Putting on the Reich: An Axis Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe AAR

[Valmy]

What? What happened to Plan D Gamelin? Ah well at least this means he has plenty of reserves to plug that gap.

Well... you know what they say: When you hit the bottom of the barrel, the only way left to go is up, right? 

Hey remember when the Germans suckered all the French into Belgium so they could be cut off by Sickle Stroke? Well this time Gamelin is having none of it you boche scum.

You are walking right into his trap. This is basically the Third Battle of the Marne.

[Drakken]

Allies Turn 10: Aftershock

In the space of a single turn - 11 days - five sovereign states have been cleared from Europe's map, which is increasingly German. The US are outraged by this act of so-called "aggression" even when, in fact, the neutrality of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg was acting a shield in favour of France.

But Washington does not listen to our arguments - instead they quickly their Congress pass the Cash and Carry Act, allowing Britain and France to purchase US-produced escorts, which is a gross violation of their own Neutrality Act. Such steps can quickly bring our two powers to a state of war which the Fuhrer does not wish.






Meanwhile, the sudden annexation of Denmark has put Iceland's government into disarray. Rather than to answer to our mighty patronage, protests and riots have engulfed Reykjavik to a state of anarchy.




In Norway, the resistance gets organized as they sabotage the railways while retreating in their northern woods. Meanwhile, fierce combats in the fjord of Oslo sinks the Heavy Cruiser Blucher, while inflicting heavy casualties their invasion force.






The roads of Belgium towards the French borders are clogged with refugees, hindering France's supply lines. The sudden surrender of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg means ALL their troops are demobilized and removed from activity, leaving only French and BEF troops there to try to block the German onslaught. Uncertainty about the Battle of France hurts the popular morale in both countries, but especially France. Lower National Morale means their troops will now fight increasingly like Gamelin - feebler as it continues.






To fill the gap quickly, two French and BEF Corps rush toward Ypres, while another Corps is moved to defend Nancy. The BEF I Corps attempts a quick attack on XIII Corps in Antwerp, but they are easily push back. Rather than obviously counterattacking on the weakened 4th Panzer in front of Sedan to dull my spearhead tip, Gamelin has the brillant idea - totally borrowed from 1914 - to attempt to pierce the Siegfried Line by attacking V and XXVIII Corps on the Westwall. Obviously, this was a failure which achieved nothing for the French but to incure needless casualties.




From the British Isles, two Strategic Bomber units supported by escorts launched a vicious bombardment of Antwerp. However, this aims to draw our interceptors into air battle, which results in inflicting fighter casualties and and damaging Antwerp's production and supply sources. The French Navy also parks a submarine nearby, preventing that we use the Schelt ports to our advantage as another nearby supply line.




Two Destroyers unit have spotted U-35, but failed to inflict it any damage. All remaining units in the Atlantic are ordered in Norway to resupply and rearm.




Churchill has been active on the Allied diplomatic front: London's representatives have misled the Swedish government with this lie that Sweden might be the next target! This has chances to stop their supply or iron ore and ballbearings to our factories, and thus no more MPPs from them.




Furthermore, the Amiralty has amended their convoy lines to adapt against the u-boat threat. All lines are to go to Liverpool, making it easier for their hunter-killer escorts to cover space to find us.






Last but not least, Il Duce sees now where the win blows, and Italy declares war on the Western powers by joining the Axis. A bit earlier than expected, but they are there.

[Valmy]

Your bravado is just an attempt to obscure your increasing doubts as the mighty French Army heroically holds the line!

[The Brain]

Once again the British bullydog has showed its fangs. Sweden doesn't take kindly to being slapped around like a cheap whore.

[Drakken]

Axis Turn 11: Verdun is the new Black

Gamelin's defensive line along the Meuse to Verdun completely collapses: The hinge holding the Maginot line is  blown off. 

France loses two whole Armies plus a Corps trying to hold at the Meuse. The concentration of Lufwaffe bombers and Panzers proves too much, and 3rd and 5th Panzer successfully crosses the Meuse at Sedan, annihilating the French 9th Army and II Corps at Sedan. Meanwhile, French's 2nd Army holding Verdun is destroyed by 21st and 4th Panzer, capturing the mythic city and reaching the outskirts of Nancy.

The loss of Verdun might prove an absolute shock to the French people and cause widespread panic. The less the French fight, the faster this campaign will end.

5th Panzer reaches the Marne River, while 14th Army and I Corps are rushed with Forced March to exploit the hole in the French line between Lille and Reims. Capturing Reims would open the road to the Channel towards Amiens, then Calais. Another option being considered is going for Châlons, then swerve behind Paris to surround the capital and annihilate any unit defending it.

