Remembering PRESTAGS

'The Principles of War' - interesting website

The Principles of War website - https://theprinciplesofwar.com/ 

Australian content and contributions

 

On the road again

After an awesome drive from Brisbane to Toowoomba, and back, I find myself pining for the open road again. This time my animal magnetism was overstretched, and I had neither man nor dog as companion. I did have a beast though!

Although it looks much the same as the Thrifty (best car hire firm ever!) beast, this one was noisy. I had forgotten how much noisy it makes. And Thirsty. For this journey, I used my entire quarter's fuel allowance for the Prius. Old tech, I suppose.

Spring was showing on the road with the wattles just starting to burst.

I stopped at a rest area and found some Rosellas and Grass Parrots enjoying a midday feed.

I had all these lenses in the car, but the trouble with those is by the time you have them all set up, the target has gone!

Just before jumping into the car again, I checked out the name of the reserve.

I can just image the Germans saying "There is a mad Aussie down there chucking grenades. Let's decamp." Thomas Derrick did inspire me though: next time I'm with my mates, I'll spend some time chucking grenades around.

Road Trip Stage One is a success, and Blust is in the Black.

Now I wonder if I will get a turn. The again, if John Michael Young wanted a turn, he had to invent a whole game. I just have to be patient, I suppose.

World at War - Operation Typhoon

I undertook a New Year's Resolution to write in this blog once a week. My resolution is clearly in tatters, but am I a quitter? If I fail, do I throw my hands in the air and curl into a ball? No!!! That is for the likes of Puti and The Chump. I grit my teeth so my tears do not impact my gasps and press on. Here is my February post!

World at War is a Strategy and Tactics offshoot that focuses solely on World War 2. Perhaps a bit boring at times, I took up the subscription last year after a stressful work project, it does contain a few gems.

Operation Typhoon is solitaire game of the final German advance on Moscow in 1941. As you advance towards Moscow, you roll a die to find our what is in each hex. The forest and clear hexes are easy with never more than two rifle divisions in a hex, but the cities and the fortresses are nasty.

The game requires you to form pockets and eat the Soviet army in bites. This was the dominant German doctrine at the time. You can see a pocket forming above. Stalin required all soviet units to break out of pockets. So when this pocket formed, the German 2nd Army faced a break out of 8 rifle divisions, 3 brigades and a Katusha rocket launcher. My units took some damage but held on. Closer to Moscow this is going to get nasty!

The counters are quite simple. All German units have the same movement according to their type. Soviet units just appear when the game system opts to hold a hex. Here are the best units on the map.

I am a quarter way across the map on my first turn. The Fuehrer will be pleased. What could go wrong?

Combat is simple. Each point gets a die roll, so the big Panzer division roll 7 dice each combat, and cause mayhem. I have found four die but I need to find more. While the sheer number of die rolls means you do not have Brendan Mahoney moments, it does make the game very noisy.

I'll have to finish the game quickly. Given what The Chump is up to, I might need to get the Iran solitaire game out quickly!

ATG game options

Whenever one of us falls on their sword, they must suggestion specifically how the next game will differ from the last. Which options will you change? Why? Do you expect it to make it harder or easier for the AI?

You must also specify how hard you want the AI to play and which powers we all should be:

We are allowed to try a mix of AI levels, so we have some truely comical experiences as well as some truely nasty ones!

What were they thinking?

2017 was a very good year for me at the office. I had successfully brought my Manila posting to the originally requested outcome and received my best bonus ever for my development work. I had also written a product that falls into the top five best products I have ever written - largely unsung at the time, it has become a major selling feature late last year. In recognition of my hard work, I knew a deserved a lovely piece of crockery in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the kitchen is brimming with lovely pieces of crockery such that they have overflowed into the dining room cupboards, which are also now full. This left me on the horns of a dilemma, so I had to go with my third option (the second being membership to the art gallery, but when would I find the time!), a subscription to everything coming out of Strategy and Tactics press, at an eye watering US$1000 for two years.

Reviewing it now, I think it was a good decision - I had many evenings of pleasant reading and some great maps and counters to review. From top to bottom:

• the venerable Strategy and Tactics, now up to issue #314,
• Modern War, that provides interesting insights into the current tensions of the world, mostly from a military perspective, which you rarely find the in the news
• World at War, which tries to be S&T but for only World War 2, so perhaps the least interesting of the set, but perhaps the most believable of the games
• Strategy and Tactics Quarterly, the new kid on the block, with a lot of articles on just one topic, no games, but a poster.

A feast of new games, and the anticipation of finding room in the attic for 18 more in 2019. I have failed in one respect, I have not punched the counters of any of them last year. I resolve to so this year. Let the readers of this auspicious blog pausing their eating and spider hunting to hold me so accountable.

The observant would ask why there is a gap? The answer is simple: if a US Civil War game arrives in your mail box, there is a board room I know of where it can be swapped for a Scotch, for some people simply cannot have enough US Civil War games!

And the winner is

I think the best read of them was the Quarterly of Caesar, and how a Roman of modest means, but the highest ambition, can break into the Cursus Honorum. (The article on that was fascinating - young aristocrats were expected to move from government post to post building up an understanding of how the Roman state worked until they reached the role of consul. It gave the state a large pool of experienced leaders to fall back on in times of emergency, and something to consume the energies of the young. The article went to far as to suggest that Rome's resilience during the second Carthaginian War was due to this.) The poster showed Caesar's marches during the Gallic Wars and the Civil war, and is on my wall.

The magazine about Stalingrad was a close second. I do not read a lot of WW2 history, but had heard of this one (and watched the excellent "Enemy at the Gates" with Spetz). Stalingrad was never the objective of the the drive into the Caucasus. The original plan was to get close enough so Germany artillery could interdict the railway and interfere with Stalin's transfer of troops and oil. One of the reasons given for the diversion was that Hitler had become a drug addict. There was a doctor for the German elite who used to mix his own remedies for the wealthy who felt they had lost their vim. These remedies contained stimulants and narcotics. Hitler had appointed him as a personal physician at the time, and soon developed an obsession that a capture of Stalingrad would equate to a defeat of  Stalin.

It was matched with a World at War article where you can attempt to replay the the campaign. You have all that lovely oil to the south and boring Stalingrad to the north. However, the action chits you have to pull each turn keeps pulling you south. I like the action chit idea as it adds a lot of colour to otherwise boring Panzer corps and Guard armies.

