My Fight Volume II - Yet another HPP USAAR

So, when we left off, I just started Operation Torch. And if you thought that this would be a cakewalk, then think again!


Ohmm... No, it didn't... They are still not involved in the war itself, only a member of the Axis. Good. Very good. Phew... You got me worried there for a second! Anyway, the actual landings went rather smoothly.


So, that part of the campaign was over in like two days or so. Unfortunatelly the resulting surrender wasted most of the remaining French forces because they were still stationed in Europe. Even so, they have over 100 Brigades now! Awesome! Anyway, it's time to move on into Tunisia!

On 18th of November, the Spanish State started to mobilize. The bad news about this is that it indicates that they were called into arms and they probably will be again, opening a new front in my back in North Africa... Meanwhile in Asia, on the 30th of November, Iran surrendered to the Soviet Union, while Japan has already taken half of Mongolia and practically everything noteworthy to the East of the Lake Baikal, with the situation not being any better on the European front either. Leningrad is under siege, Minsk, Gomel, Kyiv, Smolensk, Kursk, Sevastopol, to name just a few of the Soviet cities have all fallen to the German armies. Remember all those German AARs where after beating the Soviets there was nothing to do because invading the USA was pretty much pointless? Well, it kinda works both ways...

But at least the fighting in Tunisia goes according to plan.


If we don't get any surprises, the boys will be able to link up with the British near Surt in March at the latest. Or maybe at Tarabulus in February, because the British started to push the Italians back as well. And in late January, my briliant scientists developed Jet Engines. Awesome! Let's start working on Light Jet-Fighters right away! The only thing that's still concerning is my Officer Ratio, which is 73% at the moment and I'm still pumping out new Divisions... I'm currently training about 90 Officers a day but I would need almost 60000 to fill up the ranks completely, and I have only 44000. I guess I shouldn't even consider attacking Europe for quite some time.


By the way. I was wondering, what occupation policy I should use in Italy? There are two of them available: Liberation (no actual benefit but absolutely no partisan activity either) or Collaboration Government (kinda like a puppet in-the-making). I guess either of them would be logical form a role-playing point of view as well, considering that Italy actually switched sides in the real war too. But quite frankly the provinces in North Africa are pretty much worthless anyway, so I wouldn't really gain much from the Collaboration Government anyway. I'll stay with Liberation.


Tarabulus was won on the 26th of February. Three American Divisions fought against many Italian soldiers and the result was rather impressive despite the unfavourable terrain and weather and my low Officer Ratio: 1749 of the 42586 soldiers lost on my side and 4295 out of the 54976 on theirs. Unfortunatelly the city was not surrounded (the British found something shiny in Kuwait so they decided to pull back about 90% of their forces about a week ago), so the remaining forces retreated to the East. But they did't last long. The last of the Italian forces were driven out of North Africa by mid-March of 1942.


So. With the whole of Africa cleared of (active) Axis threat, it's time to plan our next move. First of all, we'll have to take care of the inactive Axis threat: the Spanish State. They have a single province in Equitorial Africa and extensive holdings in Morocco. The former is hardly any reason for concern (I'm not even sure they can supply their forces there, let alone an offensive) but Morocco could be a nuisance if left unchecked. I'm afraid I will have to fight them when I attack Japan at the latest. So in response I will keep the victorious Africa Expeditionary Corps around and also add another Corps just in case. That other Corps will come from the current defences of the UK and they will in turn be replaced by fresh forces from the US.

By April, Germany got desperate enough to start to Mobilize for War. Time to stop playing around! That will give them a much needed boost to manpower after bleeding on the Eastern Front for about a year now. And they probably got a serious headache because of the partisans as well. I keep noticing isolated provinces behind the front in Soviet hands. Those are Partisans popping up out of nowhere. Probably the result of Total Exploitation...

Also note that I'm kinda running low on resources. Well, Rare Materials at least. That's definitely not good. I'll need to cut down on some of my exports, namely Mexico, South Africa, Australia, Panama, Chile, Colombia and Peru. They were all leeching on my Rares! I kept the trades to the UK because they probably need it. (Because they are stupid and let Malaya get overrun by rebels... Half of their Rare income is gone!) I also canceled a 50 Metals trade with the USSR. They'll have to hold out on their own.

Anyway, back to my next target. I can't attack Europe with the ridiculous Officer Ratio I have (83% as of May, 1942). I could make an invasion in Sicily and Coppenhagen, tying up some Axis forces, but that would be cheap and rather exploitive, so I won't do that. I could attack Japan, but that would probably be just as suicidal and stupid as attacking Europe right now. They have too many friends. And that's pretty much it. There are no other Axis targets in sight. America is fascist-free and Africa is liberated. I'll have to wait now. In the meantime let's organise a short operation to get back the Rares for the UK.


Funnily enough, when I landed on Malaya, the British unit standing on the border started to attack as well. We've shown them how it's done! And it was actually the British who took Kuala Lumpur, which is good because this way they've captured a sh*tload of Rares piled up in the province. Or at least I think they did, because I recieved some 90000 the same way from Kota Bharu. I think... The best part is that Malaya is a Government in Exile now and I'm not sure if the UK will liberate them or not. Theoretically they should though. Anyway, I'll leave these three Marine Divisions here. They might come in handy later.

And now something completely different:


Oh, and by the way, I'm still fighting with an arm tied behind my back because that damned Great Depression is still in full effect!

I'll be completely honest here. I've just ran into a very frustrating AI issue in the FtM version I haven't been able to debug yet. That's bad for that release but at least somewhat good for this AAR because now I'll play a little with this instead


When we left off the last time, it was June 5th, 1942. The Second World War has been raging on for almost three years. The Axis has a firm control over continental Europe and most of Asia but with the recent Allied operations, they are completely forced out of Africa (with the exception of still uninvolved Spain). Iran, after a short period of Axis membership, were overrun by the USSR, which is in turn fighting for its very survival on two fronts against two major powers: Germany from the West and Japan (and its puppets) in the East. The British colonies of the Indies are mostly under control (the Dutch colonies are under British occupation and rebellious Malaya is secured by US forces) but there's still peace between the two titans of the Pacific.

It's pretty obvious that in order to make some relevant progress, I would need to either land in Europe or make a sneak attack on Japan. Unfortunatelly neither of these seems possible because of my Officer Ratio of 85%. Well, technically I could land on Siciliy and I would be able to hold the Strait of Messina (even if only with ships, not troops; the same tactic could be used with Coppenhagen and the Öresund) and I'm also pretty sure that I could cause serious trouble to Japan with a landing on their Home Islands but I consider both of these moves gamey, since I would only do any of them because I know perfectly well that the AI is incapable of reacting to these manoeuvers, eventhough they would be destined to fail IRL.

So the only thing I can do for now is wait. I even had to call back my troops from French Algeria because that blockhead de Gaulle insisted on supplying every unit on French territory with the non-existant French Industry. But with the current Leadership allocation (over 10 points!) I gained five percent of Officer Ratio in about a month! So in order to get to about 120% (assuming that I don't train any new units) would take six months. An invasion date of early 1943. Not that bad if you ask me. But a lot of things can happen in six months.

Meanwhile the Soviet Union starts to take back land from Japan but is still under heavy pressure from Germany. Because of this I'm considering a "Europe first" policy. Crushing Japan with Soviet help would be very nice and probably very easy but Moscow might fall while we are at it which would pretty much make Germany undefeatable. I really need to land in Europe before the Soviets fall, otherwise it will become entirely hopeless. (Well, short of stuff like the above mentioned gamey tactics.) But since the Axis still keeps tons of units in Europe not involved on the Eastern Front, I'll need multiple attacks at the same time (or in quick succession) in order to confuse the enemy. All the attacks need to be in highly developed areas (I will need all the supplies I can bring in) and the region should be relatively easy to defend. Here's the plan:


The targets:

• Britanny Main attack in the North. Air support can be provided because of the close proximity of England. Moderate opposition is expected from the 3-5 Ports in the area, no serious backup is expected because of the distance from any major hubs (ie. lack of Victory Points). Terrain is moderately well suited for defence. A defensive perimiter is to be set up and counter-attacks held off. Stationary troops to be used for the most part.
• Marseille Diversionary attack to confuse the defenders of both France and Italy. Closest (and very limited) airport is at Cagliari, Sardinia, air cover may not be satisfactory. Little opposition is expected at first but more will surely come later. An evacuation plan will be realized if necessary, hold the line as long as possible. In a best-case-scenario help with closing off Northern Italy from Axis reinforcements. Stationary troops to be used.
• Sicily Main axis of attack. Air support can be provided from Malta. Very little opposition is expected (Italy has shown its weakness), but reinforcements are possible and can be dangerous. Strait of Messina is not to be exploited. Forces should move up the boot as fast as possible, while maintaining a proper front. Counter-attacks are to be expected sooner or later (at Napoli at the latest, or as early as Reggio di Calabria). The ports at Palermo, Taranto and Napoli are of vital importance, aquired and held at all costs, otherwise the invasion will fail.
• Antwerpen The most dangerous of the landings, with most to be gained. Air support is readily available from English airports and Naval firepower can also be used to high effect. Heavy opposition is expected because of the high number of big ports in the area. The objective is to set up a defensive perimiter (preferably behind rivers) and prepare for offensive operations in the future. The ports of Den Haag, Antwerpen, Brugge, Dunkerque and Calais are to be siezed and held. The towns of Bruxelles and Lille are targets of lower priority. High-mobility units to be used because of their great firepower and the expected ability to supply them. Evacuation plan is to be realized if necessary.

Obviously that's only a start, I'll need to get somewhere from here. Defending some beaches won't win the war. Defeating Italy, while being a considerable step, will not be enough either. The main adversary, Germany, will be a tougher nut to crack.

I also realize that this will be a HUGE undertaking, requireing lots of troops and some coordination wouldn't hurt either. Also note that the Air support I mean to provide depends heavily on British supplies, especially in the early stages of the Sicilian campaign and in Marseille, because those airfields are supplied overseas via convoys and I have no idea how good the British convoy situation is right now. Nor do I have any control over it.

Such a good invasion plan also requires serious business investments, which in turn finally start to help us get out of the ditch:


In November, Japan started to advertise the Soldier profession. That means that they are running low on manpower. Good news. The Soviets have already pushed them back to the Manchurian border along most of the front (and also placed some troops on the Burmese-Chinese border...). Also by November, 1943, I'll be able to start the "Nuclear Bomb" tech, which in turn will be finished in about a year (I hope) and I'll have my first usable Nuclear device in two years from now. Kinda historical I guess.

In 1942, I recieved an early Christmas gift: the ability to become a Superpower:


The +8 Leadership points from this will help greatly to get up-to-date in Aircraft technology (which is still at '39 levels in almost every area!) while still keeping up my Officer-training program. Of course the additional units make it even harder to reach a really high level of Officer Ratio. But I still think it's achievable to get it up to around 120% by early 1943.

Unfortunatelly the British didn't think the same: