Risks
At the very start of gameplay the 30 convoys in production finished and were deployed to Venice. In Australia the French forces are turning back around to make their way from the interior to the captured ports. The navy is repaired and is on its way back to the mainland to ferry over more troops to Australia.
In Europe my efforts to organize things on the new border are still underway. The 2nd and 3rd armies are moved to the border and I am in the process of sending the individual divisions where they need to go.
While en route to the French naval base in India, the fleet came under attack several times but didn’t take any loses. In fact they managed to sink two transports and a destroyer. They arrived safely in India and are now on their way to Venice.
By July 8th the fleet arrived in Venice. The 1st Allied Army HQ and the 3rd Corps is loaded up and the fleet is sent to India. Back in Australia, the Japanese around Melbourne have been mopped up and the focus well be moved to the Japanese pocket around Sydney.
On August 1 the reinforcements arrived and are moving to help with the attacks at the Sydney pocket. Things were looking up in Australia but the Japanese decided to stop that. The Japanese are increasing their aggression across the entire Pacific. They have landed on the other side of Australia, at Perth with at least 5 divisions. New Zealand is about to fall and various French islands around the Pacific have been invaded. This kind of stuff isn’t my cup of tea; I do not like naval management. Not looking at starting an island hopping campaign either.
Rather is annoying that I get no help from the USA or UK. The Japanese AI is competent enough to take islands, why not the USA? I want to invade Japan ASAP to stop this nonsense. I considered pulling out of Australia at this point. In the end however, there wasn’t much point, I don’t have enough transports to attempt an invasion at this time.
In Europe, units are still moving up to the border and I do not believe there will be enough to cover the entire frontline. Going to see if I can scrape together some allied units to plug the whole.
A bright spot for France is research. I have the important tech finished for this period in time (army related, industrial, and air force) and can start on the Navy. Decided to select a few essential technologies, such as basing and fire control. In an attempt to save time the fleet will be based around destroyers and cruisers. I’d prefer carriers just like anyone else but it would be such a huge time investment. Plus once Japan is defeated I won’t need a navy.
Poland really helped things out with the OOB. They sent an army HQ with a skill level 4 leader and he is not an old guard! I already had enough allied divisions to form two allied corps but couldn’t fit them into the OOB because of the lack of French military leaders. This Polish HQ will be in charge of the 2nd Allied Army which is taking form now. The two previously mentioned corps, along with a third one from 1st armored army (was attached to the armor because of OOB restrictions) are added to the 2nd Allied Army for a total of 3 corps. There is enough other allied units scattered about to make a 4th corps. Will have to wait for transport first as the units are stuck in Africa at the moment. The new army should be able to close the holes along the border.
Twelve landing craft are put into production on August 21 in preparation for an attack against the Japanese mainland. The fighting in Australia continues. Allied forces in Sydney have the upper hand but it will take time to seize the port. Meanwhile, the Japanese are on the other end of Australia unopposed. The fleet is on its way back to the mainland to ferry more troops over.
Sydney is finally retaken on September 2nd this cut off the Japanese divisions in the interior. It was upsetting at first to deal with all these attacks in Australia but then I realized that the Japanese are just throwing away divisions so it works in my favor. The fleet has made it to Europe and is ready to transport troops. Before it is sent back with more divisions for Australia, there are 3 divisions stuck in Africa that will need transport back to Europe. There are just enough troops in my army to have 2 divisions on every border province. The 2nd Allied Army was not needed at the front so it will be a reserve force. Once I get more organized however, I will most likely take a French army off the line and put the 2nd Allied Army in its place. This will give me a veteran infantry army and the 1st Armored Army in reserve in case the Soviets decide to get cute.
The fleet arrives at its waypoint in India. I mistakenly just loaded the corps HQ and not the divisions, the fleet will have to back track and go get them. I’m finally building fresh divisions for the first time in years, mighty…militia divisions. Anticlimactic I know but they will free up some good divisions from rebel duty. Four militia divisions in all; one for Spain, one for Italy, and two for Germany.
I added 17 anti-tank brigades to production on October 4. In Australia the Japanese on the eastern end, near Sydney, are being mopped up. On the western end I’m redeploying troops to meet the threat.
December 5 saw the back of the Imperial Army, in Australia, broken. French reinforcements finally made it and have seized the last two ports that were in Japanese hands. There are 3 infantry corps now in Australia. One of them has just landed in the west and seized the ports while the other two are marching across to push the Japanese back. The USA has sent several divisions to Australia and they are thankfully being used to garrison the ports.
The militia divisions finished up on December 11 and were deployed. Greece has given France use of three of its infantry divisions. These will be added to the 2nd Allied Army. 160 IC is free and available to use at this point. Earlier in the game when Germany was still a kicking and I had spare IC but no manpower, I kind of went overboard. I built a ton of infrastructure and bases. A lot of that building finished and that is where the IC came from.
Played around a bit with production, seeing what I could build, paying attention to build time and manpower. So many things I’d like to do. I want some heavy armor, but a single division costs 60 IC! I checked out the tech screen to help me decide. France lost knowledge during the long period without much building from 1939 to the present. Construction practical is the exception and stands at a respectable 56. Air theory and partial for light aircraft is good too. Surprisingly automotive theory and practical is good. I don’t think I will construct tactical bombers now. They’d be nice but would take a long time to produce them in numbers that would make them useful.
63 brigades are needed to give all French infantry divisions 5 brigades each. Mainly going to go with AT with some Art mixed in. I decided on upgrading all motorized divisions into mechanized in the 1st Armored Army, this used up most of the IC which I didn’t expect.
The landing craft are about to finish so the fleet in the Pacific has been dispatched to the mainland to join with them. Things in Australia are going well; the Japanese have no ports and have yet to send any reinforcements.
Three infantry division are put into production. These divisions are needed to help reinforce the 2nd army. The Belgium Free Corps (which is attached to the 2nd Army) has performed excellent in the war against Germany but it has been permanently weakened due to some brigades being destroyed. I really hate to do this; my remaining military leaders are a precious commodity. But I don’t know if Belgium can reinforce its forces anymore. This will still make us two divisions short of a full corps, I will try and build two more divisions later when I have a clear picture of the OOB.
By January 1, 1945 the landing craft have already been combined with the French navy and will soon carry the rest of 1st Allied Army to Saigon in preparation for an invasion of the Japanese homelands.
What is left of the 1st Allied Army on the mainland of Europe is now safely in Vietnam along with the air force by January 19. The fleet is heading back home to pick up the 5th Army and transport it over to Vietnam. In production news, the 17 anti-tank brigades finished and were evenly distributed throughout the Army.
Have about 150 IC available and that means it’s time to make a major decision. I have to figure out now how I want to fight the USSR in a future war. In a perfect game I always enjoy the “break down the door and punch them in nose method” (I made that name up myself) which is to say just keep pushing them back and eventually you will annex them. Not able to do that here because of lack of manpower and I’m hesitant of the supply system. So it comes down to how I want to trap the Red Army by encirclement, a large one or a several smaller encirclements? I originally planned on attacking Turkey, and then once they were defeated immediately declare war on the USSR. Then land around Leningrad and do a huge encirclement. That however, is quite a grand plan and I do not believe I have the skill or resources to pull it off. Radar stations in the Middle East have revealed the Soviets have a sizeable force along the Turkish border so it isn’t unguarded as I thought it would be.
On a side note I love radar stations, wish I would have known earlier that they revealed enemy units.
Getting back on track, my current plan would call for encirclements but on a much smaller scale. So the choice is between adding some mechanized troops with TD and SArt or building heavy armor. Both have merit, build mechs for much needed speed and the ability to hold ground that the armor takes, or building some heavy tanks to ensure a breakthrough could be achieved. Both are really needed. I must be able to breakthrough Soviet lines when the time comes. On the other side of the coin the mechanized force needs to be bulked up so it can hold the line until infantry can be moved up. I big problem in the fight against Germany was the lack of motorized troops that could keep pace with the armor.
I went with a middle ground choice. Upgrading 6 armor brigades to heavy armor this will give me 3 heavy armored divisions. Two mechanized based divisions were added to production as well. This also had the side benefit of enlightening me to a mistake I’ve been making for a while. While I was putting together these mech divisions I noticed that TD slowed it down significantly. Looking at the technology tab I have been neglecting light armor tech. I thought anti-tank covered its upgrades but it is actually light armor that does. Hopefully this middle ground choice will do the trick. I do plan on building more mechanized divisions later on or upgrading existing forces.
Around March 15, I begin to toy with the idea of trying to land in Japan now. Best case scenario if I wait to build more naval units it would take the better part of a year. The entire 1st allied army and 5th army have arrived in the pacific and can be used. The problem is, the entire plan hinges on the Imperial Navy deciding not to show up at the landing. Interestingly in Australia my forces seem to be cut off from northern Australia. It would seem the Japanese did enough damage to the infrastructure on both coasts to separate north from south. Had to move my forces to a much more southern port which will increase the time it would take to send them to Japan if needed.
I decided to try and invade the mainland and risk the Imperial Fleet being none the wiser. I loaded up what I could. I wasn’t sure if they were full though so I moved the fleet out of port and ordered some divisions to move there. No sooner had this started than the Japanese attacked! It happened so fast and was so unexpected I never saw the strength of the attacking fleet, but I won. I assumed this fleet is going somewhere to repair so I would continue with the invasion as planned. Apparently I can’t make the leap from Saigon to Japan. Looking around the map there isn’t many options. The USA did invade the Philippines but they only managed to take a province or two and neither had a port. The British managed to lose Hong Kong (imagine that) but if it were retaken that should increase the navy’s reach enough to go to japan. It was easy enough, only a single garrison to defend it. The fleet was rebased and now within striking distance. The goal will be Nagasaki, as it is closest and there is another port close by. Taking two ports should ensure the invasion force has enough supplies to carry the fight to Tokyo.
Success! The French forces are able to seize two valuable ports in short order. I dared to hope that the port would be lighting defended but it was completely undefended. I’ll take it. The gamble has paid off and France now has a foothold in Japan. Over in Europe I noticed that my upgrading is finally finished, France now commands heavy armor! Not only that but they are up-to-date tech was. These mighty tanks were feared by French forces during the war with Germany. In fact whole offenses were planned just to destroy one heavy armored division and if it worked was celebrated as a great victory.
I will expand the foothold and call in more reinforcements. I expect Japan will fall shortly, at least the home islands. As I mentioned before with the control of the home islands taken from Japan, they are finished. This leaves the interesting question of what to do after the invasion is complete? Don’t think I’m getting too far ahead of myself as some units built now would not be finished for months. The remnants of the Empire of Japan will have to be dealt with. But I don’t consider them much after their homeland is taken. Regardless of their strength my next conquest will be their territory in China. There is valuable manpower there. I’m even considering going to war with Nationalist China to secure even more manpower, I’m sure my communist allies would love that. The French ground forces in the pacific will most likely stay there for the remainder of the game. They can take Vladivostok in a war with the USSR or at least harass them and force the Soviets to commit troops to the Far East.
I’m glad that I didn’t invest heavily into the navy now. Once Japan is finished they don’t really have a job. I will need to divide the navy. Transports will be needed in the Pacific for obvious reasons but in the event of war with the USSR I need a significant force in the Baltic for amphibious operations. Need to take a good look at the technology tab and decide if I want to keep current naval research going or cancel it outright.
Other things to consider are what to build with the currently available IC which is 134. Mechanized divisions are at the top of the list, maybe even some interceptors to ensure air supremacy. Haven’t had to worry about this in a while but the influx of new units has dropped my officer ratio it is currently at 97% and needs to be raised.
I think I will go out on a high note and this update has come to its conclusion. As always thanks for reading!
One last picture to give you a view of the size of the Red Army: