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Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/1/2017 5:33:40 AM

Neilster

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What�s your favourite WiF/MWiF memory? When I bought WiF in about 1993, it was only the second wargame I had ever played. I had a friend who was interested in military history and we taught ourselves how to play it.

I can remember a couple of memorable games. Once, during a Barbarossa, a panzer group organised by von Manstein broke through and dashed to the Black Sea at Nikolayev in a vast wheeling movement. Perhaps a million Red Army troops were trapped in a huge pocket North of Odessa. Despite desperate attempts to break the ring, it held, and the resulting enormous hole in the front led to the swift capture of Kiev and a threat to Moscow from the Southwest.

Another time, I attempted a France-first strategy. In response my friend bravely threw his Polish forces at my skeletal eastern defences but after spectacular early success, he rolled a one in his assault on Berlin; resulting in massive Polish losses and bringing his offensive to a grinding halt. Good weather saw France collapse in an Autumn campaign, with the BEF arriving in time to be encircled and destroyed. I reorganised the Wehrmacht for a 1940 Barbarossa. The remnants of the Polish army were swiftly crushed and the flimsy Soviet frontier defence soon folded. He gave up after my panzers swept into Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov on Don in the early Autumn.

Cheers, Neilster

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/1/2017 8:14:02 PM

Centuur

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Well, I've got a somewhat similar experience, but with a different outcome.

In a five player game (I was playing the French and the USSR), there was that super long S/O 1939 turn, with weather which consisted of sunshine throughout the whole turn. The Axis had a setup which gave the them the possibility of conquering the low countries and Poland in the first turn. A possibility which the forces of evil used in a very successfull way. At the start of N/D 1939 they were sitting on the Belgian French border...

This was followed by two fine weather rolls in N/D ending the Axis advance just before the gates of Paris. Needless to see is the fact that during a rainy impulse in J/F 1940, the Axis blew an offensive, entered Paris and installed Vichy...

Of course, this meant that I started praying to the gods for some more luck in the rest of the game, since a Barbarossa 1941 was clearly going to start in M/A 1941, after Germany cleared the Balkans during the summer of 1940. Which they of course managed to do.

M/A 1941 started with clear skies in the Arctic, so Germany DoW'ed the Soviets. And from that moment on, the luck changed towards the Allies. All througout the summer of 1940, the weather was pro-Axis, but all four turns ended on the first possible moment with a "1" rolled. This meant that the Axis couldn't capture Smolensk and Kiev during 1940. Than followed a winter which was extremely full of storms and blizzards...

So we ended up having still a very nice Allies victory in 1945.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/1/2017 8:47:46 PM

AlbertN

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Once upon a time, "Pearl Harbour" happened at San Diego.
I don't remember exactly how it happened, but the USA repeatedly failed a DoW roll, then returned the fleet at San Diego mid-turn and the Japanese went over there for the port attack. The US though declared war that moment but could not move out their ships. But had full AA and regular surprise roll. 2 CVs still got sank!

Still with Japan - mostly because that's the more luck reliant aspect of the war, where ships and airplanes are involved. A very large carrier battle, pratically the two big US and JAP carrier fleets at their full force banging and clashing against each other. But for some unfathomable reason the US pilots have made a subcription to the 10-12 bracket of rolls. And the Japanese to <6 and >14 rolls. The first 6 rolls of the naval combat went that way, with US planes returning to carriers or simply exploding, meanwhile Japan was getting more and more bombers over the enemy carriers. By then the gap in airpower was so big the battle became moot. And it turned in a severe Midway where the US emerged beated.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/2/2017 12:54:50 AM

Jaimainsoyyo

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This moment happened recently (two weeks ago) I was the Allied player and the Axis attacked Netherlands using a combined. Two german divisions+NAV3+ all Kriegsmarine sailed to North Sea and found twice the allied fleet

, the axis selected a D to a loaded transport which passed the saving roll and aborted to... Rotterdamn

