The Last Year Begins

 Surely the last year of the war now with Germany in mortal danger and then Italy and Japan at risk of being swamped by the Allies. The Chinese Communists place a weak garrison division in Lanchow and a weak infantry army to the southwest of it. The Commonwealth gets 15 Offensive points, two repaired Tanker points,  a supply unit and a cruiser and New Zealand deploys a motorised infantry corps. Japan gets 5 Offensive points and the Soviet ambassador notes the 3 armoured/ mechanised corps, an armour HQ and an anti-aircraft division with anti-tank capability are fielded this Turn. If they get to Korea before the Soviets can declare war it might prevent the Soviets declaring war as they need to have double the value of armed forces combined with Offensive markers as the Japanese. Weak Indo-Chinese Territorials are raised in Saigon. Italy places a good fighter unit in Rome. Germany places excellent fighters - one apiece in Berlin and Vienna. An excellent garrison corps forms up southwest of Vienna. The French launch a tanker point in Rouen. A carrier fighter plane is produced in Marseille. The Japanese destroy a division in Guadalcanal and Espirito Santu - they are unable to be supplied, have been bypassed and the Japanese need to build some extra divisions and deploy them closer to home. 

Stalin from his reserve pool of aircraft deploys 2 fighters and a medium bomber in Vladivostok. Two short range ground attack and one long range bomber are placed in a city just north of Manchouko and one long range bomber is placed in a city to the west of Manchuoko all from Reserve pool. Two new fighter units are placed in mid-Siberian factory cities and a sub launched in Vladivostok. Vasilevsky armoured HQ and a motorised infantry army are placed in mid-Siberian factory cities and 20 Offensive points are added to the pool. A ground attack and bomber unit are placed in reserve from cities in the USSR. The US adds several naval and air units including an escort carrier and a mountain corps and two supply units. 30 Offensive points are added to the Total.  The Commonwealth agrees to lend German oil and any resources it doesn't need to France. The Allies win Initiative and the Axis curse! It gets worse - the weather is snow in Europe but rainy in the Med - which please Mussolini - but fine in the North Monsoon zone and rainy in the South Monsoon.

Stalin chooses a Land impulse. He declares war against Japan. He moves Koniev forward with a Guards infantry army; Zhukov moves back to allow white print Soviet infantry armies to move up to the Oder (they have a +1 bonus each in the snow). With the help of two Guards tank armies, one using an engineer division to cross the Oder. Hitler holds his planes back in case he needs them for Berlin and Stalin doesn't bother with air attacks. Koniev uses Offensive points to double himself and 3 infantry armies in attack. Stalin chooses a Blitz attack. Manstein flips over to get a defensive bonus. Despite this the German defenders are Blitzed and will return next Turn from the Production Circle. The Soviets lose an infantry army and half the attackers including the Koniev HQ are flipped over. The Soviets are now adjacent to Berlin! Stalin spends 2 Offensive points - one to move subs out in the Baltic Sea, the Sea of Japan and the China Sea and then to have naval combat. They have surprise against the Japanese who can't fly aircraft in to help protect their convoys. They miss the convoys in the Sea of Japan but in the China Seas the subs wreak havoc - they sink 3 convoy points, damage 3 convoy points and send 2 back to port along with a light cruiser at the cost of a damaged sub. In Siberia troops move slowly towards and across the border. Air units mover closer towards the front with Japan. I've double checked and it says can't do naval combat in Land impulse so will change to no cost Combined and spend 4 more Offensive points to cover all the extra Land moves and move one extra Air unit. Stalin reverses the land units moving into Japanese territory and only rail moves the HQ closer to the front. 

France chooses a Naval impulse and moves escorts out. The new carrier plane joins the French fleet which has two fighter units now. They sail into the Western Mediterranean. Subs sail to the South China Seas. Churchill spends 10 Offensive points to have a combined Land and Naval impulse. Escorts move out into sea zones. Aircraft go out into both Mediterranean sea zones and the Faroes Gap. One Offensive point is spent to move an additional aircraft. A mosquito light bomber is rebased to Germany. Commonwealth land forces  move towards the Siam border and mechanised and motorised corps accompanied by artillery cross into Siam. They and some other infantry corps in Siam are reorganised by both HQs in the region flipping over. Gort supports an attack on a lone German infantry corps to the northwest of the bridgehead outside Berlin with the result that some Commonwealth units are flipped over but the infantry is forced to retreat to Kiel. The Commonwealth does not advance a corps into the gap in case it is attacked by the Germans. The Royal Marine corps is landed by amphibious ship on the mountainous southern coast of Corsica ready to move across the straits to the port of Olbia in Sardinia. Yugoslav land units move towards Hungary.  The Ark Royal joins the Royal navy fleet in Ceylon.

