• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Fall Weiss

The fighting began early in September 1st. Across the entire front, German attacks were initially favorable, despite preparedness from the Polish Army which were expecting the offensive, although not knowing the exact timetable. The British retaliation however, came quicker than anyone had predicted - just a few hours after the beginning of hostilities, the British War Council and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany, and several wings of bombers were dispatched to bomb military sites in its western border. German fighters scrambled to counter the threat.

Picture8.jpg

But just as the British retaliation came quick, it came weak also. No significant damage has been done to the German industrial effort, and heavy losses were incurred by the patrolling fighters and AA defenses.

Also worth of notice was the movement of a considerable number of French divisions, stationed near the Alps, towards north, probably to the Maginot line.

Picture10.jpg

September 1 - 15

South

The first breakthrougs are achieved. On Sep. 3rd, Höpner (XV) had overran the Polish defences at Lubliniec and began attacking the rear HQs, while Hoth (XXII) motorised divisions cruised over open terrain in his right flank. However Keitel (XI) encountered fierce resistance and progressed slower than anticipated. Meanwhile the 8. Armee paved its way to Kraków.

Picture11.jpg

Meanwhile, following a direct order from Hitler himself, and much against his opinion, Höpner redirect his divisions north to link up with Guderian’s XIX Corps in the encirclement of the Polish troops to the west of Lódz.

Picture18.jpg

On Sep. 10, The Poznan pocket is closed and its reduction begins. Höpner (XV) is freed to race east again towards Lódz, having lost precious time.

Picture19.jpg

In the Slovakian front, however, the situation looked bad for von Kleist XXIV Corps. The stubborn Polish defenders had held the Panzer Divisions for 10 days. The infantry divisions from its neighbor XXVI Corps are called to assist.

Picture20.jpg

But on the 12th, the Polish troops withdraw and von Kleist troops finally occupies Nowy Sacz, albeit at a large cost for both sides.

Picture21.jpg

North

On 6th, The Polish defenders at the city of Danzig are routed by the IX Corps.

Picture17.jpg

In the following days, the 4. Armee advances slowly but surely across the Vistula river, while Kempf’s Panzer Division leads the way in the assault against the bridges at Ostroleka, north of Warsaw.

Picture22.jpg

September 16 - 20

South

After having advanced 100 kilometers into Poland, the 4. PzD and the Leibstandarte motorized regiment are halted to provide support to the 2. PzD and 5. PzD. Lódz defence had been reinforced with fresh infantry divisions and its capture is proving to be difficult.

Picture23.jpg

The 8. Armee captures Kraków and, succeeded in its operational objectives, begins to consolidate the front - one infantry corps, the XVIII, is transferred south to bolster the 7. Armee.

Picture24.jpg

On Sep. 17, the 3. PzD commanded by Schweppenburg breaks through the last Polish defence line in the south and rushes north.

Picture25.jpg

North

The final battle for the Poznan pocket commences in Sep. 17.

Picture26.jpg

Three days later, 50,000 Polish soldiers surrender.

Picture27.jpg

September 20 - October 1

Von Kleist’s XXIV Corps blitz deep into Polish Army rear and seize the bridges at Ostrowiec, cutting off 7 Polish divisions north of Kraków. The 3. PzD and 10. PzD are now within striking distance of Warsaw.

Picture28.jpg

45,000 Polish soldiers surrender in the Wloszczowa pocket.

Picture29.jpg

Meanwhile the 4. PzD and the 3. ID (mot) and 13. ID (mot) renew their assault at Lódz.

Picture30.jpg

Panzer Division Kempf drives south, cutting off Warsaw eastern escape routes. The pressure over the Polish capital begins to mount.

Picture31.jpg

On Sep. 28, Lódz falls, and the assault at Warsaw begins. The Polish Army gives its last breath. As additional German divisions joins the attack, Warsaw defence is on the imminence of collapse. Attacks come from the north, by the 93. ID, from the northeast by the 87. ID and 88. ID, and from the south by the 3. PzD, 5. Pzd, 10. PzD, 2. ID (mot) and 29. ID (mot).

