L17 BM Marshmallow of War (Axis) vs Simon33 (Allies) Game Two

[MarshmallowofWar]

TripleA Turn Summary for game: World War II Global 1940 Balanced Mod, version: 2.0

Game History

Round: 6

Purchase Units - Japanese
            Japanese buy 1 carrier, 1 destroyer, 2 fighters and 8 infantry; Remaining resources: 6 SuicideAttackTokens; 0 PUs;

Combat Move - Japanese
            3 fighters moved from Japan to Hawaiian Islands
            1 bomber moved from Paulau Island to Hawaiian Islands
            1 tactical_bomber moved from French Indo China to India
            2 bombers moved from French Indo China to India
            2 fighters and 2 tactical_bombers moved from Shan State to India
            2 fighters and 2 tactical_bombers moved from 38 Sea Zone to India
            1 fighter moved from 39 Sea Zone to India
            1 tactical_bomber moved from 39 Sea Zone to India
            4 artilleries moved from Shan State to 38 Sea Zone
            5 infantry moved from Shan State to 38 Sea Zone
            1 destroyer moved from 38 Sea Zone to 42 Sea Zone
            4 artilleries, 1 battleship, 2 carriers, 5 infantry and 5 transports moved from 38 Sea Zone to 39 Sea Zone
            4 artilleries moved from 39 Sea Zone to India
            5 infantry moved from 39 Sea Zone to India
            1 submarine moved from 77 Sea Zone to 74 Sea Zone
            1 infantry moved from Suiyuyan to Kansu
                  Japanese take Kansu from Chinese
            1 infantry moved from Chahar to Suiyuyan
            1 infantry moved from Hunan to Kweichow
                  Japanese take Kweichow from Chinese
            1 infantry moved from Anhwe to Chahar
            1 infantry moved from Kiangsu to Anhwe
            1 infantry moved from Kiangsi to Hunan
            1 artillery moved from Kiangsi to Kwangtung
            1 infantry moved from Kiangsu to Anhwe
            1 infantry moved from Kiangsu to Kiangsi

Combat - Japanese
            Battle in 42 Sea Zone
                Japanese attack with 1 destroyer
                ANZAC defend with 1 transport
                Japanese win, taking 42 Sea Zone from Americans with 1 destroyer remaining. Battle score for attacker is 7
                Casualties for ANZAC: 1 transport
            Battle in India
                Japanese attack with 4 artilleries, 2 bombers, 5 fighters, 5 infantry and 6 tactical_bombers
                British defend with 1 aaGun, 2 artilleries, 3 fighters, 10 infantry and 1 tactical_bomber; UK_Pacific defend with 1 airfield, 1 factory_major and 1 harbour; ANZAC defend with 1 fighter
                Japanese captures 3PUs while taking UK_Pacific capital
                Japanese converts factory_major into different units
                Japanese win, taking India from UK_Pacific with 1 artillery, 2 bombers, 5 fighters and 5 tactical_bombers remaining. Battle score for attacker is 56
                Casualties for British: 1 aaGun, 2 artilleries, 3 fighters, 10 infantry and 1 tactical_bomber
                Casualties for ANZAC: 1 fighter
                Casualties for Japanese: 3 artilleries, 5 infantry and 1 tactical_bomber
            triggerUKPacificDestroyPUsJapanese: Setting destroysPUs to true for playerAttachment attached to UK_Pacific

Non Combat Move - Japanese
            2 tactical_bombers moved from India to Shan State
            2 fighters moved from India to Shan State
            3 tactical_bombers moved from India to 39 Sea Zone
            3 fighters moved from India to 39 Sea Zone
            2 bombers moved from India to French Indo China

Place Units - Japanese
            3 infantry placed in Kiangsu
            3 infantry placed in French Indo China
            1 carrier and 1 destroyer placed in 6 Sea Zone
            2 fighters placed in 6 Sea Zone
            2 infantry placed in Japan

Turn Complete - Japanese
            Total Cost from Convoy Blockades: 5
                Rolling for Convoy Blockade Damage in 26 Sea Zone. Rolls: 6,1,1,5,3,3,4,1,6,1,1,6
                Rolling for Convoy Blockade Damage in 6 Sea Zone. Rolls: 1,3
            Japanese collect 53 PUs (5 lost to blockades); end with 56 PUs total
            Objective Japanese 3 Control Honolulu Or Sydney Or Calcutta Or Western United States: Japanese met a national objective for an additional 10 PUs; end with 66 PUs

triplea_39451_Jap6.tsvg

[simon33]

TripleA Manual Gamesave Post for game: World War II Global 1940 Balanced Mod, version: 2.0

Game History

Round: 6

Purchase Units - Americans
            Americans buy 4 artilleries, 2 bombers, 4 infantry and 3 transports; Remaining resources: 0 PUs;

Combat Move - Americans
            3 fighters and 1 tactical_bomber moved from 26 Sea Zone to Hawaiian Islands
            1 destroyer moved from 32 Sea Zone to 26 Sea Zone
            5 artilleries and 5 infantry moved from Western United States to 10 Sea Zone
            1 fighter moved from Western United States to Hawaiian Islands
            5 artilleries, 1 destroyer, 5 infantry and 5 transports moved from 10 Sea Zone to 26 Sea Zone
            5 artilleries and 5 infantry moved from 26 Sea Zone to Hawaiian Islands
            1 destroyer moved from 54 Sea Zone to 26 Sea Zone
            1 armour moved from Finland to Novgorod
                  Russians take Novgorod from Germans
            1 bomber and 3 fighters moved from Norway to Western Germany

Combat - Americans
            Air Battle in Western Germany
                Americans attacks with 4 units heading to Western Germany
                Air Battle is over, the remaining bombers go on to their targets
            Strategic bombing raid in Western Germany
                Bombing raid in Western Germany rolls: 3 and causes: 3 damage to unit: factory_major
                Bombing raid in Western Germany causes 3 damage total.
            Battle in Hawaiian Islands
                Americans attack with 5 artilleries, 4 fighters, 5 infantry and 1 tactical_bomber
                Japanese defend with 1 airfield, 3 artilleries, 1 bomber, 6 fighters, 1 harbour, 5 infantry and 2 tactical_bombers
                Japanese win with 4 fighters remaining. Battle score for attacker is -5
                Casualties for Americans: 5 artilleries, 4 fighters, 5 infantry and 1 tactical_bomber
                Casualties for Japanese: 3 artilleries, 1 bomber, 2 fighters, 5 infantry and 2 tactical_bombers
            Cleaning up after air battles

Non Combat Move - Americans

triplea_39451_Ame6.tsvg

[simon33]

Good win in the Pacific. I hate losing only on one map but those are the rules.

A lot of things I could have done to hang on. Bummer!

[MarshmallowofWar]

Thanks. If you want feedback on this one, let me know.

[simon33]

There were a few things - not retreating from Calcutta, not having a strong enough force to retake Hawaii.

What else are you thinking of?

Rematch?

[MarshmallowofWar]

Sure, we can do a rematch. Am I running Axis again? I will do the bid differently this time. I also really don’t think 3 is enough in Balanced Mode for the Axis – I think it’s far too easy for the Allies to run roughshod over the Axis income-wise, but I’m willing to stick with 3 for the rematch.

As for feedback:

1. You spent too much effort in Europe. I think you were excited to be able to handicap Germany early after my J2 attack (I still question whether or not losing Norway is a big enough handicap to be worth the trouble), and consequently you spent a lot of money on the Europe side. As a result of this, you were weak in the Pacific. However, that’s not what really killed you.

2. I think your turn one Allied fleet positioning in the Pacific was weak. If you recall, I destroyed all ANZAC and UK ships on J2 (even though it cost me a plane or two) because I had complete dominance for my fleet at that point.

3. Hawaii was weak. You spent so much effort fighting that you weakened yourself and as I mentioned you never really built up enough to compensate for that. If you had loaded transports in range of Hawaii, I would never have taken it – instead, I would have sent those two loaded transports to sea zone 36 and built a naval base and killed India on J5 with 7 loaded transports. I would have had so much force left that you wouldn’t have been able to recapture. That being said, I didn’t take it with the intent to keep it – I kept it because it made me a profit (yes, I lost 14 IPCs in transports but I gained 24 IPCs net change over two turns with income for me of 12 and losses for you of 12).

4. Even then, what really killed you was your insistence on keeping your fleet at the Caroline Islands. As soon as I took Hawaii, you should have locked down sea zone 26 so that I could not get additional reinforcements in – if your fleet had been sitting in sea zone 26, I would have just gone on to kill India and not flown in planes.

5. Your build on US4 was wrong, but it was the result of you not moving your fleet back. If you had moved your fleet back and built nothing but loaded transports in the Pacific, I would have been forced to leave the troops in Hawaii to die. Again, those reinforcements would have been off to India.

6. As you pointed out, you could have retreated from Calcutta on UK5. Yes, I would have taken India (light) and you would have recaptured. I would have been forced to abandon Hawaii on J6. I tried for an hour to figure out how to stop that, take India, and prevent the recapture if you retreated, but I couldn’t do it. Again, I would have been forced to abandon Hawaii on J6.

7. Ironically enough, once that cat was out of the bag you still could have guaranteed that I did not win by keeping your fleet at the Caroline Islands and staging the ANZAC transport to sea zone 54 instead of taking Java. Had I brought defenders into the Philippines, you could have hit them with your Pacific Fleet aircraft to try to clear for an ANZAC landing – the only way for me to stop it would have been to fly enough planes in (or land enough ground forces) that my India attack was inadequate. (If you had staged the ANZAC transport to sea zone 54 but moved your US fleet to sea zone 26, I would have flown the tac from FIC to the Philippines for scramble.)

As for my play, I didn’t run Italy as well as I could have - I should have taken Cyprus with Italy early, but of course I had to retreat from that naval battle on I1 (I just got greedy and wanted to stage as much as possible for the Russia attack).

I’m quite happy with Germany except I lost too many German fighters. Still, that worked out alright as I was able to have Italy supplement air defenses easily enough. While I got lucky that first strat bombing round in West Germany, your UK factory also annihilated my German bomber on G2. That being the case, I think at best you had a 60/40 game in Europe there – yes, Germany’s income was low, but it was just a matter of time even if the Pacific had played out with just an India capture.

I’d be eager to hear any feedback you have on my play. I’m always trying to improve.

[simon33]

Re: the UK Pac fleet, I’m in two minds on that one. Taking down even one plane of the Japanese air force is more than it achieves in some games.

Re: Norway, I’m pretty convinced that it is worth it. However, it isn’t enough to stop Barbarossa on its own. Thinning down the Luftwaffe is a pretty big deal for the allies in Europe IMO. In one of my other games the Luftwaffe took down the USN in SZ125 but lost a few planes in the process which isn’t the worst outcome for the allies I think. That Baltic transport is pretty important for kicking the allies off Norway and you threw it away.

I didn’t understand why you didn’t activate vichy or take Normandy at all in the game? I didn’t like leaving 3 inf in Yugo for Italy and not taking Greece I1. I don’t quite see why no attack on SZ111 G1?

Regarding the bid - why don’t we just go on BM3 which strengthens the Axis a bit against the Allies.

[simon33]

Actually, do you want to do twinned games? I’ve started one where I’m Axis here: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=39520.0

Scramble SZ111 & 115, submerge 115?

[MarshmallowofWar]

@simon33:

Re: the UK Pac fleet, I’m in two minds on that one. Taking down even one plane of the Japanese air force is more than it achieves in some games.

Re: Norway, I’m pretty convinced that it is worth it. However, it isn’t enough to stop Barbarossa on its own. Thinning down the Luftwaffe is a pretty big deal for the allies in Europe IMO. In one of my other games the Luftwaffe took down the USN in SZ125 but lost a few planes in the process which isn’t the worst outcome for the allies I think. That Baltic transport is pretty important for kicking the allies off Norway and you threw it away.

I didn’t understand why you didn’t activate vichy or take Normandy at all in the game? I didn’t like leaving 3 inf in Yugo for Italy and not taking Greece I1. I don’t quite see why no attack on SZ111 G1?

Regarding the bid - why don’t we just go on BM3 which strengthens the Axis a bit against the Allies.

I didn’t do Vichy or take Normandy because if I give you a factory on mainland Europe it saves the Allies 10 IPCs per turn, and because it’s something you expect people to do. (For the same reasons I don’t care if you take Norway with Russia, because it prevents the US from building an IC or bases there. Yes, it’s worth 10 IPCs to me counting Finland as well, but it’s worth far more to the US and if I hold it I have to defend it. The Axis is not in the game of defense in my opinion.)

Southern Europe is different – it’s worth a bit more, gives Germany the option to produce naval units in the Med, and is easily defended by the same forces that can reinforce Southern Italy, Western Europe, and France at a moment’s notice. Units defending Normandy are useless.

Regarding the transport, I wanted you to get excited about Europe. By making that mistake, it at least appeared to me that you were convinced that you could take Germany down fast. It was an attempt, as the Japanese say, to inflict the “victory disease” on you. Think of it as a gambit – only you really know if it helped in my goal.

We can try BM3, though I’m not familiar with it at all. give me a couple of days to try to play through something in it and then I’ll start a game. I’m not sure what you mean by twinned games though.

[simon33]

Twinned games - one where I’m axis and one where I’m allies.