Sudden Carnage - A CptEasy multiplayer AAR

[Hytzon]

No doubt, English player has to act fast in Italy. In this case taking Sardinia is pretty much useless. He'd better start an invasion in Southern Italy, taking Taranto area and Sicily as well.

In my current MP game I did the same invasion of Sardinia as UK simply because I could. The idea is to just take Sardinia with few ground troops and leave it again when it has been captured, that way you deny Axis a good airbase and visibility in the area while you risk nothing. If Italy wants to take it back they have to risk their fleet or do a para drop. If the latter is chosen the British player can do the same trick again and kill more troops.

At this point the Axis have the strategic advantage and with the usual Japanese crazy expansion, UK will be very hard pressed all over the world. They are in no shape to assault Italy directly unless there is a glaring hole in the defenses of the boot.

Keep up the good work CptEasy, I enjoy your AAR's! Good luck in the east and watch you manpower

[CptEasy]

Hytzon - I think you summerized the situation very well there, concerning Sardinia/UK. And thanks for kind words. Yes, I'm not treating my manpower pool very nicely. It might become a problem.

Also - a big THANKS to everybody who voted for "Sudden Carnage" in the AARland Choice AwAARds!

[CptEasy]

Chapter XXVIII - Operation Wedge part IV








Countries played by humans: UK, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Japan.
Due to French player being absent, AI is on hard.








Recap: Japan is slowly pushing Soviet back in the Far East. In South East Asia, they have just captured Rangoon from the Brits who seem to be weak in the region. The Brits has, however, shown some muscles in the Med where they have taken Sardinia from the Italians, destroying a division and a HQ. In Europe, Operation Wedge is unfolding, if not fast, then at least steady. The attack on France is on its sixth week and continuing…












May 3rd, 1940

After the successful fallschirmjäger-supported push through the French line, the German paras could leave Caen and marsh through Carentan and secure the important port of Cherbourg without battle. There did not seem to be any enemies around in this sector.

::For the first time in the war, the 2nd Paratrooper Division had been used as regular infantry. After taking Caen with a non-violent combat jump they had marched into Carentan further into the great port city of Cherbourg.::






::The citizen of Caen had been too surprised by the invading paratroopers that they hadn’t many any resistance at all. The problems that sometimes occurred was that they did not realize the para’s were hostiles. As German paratroopers helmets don’t have the characteristic “German” shape, and their uniforms are different, the French populace took them for British Special Forces of some kind and sometimes they had do show force to get the people act accordingly.::

::In Carentan they had similar problems but luckily, when they reached Cherbourg, the citizen knew what was about to happen. On a few occasions, they tried to resist, but mostly they lay low – avoiding confrontation. It was still a brand new experience to move forwards, capturing new lands, all the time being wary of ambushes. Still, it was all very exciting and Lucas was the kind of guy who liked physical activates and though the Hans the Hot-Head preferred battle before long marches, Lucas welcomed this new kind of way to spend his days. Cherbourg was a beautiful place and you could even go for a swim in the ocean even if was very cold. Now they waited for new orders. They had heard some rumors that French Light Armor had been deployed on their sector and as they were quite lightly equipped, the thoughts of armor units made them uneasy.::












May 17th, 1940

After losing Cherbourg, the French high command redeployed all of their armored forces to the western part of the front to plug that gap. It suited the German plan quite good and they retreated, together with the Japanese paras, from this area as it lacked any immediate strategic value.

Instead, Wehrmacht concentrated on a pincer movement around Paris, but avoiding attacking the city itself. In the east, several smaller battles were initiated to tie down French forces who tried to move towards Paris. Now, Wehrmacht’s main effort would be to surround the French capital.












May 22nd, 1940

The French light armor division gained ground in the west but were stopped by the 2nd paradivision and von Arnims panzer division. At the same time, Wehrmacht pressed on to surround Paris. They slowly started to secure the sack but had some problems in the western encirclement which was cut off by fast French light tanks. The German leadership did not fear to be encircled as they had forces in the rear fighting to secure the supply route. Also, to be double safe, Luftwaffe’s squadron of transport planes paradropped supplies to make sure the panzers got what they needed.












May 24th, 1940

Wehrmacht managed to re-open the supply route to the southernmost panzers which tried to encircle Paris from the west. Land-gains on both side of Paris now left the French in an awkward situation with a three-single-province long corridor leading in and out of province. So far, only one of these provinces was under attack, giving the French some movement, but the Wehrmacht was just taking a deep breath and gathered strength. Soon, they could launch the final push with the aim of finally surround Paris.












May 24th, 1940

This was the glorious date when the pride of Kreigsmarine left the docks and sailed outside the port of Danzig by itself. It would still need some time to be operational. Still, the German leadership was eager to see what this floating juggernaut could do against the Royal Navy.












May 20th, 1940

The joint Italian/Ethiopian resistance in East Africa has come to an end. UK had designated quite a lot of ground troops here which now will be free to use elsewhere. We are likely to see some new UK intervention in a couple of week’s time.












May 20th, 1940

Maybe UK will try to strengthen up India who seems to be falling apart. Japan is gaining ground on several fronts. The last landing in India was all a result of a naval battle. Japan won a battle but with few British ships actually being sunk. Royal Navy fled to a safe port in India. Refusing the Brits to reinforce, the Japs made a landing and took the port after a short but fierce battle. During the forced naval battle which followed, Royal Navy lost several ships.












May 20th, 1940

The Brits, however, were active on other fronts, capturing Crete and Rhodes. Royal Navy was without hesitation kings of the Mediterranean Sea. Italy wanted to save Regia Marina until France was defeated. This meant the Brits had some breathing space.



......................................

[Cybvep]

Soon the Brits will dominate the Mediterranean. Greece looks weak, but I doubt that the British want to open another front so soon, especially with Japanese troops in India. There is not much the Brits can do in Europe ATM (except maybe a surprise amphibious invasion on the German rear), so I think that India should be their priority. It gives them IC and MP which they will need, as it still looks like the war in Europe will be decided by resources (in the broader sense of this word). Every lost MP point is extremely detrimental to Germany. Delaying the Japanese in India is better than nothing, especially that at this rate of expansion Japan will be able to project its power to the Middle East very soon. The Italian and German threat to the Med is almost non-existent, as both are rather busy on the other fronts.

The UK player should produce more aircraft if he wants to achieve anything major in in the future. It will be vital to all British fronts. Conducting bombardments in Europe, protecting the UK's homeland and delaying the Japanese in India (logistical bombings!) all require dominance in the air.

Soon Germany will be able to transfer most of its units to the East, which means that the Soviet player is in trouble. I really don't envy him. His units are simply outclassed by the German ones and when France is defeated, he will have to face the might of ALL Axis nations more or less alone. I still think that he missed his chance by leaving Germany unmolested in the East while CptEasy was defending the Reich from the Allied advance. A quick strike through Lithuania could reaalllllly disrupt German progress in the West, as CptEasy would be forced to stretch his frontlines - sth which he simply couldn't afford.

[Piktoonis]

It would be good to know what is the current state of Regia Marina.

[daphne]

Soon Germany will be able to transfer most of its units to the East, which means that the Soviet player is in trouble. I really don't envy him. His units are simply outclassed by the German ones and when France is defeated, he will have to face the might of ALL Axis nations more or less alone. I still think that he missed his chance by leaving Germany unmolested in the East while CptEasy was defending the Reich from the Allied advance. A quick strike through Lithuania could reaalllllly disrupt German progress in the West, as CptEasy would be forced to stretch his frontlines - sth which he simply couldn't afford.

Maybe you are right - it was also discussed in the Allied camp. However, I was concerned that such an offensive move could be exploited by the Axis, as german/italian forces pressed me hard whenever they attacked. A broader front will lead to greater opportunites for the more moblie force (and that was not mine at this point). So the narrow front would mean that they would have to go through me (as in the valley of death) rather than around me.

[Traks]

I'd risk, as if France keels over, rewards are smaller and risks are bigger.
Time will show if your decision was right, when units from West will start to arrive in East.

[sprites]

Japanese paradrops in Europe are a bit ridiculous ...
France fall is only a matter of time now

[AUSTERLITZ]

France is nearing the end of the road,i think the french priority should be now to defend paris to the end and bleed the germans as much as possible,attack the german right flank along the coast with the tanks and try to expand the shrinking paris trap.

Soviet player was too conservative in his approach and will probably cost him the game.i would advice him to build only tanks now,in 1940 those are the only stuff that can stand up to the germans numerous infantry.

