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Alsadius

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Sep 26, 2006
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So I saw the contest for making an AAR, and I thought to myself "Hey, I'm playing HOI, and I can write well...". Let's try making an AAR out of this.

I started this game primarily to test out CGM originally, but it's been interesting to play through to date. I'm playing USSR in the Barbarossa scenario. Difficulty is set to Hard, because I want a challenge without making things so brutal that I can't judge the new patch. My primary change from the default setup was to entirely delete my navy - down to the point where I can't even build a T1 destroyer - and then to rebuild my forces from the ground up in my preferred style.

For technology, my primary investment at first was to get the important units(Inf, Arm, Int primarily) up to 1941 tech levels, and to unlock SHArm for the purposes of building a couple elite corps. I also got level 1 radar.

For production, my new OOB is as follows:
Western Theatre(Germany/Hungary/Romania):
7 infantry armies of 5 corps each(1 corps per province along a 35-province front)
3 armored corps(deployed primarily for a thrust north towards Koingsburg/Danzig, to cut off East Prussia)
1 SHArm corps(same)
8 interceptor wings
4 bomber wings

Northern Theatre(Finland/Norway)
2 infantry armies(1 corps per province in the south, 4 corps split to cover every deployable province north of Vartsila)
2 armored corps(deployed along the southern border outside Leningrad)
3 interceptor wings
2 bomber wings
Level 10 radar in Leningrad, giving vision of most of Finland(and much of Prussia/Northern Poland)

Central Theatre(Turkey/Persia/Afghanistan/West China)
1 infantry corps(east of Caspian)
1 mountain corps(west of Caspian)
1 multi-role wing

Eastern Theatre(Manchuria/Japan)
3 infantry corps(2 outside Vladivostok, 1 covering north of Manchuria)
1 multi-role wing

Each infantry corps has 3 Inf/Inf/Inf/Art/AT and 2 Inf/Inf/Inf/Art/AA(chosen for 10% CA bonus, utility against a range of targets, and relative cheapness). Armored divisions are all Arm/Arm/Mot/SPArt/SPAA. SHArm divisions are Guards/Guards/Guards/Art/SHArm. All air wings are 4 planes per - fighter/interceptor wings are pure fighters, bomber wings are 2 Tac/2 Ftr.

The battle plan in the short term is to hold the south end of the western line, with a thrust northwest to cut off and pocket East Prussia. The primary initial push will be against Finland, though, as you can tell from the deployment of sixty divisions with strong air support. The northern theatre's goal is to knock Finland out of the war, and then redeploy some of the force southwards as a generic reserve.

In the long term, my goal is basically the same as Stalin's - world conquest for the Comintern. I'm willing to milk the Allies for lend-lease, but they are not my friends. I will not feasibly be able to compete with the Allies on the sea for some time, so Eurasia will be the first stage, but I do intend to use all the extra resources from conquering Europe to establish a world-class navy by 1950, along with building nuclear-tipped ICBMs by 1945.

So, there's the setup. The next post will cover up to Aug 1941(i.e., what I've played before making this post - don't expect much in the way of screenshots for this one)

Edit: Whenever I finish setting up the order of battle to my liking, I always make an "OOB" save, to save myself the work of doing it again. I made one for this campaign when I finished CGM setup, and I just realized that someone might want to play with it. Here's the savegame, for anyone who wants it.
View attachment USSR 1941 OOB.rar

Also, here's the list of updates to date:
June 22-Aug 16, 1941
Aug 17-Sep 30, 1941
Oct 1-Nov 30, 1941
Dec 1-Dec 31, 1941

Jan 1-Feb 28, 1942
Mar 1-Apr 30, 1942
May 1-Jun 30, 1942
Jul 1-Aug 31, 1942
Sep 1-Oct 31, 1942
Nov 1-Dec 31, 1942

Jan 1-Mar 31, 1943
Apr 1-Jun 30, 1943
Jul 1-Sep 30, 1943
Oct 1-Nov 30, 1943
Dec 1-Dec 31, 1943

Jan 1-Apr 30, 1944
May 1-Aug 31, 1944
Sep 1-Dec 31, 1944

Jan 1-Dec 31, 1945

Jan 1-Dec 31, 1946
 
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Interesting. I hope you start building a navy right away. You need practicals for research and making actual ships.
 