An honourable mention goes the World War 3 Quarterly for all the bits that happened when I was little that nearly resulted in me not growing big. I am still reading that one.

Puti-phobia

Puti features in two of the Modern War series. There is much interest in his possible future actions, but the general consensus is that he is more interested with disrupting the US Hegemony to create a series of Russian based alliances, than territorial acquisitions. There is more fear about these alliances backfiring and drawing Russia into a war they did not intend and the US into it. This game, Puti Moves South, looks at the Stans south of Russia and north of Persia and Afghanistan. There is oil and gas there that mostly travels through Russia so disruption to that supply could draw in the Russian army. Interestingly with this game, at the start of each game you roll a die for each power to decide whether it is in the Russian Coalition or US/NATO aligned. Every game would be very different. The latest Modern War, The War on Terror, does the same in the Middle East. It means that every play of the game would be quite different. I think this is one of the games I should set up.

Rise of the Solitaire games

Six of these games are solitaire. I should set up a few this year. I have played a couple in the past, but the issue is that there is no marvellously clever play you can make to give you the game. You are grinding through taking objectives that weaken the strength of the enemy play system, while having some flexibility for random events. That said, I should try them as some game systems are brilliant. Perhaps there is a new John Michael Young other there.

The most intriguing of the game is submarine warfare in the Pacific. Unlikely the Atlantic, submarines featured in navel battles. This game lets you play as the Japanese or the US.

Perhaps this article is better named "What was I thinking?" I stand deprived of a new piece of crockery in my kitchen by pure obsession!

 

Anzac Day 2018 - Canberra Dawn Service

Carl and I were just near the steps to the actual memorial entrance. A very large crowd. Took a few photos, only 3 near passable - in focus shots handheld in the dark are a challenge.

Very good addresses from the services chaplain and the retired army surgeon. Very good sermon from Fr Leung at Requiem Mass later on in the morning.

Looking South a few minutes before the start. all those big street lights were turned off for the event.

 

Kiwi flag at half mast.'

Last Post and Reville from top of memorial.

How to start with ATG - Turns 1-3

I have sent this to Paul twice in email, but given it is all about to be forgotten, I thought I would pop it up here for future reference.

Turn 1

 

1. You will be asked twice for a password. It can be anything.
2. Create 6 units by clicking  
3. Assign each to your main HQ by selecting it after each unit is created and clicking "tick"
   
   
   
4. Click the HQ and click transfer 
5. Transfer 10 rifle squads into each new units
   
   
   
6. Select each rifleman in turn and click move 
7. Move each in a different direction. (I am in a corner of the map so not all directions make sense for me)
   
   
   
8. Click on your capital city (under your HQ) Click the factory symbol on the far left 
9. Set your build points as follows
   
   
   
10. Click the arrow on the far right to save the game 
11. Email the file to Thygo
12. Ask Thygo or me any questions (SMS for fast response)

 

Turn 2

1. Transfer 1 horse team into each unit (it makes them more mobile)
   
   
   
2. Move the rifle units towards resources and cities
   
   
   
3. Create a new unit. Remember to assign it to your HQ. Put 30 engineer squads into there with 3 horse teams. Move it towards you first raw
   
   
   

 

Turn 3

When you get to a raw with an engineer, click the build button and then make sure you have enough supply, political points and engineering points (which you will), and click Build

Otherwise create another engineer unit (30 engineers + 3 horses) and move towards your next raw. Early in the game you need raw. Late in the game you need oil.

Your six rifle recon divisions should continue to explore. Do not get more than 5 hex away from a railway or it will starve.

Coolness of Advanced Tactics Gold

Ever wonder when the next turn is coming? If you buy Advanced Tactics Gold through Steam, and "friend" your other players, you get a popup when they start playing so you can get into position for the turn. You can even put Steam on your phone so you can keep tabs when away from the laptop so you know to be ready in 20 minutes!

The game itself takes some practice to get control of and a very long time to master. The AI is a brutal teacher, as Thygo is finding out!

Early in the game you have to explore and take neutrals. Sounds familiar?

Then you have to take on the AI. So far, just the same.

Then you get pasted! Yep, the AI is that good. The AI can really hurt you, even when fighting a two front war.

... even after it has lost its capital to your ally!

So who is ready to play a modern adaptation of Empire?

 

First thoughts on Civilization VI

I have had a three games of Civilization VI - twice on warlord level to learn the system and once at prince level to get more challenge. In summary, it is a much easier game to win at but very entertaining all the way to the end.

Easier to win at because I won each game. However, each victory was a cultural victory. At the easier levels, you get more wonders and all the culture from them pushes you over the line. In the chart below you can see I am leading on all metrics except religion - I failed to prioritise founding a religion early enough - but cuulture is half way full while the rest are fingernails (see how much the Sumerian circle is filled in from the bottom on each case.

While a victory is a victory, you do not get a high score for a cultural victory.

Taking cities remains super tricky in this invocation of Civilization. However, as none of the AI opponents bother to upgrade their armies, it becomes straight-forwards from the Napoleonic era onwards.

What makes the game quite captivating is how many things you can do. Unlike previous Civ game, not every city builds the same enhancements. You tweak you city towards what you want to achieve: Arts and Culture in the centre near you capital, and Industry and Military towards the border, where you need them. Notice below my capital is far from the border so has a Colosseum, a Forbidden palace, and Entertainment district and the Theatre district, but the obligatory Ziggurat (cos I'm Sumerian).

There are now two research charts - civics and science, but they cross over a lot. What is super cool is that to get a step up on a research project, you get a practical exercise. if you can do that, you cut the research time in half. Force example, if you win a battle with a slinger, you get a leg up on archer. If you build three musket armies, you get a leg up on rifling. You can't possibly get all the leg ups, but you find yourself desperately looking for iron to mine, or a space port to build at certain times of the game. These sub-projects are fun, and often get you into trouble, which make things interesting.

Tip for new players: If you enter a village, you can get a bonus leg up. The Sumerians treat every barbarian encampment as a village, and there are no shortage of those, so Sumerians are a good power for your first game. You build a mobile army early and wander around the map hunting barbarians to get leg ups!

Also note down the bottom you can see where you are relative to everyone else. The English (Victoria) are trailing badly, but me taking their capital did not help!

There are also other project you can get into. You can collect books, art, relics and curios for your libraries and museums. I did not do much this last game as I did not want to win a cultural victory too quickly.

I was annoyed at not having a religion, so took the capital of someone who did and proselytised for them, but the game did not pay that. I think it should. After all, who owns Jerusalem!

The end comes suddenly (for a cultural victory). You are just about to make you next attack when a movie starts. (One of many nice animated sequences in the game. I paricularly love the "construction of a wonder" sequence.)

The chart shows that I pretty much lead from the Medieval period. Time to try a higher level of difficulty. I don't need to sleep!

Hearts of Iron 4 - First play through

With the absence of EDEE turns for a week, I have had a chance to give Hearts of Iron 4 (hereafter HOI) mu first run through. It is not my first attempt, but the first time I have not had a "you cannot be serious" moment  where the game system did the unexpected (like if an ally declares war on another major power and you are not ready and let them have at it and you have some units in that power, they are all wiped out if overrun. This is particularly annoying if it your prized airforce!) It is probably my eighth attempt, so I have got good value from by $50 purchase.

I always play my first HOI scenarios are Germany as I am used to the timetable: build industry, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Low Countries, France, Yugoslavia, Greece then USSR. However, while this variant of HOI appears to let you follow it, it keeps changing things around a bit, which is quite entertaining. This time around I was just about ready to invade Poland, when USSR started before me. "Interesting!", I thought, "If I wait for a bit, Britain and France will declare war and defend Poland." Which they did!

See the little explosion on the eastern border of Poland. Those are Soviet attacks. Note all my boys on the border.

It got better, as Britain and France move nearly 100 divisions into Poland (through the Baltic Sea). Nothing makes me happier than seeing enemies fight each other!

Then my ally, Mussolini, got big for himself and declared war against Yugoslavia. I did not want this, but when the allies declared war on Italy, I decided to take the change and just leave them in Poland (I lost half my fleet patrolling the Baltic Sea, but with airpower I prevailed. I removed my good units from the Polish border and made some new armies to march south and clean up Yugoslavia. I then noticed that there were only a couple of divisions left on the Maginot line, so managed to overrun them without having to violate Belgian neutrality and soon I had France with Italy's help.

Note how the Allies are still fighting in Poland, poor fools.

I then settled down to build but a USSR killing force and flooded the sea with submarines.

Annoyingly, Britain talked Netherlands into attacking me, which gave me a scary week while the panzers got on a train and returned from the east. Submarine warfare is better in other HOI games; this one gives you no feedback on how much damage you are causing; throughout the game I never saw the impact of my wolf packs. They sunk quite a few convoys, but never all of them, and no clue as to whether I had enough subs of should have more.

Eventually I was ready to take on USSR. They had ignored our Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and not given me any of Poland, so I had no compunction in declaring war. HOI4 as a really fun battle plan system. While you can move units, you can also delineate fronts and plan thrust points that give you a rather cool looking WW2 style map.

See the two arrows coming out of eastern Hungary. That's Rommel. (I do not waste him in Africa!) I told him to go wide and try to pocket the whole USSR western front while the rest of my forces held them in place. Up close, you get nice 3D is sprites that do the fighting. They are cute, but I hate how hard it is to find a plane to know if your airforce is winning or losing.

At this level you can get tricky. See I have two main thrusts with 20 ish divisions each and one with just one division to confuse. Then you press play and watch! (Everyone now and then you get like Hitler did and tell one particular division to do somewhere interesting, otherwise you enjoy the show.) When things do not work, you adjust the thrusts or move key units between armies, but this worked like a dream. I bagged over 200 division in Poland, and had overrun USSR all the way to the Urals by snowfall. Stalin surrendered.

This left England, and the game became a bit wonky then. To invade Britain, I needed air superiority, so I told all my factories to make fighters, and challenge Churchill for the control of the channel.

See all the little battle reports. If you zoom the picture, you will see the planes dogfighting - pretty, but annoying after awhile.

Anyway, I failed. While I was building tanks to conquer USSR, Churchill had been building Spitfires. Lots a lots of Spitfires - about 5000 to my paltry 1200 Foch Wolfes. Fine, I thought, I research my Me262 Komet and jet them out of the sky. I sent half my army off to help Japan clean up India, China and south-east Asia and put my white coats up in the finest rooms in the Reichstag.

A year and a half later, the Axis owned the world expect the Americas, Australia and little Britain, I now had 2000 Me 262s. I tried again, and again failed. I do not know what the Bris had that would take out my jet airforce, Daleks?

I then tried Wunderwaffen. First V2s, but something shot them down. A Patriot System 50 years ahead of time? Then Paul's favourite tactic, an atomic bomb.

The news paper was preceded by a cool animation, but really the cool is getting all the steps right to make one and launch it. And then 5 more bombs in case Churchill thought I only had one. Not only it Britain not surrender, but they continued to shoot down my next generation of Jets.

So it is 1947, I have had a lot of fun, it is clearly an Axis victory, but I still do not have boots on the ground in Britain. I was about to build a carrier force so that I could control the sea and land anywhere in the British Isles, but even that might not work. Instead, I have stopped, written this blog and I think I will now play as Neville Chamberlain so I can see what a bit of stiff upper lip is like.

What did you guys get up to this boring week?

Nasty start

Kansas and I were defeated by the AI in ATG last night. He managed to increase his production out of our reach and we had to fold. In our next game (you get through ATG games quite quickly), I am China (blue, centre) and he is Russia (purple, north, and we are trying to deal with the Arabs (aqua, east) and the Japanese (brown, west). The Japanese attacked me right away, but fortunately the Arabs are quiet. I have the benefit of militia, so I am not fighting, just flooding the front with Militia and infiltrating everywhere (aka Chinese offensive in the Korean War). However, when the Arabs get involved, I will be in serious trouble!

Kansas in trouble again

I think Paul used to have a rule: "Never play Python when he has cavalry." He needs to explain that rule to Kansas. This attack has gone three times better than I expected. My plan was just to shell the city so that it stopped producing. I have now cut the supply lines to the city and if he does not have some off map reinforcements, it is going to fall.

What is clever about ATG is that capturing an enemy city does not make me much stronger as the enemy populace refuses to make weapons of war. Thus you do not steam roller in this game. I have done well because while the Chinese strength is militia, the Confederate strength is in rangers - elite infantry. I can turn any flank I want, but I can't hold against a human wave attack. However, if the human wave has no ammunition, I am in with a strong chance. And if they lose this much of their army, its good night Kansas.

In the south I tried an experiment of putting a smaller number of rangers into armoured cars. This lets me concentrate on a small part of the line and then pour reinforcements through. That has gone very well and Kansas will lose badly here if he chooses to defend the centre.

