@andrewaagamer
Ah. I hadn’t understood that subtlety. It’s a bit like assuming that, as an attacker, I’m going to win - so, retreat isn’t an option. Thanks a lot for your help.
After Action Reports
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Title: Kido Butai**(1941)**
Date: 2-6-09
Special Rules: optional Rules Black Sea Closed, carrier Islands ,
_National Objectives_yes,
Tech yes U.S. shipyards, Supersubs, jets;UK paratroopers.
Victor: Axis win -Allies Concession after Japan takes US West.
Game Length:4.5Hrs/8 rds- Hours/Rounds
Bias: Going into the game, Japan had the higher skill level.
Description: UK/USSR vs Germany/Italy and US vs Japan
Japan/Germany expand typical first 3 rounds.
Japan had easy time going through China, this time.
Italy drove everyone out of Africa took India.
US concentrated on airpower using carrier Island. Japan countered with massed Fleet strength, 3-CV, 6-FTR, BB, CA, DD,4-CT. Japan stopped US Air Armada in Hawaii, then surprised US, instead of hitting Hawaii where it was strongest, Sliced into US west Coast and ended game.
Germany beat back UK invasion of NW Europe, advanced on USSR.
Victor writes the History,Allies put all their eggs into a single basket Axis massed their strengths, Japan Naval/Air, Germany INF/ARM.
Observations/Recommendations: China still too weak in 1941.
I believe the US needs its CA and SS units in 1941.
UK needs better NO’s tweak, Like some of, not all of.
I felt unstoppable as Japan. Next time, I would want to play US.
I think the guys are going to choose a 1942 setup again for next time-2 weeks out. -
What are “Carrier Islands”?
Do you think the closing of the Black Sea had any impact on the game. It seems like Italy still had an easy time slicing into India.
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maybe that fighters starting of an island start(and even end?) their movement in that seazone. basically jetfighters for islands only?
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Title: Jutland again, again again, …
Date: 01/02/2009
Special Rules: NOS, optional Rules Black Sea open, escort fighters
National Objectives: yes,
Tech yes
Victor: Allies winning
Game Length: 7Hrs/9 rds- Hours/Rounds
Bias:
Description: 6 players
place : Bruges
The german player insisted on eliminating the British thread, the British insisted on a having a fleet. Us West-coast was invaded (2nd turn) america could not retake it without Lancasters paving the way thus saving Uncle Sam’ s bacon. An german desperate move on London was… desperate. Later in the game the eastfront was empty.
The game was not played till the end but slowly the axis ran out of options. Italy was playing its own game after being asked to do on the east front what the Germans did not.Observations/Recommendations: with NOS
1941: a long way for the German, fun for Japan (early)
1942: better chances to take Moscow but more a challenge for Japan.
6 players : FUN!Optional rules:
Bosporus closed: disadvantage for the axis. If so why no rules for other straits? Kattegat, strait of Oman, The Channel, singapore strait, Gibraltar, ….
Escort fighters; good idea not very balanced. -
Thanks for the insight on the two optional rules. Personally, I was not a fan of both rule changes. Closing the strait limits Italy’s options and escorts-interceptors are unbalanced and limited the opportunities to SBR.
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Title: How the Mighty Fall… (1942)
Date: 8:00pm February 9th - 4:30am February 10th
Special Rules/ Tech: None
Victor: Allies by concession
Game Length: Approximately 8.5 hours (9 turns?)
Bias: Me (most experienced) as Germany, newbie as Japan, Intermediate player As United States, Intermediate player as UK and Russia
Description:Japan solidified it’s southern expanse by moving a Carrier and cruiser to east Indies. Moved onto mainland china, made some gains. Germany made quick gains in Russia. Later, Germany pushed into both Stalingrad and Leningrad. Put choke hold on Russian industry.
Russia, responded with mostly infantry and some tanks to counter German advances. Russia also moved stack of infantry into the backwoods of China.
UK built IC on India UK1, and began pushing on Japanese ground troops very successfully. Later, used India for naval operations to great effect. It retook almost all of it’s colonial possessions. Also increased fleet over time.