British couldn't really do much,that sardinian adventure was a fun excursion.
They have secured north africa for now,and those troops will certainly help to halt the japanese in burma.The japs can't be allowed to get into the indian plains from the jungles.log bombing will help.
Meanwhile the RN will have to prevent a kreigsmarine breakout into the channel.
But i think captain easy will conc more on the russians than a seelowe.
Italian troops should be entrusted to garrisoning fortress europe while the precious german troops are freed up for operations against russia.

Now russia faces a dilemma,with france gone it will aim for a long haul war.That means it can't allow the japanese advance in the east to continue.So troops will have to be shifted there too.Armour agian will be the best option.As long as baku is russian,oil shouldn't be a problem.

Momentum and advantage axis.

[Lamahorse]

Paratroop drops are so gamey. :/

[CptEasy]

Just a few comments before I post a new chapter.

The status of Regia Marina is "quite battered", but they have been playing hard ball and even though they have lost a lot, both British, French and Russian navy have paid for it - but I think RM perhaps went out a little harder than was necessary at this point. I don't have any detailed status report, however.

When it comes to paras - well, I don't think they are gamey by defeault. I think they add dimention and creativeness to the game. We have, however, limited the amount of paras you can have (see house rules in the first post). What might be concidered gamey, though, is having Jap paras in Europe. We actually just thought it was clever but after some discusions that came up during the game we decided to house rule against it in later games - similar to our house rules about fleet rebasing between some continents.

[Pain]

I'm really curious to see how this is going to progress, although I think the advantage is starting to shift more and more towards the Axis in this game, assuming the Allies don't have some magic trick up their sleeve that can save France.

I see a lot of players have commented that they felt that the USSR player has been too passive in this game. I would somewhat agree, but it wasn't necessarily the wrong approach as long as there was a credible threat of another large-scale push coming from the Axis. I think the attack on the Netherlands, followed by Belgium and France should have given the cue that CptEasy had invested the bulk of his army into killing off France though, and that he thus wasn't gonna have the reserves at hand to really fend off a large scale Soviet offensive.

Well, hindsight is 20/20, and we need to keep in mind that there was still a possibility before those attacks that CptEasy could have chosen to just hold the west wall while relocating the bulk of his army back east IF the USSR player had spent his forces recklessly and given him an opening to exploit.

Well, that was my 20 cents. I'd like to commend CptEasy for making this great AAR, and I'm looking forward to reading it as more stuff happens. Keep up the good work.

[CptEasy]

Chapter XXVIV – Operation Wedge Part V









Countries played by humans: UK, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Japan.
Due to French player being absent, AI is on hard.









Recap: Japan is slowly pushing Soviet back in the Far East. In South East Asia, they have captured Rangoon from the Brits who seem to be weak in the region. The Brits has, however, shown some muscles in the Med where they have taken Sardinia and Rhodos from the Italians and successfully attack Axis Greek holdings. In Europe, Operation Wedge is unfolding, if not fast, then at least steady. The attack on France is on its ninth week and continuing. Now, Wehrmacht attacked the Paris Corridor.












May 29th, 1940

The Paris corridor is now attacked in all three provinces. Even Paris itself is under attack. That was a losing battle, but the German leadership did not want the troops there to able to reorganize or dig in after earlier battles. Even if some men would die here, it would make it much easier when the main attack against Paris was launched – or at least that was the idea.

Etampes was the staging post for the attack on Paris. Before the fall of Etampes, Paris would be safe.












June 4th, 1940

Étampes has finally fallen to the German onslaught. With yet another victory south of Paris and the French capital is finally surrounded. The city itself had already been under attack for a week, but that attack had been extremely week. Soon, however, they would have to deal with at least an army corps of revengeful German troops. It is pay-back time.












June 5th, 1940

The final Battle of Paris has commenced. The defenders have already been into battle for several days and show signs of energy being drained. Also, hope cannot be too high among these men. Surely, they must realize doom is upon them. Germans tactical bombers flying unchecked above the capital dropping their deadly payload will not be a boost either.












June 2nd, 1940

Axis had been quite worried about a British intervention against Italy and they discussed if the Italian defense was strong enough. Like an early Christmas present, the Greeks gave the Italians a numerous expeditionary force. Now, Italy felt a lot safer.












June 8th, 1940

The Brits clearly focused at nipple at a piece of Italy at a time. With the aid of the French, they made a new go at the last Italian stronghold in Africa – Tarabulus. Would Italy manage to defend this mountain city once again?