Picture32.jpg

And finally, at 1600 of October 1st, the Polish Army lays down its arms. The government flees through Romania to form a government-in-exile in London, while the Soviet Army, which until now just waited to see the outcome, now rushes towards its newly-acquired territory.

Picture33.jpg


Poland is defeated.
 
With Poland gone, there is nothing stopping you from swiftly turning and destroying the Low Countries and France!
 
Is army controlled by AI or not?

I am working on my AAR where entire german army is AI controlled by AI (with some exceptions to avoid superstacks or similar problems) and so far AI is pretending its WW1 not WW2 - it took me almost 1 year to just kill France (I control everything except deployed army units)

My bigest complaint against AI is that it placed all armored units to guard Maginot line and only after new tank units were placed close to frontline in belgium front started moving.

 
Is army controlled by AI or not?

I am working on my AAR where entire german army is AI controlled by AI (with some exceptions to avoid superstacks or similar problems) and so far AI is pretending its WW1 not WW2 - it took me almost 1 year to just kill France (I control everything except deployed army units)

My bigest complaint against AI is that it placed all armored units to guard Maginot line and only after new tank units were placed close to frontline in belgium front started moving.

No, its not AI-controlled. What I'm doing, however, is giving all corps shift+click movement orders just after the start of the war, and letting it run hands-off, as you can see in the screenshot in previous page, until they encounter some unexpected resistance. I realized that to achieve what I wanted (some corps on defensive, some on offensive), I would have to micro the same or even more with the AI than without. I'm inclined to think the AI performs better in broad-front offensives than in certain specialist cases (encirclements, penetrations etc), and in cases where it is not outnumbered (as would probably happen against SU).
 
No, its not AI-controlled. What I'm doing, however, is giving all corps shift+click movement orders just after the start of the war, and letting it run hands-off, as you can see in the screenshot in previous page, until they encounter some unexpected resistance. I realized that to achieve what I wanted (some corps on defensive, some on offensive), I would have to micro the same or even more with the AI than without. I'm inclined to think the AI performs better in broad-front offensives than in certain specialist cases (encirclements, penetrations etc), and in cases where it is not outnumbered (as would probably happen against SU).

AI never perform even close to human player esp. in any type of attack and it always have much higher losses. I use AI to handicap me in that AAR (will write it sometime next week most likely) but sometimes its hard not to wonder how could Paradox create such screwed up AI (tons of basic problems).

 
A small update regarding Japan's situation - I did not posted an update for the last in-game year because, well, the front in Japan hasn't moved an inch! For almost two years! :rofl:

These are the supply and infra situation:

Picture35.jpg


Picture34.jpg


Even though the infra seems low, NatChi has the same infra and their troos are fully supplied. The problems is that there are no sufficient supplies, since they are not coming from Manchukuo/Korea (where a depot exists with 93K supplies), but rather coming from Qingdao port which, despite being level 10, is not up to the demand.

So I decided to intervene again in their war and "forced" Japan to annex Manchukuo, inheriting its troops. I see this problem is acknowledge by Paradox and being worked for the next patch, but for now is the only thing that will keep the war in China going.
 
Last edited:
Battle of the Atlantic

September - December 1939


Grossadmiral Raeder had put forth the Kriegsmarine plans for the Battle of the Atlantic as early as the last days of october. Having pinpointed probable locations of British convoys through intelligence gathered by the submarines themselves, he ordered all U-boat commanders that the attacks should comence as soon as possible by September 1st. So they did it.

The first convoys sunk were result of actions of the 5. Ubootsflottille, to the west of the English Channel. At first, the British didn't reacted to it - the information reaching the War Office being sparse, or even non-existant. As the time passed, though, with the increasing of German submarines activities, the alarm was sounded and the British began to allocate resources to hunt the underwater-travelling ships.

Donitz.jpg

Befehlshaber der U-Boote, Karl Dönitz

Eight flotillas had been allocated by the recently appointed Befehlshaber der U-Boote, Karl Dönitz. He instructed the U-boat commanders to avoid direct confrontation, and engage only lightly or non-escorted targets. Germany industry was under severe pressure from the rearmament, and the material attrition in Poland would only increase it. The submarine models were the newest types VIIA and IXB, and the delivery schedule established by Germaniawerft, the Kiel-based manufacturer of U-boats, was around 200 days. Dönitz hoped that, as production increased and practical knowledge built up, those times would be decreased dramatically. However, for now, he needed to protect carefully his fleet.

In the early weeks, the British shipping has been caught completely unprepared - almost all the 110 reports of sinkings had been occurred during September.

new-1.jpg

Locations and quantity of Allied merchant ships sunk, Sep - Oct 39

But soon escorts were organized, and the submarine fleet began to take its toll.

new-5.jpg

The increased British and French activity in the Western Atlantic

On September 11, the flotilla numbered coincidentally 11, took damage by depth charges dropped by British destroyers while escorting a convoy southwest of Ireland. Having assessed its situation, commander von Heimburg decided it would not be possible to maneuver around the British Isles to the north, and decided to gamble a dash through the Channel. Although he didn't had a better choice, it proved to be a disastrous decision, as his flotilla had been intercepted and sunk two days later under the Channel. It was the first loss for Germany in the naval front.

new-2.jpg

Until the end of the year, two more flotillas would be lost to enemy action: the 7. Ubootsflotille was sank in October 15 and the 12. Ubootsflotille in October 17.

new-3.jpg


new-4.jpg

Those two flotillas were, however, replaced with the freshly built 30 and 33, deployed in November 27 at Kiel.

Along with these losses, the effect of mechanical problems and the increasing pressure from British warships meant that, by October, only two flotillas were operational. At the end of October, Dönitz called back its fleet to repairs and reorganisation. The submarines would remain in docks until the next year. However it has been so far a sound victory for Dönitz - an estimated 130 merchant ships have been sunk so far. The success had been made such a good impression on Raeder and Hitler, that it was decided to double the size of the submarine fleet, with 8 new flotillas ordered in December, scheduled to be delivered in August of 1940.

Surface clashes with the Royal Navy

Meanwhile, Raeder wanted to take every opportunity to attrition the Royal Navy. He decided to hold back the surface fleet from convoy raiding, until sufficient information about convoy routes had been constructed from the submarine action. Also, although he didn't expected a large intervention from the British in the Baltic, he needed to have a decisive blocking element in case the situation arose.

And that's what happened in the 4th day of September. A small British fleet veered off-course too close to the Jutland coast, and into German engagement radius. The 1. Hochseeflotte saw its baptism of fire, as it engaged and sunk two British heavy cruisers. Bismarck claimed the HMS Cumberland, while Gneisenau sunk HMS Cornwall.

new-6.jpg

Another event occurred when submarine commanders relayed the position of small British fleet in the North Sea. Raeder's fleet quickly sailed to encounter it. The resulting battle saw again the victory of the German fleet. In the ensuing battle, an 11 inch shell from Admiral Scheer ignited the ammunition stores of the heavy cruiser HMS Berwick, tearing it apart with a huge blast. The other British heavy cruiser, HMS Hawkings, took multiple hits from several ships, until Scharnhorst delivered its fatal blow.

new-7-1.jpg

Raeder took notice of the British practice of grouping its ships in small groups, and decided to continue attacking whenever his odds would be in his favor. In September 12, the 1. Ubootsflotille reported a group of ships moving east in the North Sea, two of them being carriers. Hitler demanded an attack, and with air cover provided by Luftflotte 4, namely the I. Jagdkorps, the Hochseeflote sailed again to meet the enemy.

new-8.jpg

Soon after the German ships closed in, they were engaged by British carrier aircraft groups. Soon, Deutschland and Graf Spee were forced to abandon the battle, the other ships closing in to take a shot at the carriers.

new-9.jpg

At 1100, the British ships had come into firing range, and splashes were reported by the crews of Glorious and Courageous. All available aircraft have been committed into a fiery fight against the German AA and fighter cover. It was the battleship Tirpitz that, having survived unscathed the ongoing engagement, managed to put several shots in both British ships. With both ships decks under fire and unable to recover aircraft, the British CAGs had to retreat to mainland while the carriers were pounded. By 1300 it was all over.

new-10.jpg

Two important British carriers had been sunk and although several German ships were heavily damaged, a huge moral blow had been dealt to the Royal Navy. But the day hadn't ended yet, as some British ships dispatched to help the now sunk carriers had crossed the Hochseeflotte way back to the docks at Wilhelmshaven. It came as a surprise to both sides, but the leading German ships, the battlecruiser Goeben and the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper engaged and sunk the County-class heavy cruisers Kent and Suffolk.

new-11.jpg

The German fleet would remain docked for repairs for one and a half month. In October 30, ready to sail again, it received reports of a small group of British ships near the Norway coast. However, upon arriving at the reported location, they found nothing, and were on their way back when a float plane from Bismarck found a British battleship and a battlecruiser navigating alone 100km to the east. Raeder decided to engage, and caught the British ships completely by surprise. Queen Elizabeth 15 inch turrets were disabled by salvoes from Tirpitz, while Bismarck engaged HMS Repulse. Despite inflicting some damage, quickly both British vessels were put out of comission, marking the last Kriegsmarine battle of 1939.

new-12.jpg

For the remainder of the year, the German fleet remained docked for repairs and upgrades. With the comissioning of two new battleships, the Hindemburg and Ludendorff, Raeder felt the Kriegsmarine had been proved itself, and was evolving into a formidable adversary for the Royal Navy.


 
It is nice to see the Kriegsmarine out and about engaging the Royal Navy. The maps you make are quite nice btw.

Thanks! I have to say I'm a little obsessed with maps. It was actually the feature from Hoi3 that has caught my attention first.

Update for 1940 coming!
 
Attention turns to the West

January - May 1940


Halder: “Mein Führer, this is the plan. We will attack simultaneously thorugh the entire
front, catching the Allies off-guard.”

Picture38.jpg


"Von Bock should occupy the Netherlands in two weeks. Von Reichenau’s Fourth will then,
given enough time for reorganization, redeployed south to help against France, if needs
arise. Von Kuchler will assume occupation duties against an Allies landing on Netherlands."

"For France, since the bulk of their forces is on the Maginot Line, we’ll both deny their
defensive and offensive capabilities. Speed is paramount; von Manstein have to reach the
Swiss border as soon as possible to close the cauldron. But also the tail have to remain
strong enough to withstand breakout attempts. That is the reason I have allocated two
infantry Armies to cover von Manstein’s advance."

Hitler: “Good. Continue.”

Halder: “In the north, with the Maginot line surrounded, von Kleist will be free to drive to
Paris. Model will push through Belgium, helped by our Fallschirmjäger to overcome the
border fortifications. At this point, if the French would not have already surrendered, our
options become more open. Probable reinforcements will be dislodged from the French
Alps to counter our actions. Thus von Manstein can either block them, or surround them
once they get past Digoin. At this point we should have Model and von Reichenau Armees
ready to move south, freeing von Kleist to either race towards south, to complete the
encirclement, or race west, to the ports of Cherbourg and Le Havre, to prevent evacuations
or reinforcements. But this will be left to the happenings in the field to dictate whichever
direction should be taken next.”

Von Brauchitsch: “Generaloberst Franz Halder, please show us the strengths.”

Halder: “Yes, Generalfeldmarschall von Brauchitsch. Under your command there will be 90
divisions. We believe the French strength to be around 30 divisions in the French Alps, and
70 divisions in the North, including the British forces which should be around 20 divisions.”

Code:
OKH - Von Brauchitsch (90 divs)

	HG A - Von Bock (18 divs)
		Third – von Kuchler (9 divs)
		Fourth – von Reichenau (9 divs)

	HG B - Von Rundstedt (51 divs)
		Eleventh – Model (9 divs)
		Seventh – von Kluge (9 divs)
		Eighth – List (9 divs)
		Pzgruppe Kleist – von Kleist (12 divs – 6 pz + 6 mot) 
		Pzgruppe Manstein – von Manstein (12 divs – 6 pz + 6 mot)

	HG C - Von Leeb (18 divs)
		Second – Dollmann (9 divs)
		Tenth – von Witzleben (9 divs)

	I. Fallschirmkorps (3 divs)
Von Brauchitsch: “That’s roughly equal. What are the possibilities with the Italians?”

Hitler: “We will only call upon the Italians when absolutely necessary. First, I’m not quite
sure of their fighting ability in the Alps. Lets not forget what Hannibal did thousands of
years ago. I can’t risk Italy opening a breach to the French. Second, I don’t want them
celebrating victories because of our efforts. So that’s my stance about the Italians.
We will only call them if absolutely needed.”