. The germans had to fought against the cargo of the aborted CW transport , a 7-6 mech. corps. The combat was bloody ( CW mech ,one german infantry division and one german engineer were destroyed) and Rotterdamn was taken by the Axis with all his units desorganized

capturing the Allied transport in the process

. What did happen during allied impulse? Take a look of the picture , Allied rolled 11 and Rotterdamn was liberated again

Attachment (1)

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/5/2017 6:32:28 PM

ajds

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WiF is great for creating moments that feel real, like epic naval battles in the Pacific, or massive air to air battles over a critical hex where every cleared bomber will make a difference.

However, the super combined impulse has the greatest possible drama. I was Germany in a WiF/DoDIII game and had an alliance with Poland (yes, hard but possible), so UK was focused on defending France as long as possible. I had taken the Netherlands and Belgium but was only just at war with France. I dropped a first impulse super combined along with a DoW on the Commonwealth and a DoW by Italy... It was glorious, as much of the Royal Navy was spread in multiple ports, but with the SCS transport rule... UK and France fell that year, followed by an eventual Ukraine formation and occupation of European Russia.

We played past an auto objective victory and believe it or not, I could not conquer Russia since Canada and the USA wrested control of the Atlantic away, landed in Morocco and Denmark and threatened retaking England. The superior late USA/Commonwealth force pool is unbeatable (and the Japanese Navy has to assemble to challenge them and they can only be in one ocean at a time). But that one monster impulse was memorable.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/6/2017 7:00:31 PM

juntoalmar

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quote:

ORIGINAL: ajds

WiF is great for creating moments that feel real, like epic naval battles in the Pacific, or massive air to air battles over a critical hex where every cleared bomber will make a difference.

However, the super combined impulse has the greatest possible drama. I was Germany in a WiF/DoDIII game and had an alliance with Poland (yes, hard but possible), so UK was focused on defending France as long as possible. I had taken the Netherlands and Belgium but was only just at war with France. I dropped a first impulse super combined along with a DoW on the Commonwealth and a DoW by Italy... It was glorious, as much of the Royal Navy was spread in multiple ports, but with the SCS transport rule... UK and France fell that year, followed by an eventual Ukraine formation and occupation of European Russia.

We played past an auto objective victory and believe it or not, I could not conquer Russia since Canada and the USA wrested control of the Atlantic away, landed in Morocco and Denmark and threatened retaking England. The superior late USA/Commonwealth force pool is unbeatable (and the Japanese Navy has to assemble to challenge them and they can only be in one ocean at a time). But that one monster impulse was memorable.

How could you take England? I mean, I can understand the ability to debark, but to maintain supply and send enough troops to conquer England with the Royal Navy alive seems pretty complicated to me.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/6/2017 7:31:27 PM

Centuur

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In DOD one might get into the position where global war starts between France and Germany, but not with the CW. If the CW than sends "peacekeepers" into France and hasn't left units to defend the UK, there comes the surprise impulse with a super combined and no CW units at sea. With some luck, Germany can put a nice army ashore and can keep the French at bay using elements of the Polish army in this case.

Also, in DOD, one can build your own starting army somewhat, so it's entirely possible to have more sea transport available for Germany than what's in the at start setup in a game of WiF.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/7/2017 10:38:08 PM

ajds

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Not WiF but WiF/DoDIII, so with a 1936 start and far more control over the DoW force mix. The initial DoW caught significant RN in various ports... As I said the timing was perfect - at sea RN surprised in clear weather, rest in port and vulnerable. In clear weather a/c in the same seabox help a lot against the RN, so the follow-on forces were in cheap TRS in the zero box along with a couple of a/c with NAV factors and a horde of shortrange FTR. The initial attack was a PARA and a MAR and one INF with a bunch of divisions - an HQ and ARM were follow-on. I never hit Ulster but the US played the option nationalizing northern Ireland with its factory (which didn't seem a big deal then but became huge later), so the UK was conquerable.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/8/2017 7:43:16 PM

juntoalmar

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But my question was more about what happened after the initial impulse. I understand you can kick hard the CW under the right circumstances the first impulse.

But can't the CW & RN react after that and cut the German supply lines and the possibility of further reinforcements? Wouldn't that leave a beautiful but useless beach head?

You can't conquer the CW in a single impulse, right?

(Sorry if they are silly questions)

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/9/2017 1:53:49 PM

Centuur

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If there are no (or only disorganised) land units in the UK and the ports gets invaded during a super-combined surprise impulse where the Royal Navy is based, the CW is in a very bad position. The disorganised reserve units are simply not enough for defending the island and with the bulk of the Royal Navy being forced to rebase (and subject to possible capture) Germany controls the North Sea for the first turn of that war. If that's a long J/A turn Germany can really get a shot at conquering the UK in a DOD game...

To me, this looks like a CW player who has been playing sloppy. Never, ever have your navy sitting in ports which can be invaded during a surprise impulse, without having at least one land unit in the same hex during a DOD game when global war might start. And always pay attention to what Mr. Adolf is building...

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/9/2017 6:13:46 PM

Orm

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quote:

ORIGINAL: juntoalmar

But my question was more about what happened after the initial impulse. I understand you can kick hard the CW under the right circumstances the first impulse.

But can't the CW & RN react after that and cut the German supply lines and the possibility of further reinforcements? Wouldn't that leave a beautiful but useless beach head?

You can't conquer the CW in a single impulse, right?

(Sorry if they are silly questions)

Once the invasion force has landed it can be supplied from the 0-box. The 0-box is somewhat easier to protect against the RN for a while. And a few missed search rolls and it can be all over for the UK defence.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/10/2017 12:13:51 AM

brian brian

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Some of my most interesting memories are from 1936 and onwards games using Days of Decision and the 5th Edition rules. But these are getting hazy as they were some 25 years ago now. In one game I was quite proud to execute a surprise Sea Lion, without any more than the average builds of lift for the Germans. I did it using cover from a foreign navy - the Swedes! I targeted Sweden from the very first with political option play and moved it to the pro-Axis camp. This was in the days when naval units were �HS� (Heavy Surface - Battleships) and �LS� (Light Surface - Cruisers) and only CVs had names on the counters. Sweden had very good LS units and the battles in the North Sea were epic. But I can not recall how that turned out in the long run. It might have been a game destroyed by a cat.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/10/2017 12:36:36 AM

brian brian

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My most interesting game of Final Edition was as the Russians at WiFCon when the FE rules were relatively new. My Russians were preparing for a parachute assault on Persia and then the Japanese intervened with many memorable battles. At one point one of my LND4 attacked the IJN in the Persian Gulf and got an �X� result on the Kaga! Sadly, she made the roll and was only damaged and the Russians couldn�t lord it over the other two navies as having been the first to sink a Japanese carrier.

Meanwhile the war in Manchuria was best described as �confused�. My opponent and I each discovered the new conquest rules simultaneously when a kibbitzer stopped by our table and pointed out that the Russians needed to take the factories in Mukden to conquer Manchuria, not just Harbin. This was just as I was about to launch my hastily re-deployed PARAs on the hex. I proceeded anyway and the result in the eventual peace agreement was Russian control of a rail link to China though not Mukden. The Japanese went in a steep decline from this war and reckless play by my ChiComm units and the Nationalist units as well, attacking regularly at +2 or even +1. This pretty much defeated the Japanese player psychologically somehow.

In 1941 I experienced my first �kitchen sink� Barbarossa with some 10 Axis HQ units inside Russia by late 1941. I was pushed back to the Urals and my most incredible memory of that was summoning Mao, the 8th Route Army, and the N 4th to help man the desperate Communist solidarity front lines. I did recover from that, saved by my Western Allies who employed similar +2, +3 attack tactics in (weak) Italy and Normandy. I was driving on Berlin when the game ended but the Americans won after they deployed the incredible �First American Parachute Army� of every possible parachute unit and ATR asset backed by long range air assets in copious quantities. This took out Turkey and several east European capitals - not coincidentally all red Objective hexes.