Who wants to give it a go?

Python Magnus Omnia Vincit

Kansas has capitulated in Advanced Tactics Gold (Empire on Steroids).

You guys should give this a go. It is fun, easy to play, loads of options that gives lots of opportunity for asymmetric strategies and you get through turns really fast.

There is even a YouTube for people who cannot read.

 

It costs US$30. Perfect for a friend's birthday present: http://store.steampowered.com/app/310390/

My Indulgence

Let me humour myself and greet the readers of this blog. They may recall a set of analysis articles I wrote just over a year ago on the Australian designed World in Flames. Well, I indulged myself last weekend during the anniversary of D-Day sale and purchased the digital version. They have tried to remain as true to the game as possible, and I have to admit that I am impressed.

There is no AI, and the map is a bit more dense, and you are less motivated to study the rules (vs just trying things), but you can get through a few turns every evening and it is quite compelling. There is no PBEM feature, but no matter as my friends are illiterate, and it would not work that way with constant back and fro during the turns (air intercept and escort, advance and retreat after combat etc.). There are a number of players on line looking for competitors, but I have too many gaming commitments right now, so I just relax with a glass of wine when there are no PBEM turns and do a turn or two of this ((playing both sides).

Above is the start of WW2, the invasion of Poland. You get the same beautiful counters with nice detail on what they are, but you never knock them all over or have to clean them up because company is coming over!

But you have the whole world and it fits on one desk!

Even the parts you will never play on

 

 

Sleepless nights start 11pm tonight!

First Experience of a "A World Divided"

Well as promised, I have had a look at "A World Divided", Thygo's choice for a PBEM. I think it would be a go-er.

Above you can see my second attempt at playing as Nazi Germany. (My second after reading the production rules, cos I totally stuffed those the first time around.) I have just formed Vichy France and have just found an unescorted convoy to attack. There has been a pro-Allied coup in Yugoslavia which troubles me greatly, but as it was announced with a cool video off the happy general who has deposed Prince Paul, I forgave it completely.

Combat is relatively straightforward - you move lots of your boys into their boys club house and roll a die. Well, although there actually are dice thrown in the game, you do not get to throw them, but you get told the bad news afterwards. (Note below that commander Brendan Mahoney was in charge of the air defence of the German infantry and could not do better than a two!)

The rules are complex on how combat is calculated, but it is inspired by scissor-paper-stone. Infantry is good against artillery which is good against armour which is good against infantry, and ditto for ships and planes. Getting certain combinations gives your bonuses, and I can see that this is where we will do a lot of learning as we play.

Your spies do help by giving your an overall view of what is happening to your entire armed services and your opponents:

You can see that with the Fall of France, although I took more losses in the battle above, I managed to destroy (second column) 25 infantry, 13 milita, 4 artillery, 3 flak, a fighter and two tactical bombers, although some of those were from Poland. The first column is interesting - these are damaged units. Effectively they lose a step, and then they run home and get repaired in the next production turn. So I can now see that for the first time in the game, the Wehrmacht is bigger than the allied forces:

(Well, except for the navy of course - the last row of air units represent carrier based aircraft.)

The second column in this display shows production, which is done as the standard spiral. Annoyingly, you do not just pay once to put a unit on the spiral and then happily wait for Christmas morning. You have to pay for it every turn it is on the spiral. This means that this turn, I will have to pause one of the goodies to pay for my various repairs.

You can see in window 1941 there is a paused armour and a heavy bomber. I think I have to pause the Bismark too, to get rid of the minus 1 next to the factory. The negative number next to the people symbol is not a problem (I think) as I have a big pool of young men willing to serve the fatherland. The little military icons at the bottom of each square shows when I would get something if I started building it now.

I can look at the value of each of my provinces from the province screen. Note that I have a bit of a partisan problem (right column) in Poland and the Low Countries, but as their race is inferior, it is not surprising that they do not know what is good for them.

The big trouble with this game is the huge number of options you have. If Paul were playing, it would be easier, I would just keep attacking him. As he is not, I am wonder what I need to do now to be able to deal with USSR and USA when they come knocking. So I am investing in my armed forces and in my airforce, so that I will at least be able to deal with the USSR.

As you can see, there are a lot more areas that I can research that I have the resources in research. The benefit of research is that it does not use manpower (in game terms) so once you have built your lot for the current recruiting pool, you put the rest into supplies and research. (Yes Paul, in this game you should buy supplies for your troops to fight with. However the game has a "ignore supplies" option just for you!)

Once interesting place you can spend your supplies on is intelligence and espionage.

The top row is your anti-espionage service, that keeps other spies at bay. Stalin's purge gives him a clear lead here. Next is the "SIGINT" rating, showing how much effort is going into knowing what the enemy will do, before they do it, giving you combat shifts. The remaining columns are just for espionage. Note Stalin's focus on what the Nazis are up to. These spies can steal research and can tell you what the other side is researching:

So what will I do next. Well, the great thing about the game rules (182 pages in PDF) is that 20 pages at the end is dedicated to what strategy each power might try. They suggest Germany can take Alexandria, if it really wants to, and if it does super research on torpedoes and subs, it can destroy the Western Alliance's shipping. Interesting.

This time, I am going to try my favourite WW2 Nazi strategy and take out Spain and then Gibraltar, to give me a Fascist Sea to play in. I look forward to Thygs coming on board so we can try different scenarios ourselves.

Back at the wargaming table!

Seeing Australia up close is quite an experience, but I am delighted to find myself back at my wargaming table!

Last time I was here I was previewing a WW2 strategic simulation called World in Flames. Paul asked why there was no Pacific theatre. Well, I have just set it up with just such a theatre.

Japan (red) has a big navy, a strong airforce and a high quality army. They are trying to force China (yellow) into a negotiated settlement on resources. However, the USA (dark green) is about to start giving aid to China in the form of aircraft, which will precipitate a collision in the future. at the present, however, Japan does not want this to appear like a war, so must keep its attacks down to 1-2 per turn.

However, with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, I know that Japan will do bring anyone else to the negotiating table with violence, so I will prepare them for a World War. Their strategy will be to stall the USA in the Pacific once hostilities start, try to take out China, and when Germany declares war on the USSR (brown), support it in the East. Only with the USSR out, can Japan survive the USA economy.

Meanwhile, on the connected map, WW2 begins.

Farewell to arms

Well, I have left my beloved wargame collection behind, and I am not even getting a turn to comfort me. Such is my woe.