United States focused on the Pacific theater and built up large navy to combat the Japanese threat. The Chinese forces slowly pushed back the Japanese ground forces.
Overall, The Axis made great gains in the first half of the game. Russia was on the verge of collapse. But the Germans made a huge gamble for Moscow and ended up depleting it’s forces along the entire Eastern Front. The battle went in favor of Russia, just barely. Soon after the Allies landed in Norway and Finland and retook Karelia.
After this battle, the Russians retook all their possessions and forced back the Japanese tanks coming from the Urals. The Italians opened up Africa, but Russian tanks forced the Suez canal permanently closed.
After the gamble for Moscow, it was a slow downhill decent for the Axis. At the end, France was taken, and an IC was built cementing their position. The UK fleet stood offshore ready to mount more troops. Italy was undefended, Japan made a mad dash for territories last turn, reaching 40 IPC,s but to no real effect.
Observations:
I hate India. It was what derailed every operation me and the Japanese player thought up. The Chinese front proved to be more formidable than I thought it could have been. It proved one of the most annoying things on the board. I have yet to use NOs or Tech in any game for either scenario and cannot wait to see how it comes out. The 1942 scenario is definitely more balanced than 1941, and it created a very tense game.
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**Title:**Just one of many in '42
**Date:**Feb 10
**Special Rules:**NOs and Tech
**Victor:**Axis, by Allied surrender.
**Game Length:**2
**Bias:**Even, though I made the crucial mistake.**Description:**Well, dice can be a fickle master. Fairly standard J1, EI IC. R1 overly aggressive, attacking every front in the Eastern theater, 0 kills in Baltic States results in an easy collapse of Karelia. UK1 saw the loss of the Royal AF in Britain and I didn’t even destroy the Cruiser/Trans. US1 = Heavy Bomber breakthrough Also I failed to topple France and the counterattack on the UK fleet was devestating. Very successful campaign in Africa and a successful start of an IC in Australia went for naught with no resistance to the blitzkrieg. Resignation facing overwhelming odds for the Reds and no pressure coming from other Allied powers. Could have continued the fight but the UK had almost nothing of consequence on the board to counter Germany, and though HBs would have prolonged it the Axis begin to divide up Eurasia and look without.
**Observations/Recommendations:**Don’t attack all 4 fronts with Russia, duh. Just 3. Attempt and subsequent failure to blow up the German navy is gg.
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I love the pictures!
I sure welcome them at the end of any after action report. :-D
It seems like a lot of bad dice seemed to doom the Axis cause early. At least the Axis were partially able to recover.
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@TG:
14 hours! I think that’s the record for longest match game in history. Plus you guys made it competitive until the end. Any idea of the total number of rounds?
No idea how many rounds. But if you figure out what one of my Japanese battleships did: they sailed off to Australia, then fought some American ships in the Pacific after several turns trying to scare off/outmanouevre the US fleet (and eventually crushing them), they returned to India. After that they threatened the UK-fleet that just passed the Suez-canal, they sailed to South-Africa (and unsuccesfully trying to retake Western Africa), through the Streets of Magelhaes… only to merge with my main fleet in order to fight off another US-fleet. They set sail to Hawaii, garding it as a bomberbase, only to fall back to Japan (keeping the US-fleet at bay). Eventually, they ended up before the Indian coasts… Well it must have been quite a lot of turns.
The longest campaign I’ve ever fought was one in the MB-version: this game was played during three days. During the first day we played like 12h, some 9 to 10h at day 2, and a couple of hours at day 3. That game became a stalemate, with balances ever turning until one of us finally broke through.
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:-o :-o :-o :-o
why dindt UK buy 4 bombers and sink Jap BB? :wink:
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:-o :-o :-o :-o
why dindt UK buy 4 bombers and sink Jap BB? :wink:
1. This small fleet consisted of 2 battleships, 2 transports, 3 inf and 1 armor. It wasn’t a too easy target. Anything less then 3 to 4 bombers wouldn’t even threatening me.