June 22-Aug 16, 1941
Production and Technology
I'm dedicating 22 leadership towards technology, 2 to intel, and the balance to officers. Tech is primarily land doctrines(which are lagging a bit), but also some armor/infantry support techs I couldn't get, and of course nuclear weapons. I'm also getting Destroyers, to start the slow process of building a navy from scratch.

Production was initially dedicated to lowering the 5% dissent and building up supplies. As soon as dissent hit 0%(about Jul 1), and lend-lease had kicked in, I switched to building a full army of engineer infantry(Inf/Inf/Inf/Art/Eng) for any bridging tasks, and also to get a large quantity of units to throw into the line if things went poorly in Jul/Aug. Between increased reinforcement needs and a reduction of lend-lease, I'm only producing about 15 of them right now though.

Now let's get to the point where the fighting starts.

Northern Front
In the north, I attacked Finnish positions immediately for the most part - I didn't immediately assault all of the southern positions, but my troops sortied out of Hanko, pushed on Petsamo, and went up against the outer ends of the Mannerheim Line right away, while holding in the centre for a second push.

As it happened, I sort of misjudged how densely Finland would be held when I set up my deployments. 60 divisions on the Finnish frontier was roughly 4x what the defenders had, and the only point where I experienced any difficulty was in getting four divisions of the Hanko corps into Helsinki from the rear, though it ultimately fell on July 10. It's important to note at this point that the only VPs in Finland are Helsinki, Turku, and Vaasa, so I didn't actually need to capture anything else to take the country. One division and the corps HQ took Turku, pushed north on Vaasa, and took it on July 21. Finland officially surrendered the next day. A scattering of troops was still present in the northern half of the country, but most of them have been run to ground, with only a few divisions near the Swedish border giving me trouble. I have redeployed the two armored corps, all the air wings, and the full 8th Army south, and as of Aug 1, the troops are generally south of Leningrad and will be arriving at the Western front soon. The 9th Army is tasked with holding Finland and pushing on Norway - the current plan is to finish mop-up duty and then leave a corps in Helsinki, another corps covering the other Finnish ports, and use three full corps to push Norway. I've also set Finland to Collaboration occupation, to lower the amount of force I spend holding it down.
eclYb8lki3.png


Western Front
On the German front, things have not been nearly so impressive. The line has basically held - in particular, Hungarian and Romanian thrusts across the Prut and German attacks out of Memel have been repulsed with heavy losses, and there's been a bit of progress in East Prussia. However, the Przemsyl area has been getting pushed back, and it took several waves of furious counterattacks from local forces to repair a breach through Zolkiew. Similarly, my planned breakout through the Ostroleka area has been a bloodbath, with the armoured units I throw in inevitably being pushed back by heavy enveloping attacks. Two months in, and I still haven't broken out of the woods. I've started pushing a wider path through in an attempt to counter this trend, but progress has been fairly minimal, only a couple provinces. When the reinforcements arrive from Finland, I should have the force necessary to drive this through properly, though I'm unsure how many forces will actually get pocketed in the process.
F2GNpTArOx.png
 
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Very nice progress in Finland! I'm following with great interest.
 
Aug 17-Sep 30, 1941
Having gotten initial setup done with, and having caught up with the period of time before I realized this was going to be an AAR, I'm going pure chronological from here on. I may switch it up if I can think of something that warrants it(hey, this is still a bit experimental on my part), but this seems easier to track.

