1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (Full Version)

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Timmeh -> 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/26/2006 9:49:49 PM)

As 43' approaches my game with Forwarn is heating up ! A few pics and some tales of bittersweet conquest follow and some hope that Forwarn will contribute as well to shed some insight to help me evaluate my nailbitting gameplay experience so far.

And you may ask yourself " How did I get here?"

With the fall of France in the spring of 40' and an early political shift in Norway, my Germans gambled and shifted gears away from an initial Sealion leaning starting strat. Helping me along with this was the fact that Forwarn spent almost every available effort on infantry for the first few seasons effectively closing any opportunity I might have generated.

I instead gambled an attack into Norway would cause Finland, now 'pro-axis' to swing full Axis and indeed it may have created a 'carefull what you wish for' result, as thats exactly what happened. In early 41 I sat poised to strike deep into Russia with combined arms in Finland and a strong mix of units between the Black and Baltic seas. Leningrad falls easily and at one point German armor sat north and south of Moscow almost surrounding the Capital. My biggest reget of the game rears its ugly head at this time, Norway is left with one militia and conquored when i could of easily spared 2 or 3 inf in its defense. Throughout 41' and upto our current position it has become a series of troop escalations and has forced Germany to suspend its campaign in Russia. This one standoff clearly dictates our battle in Europe to this point.

Early into Barbarrosa I realized the need to slow Russian Production and at that point did a complete 180' with Japan and invaded Russia after Forwarn abandoned Vlad and the rest of the east to support the war in the west. I have recovered decently enough from actually miscalculating the war reddiness and letting the US DOW Japan, missing out on pearl doesn't look to be that decisive though as the Wallies look to be gearing for H-Bomb victory against us. I was ready to drop six CAG into pearl the turn following the unfreeze, but now they settle for keeping the Wallies at bay and sit relatively safe as the Wallies send most of their CV's to the med.

Here is the opening of Summer 42'

[image]local://upfiles/19119/B79372E040944272AEFC48E18B950C1E.jpg[/image]



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/26/2006 9:56:33 PM)

Nearing any reasonable peak in expansion my axis have fallen woefully short of shifting the victory conditions at all. Going north has reduced the opportunity to reach this now that the Wallies have established a foothold in Norway.

Japan, although sound defensively, hits a brick wall of entrenched militia and arty in the south DEI's and is hard pressed to uproot them.

[image]local://upfiles/19119/5C0F2E21134E43268D557FD9257CD8AA.jpg[/image]



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/26/2006 10:05:39 PM)

Fall 42'

After the initial push into Russia the Germans have fallen back to its repaired factories at Leningrad and Kiev. Russia now at 18 Production ( at one point it's low was 17 i think) starts its long road to recovery. Troop concentrations reach the breaking point on the Nordic front at this point as well with numbers reaching 2 dozen for both sides. In the med, German fighters have chased away the Wallies CAG for now but they loom large in the future.



[image]local://upfiles/19119/F192D7EB6D8B43FA93AFDF9D63913D17.jpg[/image]



I little info to set the situation on the ground here in regard to tech and intelligence numbers.
- All sides infantry are land attack 7 with Japan and Russia trailing in evasion
- Wallies have matched German armor at 9/8 already.
- Axis have a slight edge in fighter and other air tech at this point and numbers are fairly even.
- Wallies just went 5 transport cap.
- German subs were teched to 3/3 but little effort has gone into the sub war from both sides.



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/26/2006 10:27:03 PM)

In the Pacific...

After two seasons the Japanese have been halted by arty and militia in the south DEI's, Sitting at 17 Production with the possiblity to go into the 20's with repair ( like thats easy to do as Japan !!) Japan assumes defensive positions and backs away from the front in Russia aswell.

As stated in the opening post, I think the Wallies are going hard in Bomber land attack and have avoided sending anything into the Pacific at this point. It may just give the Japanese the breathing room they need to better their position. But again, that all comes down to supply which is hard to come by.

China has been crippled economically since the start of the game but threatens to break out and cause havoc if they ever get any lend lease...Troops have slowly been moved away from the Chinese coast and dred the day the Chinese get supply.

[image]local://upfiles/19119/62FF4314FCE44EF6996A5D67D286C796.jpg[/image]



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 2:53:21 AM)

Winter 43

Wallies movement into Norway in the fall causes great concern, between this and the armada with 4 CAG's controlling the med I plan my air strikes...

