Chapter Forty-Two - Dipping Our Toe Into Fortress Europe
Alright, technically you don't dip your toe into a fortress, but you get the idea.
Looking at the victory conditions from last chapter, Canada's completion of the conquest of Northwest Africa scored an all-important Point in this year's House Cup. Canada's Gryffindor now leads with 3, Slytherine has one and ... Slytherine has two. Good thing those other guys didn't stick together, thank you, Adolf!
Canada tried raiding the Balkans, and as much fun as it would be to do the same thing with greater force, I'd really like the Allies to do something other than wait for historical D-Day, or worse, "Enforce Conquer" on Japan. So what to do?
I have to say that I really like defending across a strait. There's nothing like turning away 1.3 million-ish enemy forces with an army one tenth that size to make someone think "let's do that again!" So, we look around Europe for another island. England's taken. The Irish can't tell Hitler and Churchill apart, to their everlasting shame. Anyway, they aren't separated by a strait which the Germans can spectacularly fail to cross, which is what I want.
Why did we want to do this, again? Nothing like a quick reminder to help us recall.
Granted, eight to one is not as good as we could do or have done, considering 28,000 attackers fought 25,000 defenders. Also, it was more like 5-1 when you factor in air assaults, but it's far far better than we'd do across open ground. I don't want a fair fight. I want to win.
In reminders of our current troubles, We lost another two transports, and our Manpower is almost negative 22. Still, we decided that we're moving on up, to the eastside, to some de-luxe apartments in the England. If the Allies aren't willing to launch D-Day, we'll go on without them.
What do we want? A STRAIT! When do we want it? NOW!!! (unfortunately our chant then degraded into incoherence when we got thrown out of the park)
Frankly, I never paid that much attention to the contiguous-provinces list in Paradox games, and was seriously thinking I'd need to fire up HoI3 as Denmark to be absolutely certain of where I wanted to land. I'll have to remember these, as they tell me exactly what I wanted to know.
So if we set up in Slagelse, the Germans and other Axis must attack across a strait, and only one strait, if they forget they own transports, which I'm counting on. I'm also assuming the Danish capitol has decent port facilities, and non-massive defenses. While we were shipping men to England, our convoys lost eight transports and an escort. Sheesh.
But we did discover Coal Processing mark2, and completed our second fighter squadron.
Let's review the plusses and minuses of Denmark as an invasion point. Or should I say, allow me to show you that my plan is not as stupid as those of you who've played before might know that it is and I'm not a complete fool for trying it. What do we know?
1 - I cannot land on Europe to stay. So I could try a huge raid, but I'm risking all my forces for something I know I'm going to vacate later. Plus, it kind of depends on the USSR behaving sensibly, and it's just a semi-allied AI.
2 - I can land on Europe to stay so long as it's a part of Europe which isn't technically connected to the rest of Europe. Hmm, it just now occurred to me, is Denmark separated by a river rather than a strait, or are they the same thing? I mean, Messina to Italy proper in reality is a bit of open sea. Crossing a river sucks, but maybe it's less bad for the attackers? Hmm, too late now!
[I looked it up, crossing a river is definitely different and less bad than crossing a strait, but Messina is a strait and so are the relevant spots in Denmark]
Those are good reasons to attack Denmark, or at least the bits right around Copenhagen. I seriously thought about taking the neck of the country instead, but it's all flatland and riverless. I don't see a good defensive spot, nothing like a strait or river line. Still, what are the downsides?
3 - You thought air attacks by Italy were bad? How do you think attacking Germany a few hundred miles from the center of the country is going to go? Nevermind crossing the straits, what about flying over them?
4 - You thought fighting the Italian fleet was bad? How do you think attacking Germany a few hundred miles from the center of the country is going to go? Nevermind crossing the straits, what about sailing to them in the first place?
I'm kind of counting on being able to evacuate if things go south. I don't want Canada to become even more of a mere observer than she's destined to be when the US/UK land in Europe because I got my army wiped out in an ill-advised raid. I don't plan on my ships being there for long, dump and run, I've learned that much. I don't mind looking stupid, but I do try to avoid it. Hey, what's this?
SPOLIER ALERT - Admiral King is on a scenic trip around the Pacific Ocean. He takes everyone back to California in the end. In other news:
This will help, we put that back in the working part of the queue.
The Contentin peninsula. Not exactly original, but I figure I'll give the Allies a chance to get things started, then go on my own if they don't. If they do, well, I'll adjust as needed. Hey, what's this?
Apparently Nimitz accidentally ran aground while taking his scenic tour, and had to leave some soldiers behind! Meanwhile, the much more capable Admiral King safely arrived back in Disneyland.
We discover Operation Level Advance 3, reducing time between attacks by 72 hours. Obviously, God wants us to invade Denmark. Deus Vult!
The Italians are seen bombing a still-undefended Malta. Sorry guys, we're going to where we will not be able to hear you sing. Actually, we can hear them sing just fine: the defenders of Malta are in England, and so are we.
The upper left inset is all we've left on Sicily, and Africa is bare as well. The Persian division is strategically moving there. Our manpower, I'll sum up briefly instead of showing you, drops to negative ten, then jumps back to around nineteen. I still don't get this number. Meh. I guess the only number that I really need to know is Zero, which is how much manpower I can spend. I'm stocking up on Convoys and I put in an order for another spare port. We have one port and one airfield pre-built.
Our completion of the Light Cruiser British Columbia (British British Columbia? No! Canadian British Columbia!) is greeted by the sinking of seven more convoys and one escort. December 1942 is not a good month for Canadian shipping. Well, except all the ships being made now. In related news, we resume dumping on the British Navy.
Christmas 1942 brings serious plans in Canada (I think that this AAR is about to get seriously interesting or permanently boring), not a nibble in Normandy, and, could it be, Admiral King is on the attack?