In the North, a concentrated effort from 1st Panzer, 4th Army, and II Corps leads to the destruction of BEF's I Corps. One of my secondary aim is to prevent the BEF from escaping France at all cost, or at least destroy as many British units as possible. Because yes, the AI will reproduce Dunkirk if it gets desperate.




Italian 5th Army arrives from Tripoli by naval transport, while 10th Army advances toward Sidi Barrani to probe the British line in Egypt. The Regia Aeronautica moves from Sicily toward Libya, aiming to move to Egypt and give aerial support.




Gariboldi heads into Tirana, while the whole Regia Marina goes toward the Adriatic Sea strait to prepare for eventual sorties. No attempt will be made by Italy to grab territory in France, as it is useless. Mussolini decides to concentrate on Egypt and prepare an invasion of Greece.



The overtaking of the Low Countries has netted up about 200 MPPs in Plunder, which we spend on our first Mechanized Unit, plus another Army. Garrisons in Narvik and Oslo are also reinforced, since we have learned that the Anglo-French expedition in Finland has come back. They might try to seize Narvik away from us.

We also spend a Diplomat chit to Sweden, to correct the damage done by British on our mutual relations.




Finally, two of our U-boats reach the ports of Bergen and Stavenger. The new U-35 is also laid in Cuxhaven, ready to leave next turn.

[Drakken]

Allies Turn 11: Collapse

Verdun falling in German hands demonstrates that the Maginot line has been completely useless in stopping our offensive. The Maginot line left outflanked and exposed, our panzers stand around 80 km from Paris in front of the Marne river. The possibility of utter defeat creeps on the defencing forces: The morale of the French forces cracks with panic spreading among the French people.








Gamelin seems to read that the left flank is now impossible to hold. He decides to abandon Ypres to retreat towards Calais and behind the Somme, leaving I Corps in Lille as a blocker to attempt to bide time. Counterattacks are attempted on the Reims salient, with decent casualties especially on the exhausted, weakened Slovakian Corps, but they prove ineffective in creating a hole in the salient.

Same with 4th Army attacking the exposed XXVIII Corps in Saarland, which ends up costing more to the France than to us.

Finally, the British BAF tries launches a bombing raid on Brussels, costing us 2 MPP from the damages caused to the local industries.




In retaliation of the fall of Denmark, Britain greenlights Operation Fork. The Royal Marines disembark in Reykjavik and occupies Iceland, which now joins the Allies.






They also decide to enable the Emergency Powers Act, which leads to our friend Sir Oswald Mosley being put into an internal camp for the duration of the war for sedition and promoting treason.




Italian researchers report a breakthrough in Naval Warfare research! They have discovered new improvements in doctrine, to use their naval forces in warfare against the British in the Mediteranean. Meanwhile, ANZAC troops now join the war with the Western Desert Force in Egypt, which are deployed to defend Sidi Barrani.

[Drakken]

Axis Turn 12: Knocking on Gamelin's Door

Recon shows OKW that the area south of Calais is free of any enemy presence. Immediately, orders were given to 1st and 7th Fallschirmjäger to drop there. The road between Amiens and Calais is denied between to the BEF. 3rd Panzer is rushed from the Verdun area to go link up with the paratroopers, trapping the French 1st Army in Calais with 1st Fallschirmjäger closeby threatening its ports. Sorry Winston: No Dunkirk for you. 

Orders from OKW are confirmed by the Fuhrer: The BEF are to be destroyed in detail before they can escape. However, 7st Fallschirmjäger being understrength, no assault was made on the British 1st Army this turn.

The French holdouts in Lille, Reims, and Châlons were destroyed piecemail, allowing the creation of an immense salient deep inside French territory. Our Corps are immediately rushed into the pocket to fill any possible hole that might lead to a French counterattack. While Auxerre is threatened, even worse for the French our Panzers are now passed the Seine, Both are poised to strike toward Paris, with very few defenders within sight. Only the Groupe de Bombardement airbase and the French Army HQ under Huntzinger are blocking the way to the French capital and its Army garrison.




The Regia Aeronautica is now reaching Lybia, while Italian 10th Army and IV Corps arrive in Tobruk. The Ariete Tank Division is fully reinforced to be shipped to Africa as well, while the Leonardo Da Vinci is placed as picket northeast of the Tobruk harbor to spot any Royal Navy presence coming to intercept reinforcements.




