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1942, Summer – The Heady Days of Summer[/size]
As spring continues, the war progresses slowly. In Spain, the Allies continue to push back the combined might of Germany and Italy with a mere six armor divisions. I’m almost tempted to declare war on Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia just to force the Axis to pull some of these undersupplied troops out of Spain and get them being productive. The USSR’s only accomplishment so far has been to get Sinkiang into the Comintern. That’s ok by me.
Lhasa has survived a five month siege, but Allied troops are about to cut it off.
The Japanese had been doing a decent job holding in Burma, but they’ve lost Rangoon. I suspect those units to the east of Rangoon are going to be lost very soon, and I am in no position to try and bail them out after I’ve already done them favors in Taiwan and Okinawa.
As I review the situation, I decide to make what may be a game-ending gamble. The Axis is just not going to make any headway with what seems like 75% of their troops sitting unsupplied in Spain. I am going to declare war on Yugoslavia and Turkey so that the European Axis powers can get a land border into the Asian theatre and take some pressure off myself and Japan from the other side. Yugoslavia is extremely close to joining the Axis on its own, but the current drift is towards Allies and I don’t want to wait. The odd thing with Yugoslavia is, the diplomacy triangle says that it is being influenced by both the United States and Japan, even though they are not faction leaders. Yet, I don’t have an ‘influence’ option for them in the menu, so how is this being done? Either way, this will be a moot point soon as I see them standing in the way of victory.
The reason this is a gamble is that 1942 is almost halfway over and there is no Germany – USSR war as yet. I assume this worked out because the two countries don’t have a common border, but they will once the Axis take Turkey. If we end up fighting both the Allies and the Comintern, then I don’t know what will happen. But I really need to get closure in the Indian theatre if I am going to focus on Australia and the Japanese are clearly not going to give it to me.
1 May: I declare war on Yugoslavia. I have a couple of divisions I will send to reinforce Borneo against the British holed up in the north. My warships are keeping me going as expected but I have been consistently losing Transports so my total size for the fleet hasn’t expanded too much and is at a bit of a nadir at the moment. Another Transport is due on the 7th of May, and when it arrives, I will be in position to deliver an entire corps to Borneo.
I’ve also cleaned up my technology queue to try and focus more on a handful of items. I will stop getting artillery techs for a bit to work on Infantry and Supply techs.
10 May: Part of my evil scheme comes to fruition as German troops arrive at the Yugoslav border.
”Did somebody say… evil…?” – Mr. Evil
”That’s DOCTOR Evil. I didn’t spend six years in evil medical school to be called ‘mister’, thank you very much” – Dr. Evil
11 May: The US has made a landing at the Manchukuo border. Alright, now I’m a little worried.
15 May: Another corps arrives to support offensives in Borneo.
”We want you! We want you! We want you for a new recruit!” – The Village People
23 May: A British Carrier must be nearby, as CAGs arrive to blunt my offensive near Kuching.
The Germans are getting bogged down in the mountains of northwest Yugoslavia, but the Bulgars are moving up nicely from the southeast. The redirection of Bulgar troops has allowed the Greeks to push out from Athens. I think that’s fine, it will allow them to be more easily crushed when the Yugoslavs go down. The siege on Lhasa had been lifted for a few days, but a fresh one picks up.
26 May: Japanese volunteers make a landing near the only other British port on Borneo. It looks to be undefended. I’m losing tons of Convoys on the Vladivostok route, probably due to the presence of the USN on Iwo Jima and their captured Chinese port. I’m starting to think I should have sent that Japanese corps to retake Iwo and not sent it to Borneo. I sent several Japanese volunteers to Siam, but they are all stuck “waiting for fuel”. So, I decide to recall them back to Canton. I’ll use these guys to attack Iwo unless there is another fire to put out.
28 May: I win the battle of Kuching. Once I take that last British port to the northeast, I will evacuate the entire island. This could mean the British or Americans simply walk right back into it later, but I just don’t have enough Convoys remaining to keep this island supplied right now. My new goal is to attack Australia. Australia has 22 VPs and 79.5% national unity. Of these 22 VPs, 15 are on the main island while the rest are on New Guinea and the adjacent smaller islands. I’ll have to take 18 VPs to force surrender, so this means I am forced to split my attention between the main island and the lesser islands. I’ve seen a few Aussies around the world as expeditionary forces, but since they haven’t attacked me in Java I presume they either have incompetent leadership or haven’t built many ground forces. Or both, I suppose.
31 May: The invasion of Australia begins at the port of Darwin. My initial plan of attack is to guard this port and swing clockwise around the coast.
1 June: The last British port on Borneo falls into my hands. At this stage I am really feeling the lack of a navy. If I had enough to support two fleets, I could execute my main attacks with the first and use the second to haul a corps around the Indonesian archipelago picking off Allied ports one by one. While passing by I check out east Timor, it looks like the US has it decently defended. I still want to reduce this area to protect my supply lines to Australia. I wish I could have some kind of communication with my allies, if the Japanese could tell me they were working to sink Allied shipping in this area, I might feel confident attacking these guys under the assumption they were out of supply.
Up north, I notice that once again Lhasa has survived a siege, and once again, I have no troops there with enough organization to launch local counterattacks.
3 June: I capture Darwin and discover that is in an isolated pocket of infrastructure, thus, the only way for the Allies to recover it is by sea. Therefore I will abandon it and reposition farther east down the coast. I also notice that the US beachhead at Dagu has been eliminated. Who would have
[post=12545481]expected such competence from my allies[/post]?
5 June: Yet another attack commences on Lhasa. Only three things are sure in life: death, taxes, and attacks on Lhasa.
18 June: I’ve finally lost Lhasa. All my troops in this region are now being redeployed to Canton. I will leave a stack at Dali (in Yunnan’s old territory) to block further advances south. At least now, I should have fewer issues with supply shortages. In Europe, the Bulgars are at the gates of Beograd in the south while the Germans are at the gates of Zagreb in the north. Frankly, I expected this bit of fighting to be over much sooner.
24 June: After what feels like forever, my next attack on the Australian homeland commences.
“Ooooo! It just got interesting!” – Monica Geller
30 June: I make landings in Townsville to perform an envelopment of the local defenders.
6 July: As promised, I arrive at Timor to clean out Eisenhower (if he is still there). Take note that I am sending in Japanese divisions, not my own. I also don’t fail to notice that the Japanese have removed their garrison from the other half of the island, although a small Carrier fleet remains.
7 July: Yugoslavia surrenders and goes into exile, so I declare war on Turkey. My complex plan to get decent help in the Asian theater is nearly complete. But now I am at the dangerous part: allowing Germany to have a border with the USSR.
”Ah, my ridiculously circuitous plan is one-quarter complete” – Robot Devil
10 July: My scheme to get the Axis to pull some men out of Spain has finally borne some fruit:
13 July: I win the battle of Cairns in Australia, cutting off a Light Armor unit. If these guys realized I didn’t have any aircraft and pointed more of their guns at the ocean, they might have a more effective defense.
16 July: Portuguese Timor is back in Axis hands with nary a sign of Ike.
19 July: A horde, or perhaps a plethora, of Axis troops is en route to Turkey. Once these guys reach the Middle East the days of the UK being a thorn in my side should be over.
”Would you say I have a plethora of piñatas?” – El Guapo
30 July: Japanese volunteers land and seize Perth. And with that, I will wrap things up. The year 1941 had been pretty tedious to get through, but now that I have men moving forward somewhere things are getting a bit more exciting again!
”Celebrate good times, c’mon!” – Cool & The Gang