Before I left though, I did manage a few more turns of World in Flames - up to the declaration of war by the USA. This is driven by a series of die rolls which adjust a default declaration date of mid 1942. For example, the declaration of Vichy France brought the date forward a turn. The escorting of British merchant men by American destroyers pushed it back. Thus you know its coming, but not when.

Anyway, back to 1941 and the fall of France. The following turn, Italy joined the war (on the Axis side). Different from history, Morocco and Algeria joined the free France, so the Italians launched a landing in Algeria to protect their possessions. There was a small British fleet based in Gibraltar and joined by a couple of Free French battleships guarding the coast. The Italian fleet sailed covered by naval air from both them and Germany. The fleets found each other (via a merciless system that could give either side a surprise advantage) but the Italian preponderance in the air let them settle it without surface contact.

The British drove off the first wave of bombers, but the second and third damaged the CV and two battleships, and sunk a number of destroyers and light cruisers.  The remainder of the Allied fleet retreated. With the East Mediterranean under control, the Italians could land a couple of corps on the Algerian coast.

The British responded with a large daylight bombing raid of Germany and France with fighter escort. The die rolls favour the Nazis this time with minor damage and more Allied planes down than defenders.

At the end of the turn, the Italians managed to destroy most of the British shipping through the Mediterranean, making it a bleak month for Churchill. The turn ended like this.

The build draws favoured the Allies, although the German build advantage was huge.

The next turn (and last turn of 1940), the British land in Morocco to support the Free French. Germany responds by attempting an outflank by invading Spain.

 

The Germans make some progress but the die rolls do not allow a quick victory and the Algerian front steadies.

The British try a different aerial tactic and throw everything a Dusseldorf. Losses are even, but the damage to German industry is light - the earlier charmed British die rolls are over!

Losses are even for the turn, although the Germans can better afford them.

Builds for the start of 1941 see newer models of planes appear

In two more turns (after winter) Spain falls. A really lucky Italian die roll in Algeria destroys the British HQ putting the line out of supply and unhinging the defense. To try to get back to history in 1941, the Germans invade Yugoslavia and Greece while the Russians invade Finland and Rumania. Neither make sense within the context of the game - giving advantage to the other side, but we are beginning to get far from history.

Germany is beginning to do well in Africa and against British shipping with their long range Condor bombers flying from Spain, so opt to leave USSR alone and just garrison the border. By the time it was time to leave for the trip, Gibraltar had fallen, as had Morocco and Algeria, Europe was mostly German, British bombing raids had moved to ineffective night raids, British merchantmen were a dying breed, and the eastern front looked very promising for another Blitzkrieg. However, it was September 1941 (a few months late) and the Day of Infamy had happened, so USA was riding to the rescue.

More in three months!

Game Review

I give this game lots of thumbs up. apart from needing a lot a space, the game plays well and smoothly, and some of the concepts feel really good. A turn takes about 30 minutes, but with only 6 a year, you can make a lot of progress in an evening. The counters are fun to use, particularly when you get a lucky pick. The combat systems are quite bloody - you need 3:1 odds for a land victory (2:1 if you have armour superiority) but also needs lots of reserves as an unlucky throw happens regularly. I never got a surface naval battle, but naval air is spectacularly effective and the system us convincing. The game will ultimately be won in the factory, but the odd great battles on land, in the air and on the sea are very compelling and feel like turning points.

Maybe we need to give this a go one boys weekend!

World in Flames - AAR - Part 2 - Fall of France

With the weather finally improved, in May 1940 the Battle of France commenced. It ran very much to history this time. Germany declared war on the Netherlands and Belgium taking the Allies by surprise. The Ju87's neutralised the defenders in the Low countries, (benefiting from the surprise).

Ground attack rules are simple and effective: You have to roll less than the half ground attack strength (on the button left corner of the bombers) rounded up, but not halved when you have surprise. This does not kill the defender, just disrupts them stopping any counter attack..

The German armour rolled through The Netherlands but the BEF reached Antwerp and Brussels first (fighting the previous war right this time). The French shifted defenders to the west. Note the German attackers have been disrupted by the attack, but general Manstein can flip them back up (flipping himself upside down to show he can do it only once).

The British respond by an air raid on the coal fields of Aachen. The escorting Spitfire manages to down the German interceptors (one of two serious air losses taken by the Germans this turn).

The Germans respond by an assault on Brussels, which hurts them more than it hurt the British. Next round though, they get clever and launch an armoured assault to the east between the BEF and the French with air support and paratroopers. The result was spectacular and unhinged the defence.

The French and British counter-attacked causing significant casualties in the invaders but were unable to the restore the line.

Then the unexpected happened: the turn ended. A turn has a number of impulses and you have to throw higher than the modified impulse rating to continue. To continue past the third impulse you had to not throw a 1 and that is what the Germans did. (It is quite an effective rule in general, as you do not know how far you can push your forces before the turn ends. Too hard and you are susceptible to counter-attack. Not hard enough and some units are unused.) How to interpret this odd event? I suggest that Hitler intervened to attempt to negotiate an early end to the war. The upshot was that the shattered Allies could recover and the French reinf0rcements had time to arrive.

The casualties at this point definitely favoured the allies, with some big units destroyed quite cheaply.

The French production was damaged by the loss of Lille. The Italians and British both got unlucky picks for fighters. This is the implication of the tea cups - you are not sure if what you get out of the factory is useful. Both these units will be scrapped upon production (ensuring they can never get picked again).

The next turn started with the Germans with the upper hand by the Allies able to counter attack. The Germans managed to win the initiative (another good system that means you are not sure who will go first each turn, but you can request a reroll if you have the ascendancy - you pay for it in the following roll. The Germans lost the first roll but went to the video referee and got the second roll.)

The Germans resumed with ground strikes against the Allies followed by an assault on the Rhiems and the Brussels pocket. The air forces where heavily engaged on both sides, but the bombers generally got through. The Germans took Rhiems but Brussels was a bloodbath.

The British responded bravely by landing two more corps in Dunkirk, putting their forces in Brussels back into supply. The French stripped troops of the Maginot line and counter-attacked towards Mons.

The Germans responded with a successful panzer action to Dunkirk and finally the Brussels salient surrendered.

With a ground strike preceding, the Germans finally entered Paris. Ahistorically, the French responded by abandoning the Maginot line and counter attacking. (French must surrender at the end of the turn where Paris falls and their armies mostly disband. In this game, there is no point holding onto the Maginot line in this case, but in reality, many French forts took months to surrender after Paris fell.) The attack caused casualties, but failed to dislodge the Germans.

