I guess we did not take a final picture in Germany. . . it was 2am after all! But, the Allies launched their attack into the Ruhr, they had a lot of armor and the Germans rolled a bit sub-par (my generals were demorilized no doubt). It was clear after one round of combat that the Allies would have enough force to mech attack into Berlin and end the game. So, John borded a u-boat and sailed off for Argentina and that was that.
The game became an uphill battle for the Axis and the Allies did not make many mistakes. some of the things that contributed to the Axis defeat were:
- 1) I think we tweaked China a little bit too much - that theater sucked in a lot of Japan's resources
2) Failed Mech attack into Paris in Spring 1940 - cost us a bunch of armor
3) Failed invasion attampt of Gibraltar - cost us points, men and time in the Med
4) Excellent force balance of the Brits in the Med, Asia and England - they kept just enough force to prevent a decisive German breakthrough anywhere.
5) Lack of an earlier u-boat offensive - allowed the Brits to build up too much.
6) Japan did not invest enough in its airpower early on - that really cost us later when we lost every air engagement we fought.
7) The Russian front was very tough defensive nut to crack - excellent play on Joe's part. Despite all the armor resources John threw into Russia - they bent but did not break.
8) The Axis should have went over to the defensive earlier in Russia. Instead we threw every last guy we had into last ditch offensives - in the end, we ran out of resources to slow the Allied advance down when we needed to.
9) The bait and switch landings in Normandy and the Holland put the final nail into the Axis coffin.
Look forward to the next one!
