermax goes for Sea Lion I don't think you'll be able to stop him but you do need to slow him down. Personally, I'd use land units to make it difficult but not sacrifice the RAF or RN. Remember, garrisons are cheap and make great speed bumps.

You need to assess whether or not you think you can hold in Northern Ireland. If you lose England then you lose a lot of PP's. The only good news is that convoys will travel from to Canada so they don't have far to go.

Assuming you save the RN and RAF, which I think is a must for you, you'll need to decide where they go. To the Med? To Canada? Combination of both?

Hi,
I have been reading the AAR ..... great action. I would like to point out, we did testing with random research turned off that is the normal setting for playing the old BJR mod, and the game starts in that setting. So hopefully you are getting good upgrades and not supermax.

30. December 1939, France is defending itself
Winter has settled in Europe.


Supermax has made a breach in my river defence. Again all French PPs are used on repairs. The French sub made contact with the German BB. It moves one hex with a little hope that the BB run into it again.

My French BB run into a German uboat again in the English Channel.

The Brits spend some PPs on repairs of the Royal navy.
From the very sound expert advice from Joe and Ronnie I move in the RAF to southeast England.


The first Polish partisans appear! The unit is doomed, but it should keep the German garrison occupied a couple of turns.