Mark Stevens
Europe Aflame Forum Moderator
Just a couple of thumbnails to illustrate that the scenario can still be challenging even if the Axis don't take Moscow in Autumn 1941.
This one's got to July 1944 and still has plenty of play in it. The Axis failed to knock out the USSR in 1941 and has been on the strategic defensive ever since. It still holds Germany itself, most of France, the Low Countries, Finland, Italy, Norway and Denmark, the three Balkan satellites, and the Soviet Union from Leningrad down to the Ithmus of Perekop (at the mouth of the Crimea).
The Western Allies have cleared North Africa, and - having declared war themselves - have conquered Spain and broken into south-western France with largely US forces. The southern end of the Pyrenees are still held by a motley collection of Vichy and Italian troops, backed up by some German mountain corps. An early 'Overlord' failed in 1943, with heavy Commonwealth losses, and the French coast is reasonably well garrisoned.
The Commonwealth is now concentrating on the other end of the Mediterranean and, having liberated Athens, is slowly grinding its way north through the mountains. The Yugoslav guerillas are annoying but under control, and the Warsaw rebellion has just been put down.
On the Eastern Front the lines have been static for a long time. Things are still quiet in the north and centre, with the German front on the outskirts of Leningrad. The real action is in the south, from Kiev - still Axis - down to the Black Sea coast. Very powerful Soviet forces are across the Dneiper in strength, but are being held by German armoured and mechanised units, particularly the Waffen SS, and what's left of the Rumanians.
As the Axis player, I have to believe that the Western Allies don't have the forces for another major landing, only subsidiary operations against the flanks of the defenders, and that it's a long way from the Spanish and Rumanian borders to Berlin. I'm still finding this a very interesting game, although any chance of 'winning' in the normal sense is long gone. Juggling my scarce resources, wondering where to send newly raised reinforcements, and trying to keep open the railway lines in the face of a ferocious Allied bombing campaign make every turn a nightmare, let alone the combat along the front lines.
For what it's worth the VPs still call it an Axis marginal victory, but I'll be glad if I can better the historical result by May 1945.
This one's got to July 1944 and still has plenty of play in it. The Axis failed to knock out the USSR in 1941 and has been on the strategic defensive ever since. It still holds Germany itself, most of France, the Low Countries, Finland, Italy, Norway and Denmark, the three Balkan satellites, and the Soviet Union from Leningrad down to the Ithmus of Perekop (at the mouth of the Crimea).
The Western Allies have cleared North Africa, and - having declared war themselves - have conquered Spain and broken into south-western France with largely US forces. The southern end of the Pyrenees are still held by a motley collection of Vichy and Italian troops, backed up by some German mountain corps. An early 'Overlord' failed in 1943, with heavy Commonwealth losses, and the French coast is reasonably well garrisoned.
The Commonwealth is now concentrating on the other end of the Mediterranean and, having liberated Athens, is slowly grinding its way north through the mountains. The Yugoslav guerillas are annoying but under control, and the Warsaw rebellion has just been put down.
On the Eastern Front the lines have been static for a long time. Things are still quiet in the north and centre, with the German front on the outskirts of Leningrad. The real action is in the south, from Kiev - still Axis - down to the Black Sea coast. Very powerful Soviet forces are across the Dneiper in strength, but are being held by German armoured and mechanised units, particularly the Waffen SS, and what's left of the Rumanians.
As the Axis player, I have to believe that the Western Allies don't have the forces for another major landing, only subsidiary operations against the flanks of the defenders, and that it's a long way from the Spanish and Rumanian borders to Berlin. I'm still finding this a very interesting game, although any chance of 'winning' in the normal sense is long gone. Juggling my scarce resources, wondering where to send newly raised reinforcements, and trying to keep open the railway lines in the face of a ferocious Allied bombing campaign make every turn a nightmare, let alone the combat along the front lines.
For what it's worth the VPs still call it an Axis marginal victory, but I'll be glad if I can better the historical result by May 1945.