Aug 22: Units have started to arrive from Finland to bolster the lines. I've got one armoured division going to the Przemsyl area to bolster the defences there, and the balance is pushing on East Prussia in various ways. I had a bit of a scare pushing the southward part of the front, when I let a gap develop between my leading elements in Ostrow and my reinforcements, and an entire corps got pocketed and attacked. Fortunately, I had an armoured corps resting up in the area, and so was able to relieve it less than a day. Ostroleka continues to be a permanent battleground, with my SHArm corps spearheading yet another push. Turns out that basing them off Guards was a very wise choice, because Guards have stratospheric morale, and so can be thrown into fights over and over again. Two months in, and my division commanders are already 25% of the way to Ranger/Battlemaster(for those who don't already have BM) because of how much time that corps has spent fighting.

Aug 26: A few good things happened today. First, I closed one of the pockets in Finland, forcing three divisions and von Kleist's 3rd Army command to surrender. Second, the Veteran Army modifier fired - apparently, I've had 256 battles thus far, or almost 4 per day(and half of them were probably in Ostroleka). Third, the first dozen divisions of my engineer army came out of training, with four more scheduled to follow in the next few days. I don't need them urgently on the lines - the only relevant rivers are the Vistula, which I'm not crossing in the near future, and the Prut, which I can smash without any need for engineers. As such, I'm using the engineers as port guards, for all the myriad undefended ports along the White, Black, and Baltic Seas. One corps is being centred on each of Murmansk, Sevastopol, and Riga. Those will likely be traded out in future for a more dedicated garrison force, but for now I'll use what I have, since it's not like I can exactly rely on my navy to keep invaders out.

Speaking of the Prut, I've started attacking the northern part of the river. I'm not making a full push, just attacks that result in a shorter line, but it's been easy successes so far. The plan is to keep pushing slowly, while keeping troop org high - I have zero reserves in this part of the line, so I don't want to compromise my defences, but the Romanian line seems soft. (Let's put it this way - they just got some Italian reinforcements, and the Italians are outperforming the locals). Iasi has 3 IC, and it's on the border, so I'm definitely going at least that far with this push.

Also, with a bunch of those divisions out of the production queue, I'm using the freed-up IC to get a bit more high-tech - I've started work on a rocket test site and 10 points worth of radar stations. The balance will go to building up a supply stockpile to augment the rather pathetic 1988 I have. (Off-topic: This supply push inspired this post)

Sep 6: Well now there's a first - I just had an AI nation buy a production license off me. Mongolia now has the right to build a single modern interceptor. I'm okay with this. (Sadly, no Allied nations are willing to sell me destroyer licenses.)

Sep 9: Okay, this is annoying. I'm starting to get forces in position to advance along the Norwegian coast towards Narvik, and the infrastructure is too low to allow troop movements. I can close the pockets, but I need either boats or Sweden to get any further in Scandinavia. And Sweden has denied me military access both times I've asked. I may need to stop asking at some point...

Sep 12: I've got a smallish pocket about ready to close in East Prussia, with the jaws falling on Koingsburg from north and east, and about a corps trapped behind. I'm unsure if I want to close it here or wait a bit, because there's another corps in Koingsburg proper and close to an army available to be pocketed if I can push through and make seafall in the Danzig area. I'm going to give my troops a few days to get prepped for attack again, and see if I can arrange a breakout through the Ostroleka area in the meantime - if I can, I'll leave the path open, but if I can't, I'll take a corps over nothing. Fortunately, my forces near Ostroleka are finally starting to be able to hold their advances, so a breakout in the near future is actually possible - I finally won a battle for control of a plains province, so my armoured corps are about to hit open ground and not any more of this infernal forest. Also, Iasi has just fallen to my southern push.

Sep 20: The breakout has gone marvellously. Currently, it looks like I'm going to make seafall at Elbing and pocket about 3 mixed corps. My spearhead will be ready to attack at dawn on the 22nd, and I'm frankly awash in troops for reducing their forces, with close to 70 divisions surrounding it. I could try to get a bit more ambitious with the scope of it, but they're in full retreat, and I want to close the ring before too much escapes. There's still lots of Germany left to pocket troops in. I'm starting on some subsidiary reduction now, from Koingsberg up, to speed up troop availability for my next major offensive.
VwubmWZImU.png


Sep 24: The last of my engineer army is built - I've added a corps centred on Leningrad and one on Rostov. I've also built up to 16k supplies stockpiled, so I'm going to throw another Arm corps in the queue, and leave a bit of excess for supply/reinforcement.

