ConsimWorld Expo 2015 - June 20-26

[Mark]

Winter 1943 - Russian Front

On the Eastern Front, the Russians launched their Winter offensive - driving the Germans out of the Ukraine and Southern Poland.  Rokossovsky even broke into the Carpathians and Eastern Hungary and Zhukov took Lwow.  Model desperately is pulling together remnants of retreating forces and establishing the defense of Budapest while the Romanians are digging in around Ploesti and Bucharest to stop the Russians from overrunning their country.

All is not lost and the Germans are not beaten yet, however.  Army Group's North and Center have established strong armies reinforced with heavy armor in Lithuania and Poland for a Spring offensive to try and seize the initiative back from the Russians.

It is a little frightening, though, with eight Soviet Fronts arrayed and bearing down on Central Europe. . .

[Mark]

Winter 1943

The Allies invaded undefended Southern Italy and quickly occupy Sicily and Taranto.  The 7th army, under the command of Clark, is quickly brought in on the non-combat phase to push up the boot and seize Naples in the Spring.  The 4th Panzer Armee under Weichs is building up Axis defenses in the mountains around Monte Cassino.  Cunningham is keeping the Italian fleet bottled up at Genoa.

In England, the Allies are building up for Operation Overlord.  At the end of Winter, the 1st US and 2nd British armies have been established, backed by 3 airborne divisions, and a number of heavy bombers and fighters.  Facing them, the Atlantic Wall has been significantly reinforced since the Summer of 1943.  Nearly every territory has 4-5 front line units (including SS Panzer divisions) backed by artillery.  But, with two groups of V-Rocket units raining economic ruin on London every turn, even Churchill is demanding action.  Spring 1944 will likely be D-Day. .. but where?

[Mark]

Winter 1943

Our two German players. . . . Oblivious to the growing doom advancing from the East, the Second front in Italy, and the impending invasion of France, they are all smiles being fed only Goebbels propaganda. . .

[John D.]

We just needed a little more time to bring the Allies to their knees. Our engineers and scientists assured us that our secret weapon(s) were nearing completion...

[Darkman]

Winter 1943 - Russian Front

On the Eastern Front, the Russians launched their Winter offensive - driving the Germans out of the Ukraine and Southern Poland.  Rokossovsky even broke into the Carpathians and Eastern Hungary and Zhukov took Lwow.  Model desperately is pulling together remnants of retreating forces and establishing the defense of Budapest while the Romanians are digging in around Ploesti and Bucharest to stop the Russians from overrunning their country.

All is not lost and the Germans are not beaten yet, however.  Army Group's North and Center have established strong armies reinforced with heavy armor in Lithuania and Poland for a Spring offensive to try and seize the initiative back from the Russians.

It is a little frightening, though, with eight Soviet Fronts arrayed and bearing down on Central Europe. . .

WoW that is a huge russian army by this time. Impressive !

[Mark]

WoW that is a huge russian army by this time. Impressive !

Yeah - I am not sure exactly what happened.  The situation on the Eastern Front changed dramatically from the beginning of Spring 1943 to the end of Winter 1943.

[John D.]

As the Axis player - we pushed hard to take Leningrad and Moscow while extending the push to within range of threatening the Urals but, in doing so, put a huge portion of our forces at risk for being cut out of supply. We won initiative, saw the Allied invasion of France coming early and withdrew ALL overextended units to deal with stemming that advance. Two fronts this early would just be too much to manage....

[Mark]

Spring 1944 - Pacific

The Japanese were tempted with a late war invasion of Ceylon, but decided against it and instead reinforced Rangoon.  Allied strength continues to grow in the Burma theater with Slim now in command.  US bombers and P-38s sank one of the Japanese transport groups which prevented the Japanese from reinforcing Rangoon any further by sea.  In China, Maoist forces have liberated Peking and Japanese troops have withdrawn into the Shanghai perimeter.

In the Pacific, MacArthur has returned to the Philippines.  US subs have been doing 10-20pp of damage a turn to Japanese shipping (and the Japanese have been doing 5-10 points to US West Coast shipping) for much of the game.  The Americans have been much more successful at ASW though than the Japanese, having sunk at least two sub units.  I don't believe the Japanese got any of the US boats.