2. I don’t think the UK had any bombers (maybe a single one in the UK itself), nor did they have any AC’s (seriously limiting their range), they were too busy trashing my Italian inf in Libya (who were hopelessly isolated by significant US and UK forces). The UK did have a few (max 3) fighters however. Remember I didn’t even attack UK-ships as Germany. Going for a vast fleet (BB, cruisers and transports) and force landings in Europe was an obvious UK-strategy. This was even more the case since Germany put a really big pressure upon the SU, and the UK didn’t want to send forces to the SU (which would cost her a NO). The pressure was (partly) removed by keeping a considerable UK-fleet in the Med Sea. They would cut off any German forces who dared to break through to the Caucasus. At the same time a vast UK-fleet garded and harassed my North-Sea and Atlantic shores. From a UK-point-of-view, these BB and cruisers were mainly there to kill my infantry in coastal bombardments (but they could as well cut off any forces attacking the SU). They were also forcing me to keep significant infantry stacks in Europe, rather than sending them to the eastern frontier. Therefore: not building bombers and allowing my Japanese fleet in S-Afr made sense.
They didn’t bothered building bombers, since they probably didn’t think I was dangerous in S-Africa, and since they were busy building ships to invade Europe.
3. I couldn’t really threaten Africa. The best I could hope for was picking a territory or two for a couple of turns. Since there were UK forces in Northern Africa on the verge of breaking through, UK didn’t really bothered my forces. Actually I was the one trying to relieve my Italian forces (hoping to keep some African provinces for a few extra turns). A direct attack on their fleet however, was way beyond my reach.
4. The US did build some bombers in Eastern-US. Therefore I had to set sail to the Streets of Magelhaes rather than attacking Brazil (my initial plan) The significant naval buildup in W-US forced me to hury to the Pacific, rather then trying to irritate/harass some forces in Africa.
5. The UK wasn’t that rich. They had some 35 to 40 IPC/turn, due to their lack of NO-bonusses. They choose to build three units in India each turn, and their landings weren’t that expensive (they had to train tanks and inf, since their fleet was safe). Building such an amount of bombers and bringing them to S-Africa would take quite a lot of time. :-) -
@TG:
What are “Carrier Islands”?
Do you think the closing of the Black Sea had any impact on the game. It seems like Italy still had an easy time slicing into India.
No, and your right Italy still was impressive, left unchecked, unwisely in my opinion. The black sea has become an avenue for Italy to help Germany hit USSR. I have made Turkey a tactical target in my
AA50Shades of Grey Alternate setup, where you can invade certain Neutrals, like Turkey and gain access to the Black sea. You can find it here under Alternate setups folder:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=db7389213b434449d2db6fb9a8902bda
Moses, I believe you have no taste for those alternate setups. I can appreciate, you hold the game designer has achieved a delicate balance on his setup choices.
I merely find the alternate options fun to explore and experiment, perhaps discovering what the game designer saw, and the reasoning for his final choice for the setup.The Germans and USSR were at a stand off for awhile in this game,
US was unable to provide assistance in Europe.
The US had their hands full with Japan41, wow was that fun.
Next time I want to be US instead of Japan, to see, if I can stop,
the Roaring Nihon Kaigun. I believe, this is the challenge of 41 setup.
All good players, should want to overcome the impressive deployed tempo advantage the japanese enjoy. I think this is a genius move by Larry Harris considering the thoughts on AAR, that was almost always played with an Axis Bid, to overcome the Allied economic advantage in that setup.Carrier Islands, gives Islands tactical value. All Island based FTR are considered in the Air at the begining of your turn and do not count the sea zone they are in, as if the Island was a carrier. This provides Island based FTR, 1 extra move, to reach targets, increaseing the value of island based FTR/BMB.
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maybe that fighters starting of an island start(and even end?) their movement in that seazone. basically jetfighters for islands only?
Yes, you are basically correct, as I have outlined the rule in the above choice. Again, this is not my creation. It was a National Advantage for US in AAR. Thanks again to the great creative minds that play this game. They constantly provide me with new ideas to experiment and enjoy, Kudos all.
