"Das war ein Befehl!" A German Götterdammerung '44 AAR

"Welcome in, gentlemen, and welcome to 1947. Finally we can afford the luxury to wake up a bit late in the morning rather than attend each cabinet meeting at midnight. Heinz, I've heard you've got a nice map of Europe with you today."

"I do, Martin. It looks really nice, a bit too grey methinks."

"Grey is my favourite colour."​

"Nice is an understatement. This map r0xx0rz--er, this map is really cool."

"It's lovely, isn't it. Anyways, the most obvious change is the Soviet Union of course, we have gained a lot of land; much more than we envisioned before the 1946 Summer campaign started. This map does not include the Far East, where the British and the Americans have taken most of Siberia and are effectively crushing the Soviet Union from the opposite side." Guderian declared "Let's take a look to our Soviet front."​

"This is roughly the whole landmass we conquered last year. The British are sharing the fun, although I bet they're going to feel hungry once we capture Archangelsk, which is due in one month. Everywhere the Soviets don't possess the barest form of concentrated defense; talking about a defensive line would be an euphemism, they've got defensive holes to say the least."​

"Here we can see the daring conquest of Archangelsk in detail. Lots of action and fun, I know."​

"Here is the southern front, the only region where we're still behind our apex in 1942. We've highlighted the city of Stalingrad, rich in industries and resources... we knew it the hard way. This time around we'll better encircle the city first, then assault it. I doubt the Soviets will have as many divisions to properly defend it this time, but never say never."​

"The other important province in the Soviet Union is Naberezhnye Chelny, as it is the new administrative capital of the Soviet Union. Capturing it in 1947 should be feasible enough, provided that our Army is able to face the tremendous risks and perils mustered by the likes of endless forests and plains."​

"Putting our eyes back into the Ukraine, I shall note that the Soviet divisions haven't finished retreating yet, as there are two entire Army corps waiting to be welcomed into the warm and kind wings of the Wehrmacht."

"Ernst, Intelligence report. I want a detailed one this time."

"I have prepared a very interesting report. Not as detailed perhaps, but it's extremely appealing."​

"Last month we've... let's say, decimated the Soviet army. More than twenty divisions destroyed, without counting those still retreating, as Guderian said; we've crippled the Soviet industry to a laughable level. Moving on to the US--"

"Is that your 'detailed' report, Ernst?" Bormann asked with impatience.

"More will come later." Kaltenbrunner replied, annoyed "As I was saying, let's move on to the US.​

"Their industry is growing, they've got everything, etcetera. Nothing to highlight really, just usual business."​

"Same goes for the UK, an island of boredom. This ends my usual spy reports; there is much more, but I'll intervene later on."

"On a totally unrelated note, Martin, my department has drawn a map denoting the partisan activity in our occupied lands" intervened Julius Ringel.

"Go on."​

"This map makes things look bad. Well, they are. Apart from Germany, Prussia, Italy and Norway, the rest of Europe teems with partisans sabotaging our war efforts everyday. We've got very few divisions allocated to the precise aim of partisan suppression, although I know we are making slow progress forward. Currently it is not a problem as great as in 1942, as there is no longer an enemy powerful enough to threaten our conquests; however, we shall keep into consideration that we must spend a considerable effort in administering our enormous conquests in the long term."

"What kind of effort are we pouring in this context, Albert?"

"To give an idea, let's say we're investing around one tenth of our industrial capacity, so not a really small effort."​

"We're training twelve garrison divisions in two serial runs of six batches each. Six of them are equipped with Artillery brigades, the other six will enjoy the presence of a specifically-trained Military Police brigade."

"Talking about our Army, show me some numbers about the Wehrmacht." Bormann ordered.

Heinz Guderian stepped up "Here we go. Our numbers haven't increased a lot, although that is not necessarily a bad thing."​

"We possess 351 divisions, although many are expeditionary forces. Spain possesses a decent army too, but nothing we can rely on."​

"Our Navy is small and will remain so for the whole course of 1947. The two carriers inherited by the Japanese, however, will be the foundation of the new Kriegsmarine."​

"Our airforce has grown a little, although it's still relatively small compared to the Allies'. Our technology is world-class, however."​

"And we've got pretty experienced air commanders too. Bülowius is by far the most experienced; we also have a Japanese among our top ranks, Yamashita, commanding a few squadrons inherited from the Japanese surrender and promptly reinforced with aircraft of our production."​

"We also have a plethora of experienced land commanders. But, if we were to list three among our top men, I'd say Model, von Manstein and von Rundstedt. Who knows what the Third Reich would be without these men."​

"About our Navy, the most neglected sector of the German Army branches, the presence of Yamamoto is going to improve our skills greatly. Although we won't use carriers as extensively as the Japanese, their tactics will be fundamental to our success in the seas."

"Here I have a neat document to show to you all" Kaltenbrunner intervened "While you all cheered about the capture of Moscow and the destruction of the Kremlin, my agents found something interesting among the rubble."​

"It is a document dated January 2nd 1946. One year old. We can see a part of Soviet production queue... lots of infantry divisions it looks like; they also ran low on Rare Materials, and this explains their Industry slowdown, they had very few supplies to count on, and also only a modest Oil depot, surely not the endless supply we hoped to capture. The most juicy detail is also that they no longer had any recruits to train, and we're speaking about one year ago. Think about what could their situation be now.

We also know for certain that they possessed 307 divisions at the beginning of 1946 - still a sizable army, afterall. Their airforce, however, was rather pathetic - and now it's just forgotten."

"Now THAT's detail!" Guderian added "so how many divisions we destroyed in one year?"

"Later on that subject. Now I have another whole subject - technological progress."​

"Infantry. Absolutely no progress since 1946, if not for a mere blueprint gained for a new Infantry model which we're not going to use for a while."​

"Armor. The same as one year ago, we're already pretty much advanced by world's standards."​

"Navy, a sector we're heavily investing in. During 1946 we've researched and improved several models of Light Carriers and an even heavier Super Heavy Battleships. Those behemoths of the sea will test Archimedes' law to its limit. Currently, Kriegsmarinewerft is refining our latest Light Carrier model."​

"Our Airforce, we've researched a new Turbojet Interceptor and Fighter models this year, and Heinkel is working on better Dive Bombers, as if they weren't deadly enough."​

"A lot of progress in the Industrial sector this year. We've maxed out the techniques of Synthetic Oil refining, and vastly increased our knowledge about Nuclear Power. Our tireless Heisenberg says he's about to reach the final step in unveiling the tremendous powers of Nuclear power... if only we knew what these powers are. But since the Allies are bombing our Nuclear reactor in Danzig on a daily basis, I guess there should be a reason."​

"No progress in the Land doctrines, and I don't see what progress we could make. We can beat everyone, end of story."​

"We cannot beat anyone in the seas, though. We're far behind the Allies in terms of Naval doctrines, and even if Raeder is trying to catch up, we'll never be like the Allies, which are more apt to a different and more powerful approach to Naval warfare." Kaltenbrunner clears his throat "Excuse me, but I need a bit of water."​

"Much better. Air doctrines, we've progressed a lot here too, as in a year we've mastered a previously unknown strategy, that of strategic bombing. Our work does not end here and Sperrle still has a long way to cover."​

"Nothing has changed about our 'Wunderwaffen', but with Heisenberg research, I think things will change this year."

"Very good and all, but I think you miss something" Bormann added.

"I do, Martin, give me some time. Gentlemen, I hope you all like two things as much as I do: the colour 'red', and graphs."​

"This isn't the slope to hell, it is a clear indication of the Red Army numbers from May 1945 to January 1947. One and a half years of the once most powerful Army in the world as seen through the eyes of our Intelligence reports. It is not entirely accurate - we now know the Soviets had 307 divisions in January 1946, while our spies reported 288. However, it's still fairly reliable, and I've highlighted some interesting numbers.

First, May 1945. The Red Army was still a giant, though wounded by the serious setbacks at Cracow and Beltsy, a giant consisting of about 380 divisions. At the end of that year, it became a much less serious threat with around 80-100 less divisions overall. The ensuing Winter gave the Soviets some respite, but they only managed to field around twenty divisions more, that is nothing compared to their first great mobilization in 1941.

Second, August 1946. In three months, the Red Army finally imploded after months of looming omens. For the first time, the Red Army falls under the 200-divisions barrier, and the graph becomes a steep slope, which barely softens in January, with the Red Army breaking another record, that of falling under the 100-divisions barrier. Yes gentlemen, in a year we've inflicted the most serious blow we could ever hope to strike. We've struck a powerful dagger into our most feared enemy and subsequently crippled him. Till the start of 1946 the Red Army was still very strong, but it suffered from serious internal weaknesses. We can say that the Soviet Army had not been merely a façade which would crumble at the first knock, but a strong thick wall; but once you managed to punch a hole through it, the whole structure would fall."

"Interesting analysis."

"Thank you, I was helped by our top generals here."

Suddenly, the door opened and a well known figure entered the room. It was that of von Ribbentrop.

"Joachim!"

"Gentlemen... we have an uncommon visitor."​