Here is the full slate of Round 5 tournament games - all game results are now final and confirmed. (All results are listed in terms of the final POC total after the bid has been taken into account - this means the modified total may be greater than +10 POC if the player who lost the bid wins the game.)
Feel free to report your R5 game result and/or submit any comments or after-action reports about your game below. (As a reminder, the end-of-game reporting checklist is available on the homepage of this website.)
Write a comment
James Kramer Jr. (Monday, 21 September 2020 18:05)
Game 1: Jim Kramer (allies - bid 1.5 POC) VS Greg Hultgren (axis).
Playing the allies I decided to use Barents in 1 as a change of pace.
T1: Allied deployment - NA: Rodney, Nelson, QE. SA: 5 R-class BB, Eagle, Courageous. NS: Valiant, Warspite, Barham, Malaya, 2 CA, Glorious. Barents: Ark Royal, Hood, Repulse and Renown (both make speed), 6 CA. Axis deployment - MED: Italian fleet with 2 CA staying in port. NA: 3 U-boats. Barents: LBA and all 7 German ships with the Baltic not patrolled. Allied LBA score no hits in the MED. Allied NA ASW (3 shots) successfully stops the subs with 2 sunk and 1 disabled. In Barents air strikes Ark Royal disables Adm. Scheer and Lutzow and axis LBA disables Renown. In surface round 1 the Scharnhorst and Norfolk are sunk. The remaining 4 axis ships chose to retreat separately. In 3 rounds of pursuit the allies sink Graf Spee and Blucher while losing Hood and Devonshire. No other ships on either side suffered damage. POC for the turn was 4 to 2 allies with the game score at +2 allies.
T2: Allied deployment - NA: Exeter, Glorious, Courageous. SA: Eagle and 4 R-class BB. NS: Rodney, Nelson, Revenge, Valiant, Warspite, Barham, Malaya, Formidable. Barents: Ark Royal and 5 CA and making speed rolls KGV, Repulse, Renown and QE. POW failed it's speed roll. Axis deployment - The 2 subs go to the Baltic. The Italians deploy in the MED as for T1 and the German fleet (6 ships - BB, BC, 2 PB and 2 CA) again move to the Barents with the LBA. Allied LBA sink an Italian CA in the MED. Barents airstrikes sees Ark Royal sink Adm. Scheer with axis LBA hitting QE and Repulse but only for 1 damage each. The allies first round of surface combat puts 8 damage on Bismarck and disables Gneisenau and Adm. Hipper. Axis return fire sinks Repulse and disables QE. In addition KGV take a hit for 1 damage. With 7 allied ships (BB, BC, 5 CA) remaining facing 3 axis ships (damaged BB, PB, CA) and pursuit combat looming, Greg decided to give in to the dice gods leanings and conceded the game. The end of T2 again would have the allies add 2 POC to the game score. At best the German forces would not be able to challenge the allied forces again until turn 4 or 5. The allies could deploy the blockade for that and move convoys to England to slowly increase the game score.
I have diced others in WAS over the years and T1 of this game certainly qualifies as another example why "Dice at Sea" can apply to this game. Sorry about that Greg. I will simply accept my good luck this game and hope it continues as the tournament moves on.
Jim Kramer
Mircea Pauca (Wednesday, 23 September 2020 22:07)
Mircea Pauca (Axis) defeated Mike Pacheco (Allies, bid 1.5) by concession in Turn 5. It was the first time we played WAS for AREA before.
T1: Mike's Barents-in-1 (3BC,7CA,Ark in Barents but both 336 reached it, so it was deterrent enough) had a weaker North Atlantic (3BB,1CA) so my Germans fought them, sinking 2BB vs only disables. 2 cruisers remained at sea, one oiled, Blucher failed to Neutral (which was ok as 3U opened South Atlantic). Lutzow detached for 1 Baltic POC. Luftwaffe sank Repulse but RAF sank Fiume and Giulio Cesare. Axis 4 POC raw.
T2: The German mass concentrated to Barents after Renown failed a speed roll and 2 cruisers were held back for some reasons. 3 Allied vs 1 German sunk. Allies would have remained superior including slowed Prince of Wales, so Germans withdrew to fight better again and the 5 British cruisers didn't dare pursue the 4 Germans. Blucher took refuge in Med. 2U sunk by 4 ASW (!) but crippled Eagle in SATL. Allies gain back 1 PoC, total Axis 3 raw.
T3: Barents big battle again, 4 Allied vs 1 German sunk. Axis gains 1 PoC, total Axis 4 raw.
T4: Marat appears in Baltic, close blockades are strong. My Axis fight vs weaker NATL (7 Germans vs 2x553,117,016/2,convoy) and SATL (Blucher, 3 Italians, 3U vs 1BB,Eagle) and wins both while countering Marat with 2U. Sunk 6 Allies (including convoy2) vs 2 Germans. Stupid Italians forgot to order sailing to Med in time so gave up 2 POC needlessly. Even with Convoy1A unloading in Russia, Axis still gains 1 PoC, total Axis 5 raw. (so 6.5 POC after bid at this time)
T5: US release 2BB as reinforcements and Soviets ready Marat again. Allies still consider the situation hopeless.
Thanks to Mike Pacheco for the interesting game!