June 9th-12th, 1940

The brunt of the German attack came from the south were no river stopped them. They still attacked from a few other directions to tie down the defenders at various locations around the city. The surrender of the city was inevitable. The high death toll on the German side came as a slight shock to the German leadership but most of these were due to the week-long battle before the main blow. Still, about 50 000 French soldiers surrendered when the city fell.

Authors note: Oups. It was probably a mistake to “ware Paris down” with small attacks and bombings before the big attacks came. It would probably have been “cheaper” to just do one major attack.

France was now more or less broken. They would not surrender yet, as a country, but nothing could stop that from happening. It was clear now, that the Brits had been given up on the French entirely. With the loss at Paris, the remaining French division would not be able to hold the Germans at bay.

This, of course, led to huge celebrations in the Third Reich. Half a year ago, the German leadership had been stumbling about, barely coping with the situation. Now they held Paris. It was truly grand.












In the end of May, the 1st Panzer Division was pulled back to reorganize. This section of the front had been quiet for a while and the three Soviet provinces still in German hands. The Red Army, however, was strong in the area and renewed attacks could be expected at any point.

::It was true bliss to be moved back far behind the front, away from the Valley of Death, and rest and repair at Równe. This province had also seen some intense fighting the last 6 month but to the extent as Shepetivka – by far. The wet muddy part of spring was over too. This was the first time in a long long time when Heinrich, Bobby and the other guys in the crew could really kick back and relax. Firstly, they went through the tanks carefully and replaced all old battered parts with new ones. They found about 200 bullet marks and three places were some kind of AT-ammo had hit them without effect. Heinrich just loved his tank and spent an enormous amount of hours fixing it up.::

::But they had time for leisure as well. Some clever Pole had quickly extended his small tavern with an outdoor beer garden and it was full with all kinds of troopers. Here, the soldiers could drink, eat, tell their stories, barter for trophies and gamble. Tank crews on average had fewer trophies than infantry as their more seldom got out looting – but it happened. There were a few whores around but very few nice, proper girls. It was all a quite dirty man-dominated place with hard language and quite a few fights – but after long hard month of fighting – the beer garden in Rowne was paradise. Bobby was more successful with the cards but also very generous with his fellow crew mates. Heinrich traded away his Russian winter boots for a brand new Luger pistol, taken from a dead German officer… or so it was said. It had a beautifully crafted ivory grip and he thought it might come in handy and one point or another if he got problem when outside the tank. He didn’t say it, but if he was to return to the Valley of Death, f*****g Shepetivka, then he needed a reliable handgun to keep the ghouls away.::












June 10th, 1940

After almost two weeks of peace, the Red Army launched a massive operation against Shepetivka, the Valley of Death. The Germans had attacked it and won five times in the latest months and the Soviets had retaken it after very short battles every time – except this last time. This time, however, Wehrmacht decided to stay and fight. This was the sixth battle of Shepetivka. Already, the Valley of Death had claimed 11 000 Germans and 26 000 Soviets. Almost 40 000 dead. And the battle was not over.

Wehrmacht moved in to support and counter-attack.












June 11th, 1940

While the battle of the Valley of Death continues, Germany launch a strong attack into Korets, north east of Shepetivka hoping to weaken up the Soviets.












June 16th, 1940

Korets fell to the strong German attack force. With Korets as a base, 1st panzer attacked into Polonne. Many of the Soviet Divisions here were involved into the attack on Shepetivka and they had problems dealing with this new threat. The defenders in Shepetivka got a slight break due to this and with the reinforcements they had received the situation became slightly more stable, if not by any means safe.

In the south, the Italians moved forwards and put the Red Army under pressure here as well. The whole front line was boiling with violence.

::Heinrich was so happy he was not stuck in defensive combat in Shepetivka. It had lasted for several weeks. He was quite sure living conditions there were awful. Instead, 1st panzer was part of a fast, violent and victorious attack of Korets and, without any break, they were thrown into Polonne. The 1st and the 82nd infantry were facing 8 enemy divisions. The enemy had been on the move and most of them were still worn down from previous battle. It was a chaotic battle. With about 4 Russians for every German it was not easy making any well-coordinated break-throughs. On the other hand, unlike before, the opponent was not dug-in and not very well organized. Bobby’s accurate shooting killed a lot of men. Still, Heinrich had to fight hard with his levers. Ambushed popped up from all directions and Michael Wittman, the tank commander, demanded almost impossible maneuvers from him.::

- It’s not a friggin’ sports car!

This was one of the few times Heinrich lost his temper and after the battle Michael gave him a tremendous lecture about what was expected of him.

- I only demand things I know you can do. For you, Rooster, a Panzerkampfwagen IS a sportscar.


................................

[Cybvep]

The Battle of France is pretty much done - it is now only a question of taking some more VPs in order to force them to surrender. They won't be able to resist you for very long.

Good job in the East. You are making some progress even without the reinforcements from the West. The Soviet player should be very, very concerned now.

The only thing that may stop your advance now is your MP situation. You probably lost a lot of MP in the West and you will lose a lot more in the East, so fighting will be extremely bloody. You should invest in units light on MP, especially aircraft, which can be useful for various tasks, from supporting the land forces to preventing the enemy landings in the West.

[AUSTERLITZ]

Well its axis's game to lose now.Russians at this point simply are not good enough to attack defending german divisions thats their basic problem.Only a horde of soviet tanks can redress the situation.
Also since ur going to go into the offensive it would be a nice idea to equip future inf divs on 2 art brigades instead of 3 inf brigades plus 1 art as it'll save mp plus give a solid punch.Also i do hope ur AT tech is on par coz u might need it if russians can hold on for a while then infantry korps might need a few specialized tank buster divs in reserve for offensives.Other than that go up to 6 full PZkorps for a total of 30 odd armoured divs.It'll be bang for buck wih limited MP.U will have the fuel from paris and also the added ic,plus if u can get romania into the axis that'll be good.Maybe italy can even blitz rumania if u can push back the soviet borders deeper first so a axis rumania won't mean a exposed border.ploesti will be a great asset.It might give a nice strategic effect if ur playing the right patch i think.

Just curious how many divs ur fielding per army?And how are ur pz divs integrated into the hierarchy,meaning seperate pzkorps or korps with panzers in them.

Till the next update.

[Sacco]

Interesting, I suppose you will win this if not the US turns the tide

[CptEasy]

Cybe: Yes, actually, after breaking through through the French "Wall of Flesh" in the north after three week of tough fighting, I was quite sure France was lost. It was just a question about time - and it wasn't quick and it isnt over. We'll see how long they'll last. Every week they last, however, is time for the Rus to grow stronger. And yes, I have lost more manpower than is healthy. I fear it will become dangerous for me to get bogged down on other fronts later on. I simple wont last as long as in a "normal" game.

Austerlitz: Some of the things you talk about I just can't answer yet for strategic reasons. From an organzing prespective, I tend to group fast units (panzers, mech and motorized) in specialized blitzing corps as I rarely use them for defensive purposes. Another reason is to match best commanders. And the third is simply that it makes it easier to keep track of them in the command chain. And the fourth I guess... is old habit. But sometimes a single armor can end up in other corps as well. Mostly when I am under stress, like when I defended Germany from the Allied onslaught.

Sacco: Well, honestly, I started to feel somewhat optimistic at this point. But Soviet is so f*****g vast. It is so easy to get stuck there, especially against a human player. And as stated above - I have been taking a quite heavy toll on manpower - so getting stuck will be a fairly quick death sentence for Germany in this game. US is still far away (think I will have some stats coming up in a few chapters) and there is still half a year until Allies are allowed to put a player there according to our house rules. If the game last so long time so that US joins the war - then Germany have already lost due to manpower I think. But I'm just guessing now.

[Cybvep]

Sacco: Well, honestly, I started to feel somewhat optimistic at this point. But Soviet is so f*****g vast. It is so easy to get stuck there, especially against a human player. And as stated above - I have been taking a quite heavy toll on manpower - so getting stuck will be a fairly quick death sentence for Germany in this game.

I agree wholeheartedly. It's always hard for me to accept the sheer amount of distance that my units have to cover in the SU. After reaching Sevastopol, Moscow and Leningrad I tend to think that it will soon be over, while in fact from that point the fighting can continue for a long time... It's easy to feel exhausted after the first encirclements on the border, but it's only the beginning. Against a human player it must be much worse, as he/she recognises encirclement traps much more easily than the AI.

[Profetkaninen]

Great updates CptEasy!

A question for daphne who plays SU: Any thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages you have gained from an early war entry? Research suffering? Economy boost?

Nice line of thought about the broad/narrow front thinking in the early game.. maybe the red army is more agile nowdays eh?

[FinnishFish]

Europe is falling in to your hands