Fall of 1944, turn 2
The axis picks up the Ural Bomber production marker, but the delay roll on it means it'll miss the Uranus toys. Other than that, it's mostly shuffling in the mud for all factions. Alex is heard muttering to himself "What would Proven do?" when trying to figure out how to use the mud to best prepare for Uranus. The soviets voluntarily eliminate a step in Syria so that they'll have the 4 & 23 they need in their force pool for the last turn of conditional replacements and Uranus' replacements. They do get an infantry step out of Lend-Lease, which means that unless the first turn of Blue kills a unit, they'll be short one replacement....
Winter of 1944, turn 1
For the first of the totally unsurprising card revelations this season, the Axis reveals Blau. Precisely six armor and 14 infantry single-step units are in the German force pool, and they go onto the map, along with italians, spaniards, and french. The Festung fort goes in Cork.
Two air units get past the soviet support units. A 9-1 blitz attack near Bryansk is launched, as the soviets leave the available HQs out of the fight, generating a Dr2 0/2 (before reducing results for snow), killing 2 soviet infantry steps. A 6-1 near Dnepropetrovsk is launched and gets a Dr1 0/2, killing an italian armor step and three soviet infantry. The followup 9-1 on the Dnepropetrovsk hex is a Dr2 0/2, killing two more soviet infantry.
In Sardinia, a 4-2 (-1 shift for rough) is launched against the british 1-2-2 that's been holding out there since early 1941, but gets an Ar1 0/0.
Meanwhile, the french fleet and the Axis Convoy evacuate the three german infantry steps in Sevastopol and the german mountain corps seizes Murmansk.
For the second totally unsurprising card revelation, the WAllies reveal Torch. As Alex begins his turn, I consult my table of US card dependencies to see what's likely to turn up in the next year; Alex looks over and says "You know, I have the exact same table at home." Due to the Italian retreat in the desert, the first turn of Torch is just the WAllied forces advancing.
The soviets, shocking everyone, reveal Uranus. Thanks to Axis attacks, they have two spare infantry steps in their force pool after placing their Uranus replacements. After extensive consideration of attacking opportunities, stacking limits, and replacement locations, the soviets set up a series of attacks. For the most part, the attacks require max-stacking the available attacking frontage and careful management of Guards, Shock, and Mech armies to generate precisely the number of attack factors required. Unfortunately, after spending forever trying to come up with 24 or 32 combat factors to face down 12+4 stacks of germans in the Ukraine, alex goes on to arrange similar attacks against 14+4 stacks in the North... throwing his nothern plan to overload my HQs into disarray. In the end, he abandons his attack on smolensk, redirecting those forces against the flanks. A 24-16 (+2 -1 shifts) generates an Ar1 against Dnepropetrovsk SE1, killing the turkish armor. A 32-16 (+2 -2 shifts) against Cherkassy generates an Exchange, killing a soviet armor and german infantry. Against Smolensk SW1 an 18-18 (+2 -1 shifts) is an exchange, killing a soviet armor for a german infantry. Against Smolensk NW1, a 25-18 (+2 -1 shifts) is an exchange, yet another soviet armor for german infantry.
In regular combat, a 24-12 (+1 - 0 shifts) against Smolensk NW1 is an exchange, killing a soviet infantry for a retreat; the soviets advance into the vacated hex. A 25-16 (+1 -2 shifts) generated an Ar1, killing a soviet infantry. Against Dnepropetrovsk SE1, an 18-16 (+1 -1) is an exchange, killing a soviet infantry and a german infantry.
Lend-lease is a 6 (-2 for snow and murmansk), which gets the soviets a tank and an infantry.
Winter 1944, turn 2
After much hemming and hawing, the FE fort is built in murmansk to prevent the three soviet steps closing in on it from being able to trivially retake the hex; the other alternative was to build it in Suez to bulk up the Graziani Line that defends the Suez Canal.
