Those are the kind of analysis I like! Shame on me... I am toó lazy to do it myself
-
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.
... the Danish resistance ... undertook an outright rebellion against German rule destroying the regional headquarters in the process. Their efforts sucked ...
I really need to start reading the sentences as a whole
I've also googled up the KielMunity Mutiny. Dem German sailors don't want to rest nor fight!
I really need to start reading the sentences as a whole
I've also googled up the Kiel
Charts? I love charts! It's been way too long since I've peeked in here...I have some serious catching up to do.
For quite a few of the encirclement battles I simply destroyed what I had pocketed and moved on. Those who the casualty screen did not record as killed became "captured", or I reloaded as the OPFOR (doing my best not to see anything that would be game altering) afterwards to see what I had actually caught. As for the other countries, it was a mixture between making it up and making informed decisions.
If you mean stat wise, I think I shall be avoiding the overly detailed way I did it when I play my next Paradox game. Lets hope HOI4 does it for us! If you mean the last update, analyzing the war: thanks
I really need to start reading the sentences as a whole
:rofl:
I've also googled up the KielMunityMutiny. Dem German sailors don't want to rest nor fight!
Thanks for the catch, i fixed it
The mutiny is a very interesting event during a revolutionary wave that was crossing Europe. Couldn't resist making the comparison as it was a nice way of explaining away the end of the submarine war (rather than "hey my game crashed!" )Who doesn't!
Thanks for checking back in and i hope the conclusion is not a let down Okay, I have to redraw Europe's map ... kinda.
I das thinking of both as a whole... And I hope too HoI IV does the nasty job for us!
Extremely well done AAR enigmamcmxc! I look forward to your next one
Due to commute time and work load, my free time has vastly dwindled to what it use to be. So I shall be looking for something a bit more short and sweet (although the next sentence is pretty much a contradiction). I was thinking of starting up a EU IV game. I have had it sitting on my hard drive since it pretty much came out but have yet to play it.
That sounds like a good idea in terms of time management. I haven't played EU IV as much as I've played HOI III, but I do think you'd get much more done in a smaller time with EU IV.
I'd be interested in reading your AAR with EU IV as well. Hopefully you have time to add the maps in there, but even if not I'm sure it'd still be a great read.
When and if I do, I would more than likely write in a similar style as can be see by my [shameless plug] completed AARs[/shameless plug] and here. I favour the history book approach loaded with in game shots and whatever else I can pull together.
Extracts from 'Europe: 1890 - 1960' by a well-known historian
The Second World War destroyed all remnants of the balance of power that had attempted to be reconstructed, based along Nineteenth Century lines, at the Paris Peace Conference following the First World War. Just like thirty years previous, empire after empire had been shattered by the fighting. Once more, millions lay dead and once more new conflicts emerged out of the chaos, ruin, and ash of another great war.
In symmetry with 1918, the empire lying on the eastern borders of Europe had collapsed. This time it was the Soviet Union rather than the Russian Empire. What had been considered by some to be a superpower, laid in ruins: its industrial sectors destroyed by atomic warheads, its armies decimated, and its territory divided between warring factions as the Russian Civil War reignited. Following in the wake of the Soviet collapse was the vast majority of the world's remaining empires: the Belgian, Dutch, French, Italian, Hungarian, and of course the Japanese empire, which had already collapsed before the end of the war.
The UN occupation zones
In an effort to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors, Germany was occupied to drive home the point that the war had been lost and there would be no repeat of the actions of several decades prior. The western borders were reestablished along the lines of the Locarno Treaty of 1925, which the willing Weimar Government had once accepted resulting in reconciliation with the West. Major political stumbling once again occurred over the issue of the eastern frontier. The eastern borders were reestablished on their 1937 lines, with the exception of East Prussia that was ceded to Poland. After much political arguing, Germany and Poland finally agreed to settle the issue once and for all. Considering the German economy and industry were still largely intact, reparations were once again imposed to help pay for the damage caused to the United Kingdom, Italy, and more importantly France.
Some of the most destroyed areas
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and a civil war raging in the east, the issue of settlements or reparations for Eastern Europe were neglected. The exception being Poland, who were granted territory and reparations. For the rest of Europe, status quo ante bellum became the official policy, with the exception of areas were fighting had broken out. The Romanians, Greeks and Czechs all had their old borders returned to them. The Kingdom of Hungary was again shrunk, back to its pre-war size with no complaint following their massive wartime losses and their inability to defend themselves. Likewise, the Bulgarians (whose armies had collapsed following the introduction of ANZAC troops who reinforced the Greek drive into Bulgaria) surrendered on the basis of their old borders being guaranteed in return for reparation payments to Greece and them dropping their decade-old claims on land outside their borders.
