The North Africa Vignette AAR

After action reports for Commander Europe at War.

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Plaid
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Post by Plaid »

Actually if you force Italy to surrender this way (Tunis + Sicily) you kindly provide Germany with tons of PP income (Vichy + all Italy).
And if Germany doing more or less good on all fronts, this bonus PP can be much more benefit for axis, then low tech italian troops at their command.

Also something mysterious happens with axis oil pool when Italy surrenders - sometimes it increase, sometimes it decrease by any number...
In my game with Zechi I got about +200 oil instantly, for example.
rkr1958
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Post by rkr1958 »

Plaid wrote:Also something mysterious happens with axis oil pool when Italy surrenders - sometimes it increase, sometimes it decrease by any number...
In my game with Zechi I got about +200 oil instantly, for example.
That was a bug I thought was fixed in GSv2.00.
schwerpunkt
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Post by schwerpunkt »

Plaid wrote:Actually if you force Italy to surrender this way (Tunis + Sicily) you kindly provide Germany with tons of PP income (Vichy + all Italy).
And if Germany doing more or less good on all fronts, this bonus PP can be much more benefit for axis, then low tech italian troops at their command.

Also something mysterious happens with axis oil pool when Italy surrenders - sometimes it increase, sometimes it decrease by any number...
In my game with Zechi I got about +200 oil instantly, for example.
As Ronnie noted, we thought this has been fixed. Apparently the game keeps track of Italian oil reserves individually as well so when the surrender, their oil reserve is deducted from the axis pool. If the Italian oil reserve is negative, this results in the axis pool increasing when they surrender.
rkr1958
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Post by rkr1958 »

schwerpunkt wrote:
Plaid wrote:Actually if you force Italy to surrender this way (Tunis + Sicily) you kindly provide Germany with tons of PP income (Vichy + all Italy).
And if Germany doing more or less good on all fronts, this bonus PP can be much more benefit for axis, then low tech italian troops at their command.

Also something mysterious happens with axis oil pool when Italy surrenders - sometimes it increase, sometimes it decrease by any number...
In my game with Zechi I got about +200 oil instantly, for example.
As Ronnie noted, we thought this has been fixed. Apparently the game keeps track of Italian oil reserves individually as well so when the surrender, their oil reserve is deducted from the axis pool. If the Italian oil reserve is negative, this results in the axis pool increasing when they surrender.
I just verified (again) that this bug was indeeded fixed in GSv2.00. So if you have any saved games where something funny happens to the axis oil levels after Italy surrenders in GSv2.00 we'd be interesting in getting them.
Morris
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Post by Morris »

no matter what kind of situation of the axis oil after Itly die in 1942 , Axis will lose with no dault
Plaid
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Post by Plaid »

Morris wrote:no matter what kind of situation of the axis oil after Itly die in 1942 , Axis will lose with no dault
Why?
In my AAR game posted somewhere around I "almost" won with early Italy surrender AND fail Sealion AND fail Barbarossa.

With only early Italy surrender i guess, I would win...
rkr1958
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Post by rkr1958 »

The Times of London
The Desert Army
(Installment 21)
by Nigel Whitehurst
May 8, 1942.


May 8. 0600 hours. Aboard the HMS Resolution. I’m on the bridge of the HMS Resolution with General Leese and Admiral Cunningham when the final decision is made by General Leese, the overall commander of Husky that the operation is a go. Admiral Cunningham, commander of all allied naval forces in support of Husky, then authorizes his communication officer to send the signal to the fleet to commence pre-invasion naval bombardment and carrier attack air operations. Almost simultaneously, 800 miles to the east General Devers, overall commander of Torch, makes the same decision and the allied fleet in support of his operation begins their pre-invasion attacks. It is sunrise where we are but still 45-minutes before sunrise where General Devers is. No matter, pre-invasion attacks for both operations will continue for 90-mintues after which amphibious operations will begin against Palermo and Messina (Husky) and Tunis and Oran (Torch).

Except for IV corps (UK) from the Central Task Force, the invasion fleets were able to get in position without incident. IV corps was hit hard by the two (known) Italain sub groups and suffer over 70% casualties. While these losses were great, London and Washington are pleased with the fact that 3 US and 5 UK full strength amphibious corps are able to get in place and that the four objectives (Palermo, Messina, Tunis and Oran) will each be attacked by two full strength corps.

