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Melron

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The Lion's Roar

The Lion's Roar
A British AAR


Starting Year: 1936
Game: THF CGM
Mod: Black ICE VII 3.0
Difficulty: In Game Normal and Black ICE Normal.
Description: This will be an image intensive AAR that will have a mixture of narrative and history book style writing. This will be my first AAR but I have been playing HOI3 for a little under a year now and been following several very good AARs during that time. Therefore, I have developed enough confidence to try my skills at creating an AAR. My ultimate goal will be two fold. One is to rid the world of the Axis and Comintern, hopefully without any assistance from the United States. My second goal is the evolution of the British Empire into the British Commonwealth, I will elaborate more on this later. One reason for my creation of this AAR is that I was very disappointed with the way in which the British AI operates in TFH. Also as there have been few British AARs, relative of course to the number of AARs written on the Big Three, I wanted to show some people what one can do playing as the UK.
 
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The Lion's Roar

Chapter One

The Lion Declawed

For Britain, 1936 is not a year that many want to remember. Far enough away from the glories of the previous century but still close enough to the horrors of the First World War that the dream of Pax Britannica is slowly turning into a nightmare. The Great Depression had ripped and torn at the British Empire. Jobs were short, money was scarce, and hope was hard to find. Nowhere was this more visible than at the heart of the Empire, Britain herself. Once proud and confident in her position in the world, now she looked around at the nearly shattered dream of the British Empire and saw storm clouds approaching from the horizon. Powerful threats from both Europe and Asia circled like vultures ready to pick apart at the remains for the British Empire. They simply waited for the old lion to die. Many feared that it would come sooner rather than later as the last of the great of warriors of Britain were facing the twilight of their lives.

King George V, one of the last great warrior Kings faced declining health​

Though Britain was still powerful on paper, especially with the strength of the commonwealth behind it along with its French allies whose loyalty was forged in the fires and blood of the First World War, The British Empire was ultimately on the decline. The British people no longer wish to sacrifice their brothers, fathers, and sons to defend the honors of a time long gone past. While the British Army and Royal Navy were both large and powerful, they were also mostly outdated. Perhaps worst of all they lacked the killing instinct that had taken them to victory after victory in the past. Thus the British Empire was a powerful lion, but one who had been declawed by the shackles of its own fear and the economic devastation of a global economy.

The British felt a paralyzing sense of uncertainty during the early part of the 1930s

Hope had not completely abandoned the British though. Though still grabbling with the economic hardships of the Great Depression, the British Empire still had an industrial base to proud of and more economic resources than anyone else in the world. In addition, the British people can be galvanized to do great deeds yet again. They merely need to right motivation to once again man the ramparts of their empire and the face enemies that will knock on their gates.


Once again Britain may have to fight for her empire

All of this will require bravery and foresight from both governmental and private forces. The people of the British Empire and Commonwealth cannot rely on others to do this for them though. The isolationist attitudes of the Americas make them unreliable allies at best and the internal bickering of the French did nothing to increase British confidence in them. In the end, if the people of the Empire and Commonwealth wish to see a brighter future, they must forge it by themselves.
 
This sounds like it will be quite an interesting AAR. I haven't played as the British myself but they seem quite interesting in what they can do, especially in Black ICE and custom game mode. Will you be rebuilding the navy from scratch or will you be keeping the OTL RN?
 
Nice and interesting start. Subbed.
 
Well, I guess there is never enough HoI AARs for me to read. Go on! :)
 
This sounds like it will be quite an interesting AAR. I haven't played as the British myself but they seem quite interesting in what they can do, especially in Black ICE and custom game mode. Will you be rebuilding the navy from scratch or will you be keeping the OTL RN?

Thanks. I've played them a number of times and there never seems to be a shortage of options with them. I'll mostly be keeping the Royal Navy because even though it is outdated it is still large and is capable of taking on anything the Italians can throw at them. As for the Germans and Japanese I imagine several King George V Class battleships and Illustrious Class Aircraft Carriers will take care of them.

