Aussie Sunday Game

[Ric O'Shea]

Italian High Command Report for October

A stable front has been established in the caucasas, and plans for further advance into the south Soviet Union can be made, a weakened 1939 inf division was also destroyed during the month.

Central asia had stiff resistance from Afghani militia, infact they did a better job of halting Italian troops than the Soviet Mechanised divisions that appeared in central Khazakstan. Once again the terrain slows the advance.

Arabia saw action for the first time with an invasion by british armour into Yemen. while they are able to be pushed back with ease, Allied planes have made the campaign most difficult. Once again war between Italy and the UK is dependant on who holds the airbases.

Africa saw the steady liberation of Ethiopia by Italian troops, slow progress but then it was a slow month.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry guys but I won't be able to play next Sunday night and this week is very busy for me (first week back after the mid-semester break ) Maybe we can have a catch up session sometime next week.

 

[unmerged(5892)]

As winter draws across the Russian steppes, the situation looks grim.

Soviet forces have taken significant losses, mainly in slightly outdated infantry models in the last couple of months.

Whilst having previously avoided any large encirclements other than at Priluki, a somewhat rash red army offensive on the Vyazama-Orel axis met with a bloody end at the hand of massed axis forces. Otherwise the situation stabilised somewhat, with constant battles waged in the south with Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian forces.

In the far south near Persia, the Soviet forces have dug in slightly north of the border, and have resisted all attempts to push them back. In central asia however, Italian, Greek and Spanish forces pushed back Afgani forces, and repulsed red army counter-attacks.

Whilst the loss of around 40 divisions in the Vyazama pocket has seriously weakened the red army, reports from the western front speak of massive losses to german land and air forces, notably at Argentan. Otherwise, the red army has regrouped, and rebuilt weakened divisions battered down to minimal strength in previous operations. Over winter, the red army will easily recoup the losses of the fall.

The situation across the east is largely as seen below, with the only axis advances in the extreme centre:

The critical pocket battle is shown in further detail:

Meanwhile it should be noted that in the far east Japan joined the Axis and has struck at the US and Allied forces. Reports are mixed on the success, but a broad picture is available of the SE Pacific theatre:

All in all, a very succesful Axis series of operations, but it is pleasing to see a more historical end to the front line in Russia, rather than the oft-seen riverline trench warfare. I have serious concerns about the ability of a Soviet player to resist the massive forces 5 human players can put against it, and would strongly suggest we take more care with our nation selections in future 10/11 player games, but nonetheless credit is due for some of the more skillful Axis maneouvres. It seems likely that winter will be merely a respite, not an end, to axis victories.

 

[Majorball]

Well its a pity russia lost so many divisions that session....Had a look at Russia builds and doubt very much they can recover with current builds. Shame really was looking forward to good game. Anyway my apolgies to JH for losing some of his planes in Brest. Apparently he had Exp them to me and were left in Brest with me unaware they were there. Best to keep planes under your own control as sometimes you cant select Exp aircraft in provinces. Anyways it makes very little difference to the game with Russia almost gone and no chance of recovery.
USA and UK buildup in France continues...German attacks all replelled.

A month long seige at Rabaul has held up the Japanese advance. Repeated attacks have been beaten back.

 

[unmerged(11633)]

Current and previous airforce strengths

Airforce as of September 20th

Airforce as of October 29th​

Biggest loss in the airwar is 19 divisions of the UK- 2 strat bombers, 9 interceptors, 2 fighters, 5 Nav bombers- and all through the pluck of a single Portuguese division! UK plummets from second in airforce strength to 5th.

And the army-

Army strength as of September 20th

Army Strength as of October 29th
​

The Soviets go from 254 to 208 divisions- loss of 46 divisions, nearly all in the Vyazma pocket. I was expecting them to strat redeploy out before Model took Noginsk, but they didn't. Germany overtakes the USSR as the largest army in the world.

 

[mike8472]

Hungarian Situation Report October 1941

With winter slowly decending in the East the Hungarian high command sent an urgent cable to Berlin. Requesting a change instrategy, instead of aiming for a geograhpical target, Hungary requested we aim to the destroy the red army as much as we can before winter in limited operations. Hitler agreed.

Such a situation presented itself with the Kaluga Salient. A large soviet indent into the german lines. Hungarian army would spearhead the assult from Orel in Tula and to the north. This attack was supported by 8 German panzers commanded by gurdian. German moutain and infantry supported the attack. At the same time German forces just to the east of moscow would push west to help close the pocket. It was a risky move as i could lead to our own forces being cut off, but fortune favors the bold.