...
In a further effort to avoid the repeating of mistakes, the Americans pledged to fully support the peace effort rather than once again withdrawing across the Atlantic. The American economy, which had only recovered slowly from the Great Depression during the war, finally managed an economic recovery in the early 1950s. Following which, a plan was put into motion to aid the reconstruction of the Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. Within a few years the horrendous damage caused by the war had largely been repaired and trade once again began to flow through Western Europe bringing about closer economic ties and the end to so much animosity.
...
At the end of 1940, and the defeat of France, the new French State incorporated the remains of the former republic’s army. The most hardcore and loyal – to the new regime – had been used to police the colonial empire and to fight on the Eastern Front. The remaining troops were biding their time. Once Operation Overlord succeeded, the Republicans were able to persuade the Vichy Government to switch sides and back the Allies. The ranks of the military then swelled as resistance fighters and exiles returning home were assimilated into the army. As more territory was liberated, recruiting returned. The military was therefore more loyal to the democratic ideals of the former republic than the fascist and opportunist Vichy regime, and numbered in the millions. As the war on the Western Front started to push back the Germans, the French military began planning for a coup to overthrown Petain's Government and arrest the former General for treason. The atomic bombing of Paris alleviated that issue and also removed most of the Vichy civilian Government. This paved the way for a temporary military Government. With the war finally over, in 1951, the military stepped down and held the first free elections since the Fascist coup of 1938. The French Fourth Republic was born.
...
The end of Mussolini
Numerous other countries were changed by the war. The Italians, fighting a low-level insurgency with an at large Benito Mussolini and the handful of his remaining supporters, launched a peaceful revolution to depose the monarchy that was seen as a tarnished symbol of the former fascist regime. As for Mussolini, he was eventually caught and executed near the Swiss border by paramilitaries. The Japanese also launched a revolution. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the communist puppet Government in charge in Tokyo was powerless and without military backing. The small Japanese army, slowly rebuilding following their complete defeat, launched a coup removing the communists and reinstalling the emperor and a new Government. The latter, wary of the atomic rockets launched all across Europe, renounced its former imperialist ways, renounced war, and started Japan down a new pacifist road. Canada, who had suffered devastating losses on the battlefield, had emerged as a new economic and industrial power with the military might to reinforce their political positions. The battles for the Pas de Calais became a new Vimy Ridge in the Canadian national consensus. As recognition of their major efforts, they were awarded a occupation zone within the former German Reich.
...
Throughout the war years Germany had spared no expense in construction of research facilities or funding research into atomic energy and weapons. An atomic reactor was opened in the early 40s, and worked non-stop supplying the local power grid – and harvesting the required materials for bombs – until the fall of Dresden to British troops in 1950. Due to the German efforts, they were able to deploy over a dozen bombs inflicting massive destruction against their enemies and within their own country. Despite extensive research into rockets and long range ballistic missiles, Germany was denied its main goal of these projects: a missile capable of reaching America. The German archives reveal that the atomic weapon project was geared around being able to strike at America, because the conventional military was unable to. New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. had been selected as the targets for the first wave aiming to destroy the American will to carry on the war. Problem with engines, fuel loads, and overall designs thus limited the Germans to more local targets.
...
Germany was not the only country to attempt to develop atomic weapons. The "Big Three" all worked towards that end. The Soviet Union had established several research centers, two of which were overrun by the Germans during Operation Barbarossa and subsequent campaigns, and a further one was gifted to Georgia when the Soviets agreed to reestablishment of that country in exchange for peace in 1945. Thus, the Soviet effort was crippled and posed no threat to the Germans. On the other hand, the British and Americans had made extensive efforts to construct their own bomb. Although, as each countries post-war official histories note, both nations were several years (estimated at around four) behind the breakthroughs required to begin the weaponization of atomic energy. With that said, an American atomic reactor – on par with the German one – had been constructed at Annapolis and the British had – despite the danger – constructed an advanced reactor (although not to the same level as the American or German ones) on the southern English coast.
