After Action Reports

i’ve been reading these forums for a couple of weeks now, so thought i should register and make a post!

some friends and i played a small game last week, just to get a feel for it. this game following was the first proper one with the new AA50A though

Title:  wehrmacht wallop
Date:  2nd of December
Special Rules:  used NO’s, but no tech developments, 1942 setup
Victor:  axis, by allied concession
Game Length:  2 rnds
Bias: skill was split down the middle. allies just had some terrible roles with the dice
Description: japan pushed into china, and sunk any allied navies it could reach. russia went defensive from the start. germany pushed for moscow but did a little uk-navy sinking on the side. uk set up defences in india, attacked africa. italy pushed into africa, sunk a combined uk and us fleet. america attacked japan, began setting up for bombing runs into germany.
basically, germany (myself) got some very great roles, where russia did not. germany destroyed all 8-10 of the russian defenders in moscow, while only taking two casualties themselves (from a force of about 12, although can’t recall exact numbers of units).
Observations/Recommendations: i feel russia is at a disadvantage from the start due to having to defend 3 industrial spots (this has been covered in other threads). we will seriously consider adding one or two house rules for russia, but it definitely came down to the dice rolls. japan looks tough with its navy, but only having one transport does gives the allies some time to make a move. uk did build a factory in india, and held it nicely

Title: Capital switch
Date: 22/11
Special rules: NOs+techs
Victor: Allies, ended with Germany, Italy and Russia being eliminated and Axis conceding defeat
Game length: around 8 rounds
Bias: me & Perry, we’re equal skillwise I think, in all four other games of the '41 scenario Axis had won and we played two each
Description (reprint from “My review” thread): The Allies went all-out KGF. UK shucked units into Karelia for the first three turns, after which Germany succeeded in bombing their navy to pieces, but then US took over the amphibious invading and UK focused on SBR. UK built a South African IC that helped to keep Africa. US invasions of Algeria, France and then Italy made things difficult for the European Axis. USA built cruisers, transports, land units and bombers after a first turn buy of a  carrier on the East coast. Japan mopped up everything and ended up grabbing Moscow AND Western US in the same turn (the second conquest was due to a mistake in builds due to fatigue on the US player part but didn’t really change the game). But by then Italy had already fallen and Germany fell to a US tank and bomber attack. Germany did dominate the Russians for most of the game, but was very hampered by a Heavy bomber SBR campaign and due to limited production narrowly failed to take back France which in hindsight was a gamebreaker since USA could then build an IC there. Techs was rampant: UK got Heavy Bombers on turn 1, US on turn 4 or 5 (as well as Super subs and Improved shipyards), Germany got Paras and Japan Jets and Long-range air.
Observations/recommendations: We concluded that the game was very difficult for the Allies and without Heavy Bombers it would have been hard to conquer Germany. But techs are now so easy to get that is actually not that random but rather a part of strategy. We can’t see right now how anything else than KGF is the way to go in the '41 scenario, but we might be wrong (?). NOs seem to be an advantage for the Axis. ADDED: me as the Axis player thought in hindsight Japan should perhaps have attacked West US/ Alaska earlier to force a distraction from Europe, also Germany might have pushed more aggressively vs. Russia with more tank buys and daring attacks since infantry buys are so EXTREMELY slow to the front which is a major problem if the Allies go KGF.

I think this is an excellent idea. And if you play the game here you can also link to it. Working on playing 1 or more right now.

