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Harrybanana -> HB (Axis) vs YueJin (Allies) No YueJin for now (11/4/2021 5:49:27 AM)
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MAY 23, 1941
I am playing a game with YueJin where we are testing his defence of Russia to see if it can stop the Axis. It is now May 23, 1941 and Barbarossa is about to begin (FYI the May 9 was heavy rain in the North Moderate Zone). I will show you what the current situation is, but first the Story So Far.
We are playing with my standard House Rules which are:
1. French colonial troops cannot be moved at all until Italy joins the Axis. This is to prevent them from being replaced by UK units or weaker French Units.
2. Neither side can invade in the Caspian Sea.
3. Axis can’t enter the Far East Box (or whatever it is called). I think currently they can paradrop into it.
4. After the Winter War the Finns can’t enter the ceded territory until after they are at War with Russia, even if not occupied by Russian troops.
5. The Western Allies can move fleets into the Baltic (which of course requires that they deactivate the mine fields). But if the Axis subsequently reactivate the minefields then they can’t use oilers on any fleets trapped in the Baltic.
6. The French can’t build any escorts or MS until 1941.
7. The WDF armour unit can’t leave the Middle East until Italy joins the Axis.
8. The Axis cannot invade Portugal unless Spain is either conquered by one side or the other or is an Axis Ally. This is to prevent the Axis from conquering Portugal via an invasion from France so it can do a one turn take down of Spain.
Poland and Denmark fell on T2 as usual. The Allies opted not to conquer Luxembourg and the Axis opted not to invade the Netherlands. Norway also remains neutral. Belgium was conquered in one turn in May 1940 and then the Battle for France began. The British only committed 3 or 4 infantry corps to France. Prior to the fall of France a German paradrop cutoff a couple UK infantry corps that were forced to surrender. France was conquered and Vichy France created on the first August turn. German total force losses (land and air) up until the fall of France were somewhere around 150 to 180 I think. To my surprise the UK invaded and conquered Vichy North Africa on that same first August turn. I counter invaded at Bone while an Italian Mechanized corps entered Tunisia from Libya. While a portion of the Axis forces conquered Yugoslavia several other units (land and air) were committed to driving the British out of Algeria. In a long campaign that lasted from August until December 1940 the British were driven back to the Moroccan border. In the process the Italian Mechanized was destroyed along with 1/2 the Italian navy. A further British corps was also destroyed. Since December 1940 both sides have been dug in on the Algerian/Moroccan border with no further attacks. The Axis also sustained heavy air damage conquering Malta (where the British had 6 AA) in early 41. In the end I think I lost over 40 air points while the British lost a BB, 2 CAs and the defending corps. Meanwhile the British have conquered Syria, Iraq and Iran.
The BOA has gone very much the Axis way. Part of this has been due to luck. The German surface fleet in particular from August to December 1940 sunk a lot of MS and only sustained 3 points of damage to the Scharnhorst from a CV strike. But primarily it is because the British haven't really contested the Axis in the BOA. While the Kriegsmarine was raiding in the Atlantic most of the RN was busy sinking the Italian Navy. The British have also built very few escorts or MS. They currently have only 12 escorts and 83 MS. By my very rough calculations this probably means that UK production is only about 110 or so per turn.
Instead of escorts and MS I believe the British have spent their production on land units. Despite losing 4 corps so far and total casualties of 200 the British army has a Force Strength of over 625 and the Canadian Army a Force Strength of 100. There are (or at least were) 2 Armour in Morocco and I suspect the British have more Armour and Mechanized elsewhere. I also fear that he has built a large number of landing ships. One thing he hasn't done is spend many PPs on air units. The RAF has been allowed to dwindle down to a Force size of only 85.
German Casualties to date are about 275 (land and air combined). I currently have 9 German Armour, 2 German Mechanized, 2 German paratroopers, 20 German Large Corps, 2 Italian Armour, 1 Italian Mechanized (I had to build one to replace the one lost in Algeria), 2 Hungarian Corps and 5 Rumanian Corps massed on the Soviet border. I also have 5 bomber units. The Finish, Hungarian and Rumanian air units were all scrapped for PPs. Elsewhere I have 3 German Mechanized, a few Infantry corps, lots of garrisoned divisions and the remaining Italians ready to stop the British. It will be interesting to see if he invades and where.
As he said he was going to do YueJin scrapped the entire Russian air force on his first turn. Surprisingly, Russian Force strength is only 1906. Personally I usually have a Russian Force strength of about 2200 by the beginning of Barbarossa (most of it infantry corps) without even scrapping the air force. This suggests that my opponent is either saving an awful lot of PPs for a massive first turn build, or has built more quality units (ie Armour) than I do, or he is doing a bit of both. My guess is that he has built up to a total of 10 to 12 Russian Armour. I will soon find out if I am right.
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