A British TAAR (A first AAR)

[ComTrav]

A British tar is a soaring soul
As free as a mountain bird
His energetic fist should be ready to resist
A dictatorial word
His nose should pant and his lip should curl
His cheeks should flame and his brow should furl
His bosom should heave and his heart should glow
And his fist be ever ready for a knock-down blow

His eyes should flash with an inborn fire
His brow with scorn be wrung
He never should bow down to a domineering frown
Or the tang of a tyrant tongue
His foot should stamp and his throat should growl
His hair should curl and his face should scowl
His eyes should flash and his breast protrude
And this should be his customary attitude

-Gilbert and Sullivan
HMS Pinafore

After lurking for some time, I'm going to write an AAR!

UK: 1936 Scenario
Normal/Normal

At first I thought I'd wait, and play my first big game as 1936 Germany (like, almost everyone else), and then play Hard/Hard UK and maybe do that as an AAR. But by the time I do that, someone will probably be writing a Tannu Tavu VH/VH AAR, so I figured I'd get in before there's scads and scads. (Like, when the game is out =).)

But I'd also figure I'd benefit from the knowledge of the incredibly supportive Paradox community in what is essentially going to be a learning AAR. Besides, part of the fun of playing UK is the moment in 1940 after France has been totally trucked and you're looking at the handful of divs you managed to build and you're wondering how on earth you're going to take back the continent against all those Panzers, and once I've learned the game pretty well it won't have the same "ah...poo" feeling .

Preliminary Thoughts:
WAR AIMS
Win the war! (duh)
Protect the Empire!
Europe
-Do heavy lifting, at least among the Western allies
-"Churchillian" strategy, of strong Mediterranean focus with main thrust coming through Italy after North Africa, possible operations in Greece, Norway
-Beat the Soviets to Berlin
-Restore Poland (assuming the game plays out more or less historically), as Poland is the causus belli, and its restoration is a matter of national honor.
Far East
-I used to ignore Malaysia/Singapore, but it's so chock-full of rares I can't let the Japanese have it without a fight
-Hold India. Burma's historical importance as the supply route into China doesn't really matter, and the area between the Himalayas and the Bay is soooo defensible. (I can hardly wait for my Indian theatre HQ to ask for a 20 armoured brigades, to go fight in the jungle.)
-This depends a lot on how strong Japan is in this version. I've definitely had games where I barely needed to worry about them at all and Nationalist China reclaimed Manchuria.

Force Planning
Royal Navy
-In previous versions of HOI, UK usually started with almost enough ships to beat Italy/Germany with a few extra destroyers for sub patrol.
-However, it simply WILL NOT DO for the oldest organized fighting force in the world to be beaten, so I plan on investing in it modestly, focusing on the Fleet-in-Being doctrine and ships (Destroyers/BBs.) Destroyers are obvious (they're the infantry of the sea!), and I'm hopeful I can maintain decent Capital Ship Practical with a relatively small ongoing run of BBs (because they give a ton of practical.) I want the option of being able to expand the battlefleet in case I really need to go after Japan.
-Using carriers as the Royal Navy historically--as cover and adjuncts to the battle line.
-With a title like "British TAAR", maintaining British sea power is frankly a game objective in itself =).

Royal Air Force
-Fighters first, obviously, in case there's a serious Battle of Britain, and if I wanted a serious air force I would need them anyway.
-Fighter Small Airframe practical helps most CAS techs/building.
-I would love to develop Strat bombers, to see how well they work. I'm sorta hopeful I can lower Italian NU and knock them out of the war quickly.

British Army (because the King gets the Navy and the Air force, but it's PARLIAMENT'S army!)
"There's a lot of damn fool talk about this being a mechanized war and an air war and a commercial war. All wars are infantry wars. Always have been."
-Evelyn Waugh, Put Out More Flags
-Infantry/Artillery form the "crumbling process", with the bulk of the actual hitting power, with armored forces mainly for exploitation. (Because if I wanted to fight big tank battles against Germany, I'd play SU.)
-With combat in Italy and maybe Greece and Norway, picking up some mountain divisions is a must.
-If I'm developing heavy STRAT aircraft, getting transports/paratroopers might also be nice. Org for the specialized divisions are all on one tech now, which makes getting more than one more attractive. Besides, I want to see how paratroops work in this version .
-William Slim gets to turn defeat into victory in Europe.

Other
-Investment in Radar, because it's historical, and I want to see the impact all those radar techs have. (Radar is also something that can be upgraded on an already-built ship, so it'll help keep my older ships competitive.) Decryption investment for the same reason.
-I wonder how much diplomacy I'll need...I feel like I should need to use SOME to get the US to join the allies, but I think I'll wait until '39 or so to start influencing them, because a 1939 US DoW on Germany would ruin the fun =).

Comments and advice for a first writAAR welcome.

[ComTrav]

...starting with neither my linked pic or my html tags for italics working as I thought. Any advice?

[coz1]

...starting with neither my linked pic or my html tags for italics working as I thought. Any advice?

You need to use [these] instead of <these> for the coding. For screens, you need to use the [IMG] tags for the screenshot to appear in the post. Check the fAARq in the main AAR GD area for more on that.

[ComTrav]

Thanks. See, the wonderful Paradox gaming community has helped me already.

[Myth]

Seems pretty ambitious for a learning AAR. That's the spirit we want to see here!

[Lordban]

There's indeed enough to be overwhelmed with a first game as the UK. Good luck!

[Tweakd]

Ambitious indeed! I'll certainly follow this. I'm sure I will learn a thing or two.

[VILenin]

Lofty goals indeed, but I'm sure you'll prove the very model of a modern major-power player.

[potski]

Excellent. Remember you will have your work cut-out trying to protect your supply convoys from dear old blighty to all of the colonies. Be prepared for much of the largest merchant marine fleet in the world to end up in Davy Jones' Locker.

Your TAAR had also better be prepared for the knock-down blow he will receive if he tries to mess with the IJN in the Pacific - their carrier fleet and NAVs are awesome. Never forget the Prince of Wales and Repulse, led by an Admiral who failed to appreciate the dominance of air power in 1941:

[TheRealKestrel]

Am I allowed to hope the Germans fulfill the Z-plan so that you actually fight some battles in the North Sea? I'd love to see a second battle of the Dogger Bank with RN Lion-class versus KM H-class.

[ComTrav]

Thanks for the positive comments and encouragement, everyone! Personally, I think my most ambitious goal is to free Poland--in theory a hard push from the Balkans would do this, but I have to wonder if a Baltic landing is where it's at. (After all, I played the demo like 3 or 4 times before I tried to change the resolution and it started to crash, I'm SURE I can do this! =))

@ potski-I have quite a healthy respect for the IJN--after this I'll probably play Japan and do a carrier-focused navy =). We'll see how well I do with land-based aircover, and maybe some of my carriers from Europe. (Although I'm not developing carriers that much, all my fighter aircraft research will benefit the CAGs.) Part of the fun of doing this as a first AAR is that I have no idea if that will be nearly enough =).

[ComTrav]

@ RealKestrel-I would love to play a game against Plan Z Germans. I wonder if the Hoi3 AI will actually build up a fleet before sending it out; the Hoi2 AI had a bad habit of sending out its capitals without screens. A human player, of course, doesn't do that, but I'm not quite ready to fight other humans just yet

[TheRealKestrel]

I'm not sure that I fully understand the centreline system just yet, but it seems simplistic enough that there should be some exploits hidden in there somewhere.

[ComTrav]

AAR Novice question:

If I were to put all my screenshots and text in MS word, and copy-and-paste it, would that work? Or would the board hate me for uploading so many pics, and it's better to take the extra hassle to host all my screenshots on photobucket?

[Myth]

You're going to need to upload your images to an image site such as photobucket or imageshack anyway.

[ComTrav]

So I was going to go to bed, but the apartment above me had a toilet which flooded me and woke me up, so I might as well post what I've got.

This is a learning AAR for me, so I undoubtedly make a bunch of dumb mistakes. I wrote most of it by alt tabbing out as I went along, each time I made a few important decisions. Some of my mistakes I've realized, some I haven't.

It did take me a lot longer to play 36-38 then I thought; I'm sure once I get the hang of the system I'll go a lot faster. (Though be warned that the UK is stuff to the gills with empty HQs...)

[CaptRobau]

Gonna watch just for the sake of the awesome AAR title.

[ComTrav]

Part I: Before I unpause
Research
So lets start with tech, because I spent plenty of time staring at the demo tech screen trying to puzzle out a strategy:



You know most "improved destroyer" or what-have you need 4-5 techs, and as a major country, you have 20-25 leadership to spend on techs if you cut most things to the bone. I splurge on upgrading all my destroyer and BB techs, because ships can't be upgraded once produced.

I also grab a ton of Industrial techs I want. I'm not sure about the resource production techs techs, besides fuel. (I'm playing an Allied country, I HAVE all the resources I could want, if I can keep the Axis from them!)
Incidentally, I poo-poo'd the "theory" techs in the demo, but since I have high Electrical Engineering (EE) theory, and don't want to lose it, I research a point of it under theory. (The only other available project that gives me EE is a 1940 tech...) I also do a smattering of techs to keep up in certain areas, like artillery, tanks, and infantry weapons, mostly researching low-year techs (like Mountain Division). This was hard in aircraft, as almost all my aircraft techs are already at 1939 levels. The only 1937 light aircraft tech I found was CAS design, so I went with that.

It makes me a little sad that Mobile Unit theory is going down the tubes, but hey, it's mainly used for Cavalry weapons anyway. (The all-Cavalry AAR deserves a better player than me.)
That's a hardcore commitment to research for the first part of the war, but later on I'm going to need a more balanced approach. In particular, I'm going to shift over to leadership after I build more units. The volunteer army -50 percent for officers is a killer.

[ComTrav]

Man that screenshot turned out ugly as sin. I made the mistake of posting it to word while I was writing so now my screenies are scaled badly =(. (Newbie mistake...)

But the AAR must go on! I'm going to skip some of the screenshots, though, and edit them in later if I figure out I way to "recover" them to non-poo-looking. (Some of them it's hard to tell what's going on...)



Anyway, continuing on:
Cabinet: Stanley Baldwin as Minister of Security, for Extra Leadership, and Sir John Simon for the extra IC. Sticking with Infantry, Capital Ship, and Light aircraft "antidecay" (toothpaste? "Air Marshal Dowding Fights cavities and Light aircraft decay!")) ministers, to keep my practicals up during the road to war.


So the production screen, as usual for an allied country at the start of a war, shows some...austerity. The big hit is Full Civilian Economy, with a -50 percent IC. This is before my cabinet changes take effect to give me a little extra IC. In retrospect, I should've played a day to see how my convoys effect my resource situation before deciding on whether or not to research any resource production techs. I suppose I didn't want to build up my practical before the war very much anyway....

This is my India Plan:


Taking a defensive line behind the river, between the moutains and the sea. This is infrastructure mapmode; I don't want my divs taking attrition in a low infra province while they're sitting there for many years. Also ordered it to defend Rangoon, because I'd feel really dumb losing it if something like the Siamese army attacked.

I have a screen to prove it, but I'm sure by now you're all aware that guarding 4-5 provinces away from any hostile enemy is a massive undertaking, and Bombay HQ's request for 90 infantry brigades, 4 interceptors, 9 armor brigades, 9 motorised brigades, and 3 tactial bombers is completely reasonable, the bare minimum, in fact, to defend the vital tea of India.

I unpause. I look at what it takes to change my economic laws. I'm currently in Full Civilian Economy, with a -50 percent hit to IC; moving to Basic Mobilization would give me 25 percent more IC, but as a democracy that takes Neutrality of less then 70. I use the Intelligence screen to start reducing neutrality.

[Lordban]

It's odd seeing Baldwin as an efficient minister to gain Leadership At least he's still an ill-adapted Prime Minister to prepare for war.

You're teching up heavily! This is an interesting choice, and possible while you don't have to make many troops.