Title:  Sea Lion Reboot 1941.
Date:  11/29/08. 
Special Rules: OOB, except-all Axis move/all Allies move turns-
-we play face to face and hate waiting for turns. 
Tech development-no tech buys, used National Objectives.
Victor:  Consentual Draw, time Limit expired 4 hours.
Victory Cities -Allies 10 and Axis 8…
Game Length:  4 Hours/9 Rounds
Bias:  Going into the game, I played Allies and
had the higher skill level.  Thought less experienced players, should play Axis in 1941, Axis have greater mobility and unit strength, should help them recover from mistakes.
Description:  I used Balanced strategy for Allies, included UK Indian IC an divided UK/US IPC’s BTWN Pacific and Europe.
Early game, Axis moved typical, maxium extention of force-
Japan-Pearl attk/takes Hawaii J1. Germany-gobbles Eastern Europe. 
Italy-hammers Africa.  Axis removed most of Allied shipping.
Allies counter early game, build forces UK/India and US CV Fleets fitted out for both theatres. USSR slow/steady INF/RTL stacks advance out of Moscow, w acquired 2-ARM ea  rd- stacked North flank /center group/ Southern  flank.USSR mass reabsorbs, all of Eastern Europe. German Sea Lion rips London. UK/US Torch ops retake Africa. 
UK IC breaks Jap wave with US/China sapping Zeros.  Final round, Germany with 93 IPC to spend, facing 3 stacks of USSR mass.  Allied Air/Naval counter and sink everything Axis have in water.  UK/US and Japan begin rebuilding fleets.   
Observations/Recommendations:  We were surprised by the amount of IPC flow from NO’s.  To my chagrin, how could the Germans get into London-LOL
another concept learned, chinese, not strong, weaken japanese Air.

TG Moses VI,

suggestion, modify first post of this thread.  Data track totals;

Qty of Games/ Axis Wins / Allies Wins / Major Strategy
or something to this effect, if you wouldn’t mind.

Title: The Rising Sun

Date: 11/29/2008

Setup: NOs+techs   1941 scenario

Victor: Axis win, ended with Japan sacking Moscow

Game length: lost track of rounds. 7 1/2 hours!!

Bias: Nearly equal skill level. I would be more experienced. I played Allies and lost

Description: The germans took Karelia, Baltic States, West Poland, and Ukraine all round 1. Soviets were not equipped to counter all of this. The germans took karelia with all that could reach, and had only one loss. I could not retake my IC for some time. I purchased 2 fighters with russia right off the bat. I figured the only way to fend off the german onslaught would be to swap as many NO terrorities i could with as efficient TUV trades as i could manage. Russia got bad dice early, and it looked like it would be a quick defeat. In the pacific theater, I was looking for a way for the US to contend. Japan killed the battleship at pearl as expected. However, they left my destroyer/tran alive off of LA. (I think i would have sent two fighters to kill these targets. just need one hit to kill both ships worth 15 ipcs). My opponent made an error by leaving his ACs at pearl, and giving me plenty of firepower to counter. I wiped out 2 ACs and 4 planes round 1. You would think that this start encouraged a US KJF strat. A few reasons i did not go this way. I did manage to surive the AC from my pearl counter. However, i was still far behind the japanese naval power. And they equaled US production r2 or 3, and surpassed it soon after that. The japanese naval strength, combined with germany’s aggressive strat (He bought many tanks, and tried to finsh russia quickly) forced me to go to the atlantic exclusively with the US. Allied pressure in Africa and WE soon wore on the German offensive. What looked like a quick russian defeat, soon shifted. Italy was not used effectively by my opponent, and they never contended much in africa. I did buy an Indian IC for the brits, and kept AE well defended. This game was very close, and took forever. Germany began to turtle in the late rounds, and Russia started to collect all of its NO bonus. Allies had a foothold in WE, and UK just took Italy, WHEN, Japan couldnt be stopped in taking moscow witha huge stack of tanks.

