Slitherine

Behold, yet another betaAAR! This is my second attempt at AARs, the 1st one was cut short due to opponent mysteriously vanishing. Unlike the previous one, hopefully this AAR will be completed.

My opponent is a recent addition to the betagroup, Kragdob. I've been betatesting good while longer so I got the advantage in experience but so far he has played pretty solid game. Don't know how long he's been playing earlier versions but I don't think he'll be a pushover. The game was begun with betaversion 2.01.34, has been updated to .35 since and will likely be updated further when/if newer versions are released. If there is another big change we might end up restarting but looks like the significant updates are over for now (fingers crossed).

I meant to begin this a while back but ended up delaying and delaying so we're on early '41 already. I'll gloss over the early turns so I can catch up. I'll try put some explanation on the screenies but won't be applying huge amounts of detail.

(I managed to break my Number One computer while back and have to use a very old piece that barely runs the game with lower settings. Thus there's only 2nd and 3rd level zooms as 1st isn't available. Also fog of war isn't visible as a darker area making the current spotting range harder to visualize)

Overall strategy will be France-Norway/Denmark-Yugoslavia-Greece-Barbarossa. All research and builds will be targeted for that but objectives are subject to change along with the situation.

Poland ended up being the usual two turn affair and nothing special there so no screenies. Deploying troops back west for a '40 French campaign while maxing research as usual. TAC and FTR purchased after five labs.

Managed to score early damage on the Allied FTRs due to them being deployed close to front on turn 3. Not a usual thing to do by an Allied player.


Research as of Turn 11


The deployment for western campaign. Turn 11


Belgium and Holland fall without problems as usual. RAF fighter was already depleted due to earlier action so should make things bit easier on Luftwaffe although early results break even with 3:1 and 1:2.



Second turn of Fall Gelb, Turn 12

Turn 13



Turn14



Turn 15



Turn 16 Plans for the next campaigns.

Fall of France casualties forgotten from last post (Paris fell on Turn 16):


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Turn 22

Since you are going to have air superiority in Lybia and you are going to take Greece soon, it seems that you will soon gain the initiative in this scenario no matter the initial 8th Army approach to Tobruk. I mean that Kragdob will be probably forced to retreat his forces to the Nile and that he will have to wait to the americans to progress something in the Med.

leridano wrote:Since you are going to have air superiority in Lybia and you are going to take Greece soon, it seems that you will soon gain the initiative in this scenario no matter the initial 8th Army approach to Tobruk. I mean that Kragdob will be probably forced to retreat his forces to the Nile and that he will have to wait to the americans to progress something in the Med.

Usually that would be the case and I'd happily go on doing some damage (or push it back at least) on 8th Army prior to Barbarossa but following turns ended up changing my priorities. Anyway next few posts will clarify.

As I mentioned on the previous post I've changed my priorities due to significant UK presense on the Mediterranean. I'm not a big fan of Sealion and this is IMO pretty late to for a big change like that but I felt that allowing this serious threat in Mediterranean go unchecked would hurt late game even if I'd manage a great Barbarossa. Axis would be pushed from Libya way to soon for comfort.

Also, I did this sort of thing myself way back (in GS1.07 if memory serves) and got Sealioned. Back then Allies had enough oomph to recover from such (and I did get Libya in '41) but I'm hoping the latest changes in beta have made losing the Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier bad enough for Allies to justify the cost.

Turn 23


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Turn 26

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Turn 29

Alright, AAR is up to speed now and will proceed 'Realtime' from now on.

Turn 30. April 3, 1941

The Allied forces in NA seem to be very weak. I think that you should have a chance at destroying the entire 8th Army there.

Sea Lion looks good. You should be able to take London quite easily, but IIRC the Allies still have 5 supply while holding Liverpool, so advancing further inland may take time, especially that the Allied player will probably use all his PPs to build land units now...

Cybvep wrote:The Allied forces in NA seem to be very weak. I think that you should have a chance at destroying the entire 8th Army there.

Sea Lion looks good. You should be able to take London quite easily, but IIRC the Allies still have 5 supply while holding Liverpool, so advancing further inland may take time, especially that the Allied player will probably use all his PPs to build land units now...

I thought so too but turns out they're not that weak after all and I don't have enough German units to take out the whole 8th Army. 4 FTRs and 2 CVs are a serious problem until the morale drop for the loss of Britain hits... On the otherhand, until now, only new units to Britain have been garrisons so that shouldn't take too long.

Turn 31. April 23, 1941

Turn 32. May 13, 1941

Turn 33. June 2, 1941

Turn 34. June 22, 1941

Turn 35. July 12, 1941

Turn 36. August 1, 1941

Turn 37. August 21, 1941 to Turn 41. November 9, 1941

Not much of interest between these turns. I thought there'd be at least somekind of defensive line at Qattara or Suez but no such found. As it was, couple garrisons in Egypt were easily swept aside and Afrikakorps arrived to Port Said on turn 41.

Most of Britain is now occupied with Scapa Flow holding out as the last bastion. It's currently being reduced from air/sea and fallschirmjägerdivision dropped to the airfield.

Italy has finaly achieved full war effort and labs are maxed out.(Turn 38 )