The Germans stream through France as the turn comes to an end. Italy stays neutral for the present.

Casualties are high, but worth it for the Germans: They get most of the French resources next turn giving them 31 build points compared to British 18, the Soviet 8 and the Italian 4. (The British CV is not a casualty, it is on the resource track.) The Soviets will get more once they mobilise.

During the production phase, the Germans got two lucky draws - an SS Panzer Corp and a Fockwulf fighter squadron. The Russians were unlucky this time. The British had a mixed bag, but the elite Australian Corps will be very helpful in North Africa.

Next issue will be the operations in the Balkans and North Africa.

Related articles

World in Flames (5th Edition) - After Action Report - Part 1

Thought about Aircraft Carriers in Empire

Given the recent interesting twist in Empire where sentried battleships, cruisers and artillery take pot shots at anything entering their zone of control, I have been wondering what I can do with aircraft carriers. They are beginning to look at bit boring.

After all, they are meant to have an aerial escort to keep bombers off them, but any plane near them sits quietly while you fly past and knock them off.

Therefore, I would like to propose in the next game that each aircraft carrier be given an intrinsic fighter squadron which will attacks the first plane that comes near them in sentry mode, or can be used to attack the plane in move mode. Effectively, I will be giving an aircraft carrier the capabilities of an anti-air, with the exception that it can still fire if it moves, which makes sense when you consider that the fighters will be patrolling around vessel.

This means that to attack one, you will need at least a Midway tactic of one squadron to keep the patrols busy while the other one attacks the carrier.

Thoughts?

US Marines take on Wargamers - Who will win?

I found this article when checking on the next version of Hearts of Iron. Basically, the US marine college put together a team of students to manage the Allies at the Axis high water mark  (November 1942) playing Darkest Hour (the game I blogged about in May).

The gamers took very rational actions to simplify their (the Axis) position. The Axis successfully broke out of the Stalingrad pocket by sacrificing territory elsewhere (something Hitler did not allow), attempted to retreat out of Africa (failed) and shortened their front in China.

This gave them a strategic reserve to resume some offensives in 1943. Very cleverly, the Japan first used their reserve to outflank the British in Burma.

The cost was a few Chinese provinces and a defensive attitude in the Pacific - definitely worth it!

In the West, the Allies try to take the war into Europe by landing in Sardinia.

... but Germany ignores this and masses their forces in Southern Russia to knock out the Caucasus.

The Allies say fine, we'll take Italy then!

and the Axis said "fine - have it!"

At this point the Soviets panicked. They assumed the wargamers would stick mostly to the script!

What happened next was not history! I hope I have piqued your interest to:

1. Find out what happened next
2. Liberate $10 from the piggy bank

War-gamers rock!

War in Europe

Almost there...

How many day to go, Winnie?

Peace in our time!

Paul and I have agreed to the following:

1. Each will write no more than one climate change blog article per calendar month,
2. Each agrees to only make no more than one reference to climate change in our other blogs. These other articles will not include charts showing climate, temperatures, green house gas emissions or ice cores
3. Politicians remain fair game for any foolishish they choose to undertake/speak, but only one remark in our attack may reference climate change
4. Blogs to date are exempt except that they could towards the one blog for the month of July 2014
5. ThygoCanberra will unrelently attack whoever breaks this promise, and post more pictures of spiders, ducks and moons.

If at first you don't succeed...

I am at the end of a long journey. Many times I despaired, but then, on my dog walks a new strategy presented itself and I would try again, only to fail again. Twice I walked a way and promised not to try again, but both times I came back with a "What if" in my mind. Last night, I was crowned in laurels. Blood soaked and radioactive, but victory against the odds.

The journey began in February when between filling our resumes, I started up Darkest Hour and played as  Nazi Germany. I thought it would be a quick game as I had won the game a few times on the previous version, but I was in for a shock. For something different, I decided to focus on a Germany enmoured of naval power. I started in 1933 and built a fleet of aircraft carriers. By 1939, I had a small elite army and a big fleet. I wiped out Poland in normal time, but then came crashing halt in France. Unlike history, the French did not waste their time in the interwar years, but had built up a large army and causualties mounted. No problem, I thought, so I sailed my fleet out to out flank the French. It worked well and the army advanced again, but I had taken my eye off the fleet. Suddenly I found it engaged against the combined navy of the United Kingdom and France. It the end, I had two damaged carriers left of my fleet of 6, and my armies were being pushed back. So, I did what Hitler couldn't, I reset the game back to 1933.

This time the army got much more emphasis, and I had a smaller carrier fleet. Unfortunately, by early 1939 I ran out of my manpower reserve and had to mobilise. Mobilising in peace time is very expensive, and you cop a nasty disaffection rating from your people. Strikes in the factory, production in disarray, I had to reset again.

In the third attempt, I got the balance right and was rewarded with swift victories in Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Denmark, and Norway. Further I cut a good deal with Yugoslavia and Spain and brought them in. That meant I could take out Gibraltar. I then unleased my carrier fleet on the Atlantic and destroyed the British convoys. By avoiding naval battle, I kept the fleet intact and the British impoverished. I invaded USSR on schedule and wiped captured the Ukraine and occupied Poland quickly. Then I died. The USSR had a higher production than me by 20% before I invaded. They got a massive hit, perhaps from the Americans, and my spies told me their production was more than twice mine. My casualties mounted. Then an American carrier fleet wiped mine out, and I reset.

In the fourth and fifth attempts I tried to really build up my production before the war started, so I could match the Russians. I even tried invading Turkey to outflank the Middle East and start with a salient in Armenia to try to outflank the Russians. No joy.

At this point it occured to me that it might be a good idea to ignore the Russians for as long as possible. So around the 6th attempt (16 march according to my save games) went south and south east. I took out Iraq, Persia, India and all of Africa. This left me with oil and resources to spare, a starved England, but still not within coo-ee of Russian production yet. I settled down to a technology strategy, and built elite armour and air force and equiped every infantry division with a brigade of support artilery or armoured cars. I also began to research Nuclear Power with intent. By 1944, I was dealing well with the US and English incursions and strategic bombers when the USSR ruined the party and attacked. Without the element of surprise, I could not destroy their forward armies. When Romania and Hungary surrendered, I saw the writing on the wall and reset again.

