Slitherine

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Just puzzled on this one.

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ORIGINAL: Taifun

November 20 1942
Both Stalingrad and Irkutsk were captured. In the South of Russia we had clear weather for 2 consecutive turns! Not even mud or rain in December! The Germans roll over our defenses in the Caucasus. Highly frustrating and unhistorical weather.

January 1943
The Germans captured Grozny and Tbilisi menacing Baku and Saratov.

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Before the fall of France, Germany can always divert a significant force to Algiers, and Italians from NA, while the Allies can't commit significant troops there, as all Allied forces stationed in Algiers will disappear should the Axis choose Vichy. Germany can even refrain from taking Paris or the other NM cities while waiting for Algiers to fall first. Allies simply have no counter to this.

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When Vichy is declared Allied troops in France itself do not disappear. Why not extend this to the rest of the Vichy territories?

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I'd think this is quite conceivable IRL.

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Not a bad idea, but I believe that 'disappearing units' are an engine trait and this situation happens in similar situation.

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But when for example the DEI surrenders - Allied units don't disappear. The same happens in Burma - Allied units remain. It only seems to happen with Vichy - and then not in France itself.

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ORIGINAL: Cpuncher

I wonder why I haven't seen people try to help Russia by sending in 2 Allied HQs, from either the Middle East, or the north (Murmansk/Arkhangelsk), or both. They will have a local supply of 3, but with HQ boosting, the higher rated HQ will distribute 8, enough to make things work.

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ORIGINAL: Marcinos1985

First of all, grats to both players, very good game and fantastic AAR.

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Just puzzled on this one.

To be honest, so am I. Maybe Allied position is not crazy good, but not that bad either, there are a lot of pluses actually. I suspect resignation was more due to tilt, than position itself, but I am poor psychoanalyst.

But apart from this, Taifun mentioned 2 important things which are very real:
1. Weather in South Russia. I don't know why, but weather pattern there is extremely generous to Axis. For Fall, associated with mud and early snow, there is 65% chance for a clear weather. So for example, in 2 of 3 games there will be clear weather in November. You can even get clear weather in Winter, only 10% chance but still kinda memish. That contradicts what happened IRL. This can be very frustrating, because a lot of players focus on push in the South.

Actually, France has similar problem. You may get a clear weather there even in Winter, and this may result in Fall of France 1-2 turns quicker. Typical example of 'bad RNG', which for good players may skew the game very early on. I believe this should be reconsidered - unless Winter was somehow mild in france in 1940?

What happened in Middle East for Taifun sounds very unlucky, there is only 15% chance for secondary weather effects in Fall/Winter. I'd throw my PC out of window. I remember ElvisJJ had similar situation in one game, developers even adjusted weather pattern slightly afterwards.

2. Scorched Earth. Why on Earth (pun intended) this effect is so weak in many places and why it depends on RNG? Another lottery, which may skew the game. Sometimes Axis can even get a port on 5 supply during Sea Lion - could you imagine that Brits would allow this? Everything would be destroyed and port unusable for months to come, as - I don't know- Cherbourg. Same in NA - many times I saw Tunis port caught intact.
I may still somehow understand that western nations would be somehow against devastation of their real estate, but USSR? Country was razed to the ground, due to Soviets first running away, and then Germans running away. But for some reason, there is possibility to catch cities on level 5 and operate troops even from France in 1 turn. This could be somehow logical on 1st turn, due to surprise effect, but later on, deep in 1941/42, this is debatable. Current SE effects let Axis to move way faster than IRL. This applies to Japan too, they may get supply 10 in China mainland easily.

But still, while looking at world map, I am very curious what would happen if there wasn't this suicide battle near Sumatra and all those US units would get to Med. Still rather a distraction for axis, than a problem, but distractions will ultimately lead to a gap somewhere.