Reinforcements are placed.
Germany lends Italy oil.
Initiative
Axis roll a 9, the Allies a 3 which means the Axis have the initiative and will be going first.
First Impulse
The weather roll is a 4, Fine everywhere except North Monsoon which is Rain.
German takes a paid land, Italy a paid naval and Japan a paid combine.
Japan moves some transports around.
Italy sails Trento out into the Red Sea, smoothers the Med in cruisers and sends subs into three sea lanes. Searches are conducted: a find in the North Atlantic (rolled a 1, Allies a 7); fail Cape St Vincent (5/7); fail Bay of Biscay (8/6); fail Eastern Med (8/5); and fail Red Sea (7/6). But the Battle of the North Atlantic sees 6 CP damaged and 3 aborted. The sub also aborts.
Japan conducts some strategic bombing, successfully hitting Chungking.
Japan conducts three ground strikes plus a bombardment. Having seen what happened last time, China uses its AA unit, but only manages to drive off one factor. Japan gets two flips out of seven, not bad for needing 1s and 2s.
Italy strikes the French on its front. It misses all three targets.
Germany conducts four ground strikes and two bombardments. The much reduced French air force ventures out to intercept two. In one combat the French clear the bomber through, but then bounce on the German fighter, shooting it down and killing the pilot before aborting. In the other air combat the French fighter clears through the German bomber and is shot down, but the pilot survives. There are 14 attempts to flip units, but only 3 successes.
Japan moves troops up, knowing the Chinese are not going anywhere.
Germany, disappointed with its ground strikes decides just to attack Metz. It is a 10.4 assault. HQs are not committed.
The die roll is 11.10 for a final 21. One French unit is eliminated (providing a cadre point) and the other sent to the spiral. Half the attackers are inverted. Metz falls and Guderian reinverts the flipped units.
Von Leeb reinverts the artillery.
The Commonwealth will take a paid naval, France hopes it can getaway with a free land, as does China. USA and USSR do free combines.
Commonwealth tries hard to plug the convoy gap in the North Atlantic. Escorts are deployed and the Med Fleet goes searching for the Italians in the Red Sea. CW roll an 8, It a 5. The Italians find the convoy with 7 surprise points. This inflicts 2D1A. The two damage results sinks the one convoy. The Italian cruiser then aborts.
The Commonwealth naval moves provides three air actions. The French beg the British to ground strike the Germans. The Brits say no, but then relent allocating one mission to that end, but first bombing Prague and Nuremberg gaining one hit on the latter. The Luftwaffe intercept the ground strike and shoot it down (3 rolled), the pilot at least bailing out to safety.
France can readjust its front without giving ground. Germany will have to fight for every hex. Their artillery have better luck in flipping at least one German unit.
But China has a real problem. Almost paralysed by fear, they partially pullback to protect Chungking and hope for either bad weather or bad die rolls by the Japanese.
Pull back would provide easy targets, but to stay might create a bigger problem.
USSR moves troops to the border with Germany and also starts to plot a move against Iraq.
The USA wonders what to do.
Second Impulse
The weather roll is an 8, Fine everywhere.
Germany takes a paid land as does Japan. Italy does a free combine and searches in the eastern Med. In a reverse of the Red Sea battle it throws a 10 while the Commonwealth roll a 2. As the CW had not committed its sub, there is no combat.
The Japanese try some ground strikes but they are ineffective. It has however two attacks. The first is a +8 blitz lead by Umezu. The second is a +11.1 assault lead by Yamamoto.
Umezu rolls a 15 producing a perfect TOTT. Yamamoto rolls a 10.1, not quiet a TOTT. The Chinese console themselves with 3 cadre points.
Italy captures Sousse in Tunisia which is proclaimed as a great victory. In the horn of Africa Italian troops rush to defend Italian Somaliland.
The Germans conduct ground strikes and bombardments.
They follow up with a +9.6 blitz heading for Paris defended by Prételat and a +10.7 assault on Strasbourg.
The blitz rolls a 14.5 TOTT! The assault is a 7.7 roll which produces an 18 which is 1 loss to the defenders and all attackers flipped. The French get 2 cadre point from the Blitz losses.
Rundstedt and Bock are used to reinvert units.
The Commonwealth take a paid combine, France takes a free combine, China a free land, USSR and USA free combine.
The Commonwealth attempt a port strike on Asmara. They roll a 7, the Italians a 9. This gives the CW two surprise points. The Italian cruiser has 2 AA factors, but against one bomber it does nothing. The Baffin launched from the Eagle has 2 Air to Sea factors, there are two ships (the Trento and a CP), and using the surprise points to go up a column the result is 1D1A. As they are the attacking player, the CW choose the Trento for the damage. It survives. As the CP is already marked as used and so the abort result does nothing.
The Commonwealth (now that I know the Port Attack rules) contemplate striking Kiel, but decide against it. Similarly in the Med they feel that their subs are a better force in being that will require the Italians to react each turn.
The US send another sub to Pearl Harbour. Whoops! This can't happen until a specific Entry Option is chosen.
The French send their transport to Senegal in case there are more militia to collect. The Commonwealth move their transports from Liverpool to the safety of Scarpa Flow.
The Commonwealth conduct a major strategic bombing run on Essen, but all five factors miss.
The Kenya Territorials threaten Italian Somaliland, the Cape Town militia arrive in Rangoon and the South African Territorials work out their chances against the partisans. It would only be a +1.5 assault. Miserable! (The Partisan gets an extra factor in jungle and a -4 adjustment).
