Detroit Game #5

[Yoper]

Right now we are at the point where the Allies need to scramble just to keep the game going.

The Axis have claimed 42 VPS with a few more in their sights.  The Allies can get one, maybe two, back on their half of the Summer '42 turn but it will be territories that don't make sense within the boundaries of a long term game strategy.

We are uncertain on how to proceed come this next game session.  Play this one out regardless of the VPs or start a new game. 

We shall see.

Craig

[Mark]

Your Allies are in trouble again - Russia has pretty much had it and the Brits have pretty much lost the Middle East and India - it would be a real outside chance for them to pull out of the current situation.

Looking back at your games, it looks like Eric has pretty much been on the winning side of every game.  If you plan to play again, maybe consider giving him the UK next time and see if it balances things out for you 

[Yoper]

Yes, Eric is a beast!

Having our least experienced player as the USSR didn't help either.

Dan is a good player but playing the WA and being forced run the USSR some of the time too is tough

Craig.

[Mark]

wow - Dan is doing the Western Allies and Russia by himself?  That is really tough to do (even for someone who has played the game dozens of times. . .)

It becomes tricky when your playing across the whole world.  Its a challenge to focus on just one front at a time, before moving to the next front.  Meanwhile, your opponenet is just staring at the Russian front for most of the time.

[Yoper]

There was only one night when he had to do both, but it was the night that he made the major gaff concerning leaving his UK fleet in the Eastern Med.

Even with the other player there, not having the USSR player versed enough to also help keep an eye on things that Dan is doing hurts.

Craig

[Mark]

Looking at the pics some more, I think the Russian front can be stabilized - I believe the Russians can put themsleves into a good position not to lose any more VPs and put some pressure on the Germans.

The thing that is most worrisome is the position of the British in the Middle East and India and the lack of a US navy in the Pacific.  If the Brits would have stayed and fought in Egypt rather than redeploying to the UK, it would be much closer.  Keeping that central position to be able to reinforce India or Africa is important I think.  Pulling the US navy out of the Pacific does not give the Americans much ability to threaten VPs in the Pacific which is challenging as well.  Unlike A&A, you can't really team up on Germany and ignore Japan in this game.

If two of the three happened (1) losing Moscow/Leningrad; (2) losing Middle East/India; and (3) No Pacific offensive:   the Allies can recover - but losing on all three of those spots without gaining somewhere else is a tough spot to be in.

I was going to post some suggestions for the Russian front.  But, I don't have any alternatives for the Middle East, India and the Pacific - I'm not sure what to do for that theater - and they really need to turn things around in a couple places, not just one.

[Yoper]

What we have seen is that the loss of Cairo is a major factor in the Axis victories. 

It allows the European Axis to put the UK Commonwealth forces in the Pacific "out of supply".  The Japanese will normally cut off strategic movement in the Pacific early on.  But if the European Axis have made it through the Suez, then they can combine together to strangle the UK and move on the VPs in the area.

Yes, the USSR might be able to hold in such a manner that would work out well in other games, but the situation in this game dictates that they would have to make attacks that wouldn't be beneficial to a long term strategy.

Craig

[Erc]

I don't think there is a balance issue with the game favoring the Axis.  Most, if not all of our games were nearly decided about the time that Russia and the US entered the war.  The first 8 turns sets the stage for the remainder of the war.  In all of our games, France was a speed bump and fell regardless of our various Allied strategies in the sping of 40.  The game then was decided between the European Axis and the British.

I think the issue that our group has encountered is that the game can be very unforgiving at times.  This can be due to tactical errors or die rolling in key battles.  In this game the British Med fleet was trapped when the Axis did an amphibious invasion of Cairo, thus closing the Suez Canal escape route.  This resulted in the sinking of over half of the British fleet.  This put the Allies into a unrecoverable possition fairly early in the game.  We went back to reset this in the interest of keeping the game balanced.

An example of die rolling in key battles would be when Germany started Barbarosa, 6 Soviet fighters responded to a German attack that included 5 German fighters.  All of the German fighters scored hits while only one of the Soviet fighters got a hit.  This immediately put the Russians at a huge air power disadvantage and allowed the Axis to shift a huge amount of fighters to the Western Front when the British came a calling.

[Mark]

Similar to Churchill's 5 volume history of the Second World War, Dan's written a similar length "commentary and analysis of the 5th Detroit Struggle for Europe and Asia game from the British perspective"   

I need to run out and get some more paper for my printer and ink, so I can digest this light reading over the weekend and reply 

John is probably the best East Coast player - we'll pit him up against Eric when we get together to play.  I better train him up for his big challenge though - he has been a little rusty the last couple games - need to get him back into fighting shape for the title. . .Just give me some backwater like China so I can sit back and observe the fireworks 

[Yoper]

I had proposed axing this game and starting a new one, but Dan has put out there that maybe we should just play this one out, regardless of the VP scoring system.

We may do this and just keep track of the VP score at the end of each turn.  Then compare this number (for reference purposes) against the scoring system and see how it is playing out.

Craig

[Mark]

I hate to say it, but I think the Allied position in the Middle East and in the Pacific is going to make the game play out in the Axis favor.  I would say you call it if the Axis get their 42 points.

I would not mess with moving the high-end VP limit - if the Axis have that much, trust me, the Allies are not going to recover (well maybe in 1946 sometime).

[Yoper]

We wouldn't move any of the limits, we would just ignore them and play out the game.

We would still check our totals against the scoring system, we just wouldn't end the game based on them.

It might be interesting to do so as to see how the game plays out and for us to get to see some of the specialty units come into play.

We will have to discuss this come Friday.

Craig

[Yoper]

We decided to go with a new game so this one is finished as you see it.

Craig