The Setting Sun - Gotterdammerung, Japan 1944.

**serutan** · 15-03-2010 01:09

I see I was right about the USSR's resources. :smug

Looks like the Americans may be starting to show a little fight -
if their air force is really coming out to play, life could become considerably more difficult.

**Ivan88** · 15-03-2010 01:17

Originally Posted by LuXun

On another note, Remble, check out this post. Its an invasion of the west coast by japanese troops in HoI3 during 1958. The results were spectacular. Thought I'd send it your way.

If you're trying to lure Remble into pulling off something like this, I doubt it will work, it is actually quite interesting to see how throughout his AAR's he is at the same time quite determined to deal with some issues his way (house rules, puppeting, tactical operations and timing them) and also very flexible about some others (in Creek he made a voting on how to go about confronting the Red Army, naming operations). In my opinion, this adds a lot of the character and coolness to these AAR's

Originally Posted by KaiserMuffin

@EnglandWarrior - World Co-Prosperity Sphere. It would actually be spherical!

And btw, I do think we need some grand celebration of the defeat of the Soviets. A military parade perhaps?

**EnglandWarrior** · 15-03-2010 07:50

Originally Posted by KaiserMuffin

@EnglandWarrior - World Co-Prosperity Sphere. It would actually be spherical!

But Remble is still a handful of countries short - for the moment

**Meadow** · 15-03-2010 12:53

And so the scourge of Communism is removed from the Earth. All hail the glorious Emperor!

Bravo on finally getting rid of the Soviets and all-but defeating France.

Now a slightly cheeky question that I hope someone can answer - a long time ago (maybe a real life year ago now) there was a very long period where every update seemed to only be a slight change in the northern front of Manchuria with the Soviets. I must confess I lost interest because so little was 'happening', but then one day I came back and Remble was suddenly in Poland! I don't have the time to scroll back and find the exact point where his fortunes changed, but could someone tell me what happened? A major encirclement? Simply gradual whittling away of Soviet strength, inch by inch?

**ukichi** · 15-03-2010 14:54

Originally Posted by Meadow

And so the scourge of Communism is removed from the Earth. All hail the glorious Emperor!

Bravo on finally getting rid of the Soviets and all-but defeating France.

Now a slightly cheeky question that I hope someone can answer - a long time ago (maybe a real life year ago now) there was a very long period where every update seemed to only be a slight change in the northern front of Manchuria with the Soviets. I must confess I lost interest because so little was 'happening', but then one day I came back and Remble was suddenly in Poland! I don't have the time to scroll back and find the exact point where his fortunes changed, but could someone tell me what happened? A major encirclement? Simply gradual whittling away of Soviet strength, inch by inch?

He decimated them with his air force.

**Juan_de_Marco** · 15-03-2010 14:55

Originally Posted by Meadow

And so the scourge of Communism is removed from the Earth. All hail the glorious Emperor!

Bravo on finally getting rid of the Soviets and all-but defeating France.

Now a slightly cheeky question that I hope someone can answer - a long time ago (maybe a real life year ago now) there was a very long period where every update seemed to only be a slight change in the northern front of Manchuria with the Soviets. I must confess I lost interest because so little was 'happening', but then one day I came back and Remble was suddenly in Poland! I don't have the time to scroll back and find the exact point where his fortunes changed, but could someone tell me what happened? A major encirclement? Simply gradual whittling away of Soviet strength, inch by inch?

bombers over fleeing troops: kapow! and then a lot of that. the real strike into the SU came via the south, Persia, Volgograd and Central Asia.

**Meadow** · 15-03-2010 15:01

Aha! Thank you, both of you. That makes much more sense. It seemed inconceivable that he had advanced from Manchuria at that slow pace all the way to Poland in such little time. Glad to see the amazing power of the Japanese air force played its part and is still a big part of the AAR.

**zdlugasz** · 15-03-2010 18:16

Wow,
What a surprising change in US AI behaviour! Does it mean that USA will behave inteliggently? sadly I doubt, however it introduces some thrill
What are yor MP losses (in resource window) after all these fighting in snow and aircraft losses?
How did your TC change?
And finally I am really disappointed with lack of Soviet Gold (and mediocre amount of oil). It looks I was overoptimistic in almost all cases

Good work. Your progress in west is faster than I have anticipated, but that is due to lack of defense.
What are you planning to build now? IIRC IC costs MP in your version of game so it wont be expanded, shame

**Nathan Madien** · 16-03-2010 02:41

The Soviet Union is gone...Greece is gone...France is a push-over...but that is to be expected.

Good work, Remble.

**serutan** · 16-03-2010 04:00

Originally Posted by zdlugasz

And finally I am really disappointed with lack of Soviet Gold (and mediocre amount of oil). It looks I was overoptimistic in almost all cases

Actually, they had quite a lot of resources considering that Remble had
taken all the provinces with any value quite a while back. Wouldn't shock
me if some that oil had come from Texas...

**UncleAlias** · 16-03-2010 13:26

Originally Posted by Nathan Madien

The Soviet Union is gone...Greece is gone...France is a push-over...but that is to be expected.

Good work, Remble.

France would probably have been less of a pushover if all its armies had not been bombed out of existence by Japan aircrafts in the past few months.

All the more glory to Remble, of course.

**Nathan Madien** · 17-03-2010 14:45

Originally Posted by UncleAlias

France would probably have been less of a pushover if all its armies had not been bombed out of existence by Japan aircrafts in the past few months.

Well...that's France's fault. They should know better than to resist Japan.

**Sokraates** · 17-03-2010 18:44

Ahhh ... finally I have caught up. Quite a lot going on, while I was away. It was especially nice to see Japan's resource problems eliminated once and for all. Sinking those US fleet carriers was also a very welcome read.

I'm looking forward to see how you fare in Italy and Spain (I wonder how many British troops you will have to face there).

**MrLongbow** · 19-03-2010 15:23

I just finished reading 305 pages, were is my medal?

Great stuff, guess I have to be patient and wait like everyone else

**Remble** · 20-03-2010 11:01

Raaritsgozilla - I am sure you will find the time at some point

EnglandWarrior, serutan - Unfortunately air interceptions are likely to increase as the territory being fought over shrinks. Hopefully I can avoid most of them.

Maj. von Mauser - I suppose I had better do something about Stalin in the next update

Velko, serutan - Not a bad haul at all but Germany had about double the amount. I had pillaged the Soviet stockpile a few times so it never had much chance of beating Germany's.

AdmiralNelson - The F-102 was a real aircraft and saw service from the mid 50's to the 70's. It was used to support B-52 bombers in Vietnam.

EnglandWarrior, KaiserMuffin - His Majesty will think on a title but do not be surprised if it is just called the Japanese Empire

Ivan88 - You are correct of course. Some things I am very determined to keep under control but I do like to have reader input. There have been many occasions where I have integrated comments or suggestions from all of you into the actual AAR as well as operational names. I will think on some sort of celebration for the fall of the Soviets

Meadow, ukichi, Juan_de_Marco - ukichi and Juan_de_Marco are both correct. Mostly it was my airforce until there were too few Soviet troops to prevent a ground advance. It did take a while to wear them down

zdlugasz - Thank you. I cannot remember exactly how many times I over ran the Soviet stockpile but it was late enough to prevent any rebuild of most of it as I had captured most of the resources first. This is the main reason for a lack of resources.

The AI probably had a moment of weakness and decided to do something good for a change

My manpower remains constrained as I continue to lose my monthly production of manpower on replacing losses. It is not getting worse though. I won't need to build factories as I will never have enough manpower to utilise the factories I already have. TC got worse with the annexation of the Soviet Union, but as it is already terrible it did not really get a whole lot worse.

Nathan Madien - Thanks

UncleAlias - Actually the French did not lose too many troops as they deployed almost entirely to Africa as that is where the French capital is. The Allies lost over 200 divisions as a whole I would estimate that were French controlled though

Sokraates - Welcome back, I was wondering where you had got too

Italy will very likely be a very big pain but Spain won't be judging from my bomber overflights. Gibraltar might be a problem though.

MrLongbow - Thank you and welcome to both the boards and this AAR

It has become quite a big read by now and I read back through it sometimes. I tend to read the comments rather than the content of the actual AAR though as I gain inspiration from comments. You will indeed have to wait for updates now unless you have not read "Creek Without A Paddle", which is my completed Germany '44 AAR. That would give you another 200 pages to read while you wait for me to update this one

A requested update to follow ...

**Remble** · 20-03-2010 11:11

Update (December 1st 1949)

0000 December 1st 1949.
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces. Rome, Italy.

"Good evening Gentlemen and thank you all for coming at this late hour." Sir Alan Brooke began the meeting of the Allied Chiefs of Staff. "In particular I would like to thank Mario Cingolani for allowing us to meet in Rome at short notice."

"You are most welcome Sir Alan." Cingolani, Chief of Staff for Italy, replied.

"As you are aware this meeting was scheduled to be held in Paris but events seem to have overtaken us somewhat. You will notice the lack of any diplomats at this meeting."

"Good. We haven't got time to listen to their windbagging." Douglas MacArthur, Chief of Staff for the United States, stated bluntly.

"I think that we can all agree on that at least." Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, Chief of Staff for Spain, added with a chuckle.

"Gentlemen, let us get down to the business at hand. We had hoped that Hirohito would have halted his advance by now as Japanese forces become far too spread out to be totally effective and the need to garrison captured territory overwhelmed their relatively small army. This is clearly not the case and Japan would appear to wish to capture all of mainland Europe at the least." Brooke stated.

"Don't forget they have invaded the United States of America as well." MacArthur added.

"Douglas, that is not a serious threat at all and you know it." Brooke chided.

"Don't take that tone with me Sir Alan. If my Country had stuck to defending itself alone then there would be no Japanese troops in Alaska."

"And if you had not sat on the fence until you got caught with your pants down in 1941 then Japan would never have been powerful enough to threaten us all now." replied Jean-Marie Lattre de Tassigny, Chief of Staff for France, angrily.

"Enough." Petar Kosic, the Yugoslav Chief of Staff, said just loudly enough for all to hear. "Bickering will get us nowhere and I for one wish to still have a Country to call my own next year. Your petty grievances over past mistakes will see us all ruined. None of you are threatened with almost certain annexation in the next couple of months and in case you had all forgotten that will not be the first time it has happened to my Country this decade."

"Petar is correct we need to work together or we are all doomed in time." Brooke said regaining control of the meeting. "My intelligence sources inform me that the Japanese manpower pool is exhausted so we know that they are at their military limit. A conservative estimate of their number of divisions puts them at around three hundred and a large number of them are tied down with garrison duties or are from their puppet States. The nearest estimate I have seen places their total offensive force at no more than one hundred and fifty divisions."

"It is not their ground forces that are the main problem. It's their damn Airforce." stated Gonzalo Queipo de Llano.

"The United States Air Force has upgraded it's Fighter wings of late and the new F-102 Delta Dagger aircraft have been having good results against our common enemy lately. Some of my squadrons are in Europe now and will help where they can." MacArthur replied.

"The Royal Air Force is also almost completely upgraded to the comparable Gloster Javelin as well, although we have to protect the English Channel and North Sea once again following the Japanese capture of all of the northern European coastline."

"Unfortunately they are a little late. My Army has less than half a dozen divisions left to stop the Japanese forces along its border."

"True but there are not that many Japanese forces marching into Spain either." replied MacArthur.

"These are what is marching into Spain." Gonzalo Queipo de Llano responded showing the assembled Chiefs of Staff a recent photograph of a Japanese Type 3 Chi-Nu tank.

"That is not a tank." replied MacArthur with a chuckle. "THIS is a tank." he stated showing them all a photograph of an M47 Patton.

"Very pretty Douglas. But there is one big difference between the two. One appears to be in Washington while the other is in Barcelona. I don't have any tanks and the troops I do have are being blown to bits by Japanese aircraft." replied Queipo de Llano.

"Good point Gonzalo." stated Brooke. "We have to decide how we wish to proceed at this point as Japan is showing a remarkable ability to wage several wars in several regions at once with limited trouble."

"We need to protect our industrial base and build up our strength." replied MacArthur.

"All well and good for those of us that still have an industrial base." stated Lattre de Tassigny.

"It will not be the first time this decade that France has fought from its colonies Jean-Marie." Brooke said.

"At least the Japanese Airforce can't bomb me there I suppose."

"That is a very good point. Japan has a number of divisions in Africa that you can tie down for months if not years." said Cingolani. "That is a fight we can win if more troops are sent to reinforce Jean-Marie."

"True, and you can probably stop them in their tracks in Italy as well. We had one hell of a time trying to move through those mountains in 1943 and 1944." added MacArthur.

"They won't be invading Great Britain anytime soon either. The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force can hold them at sea and my beaches are very well defended." stated Brooke.

"Yes, but do you really need ten divisions per beach Sir Alan?" asked Lattre de Tassigny.

"Probably not. I will confer with His Majesty and see if we can send you some help in Africa."

"Thanks."

"Douglas I think you should concentrate on preventing any further advances in North America to protect your own industrial base and that of the Canadians."

"I can do that Sir Alan. As you stated earlier the Japanese invasion is not any real threat just yet. Defence is becoming easier as the territory we need to protect shrinks."

"Exactly. We are no longer over stretched which gives us a healthy advantage in some areas."

"And what about my Country?" asked Kosic.

"I will send some of my troops to bolster your defences Petar." stated Cingolani. "It may be too late but I will do what I can. If we fail then any of your surviving troops are welcome to fight alongside my own."

"Thank you but I would prefer to revert to guerilla warfare at that point. My countrymen are adept at that sort of thing." replied Kosic.

"As you wish but the offer stands."

"And Spain?" asked Queipo de Llano. "If my Country falls then so will Gibraltar and the rest of the Mediterranean Sea."

"That would not be good. I will see if I can pursuade His Majesty to strengthen the garrison and see what we can do to help in Spain."

"So you are going to consign my forces to a guerilla war as well then?"

"Not if we can help it old boy." replied Brooke.

"What are we going to do about the Japanese Navy?" asked Lattre de Tassigny.

"Not much really. It may have a lot of ships but they are woefully outdated and outclassed by both the Royal Navy and United States Navy. Attrition at sea will account for them eventually once we can force them out of air cover." replied Brooke. "We haven't lost a significant naval battle to them for some time. Their superiority is an illusion brought about by their airforces prowess."

"Aren't you being just a little overconfident?" asked Kosic.

"Not really no. Just stating facts." replied Brooke. "Similarly their airforce is outmatched against both the British and American Fighter forces. All we have to do is force them into a head to head battle and their losses will be hard to replace unlike ours."

"Why not just use your Nuclear bombs on them?" asked Kosic. "That will stop them quickly enough."

"We would have used them earlier in the War Petar but there has been some experimentation of late that points to a rather lasting side effect in their use. The radiation is extremely slow to dissipate." replied MacArthur.

"So? It will be killing Japanese forces."

"Yes it will, but large parts of Yugoslavia would remain uninhabitable for decades if we use them. Do you really want that?"

"No thank you."

"The President will only use them as a weapon of last resort and even then he may refuse to inflict them on anyone. We would of course destroy them rather than let them fall into Japanese hands. Conventional warfare is our only choice Gentlemen."

"Well I think we have covered eveything for today. We shall remain mostly defensive for the time being as we have little choice in the matter. In time we may get a chance to turn the tables on His Imperial Majesty as it most certainly is overdue." Brooke concluded the meeting.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

0000 December 1st 1949.
The Vatican. Rome, Italy.

"Yes?" asked the security guard on the gates that entered into Vatican City.

"I wish to seek asylum within the walls of the Vatican." asked a rather disheveled looking man.

"Wait here for a moment." the guard replied.

"Excuse me Sir there is someone at the gate wishing asylum." the guard said to his officer.

"Ok. I will handle this." replied the officer. The days of massed asylum seekers had ended once Germany had fallen and it was relatively rare for someone to ask for it now, but the officer was well aware of the procedure for such claimants.

"Why do you wish asylum?" he asked what he thought to be a beggar.

"Because I no longer have a Country." came the reply.

"Are you willing to enter the monastic life?"

"Yes."

"Then enter at your own free will." replied the officer as he signalled for the gate to be opened.

The man who walked through the gate had no intention of becoming a monk but he had to hide somewhere just in case a miracle occured that may put him back in charge of his Country. He would have many quiet hours to reflect on how he had managed to defeat Hitler but had failed to stop Hirohito.