The Soviet player must have thought something was comming as he attacked us in Orel just hours before we planned to launch our own attack. This played into our hands as it was frozen in our area and the russians got a bloody nose. We then launched our attack on the forces that has just attacked us and pushed them aside easily. The soviet pre-emptive attacks helped this operation grealty. Soviet counter attacks were firerce but still they did not move from kaluga until it became to late. Fast moving Hungarian and German panzers simply outmanouvered the slow and cumbersome soviet armies. The Luftwaffe was doing a great job of helping to tie down the soviet forces.

There were many large and bloody soviet counter attacks, but at the end of the day around 40 Soviet divisions were destroyed in the Kaluga area. More divisions have been lost to constant german air attacks, and at sessions end the soviet Union has arounf 128 Infantry divisions in the field.

The German army is now the largest in the world, when you add in the Hungarian, Italain and some spainish troops, plus minor AI nations the soviet Union is now outnumbered greatly, and only a massive mobilisation of soviet manpower in the in the winter will stave of total defeat.

At the same time axis forces battled th large Allied landings in France. Massive axis forces are building up in the area and large battles look to take place in the near future.

In a daring commando raid the Spanish commaned Portugues divisions did a behind the lines raid on the port of breat. Scouting the coast with a destroyer revealed the allies had neglected there rear defences, a plan was devised as brest was home to some 2000 allied planes. In a stunning coup the mission was a complete success with 20 Allied air squdrons being destroyed in the raid. It certainly makes the allied lands a very costly one. Well done to munster who planed this while the rest of us were so busy on other fronts.

These two large axis victories was a good result in what was only a short session. A total of about 7 weeks was played. Thiswas due to 5 attempts to get loaded and a few reloads. You get days like this.

I have to say joel may have a point with the teams. Although the spanish player as little to do on the russian front its still mainly 4 vs 1. But i cant see how this can be avoided when we have 10-11 players. With these teams your going to have two minors on each side, which really can only be Spain, Hungary, Romania. Any other nations like Turkey, Argintina would simple make it even worse.

Now its never just 5 vs 1, it is from joel point of view but from our point of view our war dosnt stop with the Russian front. For us the war is on all fronts, Middle east, Africa, Western Europe, Eastern Euopre. In all these theaters all players are engaged except Japan. I cant see how your ever going to have less players vs russia with these larger games, perhaps a co-op of russia is an idea to help.

Also take into account the situation is hard for russia due to the allied collaspe in africa and the easy conquest of persia. As a group we could not predict this would happen. For some time the allied players were singing the tunes for victory at Gibralter and Alexandria and russia joined in. After the tough and i must say extremly close battles the axis won and the collapse of allied forces astonded me. GK and mighty were very good with the destruction of the allied forces once they breached alexandria. TO be able to push and take persia without a shot i think no one would ever have guessed.

This put the USSR in a pickle. Maybe having persia in the allies is not such a good idea after this. To make games fairer we could keep persia out of all sides until say 42 or 43. At least this way the USSR can focus on its main front and perhaps a nothern one like in this game. It is a bit unfair that the USSR cannot do anything about it without going to war with the allies that the axis take persia. Also you cannot blame the axis for taking persia they are the enemy and if they dont defend it, they deserve to lose it. So in hindsight perhaps persia is best left out of the equation until a bit later in the game by all sides.

Having said all this, Russia is still not defeated. It will still be al ong tought fight espicaly with the allies in the west. Major has done the right thing in invading the west to take preasure off Russia, without it perhaps the damage to russia wold be even greater. Interesting to see how it pans out.

 

[unmerged(11633)]

OKW after action report

Our Deputy Fuhrer, Mighty G handled the eastern Front for most of the session. I mainly handled the west.

In the west, German reinforcements arrived and attempted to take Argentan, an attempt which was beaten back, with heavy casualties. Large numbers of German aircraft took to the sky, but despite local victories were unable to dent allied Air superiority over Normandy. However, in a stunning coup, a single Portuguese division, acting under orders of the Spanish high command, assaulted brest and reportedly captured almost 20 air divisions. The steady trickle of reinforcements flow in.

In the east, at the behest of the Hungarian High Command, an offensive North to cut off and surround the Vyazma pocket was planned. Guderian moved north from the Orel region, while Model moved west into Noginsk. Despite fierce Soviet counterattacks, a massive victory took place at Vyazma, with nearly 40 divisions destroyed. With this victory, the gates of Moscow have been flung open, but with winter coming on OKW doubts the city can be taken before spring 1942.