At this point, I gave up for the first time. The game was biased! On a train trip homeI read up on other's tactics. They suggested that an invasion of England has possible through a "bug". While all their beaches are well defended, their isolated ports are not. So I reset and made sure that after France fell, I had a paratrooper division ready in Antwerp. I dropped it on the Hull and raced in with my transports. I got three corp ashore when a concerted British counterattack destroyed most of my transports. My main fleet was intact, but the transports were gone!

The next few resets I tried different fleet compositions. The best was a few carriers and a swarm of destroyers to screen. So around the 9th attempt, I had England out of the war, but Russia was still a cliff face. I then read another article the advocated a massive factory building program starting in 1933 and finishing after the 1936 Olympics. That meant that I could have industrial parity with USSR and make up the rest on tactics.

The eleventh attempt looked promising, but I failed to properly garrison the USSR front. They launched a surprise attack in Winter 1940 while I was occupied in South Africa, and again causualites mounted and I was losing.

So attempt 12. I started on the 14th of April my time or March 1933 game time. Massive factory building increased my initial production of 135 to 240. With the Anschluss of Austria, partition of Czechoslovak Republic and invasion of Poland, along with some good policy, the became 360 (top right corner).

France fell quickly and I moved on to Britain. My production was now nearing 600 but the soviets were massing.

 

This time Spain wanted no part of me, so I invaded their country to take out Gibraltar. (Canada had taken on the mantle of the United Kingdom at this point.)

 

The quiet USSR frontier looked like a WW1 Map:

 

All the while, I was invading darkest Africa. It was November 1941 (or 20 April my time).

 

My fleet and submarines were patrolling the Atlantic to stop reinforcements:

 

And Erwin Rommel was having a rumble in the jungle:

 

I waited until May 1943 before taking on the USSR. My production was nearly 600:

 

Their's was a hundred less and still to spike:

 

But I had a lot of armour and and surprise. By June 1943 I was in Stalingrad, Leningrad and approaching Moscow:

 

The Soviet production was collapsing along with army and they surrendered two months later:

 

In 1944, I began to think about USA. Although my production was now a healthy 490 raised to 680 by good policy, theirs was 590 in peace time. It jumped to 800 when I declared war. Then I was very impressed to find that the Italians had snuck an invasion force into Newfoundland, so I raced over with my army. However, on the second crossing, I lost most of my transports so a clever Canadian counterattack. Fortunately, I had enough to force Canada out of the war. A few years later I had rebuilt the fleet and got a large fully mechanised force over.

 

I tried my hand in 1947 and crashed into a massive game bug. My convoys would not supply an Italian holding. The automated convoy builder had created a massive convoy between Caen and Exeter (in England), and thought that was good enough. Within a day of fighting, my forces were unsupplied and within a week retreating everywhere.

Rather than resetting, I quit and went back to the save game. (Well, it was a bug. Just don't mention the bug above that gave me Britain.) I found that one of my conquests had granted me French Guyana, so over the next 18 months I ferried my entire army there. I then began another rumble in the jungle and worked my way up to Mexico. (Crazy game. Each country took no action until I declared war on it, so I only fought one at the time.) By late 1948 I was on the Mexican border, fully supplied and ready for fun.

 

What's more, I had all turbojet bombers, which was cool!

 

Bt winter that year, USA surrendered, although it was a tough fight and I took surpising casualties. That just left Australia and New Zealand, but at this point it was over. What is more, I had two nukes.

 

So I tried to Hiroshima approach. I asked politely for a surrender and was told no. I then nuked Sydney and Auckland and asked again. (Hey, this is the Nazis. They don't have a conscience.) The stupid game said no again, so I had to sail an invasion force all the way to Nouvelle Caledonie. (I am unsure again how I got that.) I then had to fight a one sided battle across both islands. To my surprise I found the remains of the UK fleet in Melbourne, so we had a big naval battle to finish. I lost a few carriers, but I had them coming our my ears at that point of the game so did not care.

Then I expected a screen to pop up saying you win, but no. Nepal was holding out. I begged the British Raj (they went neutral when Britain fell), but  they refused me passage. I had ICBM at this point with Hydrogen Bombs, so I launched those and hit another bug. ICBM do not fly over neutral countries. I told the game I was the Nazis and didn't care about other's neutrality, but it told me it did not care either - neutral was neutral - and if I didn't like it, I could guess what to do. So I launched a final invasion of India to get at Nepal. As soon as I declared war, I heard four big explosions as four ICBM hit Nepal. I had forgotten about them and as soon as India was no longer neutral, they launched. Well, you can imagine the rest. Armour across India finishing with a final rumble in the jungles of Burma. And an enormous sense of accomplishment (and not bad value for a $10 computer game).

 

Pale blue india shows that I gifted that to Bulgaria to administer

 

USA split into the Northern states, Confederacy, Texas and California after the surrender.

 

Australia with a boat people problem.

So now I can finally rest, or do I need to go back a try without the paradrop in Hull bug?

Oh, and a final summation. Praise God Hitler did not have a retry and stuffed his one shot!

ANZAC Day 2014

I remembered in Canberra.

 

Blessed are the war-mongers?

There was an interesting article in this week's New Scientist arguing that war makes us peaceful....

The key premis of the article was the comparison of skeletons from differing time periods to currently recorded death rates from violence. In the New Stone Age, evidence of violent death appears in 10-20% of remains. This drops down to about 2% during the period of ancient empires and then back to 3-5 % during the barbarian invasions and collapse of empires. It came back to 2% when the Europeans began the process of exporting gun powder based war around the world. In the last century, 100 million people died in the two World Wars. That came out of be 1.5% of the population. This century the rate is 0.7% and dropping.

The article proposes that during the times of most lawlessness (New Stone Age and Barbarian invasions), if you had a grudge with your neighbour, you went out and killed him to ensure things did not get further out of hand. Certainly reading the Penteteuch seems to match that view. However, when empires formed, the elite gained little from killing the conquered, preferring instead to live off their labour. Thus successful states "pacified" the conquered, forcing them to life within the rule of law and policing them to comply.

So perhaps the ultimate role of wars is to end war.... The propagandist of WW I did not get it too wrong!

Yet another WW2 S&T magazine

I really do have enough of these, but the following one will be the Peleponesian War that I studied for the HSC, so I am looking forward to that one. Despite my low interest in WW2 and the sad pictures of Russian and German boys trying to kill each other in the snow, it does cover an intriguing point in the war where the advantage began to swing towards the Soviets, and so highlights the different strategies used by each side.

It also has an interesting article on a war between the Byzantines and the Rus from 971 AD.

