First battle of Östergötland, Sweden

[sleipner]

Hello, here comes a report from the first game held by our Swedish group. First a brief report of the few turns we managed to play as novices and then some questions.

First, everybody loved the game. Possibly the best game we ever played, and then we are only halfway of getting the rules right And a big hand to the rule-authors, not much to complain about. It was easy to look up the things I, as the rule nestor, didn´t remember. I think we only made some minor errors, rulewise, and of course some huge ones strategywise

We played without optional rules to start with. We stopped for the day after the Axis Summer 40 turn.
   The Japanese took it nice and slow and captured all chinese territories (except the ones that trigger war with a real enemy) with very few losses.
   Germany sank some convoys with their sub and merchant raider. Germany invaded Poland, Denmark and Norway on turn 1. A mistake since they couldn´t protect the fleet with airpower and the allies ganged up on the fleet and destroyed it except for a destroyer and transport. A destroyer managed to sink the german sub, but the attack on the raider failed. The allies also moved troops to Narvik.
   Turn 2 saw Netherlands and Belgium invaded, but the Belgians repulsed the Nazi horde and were after that promptly transformed into forts. The allies also kicked out the Germans from Norway.
   In the spring-turn Germany took Belgium and decided to mech-attack Burgundy where they took a big loss of 10 panzergrenadiers, 7 tanks and bomber & fighter without taking the territory. After some pep-talk he decided not to throw in the towel. Italy declared war; took Provance and sunk a British sub and damaged the carrier in the eastern med. The allies sunk the German transport in the Baltic with aircraft, reinforced BEF, took back Provance and reinforced the mediterranean fleets.
   In the summer turn Italy again took Provance and Germany decided to rail most of it´s army to Milan. Next turn he will be able to mech-attack into Paris with a huge pile of gray mayhem.



Questions:

Does the western allies really control the Gulf of Bothnia at the start of the game? God damn, it is a Swedish lake!

Siam, what does it mean that Japan can invade it without declaration of war? Does the 1 infantry fight or not?

French Africans, may they move and attack into Libya when Italy has declared war? Seems odd if they only would sit there. But then again, that was what they did at the Rhein river.

Daniel

[John D.]

Glad to hear the war has started! 

Even more glad to hear your group is enjoying it!

Sounds like everyone is getting a good feel for the mechanics of the game. Usually a few turns will do.

Mark will answer the questions for you shortly.

John

[John D.]

Questions:

Does the western allies really control the Gulf of Bothnia at the start of the game? God damn, it is a Swedish lake!

Siam, what does it mean that Japan can invade it without declaration of war? Does the 1 infantry fight or not?

French Africans, may they move and attack into Libya when Italy has declared war? Seems odd if they only would sit there. But then again, that was what they did at the Rhein river.

Some answers: When both territories of French Indo China are occupied by the Japanese, there is a 4 in 6 chance that they become a Japanese ally, so the unit there is replaced with a Japanese Infantry.

If they stay neutral (a roll of 5 or 6), Japan can invade the territory without having to declare war on the Western Allies.

Later-

John

[Yoper]

Questions:

1) Does the western allies really control the Gulf of Bothnia at the start of the game? God damn, it is a Swedish lake!


3) French Africans, may they move and attack into Libya when Italy has declared war? Seems odd if they only would sit there. But then again, that was what they did at the Rhein river.

Daniel

1)
Pg. 6
Game Set Up
Ownership and Control

Sea zones are controlled the same way - by the last surface combat unit (destroyer, cruiser, battleship or aircraft carrier) to have occupied or moved through them. Transports, submarines and merchant raiders do not control sea zones by themselves. The ‘control’ of sea zones reflects areas of the oceans that have unknown enemy dispositions, the presence of enemy air and naval patrol ships (too small to be represented by a unit in the game), as well as shipping and mines.

At the start of the game, all sea zones are controlled by the Western Allies (US, Britain and France) with the exception of the following:

• Germany: the Baltic Sea
• Italy: Adriatic Sea, Ionian Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea, and both Central Mediterranean spaces.
• Soviet Union: The White Sea, Gulf of Finland, Sea of Azov, both Black Sea spaces and both of the Caspian Sea spaces.
• Japan: All Pacific Sea zones within the Pacific ‘Blue Line”

Players may use control markers (flags) to illustrate ownership of territories and sea zones that they control. Ownership of territories and sea zones affects tracing supply and strategic movement – see rules below.

3)
Pg. 33
VI. National and Special Rules
France & Vichy France

Additionally, French units that start the game in French colonial territories (French North Africa, Syria, Madagascar, French Indo-China) must remain in these territories until France falls. British units may not enter these colonial territories unless they are Vichy or Axis occupied.

Here is the original answer from the Rules Question forum on this topic.  This information was integrated into the latest version of the rules as seen in the paragraph above.

Errata-

French minimum garrisons are omitted and need to be added to the rulebook.  Just as the Italians need to maintain 3 units on the border with France until they are at war - so do the French need to keep 3 infantry units on the border with Italy until at war with Italy. 

Additionally, France must maintain a garrison of at least one unit in Corsica and all of the colonial possessions worth at least one production point (Morocco, Oran, Algiers, Tunisia, Syria, Madagascar, and French Indo-China).  France may not move their garrisons from these territories (but they may retreat from these territories if attacked).

Craig

[John D.]

Thanks Craig. 

[Mark]

There is actually a "secret rule" - that if you play the game in Sweden, the Gulf of Bothnia is owned by Sweden.  Any naval units that enter that Sea zone are automatically sunk by Swedish commandos 

Also - I would think that the French could invade Itlalian North Africa from Tunisia per your example above - but they would have to land more French troops into Africa so that they could maintain their minimum garrison of one unit to occupy each of their colonial production point territories.  Does that clarify your question, Sleipner?

A couple of notes I made from your game commentary:  Note that air units can land on territories you took during the normal combat phase during the Mechanized phase.  So, it would have been a good idea to land a few German fighters in Norway to protect the fleet on the Mech phase.

Also note:  You can not mech attack into or out of Mountains - I got the impression that you were thinking the Germans could attack Southern France and then mech attack Paris from that territory - they could not, because it is mountainous.

look forward to seeing pictures of your next game!

Mark

[sleipner]

  yeah, I think I´ll get a viking long ship to represent the commandos 
   Thanx for the answers. Hm, it´s possible that the German player forgot about the possibility to move in the aircraft during the mech-phase. We sort of knew about it, but I think he maybe prioritized to cover Germany with the Luftwaffe. I don´t remember.
   Yes of course, I first thought mechattacks were limited in were they were going-not were they came from. So now, France will probably live 1 more turn . We just have to throw out the Italians from the mountains to get away from a surrender-roll.

Daniel

[sleipner]

Okay, so the war is over! Peace has returned and anglo-french domination will continue for decades
   The axis were thrown out of southern France and didn´t manage to invade, neither so in the northern part of the country. The allies boxed in the Italian, chewed up their fleet except for a sub, put Africa for ever out of supply and began expediting the small Italian garrisons. As the eager Stalin was knockin on the door (spring 41) the allies accepted the fascist complete surrender!

  I think that the Germans in the future won´t attack forts without infantry-fodder and try to cover their fleet with airpower.

Hope to have a new war to report from soon, possibly with pics.

Daniel

[John D.]

Ok- All mistakes will not be repeated. Now you can start a real game.