• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Well, they(British player) can enforce a breaktrough through Vichy, and your Ships aren't doing that great are they, The Axis navies can't play attrition warfare like this with the RN.
 
I think Brits lost momentum. Going through Southern France was, IMHO, a bad idea. They should have left Spain and strike Germany or Italy with all its might somewhere else where it hurts more to the Axis.
 
I think Brits lost momentum. Going through Southern France was, IMHO, a bad idea. They should have left Spain and strike Germany or Italy with all its might somewhere else where it hurts more to the Axis.

We haven't seen much of,ie, the Italian mainland. My guess is it is well defended so that the UK won't be able to cash in on the easter eggs Mussolini and the Pope will be having for supper. :p

Looks like a perfect place to strike out in West France, close to the airbases in the UK too so the Allies can cash in on bombing axis troops.
 
I think GB failed to achieve his main objective. And that was too suck troops from the eastern front. His gains in Western Europe may have just about swung the battle for the atlantic in his favor, but it has resulted in a much shorter front for the Germans, and even then it looks like the GB is stretched thinner than the GER.
 
I think GB failed to achieve his main objective. And that was too suck troops from the eastern front. His gains in Western Europe may have just about swung the battle for the atlantic in his favor, but it has resulted in a much shorter front for the Germans, and even then it looks like the GB is stretched thinner than the GER.

Well he did destroy some panzers. Agreed that western France is not forcing the Germans to redeploy yet, but as Bombero says, holding that land allows the air force to pound axis forces, and there is always the threat of a breakout into mechanized friendly terrain in northern France. And none of the British divisions are far from ports. They can be redeployed again quickly if a better opportunity presents itself. Easy come, easy go. The rapid advance in the southern Soviet front makes me wonder if a target will open up behind the lines in Romania proper.
 
Erm, Japanese fighters in France? That's rather gamey. :p

What's US neutrality like and the British player surely has a trump card? He's been lucky and very unpredictable. I'm sure he's got something more random up his sleeve.

I'm hopeful the Russian player will hold out for the Allies to gain strength. :)
 
I think Brits lost momentum. Going through Southern France was, IMHO, a bad idea. They should have left Spain and strike Germany or Italy with all its might somewhere else where it hurts more to the Axis.

I do think the British attack from Spain along the occupied French coast + A supporting landing north of that was the only logical step for ENG.
The initial success of this strategy, including the encirclement and destruction of a Panzer Div, proves this.
+ as has been stated ENG can thus bring the full strength of the RAF to bear without leaving ENG undefended
+ ENG is operating with short supply lines
+ ENG can use its Naval supremacy along the coastline
+ ENG can always withdraw homewards once Axis comits serious and overwhelming forces to counter (The objectic of an early second front will then have been met anyway - sapping Axis troops from the east.)

My criticism concerning the ENG landing revolves on the too small amount of troops dedicated to this attack. It seems ENG was far from going all out in France only using 10-15 Divs total. The initial succes of catching Axis red-handed with to few forces in the West was thus wasted to early, as a handfull of tanks apparently sufficed to contain ENG and stall any advance or the linking of forces.
I miss the clear focus of this crucial ENG attack to save Russia. A "Schwerpunkt" would have been a different animal...

I still rate the ENG operation as a tactical victory, scaring Axis to commit some forces to the West and at least gaining the "attention" of about 5 GER Panzer Divs - destroying one.
+ The Axis U-Boot war took another blow in the central and southern Atlantic by losing all bases.
------------------------------
From what I see here ENG had split its forces and we will see in the next update what the rest of the ENG forces have been up too, during the small scale attack on France we have seen so far.
Maybe the failed ENG attack on ITA - one could guestimate from Zid's comments concerning ITA defenses ?

------------------------------
As always: Many thanks for the great read and interesting individual perspectives! (More from Daphne, Maxiboy and Sir Henry would be interesting.)

Happy Easter Holidays to the Carnage-Group and Carnage-board-community! :)
 
IMHO, he could have landed 15 divisions next to La Rochel (or how it is spelled) and entrap a whole army instead of slugishly moving north from spanish border. It was wastage of MP and momentum.
 
mnplastic and Thelamon have you considered supply as a reason as to why there are no more GBR units on the continent?

I have often found that after invasion it is easy to be bogged down by lack of supply. There is no use in having a 8 speed unit slowing down to a crawl as a result of supplies.

