After Action Reports

Title: Allied Navy victories bring home the bacon
Date: Jan 1, 2009
Special Rules: NO and Tech
Victor: Allies by concession
Bias: Even, 2 Allied players against 1 (me)axis player
Description: G1 went pretty much to plan sinking UK battleship, in SZ 2 and Destroyer in SZ 5(I think) and taking
Ukraine, E.Polan, Baltic states and Egypt leaving 1 tank in africa. Russia went totally defensive, moving all possible units up to Leningrad and by the end of R1 had 11 inf, 1 art and 1 tank.  J1 went perfect only losing 2 inf the whole first round.  UK1 took over France. I1 was where the Axis made first mistake, deciding to go for Stalingrad on G2 instead of Leningrad, because only 8 inf were defending Stalingrad, so italy tried to soften it up with a landing which only resulted in 1 russian inf loss.  G2 went for Stalingard and lost battle horribly retreating with only 5 tanks left after losing 4 inf and 1 art.  Germany retook France, only to lose it again on UK 2.

Germany slowly built up a navy where by end of turn 5 had AC w/ 2 fit, 2 crus, 2 des, 4 subs, 3 trans, in a effort to threaten UK.  Germany finally took over Leningrad on G 3 or 4.  UK attacked Germany navy on UK 5 and sunk the whole thing leaving the UK with a carrier, fighter and bomber.

Germany and UK cont to trade France every single round, while Germany was making somewhat of a push in Russia.  Meanwhile Japan and taken all of China after J3, took India on J2 and by turn 5 had IC in both India and East Indies.  America went for Japan and lost its whole navy after taking over Iwo Jima.  America rebuilt navy and moved it South on A4 to protect Australia and to threaten E. Indies IC.

It was a close game until around round 7 when the axis suffered two major defeats.  The first was an attempt to sink UK navy which consisted of AC w/ 2 fighter, and battleship with 4 trans.  Germany attacked with 4 fighters and 2 bombers.  Germany lost that battle leaving UK battleship and 4 trans and destroying German airforce.  Second battle was a pacific encounter where America sunk Japanese fleet of the coast of the Phillippens, leaving Japan with only 1 AC and 1 Crusier off coast of E. Indies.  The germany push to Russia had been stalled and the Red army was about to unleash its hoards from moscow.

Since it had been over 5 hours of game time and our wives were complaining Axis conceided to an ally victory.

Observation: This game could have easily gone the other way if Germany would have won that second naval battle with the UK.  Germany had just gotten mechanized infantry on the turn before and was starting to rebuilt a major army, but needed to take pressure off its western front, since every turn UK had invaded France and so every turn Germany had to send men to retake it.  Had they sunk that navy, britian would have been out of action for at least 3 turns in order to rebuild (only making around 20 IPC) this would have given Germany enough time to put some serious hurt on Russia given the Mech Inf tech.  Japan had just lost its navy, but was still bringing in 70 IPC a round and could have quickly rebuilt.  Italy did not really do anything all game.  I blame that on the I1 attack of Stalingrad instead of sending units into africa to get established there.

Overall very enjoyable game and the allies are 2-0 in the 1941 set up with our group, but the axis could have very easily won this on if a couple of battles had gone differently.

Title:  asian octopuss
Date:  6th of January
Special Rules:  NO’s and Tech were both used. 1941 scenario
Victor:  axis victory, by concession
Game Length:  around 9 hours
Bias:  me (being the strongest player) was Japan, the second strongest was USA, and then the remaining equally skilled players were Russia, UK, and Germany + Italy

Description: Germany pushed into Russia, but neglected to attack any UK navies. Russia pretty much did the defensive, with a few counter-attacks. Japan swallowed everything it touched. UK split its attention between the two theatres, but focused on Europe and invading Germany after they were booted out of the Pacific. Italy englufed Africa. USA traded a fleet with Japan, before also focusing mainly on Europe

Observations/Recommendations: i’d been looking forward to playing as Japan, and it was definitely worth the wait. i decimated China in my first couple of turns, whilst simultaniously taking all of the Islands that were worth any money or gave me NO’s. UK built an IC on India, but i captured that on J3 (after throwing many fighters at it J2 to weaken it considerably). USA tried to out-build me in navy strength, but soon enough Japan was pulling in too much income to compete with. so the entire Pacific eventually fell to Japan, before i started landing units in Alaska to distract the US from d-day style invasions

the European conflict turned into a 50/50 though, with Germany losing its push for Moscow (had less units than the Russians and was hoping for descent rolls). UK would capture Berlin and its income on its turn, then Italy would liberate, then US would counter-attack and weaken Italy, then Germany collected income, and then the whole cycle started again. it eventually stopped when Japan built a mass of fighters and flew them to Berlin over a few turns. The game was called around this point, as it was apparent that Japan was unstoppable, and Germany would regain the offensive with Japans help

