A Creek without a Paddle - Gotterdammerung, Germany 1944.

[Remble]

Fulcrumvale - End of September is a nice round date. Hopefully earlier though. Once they start going backwards there won't be any more sitzkriegs on the Western Front. They either die or Model gets the sack.

Ksim3000 - Fully fleshed out Wehrmacht divisions is more or less why I defended as I did. The Allies may look stalled but if they really want to push an area its going to hurt. Dunkurque was assaulted from Calais, purely a land attack.

Nathan Madien - There are a couple reasons for Aland. Firstly I am considering removing Himmler and replacing him with a manpower minister. Secondly, remember those bugged Finnish units? There were 9 of them

[Remble]

A Time to Die
2

0700 August 20th 1944.
Warsaw, Poland.

General Jacob's 4. Panzerarmee is ordered to retake Warsaw.

0800 August 20th 1944.
The skies above France.

Air combat resumes over France.

Air Generals Bulowius and Kesselring inflict heavy casualties on Allied ground troops.

A minor counter attack against Cholet is easily beaten back.

1200 August 20th 1944.
Cholet, France.

General Friessner assaults Nantes after retaking Cholet. He would succeed in crossing the Loire.

2000 August 20th 1944.
The skies above France.

The Luftwaffe's fighter wings hand out more punishment.

0400 August 21st 1944.
IV. Korps Headquarters. Lublin, Poland.

Von Manstein had things more or less under control for now.

To maintain his position he orders more counter attacks in Zamosc and Stryj to halt any Soviet build up. He decided now was not quite the right time to advance.

0800 August 21st 1944.
VII. Armeekorps Headquarters. Paris, France.

Model continued to turn the heat up on the Allies.

A major assault was launched at Amiens. This would relieve a lot of pressure from Lille and the surrounding areas if successful.

OKH and 16. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division would advance together to occupy Amiens and Model's VII. Armeekorps would provide support.

The assault would continue overnight and into the next day with more and more Allied troops coming to Amiens defence.

At 0200 on August 22nd Eisenhower tried again for Paris.

His assault would fail once again but Model had no choice but to call off the assault on Amiens.

General Friessner was still advancing into Nantes despite more Allied troops arriving in its defence. He would win regardless of these new forces.

On the Eastern Front the battle for Zamosc entered its third day. General Konev had arrived in the southern sector of the Front.

1400 August 22nd 1944.
OKW Headquarters. Lille, France.

General Steiner knew he would be attacked he just didn't know when.

Now he knew when and he also knew who. Bradley had shown up at long last. He would hold his position largely due to the weakened forces in Amiens from Model's earlier attack.

2300 August 23rd 1944.
IV. Armeekorps Headquarters. Lublin, Poland.

Von Bock had asked von Manstein for assistance in Zamosc as more and more Soviets troops were arriving making his assault drag on far too long.

Von Manstein added both his own IV. Armeekorps to the attack as well as Guderian's Heeresgruppe Mitte also based in Lublin. Zukov had taken over from Konev on the Soviet side.

He also ordered another assault on Stryj as Soviet forces were building there once again.

Both attacks would result in German victory, the costs were beginning to mount for von Manstein's forces though, in particular von Bock's 1. Panzerarmee.

[jamo]

Hi this is a great AAR.

Im really sucked in and enjoy following it more than I enjoy playing!

Some queries?

Do you find a disadvantage having only one HQ on the Western Front?

I would have thought putting a MP security minister in charge at the start would have been one of you priorities. Similar for an interceptor air minister. Was the dissent jump too high?

If you went for the jet bomber tech at the start -with the blueprint- wouldn't that have made upgrading your bombers a lot quicker?

How is Norway and your subs going?

Great stuff!

[Kurt_Steiner]

Abotu one of your comments. How is the reinforcements-casualties rate going? Are you getting short of men? I hope not.

[Fernando Torres]

Do it, do it, do it! Push the allies to the sea!!

[Remble]

jamo - Thank you, I am glad you are enjoying it

Very few attacks if any of mine have gone above command limit which would need a HQ. Most corps have Generals or above so with the limited stacks its fine.

Dissent is the main reason I only changed one. Winter is a better time to switch ministers.

I had blueprints for both TAC and INT jets. I went with Ints because I prefer air superiority over more modern bombers. Plus the Ints have to upgrade through special Int techs.

Norway is fine. 4 divisions in Narvik await the Soviets who haven't taken Hammerfest yet. Subs are convoy raiding off Gibraltar.

Kurt_Steiner - The 150 manpower one I expect. That was 150 casualties in my divisions. So its no more than 15 actual manpower excluding trickleback if its even that much. I have 190 manpower and only need 5 to reinforce everything. Its ok for now.

Fernando Torres - But of course

[mlepkows]

I've just loked again into the HOI2 AAR forums (which I left for EU3) and found this great AAR. I wait eagerly for further updates.

Maciek

[Nathan Madien]

You are getting closer to the English Channel. Just keep steady and Eisenhower will be swimming soon enough.

