One Sided Miniature Wargaming Discourse: Don't Mention The War

AUSGAME2022 (long post - two sessions)

1942 M/J (Cont) - Operation Barbarossa is Launched.

Previously - Russia goes first and then the most important roll, the weather, and the German nightmare continues, a 1! Unbelievable, the Germans snow curse continues as a late winter (Snow) returns to the Artic and storm mostly everywhere else, and importantly for the Russian the impulse marker advances by 2, promising another short turn.

Allied 1st Impulse – Russia takes a Comb and sails the Black Seas fleet and its Tpt into the Black Sea, as a bonus it can reinvert an INF Corps and the BS limited SB to Russian defenders. Some limited movement on the front as Russians dig in deeper and Acft rebase to the rear. CW takes a Naval and sails out its escorts to multiple sea areas to protect its convs, just in case the German launches its submarines in the bad weather. Additional transports are sent back to the UK. Supply is re-established to Greece and the CW deploys the bulk of its air in the Med, reacting to Italian Subs attempts to find the Conv and cut Greek supply – no finds. In the Pacific a high-risk strategy to reinforce Batavia as the an Aus Tpt delivers the recently arrived Aust 6.1 GAR into the capital of Java – oops repeating history here. The US Comb sees several CA’s escort CW convoys, and a US BS Squadron in W Africa returns to W Europe. Long range acft are rebased both in the ETO and the PTO. China fires its Arty – no success – faulty ammunition, no inversions, no attacks. EOT impulse marker advances by 2.

Axis 1st impulse – With the atrocious weather having been rolled by Stalin – snow in the artic and Storm in the temperate – Germany declines a DOW and takes a Naval. The Vichy Fleet sorties out to the W Med and its subs out to Cape Verde to interdict US shipping transiting in and out of Gibraltar. The German fleet sails into the Baltic embarking two INF Corps (6 Mil and 8.4 INF) its U-Boats go hunting since there is no air in the Temp regions but fail to find in any sea zone. Italy takes a combined and searches with its submarines – no convoy find, but a hapless Italian Sub is sunk. Japan takes a Comb and attempts a long-range port attack against US assets but fails to have enough shifts in the rain to do any damage. The Japanese Strike fleet in the S China Sea supports the invasion of the Philippines and Japanese land units occupy the resource, other searches for US convoys fail to find. Some success off the Indian coast with a CW convoy being found and sunk. EOT impulse marker goes up by 2.

Allied 2nd Impulse – weather roll 4, finally fine weather! Russia takes a land and prepares for the assault that is to come, with some final adjustments to the front line and rebasing of acft to the rear areas. A unit arrives in Odessa and is reinverted by the Black Sea Tpt. The US takes a Comb and delivers units, both land and acft to the UK as tpts can move freely in the fine weather. US paras are rebased to the North of England to conduct mountain training in Scotland – Air transports arrive in Scapa Flow for winterisation landing and take off training. The CW take a Comb and sails reinforcements to India from the Med. British units capture the Italian Supply unit in Eritrea, dinning out on Chianti and pasta, a change from bully beef and tea. An attempt to capture the trapped Italian Tpt fails as its grizzled Captain blows up his ship rather than have it fall into the CW hands. Perth, WA (my home) is garrisoned to prevent a Japanese invasion. Force H is reoriented to the East, staging out of Aden as long-range aircraft from Egypt arrive to face off against the Japanese.

Axis 2nd Impulse – Germany can no longer delay now that the storm clears and the skies are blue, finally fine everywhere. Germany makes a DOW on Russia and aligns Finland – launching Operation Barbarossa – the world is at war! The Finns cross the border and assault a Soviet 2 factor garrison, with overwhelming odds. A naval invasion put an 8.4 INF Corps ashore in Estonia, capturing the minor port of Parnu. AGN launches 3 attacks against 4 and 5 factor Mil and Gar on the front line with TOT rolls, multiple rolls of 18. Two Soviet 5 factor units defending the woods in front of the Pripet Marshes were also overwhelmed again with TOTT results. In the South, the Lvov MIL defensive guard was also eliminated with another TOTT roll. In Rumania the city of Cernauti was liberated on a +11 attack with another excellent roll of 18, again TOTT. On the borders of Hungary, a 3-factor unit dug in the mountain passes was attacked at +12 with another TOTT roll. In the Black Sea a 4-factor MIL was easily overwhelmed at +30 TOTT. Excellent rolling by the German resulted with 9 Russian units eliminated with all TOTT rolls, no losses, no inversions, a great first impulse for Operation Barbarossa. The German losses are nil, with the Russian losing 9 Corps and 2 Divs. The axis rolled very well including multiple 18’s and averaging dice rolls of 15-ish. Next week the continuation of the second impulse as Germany presses its temporary advantage. EOT advances by 1.

Allied 3rd impulse, Weather roll and German’s nightmare continues as another 1 is rolled, that is two 1’s on the opening M/J turn of Operation Barbarossa, unbelievably unlucky! Artic is snow and storm mostly everywhere else, and importantly for the Russian this second bad weather roll guarantees a short turn, as the impulse marker advances by 2. Russia calls up its Reserve units and declares a Land action. Reinforcements are rushed to both front lines, North and South, as reinforcements advance rather than retreat in the atrocious weather. Odessa’s factory is stripped and loaded onto flat cars for the long rail trip to the Urals. A speculative long-range GS, even in snow, successfully disrupts one of the German’s Southern HQ – where is the Luftwaffe! The CW takes a Comb action redeploying ships and aircraft in Europe. The US takes a Comb and deploys shipping forward and aircraft into the adjacent sea areas of Rabaul, a search finds a Jap convoy which is sunk. The Russian attempts the EOTR, with a 1 needed, rolled a 2! If only the other allies had passed – some minor relief for the German as he gets a 2nd invasion impulse in M/J – albeit in bad weather. EOT advances by 2.

