Mark Stevens
Europe Aflame Forum Moderator
Couple of maps to show the development, hahaha 'deterioration', of my game against Jason. In only two-and-half months the Western Allies have driven from the Spanish border almost to the Rhine/Alps. There are isolated garrisons in a few of the French ports, but basically nothing west of Paris.
I'm just trying to pull everything in France back to the Rhine, which is lined largely by flak units. The Germans and satellites are too weak (and, perhaps as importantly, too SLOW) to fight the Allies' motorised corps and armoured divisions in open ground. (Jason, if you're reading this I may have edited out the large SS Panzer Army assembling in great secrecy in the Ardennes. Or possibly not.)
The Balkan front is still quiet, a large Commonwealth force sitting in northern Greece but not, so far, making too much effort to break out. Yugoslav guerillas are a nuisance but still contained by the Croats and Bulgarians, with the odd SS anti-partisan unit.
The Eastern Front (see map) is also surprisingly stable, with an Axis line running roughly Odessa - Kiev - Smolensk -Leningrad, and the Finns still well into the northern USSR, but comfortably contained.
Still large Axis forces confronting the British at El Alamein, but the posiiton's absolutely unbreakable (I think I espied a '32 - 20'? motorised infantry corps!), then a chain of Italian garrisons running back through the major ports, including Malta, to the lone Vichy French outpost in Casablanca.
"Why, Mark, don't you transfer units from the East or North Africa to the critical Western Front?" The Germans and Italians in North Africa are pretty well stuck there because of the shrunken Axis sealift - I can just about ship weak mountain divisions from Norway to Germany, but that's it.
In the USSR, I think that any attempt to pull large units from the line may lead to a Soviet breakthrough (and we want to defend Western Christian civilisation, don't we, ahem) plus the air interdiction is very effective: it's now virtually impossible to rail anything west without it being bombed and strafed to nothing en route. The Luftwaffe is still putting up a good fight at the fronts, but can't cover the long east-west rail route.
All in all looking like a pretty gloomy Christmas although, oddly enough, the game still considers it a draw, presumably because of the large amount of real estate held by the Axis. I'm too modest to point it out - the hell I am - but I think the overall position is broadly what it might have been historically had the Germans defended better in the USSR. Even things I don't like, such as the Axis inability to move their units from North Africa to the mainland, and the fierce air interdiction on all rail movement, seem reasonable enough.
Time to check those Argentinian bank accounts and the false passport describing me as a Swiss salesman travelling in ladies' underwear.
I'm just trying to pull everything in France back to the Rhine, which is lined largely by flak units. The Germans and satellites are too weak (and, perhaps as importantly, too SLOW) to fight the Allies' motorised corps and armoured divisions in open ground. (Jason, if you're reading this I may have edited out the large SS Panzer Army assembling in great secrecy in the Ardennes. Or possibly not.)
The Balkan front is still quiet, a large Commonwealth force sitting in northern Greece but not, so far, making too much effort to break out. Yugoslav guerillas are a nuisance but still contained by the Croats and Bulgarians, with the odd SS anti-partisan unit.
The Eastern Front (see map) is also surprisingly stable, with an Axis line running roughly Odessa - Kiev - Smolensk -Leningrad, and the Finns still well into the northern USSR, but comfortably contained.
Still large Axis forces confronting the British at El Alamein, but the posiiton's absolutely unbreakable (I think I espied a '32 - 20'? motorised infantry corps!), then a chain of Italian garrisons running back through the major ports, including Malta, to the lone Vichy French outpost in Casablanca.
"Why, Mark, don't you transfer units from the East or North Africa to the critical Western Front?" The Germans and Italians in North Africa are pretty well stuck there because of the shrunken Axis sealift - I can just about ship weak mountain divisions from Norway to Germany, but that's it.
In the USSR, I think that any attempt to pull large units from the line may lead to a Soviet breakthrough (and we want to defend Western Christian civilisation, don't we, ahem) plus the air interdiction is very effective: it's now virtually impossible to rail anything west without it being bombed and strafed to nothing en route. The Luftwaffe is still putting up a good fight at the fronts, but can't cover the long east-west rail route.
All in all looking like a pretty gloomy Christmas although, oddly enough, the game still considers it a draw, presumably because of the large amount of real estate held by the Axis. I'm too modest to point it out - the hell I am - but I think the overall position is broadly what it might have been historically had the Germans defended better in the USSR. Even things I don't like, such as the Axis inability to move their units from North Africa to the mainland, and the fierce air interdiction on all rail movement, seem reasonable enough.
Time to check those Argentinian bank accounts and the false passport describing me as a Swiss salesman travelling in ladies' underwear.