[image]local://upfiles/19119/97D6BF4838AC4AB7B5DB49FCD28428CB.jpg[/image]



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 2:57:29 AM)

Italian fighter pilots touted as heros as two units come away unscathed in clashes in the med. Fighters are now 7/8 attack/evasion rating vrs 7/7 allied planes. (wallies CAG attacked at 4)

[image]local://upfiles/19119/67D3D4D9A1AB493393E5556735A665B1.jpg[/image]



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 3:00:04 AM)

All available air assests in western Europe launched a huge raid on Allied air in Norway as the only other major encounter for the Germans.

[image]local://upfiles/19119/542482CFC0914D0DA346C2858308F303.jpg[/image]

This result gives the Germans some breathing room as enemy air in range is greatly reduced, on top of that the wallies are out of heavy bombers.

Also this turn - Germany re-establishes trade agreements with Spain ( it soured when I attacked an axis leaning Siam with Japan last turn and went back to balanced !! ) I was worried that Forwarn might attempt this and swing Spain leaning allied to deny the free trade, luckily it didn't happen. That boosted German production to back to 40ish but are still just falling short of full production, not a good sign...





Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 3:09:22 AM)

More dissapointment as Japan is forced to back away from Russia's superior numbers, I give up this RP but repair 3 more in the DEI's to reach 19 total.

[image]local://upfiles/19119/117618CF96AB484783D2EAFC99FFF681.jpg[/image]



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 3:11:46 AM)

In the south though, things go better for the Japanese. Malaya is taken and both Indian factories are fully damaged.

[image]local://upfiles/19119/0D23B6A80AC84AF0BA9127DA6C934C0B.jpg[/image]



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 3:13:39 AM)

The turn ends with Japan putting the squeeze on the DEI holdouts.

[image]local://upfiles/19119/778B3EC6802E4349AEBABF1FEC5A8ACB.jpg[/image]

All in all an uplifting turn for the Axis and I almost get some of the confidence back that I lost having to pull back in Russia. My Production is at an all time high as we set a new high water mark of 59 and I have put serious pressure on the Wallies trade routes. This turn he starts with only 30 transports but remember they are now running at 5 transport capacity so each transport is capable of holding one unit for invasion purposes. I also damaged half of the Wallied's 20 fighters last turn and have managed to match his fighter numbers again.

I think next turn I'll see another turn of Russian rebuilding and very little wallied operations and that should allow me the time to improve and rearm for the next wave of assaults when they come.



Forwarn45 -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 5:27:41 AM)

The Baltic and Russian fronts

[image]local://upfiles/16405/16C051831FCB4D2C9718D50753948C0B.jpg[/image]


Well I'm still trying to sort out the details about resolution and sizing - but this gives you an idea of where we are at near the end of my turn. After sizeable airlosses in Norway last turn, fresh fighters are rushed to the front. My navy and airforces move to blockade the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. At the end of the turn, the WA fighters upgraded to a newer model and are now on par with the Germans. On the Russian front, the Russians reinforce Kharkov. The Red Airforce is becoming potent as the Luftwaffe has been mostly diverted West - although my early investments in the Russian fighters left me vulnerable on the ground when the Germans attacked in Spring of '41.



Forwarn45 -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 5:58:42 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Timmeh

And you may ask yourself " How did I get here?"



Tim did a good job of summarizing the game so far but here's a little bit from the Allied perspective.

France fell on schedule. I had a chance to delay another turn here, but I pulled back most of the British militia for fear of losing them when Vichy France is declared (a 50% chance for each). The odds of holding Eastern France were still somewhat close (I think Tim said 40something percent) even with my pullback. The WA had invested heavily on the ground and to a lesser extent in the air so Sealion was ultimately averted. Unfortunately for me, Tim changed his plans post-haste and invade the Soviet Union a turn earlier than I expected - in Spring of '41. I had been emphasizing Russian air for a couple reasons. For one, it is cheaper than in vanilla WAW because the Axis air starts out better and your spies often steal evasion and attack tech. Air is somewhat less powerful at killing ground units but can still turn a battle and also kill infrastructure. And the old strategy of just building AA isn't quite as good since it often just suppresses air rather than shooting it down. At least, that's what I think from my experience so far. Anyway, I was short enough on ground troops that I elected to pull everything from Siberia even though there wasn't much Japanese threat. The Japanese promptly attacked. However, I'm not sure this worked out so badly - since it ultimately sped up US entry by a couple turns.

