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It didn't matter anyway.

It's a source of constant annoyance that retreating HQs are allowed to move into and occupy enemy-controlled land while line units can't (as is proper).
 
Not only is Canada near single-handedly winning the war for the Allies, she is also defeating a zombie apocalypse! Impressive stuff.
 
The zombie threatis cleared , nice !
you're still about 5 months negative in MP , it's weird you got so few as Canada
 
Low manpower is a very real problem to Canada, unlike the other Commonwealth states, it has just one division at the start and has to build all of its military from scratch. If Innocent III had someone to help him, for example an Australia human player, they might be able to spread the gospel of Hockey throughout Europe more efficiently.
 
Looks like you chose the lesser of two weevils. You have automatically became my favorite AAR author because of your reference to the Aubrey-Maturin series. Also, I wouldn't leave conquering West Africa to Villiers... you know how unreliable she can be
 
It's a source of constant annoyance that retreating HQs are allowed to move into and occupy enemy-controlled land while line units can't (as is proper).

Ah, well, I guess I should remember that next time. I may prefer my undead explanation, though. It makes sense :D

Vive le Quebec!!!!Although she is no Uganda, hopefully she serves long and well with the RCN. And isn't sunk...by the Italians. I pity the poor Maltese.

Coincidentally, I'm planning a visit to Quebec this summer. Montreal. I was there for Expo '67, and I like it so much I'm going back! Plus, we shall rescue the poor Maltese!

Not only is Canada near single-handedly winning the war for the Allies, she is also defeating a zombie apocalypse! Impressive stuff.

Thank you, sir! If only the rest of the allies played hockey...

The zombie threatis cleared , nice !
you're still about 5 months negative in MP , it's weird you got so few as Canada

Yeah, it's not like we're short of Canadian Hockey players, no matter what Zevon sang. Still, you're not gonna see Russian numbers from the Great White North.

Low manpower is a very real problem to Canada, unlike the other Commonwealth states, it has just one division at the start and has to build all of its military from scratch. If Innocent III had someone to help him, for example an Australia human player, they might be able to spread the gospel of Hockey throughout Europe more efficiently.

Absolutely, though who knows what Austrian rules hockey would be like?

Looks like you chose the lesser of two weevils. You have automatically became my favorite AAR author because of your reference to the Aubrey-Maturin series. Also, I wouldn't leave conquering West Africa to Villiers... you know how unreliable she can be

I loved all 20, and my wife has listened to a dozen on CD. I think it's Diana on horseback, and the men are all chasing her :D
 
Chapter Thirty-Eight - The Maltese Puppy

Malta! The stuff of legend, the source of puppies who don't shed! Okay, all the ones my family has had were Maltese/Poodle mixes. But enough about puppies, on to the war.

Or at least hockey. We've heard it so many times that my son and I both instantly knew when the girl singing O, Canada! messed up last night. Sorry, Canada! Last chapter ended with the Vichy French being driven from north Africa finally, but Italy had captured our friends and fellow British-Navy skeptics, the men who had been guarding Malta. By now, Italy's navy ought to be dead or dormant in the Mediterranean, but no, it's the Brits who've been scared off. When we heard the POWs singing the un-praises of the British navy, Canadians everywhere were determined to see men that elequent rescued. But when?

Well, apparently after the Axis had another serious go at Messina, that's when.



It was the Axis "B-Team", or "C" team if Italy is "B", or "B" if Italy is "C", but they made far more progress than the last few attacks. We took losses!

More importantly, they ruined my plan to use two Marine Divisions and two Mountain Divisions to attack Malta. This is both because the mountain divisions were no longer fresh (they weren't that badly hit), but also because this Messina attack was not the cakewalk the last few defenses have been. I want to keep Messina. So the Maltese attack will be Marines and Infantry.

Central Planning! We reach level three and start research on the Grand Battle Plan tech which will boost a Reserve Division's chance of joining the battle by 5% (from around 0.3%, so that's huge). January 1943 can't come soon enough.

So when do we attack Malta? A UK-Italy naval battle off Sicily reminded us that the British Navy might be universally derided as useless among those who've depended on them, but they're still better to have than have not.



