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

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Don't Mention The War - Part 42 via Facebook

AUSGAME 2023

JUL/AUG 1944 – EOT

AXIS IN TROUBLE ON ALL FRONTS – ONLY ATROCIOUS WEATHER WILL SAVE THE REICH.

This session started with the Axis 3RD impulse of the J/A 44 turn and finished with the 5th impulse for the Allied, weather all fine but storm or rain in the N Monsoon.

Axis Session Summary

Germany took a land and successfully blocked the US on the Western Front – just, but had to pull back on the Eastern Front and Rumania. The Russian attacks on the 4th Allied Impulse mostly failed despite high odds as the Russian rolled a double 1 and a 3 on two +18 attacks – this gave the German a substantial reprieve as much of the front line in AGN and AGS was inverted. This allowed the German to pull back, even OOS units to a defensive line of sorts in Poland and Hungary – the Pripet Marshes are vacated. Rumania is not so pretty, despite leaving some blocking units the Russian advance was successful as they head towards the Rumanian capital and the Ploesti oil fields. Worse the CW rolled well on two attacks in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and the Germans have few quality units to counter the penetrations into these minors. Rundstedt and a few quality units are now withdrawing out of Rumania as they are desperately needed for the defence of Hungary and Eastern Germany. The Allied bombing was successful, shutting down 5 Factories and all the Rumanian oil. Further success on the Western Front by the US saw the US gain ground and enter Germany, threatening Munich, but at a cost as again low rolls cost the US valuable units and caused inversions. The partly good news is that Germany has 17 pilots in reserve and will retrain some of these as BPs. Italy who will surrender at the end of the turn scrapped all its pilots and a BS and only built BPs so that Germany will now gain all these BPs next turn – a bonus 13 BPs.

Meanwhile Japan juggled between combined and land actions to withdraw units in Manchuria as the Russian slow advance starts to make some progress. The land battle in China is collapsing at the rapid rate as all its units are OOS and with only one HQ upright even emergency supply is no longer an option. Japan did attempt to slip a few convs into the China Sea hopeful that they would not be found – but they were. Chinese are now also emboldened and are looking at opportunities to attack the OOS Japanese – some Communist success combined with additional Partisans will make China untenable – only bad weather will delay the inevitable. Japan’s build has been significantly reduced as only 3 resources are traceable to Japan, and as Chinese factories get captured this will be reduced further. The only good news for Japan is that Truk, Manila, Singapore and Batavia are still in Japanese hands and will distract the US over the next couple of turns as the N Monsoon clears. Japan’s Navy and air-force remain strong as they have had few losses – Japan will look to storms and bad weather to reduce the US air advantage and look for opportunities to attack US shipping, especially CVs, Amphs, Tpts and Convs, and if they can time it well for an end-of-turn attack, they may catch the US out of supply. They will need to adventurous and lucky to regain a temporary advantage.

Allies Session Summary

The Allies were disappointed by the end of the session as the land combat rolls on both Eastern and Western (US) Fronts were very poor. Russia rolled a double one and then rolled a 3 on +18 attacks with an average of 5 attacks being 6! The US did not fair much better rolling poor on most of their assaults. Having said that the current position of the Germans is dire, even with their reinforcements – which will need to be placed judiciously. If the Allies win the initiative and get clear weather the end of the game will be very close as there will be multiple breakthroughs on four or five fronts. The Allies were able to significantly affect the Axis production with Strategic bombing and capturing resources, and the loss of the 3 Oil in Ploiesti will have implications for the Axis. With Italy now ‘out of the war’ the CW will be freed to assault the Germans from Italy, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria whilst still tying up units in N Germany with threats from the Sea and Denmark. Japan’s Production is significantly down and the collapse of the Japanese land army in China imminent. The Japanese has retained its air-force and the bulk of its surface fleet so they can still project air and sea power into one sea zone, but only one, so are still a moderate threat to the US if they become lax or inattentive. So, there are still opportunities to ‘hurt’ the US but with a low production they will struggle to replace losses so suicide attacks by air and sea may be a last resort to save the Japanese homeland.

EOT

J/A EOT – the Russian rolled a 2, ending the turn, much to the relief of the Axis in general and Germany in particular – just in time as another clear Allied impulse would have been the end with little chance of any Axis recovery. The initiative marker moved to the centre with the Axis winning ties, so the Axis have a better than even chance of starting the next S/O turn. Three more partisans turn up in China to add to the Japanese woes there, and IAW the rules with only one Partisan in the ‘cup’ the two others, both 4 factors, were removed from Finland and Vietnam and miraculously teleported into China – this rule needs fixing as it is extremely silly, perhaps additional partisans or maybe at least an exchange where you can remove one but you then trade one for one of your on map partisans. Rebase and reinversions, the Japanese inverted units in China remain face down as they cannot trace supply to Japan. Production, Conquest phase – Italy surrenders to the CW with their capital is now in Ethiopia and Germany takes control of Rome and Northern Italy. Next session reinforcement, initiative and weather – with the Axis hoping to win the initiative and roll bad weather – but not snow!

· ACFT – Aircraft

· LOC – Line of Communications

· TOTT – Top of the table a 23 or more

AGN/AGS German Army Group North and South