[Fulcrumvale]

Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!

ahem. At any rate throwing the allies into the channel will be a great accomplishment (especially since the AI is utterly incapable of leaving transports floating in the channel).

[Leumatiello]

With the Luftwaffe in action, the allies have no chance in France.

[jamo]

Good luck Remble!

BTW do you have anything guarding the northern coasts or does the AI not land there once its committed in Normandy?

Have you found the need to keep interceptors deep inside Germany to deal with strategic bombers?

How are your bombers operating without getting chopped up? are they going in at night?

Do you think its a good idea to start up grading the other 2 fighters to jets at the start?

[Remble]

mlepkows - Welcome and thank you

Nathan Madien - I suspect you may be correct.

Fulcrumvale - Actually the AI is capable of evacuating to transports. Not very well most of the time but it does do it.

Leumatiello - Fortunately for the Allies its only 4 bombers wings. Devastating enough though.

jamo - Thank you.

I have a couple of infantry in Amsterdam and Leewarden. Nothing else in the North. The Allies have invaded the South of France once and tried Bordeaux once. Nothing in the north yet. The large invasion of France is probably why they don't feel the need to invade in the north.

The Allies are operating strats over Germany occasionally. A lot get intercepted over Belgium though. They aren't doing much damage and my fighters are needed more over France.

My bombers are operating in two areas. Brittany and Pas De Calais. Both areas have a minimum of 7 fighters/interceptors flying air superiority. The fighters are keeping Allied aircraft away making it fairly safe. I also retreat my bombers if they do happen to bump into enemy fighters as soon as possible to avoid much damage.

I don't start upgrading anything at the start. Reinforcements are more important to a severly depleted army and airforce. It would be nice to have upgraded interceptors immediately, but there is little point upgrading a squadron thats at less than half strength.

[Remble]

A Time to Die
3

0500 August 25th 1944.
Gulf of Morocco.

Grand Admiral Marschall continues to harass Allied shipping.

This time it would be French convoys.

Guderian receives reports from the quieter areas of Europe.

Bulgaria had set up defences in Greece. Field Marshall Dietl was dug in in Narvik awaiting the Red Army.

0700 August 25th 1944.
IV. Korps Headquarters. Lublin, Poland.

Von Manstein orders another disruptive attack on Stryj to prevent Soviet build up.

General Geyr von Schweppenburg leads the successfull assault with III. Panzerkorps.

1200 August 25th 1944.
The skies above France.

Luftwaffe bombers continue to inflict damage on Allied ground forces.

0400 August 26th 1944.
VII. Armeekorps Headquarters. Paris, France.

Reports from OKW indicated Bradley had started an assault on Lille attacking from Amiens. Model had been waiting for this opportunity.

At 0500 he ordered an all out assault on Amiens to further reduce the Allied pocket.

He supported the assault with VII. Panzerkorps with OKH and 16. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division set to advance into Amiens.

Bradley had been caught in a trap and six hours after the trap had been sprung he was retreating.

Model's plan was coming together well. Now he just had to slice the Allies in two.

1800 August 26th 1944.
Nantes, France.

An Allied counter attack in Nantes against General Friessner gave him no choice but to withdraw back to Cholet.

He would be joined in Cholet by Volckamer von Kirch's paratroopers arriving from Le Mans.

[Fulcrumvale]

KILL!

[Ksim3000]

Ah-ha, as soon as I came on, I had another two updates awaiting me. To that I say "Yay! Yippppeeee! Go on Herr Remble and trounce the Allied invasion into the sea!"

Just kidding but on a more serious tone now, the manpower situation does indeed concern me. Using an MP minister could indeed boost manpower quicker although that indeed could be your downfall (like Germany in real life)

I'm glad about the situation of the Luftwaffe although the Kriegsmarine I haven't been as impressed with. Still, 14 transports down is a victory in itself. Raiding off the coast of Gibraltar, though.....in reality, that was a very frightening strait to pass. The Allies certainly seem very lax in that area.

Still, the situation in France seems winnable although the Eastern Front I do feel would ultimately end in failure. Too many Soviet divisions.

You could create an event or something which fires for a "cease-fire" should either side fail to ultimately break through. I read that in 1942, even Hitler himself viewed the war on the Eastern Front as being unwinnable and that some sort of cease-fire would have been the only possible best outcome, along with territorial concessions, obviously.

I believe there is a minister that increases organisation reform and one that hastens speed. I am not sure who you have in but one such minister could be beneficial......I recall it is the one of the selectable Chief of Staff ministers. I think Heinrich Himmler was the organisation or something minister.

Also, why move the Finnish divisions to the island for? You could definately find a better use for them, unless you plan on opening up a later front in Finland.....

Personally, I would spare some for the possible Norweigan front myself and reinforce Narvik with some of those extra divisions. But that is just me.

Anyway, a long post but once again, enjoying the campaign greatly and following it with more and more interest each new post.

