Royal Carnage - a CptEasy multiplayer AAR

[CptEasy]

Chapter VII, The Battle of France - part III








Human Players: Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, France, Soviet









Recap: The German attack on Netherland continued with an offensive against Belgium and France. British port attacks was just a lesser event for the Germans as they continued to lumber forwards...














November 3rd, 1939

Two months after the attack on Belgium and Bruxelles still stands. Wehrmacht have been more successful in western France where they have pushed the Brits back towards the Seine River. They have even come so far as to conquer a province neighboring Paris itself. Still, this is of small concern for the moment as Paris is well protected behind the river. Also, the BEF is quite comfortable with holding the Germans away behind the Seine, should they be pushed so far south. All in all, the German offensive is slow and grinding – just as the Allies wants it. However, the Allies lacks forces to really threat the German advance.













December 1st, 1939

Three month into the attack on Belgium. Very little have happened in the last month. It was obvious to the Allies that the Germans were preparing something, hoping to break the extremely slow advance. The question was what. In the end of November came the answer. A powerful panzer-thrust punched south-east of Belgium. This was the weakest part of the French front but also the least dangerous. Bruxelles fell which weakened the whole Belgian front. It would probably not last very long now. French forces were directed eastwards along the front to meet the new German advance.

British forces tried some attacks in the western sector but they had no real chance against dug-in German troops. Also, Luftwaffe had become quite dominant over France making it very tricky for Britain to utilize Bomber Command here.













December 1st, 1939

A detail from previous snapshot. The German army has reallocated the majority of their panzers and motorized units for the operation and they have managed to badly shake the French defenders who now stumbles about, trying desperately to get a new foothold.

Still, this is not a direction where Germany can reach any fast victories. Paris is far away and well protected from the east. There are few big and important cities here. France is not about to fall anytime soon.


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[friget234]

losing in france....

time to declare war on Japan! :P

[mnplastic]

I just wondering are German divisions so much stronger? I can see only a few of them on the front-line and they manage to push the Allies.

[Cybvep]

The German player probably wants to deal with Belgium first and use all troops for a final push in the West. Germany's position is actually better than I thought. It's only 1939. If he wants to stick to standard Barbarossa, he has the rest of 1939 and all of 1940 for France. Sea Lion is probably out of question, anyway.

[Profetkaninen]

Yes a good reminder from Cybveb.. Germany might be progressing slowly but compared to the actual war they can be considered to be ahead of schedule.

Besides does not the expansions of Italy make daphne not so keen on an overly early barbarossa?

It's nice anyways to have the captain on Great Britain again since that will put us in the front row when the pacific [edit: or rather Southeast Asia] explodes. And (without bias towards the allies) I would like to see a US war entry for once. Hell if Santa is listening I'd even like a nuke or two before the fat lady sings

[Cybvep]

Unfortunately, HOI3 is balanced in such way that most games end early on, i.e. well before 1944-1945. Therefore, unless the USA joins early, it is unlikely that they will have great influence on the course of the war. They will either seal the fate of the Axis or come too late to save the Allies.

[ROMMEL_HSQ]

I just wondering are German divisions so much stronger? I can see only a few of them on the front-line and they manage to push the Allies.

The french is mass building militia or garrisons iirc.

[CptEasy]

losing in france....

time to declare war on Japan! :P

You think? No, I would really not like to have them in my back right now, when I focussed so hard in France.

I just wondering are German divisions so much stronger? I can see only a few of them on the front-line and they manage to push the Allies.

They are undoubtly stronger - especially the panzers are extremely hard to stop. That's why rivers are extra important as they get so high penelties there.

The German player probably wants to deal with Belgium first and use all troops for a final push in the West. Germany's position is actually better than I thought. It's only 1939. If he wants to stick to standard Barbarossa, he has the rest of 1939 and all of 1940 for France. Sea Lion is probably out of question, anyway.

Sea Lion is close to impossible in Multiplayer, I think, but maybe my Axis counterparts think otherwise And I agree - it's not the end of the world for Germany to be delayed a little bit in France. However, being delayed means they have to fight through more of the French manpowerpool - losing their own in the process. And each month the Bear is given is important.

Besides does not the expansions of Italy make daphne not so keen on an overly early barbarossa?

It's nice anyways to have the captain on Great Britain again since that will put us in the front row when the pacific [edit: or rather Southeast Asia] explodes. And (without bias towards the allies) I would like to see a US war entry for once. Hell if Santa is listening I'd even like a nuke or two before the fat lady sings

Concerning Italy and Barbarossa - I don't know. Italy and her puppets are dangerously stretched - for attacks from UK. As long as they only have to deal with USSR it's not a problem for them. Its me they have to worry about

Yes - from an AAR-prespective, UK might be the most demanding country to follow. Even though I'm trying to keep this AAR fairly slim it spills out on me... It would surprise me if you don't get that Pacific adventure later on...

Hmm.. I doubt we'll ever see a nuke in a MP-game, but it would surely be interesting.

The french is mass building militia or garrisons iirc.

Yes. Garrisons. Get that manpower pool out to work

[Traks]

Theoretically Sealion is possible, but then it is negligence of UK player to allow it
Problem with France is not so much time, as lost manpower.
If Germany loses too much manpower in France, it makes battle against Soviets even more difficult.

[Cybvep]

Problem with France is not so much time, as lost manpower.
If Germany loses too much manpower in France, it makes battle against Soviets even more difficult.

Exactly. MP is the key here. Time - not so much, unless the war lasts until 1942, which is highly unlikely.

[Dáin]

Is Germany even losing all that much MP, considering its superiority in troop stats compared to the French garrison-army? Right now, in my eyes everything seems to still go very well for the Axis as usual - France is making things hard for them, but so far the Allies are far from actually gaining an advantage .

Wasn't the German player close to pulling off a successful Sea Lion in your second AAR? So it's not that impossible - as long as Britain isn't turtling.

[Baltasar]

Is Germany even losing all that much MP, considering its superiority in troop stats compared to the French garrison-army? Right now, in my eyes everything seems to still go very well for the Axis as usual - France is making things hard for them, but so far the Allies are far from actually gaining an advantage .

Wasn't the German player close to pulling off a successful Sea Lion in your second AAR? So it's not that impossible - as long as Britain isn't turtling.

They're switching the players around.

[CptEasy]

Chapter VIII, The Battle of France - part IV











Human Players: Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, France, Soviet











Recap: It is peaceful in the world - except in the Western Europe where Germany is cutting into Belgium and France. The Allies are desperately scrambling to hold them back.














December 2nd, 1939

Authors note: During the next month or months, I did several of these fairly gamey attacks on Dunkerque. Every time I took it I got to keep it for a week or two. I lost about twice or thrice as much as the Germans, but I deemed the strategic effect a lot more valuable than that. Jerry refused to leave Dunkerque protected why I could continue to do this several times.














December 16th, 1939

The Germans pressed on relentlessly and squeezed in also on the back-side of the Maginot Wall. The Brits made a few major air missions with practically every flying unit they had. Luftwaffe was powerful enough to grind down the British Hurricanes within days which made further bombings far too dangerous to be worth the cost. These attacks probably hurt Wehrmacht marginally but it was all RAF could do to help the French for the moment.













January 10th, 1940

It is a New Year - and with the New Year comes good news. Australia joins the Allies. Excellent. We need all the guns we can get.













January 13th, 1939

The Germans have finally gotten a breach – both in the French frontline and in the Maginot Line. The French just cannot hold their enemy back, but at least they keep their forces together, retreating orderly into the center of the country, into which the Germans have to venture to win. On other words, the Germans are so far not winning much. Only one French Division, mountaineers, is lost here.

In the meantime, France is deploying a huge amount of garrison units protecting a range of fixed positions.

Authors note: As France survived much longer than we initially had hoped the French manpower pool now starting to close in on the zero. We had not really planned for this and the French player had to start rearrange the building queue and build more quality units to save some manpower for the continuous battle-losses.













February 13th, 1940

Wehrmacht have to fight their way through huge amounts of French soldiers but they are still starting to close in on Paris from the east, all while the west is peaceful. As everything had been quite peaceful in the British sector since the end of last year, some British divisions ventured eastwards to back the French up there.

The German infantry was one thing, but their damn panzers were close to unstoppable. Still, it was five and a half months since Germany declared war on Belgium. It was a slow war.

In Les Riceys, a province with a gently hilly landscape, not seldom covered with vineyards, the 3rd Infantry Division saw action for the first time in months. They had the numbers on their side, they were dug in and the terrain was good. The hills gave a good view, there were a lot of small stone walls between the vineyards they could use for protection and they had also had the time to build trenches and earth bunkers. It still became a fierce battle. Their French allies had a weak AT-capability and the German light panzers could wreak havoc amongst them. The armor car supported cavalry was not better. Still, it all seemed possible. Units crawling amongst bushes and low stone wall could be able to fire at the light panzers from the side or back at close range and thus knock them out. Then came the STUKA bombers. Neither RAF nor their French counterpart could throw in any protection during this period and this flying artillery started to wear the units down. It was simply terrible for a soldier hearing the screaming engines diving from the sky, knowing that bombs with high precision soon would hit him or his friends.



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[loki100]

you're doing a good job of presenting a Germany that with the panzers is unstopable but elsewhere is making slow progress - at least where their main thrust is not immediately too dangerous.

could you risk an offensive in the north to take the pressure off?

[Cybvep]

Not much is happening. As expected, the Germans are slowly pushing the French back. I think that they will win in several months.

[anweRU]

A meat grinder! If saving France is not likely, would it be better for the French player stop building units, and concentrate on reinforcements and supplies? Or does he have more than enough IC to cover those requirements?

Could he produce excess supplies and sell them to the UK, thus freeing British industrial capacity for unit production?

And another random thought. What would happen if the French player gave his main units to the British player as expeditionary forces a day or two before the final surrender. Would those forces stay with the British, or be removed?

[sprites]

hmm I do not know the game mechanics enough to answer that , but I see the germans crawling slowly

[nightraid3r]

uncle joe stands to profit the most from this drawn out battle in which the germans are suffering more casualties than they had wished. Every man that dies on the western front is one fewer that can fight on the east, so in that regard you are clearly weakening the axis by damaging their chances of success in the east

[Traks]

Manpower can be easily counted with battle reports.
Anything over 100,000 losses on German side is bad. 50-100,000 is acceptable, less is ideal.
And I know what I am talking about. In our game France held until June 1940 or so, and we lost 120,000 in campaign. We did win Eastern campaign but barely on last scraped manpower and because Italy got Suez (with our help) and could attack through Caucasus and Odessa.

Orderly fallback of French soldiers means they can regain strength and attack back later, so I'd put French survival 1-2 months more, depends on what is in Paris.

[AUSTERLITZ]

Once the riverbank defences are breached the french will collapse pretty quickly.
But still i think the allied defense was very nice and cost the germans much.Not much time left for france though.
People are underestimating italy a little here,with their conquests they are bound to have buffed manpower and leadership and ic.This will make them tougher than usual,coupled with the fact that their units were blooded in the early wars.They really should strike at the middle east now,coz after this brit units will be redeployed to that theatre once france falls.Unless turkey was taken to get a pincer on the caucasus.