Observations/recommendations: The game does seem to favor the Axis, however, in the game I played, the allies could have had a victory. they were delayed by lucky axis dice, as well as early UK naval losses due to lucky dice in an German air attack. I was hoping that the US could contend in the pacific. It does not appear to me they could. A more experienced Japanese player would not let his ACs be slaughtered. With the HUGE lead in naval power, three FULLY loaded ACs!!! BB and cruiser!! 5 trans!!! And the exponentially growing production, the US CANNOT handle the Japanese by themselves. NO WAY! I was shocked to see how weak the US was to start the game! However, the UK start out as a monster in production. 43!!! So i do believe that there may be a combined allied approach in the pacific that could bottle up japan. It would be very difficult, but i see the potential. For one, the japanese strength is far north of the Indian Ocean to start, and a sea zone was added. If the UK did a double IC in India/Austrlia  or India/SA and built up a navy, at the same time, the US built up navy in hopes of combining their fleets before the japs could crush either. umm, it might work. But would it be more efficient then just killing italy first?  i dont think so.

@TG:

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.

That would need a separate subforum, I think. I like it, I enjoy HOI2 AARs and A&A AARs can be super fun

@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.

Well, you just alluded to the solution, I think. Why don’t you just make 2 threads, one for 41’ and one for 42’.  Once a general consensus on the final AAR layout has been reached here, you can make the 2 separate threads and ask the people who have already posted their AAR’s here to copy and delete them from here and move them to the appropriate new one.

I don’t think that scrolling to find the new stuff is the biggest problem. I think the biggest problem is that this thread has become diluted with the mixture of discussion, 41’ scenarios, and 42’ scenarios which makes it hard to find something specific that you may be looking for.

You could even leave this thread open as the discussion thread. That way the 2 dedicated AAR threads won’t be diluted with discussion.

Title:  Axis Revenge (2v2, my teammate and I lost the last game we played against these two opponents, one of them is his wife)
Date: 12-5-08 through 12-6-08 
Special Rules: 1941 NO’s and Tech
Victor:  Axis. We were playing for 15 VC’s but when we, the Axis, got to 14 and controlled everything except N. & S. America and UK, the allies conceeded.
Game Length: 8hrs, can’t remeber the number of turns.
Bias: It was a 2v2 and each team had a new and experienced player(the new players had played before but only once or twice). The Ger/It player (myself) may have had the most knowledge because I read these forums almost every day and the other 3 actually have a real life.
Description:   Everybody was trying to get tech in a slow progressive way (buying 1 researcher/turn). Ger took Moscow after about 7 hrs then lost Berlin to the UK 1.5 turns later, Italy liberated it the same turn. The mechanized inf made it possible to make one last lunge at Moscow before the defensive purchases had to begin. Japan didn’t go after the US fleet at all on the first turn, this lead to a huge American fleet in the Pacific. The U.S. retreated to the Atlantic after Japan got 12 supersubs (this was just before Ger took Moscow and why Ger went into def. mode). Japan finally killed off China the turn after Russia went down and attempted a mad dash to support Ger, but they never got there. There were no specific “recognizable” strategies used, as we were letting the newer players discover their own strategies as opposed to giving them instructions (although, there were key situations when they were under orders)! The allies were using a lot of bombers and weren’t getting tech as fast as Axis. On one turn Ger had to repair 3 IC’s before I could place new units. Italy was a very small thorn in the side of Russia. Italy finally focused on Africa after Russia was killed. The Uk/Russian player was frustrated by the Italian fleet and tried sinking it twice but only got 1 of the Cruisers, and that was because it was alone.
Observations/Recommendations:  The tech made the game for Germany. Mech inf, increased production, and heavy bombers. Japan got super subs but never fired a shot, and mech inf, but the game ended before they ever used the ability. America got Jet fighters and, unfortunately for them, radar. Uk got heavy bombers, but was only able to use 2 bombers in this role, and only once. Russia also had mech inf (my dice must roll lots of 6’s) but it wasn’t used much. Russia launched several infantry only attacks against Germany, maybe he should have held out longer before attacking, if he would have, this game would have been much longer.

All-in-all we had a great time and we won’t be starting our next game at 9:00 in the evening. I didn’t get home until 5:30 in the morning. It was fun watching the new players getting the hang of it, and learning more about AA:50 myself.

