Global 1940 greatness

Photo courtesy Glen Cote

Wow. Exhausting.
Playing the global combined Axis & Allies 1940 is definitely the absolute ultimate Axis & Allies experience. We played at Arkham Asylum in Norwich, Conn. While people drifted in and out, at least seven different people got to play at least part of the game.

Everyone had a fantastic time. most of the players were new, but everyone enjoyed themselves, the game got a lot of attention and we had a lot of people express an interest in taking part next time -- which we've already tentatively scheduled for Oct. 2 & 3rd. Yes, TWO days, because it's obvious this is a Looong game. We almost finished 4 turns. (All that was left was the U.S., who probably was going to have rebuilding turn due to a disaster I'll mention below, China, which had a single piece left (the Flying Tiger) and France (two pieces left, one infatry in Africa and a destroyer far from the action.

Like many A&A games featuring mostly inexperienced players there was all sorts of craziness. The Germans were able to grab Britain after decimating the British fleet, although the blundered a bit by leaving Berlin open for a sneak Russian seaborne invasion. Still, the Russian definitely weren't going to keep Berlin (although they were getting quite an infusion of IPCs). The Allies however, were not going to get London back anytime soon, as the Italian (!) navy and air force finished off the rest of the British Atlantic Navy, massacring an American convoy they were protecting. Five US transports and 10 ground units were lost.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific things were going less well for the Japanese, who were a little behind schedule on grabbing territory. On the other hand, all the navies had taken heavy losses so things were not poised to change quickly. The one bright spot for the allies was in China, where the Japanese were thin on the ground and a large British/Anzac army was starting a counteroffensive.

Overall I think the Axis had a slight edge when we finished. The U.S. had been knocked back on their heels, the British and French capitals were captured and the Chinese were dciemated. Only the Anzacs were basically untouched, but there aren't many of them. The biggest question would have been how well the Russians would be able to exploit their windfall -- they had 145 IPC to spend!

For the Axis, Italy was in excellent shape, while the Germans were ready to face the Russians and take Berlin back. Meanwhile the Japanese were facing a challenge holding onto China, but were not in too bad shape for the short term in ocean areas, although the long-term outlook was questionable.

Overall the grander scale of the 1940 game seem to upset some tried and true A&A strategies and the tactical game is more intricate because of the addtional units (mech infantry, tac bombers) and the additional spaces. Everyone agreed that the strategic situation is fascinating.

I expect the next game will play quite differently. For one thing, the coup de main that took London and Berlin won't be easily repeated a gainst more experienced players.

Overall it was a great time and hopefully next time we'll be able to make greater progress. I think the Axis were ahead, but it's my opinion that you can't really judge an A&A game based on the first couple of turns because the Allies have great recuperative powers. In this game the Next Soviet build was going to be 145 and the next US build was going to be almost 90, so depending on how wisely they built the story for turns 5 or 6 might be quite different.

Interesting juxtaposition -- Fall of France and Fall Barbarossa

While setting up the Cadets of Saumur Overlord Scenario for a Memoir '44 game which, unfortunately failed to materialize, I noticed in the Historical Background that the French Army surrendered on June 22, 1940, shortly after the heroic last resistance depicted in the scenario.

Most wargamers know by heart that Fall Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union , began on June 22 of 1941. Not coincidentally it was also the date that marked the beginning of the Soviet offensive that destroyed Army Group Center in 1944.

An entire year transpired between the German offensive's in the West and the East. That's not to say there wasn't some fighting, of course. There were German operations in the Balkans, the Afrika Korps started its epic career and Germany's air and naval forces fought the Battle of Britain and the Battle of the Atlantic. But none of these engrossed the full attention of the German Army and it was able to devote its attention to training its troops and improving its equipment. Germany's land forces were never better than they were on June 21, 1941.

Second try at BK-1 (modified) and even worse

Well, Young General helped me out by taking the French side for my modified version of the Axis & Allies Miniatures Scenario BK-1
.

To recap, this is an updated version of the official Blitzkrieg Campaign A Defiant Gesture, BK-1 scenario, modified to be more authentic because a number of units that were not available when the scenario was first published in 2006 are now available.

