After Action Reports

@TG:

• Ah, yes there’s nothing greater than the sight of an Axis Control Marker in Brazil.  It’s such a slap in the face to the Allies.

I love it when that happens. Especially if USA was foolish enough to place an IC there  :-D

Alair, as Moses said, thanks, I love reading these. I wont be playing AA;50 untill January 10th, so this is the next best thing  :-P

1 q. You sate that US loft their airforce trying to take Japan. Was that just a lost battle already for the US and just a foolish attack, or did the dice get funny?

Because, if its the latter, then that means USA found some way to take on Japan…

@TG:

Alair, thank you for your after action report.  I love forward to reading more of them.

General Observations

• Ah, yes there’s nothing greater than the sight of an Axis Control Marker in Brazil.  It’s such a slap in the face to the Allies.

• How did Japan bungle Pearl Harbor J1?

• What are your thoughts on National Objectives?  Do you think they benefited the Axis too much?

Japan, well I reread what I wrote and I wasn’t clear.  J1 Japan moved to do Pearl Harbour and tried to take the hawaiian islands mainland.  They divided their airforce between the fleet and mainland.  Since fighters can’t participate in the naval fight if they’re going to be used on the mainland… those fighters never fought that round.  Instead what happened was USA got some good rolls and Japan had to retreat.  I think Japan devoted 2 fighters and some infantry to attacking the ground troops.

Once USA kept their battleship, Japan retreated more and took some islands and tried using unescorted transports to take the islands in the south pacific.  They would have been out of range of anyone’s airforce… but USA rolled long range aircraft.  They used the long range aircraft to wipe out almost all of Japan’s transports.

Japan seemed far from overpowered when we played, but you know… we haven’t played enough.  We’ll see when I play Japan :)

The national objectives are good.  I liked them.  It’s a good way to make people concede.  I almost never play games to the end, I’d rather end early and if the axis are fullfilling all their objectives it’s a good way to point towards packing the game in.

With USA’s airforce, well Japan retreated after losing Pearl Harbour and then went south when the USA came for the Japanese fleet.  USA’s fleet was parked on Japan and it looked grim for Japan, then USA attacked mainland Japan which was a huge mistake.  It was the person calculating bad odds (all too common).  When they calculated odds they looked at number of troops and hits per round, without calculating that Japan would be losing a defense 2 defender and USA would be losing an attack 3 fighter.  You know, the usual mistakes you see people do who then blame it on bad dice.

Japan was able to recover and attack USA"s fleet afterwards once USA had lost most of their fighters and I’d taken Moscow as Germany so we called it quits.

In retrospect… there’s only one change I’d like made…

Lend lease:
USA can lend UK and maybe Russia a bit of money and Germany can lend Italy money.  That’s it.

About National objectives, one thing… people seem to be thinking of them in terms of what they need, and not in terms of what to deny your opponent.  I’m 100% convinced that UK needs to move all their fighters onto Karelia and maybe some troops the first turn to deny Germany from taking it.  If you try to deny your opponent from getting their objectives, and not just to get yours it works.  If the allies don’t work together then the Axis will win, it’s similar to the original A&A.