Don't leave home without them.

So we're gonna try to time our invasion for a time when the Brits are nearby, so that they protect us in spite of themselves. But first, soften up the target with ground attacks!



I killed 22 men. Since the enemy has an AA gun, and because I'm not very likely to reduce "4-5" much before my Bomber's ORG is gone, I don't wait for too many attacks on Malta before sending in my men. I mostly waited for the British Navy to meander by.



The Marine's penalty was quite low, the infantry, of course, was -90% because I didn't have Mountain troops I felt I could use. The timing, though, was perfect, if I do say so myself, and almost makes me regret dumping on the British Navy all this time. Still, it's a tough fight.



The Italians then took to bombing my ships, which is fine. They ships are not going to be sunk from the air, and it's the troops I don't want to lose.



That combat number is higher! That combat number lies!



As you can see, we're gonna lose, and we'd have won if I'd brought Mountain troops with their much lower penalty for crossing water (20% is double the marine's 10%, but beats the crap out of the infantry's 90% penalty).

Apparently, everyone is a critic.



Well, the battle results are easier to read! I think I flipped the consequences of the choices, sorry. I chose the national unity hit, not because it's better, I have no idea. I chose it because then I don't have to adjust any sliders and adjust them back. Also, Canada is unlikely to fall apart even if every Cruiser is named Quebec and every Habs coach speaks only English.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Turns out we have a lot of troops right nearby, and I think I can beat that worn down division.



Plus, we're keeping the <whisper> useless </whisper> British Navy nearby, just in case. Just in case what, you ask?



Of course the final report says no ships were sunk, but we vow to speak slightly less badly of the Brits for about a week.

In the meantime, the defenders on Malta put up a fight, but successive attacks by four times their number were bound to prevail.



We lost nearly as many men in this attack as the first one, 1000 all told, We lost 1500 this chapter and killed or captured 13,000 enemy. But Malta is ours! Well ... Britains! Okay, fine, Britain gets it back.

I'll be damned if I'm gonna defend it.
 
Just read all this through over the last couple of days and I've very much enjoyed it. Good to see Canada doing so well, especially navally, where I'd have thought that Italy would have given you a much rougher ride. It really seems to be paying off given Germany's slow progress against the USSR.

I think the one problem with focusing on a destroyer/light cruiser fleet is that they're *always* going to get targeted first in any battle: it's the job of screens to get between the enemy and their own big guns, which is a little problematic when you don't have any BBs or CAs.
 
Some kind of big guns wouldn't go amiss, even if just CAs, although BB is preferable for obvious reasons (I can understand the tech limitation though).
 
Canada's leadership is very limited, as much as I'd like to see some heavy ships built by Innocent III, his industrial and technological efforts couldn't produce usable ships on time. It's more efficient for him to build some CAS for example and use them against ships with his limited fleet.
 
Thus Canada proves herself a wonderful ally once again, liberating Malta. Considering how mighty the British navy has proven thus far, I get the feeling Malta will be Italian held once again within mere hours of Canada's leaving the island!
 
You are such a loyal ally to Britain! ;)

They've earned it!

Just read all this through over the last couple of days and I've very much enjoyed it. Good to see Canada doing so well, especially navally, where I'd have thought that Italy would have given you a much rougher ride. It really seems to be paying off given Germany's slow progress against the USSR.

I think the one problem with focusing on a destroyer/light cruiser fleet is that they're *always* going to get targeted first in any battle: it's the job of screens to get between the enemy and their own big guns, which is a little problematic when you don't have any BBs or CAs.

Thanks, and yeah, the little guys get hammered. I just wish I had some big guys with me firing back more often.

Some kind of big guns wouldn't go amiss, even if just CAs, although BB is preferable for obvious reasons (I can understand the tech limitation though).

Yeah, I made the choice early on to stick with what I could license, which I think is CL and DD only.

Canada's leadership is very limited, as much as I'd like to see some heavy ships built by Innocent III, his industrial and technological efforts couldn't produce usable ships on time. It's more efficient for him to build some CAS for example and use them against ships with his limited fleet.