Staying within the RAF umbrella and using a few fast divisions seem to do the trick. The question is how many units will the Axis have to hurl at Zid to have effect.

Zid has evacuated India and made a clean sweep in N.Africa all his focus is availiable to the westfront.

This is the most exiting AAR at the moment, the input from all players give it an extra touch.
 
Unless UK is short on convoys,supply should not be an issue. Northern France has lots of ports and since UK has naval supremacy (vis a vis subs) and air supremacy, nothing short of a major Axis attack should be able to push them back.
 
Where was this Panzer division destroyed? I was reviewing the last 2 updates and saw no mention of it. Also how is having Airbases in Western France increase his air supremecy? Weren't they in range in England anyway, and even GER shortest range fighters can reach the front from Paris?
 
Unless UK is short on convoys,supply should not be an issue. Northern France has lots of ports and since UK has naval supremacy (vis a vis subs) and air supremacy, nothing short of a major Axis attack should be able to push them back.

The infrastructure need to regenerate after battle/change of ownership aswell doesn't it?

I have had many supply issues in spite of having plenty of ports availiable.
 
The infrastructure need to regenerate after battle/change of ownership aswell doesn't it?

I have had many supply issues in spite of having plenty of ports availiable.


That'd be a matter of few days, as there will be next to no attacks on infra there.
 
I know I'm responding a little late to the debate regarding gamey tactics, but I think it's a really good idea that when Barbarossa starts, Germany should get a second player. I imagine that playing as Germany in an MP game like this is spending 90% of your attention on the eastern front and 10% checking back over France and Scandinavia every once in a while to make sure the British aren't marauding through already. This also means that very little attention is paid to assuring a healthy OOB or a proper defensive setup along the English Channel. Having a second player would allow another set of eyes on the situation in France and Scandinavia, watching movement of ships or overflights of English territory to try to find troop concentrations and adjust accordingly. You would have another person that can carefully deploy troops and develop defensive plans rather than haphazardly put troops in strategic areas and then having to turn your attention again to the unfolding situation in Russia. Granted, more could have been done before Barbaraossa to prepare the defenses in France or Spain, but it seems hardly fair that the USSR gets a second player while Germany only gets one the entire game.

I don't think it's important where invasions should be able to happen or when; in my opinion let the Brits do what they want, when they want. Just address the overriding problem of the German player's inability to split his attention between both fronts.

Regardless, it's still a great read and I appreciate all the players and their points of view on the war. Keep it up!
 
Last edited:
Carnage al dente

Addendum to Chapter XV - Free the Frog

hoi36.jpg


With the troops back from the Spanish campaign, UK had enough troops to mount a small campaign. It was determined that it would be focused in western France, with the added objective to destroy as many German troop formations as possible. A German armour division, commanded by Felix Steiner was chosen as the main objective. An amphibious invasion was launched to pin the division in place, while troops advanced from the Brest bridgehead. Steiner fought a fighting retreat, but even though he had clearly superior tanks and personal, the Brittish were just too many.

hoi37.jpg


After being surrounded in Nantes and subjected to non stop bombings for several days, Steiner had to surrender. Other Wehrmacht divisions were close to breaching the siege of Nantes, but they came too late. This was the first loss of a full armoured division of the Wehrmacht, and it was celebrated in London. In Berlin, it was said that Hitlers reaction was furious. "Das wahr ein Befel!", he was heard to scream! "Der Angriff Steiners wahr ein Befel!"

hoi38.jpg


Just a few days later, the Germans reached the outskirts of Nantes. The RAF, battle-hardned by many skirmishes over Westerns France, had developed such a reputation that the recruiting stations were full with young men wanting to pilot a Spitfire.

hoi39.jpg


The Germans had retaken Den Helder, and gave the Brittish an opportunity they could pass. They made an invasion south in the Penninsula, shutting off the Germans from any retreat. They tried to use ferries and barges to cross over the sound to Leeuwarden, but when they saw the RN Battleships, the men rebelled and surrendered.

hoi40.jpg


The long, slow attack along the French atlantic coast finally reached a milestone, when Bordeux was surrounded and the Garrison forced to surrender. At the same time, news came that the last brittish subs, operating around the Bay of Bengal, had been sunk.
 
I think Brits lost momentum. Going through Southern France was, IMHO, a bad idea. They should have left Spain and strike Germany or Italy with all its might somewhere else where it hurts more to the Axis.

