Germany, 1936: Cabals from the Meuse to the Memel

[Baltasar]

I'm not sure you're doing yourself a favor with your attempt to destroy the Republicans the way you intend to do. I'd recommend to start the attack on Madrid first, then wait a bit. If the Republicans move in to reinforce that province, you can attack Toledo once the reinforcements are there, trapping more than just 5 divisions. If it does not reinforce, just take Madrid and push the Republicans back step by step. You outnumber them already and the Republicans will have trouble reinforcing and reorganizing their forces with their ever smaller industrial capabilities.

I assume you are going to move your forces into a position where you can attack the Republicans without river penalty?

[Cybvep]

I really like this AAR. Subscribed

[nurn]

I'm playing along with you on this one...
My southern Nationalist forces lost their foot hold, so I gave them a hand.
I moved my German HQ Unit just off the shore of Murcia, declared war on the Republicans, did an amphibious assault on Murcia (it had no enemy units in it).
Then quickly transported six infantry divisions and three light tank divisions to form an expeditionary force, and started my conquest of south east Spain. The Republicans were doomed in a fight on two fronts - Germany in the south, Nationalists in the north.
Very entertaining.

[K W]

First I want to apologize for the lack of updates today before I respond to your comments. I have finally downloaded and installed Kaiserreich for DH yesterday, and as this mod is great fun, I've invested my spare time in this, and not in the AAR. You will get an update I already planned for yesterday shortly, and perhaps even more tonight.

At least you encircled and eliminated one division rather than none.

Well, if I look from a Nationalist Spain perspective every division that is destroyed by encirclement -- even unimportant militia -- is, of course, a cause for celebration. If I look from a Germany perspective it's a humiliation. And I think that I'm looking from the wrong perspective in the SCW. It's just not so easy anymore in DH to succeed with a generalized approach, more specialization and weighing of interests is necessary. You just have to look how many parts of the tech tree I have to forfeit as a major country like Germany, not to mention the abstention from building IC. Therefore I have specialized myself for this game with Germany and made the mistake to unconsciously copy some Germany habits on Nationalist Spain, like the rapid sequence of attacks and moving orders that virtually destroyed my organisation. Would I have specialized myself more with Nationalist Spain, I would have progressed slower, but probably more succesful. The battle of Toledo was lost because of the terrible organisation of my units, after all. And you will see in the next update that it would have been indeed wiser to inform myself more deeply about Nationalist Spain.

Besides, the times in which a Nationalist Spain AI annexed a Republican Spain til Autumn 1936 are now (with DH) definitely over. Even a human player has now problems to conclude the Spanish Civil War in 1936. It is not so unusual that the SCW lasts historically til 1939 when the AI fights it out, and in one of my test games the SCW became even a perpetual stalemate as the Nationalists entrenched theirselves in the north. Glorious victories require now complete flawlesness in planning and execution, which is, admittedly, more realistical.

Do you have any idea what Nat. Spain itself is building? Upgrading, new troops, or just building supplies?

I don't know. My spies say that they focus their production towards province improvements -- which would be really stupid -- but as my spies are also claiming that the Nationalists have -2147483648 convoy escorts, I would not rely on this information. They have, however, built some infantry, as I occasionally got some additional division which appeared from nowhere.

I think that the whole Military Control mechanism should get a small revamp. Because I would not only like to see their production queue, even more important are their technology tree (you will see why in the next update) and the lifting of the fog of war to all adjacent provinces of a militarily controlled nation. Especially the latter is something I would even dare to call an outright bug -- how am I supposed to command their units when I don't have the same vision range?

Any chance of getting more troops from Germany and/or Italy?

Not if I don't ally myself with the Nationalists, which would mean in consequence war with the Republicans. Apart from that, I really don't see any need for it -- we make good progress and will win in a few months, although it could have been obviously better.

It's a bit dissappointing to see that the Republicans have air supremacy. Where did they get these planes from?

Still no idea, I wondered about this already some time before. I have now checked the Soviet Intervention event, too, but they should only get one interceptor and one tactical bomber from the Soviets. I guess they built the planes before the SCW.

I'm not sure you're doing yourself a favor with your attempt to destroy the Republicans the way you intend to do. I'd recommend to start the attack on Madrid first, then wait a bit. If the Republicans move in to reinforce that province, you can attack Toledo once the reinforcements are there, trapping more than just 5 divisions. If it does not reinforce, just take Madrid and push the Republicans back step by step.

This, exactly! Keep it in mind, folks, so you will see what would have been an obviously succesful alternative strategy when you read about my latest failure.

You outnumber them already and the Republicans will have trouble reinforcing and reorganizing their forces with their ever smaller industrial capabilities.

Well, this is the reason why a Nationalist victory is in the end inevitable, despite all tactical disappointments.

I assume you are going to move your forces into a position where you can attack the Republicans without river penalty?

Only my three divisions from Plasencia will be forced to cross a river, and this is somewhat without alternative, as the province would remain otherwise unguarded.

I really like this AAR. Subscribed

Thanks.

I'm playing along with you on this one...
My southern Nationalist forces lost their foot hold, so I gave them a hand.
I moved my German HQ Unit just off the shore of Murcia, declared war on the Republicans, did an amphibious assault on Murcia (it had no enemy units in it).
Then quickly transported six infantry divisions and three light tank divisions to form an expeditionary force, and started my conquest of south east Spain. The Republicans were doomed in a fight on two fronts - Germany in the south, Nationalists in the north.
Very entertaining.

Please notify us as soon as France declares war on Germany. No, seriously, the belligerence hit Germany will incur from a direct war against the Republicans must be very huge, especially when you decided to take control of the Nationalists in the first place and of course on account of our beloved Führer. France declared even in HoI and AoD usually war against Germany as soon as Germany's belligerence substantially surpassed the belligerence requirement for DoWs defined by France's interventionism slider, and DH does not seem to differ from this, as I tried in one test game to take Luxembourg early by force, and this was answered with a declaration of war shortly. I'm gambling already more than I would normally do, so I'm just too afraid to gamble even more by attacking the Republicans directly.

[K W]

Part XVII: November 1936

Well, you see what you see. Neither Huelva nor Cadiz are yellow. And the NAF are now in Malaga. Why, you may ask. Well:

The Nationalists obviously don't have the necessary technology for amphibious landings. I repeat that: The Nationalists don't have the necessary technology for it, I know it because after I stopped being furious I checked my intelligence on the Nationalists, and my spies report that they are currently researching the penultimate (!) technology that is necessary before (!) they can begin the research of the first (!) invasion technology that would allow amphibious landings of the size of one (in numbers: 1!), which prompted me to become furious again. This has to be some kind of an overarching Byzantine conspiracy against me. Seriously, I can't do an amphibious invasion against an unguarded province even if I would split my five divisions into five corps?! How much misfortunes do I have to suffer before fate shows some compassion? No! This can't be true!

After some time I realize that the negation of facts will not defeat the Republicans, so we are going to face the reality and move on. Well, as the amphibious invasion idea has now died, I will use the NAF to guard Albacete and later to launch another delay attack that actually should have been executed by Franco on Ciudad Real to prevent reinforcements for Toledo. Franco himself still has to recapture Alicante after the succesful encirclement, and will take up position in Malaga later.



So there will be unfortunately no distraction for the Republicans. We wait almost two weeks, until our organisation is completely restored, and then start the second attempt to encircle Madrid, as the Republicans still have five divisions there that could be destroyed. We have to capture Toledo in order to cut Madrid off, so we attack with seventeen divisions the eight Republican divisions in Toledo. The neighboring provinces, Madrid itself and Ciudad Real, are also attacked to prohibit the Republicans from moving more divisions to Toledo. The five divisions in Madrid are delayed by eleven divisions from Guadalajara and Segovia, while the four divisions in Ciudad Real are attacked by the NAF in Albacete. I also notice that my air force has finally regained operability, unfortunately just in the moment we launch the attack. Perhaps it's too late to use it, but we nevertheless order them to rebase to the closest (and very damaged) airport in Valencia.