The US chooses a super combined Impulse- - Land, Naval and Air. It chooses Air because it wants to rebase a lot of air units. The newly arrived US mountain corps and Rangers division are transported to the Bay of Biscay ready to complete their journey at the end of the Turn. As the Philippines is cut off from supply by the Soviet subs there are no notional unit strength points outside of Japanese units zone of controls or cities in the Bismarck sea zone. A transport moves an infantry corps to Rabaul whilst the 3 marine corps, and a marine division and MacArthur HQ invade the southern island of Philippines and the port of Davao. 4 amphibious landing ships and 2 cruisers are now vulnerable in the 0 box. The Pacific fleet moves into the 3 box of the Bismarck sea zone. They are also protected by aircraft and cruisers in the same box and other aircraft in the 3 box. Air units patrol the South China Seas. Subs patrol the Marianas seas. US units only find convoys in the Marianas Seas and damage a convoy and scare the light cruiser escort back to port. This will make it harder for the Japanese to form a supply line overseas as they can try to escape the Soviet sub blockade using the Japanese coast sea zone but then it needs to go through the Marianas sea zone. The supply line difficulties are shown below.

US Land units in Germany move to better positions and await French engineers to help them cross rivers. Air units in Hawaii rebase to the South Pacific. Fighter bombers in Ulster rebase to South Germany and other air units in France deploy closer to the front with Italy. The C47 in Rabaul rebases to Christmas Island on its way to joining the Commonwealth troops in Burma and Siam. China fires its artillery at the Japanese but only in Sian do they hit causing the Japanese infantry and artillery corps to become disorganised.

Germany chooses a Combined impulse. It moves its U-boats in the Faroes Gap from the 0 box to the 4 box. It moves a Kondor air unit to the Faroes Gap 3 box and another naval aircraft to the 3 box of the North Sea. The u-boats in the Faroes Gap get to sink the new escort carrier - ouch - but one u-boat is destroyed and the other sent back to base. The other u-boat fails to find convoys. Some units in Austria move around to make the defence of Vienna stronger. Italy chooses a no-cost Combined impulse. The subs move out to target the East & West Med and the Bay of Biscay with the US transport. Planes also attack both West and East Med and a bomber unit goes out to protect the convoys in the Italian coast sea zone. The Italians fail to find any convoys except in the East Med - unfortunately the RAF Beaufighter shoots down the Italian plane. A garrison corps is moved to Genoa. The Albanian Italian unit moves back into Albania. 

Japan chooses a Naval. It must resupply its units in the Pacific. It moves a convoy from the Sea of Japan into the Japanese Coast sea area. A convoy at a port in the Japanese Coast area moves to sea then joins the Marianas sea zone. The US tries to intercept with a sub but fails badly. The Japanese can now move a convoy from Guam into the Bismarck sea. The Japanese now mass their three carrier fleets and move to the Bismarck Sea zone - they will either try to hammer the US Pacific Fleet or the amphibious ships vulnerable in the 0 box. They fly in two naval aircraft and spend an offensive point to fly a fighter in to escort them. The US flies a fighter in to the 0 box in the Bismarck Sea. Unfortunately for the Japanese Imperial Navy the US Pacific Fleet gets 6 surprise points and attacks the massed carrier fleets. The Japanese lose a fighter and pilot,  2 weak torpedo bombers, a decent dive bomber, the US an ok dive bomber in the air combat (all carrier planes). Japanese flak shoots down two weak dive bombers (I count pilots as killed if their plane is lost to flak).  The US sink one big carrier Akagi and a cruiser, damage two heavy carriers Taiho and Soryu and another cruiser and send heavy carrier Shimano back to Japan. Two weak Japanese dive bombers get shot down by US flak. The Japanese damage two carriers Lexington and Yorktown and damage two cruisers. The fleets miss each other the next round. The Japanese were brave and had a good chance but luck was with the US - not a single heavy carrier of Japan's elite Kido Butai fleet is left - one is at port, one sunk and the rest damaged. The 3 Japanese carrier fleets break off and head for Japan. They rue placing their land based air units in a higher 4 box but they might have a role to play in the next Impulse.Japanese marine division risks the gauntlet of US forces to move from an East Indies island to Manila. Subs attack the Bay of Bengal and try to cut off the US pacific forces by attacking Polynesia and South Pacific sea zones. They only find convoys in the South Pacific and sink the convoy and send the escorting cruiser back to port. Japan tries to put a convoy point into the South China seas zone but it gets intercepted by US air units that sink it and the Thai light cruiser escort and the Japanese escort light cruiser is sent back to port in China. 3 Offensive points are spent to move Zero fighters from Vietnam to Hong Kong to stay supplied and 2 naval aircraft rebase from the Pacific to Japan and near Japan. Weirdly it's Japan who has taken the biggest pounding so far this Turn, not Germany. They expected the US to cause problems in the South China Seas again but were perhaps surprised by the rapid move to invade Philippines after getting Rabaul at the end of the year. The real shocker was the Soviet subs especially in the China Sea with a surprise attack. 

The weather is the same as last impulse. France chooses a Land Impulse. It sends engineers to support the Commonwealth and US troops in Germany. The Commonwealth chooses a Land impulse. Yugoslav units  concentrate around a German panzer grenadier corps west of Lake Baloton in Southern Hungary. The Royal Marine corps moves across the straits between Corsica and Sardinia to occupy Olbia. They send three tactical bombers against von Rundstedt HQ and a panzer corps. The Luftwaffe sends an excellent fighter and the RAF responds with an excellent and good fighter. The Focke Wulf is shot down. The RAF bombers successfully disorganise both German units. Montgomery flips over and uses Offensive points to double the attack strength of himself and 2 other units. Apart from French engineers there are US units also helping. Rommel flips over to support Rundstedt but the efforts are in vain as the Commonwealth gets the best result possible and eliminate the HQ and Panzer corps and widen the Commonwealth bridgehead and surround Berlin on 3 sides now. The Yugoslavs attack the German motorised infantry just west of Lake Balaton. The Luftwaffe flies in some near obsolete medium bombers being used in this emergency. They do enough to cause the loss of an HQ and weak militia corps but the Germans are also destroyed. The Yugoslavs are now vulnerable to a counterattack but the Germans may not be able to spare many units. The French and Yugoslavia try to set up a flanking move of the Albanian Territorial unit. The Commonwealth advances cautiously in Siam and spends the last of its Offensive Points reorganising the Alexander HQ. 

Stalin chooses a Land impulse. He's annoyed by all those Commonwealth forces surrounding Berlin from the West and gives Zhukov a piece of his mind. He doesn't choose a no-cost Combined as he wants his subs to be available to try and intercept any transports from Japan to Korea carrying those armoured or mechanised troops. The motorised infantry corps rail moves  to be nearer the border with Manchuoko along with to supply units and an engineering division. The Zhukov HQ moves forward and shuffles his attacking units around to attack a lone SS German mechanised corps . The Soviets send in a medium bomber ground strike that the Germans try to intercept with a good fighter but is challenged by good Soviet fighters. The bomber gets through but does nothing. The Germans send in a tankbuster Hs129 aircraft to shoot up the Soviet armour with an excellent fighter escort but a mass of Soviet fighters go up to challenge but the German tankbuster gets through to lend support. Zhukov spends all the remaining offensive points to double his attack values. Despite the tank buster support the Soviets get a maximum result and obliterate the SS and now surround Berlin from 2 hexes. Zhukov flips over. The Soviets also gain control of the resources in that hex. The Soviets launch an attack on the German motorised infantry protected by a loop of the Danube east of Bratislava but attacked by 6 infantry units, a cavalry corps and the Rokossovksy HQ flipping over to get a combat bonus. The Germans put in a Stuka unit and the Hungarian fighter unit in a ground support role but the attack goes well- the Germans retreat into Budapest and half the Soviets flip over but the cavalry and a strong infantry army form a bridgehead over the Danube. Soviet infantry units from Vladivostok and nearby move west into Manchouko. Soviet units to the west of Manchuoko move east to enter Manchuoko.

Berlin almost surrounded by enemy forces.

China chooses a Land impulse. They send their bomber to try a ground strike on Kweiyang but the Japanese intercept with Zeros and get in a dogfight with P40s. The Japanese fail to stop the SB-2 bombers getting through and they disorganise the militia in the city. China decides to try a ground attack with 2:1 odds - both HQs involved flip over so both sides get HQ support. The Japanese support with a medium bomber so the odds get reduced to 3:2. In the bloody conflict two Chinese armies are destroyed and the Japanese lose the weak militia corps. All the Chinese attackers flip over as does the Japanese HQ. In North China the communists start shuffling units around to start moving to outflank the Japanese to the north of their line. The US chooses a no-cost Combined Impulse. The US Task Force 58 at Hawaii moves to the Mariannas Sea. The Japanese reinforce with a  naval plane but they miss the Fleet which attacks the lone convoy. Only the US succeeds in finding opponents and it damages the convoy and the light cruiser escort. Japanese forces in South Asia are now cut off again! The Service Supply Squadron at Davao flips over to boost the port capacity to a total of 23 ships. In another catastrophe for the Japanese, a US Naval aircraft finds the convoy in the Bismarck Seas and damages it whilst sending its light cruiser escort back to base. The vital naval base at Trukk is cut off that was used to house subs to plague the US. The Philippines is also cut off now. Artillery moves into place next to the Oil refinery and Eisenhower HQ moves closer to Prague. In the Philippines the marines and MacArthurHQ move north and become disorganised in the desert at the cost of two offensive points for exceeding the maximum of land units movements. Fighters move by naval transport to Hawaii. US air units in the Pacific rebase closer to where they are needed. The US spends 4 Offensive points to launch an escorted heavy bomber raid on Rome. The 2 US fighters force the bombers through the Italian fighters (Clark HQ later flips over to reorganise the fighters). The Italians don't fire their flak as they want to keep it to defend against a potential US paratrooper drop next to Rome. They bombers cause 1 point of damage. Eisenhower flips over to reorganise some US units including a powerful artillery division. 

Japan has massive threats - trying to re-establish supply to its forces in the Pacific, Thailand and Phillipines not to mention a Soviet pincer (east from Vladivostok and west from Mongolia) of its forces in Manchuoko - and an opportunity - cutting off the US supply lines to its forces in the Western Pacific with its subs. Japan chooses a no-cost Combined Impulse. It tries to move a convoy into the China Sea. Sadly the US intercepts and sinks the Japanese light cruiser, damages the Thai light cruiser escort and convoy and sends the heavy cruiser back to port in Japan. Japan spends an Offensive point to move an extra naval unit and moves a convoy into the the Mariannas Sea which just manages to dodge the US navy. At least the Philippines and Trukk is back in supply. The subs find the US convoy in the Polynesia sea zone but themselves are found by the US naval aircraft in the sea zone. Both subs are damaged.  The Japanese use their land based units to try and sink either aircraft carriers or amphibious ships. They decide to try and sink the aircraft carriers. The best Japanese naval aircraft - the fantastic Emily gets through. but is aborted by heavy flak from the Pacific Fleet. Hirohito has to make hard decisions. He has good units stranded in Malaysia, Siam and Netherlands East Indies but cannot evacuate them. He has armoured and mechanised units in Japan intended for Manchuoko but at least they can defend Japan. He decides that the resources in Malaysia and the East Indies are worthless if he can't move them to Japan. He wants to hold onto Kweiyang and the railway in the region to keep the westernmost Japanese units in supply. He rail moves a strong militia unit to begin a daisy chain in the future to reinforce Kewiyang. He moves out of supply Yamashita HQ to Phnom Phenh and the Siam unit and Japanese bicycle division to defend Bangkok - they will all flip over for moving out of supply. The Indochinese territorials move to protect the supply line to Yamshita at the cost of one Offense point. Some Japanese air units rebase from Netherlands East Indies to Indochina and China. Japanese naval aircraft fly out to protect the convoys and hunt for Soviet subs respectively. 

Mussolini chooses a no-cost combined impulse. He moves escorts out so they can protect his Italian seas zone convoy next Turn. He rail moves Balbo HQ from the western Alps front to next to Rome to occupy the port there to help prevent a paratrooper attack there. The garrison corps holding Marseille moves towards Italy. Badoglio HQ moves south to be able to support the whole Western alpine front next Turn. Hitler chooses a Land impulse. He sends air units to bomb Soviet tank armies and manages to disorganise the Guards tank army south of Berlin. He moves a unit guarding south of Budapest to move north west to help contain the Soviet bridgehead over the Danube near Vienna but this will allow a Soviet bridgehead south of Budapest. He moves a militia unit to retain communication between Berlin and Hamburg. He suddenly remembers that in Snow weather he can't get 3 resources from Sweden crossing the frozen Baltic and he's abandoned the Hungarian resource hex. He's going to try and hold on to as many other cities as possible even when Berlin falls. The Turn doesn't end and the weather stays the same.