Nice and interesting start. Subbed.
Well, I guess there is never enough HoI AARs for me to read. Go on!
I shall be watching this with great interest. Subbed

Cheers all.
 
The Lion's Roar

Chapter Two​
A Meeting of Interest

Rain and wind lashed itself against the small window of a room in the center of London. Not for the first time in his life Richard Hunt found himself wishing it didn’t rain as much as it did in England. Though he loved the city feel of London, as there was never a lack of things to do, and the adored the pristine beauty of the British country side on a sunny day, the simple fact was that he rarely got the chance to enjoy either of them because of the bloody rain. More than anything though he wished that he was anywhere but where he was. Richard Hunt was at a rather large table in a conference room that was too small for it. This wasn’t helped by the fact that it was filled with about two dozen other men, who were more often than not smoking thus creating a hazy atmosphere that even the most experienced of smokers would find unbearable.


A typical day in London

For the most part Hunt sat separately from the rest for of the group. However, that and the lack of the cigarette smoke trailing from his mouth was not the only thing differentiating him from the others in the room. The first thing anyone would notice would be that that he was much younger than anyone else in the room. While everyone was at least in their late thirties or even their forties, Hunt had only just recently turned twenty five. This could be seen in his distinct lack of wrinkles or grey hair. The second difference someone would notice would be that while Hunt had a rather large and preciously stacked pile of reports on the table in front of him, everyone else had only one, two, or even none at all. The third and perhaps key difference between Hunt and the other members in the smoke filled room was that while everyone joked, laughed, talked and just generally acted rather jovial, Hunt sat alone brooding in silence.

The door suddenly opened and closed very quickly which left Hunt disappointed that more smoke couldn’t escape from the cramped room. The chatter in the room quickly died down and everyone turned their eyes to the man that had just entered the room. He pulled back the only chair still left empty and sat down.

“Good Morning gents,” said the man, who was pushing fifty, a fact that could be clearly seen as his hair had gone gray with flecks of silver, though his bushy mustache was still jet black. “I trust we had a good New Year ’s Eve?” Several voices murmured in the affirmative. Hunt remained silent. “Right let’s get this meeting on with then shall we? How is Europe?” Hunt and the rest of the men in the room were agents of the Special Intelligence Service or SIS for short. More specifically they worked for MI6s section D or European division, SIS’ most important and prestigious division.
“We’ve had a good year so far Sir; borders have changed rather little or even not at all. The Status quo has remained about the same,” answered an agent sitting to his right.


Map of Europe, January 1936​


The head of section D nodded. “And where are we on our goals?” he asked.

“We are doing well. Our embassy in Moscow has recently turned a local political commissar in one of the city’s largest factories. We will now be able to have a better understanding of the Soviet’s manufacturing capabilities,” replied another agent.
“Very good, and in Italy,” asked the head of section D.

“Infiltration into Italy is moving along steadily. We are trying to cozy up to an Italian MP who has a fair amount of political clout. If we can convince him to be more public in his pro-allied stance, it should open the door to others which will make it easier for the foreign office,” Stated an older agent to Hunts left. “If all goes according to plan, we should have a treaty stating our formal alliance ratified with the Italians within the next three years.”

“Sir I’m afraid I must disagree with this statement.” This was the first time Hunt had spoken whilst in the room. Everyone turned to look at him. Some with curiosity, others with boredom, but most with condescending amusement. The head of section D however looked at him with a mild confusion.

“Yes and you are,” he asked innocently.

“Richard Hunt Sir,” Hunt replied.

“Of yes of course, the new boy who recently arrived,” the head of section D said. A chuckled rippled along the table of MI6 agents.

“Actually Sir, I’ve been attached to this section for about a year,” said Hunt. He didn’t mean to sound as defensive as he did and immediately regretted saying it.