Title:  First Time AA50 Disappointment (1941)
Date:  Dec. 1 to Dec 5
Special Rules:  NO, Tech
Victor:  Draw agreed by both players due to boredom and disappointment 
Game Length:  5th Rounds, we’ve been playing one round per day every evening.
Bias:  1 vs 1. Allied played a little bit more experienced.
Description: 
Both players tried to play historically.
Allied decided that USA should stand up against Japan instead of pushing for a KGF or KIF. UK was left alone to push against Germany and Italy. USSR usual role: survive.
Axis: Japan focused on the Pacific. Germany made a couple of early mistakes like didn’t sink most of the British fleet.
Britain bought a Factory in India, which was a bad idea because Japan captured it on a very tied battle – I knew it was a bad idea, but I wanted to try.
Russia rolled for tech and got Increased Industrial Capacity. Japan got super-subs and Improved Navy Yards later on.
Japan become a giant monster by turn 3.
USA had to abandon the Pacific.
By end of round 5 Germans had taken Karelia. Western Allies had taken France (firmly), and were threatening Italy. Japan was controlling all Asia, and starting moving against USSR and Africa.
Then we call it a draw.
Observations/Recommendations: 
National Objectives didn’t lead to a more historical game (which is supposed to be their goal). Instead of that, and after trying a couple of turns, Allies moved to KGF, and Japan turned against Moscow. Only they did was causing inflation and mass production for Japan. They’ve been a great disappointment.
Japan gets too strong too fast. 
USSR is too weak. It needs at least a fighter. Maybe the ability of moving its factories.
USA can’t fight two fronts at the same time – actually, it can’t even fight the Pacific alone.

We did have a great time.

As far as the US retreat from the pacific…they could have stood up to Japan, they had several dd, 2 or 3 cruisers, at least 2 bb, 1 cv, 2 ftr, plus 2 ftr and a bmb on hawaii, and more ftr in W US.(They never even considered a dd screen) At that point three things happened to cause US to run…1)Russia was about to get hit and Germany was sinking the UK fleet every time it got deployed (heavy bombers for Ger weren’t in play at this point), so the allies needed help.  2)The 12 super subs were the equivalent of a nuclear deterent. 3)The US players personal desire not to loose their fleet.

I agree that tech is powerful and comes into play more often than we would expect or maybe even want. I think part of the reason there was so much tech in our game was that it was a new way to do it and we all remember the wasted money spent in past games and we wanted to see some redemption. My guess is that tech will hopefully settle out and not be used as much. Maybe, maybe not. I know I won’t use as much with Germany again. I needed more land units. If the Soviet Union played more defensively I might still not be home yet…

Title: Allied Domination (1941)

Date: Nov 25, 2008

Special Rules: NO & Tech

Victor: Allies with 13 VC

Game Length: 4 hours/ 4 or 5 rounds

Bias: 3 vs 3; Allies had 2 very experienced players with a first timer and axis had one experienced player as italy and two less capable players

Description: Japan was very poorly played, only attacking one chinese territory on T1 and attacking Hawaii on T1 (battle lost) and leaving 2 carriers with four planes and a destroyer and 2 trans of Hawaii coast, all of which were destroyed on USA T1.  Britian got heavy bombers on T1 and Germany got Industrial Tech on T3.  Germany took Karelia on T2, but Russia rolled lights out and only let Germany with 2 tanks on the whole eastern front.  Italy was pretty much a non factor.
Axis never took Egypt, but Australia and India did fall on round 4 to Japan, but it was to little to late.

Observation/Rec: This game was over after round 1 due to poor axis strategy and planning.  Allies had some great dice rolling on T1 and T2 which made it more difficult for the axis.  Japan got very big even after their terrible T1 moves and America focused all attention on Japan having 3 big naval battles with them (Japan won 2 of 3).  We all liked the NOs and think the new way of Tech developement is the best method to date.

hey, i reported on a '42 game  :-P