After a lot of comparing Axis and WAllied available support units, I end up electing to fly a luftflotte in order to punish the Soviet forces that advanced to Smolensk NW1 in the previous turn. [after I took that photo, I realized that even if the soviets put in their HQ my attack was a 9-1 without the Airborne, and so pulled them out of the attack.] A 48-12 (+3 -1 shifts) was a Dr3 0/2, killing 4 soviet steps. Alex elects to leave the HQ intact and reduce the forces in the defending hex to a single 3-3-2. The followup is way off the top of the scale as Alex gambles on leaving his HQ out, producinga Dr3 0/1. The two-hex retreat causes a noticeable overstack, killing 4 soviet infantry and allowing me to completely redeploy forces in the region thanks to exploitation. I wasn't able to put together any attacks elsewhere without opening myself up to being mauled on the Soviet turn.
Meanwhile, I come up with a use for the Heavy Bombers and devastate Kirovograd, where one of my stacks is defending.
Spending the air unit near Smolensk turns out to have been a terrible mistake, however, as I discover during the WAllied turn. The RAF sallies over Said, and I spend my interceptor to prevent that. A USAAF goes to the North Atlantic, and I foolishly decline to use either fleet to contest it. At this point, all I've got left to contest are the Italian and French fleets... so the Carrier fleet sorties and covers a beachhead next to Tangiers, and the USAAF provides convoy support... an american armor and british infantry land next to tangiers, launch a 3-2 against the Spanish army there, retreat forwards, and then reserve-move to Oran! ("Bucharest is avenged!") I'd been so paranoid about similar stunts getting into Paris and Toulouse, but never realized that Oran was vulnerable as well. At least I have a german infantry in Casablanca, putting the WAllied forces in FNA out of supply.
So much for my keeping the WAllies walled out of the West... this, combined with the failure to use the Airborne during Blue threatens severe forcepool issues for the coming summer for the Axis.
Meanwhile, in the desert, the Brits spend their spare air unit and attack the Graziani Line. Against Suez, an 11-11 is set up and I leave the Italian HQ out of it, so it's 2 attacker shifts to 1: 3-2. Luck smiles upon me, and an Ar1 is rolled. An 11-13 (+3 -2 shifts) generates an Ex, killing a british armor for an italian infantry. The retreat against Suez means that the followup regular combat attack is untenable, and the brits decline to press any further attacks. The soviet turn is marked by a massive shift south. Three more steps are sent north to make the retaking of Murmansk easier, but essentially the entire red army is south of Smolensk.
A massive assault is launched against Kiev, using the soviet airborne. The raw odds end up being 2-1 (36+ versus 16, +3 -2 shifts), rolling a Dr2 1/0. One soviet tank and the airborne die to kill a single german infantry. A 3-2 is launched against Dneprpetrovsk, killing a soviet tank for a german infantry. The followup against Kiev is a 2-1 (+1 -2 shifts), but gets a DR1 killing a soviet infantry for a german one. The blitz-segment attack on Murmansk is a 4-3 (+0 -1) and generates an Ar1 1/0.
Delay rolls turn out to be singularly atrocious this season, with one notable exception. The Blau HQ isn't showing up until summer (despite -2 to the Axis delay rolls), nor are any of the newly-WAllied french, nor are any of the Guards or HQs from Uranus (and the Guards are mostly showing up midway through the summer, so not available to stretch the Soviet force pool). The one exception is WAllied support units. The carrier fleet is the only one that doesn't return immediately.
Spring, 1945
I reveal Jet Fighters, bemoan my fate, roll a Hitler Supports Nationalists for the political event, and started plotting my turn. But we realized that we'd been playing for 8 hours and it was 2300h and decided to call it a night.
Casualties, Winter 1944
| Nationality | armor | inf | fort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Russian | 5 | 22 | |
| Turk | 1 | ||
| Italian | 2 | 1 | |
| British | 1 | 1 | |
| German | 7 |
