7.0 turn 1 pics and report

China pushes back. Victorious UK fleet off of Madras.

Japan in DEI. US Navy off of Philippines.

Last report of the night. Between playing, taking and editing pics, and posting I’m done for now.

As of the end of the turn Russia is at 48 production and technically at war with the Axis. Germany has yet to make her move on the Soviets. SS units are massing in the Baltic States and Warsaw. There is still no UK Fleet anywhere near the European coast except a loan destroyer off of Gibraltar. The Allies have yet to activate Brasil. I can’t figure out why, but I ain’t askin’  :wink:. The Germans and Bulgarians are also massing on the border with Istanbul. A naval base is operating in Romania and Axis transports now roam the Black Sea. Africa Corps units have also appeared in Romania… I wonder where they are headed? :evil: The German navy is lying off of the Normandy coast. German U-boats are aggressively raiding the north Atlantic convoy zones along with a cruiser.

Japan continues to trade territories with China, Red China and the FEC. The Japanese also continue to expand into the DEI while mopping up the Commonwealth fleets. The UK fleet off of Madras has been eliminated. No casualties were taken by the Japanese in a stunning turn of events. On land, the Japanese have deployed mechanized artillery to take on the Chinese and Commonwealth forces.

FEC continually builds infantry/armour combinations and pushes them east. ANZAC is foundering. Her Navy has been sunk except 1 cruiser off of Sydney. They have reinforced the Dutch New Guinea in anticipation of a SNLF landing. FEC forces have occupied Afghanistan and taken possession of the Palladium resource.

The UK has moved its bombers to eastern Russia. Looks like they are setting Japan up for strategic bombing raids. London and the rest of the home island are being fortified as Germany possesses three transports in the Baltic and control the Straits of Denmark.

Fighting rages in North Africa. Italy holds Cairo but has had to repel desperate Commonwealth counter attack consisting of mechanized infantry out of South Africa. Italian Somalia fell and was re-taken via a amphibious assault made up of infantry backed by armour with air support out of Cairo. The Italians have build a minor IC in Tobruk which is producing mech/aty combos. Italian submarines are raiding FEC convoys in the Indian Ocean.

The U.S. maintains a strong naval presence off of the Philippines. More a destroyer-heavy force has appeared off of San Francisco. No landing ships yet in the Pacific. Those have been allotted to the Atlantic theatre.

Russia has allocated strong infantry forces to the east. Kliment Voroshilov tanks have appeared in Novosibirsk. In the west, a minefield has been laid in Karelia and infantry continues to be pumped out from all ICs. Armour has appeared in Stalingrad.

Turn five has been played…bloody to say the least, but more on that later. Allied in-fighting has ensued…Buwahahahahaha :evil:

FEC, China duke it out with Japan.

Sydney and Tokyo. I 400 appears.

U.S. Navy sits off Philippines Japan clears the Indian Ocean.

Italy pushes south and raids British convoys.

South Africa. Washington.

Moscow. Novosibirsk KVs.

British Bombers and Soviets in Russian east.

We use HBG dice boxes to marshal our purchases.

Bill, we gave Russia 15 IPC to start and she rolled for income and declaration of war as before. Past that, for the most part, we stuck to the 7.1 rules. We knew 48 IPC per turn from word go would be a killer. The new units are a good idea and are definitely a game changer. 6 IPC German tanks make sense too (I hate to admit it). The game is certainly more balanced now.

We reverted to the old fortification rules after turn 2 as well.

Yes, -2 on naval units would be good as well as air units.

One thing we noticed was that infantry would have no value other than fodder when attacking forts (-2 to infantry means that possibly 10 attacking infantry have no attack value unless supported by artillery). This didn’t make a lot of sense as infantry would more than likely be the best instrument to use against fortifications. Boosting the defending infantry as before made sense as they would be “dug in” with the assumption being there would be machine gun nests, mortar pits etc. supporting the defence.

This being said, maybe it is time to introduce an engineer unit, especially given that I understand there may be rivers and /or other obstacles in '36. Siege guns might be cool too (I’m thinking about the Karl/Thor mortar batteries here).

Past that, most of the changes made were positive. I spoke with SS beforehand and he (and) I believed the whole Russia with 48 from word go would be a killer. Judging by some of the other feedback I’ve read, I think this is so. As it is, with the changes made, the Axis take higher casualties than before. It could have been worse as my partner and I had lucky rolls for the first couple of turns.

I also think the changes gave opponents a false sense of security. It seemed they figured they could fart around more in the beginning. Now they’re in a bit of a panic and struggling to gain the initiative or at least stop the bleeding and stabilize the situation. Thing is, the allies can afford to falter in the early game and still come back. They have the depth in terms of base areas and resources. The gravity of the situation has set in and they are rallying for the long game of defence/delay. Grabbing those 12 cities (especially those in Russia) will not be easy for the Axis.

I have some more pics to edit and post. It’ll take me a bit.

Things aren’t looking too good for the allies but the Axis have not taken 12 VCs and it’s going on turn 10.

Believe it or not, our game is not over. Due to interruptions we have made it only to turn 10. The Axis hold 11 victory cities and are just outside of Moscow and Stalingrad.

It is a race against time as the U.S. player is preparing a landing force off of Washington/New England. The Russian fleet (after escaping pursuing Germans) and remnants of the Commonwealth Atlantic fleet have rallied to them. The U.S. is also making incursions into South America and will link up with ANZAC forces which have (finally) activated Brazil. The U.S. Pacific fleet has vacated the Philippine sea zone and made for the Japanese forces lying off of Dutch New Guinea. These forces have essentially blockaded Australia. The Americans are also beefing up their land based defences on the west coast.

The Japanese have taken the Philippines. They continue to trade Burma with FEC but have completely subdued Red and Nationalist China. A small Japanese force stands on the border with Novosibirsk. The Japanese also occupy Vladivostok and the most eastern Soviet territories. While the Russian still holds Northern Manchuria, this force represents a rear guard as the Soviets are withdrawing in response to growing Japanese forces on the home islands, the Novosibirsk, Stalingrad and Moscow threats.

The Italians continue to scratch their way to South Africa while expanding into the Middle East and supporting Axis advances in the Ukraine. The Italian Navy maintains a small presence in the North Atlantic which will most certainly end voluntarily or not.

The Germans and Minors are battering at the gates of Moscow and Stalingrad while augmenting their Baltic and Atlantic fleets. Spain is now an Axis power. Gibraltar has fallen. The Africa Corps is in Cairo and Axis forces are moving toward India.

The Commonwealth organized an airborne reinforcement effort to Russia. Infantry from Calcutta has landed in Stalingrad to help bolster the defences. More transport planes have appeared in London. It may be too little too late.

Below are some turn 6 pics from this weekend’s game.

We have the Japanese home islands with Yamato and Japanese moves into New Guinea.