Title:  Allies, make up your mind! 41
Date:  10/01/2009
Special Rules:  Tech (Only Japan unlocked 1, Super subs) + NO
Victor:  Axis, by concession (debated heavily by the allies, but they really didnt stood a chance anymore)
Game Length:  4,5 hours, 4 rounds.
Bias:  We all 4 are experienced A&A players, but the german and brit/rus player usually are not that good, me (Japan) being the only one who knew AA50 in & out, and USA being the mastermind of our play group, but also, unfamiliar with AA50.
Description: 
G1 was pretty conservative. Egypt was taken, Karelia wasn’t, SZ2 was cleared, SZ12 was not.
Rus did it’s retaliation thing (not much), J1 did what it should do, but England didn’t see the advantage it had over Italy, and took France. Bad mistake. Fleet was cleared right after. It’s purchase was even worse. An IC in both India and S-Africa. 
USA tried to battle the pacific, but was too indecisive, splitting forces in the pacific and europe theater.
The 3 turns following, it was Germany slowly pushing to Russia, Japan growing in strentgh and money, UK fiddling around, doing nothing in particular, except defending 3 IC’s…USA never made it to any main theatre.
The game ended because someone had to go, but at that time both Germany and Japan were making around the 60’s, Italy (Taken Brazil :) ) around 30, not an allied ship in the water, Russia surrounded by italiands, germans and japanese.
Sure, UK had 2 stacked IC’s (London was defended damn poorly, and Germany would take it the next turn, as it was bombed to -8 aswell), but all the units were way too far from the front.

Observations/Recommendations:  I think, in the 41’ sceanrio, the Allies shouldnt even try to take on Japan. They cant make it…and if they don’t…what difference does it make? Japan will still be too strong.
And the allies will have lost a lot of resources.

I think, that the best way for the allies is to go for operation Torch asap, and just perform a KIGF. Every other option just loses focus on the main theatre.
Russia can hold out pretty damn fine for a round or 4 by itself. If there’s no allied landing force ready to take on Germany by then…Russia is screwed.

Title: Allies swarm 41
Date:12-28-08
Special Rules: none,no v.c.
Victor:Allies by concession I was allies,brother was Axies,were both decent players,but i have the advantage because he hasnt played the newer games and dont have all the new rules down.Plus i have acess to all the stratigies that are posted on this site.
Game Length: about 2 hrs.2rounds
G1 germany took out have of UK,s navy,took ukraine,e. poland,baltic states failed.
Italy non factor,he didnt know what to do with them.
R1 russia fell back to lenn.,mos.,caus.,stacked everything i could in bury. bought 5 inf,3 tanks.
Japan took new guinea,borneo,killed all bought 2 chinese.killed most of us navy,left me the carrier and plane cant remember what the japs bought.
UK1 bought a bomber anIC,carrier.ic placed in india,consilidated navy in sz 8
USA1 bought all navy+bomber,left the pacific,took atlantic navy and put with the uk navy.
turn 2UK and USA bought all navy+bombers,uk did put troops india to ,russia had atleast seven tanks,a plane mabe and 3 stacks of inf.USA moved into africa.

Observations/Recommendations:Sense the axis didnt really know what to do with itlay and know how agressive to be with japan he was really overwhelmed.I went with kgf.

Germany dont have the airforce it needs and without italy helping they cant stop UK,USA.
We played a 2nd game a few days later and i tried to split the USA income half to the pacific half to the atlantic,that didnt work to well but the allies still won in 5 rounds.

Title:  Unstoppable Axis
Date:  9th of January
Special Rules:  NO’s and Tech were both used. 1941 scenario
Victor:   axis victory, by concession
Game Length:  4 turns, around 6 hours + 1 hour initial setup & rules explanation
Bias:  2 players both 1st time play, me (being more “experience” with strategies learned from axisandallies.org) was Axis

Description:
1st turn - Germany swarmed into Baltic States, E Poland & Ukraine easily, destroyed most of UK fleets but lost badly in Egypt, built mostly tanks & infantry.
Russia consolidated position towards Germany to mainly to defend. Built all infantry.
Japan destroyed UK fleet in sz 35 & US fleet in sz 56,53,50, losing the battleship in the process but captured Phillipines though, captured Burma & 3 Chinese states.
UK retaliate in Egypt & captured Libya (mistake), built mostly ships & transports.
Italy recapture Libya & weakened UK present in Egypt, support Germany in defence of France.
US totally ignore tha Pacific & concentrate on Atlantic front, building planes at E. US.
China lost its fighter, just concentrated on defence.

2nd turn - Germany captured Karelia with ground units & killed of UK fleet that was building up to at sz 7 with planes and cruiser, moved tanks forward to secure eastern front and continued to build tanks. Russia recaptured Karelia & further strengthened defence by stacking infantry, moved infantry from eastern side towards Moscow. Japan captured India & more Pacific island, no threat from US. UK with the complete lose of its fleet decide to build lots of fighters & bombers.
Italy captured Egypt & continued to assist Germany in defence, its fleet wasnt threathened at all. US started moving planes to UK, continue to build fleet at Atlantic front.

3rd turn - Germany retake Karelia & continued moving tank east, built bombers & tanks & SBR UK. Russia concentrated on defence & built all fighter this round. Japan built a India IC, started to build-up units in India to advance to Russia, capture Wake Is. and prepare for an assault at US the next turn. UK attacked France with planes killing all Axis units but cant capture due to no land units, continue to stack bomber.Italy capture Trans-Jordan, assist in France & Ukrain’s defence. US move CV to Atlantic & build land units to be shipped to Europe next turn.

4th turn - Germany fortified France & captured Caucasus, continue to move east, launch air attack on London to kill of its bombers built-up, & SBR Russia. Russia counter attack Caucasus with fighter & infantry but lost, leaving defence Moscow weakened. Japan launched attack on W. US & captured it. Italy move more units to Caucasus to support attack on Moscow. US disorientated after losing W US. Allied surrendered as it was clear that Axis is dominating + it was almost 4am.

Observations/Recommendations: 1st time play for both of us,  movements not coordinated properly & spent long time strategising moves thus 1st 2 turns took us almost 2 hours per turn to complete. Ignoring the significant of early SBR especially Allied player. N.O. favours the Axis player. Me as Axis has the advantage of knowing the rules & strategies well compared to Allied. Japan became unstoppable if left unchecked. We research on Tech but wasnt effective as we dont get the 1s we wanted & VERY hard to hit the “6” even with 2 tokens.
Now, looking forward for next game & with 2 more players.

Title:  Lancasters Fail, Fallschirmjagers yell. '41
Date:  29DEC08-6JAN08
Special Rules:  Nation Objectives and Tech
Victor:  Axis by Concession
Game Length: unknown/13 rounds Russia would have fell in round 15
Bias: Equal
Description: Round 1 Germany failed in Karelia, took the three Russian border territories, and Egypt. Sz12 was their only Naval victory. Russia took Finland and consolidated their position. Japan did their usual but only took one of the 4 IPC Islands and didn’t attack Kwangtung. UK invaded France and NW Europe plus built a S. African IC. Italy liberated France attempted Jordan. The US built boats in the Pacific and flew its bombers to England. The early rounds consisted of England invading France and North West Europe and Germany Strategic Bombing the Russians. Japan and the US built navies. Techs were a high point of this game and I will tick them off in the rounds they happened along with a couple of major battles. UK 2 Advanced Artillery. US 2 Super Subs. Germany 4 Improved Industry. Russia 4 Advanced Artillery. In Russia 5 they manged to sneak an infantry into Bulgaria for the 10 IPC National Objective. Also in round 5 the US and Japan fought a major naval battle in the Pacific. 290 IPCs sunk with 1 Japanese battleship and 3 fighters surviving. Japan also built an IC in Alaska in this round. Germany 6 Paratroopers which Germany began using to liberate such places as Libya, Algeria, Norway and Finland. While scattered Allied forces would recapture these on their turns. In round 6 Russia defeated a major Japanese force at great cost in Chinghai but it did clear that flank for some time. Russia 7 War Bonds. Also in Round 7 Japan built a Manchurian IC and the US took Alaska back for good. UK 7 War Bonds. Japan 8 Super Subs.UK 9 Heavy Bombers. The UK had shifted to invading Poland and Germany as France had become too fortified. On this round with 3 bombers the UK had planed to invade Germany as there was only 12 infantry an artillery and 4 bombers present with their 2 fighters, 4 infantry, 2 artillery and 2 tanks, this shifted form a nuisance raid to a chance to take down Germany. Alas it was not to be. The AA took out 1 fighter and ALL the bombers. On Round 10 Russia finally got improved factories for some bombing relief and the US got Radar. The US got long Range on round 11 followed by Japan on round 12 who used it to recapture the Philippines. Also on round 12 the US got heavy bombers and used this to sink the Italian fleet. On Germany 13 they pulled off a massive para drop into Karelia. 4 bombers 4 fighters and 4 infantry and 4 tanks overland. After Japans move coupled with this it was apparent Russia would fall to one or the other on round 15. They probably could have held of one or the other but not both.
Observations: It is interesting looking back I see moves both of us made in the early game we would not make now. The techs made this game very interesting as the tides of war constantly shifted through out it. Also even though a tech ultimatly helped win the game I don’t feel that at any point any one nation became over powered due to techs. While my opponent said the Alaskan IC was mainly to get the US to stop building ships I don’t see any way Japan can maintain such or realistically invade the US with thoughts of conquest. Perhaps if they take the West US they can but not through Alaska.

wow, sounds like a wild (and fun) game!

@TG:

G1 was pretty conservative. Egypt was taken, Karelia wasn’t, SZ2 was cleared, SZ12 was not.

Doesn’t seem very conservative.  How did Germany manage to take Egypt G1?  Must be some lucky dice rolls.

Maybe conservative wasnt the right word, maybe more “precatious”.

SZ2 was the 2 subs and the Norwegian fighter, Egypt was everything he could with the bomber. That’s a 75% win.
But he didnt took SZ12 (luckily for him, UK didnt take the opportunity to take the Italian fleet), nor did he take the Destroyer right in front of the baltic.

We may be playing this wrong, but everyone I have played with uses separate rolls for the fighters and the bombers. This is probably just a hold over from the Larry Harris Tournament Rules for Revised.

If it had been the way you described I would have kept a bomber. I would have kept a heavy bomber over a Jet any way. 2@4 vs 1@4.

Lastly on the Big Russian NO. This is just one of the many games I have seen it achieved in. At first it seems impossible, but it happens rather quite often. German reinforcements go to Poland. So it is not unusual to find an empty Bulgaria on Russia’s turn if things do not go according to German plans.

Even for your first time play, it seemed like you employed a very “tuned” strategy.  Guess A&A.org helps a lot.

Yes it does. I might be the one of our playgroup playing A&A, but by reading and planning in Triple A, I usually win nonetheless ;-)

Russia consolidated position towards Germany to mainly to defend. Built all infantry.

It’s not a bad move, but I think the days of Russia building all infantry are over.  Russia (esp in 1941) needs some offensive firepower.  Russia needs to at least threaten the German with a counterattack R2.  Make them play cautious.  You can’t threaten with just infantry backed up by a lone tank or artillery.

Thats what i felt as well, Russia needs to fight back.

Bias:  2 players both 1st time play, me (being more “experience” with strategies learned from axisandallies.org) was Axis

Even for your first time play, it seemed like you employed a very “tuned” strategy.  Guess A&A.org helps a lot. ;)

Hehe… I have studied A&A.org quite some time before playing my first game. Thanks to all the ideas posted.

Title:  1941

Date:  When you played it.

Special Rules:  NO yes, Tech no

Victor:  Axis. Germany took Moscow

Game Length:  6 Hours

Bias: 
3players all new to AA. One very very skilled risk player, only to be beaten by bad dice. Yet all 3 with good tactical and strategic planning due to a LOT of experience in other games ( Risk, Shogun, Chess, Go(im 1dan :evil: :roll:) So pls dont take this as bragging, im just trying to point out that we are Newbs to this particualar game, yet we learn quick. It was our 3rd game.

Description:
G1 hit BB / kareilia / baltic / east poland / gibraltar . bad dice kareilia/ had to retreat in order not to loose entire airforce. i played germany. i decided to hit kareilia because if you play germany slowly progressively forcing russia on the defence step by step, UK/US gain time allowing them to be more flexible in there strat. if you take kareilia g1,  even if russia takes it back, you got it secure G2. This of course leaves open a southern flank in bulgaria, but i figurend russia cant do much about it. R1 defensive now of course, gaining more time. J1 maximum force. from 17 to 30 +10 ipc. BB sunk. UK1 went bombing strat europe, india ic against japan. failed to use shipping effectivly. later on  germany took ship by ship with airraids. ( loosing very little). (same in indian ocean. UK2 can get 3 INF 1 ATR from south africa and possibly(depends J1/J2) from australia to egypt making it very hard for IT2 taking Egypt). IT1 prepare egypt…
US1 went pacific + assiting UK bombing europe.

G2/ R2 small battles. J2 played risk( to compensate kareilia, ger looked aweful: 6 FTR at US fleet. BOOM. lost 2 , sunk all ( total 57 ipc vs 20). US now europe only. IT2 take egypt.
Bombing in Germany was painful. bought 2 factories in bulgaria and czech and build airforce there. russia tried to protect all 3 factories actively, inviting Germany to take Karelia / Caucasus but his army being killed himself in return, leaving germany too weak to cope UK/US attack same round. but italy was able to take caucasus before with naval assault/bombardement, spoiling allied plan. Germany was  able to attack moscow with all might. 6 tanks took it in the end.  with caucasus to the italians, the rest of the russian army up north in the baltic /east poland and germany/italy well enough defended

Observations/Recommendations:  allied have little room for correcting errors. ship movement must be optimal. else they loose precious time defendig  africa, shipping troops  north europe keeping japan fleet in pacific and off india. UK india IC round 1 imho is a must. no ic here and japan just rolls and rolls. maybe even another ic in egypt, round2.

Title:  continued axis domination-41 scenario
Date:  jan 10 
Special Rules:  techs + NO and a couple house rules
Victor:  axis won by concession
Game Length:  6.5 hours; 6 or 7 rounds
Bias:  3 person game, allies=wily veteran; japan=wily veteran, germany+italy=me (not as good as them, still a little green)
Description:    germany got paratroopers 1st turn (good, but not what i wanted), failed at sinking uk fleet, took karelia and held it for most of the game and a couple others, sacrificed everything at egypt for italy… mostly bought armor and inf and some bombers… took moscow (5 armor) on turn 5? with 5 tanks, 2 bombers, one para w/ minimal losses
russia bought armor all game long and a research die on turn 2 (got paratroopers though, bummer for him, anything else could have changed the game) and suffered from really bad rolls, they battled with germany a bit but couldn’t keep up
japan did things a little differently…. lost all 4 fighters chasing the US carrier in the south (not sure of the sea zone) but it just slowed him down a bit, built IC in manchuria for armor pumping into china, russia, and eventually india (game over before india however), they got long range aircraft (didn’t really come into play too much), IC in india kept japan fleet split up but they still ruled the pacific, china was a minor thorn in their side but not too bad
uk built IC in india right away, built mostly tanks there; did SBR on germany; took back karelia once (maybe 2 times) but it was taken back by germany right away, also took france near the end (taken back right away again); they pestered japan a little in the south pacific
italy took egypt, but never pushed hard into africa; they were mostly used to fortify german territories and they softened up russia for germany, only country to not buy research
US spent money in both theaters, also bought IC for brazil and used it for sneaky d day attack (he claimed at it’s purchase it was to help with africa, mr tricky lol), did SBR on germany and a couple times on manchuria (no anti aircraft there), took france once near the end but it was too late

Observations/Recommendations:  this was our third game of 41, axis won all 3 times, we each had a shot as the allies; it seems like russia needs something to keep them alive longer, we’ll see. 1st time IC built in india, it definitely helped US by diverting some of the japanese fleet, and US could spend more money in atlantic because of it. brazil IC was good idea but perhaps IMO those monies could have been spent elsewhere. money was spent on tech but it didn’t change much, NO’s def favor the axis so far… next up 42 scenario!!!

when u use NO´s do you hand the extra IPCs out at the start of the game (eg G1 has 36 to spend, US1 has 55 in ´41) or do you start handing them out after a player finished his first turn?

@TG:

Also, I’ve been thinking: Do you guys prefer a specific way of organizing the After Action Reports? 
I’m fine collecting them in the original post for now, but if it grows to be too big, people will have to scroll down a lot to get to the newer reviews they want to read.

Or would you rather have one Review per post?  That way the most current reviews are easiest to access.  This does have the downside of not being sorted based on 1941 or 1942 scenarios.

maybe its time to split the reports into two seperate 41/42 threads?