U-37 exits Cuxhaven but is quickly spotted by the French battleship Dunkerque up in the North Sea. Meanwhile, I redirect U-47 towards German ports for refit, while U-32 is sent at cruise speed back into the Atlantic at 9 Strength.




Finally, a Panzer unit is purchased by the German Army, and my last diplomatic chit is sent to Switzerland to try to sign a cooperation and treaty agreement with the ever-neutral country.

[Valmy]

These games are always the same damn thing. The Germans do not even have to bother with a plan they just walk straight at the French and they collapse. No plan or strategy required even to beat the French with exactly the plan they expected Germany to use.

I mean I understand why that is but it makes it look like the French stood zero chance of even slowing the Germans down.

[The Brain]

These games are always the same damn thing. The Germans do not even have to bother with a plan they just walk straight at the French and they collapse. No plan or strategy required even to beat the French with exactly the plan they expected Germany to use.

I mean I understand why that is but it makes it look like the French stood zero chance of even slowing the Germans down.

Yeah it's pretty close to impossible to have a good simulation of the West in 1940 in a full WW2 game.

What are some good 1940 only games today btw? Board or computer.

[Drakken]

On paper, France was more than a match for Germany - comparable number of men, equal number and better tanks, more guns, good defensive ground behind different rivers. To every observer, realistically, they should have mounted a much fiercer resistance and stopped the Germans in Belgium.

However for various reasons, they have not:

- Very predictable defensive plan - basically a modified reshoot of 1914
- Very poor planning, for example not foreseeing that the Ardennes might be vulnerable, or stopping to build the Maginot line to the channel coast to mollify Belgium
- Deficient command, control, and communication at the operational level
- Political division, which had an influence on morale and fixated their planning on the defensive.
- Germany had more airplanes that France and the BEF combined, and thus had air superiority which allowed free combined-arm support
- Misadapted or obsolete elements in land doctrine, for example no concentration of armored divisions or continuing to build schedules based on marching time, and not on motorized time

How exactly would you simulate any of these above in a computer game, without putting artificial hurdles on any player? Hindsight 20/20 makes it very hard to satisfactorily represent what happened in France in 1940. Germany declaring war on the Lower Countries is as predictacle as it gets, and if allowed to reorganize no sane human player would leave the Ardennes defenseless. Most French units are, in fact, very well-entrenched on French soil, even behind Belgium. Toe-to-toe, with the same National Morale, France units are equivalent to German units - and with entrenchment and favourable grounds.

Personally, I think this game does it rather well. Events are scripted in such a way that it encourages going through the Ardennes, because it is the only way to trigger the French loss of morale events. If I do not go for the Ardennes with a superiority in tanks and airplanes from the get-go, it will be a very tough fight ahead. However, can you really ask the German player not to go through the Ardennes in 1940? No Ardennes means no outflanking of the Maginot line, which artificially plays into the Allied Player's hand.

[Berkut]

I tried DOWing the Low Countries right after Poland with the idea of wrapping them up that summer/fall. That didn't work out so well.

[celedhring]

In honor of the French people in this dire hour, I'm watching "Is Paris Burning?" 

[Drakken]

Allies Turn 12: Joseph does Tallinn

General Rommel is already starting to ponder whether his dear wife will like a pair of luxury shoes from Paris, as a gift  for her belated birthday this June the sixth. He promises to himself that he will offer her a new pair. each year.




Meanwhile, Stalin seizes the occasion to take Europe doggystyle, by invading the remaining Baltic States while all the eyes of the world are on France's struggle for survival. Latvia and Estonia are now under the Bolsheviks' thumb, only Lithuania is safe - with us.




On the Western front, the Allies attempt a desperate assault on 1st Fallschirmjäger south of Calais to break out of the pocket: Strategic bombers, tactical bombers, BEF, even 1st French Army trying to annihilate our paratroopers. To no avail, 1st Fallschirmjäger still stands.




Meanwhile, U-37 is barely out on her first tour that she is literally savaged by the hunter-killers and Escort carrier of the Royal Navy off the Danish coast. Left a sieve barely holding afloat, she is forced back to Cuxhaven for severe refit.




Speaking of subs, our Kriegsmarine naval engineers have found a way to improve on the defective TII torpedo and improve on the current Type VII model, i.e. Advanced Subs. Orders are given to refit all our submarines with these recent advances next time they dock.




Our diplomats have also succeeded in making President de Valera more aligned to our cause in Ireland by a whooping 14%, doubling their relative support. The Irish are really pissed at the breach of the Treaty Ports, and popular movement is pushing to consider joining the Axis.

[Habbaku]

Cuxhaven

[celedhring]

They all vote for Jeb Bush in there?