Title:  Unfinished game
Date:  December 14, 2008 
Special Rules:  NOs and Tech were used, 1942-game. 
Victor:  Maybe the allies would have won if we continued, but this wasn’t too clear.
Game Length:  5 hours, about 5 rounds
Bias: The Axis player was slightly less experienced, so he opted for playing with the (probably stronger) Axis forces in 1942
Description:
As the Allied player, I decided to take a huge gamble. I wanted to keep Moskow and her three IC, to keep the Germans at bay and to take my ‘No Allied troops’-bonus. Therefore I decided not to send any UK-troops to Karelia. Even worse, as the UK I didn’t see the point (yet) of building a IC in Asia or Africa. Instead, the Russians were attacking German fighters and armor whenever they had any opportunity of doing so, using almost only infantry and fighters. Once they conquered Finland-Norway, they got the opportunity make attacks the German player was forced to react upon. Germany was cashing out quite a lot of money, but they had to spend it fighting the UK fleet. They sacrificied their entire Luftwaffe at G1 or G2, but failed in a tied sea-battle. After this battle, the Germans only built three more fighters, but gave up fighting the UK-fleet. This fleet counted at UK-5 three or four battleships, an equal amount of transports and some smaller defensive ships. This forced the Germans to allow huge openings in their defenses, enabling the UK to attack Morocco, France and even Poland… grabbing the NO and thus even more IPC’s. By the end of our 5th turn, UK and Russia were all around 40-45 IPC. A 44 IPC Russia is definitly dangerous on the German-Russian front. As a side-note: no SBR were executed after Germany shot down two British bombers at their very first attempts. As for the research: Germany and Russia both went after some research (four tokens each), but all failed.
In Africa, a weak Italy managed to gain 16 Ipc/turn (by one national objective). After a tied battle in Egypt, the Axis forces were left with nothing but an armor and the reinforces the Italians could send in. The Germans didn’t bother building a new transport after hers was sunk.
Italy could be stopped in Africa rather easily by UK-forces from Morocco and Sovjet forces from the Caucasian.

On the Pacific front things were much more messy. After an agressive J1 - which got my Indian navy wiped out - I got into the defensive. The Australian fighter had to get to India on UK1, whereas the Chinese held out quite well against Japanese attacks every now end then. In the end, the Japanese managed to break through Northern China with some infantry units, whereas Chinese forces occupied Kwangtung in an attempt to hurt the Japanese monster.
The US - her fleet left alive at J1 - started to build a considerable fleet, and pulled back her Atlantic ships. At US3 or US4, 3 battleships, 2 AC, 7 or 8 destroyers and some defensive ships tried succesfully taking over Solomon and Caroline, threatening the Philipines which it never made.
Japan was forced to focus upon her fleet, building destroyers, submarines and battleships at an equal pace. She managed to take over two Sovjet provinces, but didn’t got any further than that. Due to my eagerness to destroy the Japanese fleet, my navy got completely wiped out near the Carolines, leaving the Japanese with her three battleships and a cruiser. As for the IPC’s, Japan was around 40, equal to the US, which shortly before reached heights of over 50.
As the US, I heavily invested in tech, hoping to create a war of attrition by means of a tech race and naval build-up. I got at US3 Improved Naval Shipyards and at US4 Long range aircrafts. At J5, the axis gained heavy bombers. Up until the fifth turn tech development didn’t influence the game too much (Japan could only field one bomber in the battle of the Carolines), but it would definitly become more important should we have continued the game. Due to a lack of time however, this was not the case.
By the end of the game, Germany was severily weakened by constant Russian pickings and UK attacks. Italy-Germany lost their African campaign, whereas Japan gained superiority in the Pacific, but lacked the ships and an Asian IC to be ably to conquer her recently lost islands - which would buy the US time to build up a second Pacific fleet.

Observations/Recommendations:
I believe a focus upon NO can actually turn tides in this game (at least as far as the 1942 setup is concerned). Both me and my younger brother were never to keen for a KGF, and were both used to the Milton & Bradly version. Up until now, we both believe in a balanced game (with the US going Pacific). This may have influenced our gameplay - which relied heavily upon naval build-ups.
Not building any IC as the allies didn’t hurt too much for the first turns, given the strenght of Russia, which could easily free up infantry and her airforce (which was bigger than the German) to strike against some Japanese forces.
The three IC Russia is blessed with proved crucial for her succes. She was ably to place troops wherever she wished upon her entire front, whereas German infantry had to move slowly from Germany onwards.

