I suddenly realise I have been preparing for the wrong war.
They're back!
AUSGAME2000 1941 M/A – THE GERMANS SURPRISE THE ALLIES
The session kicked off with the J/F rebase, production and arrival of the M/A 41 reinforcements. Alarmingly for the Russians the GERM heavily reinforced East Prussia with MECH, ARM and ACFT whilst the Russian placed all its reinforcements into the Jap-Sino border cities, including 2 FTRS and 2 Land Bombers. The Allies win the initiative and go first after a lucky roll which the Axis did not contest. There was ample Allied discussion about letting the Axis go first, for the chance of shifting their +2 to a +1 if they started and ended the turn. Churchill was too concerned about the Egyptian situation and politely requested that the Allies took the opportunity that the dice had given them to go first, Stalin and Roosevelt agreed. The weather was fine with a 9 rolled. The CW choose a Comb and sailed the Wavell HQ into Gibraltar and a CV with escorts to the 4 box in the Red Sea to escort the supply Conv to the Egyptian defenders. They Brits fly to the Baltic and fail to find the GERM Convs or the E Med Italian Convs. The Egyptian TER is withdrawn back to the Allied lines, thankful for a combined move and faces off against the Italians advance to Cairo. The Russians take a no cost combined and tentatively rail a Div to the Germ Border – still unsure of GERM intentions. China - land, and the US - Comb take ‘housekeeping’ options.
The Axis 1st impulse, GERM aligns Hungary, which the US Senate notes disapproval as the Axis continued to be unlucky and rolled a 3, giving away another chit to the GERM/IT pool. the Italian’s take a Naval and Japan a no cost Land, GERM declares a Land. The Italian sailed to the E Med to support their Egyptian expedition and disembarks the GERM 9.6 ARM into Alexandria, this arrival is a huge shift for the Axis as they can now elect for a Blitz attack and the 9.6 is the largest and fastest unit in theatre, its arrival is deeply concerning to the British and the defence of the strategically important Suez Canal. Italian Subs fail to locate the CW convs nor do the escorts find their subs, the RN escorts rolls two 4’s in their search missing both subs by 1 in each sea area! The Italians search for the lone British CA in the E Med, reacting multiple NAV air to the 2 box, but fail to find – British presence remains in the E Med. In a surprise move the GERM Army suddenly heads East, 3 x ARM units’ rail to Rumania, and the rest of the GERM Army and acft head East or to rail heads in France. Japan’s no cost land sees additional units railed North into Manchuria to face off against the Russian build up. The lone Manchu Partisan occupying the iron ore mines in Manchuria are harshly dealt with by overwhelming Japanese forces.
Allied 2nd impulse and bad weather arrives, a 2 rolled, including the 1:10 chance of storm in the Med – the CW gets very excited as all the Axis air in the E Med (5 x Navs) are now grounded by weather and cannot fly. Enticingly the last Italian Tpt is inverted in the 2 Box of the E Med having just unloaded the 9.6 GERM ARM If only the Royal Navy can find this tpt there will be no more substantial reinforcements for the Axis to Egypt – just need to get a find! The CW takes a Naval and both the Med Fleet from Gibraltar and Force H from Aden sail into the E Med to hunt the Italian’s last Tpt – no luck for the Brit as a 7 is rolled, no find. The rest of the Brit Navy sails to escort its Convs, supplement Convs and a sub and CA seek the Italian Conv off the Italian coast and find it, a 7 by the Italian sees the CA sink the Italian Conv (2 x Ds) Sardinia is OOS. Rabaul is now garrisoned with the arrival of a hefty WP 7 MOT Canadian Inf and Singapore welcomes the arrival of an Indian and Australian MIL – Singapore is now defended – now where is HMS PoW and Repulse?
Axis 2nd impulse and its on – the race to the Russian border as the GERM takes another land and rails 2 x Corps and another ARM HQ East. Acft, including redeploying long range Navs from the Med and French coast. Land units arrive to swell the border Garrison – apparently ‘Spain is off the menu tonight’ as Hitler changes his mind (that happens a lot) as he sees the opportunity to break his Trade agreement with Russia since there is a sizeable Russian force in the Far-East including all the Russian HQs. Italy takes a no cost combined to replace the lost Conv and moves several units, including railing a Land unit to France. With bad weather Japan does little, railing another unit to Manchuria.
Allied 3rd impulse and a weather roll of 10 sees the skies clear again – a big three conference is convened in Gibraltar. To discuss a DOW by Russia on Japan, despite strong protestations by Churchill a nervous US President does not support a DOW as he is deeply concerned that the possibility of losing 2 x lost chits from the Jap pool will jeopardise his Gear Up, Stalin agrees as he wants the US in the war ASAP – demanding a Second Front despite not having a first front. Churchill leaves the meeting a little perplexed. Russia takes a no cost Comb cancelling the planned DOW v Japan and rails back to the West the Timoshenko HQ which arrives in the Pripet Marshes to supply the border troops, a number of other land units on the Russian GERM border occupy defensive positions. The CW takes another Naval as the weather in the Med is now clear and Force H and the Med must retire as they have no air cover and would be decimated by the Axis Nav air if found. In the North a tpt sails a 5.5 MOT reinforcement into Norway.