CAS would be nice, but I suspect that most of what goes on from 1943-on is going to be land-bound. It would be very nice to get into the Pacific afterward, but the AI-USA seems to go "Japan First" in my few games.

Thus Canada proves herself a wonderful ally once again, liberating Malta. Considering how mighty the British navy has proven thus far, I get the feeling Malta will be Italian held once again within mere hours of Canada's leaving the island!

They don't seem to be in a hurry to land a "G" on there. We'll see the British Navy out in force, though.

Posting this a little early because I'm off to see some Hockey! My last game this year unless we make the playoffs (Washington and/or Florida needs to start sucking ... now!)
 
Chapter Thirty-Nine - RAID!

So, Canada has a somewhat worn down army, no Manpower to replenish our losses, and a need to keep in the war. What can we do which will affect the progress of WW2 without trashing our already limited number of troops? Why, a raid, of course! Hit and run, make the AI overreact to our presence to allow other AI to take advantage of the missing troops. Starting a second front in Europe in late 1942 is all well and good, but as Canada? No, not yet. If we try to hold a line anywhere we'll be annihilated. Fighting with all the advantages of the Straits of Messina has been effective, but make that a stand up fight across a land border and we'd have lost Sicily ages ago. Even now fighting Italy one on one seems like a bad idea.

So, having rescued the brave critics trapped on Malta, and scouted out future locations for Game of Thrones, we've decided to see what we can do to help the Rooskies make some progress in the Balkans. But first, we say "wait for it", and hide our ships from the Italians before taking our Maltese troops back to Sicily. No sense fighting a naval battle when we don't have to.

I did that already. Twice.



As you can see from the overview, the Brits have pretty well cleared Vichy from Central Africa. Diana led the men a merry chase and by the time she stopped to rest, the entire area was theirs.



Also, we're in good shape in terms of resources. I don't expect to worry much about them for the rest of the war. In fact, I haven't given much though to resources in years. If Canada had manpower she'd be a very serious player, more than a match for Italy. Speaking of which, our Manpower is negative 25.6 <sad face>

In terms of VPs, we restored Malta's three victory points to the Allied Side, and I notice that the cities we took in our North African campaign have qualified the Allies for one of the three Victory Conditions we've fulfilled: Operation Torch (the Axis have one and the Comintern two, though I can't see their lists, apparently).

Here's the look at the Balkans I had before I picked my "Raid!" targets. The Soviets are in Greece, though Bulgaria is only "aligning" Axis. You'd think the Bulgarians would be able to see which way the wind is blowing when they're surrounded by communist armies. Still, my object isn't Bulgaria, it's Greece and the rest of the Balkan area which is currently Axis-occupied. I want to help the Russians advance by landing behind enemy lines, then run away before I take too many losses. Inflicting losses would be nice, but although in this part of the world, there's about to be two Steamrollers. I'm going to let the other one do the real work.



FYI - in Scandanavia, recall that the Russians overran Finland, and that the Germans never touched Norway, so that's pretty much settled.

We decided to let some time roll by to try to recover. Five transports and an escort later, we made an advance in the Tech that matters, getting more guys! Here's a look at the eastern front. Not very meaningful, I suppose, by which I mean it looks normal to me.



Arguably the Germans have made poor progress, Crimea is Soviet, for example, but there's not been a massive pushback by the Comintern forces, yet.

Well, we've let a month go by, and the Soviet advance into Greece seems to be at a standstill. Unless I missed something, this is the same map.



In fact, a week later the Axis took a formerly Soviet province. Let's see if we can't turn things around!

We decide to use four Divisions. Two Canadian Panzer Divisions consisting of two infantry brigades and one Armored Car brigade, and two standard infantry divisions with two infantry and one artillery. We're not fighting off the boat. We'll land somewhere we don't expect to find enemies and go from there.

Hey, look, we found the British Navy! I wonder if they're going to do anything useful? Give me those ships and I'd chase Italy into port for good.



Still, we do what we can, so Canada looks for a salty piece of land.

Darn, occupado.



So we head ashore into the Italian co-prosperity sphere. Hey, Italy, it's bad when you do it!



There's three possibilities. The most likely is that the port is held only by airforce. I think we win that fight. I could see the German troops, and hope I'd see Italians, too. The second is that the defenders are easily brushed aside, though I'm using normal infantry and even some armor (Ed - armor isn't the exact right word, more "armor-ish"). The third is that we get bounced back and have to try elsewhere. Even this is a low risk, all it costs me is time as I have no intention of allowing any battle I don't win quickly to go on for long.

That's the long version of why I'm doing this.



We're ashore. I send the Canadian Panzer Divisions out to take territory and make as much noise as possible. We'll gun our engines, honk our horns, and shout the names of the enemy's girlfriends. That ought to get their attention. So long as we avoid enemy HQ units we should be ok. I also send my ships home. We're up the Adriatic, and if you can't count on the Brits while you're sitting in Malta, I'm pretty sure the Dalmatian Coast is not in their bailiwick (or did I not go up far enough to hit Dalmatia?). In any event, our ships go to safety, and we leave two divisions to hold the port.

The two attacking divisions will stay in contiguous provinces to the port. Why? Well I'm chicken. We're playing with 30,000 or so men, and that's one-fifth of our entire army. One thing worse than not having our divisions build up to full power is losing them entirely screwing around. There's probably things in between those two situations, but having four divisions go poof like so many of the enemy divisions have done would be very bad. So I want the security which comes from insta-boarding ships in port. Hmm, is that turned off mid-combat? I hope not.

Aaahh!!! Real HQ Units



Well, on the attack HQ units are no better than armored cars. So no worries. And then it begins!



The bombings will continue until morale improves...

Of course, the next thing to worry about is the lack of supply. However, we just captured this thing, so all enemy supply what was there is now ours, and it's a port, so we're okay in that department. It'll be enemy soldiers not lack of supply which makes us run away in the end.



Hey, we have two more Victory Points, for now. Hmm, I was going to take that province, jerks!



I'll say this for our raid progress so far. First, it's low risk. I should be able to run away whenever I want. Second, it may well also be low reward, but we're right near the front, you can see the province the Axis took from the Russians right there: Giannitsa. So if we draw off enemy forces, it's reasonable to think that we're helping.

In fact, we decide to expand our Raid by taking a second port. It looks to me as though the Italians are bombing the locals. Let's investigate!

 
I really enjoy this AAR, but if i may inject my personal opinion:
GET OUTTA THERE
Ive played Canada and tried to take Greece and Australia to do the same
it doesnt work, the germans will send a few divisions, so will the italians and the romanians and the hungarians and then you can kiss those divisions good bye. if u really want to fight in greec you'll need the whole canadian army (in my experience)
 
I really enjoy this AAR, but if i may inject my personal opinion:
GET OUTTA THERE
Ive played Canada and tried to take Greece and Australia to do the same
it doesnt work, the germans will send a few divisions, so will the italians and the romanians and the hungarians and then you can kiss those divisions good bye. if u really want to fight in greec you'll need the whole canadian army (in my experience)

It's risky, but with the Soviets so close, perhaps not as foolish as it looks on paper. Either the Axis can't afford to send anything away from Bulgaria and the raid makes progress, or they do and give the Soviets a reprieve, maybe even a chance of their own to push. Canada can't realistically hope to beat the Axis on the ground here, but they *can* potentially give the Soviets a fighting chance and, if he was extra lucky, even a chance to link up with the Soviets.

The most important thing is to ensure your troops don't get totally surrounded and that you choose the right time to evac if they push you back.
 
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A very audacious raid which seems to be going rather well, even though you have been fighting the most deadly of foe; HQ units! You have little reason to worry about defeat though, with the invincible armoured cars at your side you will meet nothing but victory.
 
It would be a good time to establish a proper front, because those German units left to monitor Greek territory will probably be sent to jump your troops from the South.

Actually, now that I think about it, raiding Yugoslav and Greek territory would probably be much easier if the game emulated proper partisan activity in there.