Eager for our next game next weekend (with another experienced player),

Andy

Title:  Hitler’s downfall (1941)
Date:  12/13/2008. 
Special Rules:  Tech development and No’s 
Victor:  Allies won. Axis conceded.
Game Length:  About 10 hours, 4-5 turns.
Bias:  Two most experienced players: one in the Axis as Germany and Italy, the other  in the Allies as the USA. Two newbies in the Allies side and one semi experience player as Japan.
Description:  Germans destroyed most of the British navy in the first round, Japan captured most of the inslands in the Pacific. Russians built a quick defense, Americans  harassed the Japanese in the Pacific, SBR Germans and Italians. British concentrated on European invasion. Germans got motorized infantry and paratroopers. Germans captured Leningrad with heavy airplane loss. Italians helped to set up for the invasion of Moscow. Unexpectadly, the British captures Berlin in the turn before with 3 soldiers, 3 tanks, two fighters and 1 shore bombardment, against 2 bombers 3 soldiers, 3 tanks. Moscow falls, Italians liberate Berlin, but British recapture it, Axis concedes. Although japanese controled most of Asia, the Russian invasion did not to Moscow on time.
Observations/Recommendations:  Germans rolled really bad in the defense of Germany, and was not expecting an invasion that turn, with only 3 transports in the British fleet. The Allies can win if they work well together, and the Axis is not very careful.

Title: The Ever Victorios Army (1941)
Date:12/15/2008
Special Rules: Techs and NO’s
Victor: Axis won
Game Length: 5 hours, 5 turns
Bias:More experience on the Axis(me) for Gremany, and hleping a new player step by step (Japan). Allies made good attacks in Russia but were not coordinated in other areas.

Description: Germans attacked and sunk the UK BB and trans, as well as DD in sz7. Attacks in russia, setting up for a G2 attack on Kaleria. Lost almost all infantry to insane Russian defense rolls. No attack on Egypt. Placed 9 inf and 1 art, collected 45.

Russia purchased 3 arm, 5 inf, and launched attacks on the baltic states, and one other territory. Lost both battles and retreated. Moved all infantry in the east to one stack of 7, tempting Japan. Placed 2 arm in Kaleria attempting to hold it.

Japan opened normally with few losses. Left the flying tigers alive in China in order to keep from being spread to thinly in Asia.

UK bought 8 units mostly land with a few fighters. Placed its fleet off the coast of france and laned a tank and inf. Collected around mid 40’s with bonuses. Retreated out of egypt as well deeper into africa.

Italy retook france, moved into egypt, and reinforced the russian front.

US sent a fleet to england, and built in paciffic.

Turn 2.

Germany sunk us fleet with a sub and bomber. Sunk entire UK fleet with cruiser, and airforce. Lost 2 fighters and the cruiser. But the UK lost 1 cruiser, 2 DD, and 2 or 3 transports. Took Kalaria, moved up infantry closer to Moscow. Took trans jordan. Collected 55 with bonuses, and placed 1 bomber, 1 fighter, and several infantry and art.

Russia bought a fighter tanks and inf. Attacked 2 spots, took 1, lost 4 infantry in the exchanges, to Germany losing 1 art. Attacked into Manchuria with 4 infantry. Collected in the low 30’s.

Japan continued to push into asia, and killed the russians in Manchuria. Collected in the 40’s.

Uk built a new fleet. Tried retaking Egypt with 2 inf, 1 tank, 1 fighter, against 4 inf. And lost everything. Germany lost 1 inf. Very bad dice for UK.

Italy moved deeper into africa and attacked russia. Collected 24ish

The US build more fleet in the Pacific, with several subs and a BB. Took Algeria with a transport. Sent a bomber to italy for sbr……shot down.

Turn 3…

Germany bought 6 tanks 5 inf and an art…I think. Started an SBR campaign against the russians, with 1 bomber. Did 4 dmg. The other bomber was used for a different battle. Continued to press russia. Attack in Archangel failed with 2 inf 1 fighter, vs 2 inf.
Collected in the 50’s.

Russia attacked Archangel, and a few lightly held territories, retreated from Japan. Collected in the high 20’s.

Japan continued pressing Asia. Failed to take an empty India…left Japan to make its own choices this turn…:( Over all it could have been worse.

UK invaded france again.