The Dresden Army Research Centre, home of the German atomic bomb effort,
and the American reactor at Annapolis
...
Having unlocked the secrets of Germany's atomic bomb project and further enhanced their own long range rocketry programs, the British were able to maintain – despite economic problems, a war weary population, and a wave of decolonization limiting the power of the empire – their position as a world superpower. The Americans, likewise, were able to cement their position as a superpower and the ability to enforce the treaties that were now attempting to bind Europe at peace. Furthermore, following the Japanese coup that ousted the communists, the threat of atomic warfare – coupled with the devastation of two decades of war and an invasion of their home islands – resulted in a radical shift away from militarism towards a more pacifist outlook by the Japanese.
...
The British, while maintaining a sizeable merchant fleet, one of the world’s largest armies, and now being an atomic armed superpower, had suffered dramatically as a result of the war. Their political center had been destroyed along with their financial might. The unity of the country had pretty much been destroyed. Unable to gather the support needed to maintain the empire, decolonization began in earnest. Wishing to pull British troops out of the Far East as quickly as possible, in part due to the lack of support from home and in an attempt to avoid a repeat of Ireland and further bloodshed, terms were rapidly reached with Indian nationalists. India, having played a crucial role in the British effort in China, was granted Home Rule. An autonomous India now joined a growing Commonwealth of Nations, and the Home Rule arrangement worked for a while. As time passed, ties with the "motherland" faded leading to a true independent nation. Still holding fast to the (now defunct) League of Nation's ideal of mandates, the conquered territories in Asia (the Dutch and French colonial empires) and of the former Italian Empire were turned into their own states under British supervision. In Indochina, the area was split and local nationalist movements promoted to power. For example, in "Vietnam", the local resistance movement – who had fought the Japanese and then aided the British in their advance into China – known as the Viet Minh were handed the reins.
...
In 1940, following the end of the fighting in Western Europe, the German placed puppet regimes in control of Belgium and the Netherlands. A pro-German Government was formed in Vichy, and the newly formed French State sided with the Germans. Unable to strike back, Britain turned its attention to moving against the oversea possessions of Germany's new allies. The Far East was forever lost to these countries to the revived mandate system and local nationalists. However, due to a variety of reasons, the same system had not been imposed in their African or South American colonies. In the 1950s, in an attempt to increase their geo-political position in the world and counter the possibility of the handing over of their former colonial territories to the indigenous population, the Belgian, Dutch, and French all moved to reassert their authority. These actions resulted in new wars breaking out. Tens of thousands of Europeans were deployed to far flung parts of their empires to undertake unpopular colonial adventures. In the decade that followed the Second World War, all three battled against local populations who were determined to be able to rule themselves in the manner they had seen granted to various former Asian and African colonies. By 1960, all three had admitted defeat. In the wake of the fighting, a patchwork of new states and kingdoms emerged ruled by the victorious indigenous populations.
Belgian, Dutch, and French soldiers in action in Africa and South America
...
In the waning months of the Second World War, France and the Low Countries had either been liberated or subject to military coups that had overthrown the various fascist Governments that were in place. While these had largely been peaceful, the same could not be said in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, or the Far East.
...
Yugoslavia had been deconstructed by the Italians before their armistice in 1948. Local nationalists and fascists were offered power or seized it in the vacuum of power that was left by the Italians. These regimes rapidly started arming their followers with leftover Italian weapons and fortifying their powerbases. Serbia was one of these newly reformed countries. Rather than allow another fascist regime to take power, the British flew in the Yugoslavian Government in exile along with King Petar II. They quickly reassumed power and were reinforced by exiled Yugoslavian troops, who had fought in Greece and helped to defend Britain. These well-armed, trained and veteran troops formed the core of a new Yugoslavian army that was funded by the British. With the end of the war, Petar II initiated a new Balkans War aimed at unifying Yugoslavia once more and routing out the fascist elements. In the decade following the Second World War, the region was ablaze with violence until Yugoslavia once more returned to the map.
...
In Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union was collapsing following the loss of Moscow (and other political centers) to atomic strikes. The Politburo was gone and the NKVD leaderless. Red Army troops either deserted to return home after so much fighting, sided with the reemerging "Whites" or backed one of the numerous Red Army Generals who were now attempting to seize power and squabbling with one another.
