Title: war of attrition
Date: 16th of December
Special Rules: NO’s and Tech were both used. 1941 scenario
Victor: allied victory, by concession
Game Length: around 7 hours
Bias: i’m beginning to think that i’m the most skilled in the playgroup, although my allied team mates were less skilled than the axis
Description: Germany pushed straight into Russia on G1, also using its african forces to attempt to weaken the UK there. they failed to attack any UK ships though, which i felt was a grave error. Germany came close to taking moscow, but the tank push was interrupted by UK landings in france, finland, support in karelia, and later the capture of poland. the latter was only possible due to the German fleet pushing out and sinking the UK fleet (with airforce assistance) after d-day in france
Russa went defensive most of the game, and came quite close to falling with Japan knocking in the back-door and Germany bulldozing the front. only thanks to strong UK support and limited USA support did Russa not falter, but in-fact recovered and helped push towards berlin and rome. the Russian sub was also useful in sinking the remainder of the German fleet after its victory over UK (one cruiser and transport remained)
Japan captured most of the islands above australia J1, built an IC in manchuria, and pushed down towards india. they never took india (lost that battle), but pushed strongly into Russia. after crushing Russian infantry resistance and not taking many losses, they were knocking on moscow’s door. but a USA bomber took out the advanced tanks, and further tanks were diverted into China
i moved a tank down to egypt on UK1, and captured morroco. the egypt forces pushed in to libya and won that battle. although Italy took back libya and morroco, and captured egypt, they never moved further due to infantry having moved up from lower africa in-time, and fighter support. the UK fleet was used to invade france, which was captured. although they were then sunk in Germany’s next turn, this fleet was rebuilt with a 3 BB’s and 4 transports (over the course of 2 turns). they were then used to funnel forces into finland and karelia, which then pushed towards Germany. as Germany no longer had a fleet, i positioned mine in the fjord above Germany, and landed forces in poland, then berlin, and then france again over my next turns (i re-built sufficient ground forces for these invasions at the end of every turn). i also re-took the islands i lost to Japan on UK2 (as the Japanese navy was elsewhere), and held-out in india. UK fighters were also landed in moscow to help against any possible attack
Italy was inconsequential in this game. they were severely hampered in africa, and the only memorable thing they did was take brazil towards the end (motivated by frustration i think)
Chinese forces had time to re-inforce over a few turns. they re-took kwantung for UK, and had some good dice rolls whenever Japan attacked
USA mainly focused on the pacific by building up its navy and attacking Japans. they lost their first fleet, but quickly built another and finished off what was left of Japans. USA bombers were flown into Russia to hamper Japanese shipping (2 undefended transports were sunk on USA1). a USA bomber also sacrificed itself to destroy the advance Japanese tank push into Russia. some us forces were also landed in egypt to help with the hampering of Italy
the axis conceeded when it was obvious that Germany couldn’t get off the defensive, and Japan was hemmed in by China and the USA
Observations/Recommendations: UK dominated the game. by having a constant supply of troops to invade German territory, and support Russia, Germany never completed its push on moscow (despite coming very close). once their tanks forces were disrupted, and Russia began pushing back, it simply became a question of how long Germany could hold-out. due to allied re-inforcements in africa, Italy was denied its IPC gain as well. Japan started out well, but were too worried about losing their navy to the USA. i felt they should have pushed into China first, but this was done far too late. USA did its job well of distracting the Japanese fleet, and supporting Russia and UK where possible. the game came down to a war of attrition, which the allies were set to win after Germany fell short of moscow. some allied SBR’s were utilised, but didn’t affect the axis greatly. nobody who purchased tech chips ever rolled any break-throughs either