The starting French force defending the town of Stonne and the heights didn't change. It is comprised of one Bold Captain, six MAS riflemen and 3 Level grenadiers. (As noted before, there's a typo in the scenario and it shows Lebel icons but says SMLE Rifles underneath. As the SMLE makes no sense I went with the icon,.

The French reinforcement group from the 45th BCC has been changed to H-39s instead of the original R-35s because the actual battle featured H-39s. The R-35s were apparently merely the closest sub available back then.

The French group from the 49th BCC still includes a pair of CHar B1 bis heavy tanks but the 6 pdr ATG has been replaced with a 75mm Gun and a half track transport to better match actual French equipment in 1940, although the actual battle for Stonne didn't include any heavy French anti-tank gun.

Much bigger changes were in store for the German side. The changes to the French OB added more points so the Germans were also boosted in total point value to match.

First off, the anachronistic JU-87G was replaced with a JU-87A Stuka.

The Grossdeutschland Regiment kept its Wehrmacht Oberleutnant, despite his anachronistic nature because I felt like he might represent fanatical anti-tank teams and the Germans really needed the AT capability. I replaced the two Panzergrenadiers with three Motorized Schutzen because it was more accurate to the period and the Germans needed the bodies. The MG 42 was replaced with the sand-bagged machine gun team and its MG 34. With the revised card they sand-bagged MG tean can move so it ends up being much the same.Finally the SiG 33 was replaced with a STG III. This is a better unit anyway, and it';s much more authentic. The STG III's baptism of fire was with GD during this campaign.

The 8th Panzer Division contingent was also modified. I added a second Panzer III and added a Panzer IB to make up for a deficiency in points. The SdKfz 222s and the Panzer IICs remained (although I proxied a couple of Pz IIFs to make it look better.

Even with the beefed up German force I suspected the French armor would simply prove too tough to handle and it did. The first turn the Stuka performed its duty by successfully bombing the French Bold Captain off the board, which meant the Germans would win the initiative in every subsequent turn save one. Unfortunately it appears that the Stuka pilot was spending too much time celebrating back at the airfield because he didn't reappear again until the issue was well decided and when he did come back his bombs missed. Worse, he was not available to interdict the French tanks, so the Char Bs arrived on turn 2 and the H-39s on Turn 3.

Even the 67th Reserve Division troops proved tough to handle because they had an uncanny ability to find cover.

In the brutal affair that followed the German force was again wiped out while causing rather light losses to the French. Only the Bold Captain, two grenadiers, one rifleman and on Char B were destroyed. One H-39 was damaged. That was it.

To salvage this scenario I think the arrival of the French tanks has to be delayed further or maybe their numbers reduced. So far the Germans have not come close to being competitive in the scenario. I think the French cannon and transport can be dropped, as they're not even historical and it may be worthwhile to cut the number of French tanks in half. Even one Char B is pretty tough to handle with Pz. I, II & III tanks.

In any case, it was not a total waste, as Young General always loves a chance to kick the Old Warrior's butt and he's not overly concerned about whether it was a fair fight.

Got my fingers slammed in the door at Sedan

Game Shop Tony continued schooling me in the Power of Beginner's Luck by taking me to school in the scenario Driving to Sedan from the Campaign Book Vol. I.

I'm tempted to blame the dice, but then one always is tempted to do that with a Borg game. And if you can't blame the dice, there's always the cards!

Be that as it may, the fact is that my Germans were not able to get much going as they tried crossing the river. Every bridgehead was aggressively charged by French cavalry troops and while it was costly for the horsemen, they were able to do even more damage to the Germans on their way to a 5-3 victory. Once again the air units proved unhelpful, possibly making the Germans waste valuable actions that would have been better spent elsewhere.

I do think I should have devoted more effort to dominating the river crossing by fire. There were too many cases where there were one-on-one fights between French horsemen and German units that ended killing off both units. No Germans got close enough to test the fortified houses.

On the plus side, Game Store Tony is enjoying the game a lot, and his string of victories with the Belgians, Dutch and now French has provided gist for some conversation among the store denizens.

It's on the Hannut-Merdop and Breakthrough to Gembloux next. I expect Game Store Tony will continue his preference for the "underdog" Allies, so I'll have a chance to break the string and stitch up a little bit of the rent in the fabric of the universe caused by our alternative history version of the France 1940 campaign.