Russians from across Europe started to return home. Vast stocks of German weapons had been abandoned at the end of the Second World War and now armed these returnees and their second attempt to oust the Reds. Their efforts were supported by the well-armed and trained Belarusian and Ukrainian armies who were carrying on their march east liberating territory from the Soviets. The civil war would drag on for years, and its conclusion is outside the scope of this volume.
...
The factions in China, 1949
In China, the tenuous peace between the fractions broke down by the end of 1949. With the Soviet Union collapsing, all support was withdrawn for the Chinese communists. The communists, who had seized massive areas of China at the end of the war with Japan, had only achieved so due to the massive numbers of Soviet troops and tanks that had been made available to them. Without this support, all that was left was a small undertrained and underequipped army that had done barely any fighting against the Japanese. The Nationalists, despite being defeated by the Japanese, had supplied over 100,000 men to the UN effort on the Western Front. These troops avoided the collapse of the Nationalists, and were able to return in late 1949 following the Nationalist cause following Japan's defeat. On their return they brought with them the modern western weapons and training they had received while in France.
On the cusp of 1950, the communists attacked the former Japanese-puppet regime that was based along the coast; the so called Nanjing Nationalist Government. The latter had formed a substantial militia armed with Japanese weaponry, but following the collapse of their sponsor had lost their real military power. Even the underfunded and poorly equipped communists were able to overcome the demoralized and barely trained Nanjing soldiers. This victory was minor, as the "crack" European armed and trained Nationalist army - supported by recently recruited, but not so well trained soldiers - marched into communist held territory. In the few pitched battles that were fought, the Nationalists were able to overrun the communist forces. By the end of the year, without Soviet support, the communists had collapsed. The central government then turned its attention towards retaking lost territory. Having already backed exile Russians, who had launched attacks against Soviet outposts in the Far East, the Nationalists declared war upon the already besieged Soviet Union. The Soviets, busy attempting to retain control of their more important European territory and already severely weakened by the Second World War, were powerless to stop the Chinese from retaking Manchuria. High on success, the Chinese moved from covertly supporting the Russians to actively helping them and launching an invasion of Korea to oust the communists there. Huge swatches of the Soviet Far East were conquered and turned over to Russian control and the weak Korean communist regime destroyed. The Chinese then returned to domestic problems: the remaining warlords and former allies. Within the decade following the war the central Government had been able to establish full control over China, destroy the communist cause in eastern Asia, and turn China once more into a great power.
Far East, 1952
...
Chapter X: The political aftermath of the Second World War
The Second World War destroyed all remnants of the balance of power that had attempted to be reconstructed, based along Nineteenth Century lines, at the Paris Peace Conference following the First World War. Just like thirty years previous, empire after empire had been shattered by the fighting. Once more, millions lay dead and once more new conflicts emerged out of the chaos, ruin, and ash of another great war.
In symmetry with 1918, the empire lying on the eastern borders of Europe had collapsed. This time it was the Soviet Union rather than the Russian Empire. What had been considered by some to be a superpower, laid in ruins: its industrial sectors destroyed by atomic warheads, its armies decimated, and its territory divided between warring factions as the Russian Civil War reignited. Following in the wake of the Soviet collapse was the vast majority of the world's remaining empires: the Belgian, Dutch, French, Italian, Hungarian, and of course the Japanese empire, which had already collapsed before the end of the war.
The UN occupation zones
In an effort to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors, Germany was occupied to drive home the point that the war had been lost and there would be no repeat of the actions of several decades prior. The western borders were reestablished along the lines of the Locarno Treaty of 1925, which the willing Weimar Government had once accepted resulting in reconciliation with the West. Major political stumbling once again occurred over the issue of the eastern frontier. The eastern borders were reestablished on their 1937 lines, with the exception of East Prussia that was ceded to Poland. After much political arguing, Germany and Poland finally agreed to settle the issue once and for all. Considering the German economy and industry were still largely intact, reparations were once again imposed to help pay for the damage caused to the United Kingdom, Italy, and more importantly France.
Some of the most destroyed areas
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and a civil war raging in the east, the issue of settlements or reparations for Eastern Europe were neglected. The exception being Poland, who were granted territory and reparations. For the rest of Europe, status quo ante bellum became the official policy, with the exception of areas were fighting had broken out. The Romanians, Greeks and Czechs all had their old borders returned to them. The Kingdom of Hungary was again shrunk, back to its pre-war size with no complaint following their massive wartime losses and their inability to defend themselves. Likewise, the Bulgarians (whose armies had collapsed following the introduction of ANZAC troops who reinforced the Greek drive into Bulgaria) surrendered on the basis of their old borders being guaranteed in return for reparation payments to Greece and them dropping their decade-old claims on land outside their borders.
...
In a further effort to avoid the repeating of mistakes, the Americans pledged to fully support the peace effort rather than once again withdrawing across the Atlantic. The American economy, which had only recovered slowly from the Great Depression during the war, finally managed an economic recovery in the early 1950s. Following which, a plan was put into motion to aid the reconstruction of the Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. Within a few years the horrendous damage caused by the war had largely been repaired and trade once again began to flow through Western Europe bringing about closer economic ties and the end to so much animosity.
...
At the end of 1940, and the defeat of France, the new French State incorporated the remains of the former republic’s army. The most hardcore and loyal – to the new regime – had been used to police the colonial empire and to fight on the Eastern Front. The remaining troops were biding their time. Once Operation Overlord succeeded, the Republicans were able to persuade the Vichy Government to switch sides and back the Allies. The ranks of the military then swelled as resistance fighters and exiles returning home were assimilated into the army. As more territory was liberated, recruiting returned. The military was therefore more loyal to the democratic ideals of the former republic than the fascist and opportunist Vichy regime, and numbered in the millions. As the war on the Western Front started to push back the Germans, the French military began planning for a coup to overthrown Petain's Government and arrest the former General for treason. The atomic bombing of Paris alleviated that issue and also removed most of the Vichy civilian Government. This paved the way for a temporary military Government. With the war finally over, in 1951, the military stepped down and held the first free elections since the Fascist coup of 1938. The French Fourth Republic was born.
...
The end of Mussolini
Numerous other countries were changed by the war. The Italians, fighting a low-level insurgency with an at large Benito Mussolini and the handful of his remaining supporters, launched a peaceful revolution to depose the monarchy that was seen as a tarnished symbol of the former fascist regime. As for Mussolini, he was eventually caught and executed near the Swiss border by paramilitaries. The Japanese also launched a revolution. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the communist puppet Government in charge in Tokyo was powerless and without military backing. The small Japanese army, slowly rebuilding following their complete defeat, launched a coup removing the communists and reinstalling the emperor and a new Government. The latter, wary of the atomic rockets launched all across Europe, renounced its former imperialist ways, renounced war, and started Japan down a new pacifist road. Canada, who had suffered devastating losses on the battlefield, had emerged as a new economic and industrial power with the military might to reinforce their political positions. The battles for the Pas de Calais became a new Vimy Ridge in the Canadian national consensus. As recognition of their major efforts, they were awarded a occupation zone within the former German Reich.
...
Chapter XIII: The Atomic Age
Throughout the war years Germany had spared no expense in construction of research facilities or funding research into atomic energy and weapons. An atomic reactor was opened in the early 40s, and worked non-stop supplying the local power grid – and harvesting the required materials for bombs – until the fall of Dresden to British troops in 1950. Due to the German efforts, they were able to deploy over a dozen bombs inflicting massive destruction against their enemies and within their own country. Despite extensive research into rockets and long range ballistic missiles, Germany was denied its main goal of these projects: a missile capable of reaching America. The German archives reveal that the atomic weapon project was geared around being able to strike at America, because the conventional military was unable to. New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. had been selected as the targets for the first wave aiming to destroy the American will to carry on the war. Problem with engines, fuel loads, and overall designs thus limited the Germans to more local targets.
...
Germany was not the only country to attempt to develop atomic weapons. The "Big Three" all worked towards that end. The Soviet Union had established several research centers, two of which were overrun by the Germans during Operation Barbarossa and subsequent campaigns, and a further one was gifted to Georgia when the Soviets agreed to reestablishment of that country in exchange for peace in 1945. Thus, the Soviet effort was crippled and posed no threat to the Germans. On the other hand, the British and Americans had made extensive efforts to construct their own bomb. Although, as each countries post-war official histories note, both nations were several years (estimated at around four) behind the breakthroughs required to begin the weaponization of atomic energy. With that said, an American atomic reactor – on par with the German one – had been constructed at Annapolis and the British had – despite the danger – constructed an advanced reactor (although not to the same level as the American or German ones) on the southern English coast.
The Dresden Army Research Centre, home of the German atomic bomb effort,
and the American reactor at Annapolis
...
Having unlocked the secrets of Germany's atomic bomb project and further enhanced their own long range rocketry programs, the British were able to maintain – despite economic problems, a war weary population, and a wave of decolonization limiting the power of the empire – their position as a world superpower. The Americans, likewise, were able to cement their position as a superpower and the ability to enforce the treaties that were now attempting to bind Europe at peace. Furthermore, following the Japanese coup that ousted the communists, the threat of atomic warfare – coupled with the devastation of two decades of war and an invasion of their home islands – resulted in a radical shift away from militarism towards a more pacifist outlook by the Japanese.
...
Chapter XVIII: Decolonization
The British, while maintaining a sizeable merchant fleet, one of the world’s largest armies, and now being an atomic armed superpower, had suffered dramatically as a result of the war. Their political center had been destroyed along with their financial might. The unity of the country had pretty much been destroyed. Unable to gather the support needed to maintain the empire, decolonization began in earnest. Wishing to pull British troops out of the Far East as quickly as possible, in part due to the lack of support from home and in an attempt to avoid a repeat of Ireland and further bloodshed, terms were rapidly reached with Indian nationalists. India, having played a crucial role in the British effort in China, was granted Home Rule. An autonomous India now joined a growing Commonwealth of Nations, and the Home Rule arrangement worked for a while. As time passed, ties with the "motherland" faded leading to a true independent nation. Still holding fast to the (now defunct) League of Nation's ideal of mandates, the conquered territories in Asia (the Dutch and French colonial empires) and of the former Italian Empire were turned into their own states under British supervision. In Indochina, the area was split and local nationalist movements promoted to power. For example, in "Vietnam", the local resistance movement – who had fought the Japanese and then aided the British in their advance into China – known as the Viet Minh were handed the reins.
...
In 1940, following the end of the fighting in Western Europe, the German placed puppet regimes in control of Belgium and the Netherlands. A pro-German Government was formed in Vichy, and the newly formed French State sided with the Germans. Unable to strike back, Britain turned its attention to moving against the oversea possessions of Germany's new allies. The Far East was forever lost to these countries to the revived mandate system and local nationalists. However, due to a variety of reasons, the same system had not been imposed in their African or South American colonies. In the 1950s, in an attempt to increase their geo-political position in the world and counter the possibility of the handing over of their former colonial territories to the indigenous population, the Belgian, Dutch, and French all moved to reassert their authority. These actions resulted in new wars breaking out. Tens of thousands of Europeans were deployed to far flung parts of their empires to undertake unpopular colonial adventures. In the decade that followed the Second World War, all three battled against local populations who were determined to be able to rule themselves in the manner they had seen granted to various former Asian and African colonies. By 1960, all three had admitted defeat. In the wake of the fighting, a patchwork of new states and kingdoms emerged ruled by the victorious indigenous populations.
Belgian, Dutch, and French soldiers in action in Africa and South America
...
Chapter XX: Civil Wars
In the waning months of the Second World War, France and the Low Countries had either been liberated or subject to military coups that had overthrown the various fascist Governments that were in place. While these had largely been peaceful, the same could not be said in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, or the Far East.
...
Yugoslavia had been deconstructed by the Italians before their armistice in 1948. Local nationalists and fascists were offered power or seized it in the vacuum of power that was left by the Italians. These regimes rapidly started arming their followers with leftover Italian weapons and fortifying their powerbases. Serbia was one of these newly reformed countries. Rather than allow another fascist regime to take power, the British flew in the Yugoslavian Government in exile along with King Petar II. They quickly reassumed power and were reinforced by exiled Yugoslavian troops, who had fought in Greece and helped to defend Britain. These well-armed, trained and veteran troops formed the core of a new Yugoslavian army that was funded by the British. With the end of the war, Petar II initiated a new Balkans War aimed at unifying Yugoslavia once more and routing out the fascist elements. In the decade following the Second World War, the region was ablaze with violence until Yugoslavia once more returned to the map.
...
In Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union was collapsing following the loss of Moscow (and other political centers) to atomic strikes. The Politburo was gone and the NKVD leaderless. Red Army troops either deserted to return home after so much fighting, sided with the reemerging "Whites" or backed one of the numerous Red Army Generals who were now attempting to seize power and squabbling with one another.
Russians from across Europe started to return home. Vast stocks of German weapons had been abandoned at the end of the Second World War and now armed these returnees and their second attempt to oust the Reds. Their efforts were supported by the well-armed and trained Belarusian and Ukrainian armies who were carrying on their march east liberating territory from the Soviets. The civil war would drag on for years, and its conclusion is outside the scope of this volume.
...
The factions in China, 1949
In China, the tenuous peace between the fractions broke down by the end of 1949. With the Soviet Union collapsing, all support was withdrawn for the Chinese communists. The communists, who had seized massive areas of China at the end of the war with Japan, had only achieved so due to the massive numbers of Soviet troops and tanks that had been made available to them. Without this support, all that was left was a small undertrained and underequipped army that had done barely any fighting against the Japanese. The Nationalists, despite being defeated by the Japanese, had supplied over 100,000 men to the UN effort on the Western Front. These troops avoided the collapse of the Nationalists, and were able to return in late 1949 following the Nationalist cause following Japan's defeat. On their return they brought with them the modern western weapons and training they had received while in France.
On the cusp of 1950, the communists attacked the former Japanese-puppet regime that was based along the coast; the so called Nanjing Nationalist Government. The latter had formed a substantial militia armed with Japanese weaponry, but following the collapse of their sponsor had lost their real military power. Even the underfunded and poorly equipped communists were able to overcome the demoralized and barely trained Nanjing soldiers. This victory was minor, as the "crack" European armed and trained Nationalist army - supported by recently recruited, but not so well trained soldiers - marched into communist held territory. In the few pitched battles that were fought, the Nationalists were able to overrun the communist forces. By the end of the year, without Soviet support, the communists had collapsed. The central government then turned its attention towards retaking lost territory. Having already backed exile Russians, who had launched attacks against Soviet outposts in the Far East, the Nationalists declared war upon the already besieged Soviet Union. The Soviets, busy attempting to retain control of their more important European territory and already severely weakened by the Second World War, were powerless to stop the Chinese from retaking Manchuria. High on success, the Chinese moved from covertly supporting the Russians to actively helping them and launching an invasion of Korea to oust the communists there. Huge swatches of the Soviet Far East were conquered and turned over to Russian control and the weak Korean communist regime destroyed. The Chinese then returned to domestic problems: the remaining warlords and former allies. Within the decade following the war the central Government had been able to establish full control over China, destroy the communist cause in eastern Asia, and turn China once more into a great power.
Far East, 1952
...
Thanks for the compliments It has been fun to write. I have one last update to make, a final game AAR. It will probably be next week when i am able to get it uploaded.
It has been fun to write. I have one last update to make, a final game AAR. It will probably be next week when i am able to get it uploaded.
What a great wrap up enigmamcmxc! Congratulations on completion of a very nice piece of AARing!
*bump*
thought, we have seen and read it all before onehundred times , but than...
really great aar, one of the very best!
thought, we have seen and read it all before onehundred times , but than...
really great aar, one of the very best!
My thoughts exactly. For every one of the last updates I get the feeling that this AAR has offered the best it can, there is another one following which raises the bar even higher.
Very well done !
Very well done !
Thank you all for the comments!
Earlier in the year I wondered what would have happened had I made different choices during the game. A few I played out via sitting as a neutral country and letting the AI play both the Allies, Axis, and Comintern, and I played one scenario myself. My last addition to this AAR will be that: played out as a post-war wargame. I don't know yet if it will be from the German perspective or a neutral one.
After that, it will be a rest from AARland for a while. I have some things on my to do list that will keep me occupied, but I believe I will end up returning with a EUIV AAR of some kind. Not to mention I will finally be able to delete 4gigs worth of save games I have been hording for no real reason.
Earlier in the year I wondered what would have happened had I made different choices during the game. A few I played out via sitting as a neutral country and letting the AI play both the Allies, Axis, and Comintern, and I played one scenario myself. My last addition to this AAR will be that: played out as a post-war wargame. I don't know yet if it will be from the German perspective or a neutral one.
After that, it will be a rest from AARland for a while. I have some things on my to do list that will keep me occupied, but I believe I will end up returning with a EUIV AAR of some kind. Not to mention I will finally be able to delete 4gigs worth of save games I have been hording for no real reason.
Enigma, your HOI3 AAR style is absolutely amazing. May I suggest that you play a game as Japan after this one? It would be a shame to see you leave to EU4
Japan? That does sound interesting, although I think that will have to wait until I find the time to play another HOI game.