< Message edited by brian brian -- 12/10/2017 12:38:52 AM >

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/10/2017 12:55:52 AM

brian brian

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But perhaps my favorite WiF memory is also a Sea Lion game - these are always some of the most interesting.

However I was not a player, just a spectator at WiFCon. I believe it was written up in an Annual (all of them were for that �Con, iirc)? Maybe just on the Yahoo wifdiscussion list.

In that game the UK was conquered before France fell. The Japanese declared war in early 1940 and the glorious Fleet of the Rising Sun soon dominated the seas of the setting Sun. There is no better way to control the North Sea than a pair of Zeroes based in Denmark to fly to the 4 box.

But the CW C-in-C executed Churchill�s strategy perfectly, even surrendering the UK near the end, so Home Fleet could fight on from Canada.

The problem with this dramatic Axis strategy was a massively accelerated US Entry and thus a massive US war machine was born, one which could throw one Offensive Chit per impulse, turn after turn. So the Allies Returned, liberated England and the Dark Side was vanquished. The final denoument was the assault on Tokyo led by the Stilwell HQ.

That game was played on a wall with a blow-up map of World in Flames with magnetic counters. It was like watching an alternate WWII on TV.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/10/2017 3:57:02 AM

paulderynck

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Mine was my opponent, playing the CW, discovering to his shock at the beginning of 1942 that he'd forgotten to add his 1941 force pool.

In another game he desperately needed to move the Russians with an 8 to end the turn. Passed with all others, moved the Russians and rolled a ten to not end the turn. Twice in the same turn (after my impulse I'd rolled a 9).

< Message edited by paulderynck -- 12/10/2017 4:01:17 AM >

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/18/2017 12:34:57 AM

brian brian

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I was remembering a little more of that game I played as Russia where the Germans aligned Turkey but the Americans later conquered it with PARAtroopers (the trick is to land adjacent to an enemy capital, where the notional is weak, and there are no land units that can march back to the rescue. the next impulse, the PARAs conquer the place, if they can hold out till the turn ends)

Anyway, in that game, the Germans got the 2nd hex they needed on the Turkish border after a few turns of heavy combat action with high unit densities of the best units on each side, befitting the strategic value of the Turkish border in the game. The final battle featured the Manstein HQ-A attacking the Zhukov HQ-A. In any given game of WiF, that occurrence will often be the most memorable battle of the game.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/18/2017 2:03:07 PM

Dabrion

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Game moment: After landing the Armored Marines next to Tokyo in a long shot invasion, US subs sunk a TRS with a land offensive HQA Hata coming in response from Chuuk. Schadenfreude, beste Freude!

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 12/18/2017 11:43:12 PM

Neilster

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Once, with Alexandria in dire peril, the Allies managed to scrape up two infantry corps and formed a strong naval taskforce to transport them across the Mediterranean. The Italians threw almost their entire naval strength at it and the Luftwaffe attacked as well. A titanic running convoy battle ensued across the entire Med and although technically about a draw, the troop transports never arrived.

The Afrika Korps seized Suez and fanned out into the Middle East against faltering Allied resistance, gobbling up all that lovely oil. It was a stark illustration of both the importance of naval power and the excitement of naval battles in WiF.

Cheers, Neilster

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 1/7/2018 9:11:14 PM

Jaimainsoyyo

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5 sea areas search rolls

all failed during a surprise impulse with Italy against the CW. It seems the program rolled over 4, 10 times consecutively (and over 6 when I had a NAV in the 4 box with CW�s CPs in the sea area or over 5 when I have cruisers in 4 box and CW�s CP�s present in that sea area) , during that phase the chance of that event was 0,0074, so LESS than 1%, nonetheless that wasn�t enough, program rolled 3 more dieroll over 4 until the first low number appeared, in fact during land combat rolling 3 ( 2+1) but I counted on that and I did only one automatic attack with +22 modifier.