Von Brauchitsch: “Yes, Mein Führer. Well, so its pretty clear to me. Our success then
depends on our breakthrough at the Meuse. If we give enough time for the French to
escape our encirclement, they will slow down our advances in the north.”

Von Rundstedt: “Do not forget, Generalfeldmarschall, that if they abandon the Maginot
Line, we will have 2 armies right through their doorstep."

Goering: “Also, our airpower should be predominant against them. We will have two
Luftflottes for the campaign, totalling 2800 aircraft, against 1000 French aircraft.”

Hitler: “Right, gentleman. About the equipment deliveries for the Army, did they occur on
schedule?”

Von Brauchitsch: “For the most part, yes Mein Führer. Our 12 panzer divisions have
received the expected numbers of the Panzerkampfwagen III. The structure of our panzer
divisions is now one regiment of Panzer III, one regiment of light tanks and one regiment of
motorized infantry."

Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-B22419_Produk.jpg

Panzer IIIs coming off the production line

"However, we had some delays with the delivery of armored vehicles for our motorized
divisions. As a result, half of them are equipped with a battalion of Panzerjäger I. The other
half has been reinforced with a battalion of armored recon cars.”

Hitler: “That seems fine for now, but that's unacceptable. I gave Schacht full authority over
the industry! There can't be any delays for our army! But I'll deal with it later. So
Generalfeldmarschall von Brauchitsch, what is your opinion? Should we go for May 10?”

Von Brauchitsch: “Yes Mein Führer. Our chances are narrow but, the surprise is on our
side. The more we wait, the more will the French be reinforced.”

Hitler didn’t saw much confidence on the Generalfeldmarschall answer, but, in light of the
other officials present, he didn’t inquired more.

Hitler: “Great then! I agree! Let’s strike while we still can. So Generalfeldmarschall, would
be now a good time to debrief me on the Denmark and Norway campaign. All the others
are dismissed.”

The other men saluted and left the room. Only Hitler, Brauchitsch and Raeder stayed in the
room.

Raeder: “Mein Führer, before we begin on Weserübung, may I present the Kriegsmarine
reports for the first months of the year?”

Hitler: “Yes Großadmiral, please go ahead.”

Raeder: “We had 3 great engagements until Weserübung. The first one, on January 16, was
when Hood and Renown attempted to break into the Baltic, but our 1. Fleet, led by
Bismarck and Tirpitz, intercepted them. Bismarck sank Hood, but Renown escaped."

Picture39.jpg

Picture40.jpg


"The second was on February 18, when Schleswig-Holstein intercepted and sank the British
battleship Malaya, also trying to get into the Baltic."

Picture42.jpg


"The third one is regarding to our submarine campaign in the Atlantic. We lost contact with
the 9. Ubootsflotille by February 13. Their last known position was on the Spanish coast. I
then launched the 1. Fleet to see if they could reestablish contact at a predetermined
point. They arrived in February 20, but did not managed to reestablish contact, but they
participated briefly on convoy raiding, and on February 28, we engaged a French fleet
comprised of the battleship Paris, which managed to evade, and heavy cruisers Suffren and
Dusquesne, which were both sunk by Gneisenau."

picture43.jpg

picture44.jpg


"Even though we lost one submarine flotilla, we managed to sink 43 Allied merchant ships
between February 10 and March 20. Then operations were suspended to concentrate
efforts for Weserübung. Now I’ll let Generalfeldmarschall von Brauchitsch describe the
operation.”

Von Brauchitsch: “Thanks, Großadmiral. Just to refresh our memories, this was the
Denmark plan."

