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Encicia

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Sep 5, 2013
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Longtime lurker, first time poster. This will thus be my first attempt at an AAR and my first attempt at a very hard game

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 - 1 January 1936 - 1 January 1938
Chapter 2 - January 1938 – June 1938
Chapter 3 - July 1938 – December 1938
Chapter 4 - January 1939 – June 1939
Chapter 5 - 1 July 1939 – 20 August 1939
Chapter 6 - 21 August 1939 – 30 September 1939

Chapter 21 - 1 June 1941 – 15 July 1941


Chapter - 1
1 January 1936 - 1 January 1938



I’ll be playing Germany from 1936. As 36-38 isn’t usually very interesting I’ve decided to skip it in this AAR. These are the targets I’ve set for myself and my Axis buddies.

fkqwmLj.png


I can summarize the first two years by saying I’ve built IC to get my base to 187 in order to counter at least some of the difficulty penalty. After that I’ve build some multi-roles to add to my air groups.

wxjgXam.png


I’ve also restructured my army. I’ve kept the two theatres, renamed them in two fronts. Poland has two army groups, North and South. South only contains the SS(10x larm-larm-ss-spart) for now, but it will be expanded for Barbarossa. North has two armies. Both hold one panzer corps (5x larm-larm-mot-SP-art) with engineers to be added to that once I get (5 brigade upgrade). Rest of the armies is filled with inf-inf-inf-art.

France has one army group consisting of two armies. One for the Siegfried-line consisting of basic 3xinf+art. The Low Countries have infantry corps and 1 panzer corps. As soon as Poland falls the SS will be transfered to Belgium to punch trough along the coast.

hUrCYoY.png


Some of those divisions are still being built, but I’m confident that I’ll be able to squeeze them out before the push on France begins.
 
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Chapter - 2 January 1938 – June 1938

January 1938 – June 1938

In January we annex Austria and merge their army with ours. February grants us the Sudetenland.

A little spying on our main rivals shows that the US is mainly building extra IC. Because you can never have enough factories...

Zh8Tigm.png


In April we finish our research into SP-art. Upgrades in our panzer division start immediately and are expected to finish by the end of July.

The end of June marks the first of many artillery additions to our infantry divisions. Germany starts with a lot of unsupported infantry and I wanted them to pack a little extra punch.
zt0Y3zk.png
 
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I'm following.

Putting a little thought to your goals, I believe you can outflank France on two sides. There is a one-province wide corridor of plains you can use to great effect in Switzerland :)
 
This looks interesting. I'm definitely following this. I noticed that you set very few objectives to conquer the Soviets. Only Vladivostok. Is that because you are going to conquer Moscow anyway and you want to get goals like Tannenbaum on there?
 
Good luck with this one. I am bit worried about additional IC production, according to the screenshot you are investing at least 40 ICyears into IC construction (the intention behind is reasonable), but would it be better to make few smaller IC runs than one big? Smaller runs would result into increasing construction practicals which will make subsequent runs cheaper and faster and you wouldn't loose one years worth of infantry/aircraft/army practicals (assuming your production queue is filled only with IC).
Anyway I will be watching this.
 
I'm following.
Putting a little thought to your goals, I believe you can outflank France on two sides. There is a one-province wide corridor of plains you can use to great effect in Switzerland :)
Thanks! I had that plan in mind as well, but as you will see in the following chapters, the plan did not survive contact with the enemy..

This looks interesting. I'm definitely following this. I noticed that you set very few objectives to conquer the Soviets. Only Vladivostok. Is that because you are going to conquer Moscow anyway and you want to get goals like Tannenbaum on there?
Thanks! To be honest, I forgot to turn Barbarossa back on and remove London. I did remove the separate goals for Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad because they're already included in the Barbarossa goal and I wanted to keep Sweden, Suez and Gibraltar.