[Remble]

Ah-ha, as soon as I came on, I had another two updates awaiting me. To that I say "Yay! Yippppeeee! Go on Herr Remble and trounce the Allied invasion into the sea!"

Just kidding but on a more serious tone now, the manpower situation does indeed concern me. Using an MP minister could indeed boost manpower quicker although that indeed could be your downfall (like Germany in real life)

Manpower is always a concern as Germany. Chief of Staff Heinz Guderian is the best manpower minister there is at 25% bonus.

I'm glad about the situation of the Luftwaffe although the Kriegsmarine I haven't been as impressed with. Still, 14 transports down is a victory in itself. Raiding off the coast of Gibraltar, though.....in reality, that was a very frightening strait to pass. The Allies certainly seem very lax in that area.

The Kriegsmarine is not in very good shape in 1944. The surface fleet is all but useless as there aren't any CV's or CVL's. Germany hasn't even researched the basic CVL yet. I was hoping the U-boats could sink a few more transports in the Channel. These transports were mostly guarded so it didn't happen. Convoy raiding is their specialty and post 1942 its about they can really do. The British fleet will show up to harass the subs eventually.

Still, the situation in France seems winnable although the Eastern Front I do feel would ultimately end in failure. Too many Soviet divisions.

500+ Soviet divisions in the hands of the AI on normal difficulty isn't all that scarey

You could create an event or something which fires for a "cease-fire" should either side fail to ultimately break through. I read that in 1942, even Hitler himself viewed the war on the Eastern Front as being unwinnable and that some sort of cease-fire would have been the only possible best outcome, along with territorial concessions, obviously.

No need to push for a ceasefire in a war I am winning

I believe there is a minister that increases organisation reform and one that hastens speed. I am not sure who you have in but one such minister could be beneficial......I recall it is the one of the selectable Chief of Staff ministers. I think Heinrich Himmler was the organisation or something minister.

Those ministers may be benificial but Guderians 25% manpower bonus is far more important. Himmler provides 15% IC extra from conquered territory, the need for that IC is decreasing over time which is why he will probably be replaced during the winter with a 10% manpower one.

Also, why move the Finnish divisions to the island for? You could definately find a better use for them, unless you plan on opening up a later front in Finland.....

The Finnish divisions I ruled as a bug. When Finland swapped sides they should either have reverted to Finland or Soviet Union. I can't disband them and I don't want to edit them out so I am using them fairly harmlessly and providing a little subplot for them.

Personally, I would spare some for the possible Norweigan front myself and reinforce Narvik with some of those extra divisions. But that is just me.

4 divisions in a mountain should do just fine.

Anyway, a long post but once again, enjoying the campaign greatly and following it with more and more interest each new post.

I am glad you are finding it interesting

[Remble]

A Time to Die
4

0600 August 27th 1944.
VII. Armeekorps Headquarters. Paris, France.

Model responded to the attack on von Sponeck's XII. Armeekorps in Orleans with a counter attack against Eisenhower in Argentan.

General Hausser's II. SS-Panzerkorps led the attack on Argentan. At 0800 Model's own VII. Armeekorps would be reorganised from the assault on Amiens and would also join the attack.

The addition of Model's troops forced the battles decisively in the Germans favour. At 1300 both the defence of Orleans and the assault of Argentan had been won. More Allied divisions were retreating on the Western Front than were not.

0900 August 28th 1944.
IV. Korps Headquarters. Lublin, Poland.

The Soviets were persistant, von Manstein gave them that.

Stryj and Zamosc were attacked once again, as usual led by von Bock and Geyr von Scheppenburg. Nothing changed, the Russians retreated after some fierce fighting.

1100 August 28th 1944.
VII. Armeekorps Headquarters. Paris, France.

The Luftwaffe were begining to inflict a heavy price on Eisenhower's troops. Several had ceased to exist. Model was now confident of air superiority on his Front. OKH and 16. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division had arrived in Amiens and Model ordered a general assault in the Pas De Calais region.

Calais, Dieppe and Le Havre were assaulted simultaneously.

Regretably several of the Allied divisions had escaped by transport and so Model would not be able to kill them all. The ones that didn't evacuate would not escape.

Five Allied divisions would perish in the successful assaults on Calais, Dieppe and Le Havre. Two others had been destroyed by the Luftwaffe retreating from Amiens. Still more were dieing to bombers in Brittany as the Allies struggled to hold on to French territory.

[Nathan Madien]

The beginning of the end for the Normandy beachhead, I suspect.

4 divisions in a mountain should do just fine.

That's really all you need, I think. When I once played the scenario as the Soviet Union, I sadly discovered that my strong 12-division army had great difficulty attacking German-held Norway because my org kept ensuring my defeat before I had even reached the next province.

[Fernando Torres]

I would say "I time for them to die"

[Kurt_Steiner]

Well... now it seems that the Normandy beachead is going to be "beheaded"

Time to do so in Italy and then...