Axis 3rd Impulse Italy takes a Comb and searches the E Med for the pesky British CA, but typically in these cases the British find and the Italian doesn’t so the CA selects the Italian Conv and aborts back to port. In a combined Op with GERM land forces, including the recently arrived 9.6 GERM ARM the Axis launch a Blitz attack against the mixed CW defenders dug in on the banks of the Nile. They attempt GS which is contested and in the first A2A combat, the 6 Spitfire is shot down (5 Rolled) by the 6 ME109 – Typical, that Spit was assembled in SA, and has taken 5 turns, yep 5 turns to get to the battle and in its first ‘evens’ fight it gets shot down – obviously, its Merlin engines were worn out getting to Egypt. To add to the pain the CW defenders, all dug in behind the Nile have a Div and a Corps get inverted (3’s needed) – they are attacked with the 9.6 leading at a +7.8 and promptly roll a 14 for a full blitz. The CW were disappointed as there was a good chance that the any loss from the Axis would have been the 9.6 ARM as there was no other MECH/MOT unit to take the loss. An average roll would have resulted in the loss of the 9.6 ARM and inversions, which would have then been punished with a blitz counter attack by Indian Mech and the Australians – saving the SUEZ! Alas, the GERM victory saw the CW Defenders blitzed back to their homelands, and the 9.6 advanced to be adjacent to Cairo and closing the Suez Canal – no more interference from Force H in Aden. As a bonus they attempt to overrun the CA HMS Cumberland flees the harbour but is spotted by the patrolling Italian Navs (yep, Italian rolled a 1 needed a 3) and promptly sunk. However, the US Senate was not impressed as another chit goes into the US GER/Ital pool. The Blitz attack was certainly a risky activity by the GERM who was well rewarded, and Cairo/Egypt is now in jeopardy. Japan, noting that the Russian DOW is unlikely, took a no cost Land and started to withdraw units from Manchuria. Axis fail the EOT Roll. A bonus impulse for the Allied, which has probably saved Russia from a DOW by GERM.
Next session the Allied 4th impulse and the weather roll of 3 brings back the bad weather – mostly snow with rain in the Med, up and down this weather is 9/2/10 and 3. A hastily convened Gibraltar 2 Conference sees Stalin very concerned about the garrison of the front line and the rapid build up by the GERM. Currently the estimate GV if the turns end, including reinforcements would be GERM 72 on board points + 6 Reinforcements + 17 chits average 34 total of 112 GV verses the Russian 32 on board + 3.5 Reinforcements + 20 pts chits – total of 55.5 (111 doubled) 112 Germ v 55.5 (111) Russian – it does not get any closer than that. If the GERM chit pool is greater than an average of 2 the Germ would marginally break the GV. The big variable is this EOT garrison chit draw – who will draw the big chits, 2:1 in favour of the GERM.
With two extra chits in the GER/IT Pool the US is no longer concerned about loosing two chits and approves a Russian DOW against Japan. This will place 4.5 additional RES Corps on the Russia/GERM border, also allow 3 rail moves which will included Zhukov (2 cost) who would have been stuck in the Far East – two maps away, also this option will give the Russian a MIL build option, allow him to take Land moves, allow him to stored oil and receive LL Options and removes the Japanese surprise bonuses for the future. It was agreed by the ‘Big Three’ that the next session will commence with a DOW on Japan by Russia. EOT roll will be a 5. The CW will no longer be fighting alone – Churchill retires for the evening with a large bottle of 18YO Malt – he will sleep a little more soundly.
With the extra 4.5 points of Res and 2 points for Zhukov that would bring the Russian to 62 doubling value 124 needed by the GERM – a close run thing indeed! If the GERM draws two high chits 5’s and the Russian a 1 the 10/1 split could still be the difference for a potential 41 DOW – exciting.
France is rapidly being emptied of GERM Units
Army Gp South Build up
Western Med still in British hands
The Suez Canal is closed by Axis Forces
The Far East
The Jap - Sino Front as Russian's board trains to head West. A Russian DOW will see little damage to the Japanese - but extra Reserves for the Russian are essential if they wish to challenge the GERM GV Build up.
All quiet on the Chinese front
Losses - relatively minor for this time of year, despite two clear weather impulses
Germ Panzers head East
The Gibraltar Conference MA 41 sees agreement and support for Stalin's DOW v Japan
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