VINCE: This game came down to the very last die roll on Turn, when the Axis LBA missed my Convoy in the Barents Sea. I've played over 500 WAS games since 1992 and this had to be longest-odds comeback I've ever had. I'd love to say it was my brilliant strategy but in reality the dice went crazy for me beginning on Turn 7.

First, you should know that on Turn 8, with 12 ASW I managed to removed all 5 of Mark's U-boats in the Barents, with the 5th removal occurring on the 12th and final shot. So if I had only had 11 ASW dice in that battle instead, then I'd have failed to control the area and lost the game).

So, in order for the Allies to win:
* First, the Allies had to sink 3 U-boats on T6.
* Even after doing that, it turns out all the Axis would have had to do to win the game was any one of the following:
1) Win one major area on Turn 7 or Turn 8
2) Sink just one ship on Turn 7 by any means
3) Break control of one sea area on Turn 8
4) Sink or disable the final convoy.

* But on Turn 7 the Axis failed to sink anything at all:
-- The Axis put 7 ships (128, 2x496, 3x225, 127) in the Barents against the Ark Royal, 6 BB, and 3 CA. All they had to do was sink one ship - any ship.
-- But, the Ark Royal disabled both 496s with its airstrikes. The 5 Axis airstrikes disabled 2 ships, but the only hit resulted in 1 damage point on a British cruiser.
-- British surface shots sank 4 of the 5 remaining Axis ships.
-- The Axis return volley of 7 bonus and 1 regular shot aimed at only the 3 cruisers, but failed to score even a single hit.
-- In its last gasp, the Graf Zeppelin whiffed on the damaged cruiser.
* So now the Allies had 48 ASW for T8, but in order to get a perfect 12 in each sea area, they had to speed roll the damaged cruiser from Russia into the North Sea; it passed.
* Then they had to remove all 5 U-boat which needed all 12 shots, or else 1 u-boat would have survived and provided the winning margin.
* And finally, the Axis airstrike counter missed the Convoy on Turn 8.

And all that for a 0.5 POC win!

Just the last 2 of those steps put the Allied odds of victory at only 20%, and when you combine all the rest, that's got to be way less than 1% chance of a win.