Welcome to the first Beta-AAR of Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe.  This is a mini AAR, and as such, the AAR will only cover the inital shots in Gleiwitz Poland in September of 1939, to the fall of France in mid 1940.   Since the game is still in Beta, there might be some changes of the material covered between now and the final release, but the game already feels complete and the development team assures me that they don’t expect much to change other than minor items to ensure any final polish and balance to the main campaign.

Players familiar with the Strategic Command series will immediately notice the much bigger map. In the north, the passage around Norway to Archangelsk is ready for sub warfare, and in the south, a large part of Africa has been modeled as well. 

The Canary Islands have two ports where submarines can fill up their supplies if Spain has entered the war on the Axis side. And there is a railway connection from Helsinki to Oslo via Narvik, so when the Axis player controls Leningrad, the Norwegian ports will be able to fully repair German subs to strength 10. Sweden can remain neutral.On the Westwall, there is just the 1. Armee and 5. Armeekorps, supported by Luftflotte III. Until the surrender of Poland, the Western Allies will have the numerical superiority, so no offensive actions will take place. The only exception: I’ve decided that the XII. Armeekorps, located in the north of the Hürtgen Forest, will attack Luxembourg in Turn 3. This brings a few MPPs.

From experience, the Strategic Command AI Hubert Cater has developed, has been trained to not make the same mistakes as the French High Command did in real life.  This of course only adds to the challenging aspects of the game and I expect a wall of French units from Calais via Lille to Reims. The Ardennes protect Verdun, and the River Meuse prevents Panzer sweeps. The AI has time to fortify its positions, and the BEF should be present as well. I expect the triangle Calais – Lille – Amiens to be heavily protected. Lille is protected against attacks from the East by the River Schelde, and Amiens by the River Somme. This does not seem to be the ideal place for a large scale offensive. The more I think about it, Reims really seems the place to be.

Read the full AAR here!