Updating Stonne

While schedule conflicts prevented me from playing on the precise anniversary, I did get in a near anniversary game of the Axis & Allies historical miniatures historical scenario BK-1, published on the official A&A minis site. This depicts some of the fighting for Stonne, France, on May 15, 1940.

Since that scenario was first published in 2006 a lot of new figures have become available, so I decided that there was little sense in playing the scenario as published when there were many more accurate figures in the mix now.

The French side actually required relatively few changes. The Bold Captain, MAS 7.5mm Inf and Lebel Grenadiers that set up are unchanged. (Note that the scenario lists SMLE rifles in stead of the Lebels, but this must be a typo as it would make no sense for SMLE rifles to be present and the picture shows the Lebels.

For the Reinforcements from the 45 BCC (a battalion, not the brigade listed by the scenario card) the R-35s are replaced by H-39s because that was the type of tank present. The R-35 was obviously used originally because it was a similar tank that was already in the game.

For the Reinforcement group from the 49th BCC (also a battalion) the Char Bis are unchanged, but accompanying ATG is replaced. I'm not sure why the 6 PDR was used in the scenario, as it's not really close to anything actually fielded by the French during the battle. What ATGs they had tended to be 25mm guns. There's nothing really suitable yet in AAM, but the French di also have some of their famous 75s in the area, so I subbed one of those. In 2006 there weren't any gun transports available but now there are, so the 75 gets a P107 half-track prime mover.

All-in-all, few changes are needed for the French OB and the subs add a few points to the French total.

In contrast the German order of battle should undergo a drastic overhaul.

First, we replace the JU-87G tank buster with the more accurate JU-87B from the Early War set.


The Wehrmacht Oberleutnant remains, depsite his 1942 date, because the Germans need the anti-tank capability and I assume that he ismeant to represent some tank-killer teams, similar to the "panzerfauist" tank killers teams given to the Finns in another scenario. The Panzergreandiers are replaced by Motorized Shuetzen, which is more appropriate to 1940. True True Panzergrenadiers came a little later. The MG-42 is likewise replaced by the Sandbagged Machine-Gun Team which is armed with the MG-34. In game terms it's the same with the revised card. The sIG 33 is replaced with the StuG III D, which is what the GrossDeutchland actaully used. As a matter of fact, this was the combat debut of the STG III.

The Panzer III F, Panzer IIC and SdKfz 222 are all unchanged, although I proxied the Pz IIF models for the Pz IIC for appearances because most of the models are V2. Only the 222s were the older scale because that vehicile hasn't been updated yet. While the French changes tended to add a few points, all the German changes subtracted some, so in order to keep the point values similar but without changing the character of the scenario I added a SdKfz 231 and a Panzer IB, both of which were also present on the battlefield that day. The Germans were still a couple of points shy of the French, but they did start with all troops present while the French had variable reinforcement so I thought I'd see how it played out before making more changes.

The actual session against an opponent was inconclusive due to his inexperience with the game, but it seemed to suggest that the French tanks were too tough for this order of battle to handle. I solitaired it afterward and while the Germans did a tad better , it still wasn't really close. The Germans simply didn't have enough anti-tank capability to deal with those tough French tanks, especially if they showed up early, which they did both times.

So I modified the German OB a little more. The SdkFz 231 went away, as it added nothing to the German side. In its place I added another Panzer III F and another Schuetzen. This brought both armies to exactly 132 points. This gave the Germans a little more capability to handle French tanks and one more soldier to try to capture the objective with while not changing the scenario in any fundamental way.

So we will see how that works out later this week.

In 1940 things went down hill fast

A French Somua tank at the museum at Aberdeen

By following along on the anniversary events of major episode such as the 1940 campaign, I think it helps capture some aspects of it that reading a history can obscure. A historian naturally attempts to create a narrative about an event, selecting which stories to tell and sometimes, for the sake of keeping the narrative clear, the time element can be lost. It's easy, for example, to skip over long periods where nothing that turned out to be important happened, but of course the participants experienced those days as being just as long as the important ones.

A little less common, but still occurring on occasion is a narrative that is so dense with detail that it can obscure that the event it describes happened over a short period of time and was therefore even more shocking to those who lived through it than a history might easily convey.

