Autumn 1944. . . .Gotterdamerung
In the Pacific, Slim's British army, supported by Chinese led by Stillwell captured Rangoon and destroyed much of the Japanese army defending French Indo-China.
The US and Japanese fleets had a huge battle in the Philippine Sea - which may go down in history as the 'Great Philippine Sea Turkey Shoot'. The Japanese lost something like 8 air units to the US losing only 2 and the Japanese had two fleet carrier units sunk to no losses for the Americans. Wolf's consistently bad dice throughout the game did not fail him on this last big battle which basically put an end to Japanese air and naval power in the Pacific.
Wolf and I had three large naval engagements over the course of the game in the Pacific - and the most fun part about them is each of them drew a big crowd of spectators from around the con. . .each die roll for a dive bomber going in against a carrier was very dramatic and usually followed by a lot of cheers for one side or the other! - A lot of fun!
In Europe, the Soviet steam roller continued it's Western drive, with the Russians taking Riga (and knocking the Finns out of the war), Warsaw, and Munich in the Autumn. In the West, Dietrich managed to stop Patton with a furious attack into Champaigne, But Montgomery's army swept into Flanders and Allied paratroopers landed in the Ruhr and Bremen establishing an Allied bridgehead over the Rhine and into Germany. P51 fighters swept the German countryside pinning what was left of the Luftwaffe from supporting any battles (East or West) and unmolested Allied heavy bombers bombed what was left of the German economy by over 20pps.
With these losses and no hope, the Axis threw in the towel. John and Dave boarded their last u-boat and sailed off into the sunset (err. . .I mean Argentina). From a WW perspective they still had enough victory points to stay in the game for another turn, but Europe was all but done and the end was not in doubt.
All in all - a great game with a great bunch of players. We had a blast at ConSimWorld and must have gamed something like 55 hours Tuesday through Friday. We hope to be back next year. . .we are now even planning a "Struggle-con" here on the East Coast maybe this Fall with some of the players - we will see. . .
Here are the players from the ConSimWorld Expo 2015 Game: L-R Standing: Charles (Italy), Lance (Britain Med), Mark (USA), Wolf (Japan) Seated: John (German OB West), George (Britain NW Europe), Dave (German OB Ost), Ron (Soviets) Not pictured: Dave Simmons (France & Britain in 39-40), and Jerry (China) and special thanks to Sean King who helped us set it all up!
