summer 2011 playtest, Europe

[DeathMachine]

I am playing the axis and John is playing the allies. Here is a copy paste of my synopsis of the first 3 turns that I sent to Mike and Mark:

Africa---We played through the first three turns, france has fallen, Italy is at war and rommel is just over the line in british north african territory right outside mersa matruh. My one tranport sank and thus I have learned that Italy needs to immediately churn extra transports from the start in case this catastrophic event happens. Should have a tranport out at the end of the 4th turn, this really sets me back but I feel confident that I can get to cairo before russia happens. Heavy naval losses in the mediterranean as John has been a reckless with his fleet, even in the face of 2 german fighters and 2 bombers that I let Italy borrow. British navy has vacated the area except for an out of supply(bomber on rhodes) and damaged British battleship and australian cruiser.

France--John dumped an incredible amount of british material into the defence of france. He even forted a brit and 2 french in champagne outside of paris. I circumvented this by carving a path throughthe northern coast; Flanders, Picardy and then Paris. John utilized massive counteroffenses and threw away as many french troops as possible, deforting all 6 forts in alsace lorraine and hurling them against my 88's and troops, even killing some panzers! His desperate mech offense back into paris cost him 2 british tanks and a troop. This is on top of one other british tank lost as well as 2 or 3 other troops lost and 2 or 3 fighters. Really really ugly shit happened in france!

Atlantic-To add insult to severe injury, I have maxed subs since the beginning at the expense of fighters and ground troops. The past two turns were dire for Britain and the commonwealth as their production was cut in half both times. John is doing a good job getting destroyers out though.

Norway is a cluster. Again John has thrown his navy at my fleet(above denmark) with reckless abandon in the face of long range fighter bombers and bombers. He got lucky though and I only have a battlecruiser and transport left with raeder. His battleship and two cruisers are now out of supply hovering above denmark with my massive air force ready to pounce. unfortunately this also means that my 6 troops in norway with artillery is out of supply. We are stuck below Narvik, we can't crack 5 british troops and 2 artillery. My only solace is that this appears to be a large commitment of british troops, and I am thankful that I don't see it in the sparse north african regions.

Russia- I don't know much about whats happening there but I do know this: flawless victory in vyborg, in the winter! It was a christmas miracle for john. For me, thats about 6 more russians that I'll have to deal with.

[DeathMachine]

So last night John and I played another 4 turns which brought us up to Summer 41. Pics will be up soon.

Mediterranean-Italy sunk the remaining british subs with hunter killer bombers. Rommel is stuck at Mersa Matruh with 5 infantry, a fort, an artillery, 2 panzers, 2 88's and a grenadier while Gort is defending alexandria with 4 forts, some troops, 2 artillery and 3 AA guns. We are both digging in and have been engaging in a staring contest for the last 4 turns. Meanwhile Italy has flawlessly taken out Malta(in the winter) and Crete in spring with paradrops and amphibs. Cyprus is out of supply and there is a force ready to take it out next turn.

Western Europe-No fighter or bomber activity in Britain or germany at all. Lots of sub activity though. Subs have destroyed more than 150 points of production for this whole 7 turns. There was a turn where Germany had too many subs which means to me that there was such overkill in the convoy zones that it wasn't worth it to risk the sub in the off chance that I didn't max out damage there. So instead I had that sub ace go after a destroyer and I sank it. I am under the firm belief that maxing uboats until you run out of uboat pieces is a good strategy. I am starting to lose them more frequently though as John has 3 destroyers in all the major ports at this point.

Also, the uboats have also really slowed the brits down, I don't think john asked me once if I wanted to use sub interdiction which tells me that he is waiting for the noncombat move to relocate troops via transports.

Balkans-They fell without much incident. Not much to say.

Norway-Germany finally cracked norway in Spring 41. I consider the british defense of trondheim an overall success. It blocked me from 8 dollars a turn if you consider that finland did not make it into the war until spring. Finland is a really spectacular territory and so it has deeply saddened me that I could not start pulling out a few extra finnish troops before barbarossa and send some germans to finland as well. They start in great terrain and help to loosen the grip Russia holds on Leningrad as well as the surrounding forest areas.

Barbarossa- Wait till you see the pics! Russia attempted a really aggressive strategy. The russian front sported tanks, troops, aa guns, plenty of artillery and AT guns. Some artillery and aa guns were removed as they were surrounded with nowhere to retreat but heavy german casualties were inflicted as well leaving both sides just ragged. Germany had sent almost all their fighters on the board to pin russian fighters at a 2:1 ratio for most planes. 1 german fighter lost, while 4 russian fighters were lost. Germany has also invested a lot of money in stukas, bombers and long range fighters(lr fighters have reached "max forever" status in my book) and they have been raining hellfire down upon the russians.

Vichy Iraq is all axis but britain quickly put them out of supply and mopped them up so thanks for nothing Iraq. 

[John D.]

Brian has summarized it well. I am still moved by the Christmas miracle at Vyborg. If I did not max subs right from the get go - after noticing max uboat production - the game would be lost early. I have about 15 destroyers on board plus much of my air is being used for convoy defense. BIG commitment of resourses. Perfect. Sinse I do not have enough destroyers to escort my fleet yet - it has been delaying my movement - as I am not willing to risk full transports to Uboats. I tried something a little different with Russia. I built a fort, aa gun, artillery and AT gunevery turn. Makes for a pretty good defense once Barbarossa arrives!! I did not max out factories.