Italy retook with 1 tank left. As well as taking cacauses.

Us continued to harass africa and began to come after japan. China stayed alive and was not much of a problem.

The End Game…The next few turns were the death of Russia. The SBR damage and large german army rolled over russia by turn 5, and took moscow. Japan and US destroyed each others fleets, with Japan having its BB as the sole surviving ship, along with its transports.

Overall the game was very easy for the Axis. If the allies had been smarter, and better coordinated in africa and europe, russia would have been able to live longer. Even with the us sinking the italian fleet it did not slow them down much. With more equal skill levels I think the game is pretty well balanced. Russia is still the key, one mistake and its over.

Title:  Japan vs. the World 1941
Date:  12-16-08
Special Rules:  National objecties and tech 
Victor:  Axis victory, by victory cities 16 were taken.
Game Length:  The game lasted 8 rounds, and took 4-5 hrs.
Bias:  I was playing the axis and have played the game longer, however my foe is of equal skill and cunning.
Description:  Japan took a India turn 3 and then Aus turn 4 to hold the pacific.  The US player split his forces between europe and pacific.  Germany pursued moscow and karelia with Italian support in the south.  Italy gave up on africa after US and UK destroyed it’s navy in turn 2.  UK with US support bombed germany in an all out SBR strategy. 
Observations/Recommendations:  SBR is a good tool, but shouldn’t be the focus of US and UK.  I have played the game 4 times and japan is over powered.  Each time japan took what it wanted when it wanted.  Although I have yet to play the US.  So I look foward to my next game in which the Empire of the sun is going to set forever under the heel of my boot. 
Link:  (Optional) Link your own thread discussing the game in greater detail.

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

past few weeks i’ve been organising a game a week, as it’s christmas holidays so people have a bit more spare time

we don’t really pay attention to the VC’s too much, but i still take note of them occasionally. i don’t think my games would go that differently with them, except maybe play out longer time-wise

@Admiral_Yamamoto:

Game Length:  About 10 hours, 4-5 turns.

10 hours for 4-5 turns?? 2 hours per round, do guys take a long time to make decisions?
In our group round 1 takes about an hour, but after that each round only takes about 30 min.

That is nothing compard to my Revised days with games lasting for 15 hours, or more. :-o
As far as VCs, we keep track of them, but it si the fall of Capitals that decides our games.

yeah, my games ends when a particular side can’t really fight back anymore. last game was called as germany couldn’t get off the defensive and no one else could help her, and japan was pushed back to her main island

yet we’ve played on when russia fell, as japan fell around the same time

@Funcioneta:

Title:  Pharaoh builds german fleet … again (1941)
Date:  11th and 18th of December
Special Rules:  played with NO’s and Tech. Target: 18 VCs. Face to face game.
Victor:  Both sides decided stop and call a draw by time issues. Unsure possible result
Game Length:  8 hours, 7 rounds

Continuing AAR:

Allies managed retake Africa and kill one of the two italian fleets, closing the Mediterranean for the other (that was busy taking Madagascar). Japan managed taking India but soviets could retake. USA’s fleet, in a bad move by me, attacked Japan’s fleet and lost (tons of units killed both sides, but japs survived with 2 bb abd 1 fig).

China halted in the last territory, couldn’t attack or pop more inf but japs prefered attack India with Manchurian tanks. Soviets stopped siberian advance in evenki.

Western axis player played very bad. He risked tanks here and there for nothing, and received multiple landings from UK, and a last one from USA (D-Day). Soviets become a monster (54 IPCs with war bonds and taking Romania NO), but Japan was a even greater monster (62 IPCs). USA was 43 many turns, only the last earning 61 because of D-Day.

Conclusions:

East Indies IC was pretty good for attacking India, but I continue thinking the main failure of this setup is China’s setup and China special rules. Allies couldn’t make a coherent land asian campaign because China’s crappy status, so I guess soviets must send reinforcements to India to hold that. China simply cannot face Manchurian tanks, because cannot trade territories even with the fighter alive (they colect popcorn inf at begining of USA’s turn instead end of USA’s turn, a big disadvantage). Japan is a truly monster even fighting them, I never had enough money for fleet as USA (imagine a uncontested Japan). I think the game was still undecided because germans and italians were in serious danger, but a better western axis player would toast us.