I prefer using a dice server than the diceroller of the game, anyway it is always fun to see how a good plan goes down to the drain thanks to luck ( or an algorithm

) . It was a pity because the CW hadn�t ( hasn�t yet) enough cp�s to replace ANY losses, and even the convoy lines couldn�t bring enough resources to UK from the start of the game.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 1/7/2018 10:00:50 PM

paulderynck

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Not sure on that one. You get 81 CPs and that's enough to get what you need to the UK with at least 6 left over.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 1/8/2018 3:27:54 AM

Jaimainsoyyo

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I think he deployed counting on 5 dannish cps, and I avoided for that reason to attack Denmark in 39 .

< Message edited by Jaimainsoyyo -- 1/8/2018 3:29:06 AM >

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 1/8/2018 4:38:30 PM

Shannon V. OKeets

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Jaimainsoyyo

5 sea areas search rolls all failed during a surprise impulse with Italy against the CW. It seems the program rolled over 4, 10 times consecutively (and over 6 when I had a NAV in the 4 box with CW�s CPs in the sea area or over 5 when I have cruisers in 4 box and CW�s CP�s present in that sea area) , during that phase the chance of that event was 0,0074, so LESS than 1%, nonetheless that wasn�t enough, program rolled 3 more dieroll over 4 until the first low number appeared, in fact during land combat rolling 3 ( 2+1) but I counted on that and I did only one automatic attack with +22 modifier. I prefer using a dice server than the diceroller of the game, anyway it is always fun to see how a good plan goes down to the drain thanks to luck ( or an algorithm ) . It was a pity because the CW hadn�t ( hasn�t yet) enough cp�s to replace ANY losses, and even the convoy lines couldn�t bring enough resources to UK from the start of the game.

Perhaps the Nov/Dec 1939 turn giving the Axis 5 impulses after going second made up for this? With two of those impulses (first and last) being Fine weather on the entire map.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 1/8/2018 4:40:40 PM

Shannon V. OKeets

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quote:

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

Not sure on that one. You get 81 CPs and that's enough to get what you need to the UK with at least 6 left over.

It depends on optional rules. I set up for playing with oil (we weren't) which meant saving oil wasn't possible. So all the convoys I positioned to save oil were worthless. Sigh.

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 1/9/2018 3:22:50 PM

hazmaxed

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Not really a "moment," and I have to brush the cobwebs off this memory, but I played a game of WiF/DoD around 1995. I don't remember too many specifics, but my opponent, as the Axis, managed to align Sweden, take Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Gibralter, Egypt, and Yugoslavia. Barbarossa was quite successful, and he was able to align Turkey. Japan mostly stood on the defensive in China and made their historical gains in the Pacific, but put in a maximum effort in the Indian Ocean and was able to take India, meeting up with the Italians somewhere in the Mideast.

My one success, if it can be called that, was in defeating his Sea Lion invasion by throwing his successful landing off the beach.

My opponent and I were both serving in the US Army at the time, me as a sergeant, he as a lieutenant. When he offered to play a game and I asked him if we should be concerned about the perception of officer/enlisted fraternization, he said wargaming was NCO professional development.

The beat-down he proceeded to administer was certainly a lesson.

< Message edited by hazmaxed -- 1/9/2018 3:23:36 PM >

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RE: Favourite WiF/MWiF moment? - 1/9/2018 8:56:23 PM

etsadler

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Way back in the day, before 1994 at least I was playing Germany in a WiF/DoD(1st edition) game. I'm struggling to remember the year, but I successfully performed a coup in Czechoslovakia and the next turn declared war on the Soviet Union and defeated them utterly with almost exclusively Czech units.

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