Ronnie and I have played one game before, with me as the axis, in which I managed to score a major victory (having managed to hold Italy, France and Germany) but the game was actually very close in mid-1944 (when my oil reserves were nearing their end) and I thought he might win. I say this, not to blow my own horn, but to instead note that I think Ronnie is a very good player and that he and I are actually quite evenly matched despite our one result - which I only managed to win because I pulled off a couple of operational surprises that did have significantly large enough strategic consequences.
Personally, I think the allies have the edge in GS (I've become a bit jaded with the axis recently despite my wins) and are a bit more fun to play, so this game will be interesting to see how the play balance looks.
My AAR starts in Oct 31, which is a MUD turn and which was preceded by a MUD turn. Ronnie must be itching for clear weather in November so that he can knock out Holland. The only question I have is whether he will DOW Belgium at the same time - on balance of probabilities, I'm going to assume that he will not sacrifice the DOW benefits at the start of winter, and therefore I will store the French PPs up this turn so that I can build an INF next turn.
As the British, I have bought two LABs so far, one for Air and one for Naval, with focus on FTRs and ASW. I tend to do this as the british (rather than buying General tech or going balanced research) as I view the air and sub wars as critical to defeating the axis for the western allies. I normally also husband my PPs as the british (which you should see) as I contingency plan for a possible Operation Sealion. I'm guessing that Ronnie will not try this against me unless I weaken my british too much, as my experience is that Sealion can be readily blocked by a strong britain.
My current deployment in France is shown below;
I've commited one British INF to supporting the French in order to prevent a premature French collapse in 1939 - just in case the weather had of stayed clear. The INF is considered expendable and will only return home if it gets very lucky.
You will also note that I've based the french FTR in britain a few turns ago so that it wouldnt suffer any DOW effects had the weather been kind to the axis. The british CV is situated in the channel with a French BB with the second BB steaming in. The nett effect is that I will have very heavy air cover along the coast, along with shore-bombardment, especially when the Canadian FTR arrives in a few turns time. The coast is where the German player can gain ground very quickly but this set up allows the allied player to punish an aggressive player. Knowing Ronnie a little, I'm expecting him to be prudent when he sees this and to just grind me out east of Lille. I dont mind that too much as it will take some time and result in low PP loss for my brits. At the end of the day, between two capable opponents, the Germans do not need to be speedy, just successful so I dont think Ronnie will be concerned if Paris doesnt fall until May-June 1940 (obviously it would be nice to do it sooner but he wont lose any sleep over such a result).
As the allied player, I'm realistic in expecting that Ronnie will take Paris before July 1940, but, the longer I can extend it without heavy british PP loss, the better.
During the winter, my french will build some INF whilst the british conserve PPs but look for opportunities (I dont have any pre-concieved ideas for the british at this stage).
Anyway, hopefully this AAR will be of use to you in seeing how a pretty experienced and somewhat conservative player, plays, and provide an idea of what impact the new changes have on the allies.
Neil