Picture45.jpg


"At 04:00 of March 10, we attacked Denmark. I corps, led by von Pogrell, and VIII corps,
led by von Falkenhorst, stormed their borders, our boys from the 2 and 3 Fallschirm divisions
jumped on to protect key bridges along the Danish islands, along the 1 Fallschirm which
jumped on their capital, Copenhagen. All Danish garrisons were caught by surprise, being
poorly manned and disorganized. There were about eight hundred soldiers defending the
capital. The border garrisons provided a little better defense, but not much."

Picture46.jpg


"By March 14, our troops had secured all the key points, when then came
the notice of the capture of Christian X by our forces. Shortly afterwards, they signed the
surrender terms."

Picture47.jpg


"Our invasion of Norway has been more tricky – not because of Norway resistance, but
because of the British resistance at sea. Probably anticipating what we will do after the
Danish capitulation, they tried to establish a blockade on Skagerrack. The invasion force of
Norway comprised of again our I Fallschirmkorps, von Falkenhorst VIII corps, and Dietl XVI
Gebirgskorps. Dietl objective was Narvik, while Falkenhorst objective was Oslo. They would
be escorted by the 1 and 2 Fleets of Raeder. Perhaps our Großadmiral could explain better
the happenings from now on.”

picture48.jpg


Raeder: “Pleasantly, Generalfeldmarschall. We had two separated fleets for escorting
and supporting the landings. The 1. Fleet was to cover the Narvik invasion, while the 2. Fleet
would cover the Oslo assault. The date was set to be April 5. However by April 4 we began
suffering attacks by the sea across the Jutland coast. The first was an engagement where a
small French fleet, of one heavy cruiser – the Algérie – accompanied by some escorts,
attacked the 1. Fleet while it awaited for the troop transports to arrive. Soon came other
waves of ships – a Belgian cruiser, several Dutch torpedo boats, and finally, a British
battleship, the HMS Barham. But they were rather disorganized – our fleet managed to sink
several ships, including Barham which had been claimed by Bismarck. We lost some
destroyers in the engagement. But our invasion had to be halted because of the reports of
more enemy ships coming."

Picture49.jpg

Picture50.jpg


"The 1 Fleet then exchanged place with the 2 Fleet for guarding the Norway strait. In the
April 5 dawn, the British battlecruiser Renown tried to breakthrough our lines, but was
sunk by Admiral Scheer."

Picture52.jpg


"That same day, at 17:00 our crews reported some Dutch torpedo boats engaged them and
were destroyed. Then, three hours later, a bigger French fleet came, with the battleship
Provence and the heavy cruisers Colbert and Dupleix, alongside smaller French and British
vessels. Admiral Hipper administered the fatal blow on Provence, while Hindemburg knocked
down Colbert. No losses for us."

Picture54.jpg

Picture55.jpg


"Then on April 6 morning, another fleet, this time led by British flags, came across us. The
battleship Valiant came escorted with several ships, among them the French heavy cruiser
Dupleix, which survived last day, and the British heavy cruisers Effingham, Frobisher and
Dorsetshire. Also an intense activity of submarines was reported. We called upon our
coastal fleet, with destroyers, to deal with them. Again, the day ended with heavy losses
for the Allies, and none for us."

Picture57.jpg


"In April 7, we suffered more attacks, but this time, only submarines. They didn’t managed
to inflict damage to our ships, but made us postpone again our invasion."

"Finally, we launched our troop ships on April 8, and on April 10, the landings began.
Norwegian resistance was minimum, however we didn’t managed to prevent the escape of
the Royal Family. In April 16 all Norwegians laid down their weapons.”

Picture60.jpg


Picture61.jpg


"Just to finish, here are the table of sunk allied ships that you have requested, mein Führer."