China chooses a Land impulse. The Communists continue to build forces north east of Lanchow their last remaining city. They are weakening their forces to the east of Lanchow to do this but they are behind a river and in mountains doubling their strength so Mao fels safe to do so. Their "left hook" northeast of Lanchow is north of the northwestern flank of the Japanese crescent shaped front lines in China. They are disorganised but next Turn they can advance on the Japanese. The USSR chooses a Land impulse. A Siberian rifle army moves from Rumania to Siberia. To the West of Manchuoko Soviet forces along with Mongol allies head eastwards becoming disorganised in the snow. Vatutin HQ flips over to reorganise a mechanised army and Mongol cavalry in case the Soviets get another impulse this Turn. The Soviets do a mass concentric attack on the German mechanised corps south of Berlin and north of Prague and the Germans are eliminated. The hex is left vacant for the Western Allies to occupy later. The Soviets cross the Danube south of Budapest. Air units rebase from Germany to Soviet union and in Siberia move eastwards. 

France and the Commonwealth chooses a Land impulse.  French militia are rail moved to Germany to act as garrisons. The German militia between Berlin and Hamburg is destroyed by British armour and Canadian motorised infantry but the Commonwealth troops are all disorganised. In Burma Alexander HQ flips over to reorganise 4 corps. Attack aircraft move to Changmai. The US chooses a no-cost Combined impulse. In the Pacific its air transport plane lands in Dacca. Two infantry corps occupy the southern port in Philippines whilst two marine corps cross the straits to occupy the island west of the Japanese garrison corps becoming disorganised in the move. In Europe offensive points are used to move an infantry corps  the US sets up an attack on German infantry in the mountains between the Austrian oil and Prague. US bombers attack the position and disorganise the defenders. The Germans send in medium bomber support and two strong fighter escorts which take on the 3 US fighters. In intense air combat a US P47 is shot down with pilot killed and the German medium bomber is killed with pilot surviving. An offensive point is spent to move the Brazilian motorised infantry to move into Toulon. Clark HQ flips over and uses Offensive points to double the attack values of 3 US units. The Us destroys the Germans and advances into the mountains. The Turn ends!

No partisans arrive. The Canadian artillery corps arrives in Rangoon. The modern Essex class carriers in US Task force 58 join the US Pacific Fleet and are replaced by 2 older carriers with less capable planes and a battleship. The now stronger Pacific Fleet rebases in South Philippines where the Service Squadron has increased the capacity of the minor port there to 23 ships. Task Force 58 returns to Pearl Harbour. The US mountain corps lands in the captured Italian resource hex in Yugoslavia and the Rangers division lands in Trieste near the Yugoslav border. Japan returns its subs on islands near Japan - it is worried about the ring of steel strangling its supply lanes.

In the Production phase after bomber damage Italy has only 4 build points. It finishes off two infantry units and raises a unit of Territorials in Sardinia. Germany can't get Swedish resources as the Baltic is frozen and has lost the oil production facility next to Berlin. Using it's sole oil point to fuel factories and 6 build points from shattered units Germany has 9 build points in total. He completes 2 fighters and some foot units including an infnatry, garrison and two militia corps plus has Blitzed units returning including the mighty Manstein HQ. Japan can only bring 4 resources from overseas along with its Oil point and single other resource. It has 6 resourced factories in the Asian mainland and a build point from a destroyed militia corps. It has 19 Build points. It repairs one sub, two aircraft carriers, an antisubmarine convoy (and begins finishing another such vessel), completes a large carrier and the mighty Musashi battleship and a carrier plane. Next Turn it will start repairing convoys but Japan needs fighting ships sooner. Japan also rebuilds the China militia in Kweihans to defend it from repeated Nationalist attack. 5 Offensive points are built. 

China has 6 build points including two from destroyed units. It uses them to produce 5 Offensive points as well as keeping production of a Mechanised corps going. The US has 82 Build points - over 2 and half times that of the entire Axis. The UK lends 2 resources and 2 oil to France and keeps 4 Oil. The US lends 1 resource to France and keeps 4 oil. France keeps 1 Oil and has 15 Build points (more than Germany and Italy combined). It produces 15 Offensive points to arrive in 2 turns time and halts production of other units. The Commonwealth has 36 Build points - more than the entire Axis combined. It completes the repair of 4 battleships and finishes an aircraft carrier and plane for it and a Territorial unit in Rangoon. Other naval craft are being completed including a carrier and a plane started for it. A fighter bomber  and an infantry division is begun in India and the Yugoslav HQ is begun to be rebuilt. 20 Offensive points are produced. The Soviet Union produces 50 Build points and saves 1 Oil. Stalin rush completes a fighter and builds 30 Offensive points. He begins a Shturmovik and raises 5 militia units - most are for the Pacific Front but he may use some to finish off Germany. The US spends its cornucopia of Build points on repairing carriers, cruisers and building large numbers of new units. It produces 45 Offensive points. China gets 3 Intelligence points. Slovakia is conquered.