Sep 30: The pocket has been closed at Labiau, and the final take was eight divisions along with the entirety of East Prussia. Not quite as much as I'd like(the AI has gotten a lot better at evacuating pockets), but it's still a solid success. The next attack is planned to be an envelopment of about the same size, but in the south of Poland. Unlike the first attack, this one's going to be made in tank country, plains as far as the eye can see, so I shouldn't have nearly so much of the damnable bogging-down that the first operation was characterized by. The plan is a strong push from the north and a weaker one from the south, meeting up somewhere southeast of Lodz. The enemy is pushing pretty hard against the back wall of this pocket right now, and I'm planning to let him push, try to draw more force into the pocket. There's nothing I care about between him and Kiev, and he doesn't presently have enough force to chase me too badly. This operation should start mid-October or so, once I've had a chance to redeploy my forces. I'll probably try to snag Danzig before I go, for IC denial, but other than that I plan for the north to be quiet for a while.
8PANYR0XZK.png
 
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Great AAR! You most certainly are good at writing, so please keep that up :). A few more pictures would be nice, though, to show the general picture of how war's going.

But I digress. The push in the north went well, especially when you consider that the AI has been improved. The push in the south is pretty ambitious, but the plan looks solid. Just make sure you have twice the amount of troops you expect to use - no plan survives contact with the enemy. Especially delaying counterattacks on your armour might ruin the day. If you pull it off, though, you'll have a lot of the Wehrmacht sitting in Ukraine with no supplies whatsoever, ready to be killed.
 
Also, one question for all the readers: Should I be attaching pictures the way I have been, or should I be hosting them on an image-hosting service and embedding them? If I were to embed, they'd show up a lot bigger without being clicked(600x400 or so), but you'd need to right-click "Open in new tab" to see them full-size. Here's a sample:
8PANYR0XZK.png


Compared to the style I was using previously:
View attachment 64493
 

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I think most readers (me including) prefer the style in post #8 and not the thumbnails. Pics like in post #3 and #6 offer great detail but I think this style fits better other parts of the game such as politics screen where the fonts end up being to small, and not the tactical part of the game (battlefield / troops overview).

Very nice AAR, quite detailed and very entertaining... I like how most of the input its about your future moves and not what is actually happening. Its like playing a game with a friend discussing and analysing every future move while the game is paused !! moAAR pls ;)
 
It's probably a good call getting rid of your navy. Just about everything bar your destroyers and submarines are worthless, even though there is something fitting about seeing the dreadnaughts from the last war fight in the next one!

As concerning the posting size, try uploading to Photobucket. Fairly quick to upload, good size and detail to boot.
 
Gen. Marshall, I'll try to add a few more pics going forward. Not used to taking screencaps while I play, so I've missed a couple good chances to take pictures.

red_KLG, this isn't exactly a game that lends itself to living in the moment ;). If I wasn't constantly planning ahead, I'd never be able to get anything done. I do tend to put a fairly limited horizon on my plans, usually one op at a time with a vague idea of how it'll lead into the next(anything much further ahead will just be overtaken by events), but planning ahead that couple of months is necessary.

MajorMayhem, I use onebit.us - run by a guy I know from another game, and it has a lot less nonsense than any other image-hosting service I've ever seen. Plus, the drag-and-drop uploading is just cool. The size limit in the forum is actually imposed by this forum's software, though - the images are in their full original resolution, you just have to open them in a new tab to see. (To be fair, they weren't originally, because I set an option wrong, but they've all been re-uploaded at the original size).

LoftenHenderson, I've replaced the thumbnails with bigger images, though I'm keeping one thumbnail in #8 for comparison(so that this thread will still make sense afterwards).
 
Oct 1-Nov 30, 1941

Oct 4: I haven't been looking at Eastern Asia at all, and it seems I missed some big changes. Nationalist China just surrendered. This also inspired me to take a look at other parts of the world - Italian forces have conquered the bulk of Egypt - the front line is now at Aswan. They've also crossed the Suez, and made it as far as Tel Aviv. Both British ports in West Africa have also fallen to Vichy France. Conversely, the Allies have conquered Somaliland and liberated Ethiopia. Japanese forces are also advancing out of Siam, and approaching Rangoon.
5oE21DI4XG.png

ArPA7zDwhh.png


Oct 11: Some techs are starting to finish up now. Just finished some tank techs, and I get Encryption/Decryption in 4 days. For now, I'm putting the leadership into officers(since the army I built needs 10k more officers than I have) and waiting for the first wave of land doctrines to finish in early November, then I'll roll that into more land doctrine research. My doctrine theoreticals are only 6-8, so the +1 or +2 is worth waiting for.

Oct 15: Well, it's the day I said I'd start on my next op. Not all the troops are in place yet, but it's close enough to at least start trying. Unfortunately, they've been launching constant spoiling attacks against my armoured troops(and my plan to take Danzig went poorly), so I'm not going to able to hit quite as hard as I'd like. Still, I can launch a few attacks, take some pressure off my tanks, and see how it goes. The enemy's attacking nicely into the back of the pocket - not enough force to actually be a real threat, but enough to be a good prize if I can close the jaws, and they're pointed right for the Pripyat marshes. Looks like he's funnelling a few corps into the breach as well. Still looks like a good gamble for now, but if this goes too long, I might just accidentally lose the Ukraine, so I hope my encirclement goes well. I've tasked a couple bomber groups to interdict the attacking troops, just to slow them down a bit.
7oMPUFhyNF.png


Oct 29: No real news, but two weeks is about time for an update. The pocketing is going alright - it's slowly getting longer and narrower, and there's about an army on my side of the Vistula. Not sure if I'll be able to close it as far back as I was hoping, though - my southern force is a long way from Lodz, and still having trouble forcing a river crossing. At this point, I'm thinking in terms of meeting up somewhere within the Krakow-Lodz-Lublin triangle. I've also shortened up lines a bit in Romania, and freed up two corps. I'm holding them in case the Ukraine pocket needs to be held at the back(which, even with the marsh there, is a concern - my armies have basically retreated to the sides, there's not really a back to the pocket anymore), but assuming the great encirclement goes okay, I'm thinking in terms of a dash across Transylvania to grab Ploiesti and Bucharest , and simultaneously KO Romania and pocket all the forces along the Danube/Prut line. The terrain is unpleasant(I'm hard up against the Carpathian mountains, and will likely have to cross them at least in part), but all the armies defending in the area are trash, and taking the oil refinery and an ally from the Axis coalition is a worthy goal.

I gave a political screenshot last time, so this time it'll be a terrain screenshot. I just love the fact that their forces are driving straight for the gigantic swamp. Also, for those who haven't played TFH, note how fast field marshals gain XP now.
X1gMP9hDxC.png


Oct 30: You know what I was saying about having trouble with a bridgehead in the south? Jaroslaw just fell, way faster than expected. Seems most of their forces were troops that showed up late and never got invited to dance, so the battle score was deceiving. That said, one thing I've noticed is that battle scores tend to be pretty bad. I'll look at a battle that's "90% of the way to being taken by the enemy", and see two of their infantry divisions attacking into a rested armoured corps. I don't think they were this bad in vanilla, but they're certainly terrible now.

Nov 5: Those doctrines are all finished(except Schwerpunkt, but I'll let that slide). I'm now researching every land doctrine that is useful for units I use and on-year, which is 13 new techs. Most of them will finish mid-March. Managed to fill in 2k of the officer hole while I was waiting, though.

Nov 8: The southern jaw of the trap is not faring too well - the original front line is still holding, and the armoured corps is advancing slightly, but the enemy breakout is starting to outflank my positions and curl around behind. Fortunately, I decided a few days back to deploy those two free corps from Romania north - one is arriving now, the other will shortly. That isn't enough to stop a dedicated attack, but it should help limit the spread of random infantry divisions to make the mop-up easier. However, the northern forces are advancing steadily, and there is a definite "neck" to the enemy formation. The current plan is to strangle that neck at Lublin. It was supposed to be further back, but the southern force is in Jaroslaw instead of Sandomierz, so changes needed to be made. Fortunately, a path 2-3 wide doesn't seem to trigger the mass evacuation that ruined my last pocket - assuming I take the east bank of the Vistula as my cutoff, there's currently about an army and a half to be bagged, and since I'm coming at it from both sides, it could fall quickly.
skFOcYxp4A.png


Nov 11: Like the real Soviets, when my army is outside Warsaw, I avoid attacking it. Unlike the real Soviets, I do it for the purposes of surrounding the city first, and trapping two divisions inside.

Nov 13: My southern armoured corps didn't quite leave enough troops to guard its supply lines, it seems. It's been encircled in Krasnik. It should be able to hold out until relief arrives - I have attacks from both north and south that can hook up with it, and both look likely to succeed. I've started taking action to reduce the size of the pocket, beginning the attacks by the two corps I've been holding along the northern wall. The second corps from Romania is getting close to the front at the south, as well.

Nov 15: Contact has been re-established with the armored corps. And this time, there's an infantry corps holding the lines of communication open. You know, like how I was supposed to do it the first time.

Nov 18: The ring is closed. By a single HQ, but closed nonetheless.
uv6BGcCd0R.png


Nov 20: "Lack of Supplies" has started showing up in combat modifiers. Also, I just realized something amusing. Part of the plan for this operation was to conquer southern Poland. And yet, all the territory I'm conquering right now is Russian. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to console myself with the thought that I pocketed a whole army. I've also started slicing the pocket into smaller pieces, so that I don't have to keep hammering all of the units at every step.

Nov 24: The western lobe of the pocket has been cut off, with 16 divisions inside.

Nov 26: Chelm has been reduced. 127,775 men were killed or taken captive. More than half the pocket's troops still remain, though.
 
That's a very nice pocket you got there.... The Germans will surely miss those Panzer Divisions.
Even though the enemy still seems to have a considerable amount of forces in Southern Poland, destroying +- 40 divisions (by quick count) is a major victory which will most likely win you the war in the long term. Germany doesn't have the manpower to simply replace an entire army.
 
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Dec 1 - Dec 31, 1941
I'm not covering as much time with this post, but I'll do some nice year-end summaries to make up for it.

Dec 1: The sheer abundance of force I have reducing this pocket got me thinking about how much the front lines have shrunk since I started. If you look at the OP, I had a 35-province front in June. I just counted, and it's down to 27, running in almost a straight line from Danzig to the Danube estuary. Between that and the redeployment of a corps from Finland, I have 13 infantry corps, 5 armoured corps, and a SHArm corps available as an offensive army, over and above the defensive corps in each province. I'll probably hold a reserve corps back per army group, but that's still three armies. Plenty for a good-sized attack.

Dec 12: The northern lobe of the pocket has been cut off, with 2 divisions inside Pinsk. 18,969 men were captured or killed.

Dec 14: The southern lobe of the pocket has been cut off, with 3 infantry divisions and 1 armoured division inside Dubno. 31,550 men were captured or killed.

Dec 18: The central lobe of the pocket has been cut off, with 1 division inside Kowel. 9,932 men have been captured or killed.

Dec 21: I haven't mentioned this in past, but with the relative downtime, I have to ask - why does the AI persist in such completely useless attacks? I have a corps or two fortified, and they send two divisions at me across a river like it's going to do something. I'm probably bleeding the Axis by a couple thousand men per day without even trying. Elbing in particular has been under near-constant attack since I took it(which has not only rivers but also a fort defending it), and its defending corps hasn't even lost a meaningful amount of organization. They've probably lost a division or two worth of bleeding in that province alone.

Dec 25: Merry Christmas. Look, I got a present!
L432BAEO8V.png


Year End Reports
The progress I've made this year is quite evident. Similarly, Italy's advance through the Middle East looks like it's got no brakes. Beirut is on the front lines, and Baghdad has already fallen.
4bB3HbCH8A.png

3e6tFthoNQ.png

Here's a hybrid screenshot, with the battle summary and all my tech levels. I'd include the losses against the minor Axis powers, but they're flagrantly bugged - it shows me losing 1364 IC to 316, and 334 manpower to 134. I don't think I've ever lost a single battle with a minor Axis nation, and they don't bomb me. Similarly, the air damage chart is equally bad - I've apparently done 21k IC damage to them, without ever doing any strat bombing, and with minimal tactical. But, the land figures for Germany look right. As well, there's an army summary, just for an overview of what all I command. (The air force is still 44 Int, 20 Ftr, 12 Tac, just like it was at the start of the campaign).
KtfD7v6LyJ.png

t5XrSzg5nP.png

I've also decided to load up the save as Germany and the UK, just to get a view on what their factions have in the way of firepower. Yes, this is probably cheating, but I don't expect to get anything I can really exploit. First, Germany. And to answer the first question on everyone's mind: 16 infantry and 1 armoured.
Here's the Axis forces comparison:
joqHLwNxwl.png

OEx4w57e87.png

CkYE823iyA.png
Note how short they are on manpower - all those units I'm pocketing are permanent losses, they're literally irreplacable. Their current production is a carrier, a few interceptors, and a bunch of garrison troops and infrastructure. Amusingly, the conquest of the Middle East was 100% Italian, zero German troops in the theatre at all. Similarly, all the units that have conquered Burma are Siamese, not a Japanese division in sight.

Here's the Allied forces comparison:
z9jaZ0vU3z.png

OMfFceB9PH.png

etMvavWN5k.png
The UK is not having trouble with manpower, but they are running desperately low on resources, due to the annihilation of their merchant marine. They have literally zero transports(though there are 860 in queue, along with 240 escorts). But for the time being, they've got big issues. They are well-stocked with troops for pushing up the Malay Peninsula, but all of the other secondary theatres are in tatters, and will be unable to hold against any conceivable pressure(there's only seven divisions for all of India, for example). I also find it interesting how much of their army they've converted to motorized infantry - I mean, I guess you can do things like that when you have lots of oil and no support brigades, but it seems like such a waste of IC when your whole army is just defending the British Isles. The RN isn't doing too well either - 2 BB and 2 BC lost with the same killed, 7 CA lost for 4 killed, 21 CL lost for 6 killed, 16 DD lost for 8 killed. Also, speaking as a Canadian, Mackenzie King has seriously got to pull his thumb out and start acting like there's a war on.

So, I think what we've learned here is that the AI is a mess and I'm going to conquer everything. Good to know.
 
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Is there any reason you chose destroyers over submarines? I know you're starting your navy small, but aren't subs more useful for a limited navy like yours?
 
He probably doesn't intend on it remaining small.
 
He probably doesn't intend on it remaining small.

Precisely. I actually intend to skip subs entirely - my goal is to get transports across the Channel, the Sea of Japan, and the Atlantic safely and in large numbers, and you need a surface fleet for that. Frankly, I figure that every ship I get for the first few years will be a total waste for everything other than raising practicals, but they still need to be built.
 
I also find it interesting how much of their army they've converted to motorized infantry - I mean, I guess you can do things like that when you have lots of oil and no support brigades, but it seems like such a waste of IC when your whole army is just defending the British Isles.
At least in the 1938 OOB all of there home isles infantry is motorized from beginning - should be the same in the 1941 start.