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<edited as=“” i’m=“” blind=“”> :-o</edited>
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can find it here under Alternate setups folder:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=db7389213b434449d2db6fb9a8902bda
Moses, I believe you have no taste for those alternate setups. I can appreciate, you hold the game designer has achieved a delicate balance on his setup choices.
I merely find the alternate options fun to explore and experiment, perhaps discovering what the game designer saw, and the reasoning for his final choice for the setup.To me simplicity and balance defines Axis and Allies. People like add their own pet rules to the game, and that’s fine. But for me to bat one eyelash, that rule has to have simplicity and balance, as well as being worthwhile and fun.
I like the idea of invadable neutrals. They add a new element to the game, giving the invader a strategic as well as monetary value. What is the penalty for invading a neutral? Do you only have to defeat the native troops stationed there?
Tin Snips,
ah … this is incorrect (unless i’ve missed a major rule change). islands count as any other land territory. it’s one move to get off the island and into its corrosponding sea-zone. you aren’t already classed as in that sea zone
Read closer. Bluestroke stated this was an OPTIONAL rule. ;)
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ta for that, should lay off the scotch. previous post edited for the truth factor haha
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Title: Pacific Stalemate - Russia falls
Date: 2/13/09
Scenario: 1941
Optional Rules: Tech and NO yes both
Rounds: 9
Victor: Axis
Observations: US focused on building a pacific fleet. Japan had a headstart and with 55+ income per turn Japan could outpace USA plus build troops to send against Russia. Japan and USA both had huge fleets but it was effectively a stalemate and Japan held all the pacific islands and was never seriously threatened. When Japan got “improved shipyards” near the end of the game that tech it made it all that much worse. With decent Axis players, the 41 Scenario with N.O.s strongly favors the Axis. I have never seen Allies win 41 with NOs unless the Axis were newbies. UK built IC in South Africa but it’s too much to ask UK to try to keep Africa, invade Norway and pester france without USA help.
Despite strong play, Russia eventually was overwhelmed and Allies conceeded.
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Title: German Onslaught
Date: 14 Feb 2009
Scenario: 1942
Special Rules: NO & Tech used
Victor: Axis by concession
Game Length: 2 players, 3 hours, 2 rounds
Bias: Even, both playing 4th game, me taking Allies
Description:Turn 1:
Japan destroyed US Hawaian fleet & UK fleet at sz 35, took 1 Chinese territory and concentrate land attack on Buryatia & Soviet Far East.
Russia re-took Belorussia, Eastern Ukraine & Ukraine but with few units left due to bad dice roll. Built-up defence.
German pushed heavily into Russia with land units, 4 fighters & 1 bomber, taking back Belorussia, Eastern Ukraine & Ukraine plus Karelia. Russia losses are great due to bad dice again. Destroyed UK sz 12 fleet, leaving sz 1 & 2 untouch. Got paratrooper.
UK, too greedy with occupaying France (successfully taken), built a carrier & support ship to protect its fleet, totally ignored German sz5 fleet & left only 3 land units + 1 US bomber on homeland. BIG MISTAKE!
Italy failed to retake France but finished off UK destroyer at sz15 & support German on eastern front.
US destroyed remaining Japan fleet at Hawaian, built a carrier and support ship on western US to prepare for Europe invasion.Turn 2:
Japan continued to push through Soviet Far East. Attacked on China was halted by the loss of 2 fighters and 2 infantry in the invasion of Yunnan (US fighter), not many land units left.
Russia suffered huge losses on Turn 1, can only retake Belorussia and built on defence by concentrating on Caucasus & Moscow. Only 2 infantry left at fast east.
German began DOUBLE assault on London & Moscow and sucessfully taken both! London was taken by fleets with transport from both sz 5 and sz 12 with bomber carrying paratrooper. On Russian side, German pushed 3 tanks, 1 artillery, 1 infantry, 4 fighter, 1 bomber with paratrooper into Moscow, sacrificing its fighters to keep alive the land units. Too happy & forgot to retake France. Total IPC end of turn is 130+.
