AUSGAME2 2023
The End is Nigh – Germany Fails to Achieve Paris as the Dice Gods interfere yet again!
JUL/AUG 1940 (Cont)
Allied 1st impulse. Russia DOW Iran/Persia, which is aligned with Japan, Crossing the border Russia destroys the Iranian 2.4 Cav on the Russia/Persian border with a 
roll and advances towards Terran. The US Senate is alarmed at these events and the US loses a chit – hopefully one of the big 4 pointers hehehehehe. CW and France both take Land actions. GS on the Western Front sees one CW bomber aborted by AA and the other bombing run reduced to a NE. The French Arty fires and inverts a DIV as the French rearranges its line, reducing the garrison in Strasbourg to a 3 factor INF. Britain reinverts its inverted MECH and waits it out. China flips a DIV into the mountain point hex hoping to reduce the likelihood of the Japanese taking this important hex. It is important as it unlocks the Chinese mountain defensive line and puts a hex on the Nationalists capital Chungking.
Axis 2nd impulse. Weather roll is 7, N Temp is fine as it should be for the rest of the turn. Needing to make inroads, Germany declared a land offensive led by Guderian. Low odds ground strikes all miss. The only woods hex on the Belgium border is targeted and taking this hex opens up the clear terrain behind it. Three hexes are doubled, without blitz bonuses, a comfortable +13.3 blitz attack with a nice roll of 16 sees a welcome result – Germany breathes a sigh of relief as any low roll in these early impulses would result in losses and inversions which the German can ill afford. A secondary attack was launched on the French 3 factor INF in Strasbourg across the Maginot and the Rhine River. A +8.4 assault with a handy roll of 14 (22) takes the hex with loss of a unit (1.1 GAR) and half inverted, good result as the Maginot line is now breached. Guderian, buoyed by his success, albeit at the expense of 13 OPs, re-inverts 8 units and the front line is ready to maintain the momentum of offensive action. However, and ominously for the German, all its HQs are now face down and will cost OP’s to reinvert. Italy and Japan took Land actions; Italy land DIVS and the HQ Graziani in Cyprus and assault the 2.4 DIV defending the port of Famagusta, automatic results in the loss of the Div, Cyprus is cleared of British units. The hapless CA HMS Newcastle flees the port, avoiding capture or destruction (it was inverted) but is found be the patrolling Italian fleet – with a moderate split it is sunk in the E Med. Italian Units advance and liberate Jordan advancing towards the border with Saudi Arabia.
Japan takes a combined and lands a Marine DIV in the Persian port of Bandar Shapur and embarks on the train to Terran to bolster the local MIL defenders resolve – hoping that the imminent Russian assault on the capital will be a low roll and Iran can be saved. A Strat bombing of Chungking sees Japan’s first Strat success as the city's factory is bombed. Japan GS the mountain hex and succeeds, the assault is launched and led by Umezu and with a roll and the Mountain hex taken – with that result China is potentially in trouble now. Japanese arty units are reinverted and the Japanese start to see the light at the end of the tunnel in China. Allied 2nd Impulse. CW takes a naval and sends out its escorts and extra Convs to ship the valuable US oil to the UK. Force Z, 2 x CV’s 3 x BS’s and a CA go hunting for the two Italian CAs in the Arabian Sea – both sides fail to find in the Storm. British and Dutch subs hunt for Italian Convs in the Med, but like German U-boats fail to find or be detected – both sides rolling lots of +7s on their searches , France a no cost land, maneuvers Mil into the front lines – expendable, and withdraws from Metz leaving a 3 MIL as a rear guard. A CW strategic bombing run deep into Germany’s heartland just misses the factory. Russia launches its predicted assault against Terran and rolls destroying both the defending MIL and the Marine DIV. Axis 3rd Impulse, weather roll is a 5. Needing to continue pushing, Rundstedt is re-inverted – 6 more German OP's. The hex SE of Lille is targeted, and 1 INF and ATG are inverted, Rundstedt is used in the attack to get a +12.9 blitz but a roll of 7 sees only B result for loss of a MECH DIV and another half invert - a poor result for the German. Metz is attacked from 4 hexes getting a +14.6 assault with a roll of 11 ending up with a result. Rebases, now that Warsaw has fallen Germany rebases the 5 factor Stuka that has spent the entire year in support of LANDOPS in Poland. Japan takes a Land and successfully GS another Corps in the mountains N of Chungking and a DIV in S China – many options as it sweats on an Allied pass impulse and an EOT roll of 1 – it sets up for an attack next impulse. Allied 3rdImpulse sees all countries pass except France who takes a no cost Comb to conserve oil and relocate a BS that had been visiting Morocco – oops. The Allied 10% roll of 1 that was hoped for fails, much to the relief and surprise of the German's.
Axis 4th Impulse, weather roll is a 7. Germany continues to push, desperate to make some inroads and well behind schedule, declared two attacks. He again reinverts Guderian for the cost of 6 OPs – this is getting expensive now as the German has now been reduced to 11 OPs and he isn’t even adjacent to Paris. The clear Hex 1232, a gateway hex to Paris, had a defense of 16 with a -1 for the AT gun. The last German Stuka (5 fact) that had been rebased from Poland targets this important hex and is escorted by 2 x German Ftrs but the single French Ftr on a -1 rolls a 3 to gain the important AX and the Stuka is shot down on its first sortie in France – no plusses from this important GS. The escorting Ftrs shoot down the French Ftr but this is little consolation. The German Stuka should have been cleared through on a -1 with two escorting Ftrs. Pushing on as the clock is ticking and the turn can end now with any dice roll. A respectable blitz is declared using every remaining ARM/MECH getting to +9.3 however a roll of 4! sees 2 losses and a full invert for Germany for the loss a single French unit. This roll of 4 will more than likely cost Germany the game. The hex West of Metz had been reduced to a single 3 factor MIL, a +21.8 assault takes it automatically, German units enter Metz and open the Eastern Flank – alas too little, too late.