In the far north, a few Soviet divisions were destroyed by airpower.

In the east Japan joined the axis, but was reportedly having difficulties with the unreliable Chinese units. But apart from advanced technology, Germany lacks the ability to project power in the far east.

 

[unmerged(55921)]

Lol, Russia is a goner.

 

[lwarmonger]

Lol, Russia is a goner.

Not necessarily. If I recall correctly, Joel went with massive IC builds early on. So conceivably he could put huge quantities of infantry into the field before the end of winter and the muddy season?

 

[unmerged(25040)]

The Bulldog

Uk has done its job - it has held on, just!!!

This session saw more devastating ASW activity, which is creating moe caution in Axis sea moves.

The african campaign is drawing to a slogging match over very slow terrain. Not much to report.

In India the Japanese have made slow progress. An initial invasion was foiled by the incisive anticipation of the move - and the placement of Nav bbrs to close the trap.

Thus Siam and Singapore seem very secure. On the border ranges some rear movement on low importance prov was experienced. But here we have defence in depth.

Fortunately we regained aden and oman, for supply and air protection into the Gulf region and over the horn.

In the europe a daring rate by the Portuguese destroyed a very large stack of aircraft to the rear of the allied lines. This was a bad loss.

Seems the game hangs in the balance in russia and the winter.

 

[Majorball]

Not necessarily. If I recall correctly, Joel went with massive IC builds early on. So conceivably he could put huge quantities of infantry into the field before the end of winter and the muddy season?

If Russia keeps building planes, motorised etc they will not add much to their army before 1942. On a positive note more and more Axis forces are arriving on the Western Front.

 

[Majorball]

It was not 20 air divisions you destroyed in Brest. It was caused more by the fact that most of them were Exp forces and I was unaware that they were there. I think I lost 6 fighters there not sure what the UK lost. Troops that were destined for Brest ended up in an adjacent province. Things like this happen when you have so much of the map to look at. It wont happen again.

Joel....some advice...Massive infantry build up required!! Drop all the other junk. You have too many holes to fill!! The Axis will try desperatley to push us out of France in 1942....this will be your only chance. I am expecting large reinforcements to arrive on the West front after their attacks were mauled in the Argentan slaughter fields.

 

[mike8472]

It was not 20 air divisions you destroyed in Brest. It was caused more by the fact that most of them were Exp forces and I was unaware that they were there. I think I lost 6 fighters there not sure what the UK lost. Troops that were destined for Brest ended up in an adjacent province. Things like this happen when you have so much of the map to look at. It wont happen again.

Joel....some advice...Massive infantry build up required!! Drop all the other junk. You have too many holes to fill!! The Axis will try desperatley to push us out of France in 1942....this will be your only chance. I am expecting large reinforcements to arrive on the West front after their attacks were mauled in the Argentan slaughter fields.

Well major i was watching the stats screen for Munster to see exactly how much yous lost in that raid as we couldnt see how many were based there. 1 hour after munster landed in brest your total airforce went from 75 to 69 a loss of 6 like you say. UK forces went from 63 to 44 a loss of 19 planes.

So a total of 25 planes would be more accurate.

 

[Majorball]

Wel l can tell you it was that either. No one their right mind would leave 25 air units in a damaged air base when all those bases just accross the channel. I take responsibility for what ever number was lost. It happens when you have so much of the map to scan.

 

[mike8472]

It must be around 20 air units. As the screen shots dont lie they clearly show the UK going from 64 to 43 air units a loss of 19. Yours went from 75 to 69, 1 hour after the raid. All we can go on is how the stats changed exactly 1 hour after the raid to reflected a 25 squdron drop in total strength from both you and the UK. Perhaps JH had move more in there then what you thought.

Anyway dosnt really matter, there all gone nothing you can do about it now, it was a large number anyway.

We all make errors like this, it certainly does happen when you got lots to worry about i know the feeling. But just shows how your enemy if there paying attention can hit you hard with very little forces and hurt you.

Was a great idea by munster, i was sure when i saw his scout ship it was going to get sunk by a US or UK fleet, same with the TP he sent afterwards with the 1 lone division. I was thinking any second now and hes gonn get clobbered. Luckly for us it didnt happen.