At this point Allies (me) to dishearten to think much on next move.
UK, cant do much but destroyed German fleet at sz 6. Failed to take Libya with units from Egypt & Trans-Jordan (bad dice roll).
Italy continue to support eastern front operation.
US retake London with Atlantic fleet. Got super sub.After analysing current situation and German boasting to build 5,6 battleship to kill off UK & US fleet. Allies conceded.
Observations/Recommendations:
It is essential for UK to finish off German sz5 fleet on turn 1. Allies too engross in capturing France coz from previous game, that move provided huge income boost to UK & US while disrupting German’s eastern front campaign.
German can easily swarm into Moscow if combine with air power within 2 turns.
Never thought that German can pull off double assault successfully. Paratroopers helped alot on that.
Good lesson learned. -
Stoob,
You aren’t the only one. Based on the first 50 games played, the Axis winning margin has been 62%. Hopefully this will start to change now that better Allied strategies have been developed and players are learning to work in unison. But if it doesn’t, we’re in trouble.
TSS,
German began DOUBLE assault on London & Moscow and sucessfully taken both! London was taken by fleets with transport from both sz 5 and sz 12 with bomber carrying paratrooper. On Russian side, German pushed 3 tanks, 1 artillery, 1 infantry, 4 fighter, 1 bomber with paratrooper into Moscow, sacrificing its fighters to keep alive the land units. Too happy & forgot to retake France. Total IPC end of turn is 130+.
Twin assault. Haha. Haven’t seen that before. I guess paratroopers can have a dramatic effect on the game ;)
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Name: Total Confused War (1941)
Date: February 15, 2009
Game Length: 5 or 6 turns.
Special Rules: Tech
Bias: Me (I’ve played more games), first game as Allies. Close friend was playing Axis (first in AA50).Description:
Germany Attacks Russia making major headway with thier troops, eventually gaining Mechanized Infantry. They created problems for the USA when they hopped into Brazil and the West Indies.
Russia turtles. Trades a few territories with Germany to make back IPCs. Eventaully, the Japanese break though Byuratia late in the game. Last turn, they sent some troops to retake India and other British colonial possessions.
The Japanese come to dominate the Pacific, except for the Philippines. They get Improved Shipyards which put them farther ahead. They ended the game with a massive fleet on the coast of the USA, facing 15 US infantry. Built IC in east Indies to At end of the game most of the Pacific was empty besides in the Japanese homeland and some in China.
UK buys IC in SA and reinforces Britain and SBRs Berlin for most of the game. The UK invaded North Africa with USA in the middle of the game. The UK ended up taking both Rome and Berlin by the end of the game. They also invaded France later in the game. They obliterated Italy’s fleet. They get Hvy Bombers and Radar. They ended the game with 87 IPCs to spend.
Italy made no real contribution to this game. They could not make any headway in Once the UK invaded Rome they were a moot point.
The US got both Jet Fighers and Long Range Bombers. They constructed an IC in the Philippines and pumped out fighters to harass Japanese troops all along the coast of China. They sent bombers to the UK to SBR Berlin. Their fleet was subsequently destroyed by the Japanese fleet and led to them building a huge stack of infantry on the West Coast.
The game looked very gloomy for the Allies at the end of the game. While the UK was tooling on Germany and Italy, the Russians were getting slowly strangled by the German advance. The United States was dealing with a massive Japanese fleet, but the base in the Philippines was prepared to strike back at the Japanese empire in the South Pacific. I believe that the Axis were going to win, mainly because of Japan’s domination of the Pacific, but my opponent believes it was the other way around.
Observations:
IC in South Africa was key to intimidating the Axis to not invading Africa. It stopped the Italians from making any headway at all. SBRs with Heavy bombers are pretty intimidating except that all SBR roles ended up being 1’s or 2’s on both sides. The fighter base in the Philippines was very convenient to deal with Japanese troops on the mainland.
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