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Chapter Twenty-One - I Can Show You The World

I Can Show You The World Yes, Messina has been exciting enough to spend six months and five updates on, more or less, but it's time to move on.

Still, when last we saw them, the Canadian Mountain Men were losing Org faster than I'd like. Much faster than when they fought 1.2 million Axis, in fact.



So we re-blocked the Straits. Italy sent out an unguarded transport on the 6th of August. Morons. Who would do that? We lost 200 more men to air attacks before the land battle finally ended.



Nearly 18,000 more Axis casualties from that one. Still, with all our losses, we're going to have to find some other way to amuse ourselves until we can fend off Italian air attacks. I'd keep fighting land battles with 17-1 casualty rations, but factor in air attacks and we cannot afford this combat.

Here's a sense of my losses both in terms of men and Organization.



It was around this time that I prioritized my air force and it began to recover Strength, back in Canada. On the 9th our Supply surplus caught the attention of the USA, which offered us $2.45 for 18.5 supply every day. Sounds like a deal, that's why I make the extra. We should be about set now, and I reduce supply production to what's needed (including exports). Speaking of supplies, we make two advances in that area.



I'm not sure how critical this is for Canada, since we mostly own smallish land areas and our troops are near ports, but I figure in the long run this can't hurt and may prove important later on. Heck, if supplies moving inland matter, then perhaps this will be important soon!

On the 13th, the Italians sent out another unguarded transport flotilla, and once again the British KS [Ed - Kill Steal].

Our manpower has reached a record low, -17.1. Our Mountain divisions still have around 2300 men instead of 3000. By mid-September we're still negative 16.2 On October 1st, we make the first of the two advances in Central Planning which will allow us to research ways of having reserve divisions actually join the fight. It goes back to the top so we get the second advance ASAP.



Here's the production screen. Our AA is due December 1. In November we'll add a second squadron of Hurricanes. December will bring a light cruiser and another Destroyer Flotilla. We're short of Escorts and Convoys, but not so much that it's hurting us just yet, and our losses lately have been negligible.



So we load up some of our non-Mountain troops, and head off to see the world.



Good thing HMG has bases conveniently located here, here, here and here, everywhere!



The Germans said "hello" in the Nile Delta, sinking nothing, but exhausting the sailors.



The troops arrived in Kuwait on the 15th of October. After a brief respite, the men were just off the coast of Persia, and the conquest began!



Well, first we waited a few days at sea, hoping to get a glimpse of the defenses at the ports, but we abandoned that idea and sent all of the troops to the border. I'm hoping to secure whatever is conquered for Canadian purposes. This is not a huge factor, but to the extent the Allies gain territory, I have a very good idea which Ally can put new resources to the best use, and which are run by idiots who probably will overstack whatever they build.



Had I been asked, I would have chosen a limited war (Canada vs Iran only), but it was not an option that I saw, and so all of the Allies are now at war with Persia, and the British are on the move.



Realizing this a bit late, I redirected one division from working to take the Persian ports, and sent him racing, well, walking, to the Persian capitol, and sent my transports off to get more men.



Armored Cars would have come in handy in the first wave, I think. Let's hope we can get them here in time (Update Thursday).
 
Good luck! You may have a hard time beating the British to Tehran.
 
This truly is quite shocking. Not only are the British killstealing at sea, now they are stealing your land won by conquest too!

Good that you are managing to keep the Italian navy at port at present, your units in Messina seem very battered, hopefully they'll recover soon though. The previous update regarding techs and 'what to do' went completely over my head since I know so little about HoI3, but I liked it a lot because it shows you are learning as you go along, which is evident throughout this AAR. This is a very honest game and all the more enjoyable for it. Anyway, onwards, grab Persia before the perfidious Brits!
 
Pre-empting the inevitable Persian invasion I see. That'll keep the British focussed on the Italians and Germans hopefully.
 
Good luck! You may have a hard time beating the British to Tehran.

You may be correct, though SPOILER ALERT, that's not my biggest trouble!

This truly is quite shocking. Not only are the British killstealing at sea, now they are stealing your land won by conquest too!

Good that you are managing to keep the Italian navy at port at present, your units in Messina seem very battered, hopefully they'll recover soon though. The previous update regarding techs and 'what to do' went completely over my head since I know so little about HoI3, but I liked it a lot because it shows you are learning as you go along, which is evident throughout this AAR. This is a very honest game and all the more enjoyable for it. Anyway, onwards, grab Persia before the perfidious Brits!

Glad we're in agreement on perfidious Albion! And I agree on Messina. I'm a little afraid that I made things less clear in my discussion at intermission. On the other hand, there's a long hockey tradition of intermission discussions which merely confuse things.

Pre-empting the inevitable Persian invasion I see. That'll keep the British focused on the Italians and Germans hopefully.

Good point, I'd forgotten to mention our fear of a Persian Invasion. One was clearly in the works, I could have sworn I heard someone speaking foreign in Queen's Park, and he was turning the squirrels black! Not sure he was Persian, could have been from the Bronx, but you can't be too sure with a war on.

Update Tomorrow, then I have to suffer through a Leafs game Friday where the only folks making noise in our building are likely to be be our opponents. On the other hand, half the building being fans of the opponents usually makes for a playoff atmosphere.
 
Chapter Twenty-Two - Persia!

I'm the one decided to conquer Persia, but it turns out that the British are intent on moving in despite the clear Canadian call of "dibs". You'd think they didn't like Canada or something.

Back in Italy, the Italian air force bangs away at the three Canadian destroyer flotillas in the Straits of Messina. Nothing is sunk, of course, this is naval warfare and there is never any actual result, it's always a 0-0 tie. Just like soccer. But the Italians need only clear the straits at the wrong time for things to get ugly.



So, we're trying to take as much as we can before the Allies beat us to it. We grab Behbehan, because I think it's pretty important to keep supplied from our own ports. Behbehan is a level one port with decent infrastructure (for this part of the world), I think.



We load up the Armored Cars, and race back to Persia, where the British have taken almost as much as we have. Let's hope they help enough with the conquest to make their involvement worthwhile.



All that is valuable in Persia is the capitol, and one province in the far Northeast which I ought to be able to beat the Brits to. So it's all about the capitol for now. Oh, and whatever units the Persian might have. I suppose there will be fighting eventually. Meanwhile, in Africa, a reminder that it's not just AI-mounted amphibious attacks which require me to keep defenders in the places I take.



Frankly, I had decided to denude most of my land of defenders, and I probably still will, for whenever Canada launches a real invasion of someplace which requires serious troop concentrations. Too bad I didn't make Cavalry.



So far so good. Yes, the British are grabbing some border provinces, but I have a headstart on the Capitol. I send my Armored Cars off to grab the resources in the Northeast.



I canot recall where the cursor was located, and so I have no idea what unit is too disorganized to move. I hope it's not important. Durband, hmm. North of Behbehan? It's not the Armored Cars, I don't believe.

The Italians send a single destroyer flotilla to the Straits of Messina to face my three, and they are driven off. Then to remind me that Canada is not the be-all and end-all of World War Two, other countries begin to say to themselves "hey, it's almost the end of 1941, aren't things supposed to be happening now?"



That's right, Japan DoWs the UK, and all the other Allies join in. Your war's not so limited now, is it, Tojo? And just to ensure Allied Victory, Japan DoWs the USA as well. Thanks! Well, that brings the Allies in against Japan, but we were already at war with Germany. Now the USA is at war with Japan, but not against Germany or Italy, for the moment. I hope I have that right. Pretty soon everyone will be shooting everyone else and it won't matter.

The USA decides "Day of Infamy", and the Japanese decide Tora Tora Tora, which wasn't important enough in Canada to properly punctuate.

What was important in Canada? Why, the supply situation in Persia, that's what!



I should be okay for fuel, but those numbers mean that I might have trouble Supply-ing the entire invasion from a single level one port.

Meanwhile, the Canadians might not be moving at lightning speed, but we do beat the Persians to their own province, and win the attempted counter-attack which presumably started as mere movement to the front.



I hope that this is a sign of things to come. We'll soon find out!



It doesn't show here, but I'm pretty sure most of this part of Persia is mountainous.

In Africa, the disorganized rebels reach the sea ... and the Canadian army. Mopping up will still take some time there.

Well, the Abhar battle worked out so well that we're gonna try it with no healer!



Yes, MMORPG out-of-mana jokes in a WW2 AAR. What do I win?



Casualties! Well, call me dumb but not stupid, I wasn't going to wait around and see how that one turned out if I gave it a few days.

Turns out Persia has defenses. Who knew?
 
Turns out Persia has defenses. Who knew?

The Persians, presumably... yuk, yuk, yuk

What are the units that are just dying to be deployed according to that little green icon you seem to be ignoring at will?
 
...it's always a 0-0 tie. Just like soccer.

!

Blasphemy! Not only daring to call football 'soccer' but also asserting most games end in boring 0-0 draws, how dare you! You are sadly right of course, but...

I do like that it is the race to nab land before the underhanded Brits which is the focus point of this invasion, with possible fighting against Persia very much an afterthought.
 
The Persians, presumably... yuk, yuk, yuk

What are the units that are just dying to be deployed according to that little green icon you seem to be ignoring at will?

Just a naval base. When units become available I deploy them pretty quickly, though now with this decoy deploy signal they may be missed for a time.

!

Blasphemy! Not only daring to call football 'soccer' but also asserting most games end in boring 0-0 draws, how dare you! You are sadly right of course, but...

I do like that it is the race to nab land before the underhanded Brits which is the focus point of this invasion, with possible fighting against Persia very much an afterthought.

Well, I have been to my share of soccer matches over the years. The race is critical, but apparently I have to defeat some native troops who won't simply referee the contest between Canada and the UK.

Update tomorrow. Hockey Friday went well, meaning we won. There were the two Canadians who dumped beer on me when the Leafs tied the game (yes, every game I see live involves us blowing a two-goal lead). They were very apologetic (one guy bumped the other in their excitement), but apparently were more intent on carrying out Karmic payback (first time I hadn't bothered to wear my team's jersey in years) over showing respect for this AAR.

What, no press coverage of "Five for Fighting How Hockey Saved the Allies" in Ontario?
 
Chapter Twenty-Three - The Worst Laid Plans...

Despite meticulous planning, if by meticulous we mean bringing the guys who were handy and going back to get the guys I ought to have brought first after, the "War of Stopping a Persian Invasion" has run into some trouble. First the Brits had more guys conveniently located than Canada did, then the Persians had guys defending. Still, the worst that could happen that I produce a valuable lesson in how not to conduct an invasion, while the Allies grab a bunch of territory they were otherwise going to let rot.

While we were busy, Japan attacked the US and UK in what was meant to be a limited war, but which on November 11, 1941 prompts the USA to join the Allies. I get a much better idea of how Churchill felt in WW2, "now we win". For me, though, this means "now I'd better grab what I can." Not sure how much I can do with my forces, though. Hopefully the USA takes a while to gear up. They start with an event which grants 500 Manpower, though. I'd take 5 about now.

I bring some more guys from Sicily to Persia.



Note a few things about this screenshot. First, I guess the way I added Artillery to my old Infantry Divisions gave them odd names. I'm almost certain that all three units are two Infantry, one Artillery. Second, I have to use "Move" orders to avoid the default pathing which takes my troops off the coast of Greece, and "Move" won't get me to the Canadian port in Persia. So I send them to the Red Sea, then change to "ReBase" once they're almost there. I get bombed in the Nile Delta anyway, not off Greece, but why take chances? Well, why take more chances?

The UK decides "United Nations", which if you've played the UK probably means something. On the 13th, to emphasize Canada's newfound insignificance, the USA declares a limited war on Vichy. Considering that FDR was very pro-Vichy and 100% anti-De Gaulle, this is kind of funny. But mostly it's damned inconvenient. More importantly, I'm stalled just short of Persia's capitol.



The Capitol is top center of this screenshot. My men have attacked recently and are resting. And the losses I've taken bump my Manpower to negative 17.7. If I sit completely still for four months, I still will have negative manpower. This will be even more annoying than the USA DoW of Vichy when I have finished a few of my large IC builds. Later on the 15th I get bombed off the coast of Cyrenaica.



So much for manual pathing. Maybe sailing along the Greek coast would have put us closer to danger, yet further from harm? Apparently the Germans found a way to bomb the fuel tanks of my ships, or Syracuse.

Here's the overall picture in northern Persia.



My two-Division invasion force turned out to be a bit small. The added Armored Cars are racing toward the only place in Persia worth owning other than the capitol, a resource-rich province in the far northeast. The third division of the original force is meandering along the coast, hoping to seal off the rest of Persia for me to take later (or graciously accept when it surrenders?). And of course I have three divisions getting bombed off the coast of Cyrenaica like a cruise ship filled with students on spring break, but without the women. Note that I am attempting to bypass one Persian Division, hoping to establish direct access to Tehran. If that Persian unit moves in behind me (unlikely), my reinforcements will deal with it. I don't have a one-province wide corridor, so I don't feel vulnerable. Also, there's a few Brits for the enemy to worry about, so it's really just a race to the capitol.

Then everything changed.



Well, this was always coming, and the mid-November Barbarossa is a pretty clear vindication of Canada's losses in Sicily. Still, Canada isn't the focus of the world's attention anymore. I'll see what I can do in terms of keeping abreast of the other fronts, but I get limited information, so it won't be much.

On the theory that my Armored Cars could quickly brush aside an HQ unit, I decided on a brief detour on the rush to the northeast.



Of course, I'd forgotten that using up a unit's attack means that it cannot invade even empty enemy territory until it is eligible to attack. Or at least I think that's true. I'm sure I forgot it. It hardly matters.



We have engaged the enemy! No, we haven't! Armored cars are apparently so fast that they bypass even the battles they initiate. So, this was a bad idea all the way around, and it quickly turns into a rather silly defeat. I'd have called it a draw. Or given the guys time to shoot at each other. The thought wasn't completely crazy - make the weak HQ unit run away, keep one unit out of any fight over the capitol. If nothing else, it would have saved another unit the bother of clearing a province held by the HQ. Ah well, such is war. Our 2500 troops were defeated by their 800 troops, but since nobody ever saw the enemy nobody was hurt. The Soviets decide "For the Motherland". Nice of them to buy the expansion, too.

I move my ground support bombers to Baghdad. Of course, they have such limited range that it's too far to launch any missions at all. A pre-built airfield would have been fantastic about now. Defenseless Persians could have done their Ethiopian army impression while I bombed the crap out of them. But all I have is a pre-built Naval Base.

And then something happened which simply hadn't occurred to me.



The Russians see the German declaration of Limited War, and raise.



Unless there's something I didn't get about the German DoW, this is kind of surprising. Persia never actually joined any war, that I saw. Persia joined the Axis, sure, but only Canada brought her into the war, and that only with the Allies.

NExt, the Germans decide "Destiny!" I'm pretty sure that the message the German AI got was "time to get our ass whooped, it's our destiny!" But in the meantime, because it's not like Germany has something else going on at the moment, they bomb my destroyers in the Straits of Messina.



Now, I understand that the bombing didn't sink anything, but why is the list of "ships damaged" empty? It sure looks to me like I took damage. Maybe my guys veered so wildly trying to avoid the bombs that they collided.

In the meantime, my Armored Cars are going to continue their pointlessly interrupted race to the resources of Persia.



And my Tehran-area troops are going to continue their slow-walk to the Persian capitol.



It looks to me like my Armored Car attack would have been beneficial if it had worked, assuming it drove the enemy back and not forward.

Well, this was a short update in terms of days, and in terms of Canadian movement, but a very meaningful series of events, nonetheless.
 
A meaningful series of events indeed! Suffering bombing runs despite taking a safer route with your ships (clearly the Germans have rightly learned to keep a close eye on Canada), your armoured cars fighting a brief battle in which no one was hurt but both sides embarrassed and the continued race between yourself and Britain for Persia's few valuable provinces. Oh yes and some unimportant stuff about America and Russia fully joining the war. An equally crazy and enjoyable update as ever!

One thing though, why is America's decleration of war against Vichy France inconvenient?
 
A meaningful series of events indeed! Suffering bombing runs despite taking a safer route with your ships (clearly the Germans have rightly learned to keep a close eye on Canada), your armoured cars fighting a brief battle in which no one was hurt but both sides embarrassed and the continued race between yourself and Britain for Persia's few valuable provinces. Oh yes and some unimportant stuff about America and Russia fully joining the war. An equally crazy and enjoyable update as ever!

One thing though, why is America's decleration of war against Vichy France inconvenient?

Well, it takes away my ability to decide when war against Vichy would start and what I could grab. Of course, with the trouble in Persia I'm probably not missing much.

If they annex it , it will push them from the allies.

Vichy? I suppose, yeah, it would keep Free France from the allies to the extent that the USA annexes stuff that would have gone to them.

Of course, I could be wrong on both counts if France would have become owner of anything freed by the Allies. I's all academic anyway. We'll see how Persia goes then I'll try to come up with a way to make myself useful. I still haven't set Allied Objectives, for example.
 
Aren't armoured cars zero width, and therefore a support brigade? I think that would make them not able to enter combat without a combat brigade.

Good update!
 
Either build some mots to attach to the AC or attach the AC to your inf, they are only useful as is if they meet no opposition as they are support.
 
Aren't armoured cars zero width, and therefore a support brigade? I think that would make them not able to enter combat without a combat brigade.

Good update!

Either build some mots to attach to the AC or attach the AC to your inf, they are only useful as is if they meet no opposition as they are support.

LOL

You know, despite that, they have proven very useful for a long time. Should I change the update for Thursday (already written) to include this new-found knowledge? Nah! I wanna whine!
 
Chapter Twenty-Four - The Race

NOTE ON ARMORED CARS - I discovered, before I posted this update, but after I wrote it, that Armored Cars are zero width and so cannot fight on their own. Sending ACs into battle is like sending Artillery alone. Had Persia been my first use of them, I think I'd have spotted that on my own and sooner. However, fighting in Africa I would have sworn that the ACs had at least helped in some battles. They certainly took quite a few provinces. So I had a choice, clean up this Update to reflect my new knowledge, or leave my complaining intact. Let it never be said that I deprived you, dear reader, of complaining, even if it makes me look dumb. In fairness, things which would have jumped out at me if I played the game in a few sittings tend to slide when I play an hour here and there over a period of weeks. Plus I'm not that good. I thought Armored Cars were really weak tanks. I need some really weak tanks. As it is, I also intend to keep the Armored Cars deployed as they are. If there's a race for Persia's capitol, I don't want them held back by slow units, even if only the slow units really fight.


When last we saw, Canada had responded to the imminent threat of Persian invasion by DoWing the country and marching on Tehran. Unfortunately, inspired by the incomparable warlike manliness of Canada, which had just finished fighting a million man army with a small band of Euchre-playing, Horde-imitating Mountain Men, everybody then DoWed everybody else. Japan brought the USA into the war on the side of the Allies. Hitler one-upped Tojo and brought in the USSR. If he wasn't so pre-occupied with re-conquering Sicily, I'm sure Mussolini would have DoWed someone he could not beat, like Peru.

And because I'm still kind of new at this, I was surprised by the Soviet invasion of western Persia. For a time, I thought I had seriously messed up by declaring war on the Persians, thinking I'd inadvertantly brought in the USSR when, if I'd waited, the USSR would have been pre-occupied with Barbarossa. I realized that I was wrong pretty quickly though. Persia was brought in by the USSR's apparent (but hidden from me) counter-DoW of the whole Axis block. Therefore, Hitler's DoW of the USSR brought Persia into the war. As if to confirm these thoughts, on the 21st of November, 1941, everyone else joins in, too.



As you can see, the Finns, Hungarians, Rumanians and Mengu-- the Chinese in an annoyingly named region all honored their membership in the Axis, so somebody must have DoWed somebody. So, as it turns out, Canada was a bit late in DoWing Persia, if anything. We're the only reason that the Allies have even a chance of picking up any land or resources here. To quote the great TV philosopher Tipton: "yay me!"

Still, it's far from a sure thing that Canada will be the beneficiary she deserves to be.



It's a race to Tehran, with opposition, and a race to the northeast, without. I'm really regretting my attack on that Persian HQ unit. I'm also really regretting the fact that my men are exhausted from thinking seriously about an attack which actually never took place[Ed - and could not have taken place!]. Apparently, being told that there were plans to attack was enough to exhaust the men for nearly a week. Or maybe they are simply ashamed of my inept move [Ed - truer words...].

On the 22nd, three fresh divisions arrived in Behbehan, the Canadian port in Persia. Then another German air strike in the Straits of Messina knocked down my destroyer flotillas to 86 and 65% strength. This is getting old. At least my end run toward Tehran succeeded in placing a division on the outskirts of the capitol. Unfortunately, revealing more defenders.



Once again, I decide to reduce the number of defenders by trying to drive off a Persia HQ unit. Simultaneously, the Persians try to drive off the Canadian division in the Tehran suburbs.



The Persian attack reveals that the non-HQ unit in Tehran consists of one division containing two brigades of cavalry, I think. This is not exactly the invasion of Poland, but I'm not too concerned with Persian cavalry in their capitol in the long run. The Persian HQ unit is in reserve. Fortunately a Canadian division is actually fighting this time, so I like my chances. Meanwhile, in what will prove to be a fairly meaningful attack, the Persians west of the capitol attack the other Canadian division directly south of them in Hamadan.



Note that Canadian Org is pretty low at the start, and the units are roughly equal in strength. I'm in mountains, and unlikely to lose, but an attack can do a good deal of harm even if it fails to dislodge the defenders.

I quickly won the battle against the Persian HQ, there being no defenders. Meanwhile, the Persians threw another infantry division into the southward attack at Hamadan (which goes by various spellings, apparently).



Oddly, given both the headline battle progress numbers and the quantity of troops involved, it's Hamadan that I win quickly.



Bad news comes in from the northeast however. The Soviets are moving rapidly toward the only province in Persia worth capturing other than the capitol.



Not only do the Russiand have two provinces contiguous to the target, my men are still exhausted from having to think seriously about a battle they lost without ever joining, and so they cannot yet move. On the 25th of November, the Roosskies take the prize.

Let's hope something goes right in this campaign. Well, something other than WW2 going from a likely win to certain victory. There was that. Well, my armored cars can now take part in the attempt to capture Tehran for Canada.



God has given us the Armored Cars, let us enjoy them.



Or not.

Apparently, Armored Cars suck at finding out where the combat actually is. Even where, as here, there's a ton of noise from where other people are doing actual fighting, with guns and everything.

Oh, to heck with it. Let's look at my build queue.



A couple of notes. First, the HQ in Vancouver is run by some real jokers. Sure, guys, we'll use the manpower we don't have to send you an entire army you don't need. I'll get right on that. Second, now we know why that buzzer went off: "Dive Bombers Are Up". Excellent. Yesterday we had one air group which can't reach the battle. Now we have two! Great. Third, I'll soon have some new ships to get bombed in the Straits of Messina, and some Anti-Air to perhaps fend off the Italians if I decide to fight again in Messina. Cool.

I then decided to see who offered better Fighters, as an alternate way of defending against enemy planes.



It's close, but the Brits have the better planes at the moment. Not that it matters, my Manpower is still underwater, though I did see a 2 up there earlier, so I may be able to make small units long before I have cleared the backlog of reinforcements. I don't see where the shortage has done real harm to the units in the field.

On November 28th we won the battle of Semnan, and moved one step closer to being able to attack the Persia capitol, the only prize left on the table.



I place my second ground support air group, and start to pre-build an airbase to take up the IC slack. Timing. Tie-MING. On the 29th we make a Soft Attack advance, and see a symbol we haven't seen in some time.



It's gone quickly (I cancelled the next gen research), but it's nice to know we could be researching too far in advance. In other news, in the great race to take Tehran, we have new troops to use, and they advance toward the capitol. Trouble is, we're now trying to supply a serious army from a single, level-one port.



To paraphrase Anakin, "It's not working!"

 
Its nice that they will sell you planes, but do you have any doctrines that will help? else you will be fighting at -30% relative to the Germans. (30% is a guess).
 
As a now-fellow Commonwealth AAR writer, I approve of this!

Great AAR, you've done a good job against the Axis with Canada's limited manpower. The invasion of Persia seems to be going well, I just hope you get the prize in Tehran before the Brits get there.
 
Thus the race continues with Russia now having entered the running and already grabbed a prize. Hopefully Canada can win something from this noble attack, especially after her armoured cars heroic fighting earlier!