Code:
		Sunk	Current Inventory
British			
	CV	2	1
	CVL	0	3
	BB	4	8
	BC	3	0
	CA	9	7
	CL	12	22
	DD	14	25
	SS	4	6
			
France			
	CV	0	1
	BB	1	5
	BC	0	1
	CA	5	2
	CL	3	4
	DD	4	7
	SS	0	15
			
Netherlands			
	CL	1	2
	DD	5	1
	SS	1	3
			
Belgium			
	CL	1	2
			
Norway			
	SS	2	0

Germany			
	BB	0	4
	BC	0	6
	CA	0	6
	CL	0	6
	DD	2	7
	SS	4	9

Merchant ships sunk by Kriegsmarine
between Sep 39 and May 40 - 173

Hitler: “Impressive, Großadmiral! It seems destiny is on our side! Your reports of our fleets
sinking dozen of enemy ships without losses, give to me greater confidence our battle
against the British will be won sooner rather than later. However, we all hope that PI fixes it
someday, if not in the next patch. Well, since there isn’t anything else to add, now I’ll meet
with von Ribbentropp to discuss our foreign politics. As you know, Romania joined in
alliance with us, and our oil situation should be improve from now. Also it seems that the
Japanese are doing good in the Orient.”

Picture62.jpg

 
I have adopted a different layout in the last update. I think that this layout makes it easier to read, but I await your criticism. Hopefully, if I have enough time, I'll retrofit this new layout to the previous chapters.

I like your style very much. Lively and not without humor :)

The pictures and maps you use to visualize the plans and campaigns are outstanding! Keep up the good work.

I also congratulate you to have chosen a more historical approach and not just overrun AI as it would have been viable. This makes for an AAR full of flavor and certainly gives you an entertaining and interesting gaming experience.

I have a few questions however:

1) Apparently you did build more navy than in history. Do you also have CVs in the queue?

2) How did AI JAP overcome the Chinas? Did you support them in any way? I have not yet seen this in 1.3.

3) Will you go for a BoB in the air? I hope you won't invade UK as the game would be won then. Just a thought from an interested reader.
 
Where do you take those great maps from?
 
The format is great, maps in particular.

Thanks! Glad you liking.

Where do you take those great maps from?

I have a little experience with CorelDraw. It has a nice feature that traces bitmaps and converts them to vector drawings. I traced provinces.bmp, and now I have every province as a vector object. Then its a matter of grouping, coloring, adding text, effects like the paper texture.

Those maps are great. Nice AAR.

Thanks Lokki!

My compliments.
I like your AAR very much cant wait until your next update.
Stef

I'm honored to have your first post in my AAR. Be welcome sir!
 
I like your style very much. Lively and not without humor :)

I guess you catched the subliminal message to PI :D

The pictures and maps you use to visualize the plans and campaigns are outstanding! Keep up the good work.

Thanks!

I also congratulate you to have chosen a more historical approach and not just overrun AI as it would have been viable. This makes for an AAR full of flavor and certainly gives you an entertaining and interesting gaming experience.

Indeed... playing against the AI is easy enough. I keep an arm in my back to have the need of using every unit available the best way possible.

I have a few questions however:

1) Apparently you did build more navy than in history. Do you also have CVs in the queue?

You can expect to see the first German carrier in 42/43. I'm teching it up, but building will only start after France falls (if they fall...)

2) How did AI JAP overcome the Chinas? Did you support them in any way? I have not yet seen this in 1.3.

I have. Strangely enough, in my first 1.3 game the AI Japan performed flawlessly... in every subsequent one they got stuck. I have found out an obscure feature (which is availabe in the Hoi3 engine, although no documentation) which is the dynamic AI assessment of threats and objectives to conquer, which caused Japan to consider the SU a magnitude greater threat than Shanxi, even after the DOW (maybe the result of early Axis joining?). I have posted about this in http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=449087. With this sorted, the next problem became supplies, which I have "solved" by "diplomatically forcing" Japan to annex Manchukuo, thus being supplied by land in Korea, and not by ports. From now on, I'll leave them alone though.

3) Will you go for a BoB in the air? I hope you won't invade UK as the game would be won then. Just a thought from an interested reader.

Certainly! I want to defeat UK from an economic standpoint - not an Operation Bernard :D, but cutting its access to resources. I will consider UK defeated when they have depleted their surpluses. But more details will be disclosed in future updates.

I don't know if you have read the AAR from the beginning, but I'm experimenting with convoys and escorts price 10 times more expensive than vanilla. That means the convoy raiding is having now a significant impact UK is right now spending 40 IC to build 20 convoys. Even then, it is nice to see the UK AI having a balanced queue - ships, planes, tanks etc, probably owing also to the AIIP.