Even so - if not for Norway, Stalin may have been looking at taking the last flight out of Moscow sometime in '42. In '41, I had counter-attacked when possible in order to bleed the Germans and push them back from key areas. But my lower quality troops suffered heavily and it also cost in supply. Also - for a couple turns, I was not getting lend-lease because the route in the North was cut off. Norway helped in a couple ways. For one, I was ultimately able to reopen the convoy routes. And second, it pulled an increasing number of Axis ground and air troops from Russia. As Tim said, Russian production hit a low of less than 20. This isn't so bad when you are getting free supplies but if you have to spend 5 or 6 of that to build supply, it is trouble! Fortunately, the pressure eased in time and Russia has lately been able to divert forces to push the Japanese back and consolidate the position against Germany. The US entering in Winter of '42 was a 50-50 shot as we were 2 readiness points away in Fall. The downside is the US still (in early 43) has 2x production as readiness did not increase to trigger 3x since the Axis didn't attack me. The upside is I was able to rush a few artillery and ground troops to the DEI and Singapore (the latter recently fell) to contain the Japanese.



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 5:24:42 PM)

Spring 43

Forwarn45 continues to pour men and material into Norway, I think at this point well over half of all wallied forces. Once again Allied air in range increases with 10+ air units in and around Norway. This time however the Wallies are low on tac/strat air, I decide to hold off any strikes west and instead hold in Denmark and Germany and tech fighters to 9 evasion.

The Wallies CAG spanking at the hands of Italian fighters last turn in the med seems to have chased the Wallied fleet into the Indian Ocean. The Italians remain vigilant but the removal of any immediate threat is welcome and gives us some room to readjust to the growing Russian numbers in Kharkov.

As this turn unfolds, German bombers follow an open coridor into the heart of the Russian economic centers...


[image]local://upfiles/19119/3F52A6B231FA4E02AB67F9D432E72A3F.jpg[/image]

5 factory points destroyed and all bombers returned to base! This damage will will cost Russia half its current supply total, or equal to what the Wallies shipped to them in the north last turn.



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 5:39:23 PM)

The pissing contest moves from Finland to the fortress of Leningrad as orders are given to slow the northern resupply routes and threaten the Russian factories in the north and to keep pressure off Army group south. With Finland left to its own devices, the Baltic becomes less crucial and it allows the Germans another turn or two to pressure the Russian. Giving up on the resource there is never good but it should give the Germans some much needed manouver capacity and ensure no more openings into fortress Europe exist.

[image]local://upfiles/19119/2298EFCBE6D149C3BE7D0E5E98C2A3BF.jpg[/image]

Looking towards Russia I notice that Forwarn has indeed built up Russian Air defense and don't expect the easy access to its factories next turn, I leave some industry and air vulnerable to the single heavy bomber unit in Kharkov but I don't see being hurt too much by either airforce for the next few turns. Its important to maintian the capacity to respond with deadly force in either direction with Germany's air force so I will probably need to give up on the glorious raids of the past few seasons and concentrate on keeping them safe and ready to strike if the Wallies advance carelessly.






Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 5:54:48 PM)

In the Pacific...

Japanese forces readjust to hold the Russian coast.

[image]local://upfiles/19119/D77C0495C4D7404D99C513F64CAD54D2.jpg[/image]

Japan maintains the status quo this turn, unable to advance into the Indian has stagnated the forces in the south. Forwarn45's use of arty in the last two DEI holdouts has been effective in saving an otherwise doomed India! (India is instead attacked by bombers and its factories again leveled).

One concern remains and that is the location of the CV's that vacated the med last turn. I would assume its been dispatched to protect the resource flow from India/Africa but I still worry about attacks into my naval line down south, I pull shipping back into the island chains and set up cap.




JudgeDredd -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/27/2006 9:54:02 PM)

Congratulations to you both...you've made this game interesting and appealing enough for me to install and try the original...baring in mind it hasn't been on my computer since June 2005!!



Forwarn45 -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/28/2006 8:41:26 AM)

Thanks JudgeDredd. This turn, Stalin keeps the pressure on Japan but must halt its drive to the sea. The Red Airforce bombs Japanese airfields.

[image]local://upfiles/16405/5F730520A79E40EEB1A879DD90F0656F.jpg[/image]



Forwarn45 -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/28/2006 8:43:41 AM)

In the West, the Swedes are given an ultimatum to stop shipping iron ore and war materials to the Axis. They fail to comply, and Scandinavia (besides Denmark) provides useful bases to the American and British forces. (As Tim says, most of the WA troops!)

[image]local://upfiles/16405/B6768779DFEC47BEAF21A9669DF5D1F8.jpg[/image]



Forwarn45 -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/28/2006 8:45:23 AM)

And a lone sub ventures into the hornet's nest revealing most of the Japanese fleet (and hitting an unguarded transport).

[image]local://upfiles/16405/7908E7A502884E8EA2A11BA1C472D861.jpg[/image]



Forwarn45 -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/28/2006 8:49:41 AM)

The Germans achieved level 8 evasion in infantry and level 9 evasion (jets) for fighters that turn! I need to move forward and reduce the healthy German economy. Africa remains cut off and with Scandinavia, we move a little forward to that goal. But the clock is ticking for me!



christian brown -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/28/2006 11:53:19 AM)

This is a great AAR, congrats to both of you!



Uncle_Joe -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/28/2006 12:10:38 PM)

I agree with Christian. Good job guys. Its interesting to see the game develop from the Scandinavian front!



GKar -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/28/2006 12:31:07 PM)

I'm following this one closely as well. [:)]



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/29/2006 5:59:44 AM)

[;)] ty for the support.

As summer rolls in the strange sound heard ripping through the air in Germany has the population buzzing with questions. Again, German fighter pilots see surprised spitfires forced to ditch as they try to defend the RN. Additional AA is moved to the coast and teched to 8 attack, I would also like to take advantage of the 10 attack rating my arty has and think about building almost nothing but AA and Arty in the future. I move an additional arty into denmark aswell and think the west coast is safe for now...

[image]local://upfiles/19119/62E048F1EBF445C79B2BBB97882E6338.jpg[/image]



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/29/2006 6:03:37 AM)

I can't help but be optimistic with this result, with current planes deployed I think the Allies may need to send 3 - 1 in to gain superiority on me. At least it gives the Wallies something else to waste supply on.

[image]local://upfiles/19119/343D93AA99914DF1A50EB2B9B366D486.jpg[/image]



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/29/2006 6:10:50 AM)

I check the Russians and see they still sit at 18 production, I also notice Stalingrad has been repaired and missions are promptly ordered. on top of taking it out again rail is also damaged in Gorki.


In a desparate move 2 panzer units are dipatched east to try and hold a buffer zone for the upcoming alternate universe version of the "siege at lenningrad".
[image]local://upfiles/19119/7365150DBAD34F88BE88B589768E9311.jpg[/image]




I feel confidant Lenningrad is in no danger for a season or two and my major concern is of course getting cut off and split up. I tempt fate with Japan on the Russian coast and only match his forces there and risk being overrun but any distraction from an organized assault by both the Russians and Wallies needs to taken.



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/29/2006 6:27:43 AM)

In the Pacific scratch that,.... In the Indian

With no ships spotted in the Pacific, Japan continues to harrass the growing Wallied presence in Java. Once again, the transports have found their way back, this time bringing american fighters [:-]. Unable to afford to send more than a few ships the long way around into the Indian to avoid the op-fire in Java, I curse the double arty there a few times...

[image]local://upfiles/19119/06293842E8224D3485600708DD54040A.jpg[/image]

The light fleet takes out a transport ( 28 remaining) and the bomber is sent and takes out another (even after 2 suppression) The sub survives and the CAG's are re-spotted.



Timmeh -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/29/2006 6:32:37 AM)

Fighters are moved in so we can continue air ops from our bases in Siam.

[image]local://upfiles/19119/1809E5E429F841818A2AD196AC6C50DD.jpg[/image]


To close out my summer 43 turn I readjust Japan's 6 CAG's and several other navel assets and wait to see what happens in Russia.



Forwarn45 -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/29/2006 10:53:46 PM)

Carrier air takes out a Japanese raider in the Indian Ocean.

[image]local://upfiles/16405/2833E5932E754EB6A0C81F6590FDBCFC.jpg[/image]



Forwarn45 -> RE: 1x1 Total War Tim-Forwarn45 (10/29/2006 10:57:05 PM)

And we finally have a decent airforce that is not all fighters. Our heavy bombers are now 7 attack and 6 evasion. On a side note, Tim is right about those pesky German jets. I attacked with 3 Russian fighters against 1 German fighter in Rumania - only damaging the German plane for the price of one damaged Russian plane in return!

[image]local://upfiles/16405/103BB899151A49B99DE703635575CB44.jpg[/image]



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