[Mark]

Spring 1944 - Russian Front

In the Center, the Germans launched their Spring offensive to take back the initiative on the Russian front.  The operation had local success with Manteufel taking back Minsk and stalling the Soviet offensive in the Baltic States and Belorussia. 

Model was able to stop the Russian advance with the resources he had available to keep the Russians out of the Hungarian plain, Budapest, and Slovakia. However, Bucharest fell, Romania surrendered, and the Soviets are massing for a renewed assault on Budapest in the Spring.  Rokossovsky and Koniev advanced as far as Krakow and Poznan in Central Poland with little between them and Berlin.

[Mark]

Spring 1944 - D-Day

After careful consideration and planning, the Allies agreed on the beaches of Brittany to launch operation Overlord.  The chits fell in a way that had the Allies land early in the phase and the German rush reinforcements into the battle later in the phase.

The landings were conducted by 2 US, 1 Canadian, and 1 British infantry divisions supported by 3 airborne divisions.  US and Free French infantry were in reserve along with British armor and artillery.  Montgomery was in overall command.

They were opposed by a mix of lower quality German infantry and an SS panzer formation, with mechanized artillery and AA in support.  Reinforcements rushing in under the command of Schorner consisted of another heavy panzer division and a mix of 88s, artillery, and AA guns.  They would need to get to the beaches through an air interdiction screen of spitfires and typhoons who were bombing all the bridges and strafing all the roads between Paris and Brittany.

The invasion was successful with only light Allied casualties.  On the non-combat phase, reinforcements were brought into the beachhead with the 1st US and 2nd British Armies firmly ashore.  German reinforcements were rallying in Paris, but the remaining defenses in France were pretty thin.

[Mark]

Summer 1944 - Pacific

Spruance invades and takes Truk, the major Japanese Naval base in the Caroline Islands.  US carrier airpower is projected over the central Pacific, interdicting Japanese supply to the Marshals and Marianas.  MacArthur is reinforced in the Philippines, but so are the Japanese - it is going to be a fight for Manila.  The Japanese fleet is massing in Tokyo Bay for the big showdown with the US fleet should they push for the Marianas or to support the attack on Luzon. 

[Mark]

Summer 1944 - Western Europe

Clark is stopped by tenacious Axis resistance outside of Rome and in trying to break the Gothic line.  However, in France, the Allies spectacularly break out of their Brittany Beachhead, smash the remnants of the German defenses and race across France.  Patton makes it all the way to Alsace-Lorraine by the end of Summer, but pulls back his overextended units to Reims to consolidate for an Autumn offensive into Belgium.  Another allied army sweeps South to liberate Marseilles, while Montgomery reinforces the British 2nd Army at Paris for a push along the channel toward Flanders in the Autumn.   Allied heavy bombers have been pounding Germany and brought German production down into the 50s.

The remnants of the German Army in France is rallying in the Ardennes and Holland to try and stop the Allies and defend the Reich.

[John D.]

So when the Russian and Western Allied forces are about to neighbor each other - that's a Bad Thing for the Axis... Just saying...

[Mark]

Summer 1944 - Russian Front

Rokossovsky takes Budapest, knocks Hungary out of the war and blitzes on into Vienna. German heavy armor units dart here and there trying to plug gaps in the line and manage to isolate one of the Russian spearheads in Silesia.  The 6th SS Panzer Army is formed for the defense of Warsaw as Mantueffel's offensive withdraws and goes on the defensive.  Soviet strength continues to increase as German forces are dwindling to a handful of elite units successfully defending a few territory pockets. . .

[georgemak1]

Never really understood what really happened to the Germans the last 4 turns. In summer '43 they were literally 2 areas away from the Ural Mountains, behind Moscow, it was even a discussion about relocating the factories they were built there. And now a year later Russians had knocked out the Romanians, and the Hungarians out of the war, and they were in German teritory . I just never thought a recovery like this was even possible, in such a short time.