Italy takes a Comb and searches again for the conv in the Arabian Sea, this time she finds and sinks 1 x Conv, a second search and again neither side find in the storm much to the relief of the Italian CA Capt’s. Italian units advance to the Saudi border for desert training. Japan’s land saw it reinvert HQ Yamamoto for 6 OP’s as the Southern Mountain hex has a Corps and DIV inverted and from 4 Hexes the Assault of +10 promises success. Alas, the dice gods intervene and a 4 is rolled, the dreaded squiggly 14, 3/1 and that is two 4’s for the Axis this impulse.
So Both Japan and Germany on two critical dice rolls for land attacks this impulse; Germany’s attack against the ATK Hex and Japan’s against a second Mtn hex, both of these having spent Ops to reinvert HQs at the cost of 6 OP’s each, BOTH roll 4’s!The Axis quite rightly are somewhat aggrieved as the dice Gods have deserted them in their hour of need. You get that on the big jobs. EOT was not rolled, sigh, 1 needed.
Summary
As predicted, this was the key turn for our game. It is very rare that in a game with thousands of dice rolls and the complexity that WIF is, that a single dice roll can determine a game – but Germany’s 4th Impulse +9 Blitz attack against the French was probably one of those. The roll of 4 (6%) cost Germany two units and more importantly a full inversion of all its ARM/MECH and frankly any chance of Germany advancing to the outskirts of Paris. If he had rolled higher and destroyed the two French units and more importantly remained upright and given one or two more impulses and Germany could have had one or two hexes adjacent to Paris and potentially, and I do say potentially an assault against Paris in SEP/OCT. That opportunity has now evaporated and our game, like the previous one, looks as though it will end again in 1940 with a forced restart – more than a little disappointing for all players.
There is a sliver of a chance that Germany may achieve Paris in S/O 1940 – probably about the same as his failed Blitz roll, about 6%. But he will need an extreme coincidence of events to go Germany’s way in S/O. Any failure in anyone of them will result in Paris remaining in Allied hands and the game concluding again in 1940 rather than played to a more satisfying conclusion. Germany will need to win the initiative in S/O twice – Allies can force the reroll, if the Allies go first in S/O the Germans will not be able to advance as they will be up against a mass of French reinforcements, including ARM, AA, ARTY and ATK resulting from poor attack rolls that saw 6 units moved to the spiral, and 3 x French Ftrs (all French pilots survived). Add to that, the likely interference from CW bombers attempting GS v key stacks of ARM/MECH and HQs soaking up German Ftrs. The second element is they need fine weather, even with the 60% chance of Fine in the temp this is problematic as any bad weather will stop the offensive and force lower attack rolls with no benefit of ARM/Mech bonuses and more important add (+)’s to the EOT roll and number of impulses in the S/O turn - the turn needs to be long(ish) and the German needs to roll low in its GS, which has been a rare event for the Luftwaffe in this game, and high in his combat rolls to avoid inversions. None of these essential conditions for the capture of Paris the German has control of and going on our previous experience with our German player he has only been able to achieve one of these elements, let alone all four and especially the weather!
Sadly, again this 2nd game is on the trajectory of another hung game, an allied victory by concession. The game will play out until the end of 1940 as is our custom, but one thing is certain, our current German player, who has played the last two games as Germany has declared that he is never going to play Germany again! This is particularly disappointing to the Italian/Japanese player whose progress has seen them capture Egypt, Cyprus, Palestine and Malta and about to invade both Saudi Arabia and Greece - all with little aid from Germany. Japan has had few losses, and despite the last impulse roll of 4 (same as the Germans) he has reduced the Chinese build to three factories (2 BPs) per turn which has allowed it to build up for the Air/Sea battle v the US. I. The Allies too will be disappointed, despite notching up victory as it is the playing of WIF which is why we turn up every Thursday night.
Fate or destiny awaits the German in S/O 1940. Hitler has asked Father Christmas for Paris for Christmas but cannot confirm or deny that he hasn’t been a very naughty boy.
· Acft – Aircraft
· Conv – Convoys
· EOT – End of Turn
· NCC – No Cost Combined action – no oil used
· OOS – Out of Supply
· Rng - Range
· TOTT – Top of the table a 23 or more
· USE – US entry rolls/chits
France - Germany needs a Miracle in S/O 1940
Russia border guards - Rumania getting nervous
The greater Italian Empire - and expanding
Italian CA's in the Arabian Sea are hunted by Force Z
China - slowly shrinking
Reprieve for the Chinese as a +10 from 4 hexes and a HQ shift is unkindly dealt with a roll of 4 for the dreaded squiggly 14 - 3/1 losses ouch!
Mounting casualties for the German and only slow progress in France and first losses for the Japanese 4's will do that!
HMS Newcastle - flees Cyprus only to be found by the Italian fleet and sunk.
USE - focus on Japan the US has.
