World In Flames solo odyssey

 The Axis win initiative and get favourable rain weather instead of snow. Hitler moves the railgun towards Dnepetrovsk. He uses the last of his Offensive Points to send the subs out during a Land impulse and reorganise the Rommel HQ which flips over to reorganise the railgun. The two subs in Faroes Gap find convoys and cause carnage -  3 convoys are damaged and the ASW ship is sent back to port along with  both light cruisers and 3 convoys. One sub is damaged and the other is sent back to port. Hitler is extremely happy.  South of Kaunas Hitler tries to destroy a large almost surrounded pocket of Soviet troops. He attacks the neck to completely surround the Soviets and sends in a large air force to support it but his fighter cover is sent back by Soviet fighters. The German bombers try to get through still but the Hs123 gets shot down so the rest abort. The land attacks are no better. The  northern"neck" battle sees the Germans lose the Hungarian cavalry and a G...

 The Axis drew the iniative roll and the Allies chose not to reroll so as the Allies went first last time the initiative switches to the Axis. The weather is Fine everywhere. Japan chooses a no-cost combined impulse and moves a weak Japanese infantry corps to China. On the Vietnamese border Yamashita tries a risky attack on a lone Chinese Army in the moutains supported by bombers. Fortune favours the brave and Japanese forces advance into China from this angle. Italy with a naval impulse sends subs and naval aircraft into the Med and Red Sea but fail to find any convoys. They send light cruisers out into the West Med to protect their convoys. Hiter with a no-cost combined sends out the u-boats. They sink the Soviet convoy in the Norwegian Sea but this is their only success. On land the newly arrived Manstein HQ arrives in Ukraine by rail and the Rommel HQ reorganises him at cost of being disorganised himself. The big news is in Poland where after Hitler's goading Guderian launches ...

The second year of war dawns. The Allies win initiative again. The weather is rainy except in the Med. The Commonwealth chooses a Naval action to send escorts out to protect their convoys. They send light cruisers with good AA factors to the Med. Naval aircraft and subs look for the unprotected Italian convoy in the West Med but fail to locate them. The Ozzie naval air unit flies to Netherlands East Indies, a transport with the armoured corps moves round the African coast and a heavy cruiser moves an infantry division from the UK to Malta. Lots of old bttleships move into the Est Med. The French move escort light cruisers to patrol the Carribbean and the Brazilian coast. The Chinese move units around to shore up their crumbling line. The Americans can now use land based aircraft in sea zones so use a naval aircraft to help patrol the East Coast waters. The Soviets sailed out into the Black Sea to support Odessa and moved land units into Poland from the Soviet Union and away from the Ge...

The Soviets ignoring their doctrine of reinforcing success choose instead to send almost all their reinforcements to the vulnerable Ukraine including the new Koniev armoured HQ. To Hitler's horror then Allies win initiative meaning the Soviets will get to attack their vulnerable forces holding Dnepetrovsk! They can also strike first in Poland with their very strong Guard Banner Armies. Hitler in desperation brings an old groun attack aircraft out of reserve to help out. Stalin seeing a lack of fighters brings an I16 out of reserve to reinforce the Polish front from Minsk. The Commonwealth and Free French chose a Naval impulse and protected convoys in Europe, N and C Amrerica. Older battleships  and cruisers sailed into the East Med from Aden but failed to find any convoys. The Soviets launched a massive attack on PanzerArmee1 panzer and mechanised corps. In the  air battle about the Soviet interceptors got shot down but the Soviet ground attack got through and disorgansied the...

The Soviets places many ground and plane units around Kiev, Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk. Hitler is unconcerned as he as 2 PanzerArmees, 3 HQs plus Rumanian and Hungarian support including air units.  The Allies win iniative but the Axis use their +1 to re roll and on the reroll gain the crucial first go in this Summer of 41. Hitler has refrained from using his Offensive points even when a PanzerArmee was cut off but he's ready to spend freely now. Hitler uses a no-cost combined and sends his naval aircraft and subs far and wide and his auxiliary cruiser into the Indian Ocean. They send a Russian convoy back to port and damage a light cruiser aend British and convoy back to port. In a stroke of bad luck the auxiliary cruiser Kormorant gets found by a Royal Navy cruiser Enterprise despite these auxiliary cruisers being hard to find. It is gunned by the cruiser glub glub glub. The cruiser gets aborted back to port. In the Ukraine the outer ring of two Soviet armies are destroyed for t...

 The title is a refernece to a book about Stlaingrad's chapter title about Manstein coming (and failing) to save the encircled 6th Army at Stalingrad. This time its PanzerArmee 3 encircled near Kiev in the snow. Again Rumanian forces on the flanks were pushed back to form the cauldron. Unlike then the encircled Germans are not surrounded by strong Soviet forces in contact that can destroy them. Can Rommel outdo Manstein and reach and save PanzerArmee 3.  Things get off to a good start with the Axis winning Initiative and then the Weather is Fine everywhere except Arctic. Fine Panzer blitzing weather! This is the situation at the start of the Turn. Rommel and his forces are in the West trying to break through to save the Germans surrnounded in the centre North. The Soviet garrison division was crushed by the German infantry. And then relative disaster for Rommel. A low roll meant that although the Soviet infantry army was destroyed the cost was that all the attacking units were...

 In the Production phase Germany has lost 3 resources from Sweden due to the mines blockading their route along the Norwegian coast. They also have to pay 3 build points to the minor Axis countries (on top of any build costs for their units) and 1 build points to convert rail lines and 1 build point for attrition on fighting such a big campaign (the Soviets will also get this cost). Italy is crying out for help after the Royal Navy shaved Mussolini's scalp by sailing up and down the Italian coast.  The Commonwealth after paying for units in production that need build points put a Lancaster, a Mosquito, Montgomery HQ (but taking 5 turns not 4), a pilot and the Long Range Desert Group (the forerunners of the SAS) amongst other units into production. The first anti sub warfare ship available has also been been begun to be built. Some excellent long range naval craft can wait till next Turn.  Germany decides to give Vichy oil and one extra oil to Italy and pressurises Vi...