Axis 3rd Impulse, Germany takes a Land and advances his units forward, following up on the retreating Russians in the South and attempting to envelop the Russians in the North bypassing the front-line units. A second Corps disembarks in the Estonia minor port of Parni dislocating the Russian defensive line – this is a good play. Lvov and the last Rumanian city is liberated. German Land long-rang GS from the Italian is unsuccessful as are the 5 Arty GS against the city of Kaunas - no inversions, no other land attacks, this impulse was about moving forward and attempting to outflank the Russian lines which still have holes in them.

Italy and Japan take Comb actions. Japan’s first act is to port strike the recently arrived Aus Tpt in Batavia, fortune favours the Japanese as they get a 10 – 1 split on the search dice, the Tpt is doomed as 8 factors of Japanese CV - A2S sink the Aust Tpt as no one can save the X/X/D result. The recently arrived Aust 6.1 GAR in Batavia settles in for the expected assault that is coming. In the Arabian sea the Japanese find and damage a Greek Conv and abort a British CA back to India. Japanese land units head towards Java over the Island bridge from Borneo, threatening the Javanese mainland.

Italian – the fleet sails to the Italian Coast to provide SB to the attack against the Greek Mtn units at Thermopylae. Bombarded by arty, as well German and Italian GS, 1 Greek Corps is inverted as the Italian Bilboa HQ leads an assault against the mountain pass – “none shall pass” as the Axis result is a is a handy 1/2 with the Allies losing two units, the Greek Mountain Corps and a Brit Div. Only one Greek Corps now defends the pass.

EOT roll is a 3 – turn ends. Partisan roll also a 3 – finally a brief respite for the Japanese, for the first time in 6 turns, a year, no partisans turn up in China – I think they have just simply run out of men. Production – and a final ignominy for the German, due to the Snow in the temperate, because of the 1 weather roll – NO Swedish iron ore for Germany due to mining, Axis production down three resources, Germany will have to spend oil to maintain a full build. USA builds another 5 O-points but interestingly has not started any of his 42 Essex Class CVs – he may have left his run too late as he focusses on land-based air to defeat the Japanese. It is quicker to get these in play, but they are limited to island bases and is a paced approach to containing then reducing the Japanese AI (Area of Interest).

July/August 42 – Barbarossa Second Turn

Reinforcements, Russia places their newly built Siberian oil refinery at Magnitogorsk (an insurance build once the 41 Op Barbarossa was canc), and the majority of their reinforcements are placed in the South. Interestingly Russia had advanced built 2 x Pilots so was able to place 5 Ftrs and a Land on the front line to challenge the Luftwaffe – no free rides for the German air-force. Important initiatives roll – on evens, Germany winning ties. Germany issues the challenge rolling an impressive 9 – Russia also a 9, but with the Axis winning ties, Russia demands a re-roll -initiative marker moves to +1 Axis) and promptly rolls a 1 and gifts the German’s the first impulse of the J/A turn – they need it. Weather roll (with a +2) is a 5 (7) fine everywhere except rain in N Monsoon. A relief for the German as he could have rolled a 9 or 10 which with the +2 from last turns weather could have been snow and blizzard on the Russian Front – we half expected that with the awful weather run that the German has had in this game.

Axis 1st impulse Germany takes a Land and Italy take combine and Japan a Naval. Italy sails its entire Italian Fleet into the Italian Coast to provide SB for the attack against the last remaining Greek Mountain unit holding the pass at Thermopylae, shades of the 300. The Italian GS is unsuccessful and the combined attack by the Axis, again led by Balbo, with a +6.9, rolling a 6.8 results in a 13 for a -/- , and like history 3000 years ago the pass is held and all the attackers are inverted - Greece will survive another turn. The British Sub Unicorn attempts to find the Italian Conv off the Coast of Italy surfaced too early and was sprung by the Italian massed fleet and simply blown out of the water.

Army Group South, launching from Rumania moved up to the border into Ukraine, bringing up artillery, aircraft and attempting to infiltrate the line and cross the river, but the Soviets have built a strong line, and this will need inversions (GS) and massed armour (+) and O-Chits to break this line. Army Group North, launches a single GS against the defenders in Kaunas which fails as the single JU 88 bomber is shot down by the Soviet air-force, and the 5 factor Arty . With a +7.6 Assault, the German rolls the dreaded squiggly 14 with a roll of 6.6. Three losses for the Germans and a full invert, two Germans HQs reinvert the despondent attackers but worse that roll generates the first GBA of the game, a handy 9.5 MOT INF – not the start the German wanted. Acft are rebased forward from Kronstadt and Rumania as the front line in Russia starts to form.

Japan’s Naval sees multiple Japanese CA’s patrol out to many sea areas to screen operations in the Philippines and Batavia. Japanese subs patrolled the Hawaiian and Christmas Islands. A BS squadron was sent into the S China Sea to provide SB to either a Philippines or Batavia assault. Marines are sent out to the China Sea to land in the Philippines and Inf Corps land in Singapore, and Java, clearly signalling Japanese intensions.

The Allied build up of Paras, Tpts and Amphs has been noted by the Axis as they await an invasion of Europe – the Second Front will be opened – but where Norway, Denmark The Lowlands, France or even Germany itself!

Next Session - Allied 1st Impulse of the J/A 42 turn has been delayed due to Covid outbreak amongst the Allies - suspected germ warfare by the Axis players - just sayin. The US and CW will be taking Naval actions and the Chinese and Russian land actions.