The campaign in France is that sort of event. From September 1939 until the first week of May, 1940, a period of more than eight months, very little happened on the western front between Germany and the Allies. There was some action at sea, and towards the end of the period things heated up in Norway, but compared to what followed, the Phony War period was really remarkable for its lack of action. By way of comparison, in 1944, eight months of campaigning in the West brought the Allies from Normandy to the Rhine.

But in the second week of May, 1940, the situation in the West was transformed in a week of fighting. Within days the Allied position was already facing disaster. There's some debate over the term Blitzkrieg and whether it represents an actual German military doctrine, but the term originated as newspaper shorthand to describe the shocking speed at which warfare occurred in 1939 and in 1940. There was, of course, some foreshadowing of the Blitzkrieg in Poland, where another large army was destroyed in mere days, but it was easy for the Western powers to discount that as an anomaly. The French and British armies were far better equipped than the Poles and had a much better defensive configuration than Poland as well. Poland was, essentially, indefensible from a military standpoint.

On today's date, 70 years ago, just a few days after the opening of hostilities, the German armored spearheads were already poised to burst through the French defenses. Before another week was out the Allies were facing a crisis.

Whether or not Blitzkrieg formed a formal doctrine of any sort, the German campaign definitely had the psychological effect of a "bolt form the blue" that shocked observers worldwide. It spurred the U.S., for example, to start a huge military buildup unprecedented in "peacetime" that included mobilizing a large part of the National Guard for a year's worth of training. Would a more conventionally paced campaign in 1940 have prompted the same, even if it had ended up in a French defeat? If the Germans had taken six or seven months to finish off France it would have been a much more sobering experience for them as well and Hitler might have been slower to turn on the Soviets. His ideology demanded an eventual showdown with the Communists, but there was no reason why it had to be in 1941 and there were very good reasons to think that waiting a couple of more years would have increased German strength relative to the Soviets.

I think the 1940 campaign's speed of decision is it's most important aspect. It's not that France lost, but that it lost so quickly, that it reverberated. Following along day-by-day helps drive home that speed.

Germans salvage their military reputation at Valkenburg Airfield

The week's commemorative refights of 1940 campaign battles from Memoir '44 finally saw a turn in favor of the Germans in the Valkenburg Airfield scenario from the Campaign Book.

This was aided in no small part by the absence of Game Shop Tony from the Allied High Command this day, being substituted by Game Shop Denizen Noob, who had a grand total of one previous game under his belt, the Unternehmen Niwi scenario mentioned yesterday.

Noob is quickly grasping the rules, but naturally is still climbing the learning curve tactically. I took the Germans largely to spare Noob the task of trying to master the Air Rules as well, but it didn't matter in the ended as the Germans never drew enough cards to make taking flight seem worthwhile.

The Germans opened the action with a quick strike against the Dutch armor unit and the nearby infantry, scoring kills and leaping out to a 2-0 lead. The larger part of the rest of the battle was the usual minor back-and-forth maneuvering often seen in Borg games as both sides made the most of their individual card draws but failed to create a coherent battle plan. Generally the Dutch closed the distance, but losses were fairly even, with the Germans scoring three more kills to bring the Dutch to the danger zone while the Dutch scored two kills in return.

Things were looking pretty peachy for the Germans until a late-game scare when the Dutch had a good turn that killed two more Germans and suddenly they were within striking range with a 1-figure German unit in the open and a vacant airfield withing striking distance.

It was just a scare however, as the Dutch advance also left a 1-figure unit within range and the Germans were able to scoop up their 6th medal with a close-range blast.

While not playing a formal campaign or Grand campaign at this time, by campaign game standards the Airborne Operation portion played so far would have ranked as a minor Allied victory. The Allies won three battles to one German win, but the medal scores were pretty close, with the total Allied count at 19 medals. They also scored two objectives in Operation Niwi which would have been a "0" on the "Objectives Points" track for a total of 19 Victory Points. The Germans scored 17 medals in their four games, plus three objectives (at Fort Eben-Emael) which are worth 1 point on the Objectives Points track, for a total of 18 Victory Points. Thus the Allies eked out a Minor Victory by Campaign Game Standards.

With their earlier victory at Bodange considered, the Allies have a small edge so far in the Pseudo-campaign, but there's plenty of opportunity for the Germans to make it up.