The USSR looks at Iraq and wonders what it should do about Rumania and Finland. Finland is easy, it is not positioned to do anything. Rumania can be dealt with promptly (it will save a resource so the question is why haven't they made their demands already?). Troops start moving to the border with Iraq. That just leaves the Baltic states to resolve.
Third Impulse
And the weather is 8 again, Fine everywhere.
Whoops. Just noticed that it is a road not rail line that goes west from Changsha, that means the two Japanese 3 movement factor units would have to flip moving into the mountains. So it goes and good I spotted this now before any damage was done.
Japan will do a free land, Italy a free land and Germany a paid land.
The Germans use their artillery to bombard the French forward positions. The Italians even send help.
The Germans succeed in flipping one corps and the follow up attack is a +10.4 blitz. The die roll is 11.3 producing a 22. The French lose the Paris militia which provides 1 cadre point and the other two units go to the production spiral. The Germans are one hex closer to Paris.
The Italians conquer Tunisia and win the race to Mogadishu.
Japan shuffles units around.
The Allies have a problem which might be solved if they all passed which would provide a 20% chance of the Turn ending. As there is not a lot they can do they decide to pass.
The die roll is a 5.
Impulse Four
Weather roll is a 3. Rain in the Arctic, Storm in North Monsoon, Rain in South Monsoon and Fine everywhere else with a plus 1 to the next weather roll.
Germany takes a paid combine, Italy and Japan free combines.
The Kormoran slips out of Rio and heads to Cape Basin. Its search roll is a 1, convoys found. But the convoys roll a 2 so only 5 surprise points. The three CP represent one ship and with two shifts the Kormoran manages to inflict a damage on them.
Italy searches in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. This time the Commonwealth include their submarine. Italy rolls a 2, the Commonwealth an 8. The Gorizia in the 4 box hunts the Trion which is in the 3 box with 7 surprise points. That gives 2D1A on the sub. The sub is sunk. The Gorizia aborts. The Commonwealth aborts its convoy.
Germany then bombs Glasgow, but misses.
Japan contents itself with covering occupied China with ZOCs to avoid partisans.
Italy invades Algeria.
Germans makes a +17.5 Blitz against Pretelat.
The roll is 3.8 making a 20, the French HQ goes to the Production Spiral
and half the Germans are flipped.
A great French victory.
But the turn doesn't end.
The Allies try to end the Turn again. A 4 or less is needed, they roll a 7!
Impulse Five
Weather roll is 6 which is Fine everywhere except North Monsson which has Rain.
Italy will take a no cost combine, Germany a paid land and Japan a no cost land.
Italy continues with its conquest of North Africa, the Sardinians arriving in Constantine. Italy sails a sub to Cape of St Vincent, but declines to search. There is debate within the Italian High Command over whether or not now is a good time to invade Egypt. They decide more planning is required.
Germany attacks the other inverted French HQ, Georges. It is a +20.5 blitz.
They don't care what the die roll is (a 14.5) as even with the minimum roll it would produce an excellent result. Georges is eliminated. The French find little comfort in picking up a cadre point. The breakthrough result now gives the Germans three good hexes on Paris and also cuts off the French armour south east of Lille.
Does the Turn end? Almost. 3 needed, but a 4 rolled.
Can the Commonwealth launch a counter attack? It would be either a 8.4 or 6.8 blitz (German choice, but that would be the way to reduce the risk of a loss). BUT I don't think the Commonwealth are in supply unless they can get a transport or convoy into the North Sea. Whoops!
Establishing supply and then attacking reduces the offensive to a 6.4 or 5.2, but the Germans would choose an assault.
All passing means there is a 60% chance of the turn ending.
I resolved by rolling a dice. The Allies decided to pass. They rolled a 6. Turn over.
End of Turn Phase
Partisan roll is a 3 (again). Not a chance in Belgium and supressed in Indo-China.
US entry... I might have been doing this wrong. I thought the Entry Level was just the value of the chits in the pool, but I now think it is 1.5 times the chits in one Entry Pool plus half the value of the chits in the other entry pool. So I was working on a level of 14, but it should now be 25.
The US choose option 16 Gift of Destroyers to the Commonwealth. Tension is avoided due to Edward R Murrow. Their second choice is option 13 Embargo strategic materials to Japan. No tension.
China 3+3 BP 1xWorker, 1xInf, 1xCav Div
Commonwealth 16 BP (using 5 oil) 1xTerr, 1xMil, 1xCVP3, 1xFTR3, 2xPilots, 9xCP Repair, 1xCV FU (US BP), 1x CA FU (US BP)
US 10 BP 1xPara, 1xCVP3, 1xFTR2, 1xPilot
USSR 15 BP 1xMech, 2xInf, 1xGar, 1xCav
France 2+4 BP 3xMilitia (I think France should have been storing Iraqi oil in Syria?)
Germany 16 BP 2xInf,1xArm,1xFTR2, 1xPilot
Italy 5 BP 1xInf HQ
Japan 16 BP 1xInf, 1xMtn, 1xCVP3, 1xNav2, 2xPilot, 2xCV FU
Start of Turn Six
With the resumption of our regular face to face game I might leave this Vassal game at this point.
One mistake I have made is failing to remove the poor quality subs from the Italian force pool at set up.
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