The battle of Toledo progresses very satisfactorily during the first four days. We even manage to get an Assault battle event. Although the Republicans have two tanks, and we only one, their forces are at least more disorganized than ours are.



We have, however, an (expected) problem in the south: The NAF can't keep the enemy in Ciudad Real long enough, as the battle in Toledo still progresses, so we are forced to order Franco from Murcia to Albacete as a support, essentially surrendering Murcia to the Republicans. Perhaps we will order the exhausted NAF later back to Murcia if Franco manages to occupy the Republicans on his own to prevent the loss of the province.



The Republicans still have the ability to surprise me. Somehow they managed to retreat one division from the ongoing battle of Toledo to Caceres. I certainly won't complain about their caring and protecting nature concerning Caceres, as the number of divisions I have to fight in Toledo has now dropped from eight to seven.

[soulking]

I think - in the grand scheme of things - that losing Murcia to the Republicans would do little damage to the Nationalist cause so long as the divisions in Ciudad Real are occupied with delaying attacks.

[K W]

Part XVIII: December 1936

December begins, and the battle of Toledo still proceeds. Although we get another positive battle event, the Republicans still stand their ground. I would have used my air force at this point to speed the battle progress up, but due to the rebasing to Valencia they again lost some organisation, while Republican planes frequently show up and make any air force intervention dangerous. The battle of Madrid at some point becomes even more successful for the attackers than the battle of Toledo. It is only a question of time.



In the south, the NAF are, as expected, defeated by the Republicans, but as the SAF under Franco's command are only hours away from Albacete, the Republicans will not be able to move divisions to Toledo in the meantime to relief their strained forced. I later order the NAF, as soon as they have reorganized a bit, to move to Murcia to protect the province, as it could be easily seized by the four Republican divisions stationed in Almeria.



Then, on the 12th of December, 1936, the disaster happens that leads to the eventual failure of the encirclement: We win the battle of Madrid. We have beaten the Republicans in Madrid before we have won in Toledo, so the divisions in Madrid start their retreat to Toledo -- that is not about to be encircled in any way -- and won't be destroyed. Yes, now even the time has come to start weeping about victories. The catastrophe and subsequent escape of five virtually doomed Republican divisions is solely based on my own ignorance and incompetence, or to be more precise, on a false assumption I already expressed some time before:

The battle in Madrid will also cause the destruction of the three retreating divisions in Segovia, as provinces with ongoing battles will count as hostile provinces -- I think, because otherwise I couldn't explain their subsequent disappearance (if anyone has deeper knowledge about this topic, I would be glad to listen).

Obviously this was not the case here, otherwise all five divisions would have been destroyed. Instead, they're now just moving to Toledo and as soon as the battle is concluded there with another victory, they will again escape together with the other Republican divisions from Toledo. This is not only awful and embarassing, it's just confusing. I know from HoI and AoD that provinces with ongoing battles do not count as hostile provinces, of course, and that it is always necessary to capture all provinces that border the target province(s) of the encirclement. However, based not only upon the one observation that I cited before, but also on some similar events during my test games, I thought that this was somehow changed in DH and that the rule I mentioned before, almost a natural law in HoI and AoD, would no longer apply, considering the abundance of empirical observations I made. OK, we now know that this is apparently not always true, that the rule still applied here and I therefore failed to encircle the divisions -- however, this does not explain why, for example, the divisions in Segovia disappeared as soon as they had been defeated and their only escape would have been a province with an ongoing battle. The only way I can imagine at this moment to explain this inconsistencies would be that their strength dropped a microsecond before their defeat to zero, resulting in their destruction, but that also begs the explanation why their strength has dropped so much in the end.

Unfortunately I don't have a save to investigate it in more detail. Anyway, feel free to speculate, to come up with a better explanation or to debunk all I have written before as nonsense due to an obvious crux I forgot. If you should have learned one thing from this AAR, than that it is in DH still necessary to capture all provinces before you encircle.

I also want to point out that this would be an excellent opportunity for a reload -- it would be so simple to go back in time and just retreat one corps from the battle of Madrid, thus postponing the victory in Madrid until Toledo is captured. I freely admit that I was seriously thinking about breaking my own rules at this point, after this frustrating series of failures, but before I even started to stop myself with the thought that it would be a despicable betrayal of myself and my readers, a message popped up:

4:00 December 13, 1936: Abyssinia won a battle against Italy in Dire Dawa.

I will not fall that low.



Scarcely one day later we defeat the Republicans in Toledo and occupy the province, while all Republican divisions, probably fiendishly laughing due to the successful execution of their conspiration against me, start their retreat to the neighboring provinces. I again want to stress that this all sounds and appears more worse than it actually is; the victories are still victories, even if bitter ones, and I doubt that the Republicans will survive the next three to four months. We probably won't see any artistic warfare in the SCW anymore, and with the capture of Madrid and Toledo I declare (still ashamed) the end of Stage III, although in fact my whole plan slowly died.

Edit (thanks to soulking): After being retreated from Albacete the NAF under the command of Field Marshal Mola Vidal arrived just in time in Murcia to prevent a Republican takeover of the province by the divisions in Almeria. Franco was indeed used as a replacement for Mola Vidal and the battle in Ciudad Real, that was initially only a delay battle, is still going on with Franco's SAF.

Germany also required some attention in the meantime: With the beginning of the final quarter of the year I decided that we would start to research some useful 1937 technologies as soon as the next tech slot became available. The continuing research of 1936 troopships is definitely not something that helps to improve my mood. The research penalty from researching technologies before their historical date can be taken during the last quarter of the year if the technology in question is a useful one, and should be taken if it has paramount importance. So I.G. Farben now researches Agrichemistry, a tech that will raise our industrial efficiency and the efficiency in producing supplies by two percent, while Messerschmitt researches 1937 Interceptors; I don't build any province improvements that will help me in containing the Allied air force, so modern interceptors are without alternative.

The British have at some point decided to sabotage I.G. Farben, which will delay our additional IC a bit. I either need better counter espionage or luck; as I'm clearly not going to get the latter due to my proven bad karma, I might after all decide to over-produce consumer goods in order to raise my intelligence level, if I can combine it with a useful minister change in January 1937.

[K W]

I think - in the grand scheme of things - that losing Murcia to the Republicans would do little damage to the Nationalist cause so long as the divisions in Ciudad Real are occupied with delaying attacks.

I have forgotten to mention it in the update, thank you for the reminder; you can see in the last screenshot how the NAF safely arrived in Murcia. The Republicans where already marching into the province, but as soon as Field Marshal Mola Vidal arrived in Murcia and a battle began, the Republicans decided that it would be better to stay in Almeria.

[Baltasar]

Indeed the whole SCW is all but over. The Republicans lack the industrial means to resupply their forces quickly and you should be able to just shove them back rather quickly... if your units don't stumble over their own legs, losing org in the process.

[Pier]

What is the IC and natural resource production ratio now?

[Timmie0307]

How are the Abyssinians doing against Italy then... An Ethiopian victory would surely be nice somehow.

Tim

[K W]

Indeed the whole SCW is all but over. The Republicans lack the industrial means to resupply their forces quickly and you should be able to just shove them back rather quickly... if your units don't stumble over their own legs, losing org in the process.

I will just keep a cool head and wait for the restoration of my organisation after every offensive, then it'll be a cakewalk.

What is the IC and natural resource production ratio now?

Do you mean Nationalist Spain or Germany? As Germany I have 151 Base IC and 181 Effective IC, due to my ministers (+ 12 percent), technologies (+ 16 percent), policies (+ 5 percent), partisans (- 3 percent) and peacetime (- 10 percent) modifiers. I'm naturally producing 1108 energy, 104 metal, 39 rare materials and 2 oil through my provinces. Nationalist Spain's IC is roughly 16 Base IC and 22 Effective IC now, to say something about their resource production I would be forced to count all of their resources in every single province, so let's just say that they have probably enough to run their industry at full power.

How are the Abyssinians doing against Italy then... An Ethiopian victory would surely be nice somehow.

I will post during one of my next updates a map of Ethiopia for you, although I'm afraid that they will nevertheless lose sooner or later -- probably later, as the Italians are performing even worse than they did in reality.

[K W]

Part XIX: December 1936 – January 1937

Yet again we convert an initial delay battle into a serious offensive on account of our failed encirclement. Franco is still fighting in Ciudad Real, so we will lend him a hand with our newly arrived forces in Toledo and Tarancon. The four Republican divisions in Ciudad Real can't withstand an assault from multiple directions with nineteen Nationalist divisions, although our divisions in Toledo incur a penalty from crossing a river. Nevetheless, the Republicans are quickly defeated and the province is captured by all divisions from Tarancon and Toledo -- Toledo itself will soon receive new guard divisions, as eleven divisions from Madrid are already moving into the province, so it is not necessary to leave a division in Toledo behind. The SAF will remain in Albacte so that the province remains guarded and and opens later a possibility to launch an offensive in the south east.



Finally the year 1937 begins, so it's time to focus a little bit more on Germany. In 1937 an important new minister appears, Walter Buch. He is a Man of the People, granting a ten percent boost to our manpower growth and the use of manpower in non-national provinces, and can be appointed as Minister of Security. Concerning manpower growth there is not much to say: We are not the Soviet Union and therefore every bit of manpower we can harness from our provinces is important. I decide to appoint him immediatly on the 1st of January as a replacement for Franz Gürtner, because the manpower growth bonus is not retroactive; so every day we don't have him as minister, we lose potential ten percent additional manpower growth. We receive one additional percent of dissent for this change. I will also at some point replace my current Foreign Minister, Constantin von Neurath, with Joachim von Ribbentrop, as he grants us a more useful money discount on influencing nations and demanding territory, which will serve us better than the current discounts for various alliance interactions and guarantees of indepedence that are provided by von Neurath. I will explain more about this step after we take a look at the next screenshot.



At the same date the decision for the Anschluss of Austria appears, but we can't take it, as we first have to wait for an event-triggered Nazi coup in Austria. The coup can happen already in 1937, although the odds are not very high. The chances for the coup will signifcantly increase in 1938, so it is more likely that the Anschluss is triggered in 1938. But we hope that we will have, at least once, some luck and that the coup will happen in 1937, as we will gain nineteen additional IC earlier than usual -- and this additional IC is desperately needed, as we are still not able to produce all our units in the production queue. We will also inherit the Austrian army, and -- I think -- their resource stockpile, including any money they have.

Also notice the hefty ten percent dissent reduction the Anschluss will grant us. This is the reason why I will postpone the appointment of von Ribbentrop: I want to use this reduction shamelessly in order to burn all our dissent in a single day. The foreign minister change is not critical, as we are, due to the lack of money, either way forced into diplomatic inactivity, so no reason to strain our IC efficiency with an additional point of dissent right now when our whole dissent will vanish some months later. But the possibilites do not end here: As the dissent reduction is ten percent, we can also use this as an opportunity to enact Three Year Conscription or even Partial Mobilization, which would normally cause our dissent to skyrocket. If we enact these decisions just before the Anschluss, we can circumvent this nasty dissent penalties.

The question what we do in the meantime to get some money still exists. I'm still contemplating if it is favourable to stop my production for some days and to over-produce consumer goods in order to get some money for our intelligence and diplomacy. The other benefit of over-producing consumer goods, dissent reduction, is, with the perspective of a dissent reducing Anschluss, not really an advantage anymore and speaks against such a step. I'm also really reluctant to halt my production without serious reasons, as I will have to halt it in Spring 1939 anyway to upgrade all my units, losing precious production time, and besides, I already did not produce anything but a ship in January and Februar 1936, so I've already lost two months. On the other hand, France just succeeded in stealing a blueprint (Distraction Maneuvers from 1914, so it's not really a win for the French) from me, and I don't want any smear campaigns to succeed, even if the Anschluss could absorb one of it. Perhaps I will try to trade some resources for money (which will be difficult, as I already have to pay 39 bucks for opening negotiations) to raise my intelligence level at least once.



During the first few days of the new year my first infantry divisions are finished, unfortunately only eleven of twelve; I already reported before that the British managed to delay the production of one PR of infantry by two months. I think that I will indeed try to trade for some money to raise my intelligence level, another disruptions in production would be very annoying, too. I need 604 funds for it, and I have right now only 107, so it will be a tricky undertaking. Anyway, I place my eleven infantry divisions in Meseritz and Deutsch Krone at the Polish border for the time being, as I would like to see a full border guard against Poland when the End of Czechoslovakia triggers at the latest, in case that Czechoslovakia resists and a war breaks out preliminary. I appoint another two high-skill commanders to the new corps, although one doesn't have the necessary rank to command such a big corps. But as commanders will receive promotions automatically after some time, this is a problem that is likely to silently disappear in the next years.



Back to Spain. I've waited a week or so after the succesful capture of Ciudad Real to restore the organisation of my units, and here is the plan for the next major offensive against the Republicans: We will strike at three provinces, Caceres, Cordoba and Jaen. The three Nationlist divisions in Plasencia will attack Caceres, unfortunately over a river, but supported by eleven other divisions from Toledo. As the Republicans have only one division in Caceres, I don't expect any problems, even if they move some reinforcements from heavily guarded Badajoz to the province. Our fourteen divisions in Ciudad Real will start an offense against the temporary Republican capital of Cordoba, expecting a battle with six Republican divisions, which will probably also result in a victory, and Franco's SAF will, together with the NAF of Field Marshal Mola Vidal in Murcia, conquer Jaen after a battle with two Republican divisions.

[K W]

Part XX: January 1937

As you can see from the battle overview, the execution of our offensive is going very well, due to our superior organisation we are already after one week very close to a victory. In the end, the Republicans will be defeated in all three provinces almost simultaneously.

I also used this picture to show you, after a reader's request, the current situation in Abyssinia: It is now January 1937 and the Italians failed to annex Ethiopia. The Ethiopians have managed, until now, to repel every Italian attack on their capital. It is however necessary for the Italians to capture it, as it is the only VP province of Abyssinia, in order to annex the country. The Ethiopians are sometimes even retaking one or two provinces from the Italians. I don't know how long they can hold out against the Italians, but even if it would be most thrilling to see an Ethiopian victory or perhaps a stalemate, I think that the Ethiopians are on their last legs, as Italy has recently started to win more battles. Either way, the fact that Italy is too incompetent to defeat a backward African country after more than a year is another argument for my decision to refrain from any alliance with the Italians.

I also use this as an opportunity to give you some information about other foreign events that happened during 1936: Until now everything progressed very historical, the Sino-Japanese War, the abdication of Edward VIII, the re-election of Roosevelt, even the Great Purge in the Soviet Union began in 1936, the only ahistorical event I can recall was the refusal of the Polish AI to accept the "Sudden Change in Government", which leaves Marian Zyndram-Koscialkowski as the Polish Head of Government.



After our victories in Spain, Cordoba is the first province to be captured by our divisions. The Republicans surprisingly start a counterattack with six divisions from Badajoz and Sevilla against us and would even succeed if we had only five divisions at our disposal. However, nine other divisions from Ciudad Real are already enroute to Cordoba, so the Republicans will abort their counterattack as soon as the reinforcements arrive in Cordoba.



The reinforcements haven't completely arrived in Cordoba yet, as we notice something: The province of Huelva is not protected, and it is the only province that connects Badajoz to the Republican mainland. We have another opportunity for an encirclement! After the humiliations of Toledo we will therefore make another attempt for an encirclement in order to destroy the twelve Republican divisions in Badajoz and Caceres and, of course, to restore our honour. The Nationalist Central Command under the command of General Volkmann is the only fast corps we have at our disposal, so we just give him the command to move into Huelva. The Republicans could only attack us over a river in a hill province with two divisions from Sevilla, so I won't send any more corps to Huelva.

Also notice that the Nationalists produced a new infantry division and placed it in our temporary capital in Burgos. It's a little bit late, dear Nationalists, but as I'm not a mean person, I will just order the new division to Madrid for the upcoming victory parade.



This time, we are wiser than before and make sure that the enemies are defeated only after the capture of Huelva. Therefore, we only use the fourteen divisions in Caceres and Toledo to attack Badajoz, although we could also use the divisions in Cordoba for support, and watch the progress of both the battle and General Volkmann's march to Huelva closely. But somehow, even before we begin the battle, four divisions disappeared; if all divisions that were retreating from Caceres to Badajoz had arrived there we would see twelve divisions in Badajoz, and not eight. I have a bad feeling about this -- could it be that the AI has learned how to disband divisions, to alleviate a manpower shortage? I've experienced already so many weird events during this game, well, I guess it's just the next mystery and we shouldn't bother about it for too long, as the divisions that disappeared are probably no more, which is not really something I would condemn ...



Volkmann reaches Huelva after a few days. It's time for the final blow against the Republicans now, all divisions that are in an adjacent province to Badajoz are ordered to support the destruction of the pocket. Twenty-eight Nationalist divisions against eight cut-off and encircled Republican divisions, I would be really puzzled and angry if we would not conclude this battle with a quick victory.

[Morlak]

Maybe the AI is using Strategic Redeployement to move their troops out before they get encircled?

It would be amusing to see the AI using that king of gamey tactics =D

Great AAR, by the way.

[soulking]

Nice that you could finally have your revenge for the loss at Toledo. As well, is there an event that happens to Italy if it hasn't conquered Ethiopia by a certain date?

[Timmie0307]

I also saw that sometimes in standard HOI 2, that the AI uses Strat. Depl. to move its forces from an encirclement, so yes this virus could be transferred to DH as well . I haven't seen any event considering Italy and the situation in Ethiopia but it would be nice to include it in the next patch that when the Italians fail to capture say Addis Abeba before a certain date (for example 01/01/1937) they get a rise in dissent and if half a year later the situation hasn't improved, they get League of Nations intervention or an italian defeat -> Ethiopian independence...

Nice advance with the Nationalists, they are at least better than the Italians as a potential ally. These are the last days of Republican Spain

Tim

[K W]

Maybe the AI is using Strategic Redeployement to move their troops out before they get encircled?

I also saw that sometimes in standard HOI 2, that the AI uses Strat. Depl. to move its forces from an encirclement, so yes this virus could be transferred to DH as well .

This sounds plausible -- but after the amphibious invasion shock I would not be so sure that the Republicans possess the necessary technology for Strategic Redeployments.

It would be amusing to see the AI using that king of gamey tactics =D

Well, it's the AI. For every game hour that passes the AI makes at least one tactical or strategical mistake. Add to this the fact that the AI can neither eat, nor sleep, nor have a sex life like humans, and you will start to sympathize with the poor machine, forgiving any gamey tactics the AI could possibly use. By the way, does the AI still have in Darkest Hour unlimited naval range? I couldn't make any observations about this yet, but I hope that this is no longer the case, as there are now even special techs for extending the naval range.

Great AAR, by the way.

Nice advance with the Nationalists, they are at least better than the Italians as a potential ally. These are the last days of Republican Spain

Thank you.

Nice that you could finally have your revenge for the loss at Toledo. As well, is there an event that happens to Italy if it hasn't conquered Ethiopia by a certain date?

I haven't seen any event considering Italy and the situation in Ethiopia but it would be nice to include it in the next patch that when the Italians fail to capture say Addis Abeba before a certain date (for example 01/01/1937) they get a rise in dissent and if half a year later the situation hasn't improved, they get League of Nations intervention or an italian defeat -> Ethiopian independence...

There are no events concerning the Italo-Abyssinian War in DH. If this wouldn't be a gameplay AAR where cheating and modding is strictly forbidden, I would have perhaps included some own events at this point, just to annoy the Italians a little bit more.

[K W]

Part XXI: February 1937

After just one week the encircled Republicans in Badajoz are defeated, eight divisions have been destroyed. I'm especially happy because of the fact that two light armor divisions were trapped in Badajoz, which presumably were the only ones the Republicans possessed.



I ordered some of my divisions from Cordoba to Huelva, just to make sure that the Republicans won't start a futile counterattack. At the same time -- my units were still marching to Badajoz -- three Republican divisions appeared from literally nowhere in Badajoz. Well, I won't even bother to surprise you with yet another theory; the three Republican divisions are destroyed after a couple of hours by my divisions from Toledo and Caceres, and Badajoz is eventually captured. Until my divisions manage to replenish their organisation, I will give my units a break, which will especially allow my divisions in Badajoz to march to the front in the meantime.



After twelve days we start the hopefully last major offensive of the Spanish Civil War: The NAF and the SAF will attack Almeria. The battle here will probably last longer than usual, as we only have a 2:1 superiority over the five Republican divisions in Almeria, but as Almeria is not a victory province, a quick conclusion of the battle is not essential. While fourteen divisions from Toledo and Badajoz are still marching to the front in Huelva and Cordoba, we will also launch an attack against two Republican divisions in Sevilla. Yes, all our units attack over a river, but the only other province I could have attacked would have been Granada, and this province is protected by land forts as well as eight Republican divisions, while I would be forced to attack with just nine divisions from Cordoba over a river, too, if I wouldn't deprive Field Marshal Mola Vidal of General Franco's support in Jaen.



The battle in Sevilla ends after one week with a Nationalist victory, and our mobile Nationalist Central Command (NCC) is able to capture the province shortly after the battle, some Republican divisions were moving into Sevilla, triggering a new battle, but our two divisions repelled the attack after just an hour. We sense an opportunity; Cadiz and Malaga are not protected, so I order the NCC to seize Malaga before the Republicans can manage to get a division from Granada here, as they are already moving one militia division to the province. The 1st and the 8th Infantry Corps which are slower and therefore still in Huelva are ordered to capture Cadiz after their arrival in Sevilla. As soon as our units from Badajoz, who are still lagging behind, arrive in Cordoba, we will launch the final attack against the fortifications in Granada.



Well, on the 26th of February, 1937 the Italians eventually capture, after heavy resistance and repeated battles, the Ethiopian capital of Addis Adeba, resulting in the annexation of Abyssinia. My brave Ethiopians unfortunately didn't manage to resist the Italians any longer, it would have been intriguing to see some more fighting, and I had actually hoped that we would prove our superior warfare by finishing the SCW before the Italians could annex Ethiopia. Should I ever get into a war with Italy and my hands on Africa, I promise that, in recognition of Ethiopian resilience, I will liberate the Abyssinian state as an independent nation -- as a German puppet, of course, as I have to maintain at least some white supremacist attitudes while playing Nazi Germany, after all. No, really, the actual reason for this is that I will get a hefty dissent hit for liberating Ethiopia, so leaving them as a puppet would be an adequate compensation for my generosity.

[soulking]

Well, now that the outcome of the SCW is in your favour, what happens next?