Plaid vs Morris №3

[Plaid]

So here is my new AAR against Morris (probably 3rd one, not sure) and I play axis again. I think I may lose badly, as usual, but lets try it.

I am going to post this AAR with reasonable 8 turns delay and allow Morris to read and fully comment it, if he wants (I am just writing posts and save them as .doc files, when I do turns, and when its time to update, i simple copy them, so all text is as old as turns itself - when I write it I had no idea, what happens next).

Initial plan is to force Poland and Denmark to surrender on turn 2 (going for Denmark most likely mean skipping Norway later, but we can live with it).
Then we go for Sietzkrieg.

Morris will probably go for Dyle plan, so build order will be quite untraditional. On turn 1 I buy air lab (no focus), and after it I am going to purchase TAC bombers (3 I guess) and 1 fighter before building any additional labs/leaders/whatever. All this airpower should be ready for action as soon as fair weather possible (February 1940, turn 9), accordint to the following spreadsheet. PP income considered 65 (pre-war value).



All spare PPs will be utilized for repairs and additional lab builds.

With 5 bombers at hand it supposed to be quite easy to break through France, despite any BEF intervention.

Picture of traditional invasion of Poland by the way.



Good results overall, Warsaw falls next turn for sure.

[Plaid]

Pretty standrad second turn - 2 armour was enough to finish off Warsaw defenders without any casualties.
We also DoW Denmark - quite bad luck here. Needed to use both air and naval units to destroy this garrison, so we didn't enter Copenhagen.
On the good side - no single step of our casualties aswell.





Looks like allies prepare Dyle plan. I don't exactly know, how Morris will execute it, but still position some good units
from Poland. We can expect to secure this fort in Liege.

[Morris]

I have to say your AAR is much professional than mine ! It is a long way for me to learn it from you ! Thanks Plaid !

[Plaid]

I have to say your AAR is much professional than mine ! It is a long way for me to learn it from you ! Thanks Plaid !

Thank you! I have learned from the best, there are much better AARs on this forum.

[Plaid]

Well, I got mud weather on this october turn, so its no way to control Liege and it is sad.
Still we keep transporting troops from Poland. Now our goal will be Holland. If we get fair turn in October or November,
we will use it to invade country. Otherwise we will wait for winter.



Unguarded Copenhagen secured by infantry. Also first bomber build ordered according to the plan.
I still hope to have 5 TACs when fair weather begins in spring, will be useful against allied positions in Belgium.

[Morris]

Actually , even if fair weather , you will probably unable to walk into Leige. You can try it by hotseat .

[ncali]

Actually , even if fair weather , you will probably unable to walk into Leige. You can try it by hotseat .

True - but if Plaid's tank had been northeast of the rough (out of French ZOC) then it could have made it, assuming fair weather.

[Morris]

Actually , even if fair weather , you will probably unable to walk into Leige. You can try it by hotseat .

True - but if Plaid's tank had been northeast of the rough (out of French ZOC) then it could have made it, assuming fair weather.

No,I do not think so .The tank has to kill the corp by one attack .but it usually badly hurt him &the corp retreat into the liege fortress .

[ncali]

3 movement points to move into the rough hex due to terrain penalties only -- if the German panzer starts northeast of it (not adjacent to any enemy units). The rough hex itself is only adjacent to one enemy unit so there's no additional ZOC penalty. Then another 3 movement points to move again into the fortress (1 MP + 2 for moving in ZOC). That's 6 MP.

But don't take my word for it - try it yourself. I did, and it works just fine (again if it's fair weather)! But weather in October, at least, is often fair.

[Morris]

3 movement points to move into the rough hex due to terrain penalties only -- if the German panzer starts northeast of it (not adjacent to any enemy units). The rough hex itself is only adjacent to one enemy unit so there's no additional ZOC penalty. Then another 3 movement points to move again into the fortress (1 MP + 2 for moving in ZOC). That's 6 MP.

But don't take my word for it - try it yourself. I did, and it works just fine (again if it's fair weather)! But weather in October, at least, is often fair.