On the bad side, China rules and setup simply makes the game too hard for allies. And game has not enough japanese markers, we had to take old ones from Revised  :-P

On the positive side, the map itself and the territories are very good. Eastern front is more dinamic than ever and it’s a pleasure having a chance of fight for Karelia as soviets for once, while Siberia finally reflects the long distances of real life. Pacific ocean has also many interesting changes and China territories are easy to mod into balanced house rules. I also think new subs rules have potential for Germany, a pity the german player did try AC instead them.

@TG:

Congratulations, Emr.  Even with your post you’ve made it on the Axis leaderboard.  Many people, including myself, haven’t cracked that one yet.

A single question:

How did you make it to Caucuses in three turns?  Even at it’s short, through Burma-India-Persia, you had to at least blitz through two territories in one turn.  That’s quite an incredible drive.

I don’t think this is the right thread to get into it, but:
UK Built a complex in India on turn 1.  I took that round 2 (did I mention UK had ultra cold dice?).  Italy!? took Trans Jordan 1st round, UK failed to retake it (how he cursed his dice!) and Italy opened the hole in Persia round 2 for Japan to blitz through into the Caucuses in round 3.

Title: The Magic Roundabout ! (1941 AA50)
**Date:**15/Dec/2008
Special Rules: Techs and NO’s , all OOB
Victor: Draw  :lol:
Game Length: 14 Hours, Unknown number of turns…
**Bias:**Both my friend and I are basically the same skill level, and do things that would get us squashed by Mr Frood and Mrs Maths wiz in about 5 seconds… here though we have fun !

The Brits went with a IC in SAF and India, while the Axis went Tank Crazy in Germany, trading with Tanks, attacking with Tanks, defending with Tanks… did I mentiuon they bought a LOT OF TANKS ?  The Japs bumbled about leaving the brits to expand in africa and build up defence for India… in a game that went on and on and on LOL… India fell, was liberated by Russia, then fell again, The Italian Navy was wiped out by US bmr’s… rebuilt… then wiped out by the UK airforce based in Caucasus.

The Us Navy and the Jap Navy were smashed to bits at Wake, the remaining Jap ships bombed to bits… a US BB and AC eventually took up residence off Japan, but were looking to suffer a BMR fate… Japan had at least 3 IC’s on the mainland, and was pushing a massive force through India (The Flying Tigers survived Round 1 and were defending the last bit of China with a US FTR , Chinese, UK ARM and Russian INF.

The Russians got mechanized Tech and stuffed a load of ARM and INF into persia to stop the JApanese pushing through … while UK crammed units through z5 wherever they could, liberated Karelia with Advanced ART and the Yanks set up a ‘stream’ of units to Africa through Algeria…  even at this point it looked like it could go either way, (Both Germany and JApan had large unit build ups closing on Russia…) but my friend had to go home to get ready for work the next day LOL… and I had to try and get some sleep…

Face to Face is brilliant, since we are so evenly matched, while some of the fights and such that occured (particularily in Africa) would never happen in here with all the experts around in this place…  :-D

Title:  Doolittle Rides Again/1942 Setup
Date:  December 6th, 2008 
Special Rules:  NO’s + Tech
Victor:  Allied Victory by Concession. 
Game Length: 6.5 hours.
Bias:  I am the oldest player, all others about even. 
Description: 
Allies: Pacific Used balance strategy, UK built factory India.  Shocked at how effective China was at absorbing Jap Ftrs, it took Jap five fullrounds to catch China.  Typical stuff in Europe, Italy still very effective, constant push btwn USA/UK and Italy in Africa.  Typical maxium extend by Axis, Allies catch up at Mid game and push back, great fun had by all.