May 8. 0730 hours. Aboard the HMS Resolution. After 90-minutes of pre-invasion attacks the Husky and Torch landings begin within minutes of each other. The Husky landings, and especially those in the Messina area, are given priority for allied air and naval support. The capture of Messina will isolated Sicily from mainland Italy and, if this can be accomplished on day one, would prevent any major reinforcements of the island.

May 8. 1930 hours (730pm). Aboard the HMS Resolution. The city of Messina has been under constant attack for the past 12 hours from the 1st Canadians from the north and the 2nd Canadians (mech) corps from the south when the Italians raise the surrender flag above the city.

May 8. 2030 hours (830pm). Aboard the HMS Resolution. The three-star commander of the 2nd Canadian mech corps formally accepts the surrender of Messina from the two-star Italian divisional commander in command there. While there’s still a lot of fighting left it looks like Sicily will be ours in less than three weeks.

May 8. 2350 hours (11:50pm). Aboard the HMS Resolution. Reports starting coming from the Torch landings at Tunis and Oran and the news is good. If the fighting there goes as expected Tunis and Oran should also be ours in less than three weeks. The prospects for an Italian surrender look good, very good indeed.

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The Times of London. Operation Husky – Landings are a go!

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The Times of London. Operation Torch – Landings are a go!

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The Times of London. Operation Torch & Husky Get Ashore.

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The Times of London. Four Free French Corps are Mobilized.
Last edited by rkr1958 on Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Morris
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Post by Morris »

Plaid wrote:
Morris wrote:no matter what kind of situation of the axis oil after Itly die in 1942 , Axis will lose with no dault
Why?
In my AAR game posted somewhere around I "almost" won with early Italy surrender AND fail Sealion AND fail Barbarossa.

With only early Italy surrender i guess, I would win...
I believe you ! But I think it should be caused by the Allies player's too many mistake . If I were him , you won't have the opportunity . If you wonder about this , we may try a pbem , you don't need to sealion ( If you insist , I won't mind ), if italy surrender in 1942 , & you(Axis) win the game , you are my professor ! If axis lose , would you please just agree to my point ?
Morris
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Post by Morris »

Plaid wrote:
Morris wrote:no matter what kind of situation of the axis oil after Itly die in 1942 , Axis will lose with no dault
Why?
In my AAR game posted somewhere around I "almost" won with early Italy surrender AND fail Sealion AND fail Barbarossa.

With only early Italy surrender i guess, I would win...
If you need , we can play it by AAR .
rkr1958
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Post by rkr1958 »

The Times of London
The Desert Army
(Installment 22)
by Nigel Whitehurst
May 28, 1942.


1300 hours (1pm). General Leese’s HQ, Tripoli. The general receives and encoded flash message from London that at 1400 hours (2pm), which is approximately an hour from now, that Italy will unconditionally surrender to the UK and USA and that their armed forces will lay down their arms. Cheers erupt inside and outside the general’s headquarters as news of the impending surrender spreads.

1400 hours (2pm). Rome. Italy formally announces their unconditional surrender and Mussolini is arrested by local Italian authorities.

1600 hours (4pm). Rome. Less than two hours after his arrest Mussolini is “freed” from his prison by a small team of elite German paratroopers. Obviously, this mission had been planned for a while and was initiated before Italy’s formal surrender. It’s also obvious that mainland Italy will not be “surrendered” but that we will have to fight the Germans for it.

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The Times of London. Italy Surrenders Unconditionally!!
Last edited by rkr1958 on Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rkr1958
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Post by rkr1958 »

The Times of London
The Desert Army
(Installment 23)
by Nigel Whitehurst
July 1, 1942.


This is my 23rd and final installment in this series. The Desert Army has officially been dissolved and is now part of a combined UK, USA and Free French army group for this theater of fighting in Italy and French North Africa. As I board the plane for the first leg of my journey home, I suddenly realize that I am headed home and within two weeks will be back at my old desk in London reporting on the latest cricket or football match. I have been away from home and family for two years and three months and look forward to seeing both soon. I am hit by a flash of guilt at my good fortunate to be returning from my part in this war when so many good men of the Desert Army won’t get that same chance.

As I board the plane I look out and see an armor unit parked off the side off the runway and next to some palm trees. They remind me of X armor and the heavy fighting that they went through in the desert. As I settle into my seat, I laugh to myself at the personal escort that General Leese and his staff gave me to the airfield. I guess it was the least that they could do after the night of celebration they put me through. I look forward to a smooth flight and a chance to sleep off this celebration. As the plane lifts off I can see columns of troops moving in several directions. I think of how far they’ve come; but also of how far they yet have to go. I also think of how fortunate I was to get to know them and tell their story, which is still unfinished and will now be told by someone else.


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The Times of London. Goodbye!
Last edited by rkr1958 on Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:10 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Morris
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Post by Morris »

I like the postcard !
rkr1958
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Post by rkr1958 »

Summary

This ends my “play acting” as Nigel and this AAR. From here on I am “myself” and I will write in a “normal” text style as such. Throughout this AAR I haven’t discussed my situation outside of North Africa and the Med in any detail except for the fall of France and my opponent’s unsuccessful Sea Lion attempt.

The situation soon after the surrender of Italy turned, in my opinion, fairly grave for my opponent. I soon discovered on the July 27, 1942 turn that he was out of oil and that all he would have to work with would be the 50 or so points he gets per turn. This meant that there would be no ’42 summer offensive in Russia and that I wouldn’t have to build infantry corps to replace my losses, like I would normally have to do in most games. This meant that I could use the 120 (or so) PP’s per turn to build mostly tactical bombers and armor corps. Also, the lack of axis oil meant that I didn’t have to worry about having to add to the 6 Russia fighters that I already had. They would be enough. And to add icing on the cake the lack of oil meant that my opponent couldn’t effectively interdict the Murmansk convoy, meaning 70 to 100 extra PP’s every four or five turns. “The vodka was flowing in Mocow!”.

My opponent was forced to rail several corps away from I assume Russia in order to stabilize the situation in Italy and the Balkans. The western allies (US & UK) would have a tough go pushing up through Italy. The UK had exceeded their amphibious capability and it would be several turns before they would have any capacity to be a threat. The US was still mobilizing and getting units in theater. However; Italy and the Med were now only a place to force my opponent to burn some of his precious oil and use some of his precious rail points. To worse his situation I was bringing four strategic bombers from the US to bomb his sync oil facilities in Germany and hit cities with rail points (e.g., Hamburg) to reduce his capacity there. I hope to get his oil down to 30 to 40 and his rail down to 9 to 10 points per turn. Thus limiting his ability to use oil consuming units (e.g., mech, armor, fighters, bombers and subs), force him to spend PP’s on railing extra units to needed places, force him to completely go on the defensive and build only infantry corps to replace his losses in the east. Then I hope to chew up his infantry forcing him to build more infantry and exhaust his manpower. I plan to continue the buildup in Russia through the fair weather turns of 1942 and then unleash them in November / December 1942 when the severe winter hit in the east. My plan was to begin pushing with them and continue on regardless of losses.
I feel that this game got away from my opponent when he didn’t send four of five quality German units (including a couple of fighters) to North Africa to bolster the Italians there and stop me cold until the US entered. This was also magnified (I believe) by the loss of the Italian fleet without getting any strategic benefit and by letting me get and keep Crete. When I invade Greece I send a bomber to Rhode and a bomber and two fighters to the Greek islands to discourage the RN Med fleet from intervening. I also use the two Italian subs to block possible UK reinforcement of Crete. I keep the Italian fleet surface within this protective umbrella which is now a very formable deterrent to RN intervention.

In summary, I feel this AAR proves the importance of North Africa and Italy to winning or losing the game. It is a place where the allied player can snipe at the axis player in 1941 and 1942 and in some cases a place where the game can be won or lost even if the western allies aren’t the ones to make it to Berlin.

By the way any and all comments are welcomed. And if anyone would like a copy of this AAR I can convert it to pdf and post a link. Just let me know.

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Morris
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Post by Morris »

the main reasons of his failure are as follows
1 unsucessful sealion attempt
2 Italy involve too much in Africa , it soften the defence of sisily .
3 the axis Greece mission is totally meaningless
4 the above three mission cost too much fuel

Without fuel & Italy ,it is reasonale that axis lose in 1943 .

It is a great story but not a great compaign .
rkr1958
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Post by rkr1958 »

I've decided to convert this AAR to pdf and post it for download for those who wish to have it. I've also posted two of my previous AARs from the past for those who also might be interested in them.

1. North Africa Vignette AAR

2. The Historical AAR (Axis vs Allied AI)

3. The Axis Tutorial AAR (Axis vs Allied AI)
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