After Action Reports

[Bluestroke]

Title:  Doolittle Rides Again/1942 Setup
Date:  December 6th, 2008 
Special Rules:  NO's + Tech
Victor:  Allied Victory by Concession. 
Game Length: 6.5 hours.
Bias:  I am the oldest player, all others about even. 
Description: 
Allies: Pacific Used balance strategy, UK built factory India.  Shocked at how effective China was at absorbing ��� Ftrs, it took ��� five fullrounds to catch China.  Typical stuff in Europe, Italy still very effective, constant push btwn USA/UK and Italy in Africa.  Typical maxium extend by Axis, Allies catch up at Mid game and push back, great fun had by all.

[Funcioneta]

Funcioneta,

Do you think getting rid of the silly rule that China can't mobilize infantry in a territory already supporting 3 infantry help China's odds any?   

Yes, it would aid. As now, makes difficult stack forces and at times you simply must retreat your main force and safrice one popping inf. Not a great aid but at least would improve defense. Maybe mobilizing from a IC would better, even if only inf mobilizes (as in AAPacific).

China should count how many infs pop at end of turn. As now, It's too easy for Japan reduce China to pop only one inf.

[TG Moses VI]

Yes, the "3 infantry or more" rule looked so gimmicky when I first read it.  It is just another superflous rule to keep track of. 

From now on, I've dropped it. 

[tin_snips]

i feel it would be more advantageous to count how many territories China has at the END of its turn, to see how many infantry they recieve. that way if China re-takes any territories, they get an extra inf or 2

[Bierwagen]

Title:  Splish, Splash, the Japs were taking a Bath… (1942)
Date:  …Long about a Saturday night… 20 December 2008
Special Rules:  Techs and NO's
  - Attempted to go for LHTR Super Bombers rules but was vetoed down
  - Gang voted 3-2 to play with tech
Victor:  Allied Victory
  - Germany finally croaked “please take your foot off my neck… I can’t breathe…”
Game Length:  6 hours/3 rounds … yeah, we’re slow movers
Bias:  Sides seemed pretty balanced. Japanese had some really cold dice and they never recovered from J1.
Description: 

G1: Tech*2. Germany opened by sinking the British navy and digging in on the Eastern Front. Loses the U-Boat fleet.

R1: Tech. Takes Finland and digs in for defense

J1: Tech*2. Transport.

- Japan had a great textbook opening attempting to sink the entire US fleet
- Takes Burma
- Skipped the Philippines
- Takes East Indies
- Takes Borneo
- Destroyed the Chinese ftr

Japan lost 5 of it’s fighters and the US BB survived.

UK1: Tech.
- Strikes German fleet in Baltic
- Builds CV, 2*DD, Transport
- Withdraws from Africa & digs into India
- Surviving Indian fleet sinks Japanese transport & blocks Australia from surface assault
- Australian fleet sets up in Carolina Island in anticipation of US fleet consolidating there

I1: Trans-Jordan & Egypt

Observations/Recommendations: 
Agreed that the next game we’ll attempt without tech. Seems to make it too much of a crap shoot/game breaker.

US/UK/Japan ended up with Long Range Aircraft as tech

Japan never recovered from the loss of it's Air Force on the first move and failed to see US setting up in the Philippines. Japan was left empty and US walked in on US3 after a brief naval conflict. After Japan fell it was just a matter of time -- though there was a brief moment where Germany might have pulled off taking USSR.

Long Range Aircraft really shrinks the Pacific and turns the tide for whoever gets it first. US had fighters and bombers in Australia as defense and the tech advantage gave them global reach. Japan should have gone totally defensive after that tech roll and waited for Germany and Italy to take Russia.

Germany & Italy were doing some amazing work in the Caucasus. That is a pretty scary combo punch down there when they finally get it wired. My hat is off to the coordinated action down there.

[TG Moses VI]

Title:  The Battle of Japan Sea (1941)
Date: December 22nd, 2008
Special Rules:  Tech ONLY
Victor:  Axis by Victory Cities (12)
Game Length:  Four Rounds -- Six hours
Bias:  About Even.  Three players -- 2 Allies (Me and my rookie bother), 1 Axis (Capable Friend)
Description:
Axis:  Germany rolled on Russia, capturing Leningrad and Stalingrad before being pushed back.  Luftwaffe menaced UK's Navy.  Italy took over most of Africa and even took India via Persia.  Japan concentrated on protecting its Dutch possessions and conquered Australia.
Allies:  Russia successful stalled Germany long enough for the inevitable UK expeditionary force to arrive.  After liberating Stalingrad, Russia shifted infantry to help China.  UK took Norway, Finland, and liberated Leningrad.  USA concentrated on the Pacific, amassing a huge navy and blockading Japan.   
Endgame:  On the same turn Japan unlocked Jet Fighters, Japan swung its entire Navy from the Philippines to attack the US blockade in the Sea of Japan.  After furious dice rolling (Japan had 3 fully loaded carriers + support craft; USA had 1 carrier, but many submarines, battleships, and cruisers), Japan broke USA's Navy, forcing a VC Victory by taking Hawaii. 
Observations:  I love this game.   Being able to recreate the Battle of Leyte Gulf, but under different circumstances was glorious.  Italy was the little engine that could.  The Victory City concept is brilliant, it really leads to tense, climatic games.       

[kendric]

Title:  The game that wouldn't end
Date: December 22nd, 2008
Special Rules:  No tech No NOs
Victor:  Axis by concession since it was 1am
Game Length:  8-9 rounds 6 hours
Bias:  About Even.  Three players -- 1 Allies (Me), 2 Axis (One less experienced then me(Germany), 1 more experienced(Italy, Japan)
Description:

Germany and Russia did the normal dance, some crazy dice(should have been playing low luck) made the front stall many times when it should have probably pushed through. Italy mixed between Africa and Europe. Germany sent a little bit to africa.

UK built fleet and then started ferrying troops to W.E
U.S is what cost me the game. I saw a chance to try to sink the Italian fleet on US 2 using 2 bombers and 2 fighters vs their regular 2 cruisers and 1 BB. I had poor luck and ended up only sinking the 2 cruisers at a cost of all my planes. that really stalled US. I had planned on SBR on italy but after that I switched to ferrying to italy.

Japan did its regular Godzilla thing. I was able to slow it down quite a bit by moving some Russians to china and blocking india with UK. They ended up mostly going the north route which took them a while.

In the end Japan just got too big and I never could hold W.E and that darn Italian navy rebuilt somewhat and they finally secured the channel via Godzilla might and got the Japanese fleet through.
Africa was mostly held by the allies the whole game.

Observations: trying to sink the Italian navy on U.S 2 via air was too risky given the randomness of dice. I need a better way to take advantage of pressure I put on W.E for russia to push forward. As it was I wasn't able to make good ground in the east. By the time they were running out of troops, UK's income had been whittled down so much they could only make 5 inf a turn and hodling W.E became impossible

[TG Moses VI]

Title:  Operation Sealion Turned (1941)
Date: December 21st, 2008
Special Rules:  Tech ONLY
Victor:  Allies by concession
Game Length:  Five hours
Bias:  About Even.  Five players -- 3 Allies (Me, Amber, Flint) and 2 Axis (Jacob, Sony)
Description:
Endgame:  On UK1, Amber made a forced landing at Normandy.  On G2, instead of retaking Normandy, the Germans (who had unlocked paratroopers G1) launched a bold invasion of London.  High risk; high reward.  Well, the invasion failed (the odds were 45/55 to begin with) and Germany lost her entire air force.  The game ended with that (except for a Japanese invasion of the West Coast, which should have been successful but wasn't), and the the rest of the rounds were spent going through the motions.          Observations: 
This game ended on a downer.  Either way you had a lose-lose situation.  If the Germans had succeeded in taking London (on the second round), there's no way the Allies could have recovered.  The Germans, by not being able to take London, sealed their fate.  The game was doomed to end prematurely.  Bottom line: Axis and Allies aren't for cocksure, "me-first" players.             

[allies_fly]

Title:  Operation Sealion Turned (1941)
Date: December 21st, 2008
Special Rules:  Tech ONLY
Victor:  Allies by concession
Game Length:  Five hours
Bias:  About Even.  Five players -- 3 Allies (Me, Amber, Flint) and 2 Axis (Jacob, Sony)
Description:
Endgame:  On UK1, Amber made a forced landing at Normandy.  On G2, instead of retaking Normandy, the Germans (who had unlocked paratroopers G1) launched a bold invasion of London.  High risk; high reward.  Well, the invasion failed (the odds were 45/55 to begin with) and Germany lost her entire air force.  The game ended with that (except for a Japanese invasion of the West Coast, which should have been successful but wasn't), and the the rest of the rounds were spent going through the motions.          Observations: 
This game ended on a downer.  Either way you had a lose-lose situation.  If the Germans had succeeded in taking London (on the second round), there's no way the Allies could have recovered.  The Germans, by not being able to take London, sealed their fate.  The game was doomed to end prematurely.  Bottom line: Axis and Allies aren't for cocksure, "me-first" players.             

THIS is the reason instant tech sucks.
Too much dice involved.  Getting the tech, then trying to apply the just gotten tech.

[eumaies]

sure, but that example wasn't instant tech, right?  just that the uk player left himself a bit open, all things considered, and the german player made an annoying decision to risk the game on a 45% chance of success.  I don't know, maybe he thought he was losing already.

stuff like that happens without any tech involved, too.

[TG Moses VI]

eumaies is mostly correct.  Even though I was Russia, I said to the German repeatedly, "This is not a good idea.  The odds against you.  If this invasion fails, you will have lost your entire air force and the UK's Navy will be looking down on you.  This is not a sound decision."  And I was right.  Even though Britain had left herself wide open, the British still won the battle with two fighters and a bomber remaining.  And I don't think you could really blame the dice. 

Allies_Fly is also correct.  Usually when a "novice" unlocks a tech they become fixated on it.  This is sometimes correct. Other times you have the German building bombers when what they really need is tanks and infantry.   

[allies_fly]

sure, but that example wasn't instant tech, right?  just that the uk player left himself a bit open,

My apologies, I glossed over the G1 development of paratroopers.

Based on that achieved tech, UK either made a mistake or intentionally left a 50-50 battle knowing it could lose the game for Germany if London was not taken, but may not lose the game for the allies if london was lost.

[TG Moses VI]

Now that I reconsider it, the German's odds were more like 40/60.  Even if it was 45/55, I still don't make a attack unless I know I have a 60/40 chance of winning or can at least inflict a disproportionate amount of IPC damage (ex. 1 Tank attacking 4 parked Bombers) to the enemy.  Germany losing the Battle of Britain was a HUGE IPC loss (at least 80 IPCs in fighters and bombers).     

[Funcioneta]

I'm not sure how paras would improve Sea Lion too much in G1. After all, it would add only one inf to the invasion. HBs or LRA would be better:

Paras: 2 inf, 1 arm, 2 fig, bomb (6 vs 7 in UK) -> 15 vs 23 punch
HBs: 1 inf, 1 arm , but HBs attack twice (5 vs 7) -> 18 vs 23 punch
LRA: 1 inf, 1 arm, 4 fig, bomber (7 vs 7) -> 21 vs 25 punch

Seems a bad move for germans. With paras, would be better and safer for the bomber improve the assault on Egypt

[TG Moses VI]

Title:  Cannae (1941)
Date: December 24th, 2008
Special Rules:  Tech ONLY
Victor:  Axis by concession
Game Length:  Six hours
Bias:  Experience favored the Axis.  Six players -- 3 Allies (Kevin, Amber, Jeremy) and 3 Axis (Me, Sony, Flint)
Description:
Allies:  Russia counterattacked and drove on East Poland and as far South as Romania.  UK split IPCs between an IC in India and having their navy sunk by the German Luftwaffe each turn.  USA bothered Japan.   
Axis:  Italy did its thing in Africa.  Japan hulk smashed.  Germany took Leningrad, built up a panzer reserve there, and after unlocking Mechanized Infantry, swung south and encircled several Soviet armies in Eastern Russia, while simultaneously putting pressure on Moscow. 
Endgame:  Without Allied help, Germany was too much for Russia and their front collapsed.     
Observations: 
"The Trap" was a textbook maneuver by the Germans.  The Russians made the mistake of overextend themselves and were enveloped.