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cpdeyoung -> RE: Sturm und Drang : Axis Perspective (3/28/2009 6:35:52 AM)
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Thank you, but that is not the way I see it. I played the defense in the West very poorly. The garrison around Le Havre was a joke against air power. Le Havre is a special case. Amphibious assault there is not the problem, rather one must watch for a massive air strike, a bombardment that can take a powerful corps down to a empty hex, followed by airborne assault. Once the port falls it is a land fight against the Allied production. I was so taken with my navies that I failed to see the air threat. I will never forget that again.
One turn before I considered very seriously strat moving a 19SP L4 Panzer Korps to Paris. It would have been a wonderful thing to have that first turn, but no, I wanted it on the Eastern Front. One more korps there did not make much difference, but what a golden opportunity was missed by not putting it in reserve in the West.
The turn after Le Havre fell I rushed my two best Korps west, and then in a fit of over optomism I let them get surrounded, and lost them. As soon as I sent the turn off I got a sinking feeling. It was my lunch hour at work, and I walked to a friend's desk and said "I just lost the two finest units on the board." I waited hopelessly for the next turn, for I knew Gary would see this chance, and when the next turn came in there they were, surrounded and defenceless. Misery. I disbanded the two German, and one Italian corps, and tried to make the best of it.
I am well aware that my current position has "life left" but with a little less false confidence, and a proper analysis of what Gary had to do to get on the continent, I could have kept him off. "I couda been a contender!"
That lunch hour move, the one of the poor decision about my Panzer Korps, should have been put off till I got home from work. I should have put my cue down and freshened up like the fat man did. In wargamming, and life, it is better to not make big decisions when in an emotional state, and I was frazzled to be fighting Gary in the West.
None of this should be seen as anything other than an explanation of why "gold standard" cannot apply here. I liked my decisions, and think I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, so on with the game! You are watching two pretty impressive forcepools working against each other.
One more point, for all Axis players out there, the horrible danger of encirclement, unit destroying encirclement, that you, and only you face, will give you nightmares each turn. You just know it is coming, and it is the major tactical/operational driver in your game. It is just huge, and if you look at "Tripleplay" in Spain, Feb. 1943, you will see another poor Axis leader finding out more about it.
Chuck
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