I think GB failed to achieve his main objective. And that was too suck troops from the eastern front. His gains in Western Europe may have just about swung the battle for the atlantic in his favor, but it has resulted in a much shorter front for the Germans, and even then it looks like the GB is stretched thinner than the GER.

The German troops concentration in France has increased quite significantly, I think. I belive that Daphne was very focused on keeping up the pressure on the eastern front, but I hope that this forced him to station more troops in France.

Erm, Japanese fighters in France? That's rather gamey. :p

What's US neutrality like and the British player surely has a trump card? He's been lucky and very unpredictable. I'm sure he's got something more random up his sleeve.

I'm hopeful the Russian player will hold out for the Allies to gain strength. :)

1. Our houserules allow it.
2. US neutrality is still high. I don´t have any screenshot, but I belive that it will be a looong time before I can hope for the support of the US.
3. Russia is... not doing good at all. I didn´t realise that they lost so many divisions, and fighting defensively is far less forgiving than fighting offensive. A small mistake can cost you a lot.

My criticism concerning the ENG landing revolves on the too small amount of troops dedicated to this attack. It seems ENG was far from going all out in France only using 10-15 Divs total. The initial succes of catching Axis red-handed with to few forces in the West was thus wasted to early, as a handfull of tanks apparently sufficed to contain ENG and stall any advance or the linking of forces.
I miss the clear focus of this crucial ENG attack to save Russia. A "Schwerpunkt" would have been a different animal...

I´m afraid what you see is what you get- this was most of the UK divisions. I couldn´t make the punkt any schwerer. ;)

IMHO, he could have landed 15 divisions next to La Rochel (or how it is spelled) and entrap a whole army instead of slugishly moving north from spanish border. It was wastage of MP and momentum.

Sadly, the Germans had thought of this as well, and had a division in each coastal province. There might have been a window to invade, but in that case, I missed it.

I know I'm responding a little late to the debate regarding gamey tactics, but I think it's a really good idea that when Barbarossa starts, Germany should get a second player. ... Granted, more could have been done before Barbaraossa to prepare the defenses in France or Spain, but it seems hardly fair that the USSR gets a second player while Germany only gets one the entire game.

if the USSR gets 2 players, Germany should too, Far east doesn't matter until Japs are next to the Urals :p.

We have to make do with the players we get, sadly. Maxyboy was using another players account and took care of the Japanese front from SirHenry. So we were playing 3 vs 3, just with one player on two computers. So, IMHO, the player setup is a non-issue. We just have to make do with what we get, and in a few circumstances, the Axis chose to double up on Japan instead of Germany.

Also, invasions are easily noticed when if you choose pop-ups when you loose territory.
 
The battle in India

This is the Emperor,

the main problem in India was the supply lines. Very frustrating when hundreds of thousands of Chinese just ran in and then started to get sick from the lack of food and water. Luckily for them, they had some fine Japanese organizers to help out. But it took time sines the only way to communicate with my allies were by using gramophones connected to huge loudspeakers. You should try to direct one hundred thousand men by playing different tunes in loudspeakers.

The Britisher were no problem. I just put 1000 solders between one of the Japs and one of the Britts and that was the end of that.
 
Thanks for the recent updates! I'm still rather engaged in finding out how this thing is gonna end. On one hand the Russians seem under some very heavy pressure, but on the other hand, the German west front is also very weak. Since Berlin is not that far away, I guess the Germans will be forced to pull a bit of pressure of the soviets, giving us more exciting updates in the future.

Looking forward very much to the next update.

And oh boy... when will paradox include a spell-check on this page. Technology makes you lazy and ignorant...

With Firefox (and probably others, but it's the one I use) you can just install some dictionaries for the languages you wanna spell check and right click in a text field to enable/disable spell checking. Using it as we speak: for instance it suggests that I replace CptEasy in the quote tack with "speakeasy". Yeah.
 
We have to make do with the players we get, sadly. Maxyboy was using another players account and took care of the Japanese front from SirHenry. So we were playing 3 vs 3, just with one player on two computers. So, IMHO, the player setup is a non-issue. We just have to make do with what we get, and in a few circumstances, the Axis chose to double up on Japan instead of Germany.

During this chapter, it was actually 4 vs 3 although the 4th is still to be concidered "a fresh recruit" ;) Still, I agree fully with Zid that it is a non (or at least very small) issue. Most of the other players, especially UK and SU, ends up in situations with a need for extreme multi-tasking. Sometimes it benefits one side and sometimes the other.