Maybe you are right . I will try it later . It seems you are quite good at dealing with Dyle plan as Axis !

[Plaid]

Weather turns fair, so we invade Holland right away. No allied airforce showed, so I used 2 TAC attacks against Hague, SAC
attack against garrison near Hague and 2 FTR attacks against Arnhem garrison. Results are quite good, we sieged Hague and
no valueable units are exposed.
Plan is to take control over Holland and start to prepare spring offencive in Belgium.



By the way 3rd fighter build ordered according to schedule.

[Plaid]

This turn we got fair weather aswell, so Holland surrenders, despite Morris repaired defenders to 10 steps.
Also we taken out 1 french garrison (marked with X on picture).



Now bad weather expected and next turns will see little or no fighting.

[Plaid]

<no report for turn 6 - totally no action>

Thats turn 7 - last turn of 1939.
I decided to delay build of 5th bomber to save few PPs, will puchase it next turn.
Its no fighting at all (apart from convoy we just sunk), so nothing to report.

[Plaid]

So here is first turn of 1940. I decided to invest into 5th bomber and use rest PPs to repair most of my units - there is
thin chance of fair weather next turn. We will be purchasing 4th fighter no sooner then 2nd february turn now.

[Plaid]

<no report for turn 9 - no action>


Its still bad weather (winter) and only action is at sea, where we sunk another allied convoy.



Troops are ready to strike when wheather changes. This allied defence in Belgium has good sides for axis
too - for example I don't have to rebase air units from Germany



Also we will finally purchase this 4th fighter on next turn.
Current lab situation is 1 1 1 0 1 which is not great for february 1940, but at least we have great Luftwaffe.

[peterjfrigate]

Check it out --> blitz into Liege from this hex. Of course, that's assuming the weather cooperates

3 movement points to move into the rough hex due to terrain penalties only -- if the German panzer starts northeast of it (not adjacent to any enemy units). The rough hex itself is only adjacent to one enemy unit so there's no additional ZOC penalty. Then another 3 movement points to move again into the fortress (1 MP + 2 for moving in ZOC). That's 6 MP.

But don't take my word for it - try it yourself. I did, and it works just fine (again if it's fair weather)! But weather in October, at least, is often fair.

Maybe you are right . I will try it later . It seems you are quite good at dealing with Dyle plan as Axis !

[Plaid]

Fair weather finally arrive, so german offencive starts. We secured Liege destroying corps and 2 garrisons near city.
Also we ordered build of 4th fighter. Now I wish I had done it before - allies already have 4 fighters on the field
(and CV for sure)!



For now luftwaffe performs well in dog fight, even my unescorted bomber scored 1:0 vs RAF. But allies can repair every turn (as long
as they have PP), while we have to continue escorting bombers with depleted units.

[Plaid]

Thats quite interesting, thanks for sharing! I actually wanted to attack french corps with air units and mech, forcing retreat to fortress (and heavy damage) and then finishing off with armour unit, or something like. But your approach is better!

[Morris]

Thats quite interesting, thanks for sharing! I actually wanted to attack french corps with air units and mech, forcing retreat to fortress (and heavy damage) and then finishing off with armour unit, or something like. But your approach is better!

Yes , Peter's idea does work well . But as Allies , They also has the option of cancel the dyle plan ,& back to normal . But Axis already pay more pp for the transport . Also it depends on the good progress in Polland .

[Plaid]

As you can see, Morris used some of his air units offencively, instead of repairing them. This way he keep pressure on the luftwaffe,
but also we don't have to deal with full strength fighters in our turn.

We got quite good rolls against Brusseles much to my surprise - I expected defenders to survive at few steps (even didn't
use my best assault units - only 1 mech and 2 infantry to soften them up for next turn assault). Also destroyed 2 french infantry
on hexes marked with circle. We didn't occupy any of them - Morris expected to move there new units and we destroy
them again - should be easy without entrenchment.



Sadly I don't have screen cap at the end of turn, but luftwaffe fighters are quite battered. Most of them are 5-6 steps
now and going to need repairs.

Also puchased 2nd air lab for 1 1 2 0 1 total.