Hey All,
We just finished a game which ended up in an Axis Victory. Germany/Italy captured 8 victory cities on Round 6 and the Allies were in no position to take any of them back. This took 7 rounds.
It might have taken longer but our Allied players made a couple of blunders. Russia had a huge stack in Moscow and Germany had 3 army groups ready to invade (Vologda, Smolensk and Bryansk). I guess our Russia player got tired of playing defensive and wanted to go on the attack. Russia attacked the three German army groups but only succeeded in Bryansk with 2 artillery and 1 fighter surviving. The other two battles went very badly and ended up in Russian retreats back into Moscow. As a result, Russia lost it’s numerical advantage to the Germans and they attacked and took Moscow Round 6. Also, Germany had a sizable force in Rostov which was blocked from attacking Moscow by Russian units in Bryansk and Tambov, so that force took Stalingrad Round 6 as well.
The other blunder was by our UK player. He successfully defended Cairo from repeated attempts from Italy, so Italy took their transports and captured Gibraltar, Morocco and Algeria (the main point is the naval base at Gibraltar). I think the UK failed to realize those transports could make it to Egypt in one turn. As a result, UK thinned out the defenses in Egypt and started sending tanks and mechs from the IC they built in Egypt into the Middle East on their way to help Russia. Italy then hit Egypt with 3 transports full of men and equipment plus two strategic bombers, thus capturing the 8th victory city on the Europe board. ANZAC, while doing good to thwart Japan, was no help in Europe. On Germany’s next turn, they flew 3 fighters from W Germany to Egypt, thus dashing UK hopes at taking Egypt (Cairo) back.
Germany and the UK had been battling it out with subs (Germany) and destroyers (UK) so the UK had no real navy to launch an invasion anywhere in Europe. Italy controlled the Med. So Paris, Rome, Berlin and Warsaw was under no threat from the Allies. All three Russian cities were way deep behind German lines and in even less threat from the Allies. Finally, Cairo was heavily enough protected that the UK had no chance of taking it back.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Japan was beaten down. The US went 100% Pacific and went hard after Japan. This is why there was no US presence in Europe or the Atlantic. The US didn’t have anything over there until Round 5, when Japan was pretty much out of the picture. Japan was cornered on their island with US subs convoy raiding and US bombers SBRing them into near non-existence, although Japan was still holding out and hadn’t been invaded by the US just yet. So the US started building a presence in the Atlantic and even took Gibraltar back from the Italians round 7, but it looks like it was too little too late.
Okay, so the situation is this: Germany/Italy holds 8 Victory Cities on the Europe board. Germany controls all of Russia on the Europe board and was starting to advance into the Middle East. Europe is just one big Nazi camp now. Italy controls the Med, Egypt and roughly half of North Africa, while England has little chance of reinforcements. England has strong defenses in London (due to Sealion threats earlier) but no navy. On the other hand, Germany has started building a navy in SZ 112 and Sealion may be a possibility in 2-3 rounds.
The US has a strong presence in SZ 91 and recaptured Gibraltar. A US invasion of Japan would probably occur in the next round or two. Japan is almost non-existent. So US could start focusing all of it’s attention in the Atlantic. China will just keep building more and more guys so Germany would not likely get any Chinese territories, although their attention is more focused on going after England now. India could start sending resources west to probably contest the Middle East with Germany. ANZAC could also start sending stuff to back up India in the Middle East, although it would take them a few turns to get a sizable force in the area.
So, my question is, if this situation were to occur back in the 40s, do you think it would have been an actual win for Germany and Italy? Would the Allies had sued for peace with Germany or kept going?
I am thinking that the US and UK would keep going. The US already has a strong fleet in Gibraltar so Sealion can probably be prevented.
If Russia would have actually fallen during the war, would the Western Allies have sued for peace?
As far as this game is concerned, I think that if we kept playing this out the US would eventually win. As big as Germany is right now, it would still be hard for them to keep resisting the US advances and fend off forces from India and ANZAC. Then again, a strong Italy might make the difference.
So what do you guys think? Would this situation be an actual victory? OR, just a victory for game purposes?