The Indonesian Strategies

Yes, SBY does have a nuke strategy.

However, his real strategy is the Luftwaffe strategy. He concentrates waves of bombers at the primary conflict zones and blasts his way through, with transports not far behind. This is actually a good strategy, which also makes a counterattack very difficult because he has air superiority. The downside is that so many bombers in one place means that other fronts do not have much air cover.

Some of the above bombers are actually stacked, so there are even more than it appears. To date this strategy is beating me in our main area of conflict. 

And check this out, SBY really does look a lot like Hermann Goering.

Remembrance Day

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872–1918)

Australia is covered with war memorials, most in remembrance of the First World War and the Second World War. In a Burwood park next to one of the main shopping centres near my home is a war memorial that was opened on Remembrance Day 1922. That is 91 years ago. This memorial now remembers 9 wars up to Vietnam.

Even on my own street, a few minutes walk from my house, is a row of olive trees that is actually a war memorial to the Rats of Tobruk. Most people would drive past these trees without realising what they signify.

I remember.

Known Unto God

One of the first things Tony Abbott's new government did has not received much publicity, although it was an excellent decision.

In the dying days of the former labor government, the governing council of the Australian War Memorial (led by the War Memorial's director, former liberal leader Brendan Nelson) decided to remove the words "Known Unto God" from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. These words were to be replaced with words from a speech by former labor prime minister Paul Keating: "He is one of them, and he is all of us".

Our new prime minister Tony Abbott, and the new Veterans' Affairs Minister Senator Michael Ronaldson, intervened and there will now be no change to "Known Unto God".

I would like to see Brendan Nelson and every member of the council that attempted to remove the reference to God sacked immediately. I have had an absolute gutful of the political correctness (which is a tool of the evil that never sleeps) editing out God at every opportunity, and even creeping into sacred places like the War Memorial.

The stupidity of this whole episode is that the words "Known Unto God" were written by Rudyard Kipling and chosen by the generation of diggers themselves. Although the words were added in 1999 these are the words the diggers had placed on thousands of crosses around the world to mark the graves of their comrades who were unable to be identified.

The Australian War Memorial exists through the efforts of First World War veterans and their vision of how to remember their mates: "Here is their spirit, in the heart of the land they loved; and here we guard the record which they themselves made" (Charles Bean, 1st World War Official Historian). Precisely. Who are we in our modern corrupt pathetic society of 2013 to change the way the war veterans themselves want to be remembered.

I agree with radio broadcaster Michael Smith's view about the current governing council: "The people who made the plan to remove the historical words used by our diggers are vandals. They have no place as stewards of our most sacred national memorial".

I grew up in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and one of my favourite places was, and still is, the Australian War Memorial. These days the ACT is a hotbed of leftist extremism, perversion and social engineering. The War Memorial has had a narrow escape, although no doubt the God haters will be back. Perhaps they will try and remove actual items from the War Memorial that offend their evil master, such as the Long Tan Cross.

I have never had much time for Paul Keating, and his words have no place in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Hall of Remembrance. However, Keating did use words in parliament once that I believe are a good description of the vandals and anti Christians that wage a continuous assault on our nation: "Scumbags of dog's vomit; sleazebags of pigswill; maggot-infested buckets of pus; crims; grubs; boudoir bandicoots; box-heads; liars; lice; maggots; in and out of a cat's arse; like a dog returning to it's vomit". Yes, that was our former prime minister speaking. He had a turn of phrase, but was not Rudyard Kipling.

 

Guardian Angels

Today is the Feast Day of the Guardian Angels.

The tragedy of war has many ripples. During World War II over 300,000 soldiers were trained at Camp Swift near Bastrop in Texas. The camp was built in 1942 to accomodate 44,000 troops and reached a maximum strength of 90,000 troops. Camp Swift included at times the 95th, 97th and 102nd infantry divisions, the 10th mountain division and the 116th and 120th tank destroyer battalions.

Lots of wives travelled to Bastrop to be near their husbands, and some of these women lost babies and were too poor to arrange a funeral and burial. Many of these babies ended up being buried for free in space donated in the Fairview Cemetery. Because most of these mothers returned to their hometowns these graves were abandoned and the children buried at Fairview remain nameless. A guardian angel statue was erected to watch over these forgotten babies.

I wonder how many fathers of these babies also lie in a nameless grave,  in forgotten battlefields in Europe and the Pacific. And without a statue of a guardian angel to mark their resting place.

See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

    (Matthew 18.10)

For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways.

    (Psalms 90.11)

Pound for Pound

I absolutely refuse to believe, in ANY battle, ANYWHERE, and at ANY time, that the worst Australian unit was not better than the best British unit.

Therefore these counters are wrong:

And don't get me started on the quality of generals.

Moving Images of War: Cologne Cathedral 1945

There is a calendar near my computer, and the image for June 2013 is very moving:

Mass in the bombed ruins of Cologne Cathedral. This photograph speaks of so many things: war and destruction, faith and hope, dignity and respect, death and life, sacrifice and eternal salvation. The Americans captured Cologne on 6 March 1945. I really hope all these soldiers survived the balance of the war.

The Allies bombed Cologne (the Germans call it Koln) 262 times, and intensely from October 1942 until March 1945. This bombing included "Operation Millennium" which was the first 1,000 bomber raid, taking place on 30/31 May 1942 using 1,047  aircraft and over 3 million kg of ordnance. By October 1944 the city of Cologne was in ruins and the population had been reduced by 95%. However, the spires of the bombed cathedral still rose above the rubble.

  

Cologne Cathedral had taken over 600 years to build, commencing in 1248 and finishing in 1880. The eastern arm of the cathedral was consecrated in 1322. In the period 1880-1890 Cologne Cathedral was the tallest building in the world.

The cathedral is dedicated to St Peter and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and these patrons are showed on a stained glass window in the cathedral, pictured to the left.

Cologne was founded by the Romans in 50 AD, and was the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior until occupied by the Franks in 462. One of the side effects of the destruction of the city in the Second World War was the discovery of a range of Roman ruins that had been buried under the city for almost two thousand years.

Cologne Cathedral was repaired after the war, and these repairs were completed in 1956. In 1996 the cathedral was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List of culturally important sites.

On 18 August 2005 Pope Benedict XVI visited the cathedral during his apostolic visit to Germany as part of World Youth Day 2005 festivities. It is estimated that one million pilgrims visited the cathedral during this time. The spires of Cologne Cathedral continue to mark the city's skyline.