After Action Reports

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?

agreed. it seems very hard for allied to gain tempo.

Ow come on. Don’t start about bids already.
Heck, I refuse to play with bids in AA:R, and I’ve even won quite a share of games with the Axis.
Tossing in bids just seems to easy.

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!!!

Look at it. Russia built all tanks? Strange defensive posture…they’ll lack number of units too fast.
Uk builds IC in India. Happens more often, but is it thát smart, if you want to crush Germany?
Brazil IC? Usually, a waste of money.

See…there are many more ways to win as Allied then just tossing them a few bucks. Every strategy has it weaknesses.
Sure…it might turn into the old KGF/KRF race again, but still…

Title:  moscow squeeze
Date:  13th of January
Special Rules:  NO’s and Tech were both used. 1942 scenario
Victor:  axis victory, by concession
Game Length:  5 rounds, 5 hours
Bias:  two strongest players were germany and japan respectfully, and the weakest was italy. the other 3 moderate players were the allies

Description: japan focused on crushing china, held its island gains until late in the game, then swept around india and encrouched into russia

russia did its defensive thing, but sent some infantry to help china (to no avail)

germany pushed into russia obviously, but also sunk the british fleets no less than 5 times. every time the british built a replacement and brought it within range, the german luftwaffe decimated it

uk was pretty much contained to its island, after losing its pacific holdings. it held out in africa for most of the game though

italy focused on gaining some african territories, but was held back until the last couple of rounds

usa built a fleet to match japan, and started taking back some islands late in the game. they also re-inforced africa, until germany sunk its atlantic fleet with the almighty luftwaffe

Observations/Recommendations: allies conceeded when moscow fell to the panzers. uk was reduced to watching over the channel thanks to a german airforce, so couldn’t assist russia, and the us was distracted in the pacific by japan

i love playing germany, and didn’t dissapoint this game. i tried something new, though, and built 10 infantry on the G1 build. after that it was a lot of tanks, and some fighters on round 4. the point of the infantry was to bolster my defenses on the eastern coast straight off, and send the rest towards moscow. the infantry was able to push with the tanks built later, so i could take some losses on them and keep the tanks. turns out i didn’t need to defend france too much as i kept the uk fleet going to the bottom each round

heh, they kept trying to reposition where they placed it. but i generally had fighters on finland and france, and the bomber in germany. so the reach wasn’t difficult. it was ammusing as the uk build a lot of tanks their first turn, and never got to use them  :lol: