2020 Playoff AndrewAAGamer (X) vs JDOW (L+58) OOB

[AndrewAAGamer]

@jdow Yep. I would say that qualifies as a Forgotten Move. No worries.

[JDOW]

@andrewaagamer Thanks!

[AndrewAAGamer]

TripleA Turn Summary: Italians round 11

TripleA Turn Summary for game: World War II Global 1940 2nd Edition, version: 4.0.0

Game History

Round: 11

    Purchase Units - Italians
        Italians buy 2 infantry; Remaining resources: 1 PUs; 

    Combat Move - Italians
        2 bombers moved from Southern Italy to Northwest Persia
        1 mech_infantry moved from Persia to Northwest Persia

    Combat - Italians
        Battle in Northwest Persia
            Italians attack with 2 bombers and 1 mech_infantry
            British defend with 1 mech_infantry
                Italians roll dice for 2 bombers and 1 mech_infantry in Northwest Persia, round 2 : 0/3 hits, 1.50 expected hits
                British roll dice for 1 mech_infantry in Northwest Persia, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.33 expected hits
                Italians roll dice for 2 bombers and 1 mech_infantry in Northwest Persia, round 3 : 2/3 hits, 1.50 expected hits
                British roll dice for 1 mech_infantry in Northwest Persia, round 3 : 1/1 hits, 0.33 expected hits
                1 mech_infantry owned by the British and 1 mech_infantry owned by the Italians lost in Northwest Persia
            Italians win with 2 bombers remaining. Battle score for attacker is 0
            Casualties for Italians: 1 mech_infantry
            Casualties for British: 1 mech_infantry

    Non Combat Move - Italians
        2 bombers moved from Northwest Persia to Iraq
        2 armour moved from Persia to Iraq
        1 armour moved from Normandy Bordeaux to Western Germany
        3 mech_infantrys moved from Normandy Bordeaux to Western Germany
        1 aaGun and 5 infantry moved from Western Germany to Holland Belgium
        1 aaGun and 12 infantry moved from Normandy Bordeaux to Holland Belgium

    Place Units - Italians
        2 infantry placed in Southern Italy

    Turn Complete - Italians
        Total Cost from Convoy Blockades: 10
            Rolling for Convoy Blockade Damage in 93 Sea Zone. Rolls: 5,1
            Rolling for Convoy Blockade Damage in 97 Sea Zone. Rolls: 4,1,2,3,1,5,4,5,2,4
            Rolling for Convoy Blockade Damage in 105 Sea Zone. Rolls: 6,6
        Italians collect 10 PUs (10 lost to blockades); end with 11 PUs
        Objective Italians 4 Control Iraq Or Persia Or Northwest Persia: Italians met a national objective for an additional 2 PUs; end with 13 PUs

Combat Hit Differential Summary :

Italians regular : -1.00
British regular : 0.33

Savegame

[JDOW]

TripleA Turn Summary: French round 11

TripleA Turn Summary for game: World War II Global 1940 2nd Edition, version: 4.0.0

Game History

Round: 11

    Purchase Units - ANZAC
        ANZAC buy 1 fighter and 1 transport; Remaining resources: 3 PUs; 

    Combat Move - ANZAC

    Non Combat Move - ANZAC
        1 fighter and 1 infantry moved from Trans-Jordan to Egypt
        1 infantry moved from Caroline Islands to 33 Sea Zone
        1 artillery moved from Caroline Islands to 33 Sea Zone
        1 artillery, 1 carrier, 1 fighter, 1 infantry, 1 submarine and 1 transport moved from 33 Sea Zone to 54 Sea Zone
        1 infantry moved from 54 Sea Zone to Queensland
        1 artillery moved from 54 Sea Zone to Queensland
        1 infantry moved from New South Wales to South Australia
        1 fighter moved from New South Wales to 54 Sea Zone
        3 fighters moved from Caroline Islands to Queensland
        1 aaGun moved from New South Wales to Queensland
        1 infantry moved from New South Wales to South Australia
        2 mech_infantrys moved from New South Wales to Queensland
        1 infantry moved from New South Wales to Queensland

    Place Units - ANZAC
        1 fighter placed in New South Wales
        1 transport placed in 62 Sea Zone

    Turn Complete - ANZAC
        ANZAC collect 10 PUs; end with 13 PUs
        Objective ANZAC 2 Control Strategic Islands: ANZAC met a national objective for an additional 5 PUs; end with 18 PUs

    Combat Move - French

    Non Combat Move - French
        Turning on Edit Mode
        EDIT: Removing units owned by ANZAC from 50 Sea Zone: 1 destroyer
        EDIT: Adding units owned by ANZAC to 54 Sea Zone: 1 destroyer
        EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
        1 destroyer moved from 71 Sea Zone to 72 Sea Zone
        1 fighter and 5 infantry moved from Trans-Jordan to Egypt
        1 infantry moved from United Kingdom to Scotland

    Turn Complete - French

Combat Hit Differential Summary :

Savegame

[AndrewAAGamer]

@JDOW I don’t see any reasonable path to victory for the Axis so I am going to concede. I don’t want to hold up the 2020 playoffs for a game this is virtually unwinnable. Very well played. I really like your use of the Bid. Gives me new things to think about about how to counter it. I made three strategic errors that really made it impossible to win. Would love a rematch in the future to see if I had played it differently if the Axis could have won.

Thank you for the game and good luck in the Playoffs!

[JDOW]

@andrewaagamer said in 2020 Playoff AndrewAAGamer (X) vs JDOW (L+58) OOB:

@JDOW I don’t see any reasonable path to victory for the Axis so I am going to concede. I don’t want to hold up the 2020 playoffs for a game this is virtually unwinnable. Very well played. I really like your use of the Bid. Gives me new things to think about about how to counter it. I made three strategic errors that really made it impossible to win. Would love a rematch in the future to see if I had played it differently if the Axis could have won.

Thank you for the game and good luck in the Playoffs!

Thanks for the game and for the kind words. Tough game.

I agree that at this point, it was hard to see a path to victory for the Axis. Egypt can be protected and although it would become another threat if the huge number or German units would slowly start marching towards Russia, I guess Allies would have enough time to brace the Russians as they have enough income for a few turns to ramp of their defenses while more and more US fighters would accumulate.
And Japan, even if they have India, is not a big threat without China. They cannot threaten VC victory and will always be economically limited to entirely dominate the Pacific.

The Allies maintained the economic advantage which would at some point, force the Axis to lose ground.

Regarding rematch: Frankly, I am not too keen on playing OOB anymore. I believe BM is a really nicely done extension of the game which makes the game more versatile and interesting.

Thanks again and best regards,
Tobias

[JDOW]

Oh, and if you like, feel of course free to share the 3 strategic mistakes you were referring to. I would love to hear them.

[AndrewAAGamer]

@jdow Since it appears we are unlikely to have a rematch then…sure.

1. I thought I could fight for China even with your well planned Russian defense of Yunnan. That turned out to be incorrect. While It did provide greater income for a while I actually lost more resources fighting for China then I gained in monies. I think it might have been better to refocus those resources against India earlier and Russia overall than lose them fighting for China.
2. Since you did not do Taranto I withdrew my Italian ground troops from North Africa to reinforce the Continent. My thinking there was to assist Germany in defense of the Atlantic Wall allowing them to focus more on Moscow. However, that allowed UK to gain control of Africa even faster than normal and allowed more UK assets to get to Moscow than normal. Thus it was a two edged sword that I had more German units heading to Moscow but there were more UK defenders there too so it was a wash. In addition, with the loss of Italian defending resources, Russia was able to take two territories in Africa. That extra $6 was a game changer and was the main reason I decided to head to the Middle East instead of continuing to go for Moscow.
3. Marshmallow of War had just convinced me that not taking Normandy was a good idea. This was my first game trying it. I found it to be detrimental because it gave the Allies a free landing area that I did not want to attack and there was a side effect that the Normandy area became an airstrip that allowed greater mobility of Allied air power. Thus I was forced to provide greater ground troops in defense as security reducing the amount of firepower heading towards Moscow.

Not sure how much these would have made a difference individually but added together they really made it difficult for me to win. Again, thanks for the game. As usual I learned a lot more from losing than I would have from winning so there is always a silver lining to everything. :)

[AndrewAAGamer]

Oh - and it looks like if I want to expand the number of potential Players on this website I will need to add BM3 to my playlist. :)

[JDOW]

@andrewaagamer Thanks a lot for sharing

Re 1. I tend to partly disagree here: I believe Japan has to fight for China till the last drip of blood to not entirely lose control over China from the beginning.
So yes, your Japan may have been in a slightly better position to even avoid the first fights you made, but overall I believe you should have fought for China and that the fight was “doable” at least to an extent to not lose all of China.
This bid was certainly a situation I never experienced as Axis facing both, the Yunnan pressure and 18 mad Siberians supported by 2 artys, but I truly believe Axis’ winning chances significantly decline when giving up control over China from the almost get go.

Certainly, Axis has a path to Victory even with China lost, but the games I saw this happen were often KJF games, where Japan struggled to survive while Germans became a Juggernaut.
Especially, because my USA did not at all go KJF, I believe Japan could have had chances in a fight for China. This fight does not necessarily have to mean to eliminate the Chinese entirely, but at least keeping control over Ahnwe and the coastal territories.
In OOB this is significantly easier as there is no partisan rule like in BM and Japan does not have to fear US airstrikes and Japanese occupiers in China.

Re 2: Absolutely agree, it is a 2 edged sword, but certainly has merits for the Axis. Sooner or later, the Allies can murder the Italians with a very good TUV exchange for Allies. Withdrawing them prevents this. I also evacuated those folks before and I think it is a very valid move. And you could have done both, evacuating some of them while leaving 1-2 guys in Tobruk to make ot more annoying for the Russians to get it.

Re 3: I think this did not play a role at all in our game. Later you took Normandy anyway. Maybe you could have had a few more bucks, but imo this was certainly no factor.
I never left Normandy blue so far, simply because as Axis, I am greedy as hell.

Overall your reflections underline (in addition to the guidelines you posted in the G40 forums) that you have a very good understanding of the game and its mechanics in general.

[JDOW]

@andrewaagamer said in 2020 Playoff AndrewAAGamer (X) vs JDOW (L+58) OOB:

Oh - and it looks like if I want to expand the number of potential Players on this website I will need to add BM3 to my playlist. :)

Yes, as always one is hesitant in the beginning and A&A is already a complex game and one should be careful to add complexity.
But BM really did a great job to further balance the game (although Axis still has the advantage) and to add more spice to the game with marines and more NOs plus the partisan rule and Vichy.

[AndrewAAGamer]

Thanks for the feedback. Always Interesting to discuss strategy.

I do not disagree that China is important. As you say without China the Japanese have virtually no chance of winning via Victory Cities which makes the Allies far less willing to invest heavily in the Pacific until Europe is under control. What I am saying is since I lost China anyway that was a strategic error. I should have either fought all out for it or abandoned it early on. I choose a middle ground that proved futile.

[JDOW]

Got you and agree!