 

[Majorball]

It must be around 20 air units. As the screen shots dont lie they clearly show the UK going from 64 to 43 air units a loss of 19. Yours went from 75 to 69, 1 hour after the raid. All we can go on is how the stats changed exactly 1 hour after the raid to reflected a 25 squdron drop in total strength from both you and the UK. Perhaps JH had move more in there then what you thought.

Anyway dosnt really matter, there all gone nothing you can do about it now, it was a large number anyway.

We all make errors like this, it certainly does happen when you got lots to worry about i know the feeling. But just shows how your enemy if there paying attention can hit you hard with very little forces and hurt you.

Was a great idea by munster, i was sure when i saw his scout ship it was going to get sunk by a US or UK fleet, same with the TP he sent afterwards with the 1 lone division. I was thinking any second now and hes gonn get clobbered. Luckly for us it didnt happen.

No need to keep at it Mike we already know it was a great move you dont have to keep telling us. Unfortunately for us the Russians decided to commit Hurri Curri instead of using the invasion of France to rebuild. I am expecting massive Axis forces in France now to try and kick the Allies out. The game is already over but we will keep playing it out.
By the way Mike..what happen to the great Axis counterattack last session to kick Allies out of France? Just more of your BS stories trying to scare us?

 

[mike8472]

No need to keep at it Mike we already know it was a great move you dont have to keep telling us. Unfortunately for us the Russians decided to commit Hurri Curri instead of using the invasion of France to rebuild. I am expecting massive Axis forces in France now to try and kick the Allies out. The game is already over but we will keep playing it out.
By the way Mike..what happen to the great Axis counterattack last session to kick Allies out of France? Just more of your BS stories trying to scare us?

The Russians didnt commit "Hurri Curri", i dont think Joel would like to hear his allies talk like that. Joel was defeated in some very hard fought and close battles. It was by no means easy espically in the bad weather. Joel is putting up stiff resitance even though he is now outnumbered.

Joel can certainly recover, but its up to him what he builds for his plans. It will be his plans which either save him or doom him, no one elses. Like youve told me so many times major, perhaps you should keep your advice to yourself and let joel play his own game for better or worse.

So far the conquests in Russia are reasonably historic, with the fronts around moscow and rostov in the south. The only areas which arnt are the far north which was just through good german plans and outflanking the russians from the sea. In the very south not much joel could do about that.

Like ive said in my post before. Perhaps we should discuss leaving persia and or Turkey out of both sides alliance until 1942. At least give russia just the 1 front to focus on. If on side brings them in prior, well you lie in your own bed, even though the allies made it for Russia.

 

[Majorball]

The Russians didnt commit "Hurri Curri", i dont think Joel would like to hear his allies talk like that. Joel was defeated in some very hard fought and close battles. It was by no means easy espically in the bad weather. Joel is putting up stiff resitance even though he is now outnumbered.

Joel can certainly recover, but its up to him what he builds for his plans. It will be his plans which either save him or doom him, no one elses. Like youve told me so many times major, perhaps you should keep your advice to yourself and let joel play his own game for better or worse.

So far the conquests in Russia are reasonably historic, with the fronts around moscow and rostov in the south. The only areas which arnt are the far north which was just through good german plans and outflanking the russians from the sea. In the very south not much joel could do about that.

Like ive said in my post before. Perhaps we should discuss leaving persia and or Turkey out of both sides alliance until 1942. At least give russia just the 1 front to focus on. If on side brings them in prior, well you lie in your own bed, even though the allies made it for Russia.

Joel has played his own game and I will give what ever advice I see fit. Wether it is accepted or not is another matter. So why dont you worry about the Axis side instead interfering with everyone else.

 

[mike8472]

Joel has played his own game and I will give what ever advice I see fit. Wether it is accepted or not is another matter. So why dont you worry about the Axis side instead interfering with everyone else.

I have been. Your the one blowing it out of proportation with your "doomsday" remarks for the game. I like the pun. I will say what i please, because i know it will get a response.

 

[unmerged(25040)]

Game

The game is about enjoyment and Ive enjoyed every second of it. Some mistakes have been identified and Mostly they are warranted. some were just from ignorance or inexperience.

Lack of coord within allies is realistic and part of the learning.

Play on ... there is life in this yet.

 

[unmerged(11633)]

Well, that's good to know JH. I remember playing as the UK in the first Sunday game, and getting my arse kicked by Major as Germany and Mike as Italy. Was tough.

I think emotions often get a bit heated when there is so much time invested.

Any idea when Ric will be available for the next session?