“Of course young man, do forgive me. It’s just when you’ve been in the intelligence services as long as I have, you find the length of a year almost trivial,” replied the head of section D. Though it was masked with kindness, Hunt had no doubt that it was meant as a patronizing put down. Several of the others in the room also picked up on as chuckled again. It was at this point that the door opened again and another figure worked briskly into the room and stood in the far corner, away from Hunt. He couldn’t see clearly who the figure was through all the smoke. However, everyone ignored the appearance of this new person and Hunt was inclined to follow their suit as he was focused on making his case.

“Yes well Sir, after reading these reports and listening to what Mussolini and his Fascists have published as well as put out over the wireless I cannot help but disagree with Jenkins’ statement. The Italians have repeatedly said that they wish to create an empire in their vision of a new Roman one. Something that will surely conflict with our goal of protecting the status quo. In addition, it is no secret that Mussolini looks at our Mediterranean possessions with envy. Finally if you look at the latest report from the Foreign Office, Italy is much closer diplomatically to Germany then us.”


One can clearly see the Italian preference to the German’s

“And who wrote that report may I ask,” said Jenkins looking directly at Hunt.

“Watson,” replied Hunt. Everyone at the table groaned expect for Hunt and the head of Section D.

“Watson is perhaps the most unreliable person over at the Foreign Office,” replied Jenkins with some venom.

“It is true Mr. Hunt. Watson is an old coot who once published a report arguing for an invasion of Persia stating that we need to better protect our oil assets in the region and create a buffer state against the Soviets,” said the head of section D.

“That may be true sir but Watson’s report coupled with these.” Hunt pulled out a stack and put them aside, “make for a very convincing argument.”

“And where are these reports coming from,” asked the head of section D.

“A mixture of diplomatic cables from the Foreign Office, intercepted messages picked up by GC&CS and several local Italian assets that this section has set up and been in contact with,” replied Hunt.

“All of which are unreliable. GC&CS has made mistakes in the past that has very publically embarrassed us. In addition, a lot of this local Italian assets are Sicilian and will therefore say anything in order convince us to try and overthrow Mussolini’s government,” said Jenkins impatiently. Hunt tried to say something in retort but the head of section D cut him off.

“I’m afraid Mr. Hunt that I’m going to side with Jenkins on this one. His information appears to be slightly more reliable and does have some more experience dealing with the Italians then you.” Hunt felt his face burn with frustration though he was determined for the others in the room not to see. “Yes, well let us move on,” said the head of section D. The conversation in the room then turned to other topics but Hunt wasn’t paying attention. Once again he was being ignored because of his age despite the fact that he worked harder than anyone in this room. While they were all out drinking and smoking celebrating the New Year, he was at his desk reading and preparing for this meeting. He sat and stared at his big pile of reports not really listening to the conversation washed over. Hunt was quite surprised when the head of section D asked if there was anything else.

“Yes,” answered Hunt. “I think we should pay closer attention to Spain. If the Popular Front wins the election, which it looks like they will, Spain could face some very rough times.”

“We will keep that under advisement Mr. Hunt. Thank you all and keep me apprised of any developments,” said the head of section D bring the meeting to a close. Hunt picked up his large stack of files and walked out of the cramped, smoke filled room feeling frustrated. Stupid, blind old man, Hunt thought.
 
The Lion's Roar

Chapter 3​
Baldwin’s Plan​

Stanley Baldwin entered his cabinet room with determination and sat down at the center of the table. Everyone stood and greeted him with the usual “Prime Minister” before sitting down themselves and waiting for him to open the meeting. He looked up and down the table to make sure everyone was there before opening his dossier.


The key leaders in the British Government1

“Good Morning Gentleman,” said Prime Minister Baldwin addressing his ministers. “I know we’ve had a tough year and I just wanted to start off by saying that I am pleased with all your hard work and support. However, there is still much to be done. As you can all see in the proposal in front of you I have drawn up a rather ambitious plan to rebuild the British economy. Though it will be challenging to implement, I believe that as it has elements and ideas from the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Party it should gain support from each. In addition, this will of course make it easier for the necessary laws to be passed through Parliament.” There was several moments of silence as the ministers quickly scanned through the proposal. The first to speak was Sir Hugh Sinclair

“Well MI6 wont’ be happy. You’ve effectively stripped them of any operation abilities expect for passive listening,” the Minister for Intelligence stated. “They will be especially unhappy with the amount of resources going to MI5.” The next to speak was Sir Montgomery-Massingberd, Chief of Staff.

“Prime Minister I must disagree with this direction. You have slashed all Army, Naval, and Air Force spending with the exception of Officer training.”

“Though the Royal Society will be happy with an increase in their budget,” said Anthony Eden. Prime Minister Baldwin sat silent and calm for the next few minutes and the rest of his cabinet debated his new proposal before entering into the fray.



One of the most heavily debated part of Baldwin’s proposal

“Gentlemen, I understand that this is a slightly different direction that what we have gone for in the past but allow me to explain my reasoning,” he said. “Sir Massingberd to your point, for the most part our military, in all branches, is outdated. That being said though, I have been in meetings all week with members of the Royal Society, Vickers-Armstrong, the Royal Small Arms Factory, Cammell Laird, members of the Admiralty, Royal Air Force, Army and many others that I don’t remember; they all have very promising plans and ideas for updating our military. The RSAF even told me they could completely update the Lee-Enfield rifle within a year or so if they had the proper resources. Therefore, I fail to see the reason behind expanding the military with outdated equipment when we will simply have to replace it all in the short. That is just a waste of resources and the public’s trust in us, both of which are a commodity that cannot be wasted.

“Now on to the second part of my proposal. Britain and the empire ultimately need to get back to work. Our economic recovery has been slow at best. It is high time that this government not just simply encourage private enterprise to make jobs but for us to create them as well. Therefore I am allocating resources to the building of more manufacturing plants. This will have the added bonus of creating jobs through building factories that people can work. Now I have all been in discussion with several private companies and they are willing to take government grants in order to switch they production focus. In addition, I believe there are several struggling factories that we can nationalize in order save them and use them to help fuel this new approach. Lastly, a steady mixture of loans, grants and a tax bonuses will encourage private business to expand and trade whilst also making it easier for the common man to survive”.


The current economic output for the UK along with the purposed expansion​

The room was silent for a moment while the Prime Ministers cabinet soaked in what they had just heard. Baldwin expected some to argue while he paused but no challenge arose so he continued.

“I have asked for legislation to be drawn up so that these plans can be passed to Parliament. I would of course appreciate your support and any suggestions you may have,” Baldwin Finished. The seconds ticked by on the clock behind the Prime Minister as a relative silence descended on the meeting. Suddenly it was broke by Eden.

“If we can increase our output of resources such as oil and rubber from out Malayan colonies, I can think of several countries that would be more than happy to sign trade deals with us. Japan, France, and Spain just off the top of my head.” And the fire was set. A few ministers mumbled in support of Eden’s statement. Soon the table erupted in discussion as each minister had their own suggestions and plans for the recovery of the British Economy.



1. In reality Baldwin’s Cabinet was much larger and didn’t have people such as Sinclair who was actually in charge of MI6. However, for the sake of not over complicating and boring my readers I shall use the cabinet given in game.
 
Looks good so far.
Some of the pictures are a bit unclear though, do you scale them down?
If so, you could use some software to make screenshots at specified resolution, there is a lot of freeware that works fine.
Then you can set resolution to 800x600 if you want to use full screen shots.
 
The Lion's Roar

Chapter 4
Home and Aboard​
January 1st-April 10th 1936

Baldwin’s strategy to revitalize the British economy was a bold one. As with any bold plan there were inherit risks to it and no lack of opponents who advertised those risks. The Prime Minister’s political opponents were the most vocal in condemning his plan. However, as Baldwin led a National Front coalition, the vast majority of his critics were either members of fringe organizations or had been silenced by the strong political whips of their own parties. Thus, for the most part Britain moved forward in trying to claw its way out of the economy hole it found itself in. That being said though, the continuing depression of the economic climate, along with continued talk of nationalization of certain industries did lead to an increase in popularity of certain parties. The British Communist party being one of the most well-known by early 1936.

b0a2fe71-79e7-4809-8147-90b5562a9d7d_zps09fb47f4.jpg
Communist propaganda like this began to pop up all over the country. However, most people knuckled down and got to work

As the British economy began to rise to the task of rebuilding itself, the British government took another controversial step. It started the production of a synthetic industry in Leeds but at the cost of repurposing six factories to full time synthetic production. Many saw this as wasteful and generally unnecessary as the British Empire had more arguable more resources and materials than anyone else in the world. As long as Malaya, India and the Suez stayed in British hands, they had more materials then they knew what to do with. However, others merely pointed to the experience during World War One with German submarines. If war were to ever arise again with another naval power, the Royal Navy may not be able to guarantee the safety of British shipping lanes. Therefore, a local synthetic planet would be need in the British Isles, where the majority of the industrial base was located. The critics of this plan were quickly silenced though as a mixture of advancement in manufacturing capabilities, government grants and loans encouraging the expansion of previously existing business, and the bill to nationalize certain industries passed through Parliament, Britain’s manufacturing output actually increased.

A breakdown of the government’s actions with the economy in the early part of 1936

Despite the fact that their funding had been slashed, the British military was not ideal either. In fact they work furiously to reorganize themselves. The Royal Air Force was the first to take a proactive step. While they invested in new designs for their aircraft, they focused on what type of protection they wanted for their planes. While there were those in the RAF that supported the idea of using heavy protection, which would cost more overall and take a longer time to develop, the majority of the Generals supported light protection as it would make it easier and faster to produce aircraft. Eventually the majority won out but only after the plans for the next generation of multi-role fighters was revealed. The Hurricane as it was called, would be one of the most advanced planes in the world and even though it was still just a blueprint by current projections it would easily outfly anything else. Therefore, there was ultimately little point in spending more time and money to heavily armour a plane that was unlikely to be hit anyway.


The old Hawker Hart series of Bi-planes needed to be upgraded

The Royal Navy was not ideal either. Though their budget had been slashed the most and the majority of their ships in production or refit had been put on hold they moved forward with plans to cement their position as ruler of the waves. One of the first things they looked into was the designing of a new battleship. The Second London Treaty was well under way so Royal Navy designers had the challenging task of staying within the confines of the treaty whilst also staying competitive as a vessel of war. In addition, despite the fact that the Ark Royal was still under construction, experiments with aircraft carriers had generally been seen as successful, therefore the Admiralty had enough confidence in deciding to invest what little funds it had left into the design and later construction of the next generation of carrier vessels. New destroyer and cruiser designs were to be drawn up later while research into submarine warfare was put on hold. Overall, the Royal Navy was well on its way to modernizing its old and outdated ships.


The Queen Elizabeth was a powerful vessel but an outdated one designed to fight the wars of yesteryear

Lastly the British Army struggled to reform itself. Commonly the most disliked of all the military branches, the army was given the least amount of resources. That however, did not stop them the army from bickering amongst themselves over what to do it. While some military leaders wished to keep to the tactics of the First World War and use masses of foot infantry with heavy artillery support, others wished to take advantage of the use of trucks and other vehicles to make the troops more mobile. Field Marshall Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd was one of the generals pushing heavily for creating powerful mobile force. In the end a compromise was struck with half the army being semi-motorized and the other half standard foot soldiers.


Field Marshall of the Army, Montgomery-Massingberd pushed heavily for the expansion of Britain’s mobile force

Despite its internal bickering though, the British Army did manage to make several key decisions over the coming weeks. Firstly, it decided on better protecting the general infantryman with body armour. Too many good men died in the last war because too little protection. Secondly, British military officials decided to use mostly diesel engines in their trucks and tanks. This would ultimately makes them faster with the added bonus of being more reliable. Lastly, the British Army focused on using welded armour for their tanks, which while making them more costly and time consuming to produce, it afforded them better protection overall and the use of heavier turrets. This would give them an advantage over other armoured units in combat. Ultimately though, the British Army like the RN and RAF would have to develop better tactics and weapons before they could regain their previous budget.

The decision to use body armour, one of the most important decisions they British Army made during 1936

While the British Empire struggle to get back on its feet, several key events around the world occurred. The Foreign office at first reported on January 3rd, that despite an increase in resistance to Japanese rule in the peninsular and public support for the Korea Independence movement, the Empire of Japan decided against creating an independent Korea. While the British government was sympathetic towards the Korea cause, they could hardly publically support them without appearing as hypocrites. In addition, any support for the Korean’s would damage their relationship with the Japanese, a people who the British badly wanted to keep friendly, especially as Chinese relations with the Germans were growing. After the official decision from Tokyo, Japanese military units and agents moved into Korea to brutally clamp down on all distant and root out any resistance forces in the region.


The hope of an independent Korea was dashed as the Japanese came down hard on the small Peninsular

Five days later on January 8th, German troops’ officially marched back into the Rhineland in a flagrant disregard of the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. While the British and French governments were official outraged and sent a formal letter of disapproval to the German’s, in secret no one was really surprised. Many had be expecting it for some time. In addition, it is not as if German had not already violated these treaties before, and others were actually surprised that it had taken them that long to reoccupy their territory. Still it put parts of Europe on edge for a while as they watched the Germans carefully over the coming months.


The German reoccupation of the Rhineland caused a stir in Europe in January, 1936 but little action
 
This sounds very interesting. I have only attempted a British game once....and played it very badly....Im more of a continent land army guy....

Your story line is very good so far, going back and forth between the differernt characters and factions....but as someone mentioned earlier...many of your photos and snapshots are out of focus...many of us old timers with bad eyes cant read them, even with my granny glasses on....

Subbed.
 
RikD
Looks good so far.
Some of the pictures are a bit unclear though, do you scale them down?
If so, you could use some software to make screenshots at specified resolution, there is a lot of freeware that works fine.
Then you can set resolution to 800x600 if you want to use full screen shots.

KLorberau

This sounds very interesting. I have only attempted a British game once....and played it very badly....Im more of a continent land army guy....

Your story line is very good so far, going back and forth between the differernt characters and factions....but as someone mentioned earlier...many of your photos and snapshots are out of focus...many of us old timers with bad eyes cant read them, even with my granny glasses on....

Subbed.

Most of my pictures are 800 by 600 or somewhere near to that. I have still noticed that they are blurry though and that does frustrate me. I mostly use IrfanView 4.35 to edit my screenshots and such. Is there another better piece of free software that you two can be recommended?
 
I use greenshot, it's a free open source program and does the job fine. The problem is probably not the software though. If your ingame resoltion is high (1080) and you make and 800x600 screenshot, it will get blurry. It is a bit more work but you could set your ingame resolution to 800x600 for images where you want the full view. If you just want part of the picture, like production sliders, then you can make a sceen at high res and then cut out the part you want in an editor (paint, gimp, Ps, draw) without having to rescale it.
 
Honesly, all screenshots are scaled terribly, except for the Japan squashing Koreans (historical photos are OK).

The forum automatically resizes screenshots to 800 pixels width, BUT it doesn't mean that you can't see the original picture when you just copypaste the link into your browser. My AARs pretty much build up on this; sometimes you just want the reader to see the whole screenshot (resources, OOB, state of war, whatever) and it's more comfortable just to throw the screenshot here in its entirety.

All I do is that I sometimes crop the pictures with GIMP, upload my screenshots WITHOUT resizing via Imageshack and I'm done.
 
I use Photoshop Elements 7 to resize them before uploading them to Imageshack, though I don't think I'm running a 1080 resolution.
Nice start, BTW. I tried the UK once in BI, but it didn't work for me.