Good luck with this one. I am bit worried about additional IC production, according to the screenshot you are investing at least 40 ICyears into IC construction (the intention behind is reasonable), but would it be better to make few smaller IC runs than one big? Smaller runs would result into increasing construction practicals which will make subsequent runs cheaper and faster and you wouldn't loose one years worth of infantry/aircraft/army practicals (assuming your production queue is filled only with IC).
Anyway I will be watching this.
Thanks! I was mainly producing IC. It wasn't a full run though as there was some infantry and two aircraft building as well.


Update coming soon!
 
Chapter - 3 July 1938 – December 1938

Chapter – 3
July 1938 – December 1938

We start with the delivery of the Graf Spree. The fleet is still rather weak, but the end of the year and the beginning of 1939 will bring new ships. Hopefully that will be enough.

On September 10th we finish the last of our artillery brigades. This puts us at just under 300 brigades. Not a number I’m really happy with, but it’ll have to do. As soon as the ships are delivered production will switch back to aircraft, soldiers and tanks.

V8gRbVV.png


October has us annexing Czechoslovakia. Base IC is now over 200. South Africa decides to join the allies.

The year ends with a blitzkrieg upgrade. The plan for the invasion of Poland is ready. Troops have gathered at the border. Just a few more months remaining before the war will start.

5aTjK0g.png
 
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Chapter – 4 January 1939 – June 1939

Chapter – 4
January 1939 – June 1939

February and May mark the completion of 2 marine corps. A total of 30 marine division ready to be deployed in Scandinavia when the war starts. We’ve also got 16 brand spanking new destroyers. Ready to be deployed against the British when the battleships leave our dry docks.

ftLpXLj.png


June ends with a group of 4 multi roles arriving in western Germany. They’ll be providing support in the campaign against The Netherlands.

Next chapter will have me declaring war. Mobilization started halfway through June and the army should be ready for combat when July rolls by. I now have 650.000 troops divided over two fronts.

pPBqv0T.png
 
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Will be following with interest!
 
This looks promising, I always like to see a strong Kriegsmarine. How many battleships are you building and what tech level are they?

I'll follow!
 
Will be following with interest!

Thanks!

This looks promising, I always like to see a strong Kriegsmarine. How many battleships are you building and what tech level are they?

I'll follow!

There are 3 Battleships in production at the moment and one lvl IV just finished. The last time I played Germany I got my ass handed to me by the RAF.. Not wanting to see that happen again, I've taken some of the production time from the navy and gave it to the air force. I'll have to see if that was a smart move.

Update coming very soon!
 
Chapter – 5 1 July 1939 – 20 August 1939

Chapter – 5
1 July 1939 – 20 August 1939

We declare war on the 2nd of July. Our fighters and bombers begin runs on the provinces under attack from our panzer and SS divisions. There is some mild fighting but on the 5th the first units arrived on Polish soil.

C60HnQe.png


The 2nd corps is attacking along the Lithuanian border. The first attacks go as planned. The Poles however seem to have hidden a few reserves and they arrive just in time for the second wave of attacks. Grodno would be a tough battle.

3c2zcxu.png


Also on the fifth, we declare war on Denmark. As my fleet isn’t really up to par, I wanted to close of the Baltic. A special corps, in this battle supported by the First Marine Corps has been assigned to this front. The marines are landing Copenhagen while the regular infantry takes the VP on the mainland.

mT4X4N7.png


Meanwhile, the battle for Southern Poland isn’t going as smooth as I hoped. The 6th SS Division has a hard time with the river crossing. I decide to pull back and attack through the forests of Gleiwitz.

VDarUIp.png


We take the Danish VP on the 11th, but they refuse to surrender as they still have a slither of national unity remaining. Guess we’ll have to cross another strait. The Danish don’t put up much of a fight anymore and they finally surrender on the 17th. We take the Danish land. The Brits take Iceland and Greenland.

2GzJ1CU.png


While I was taking on Denmark and Poland, Belgium decided to try its luck. They joined the Allies and promptly attacked me. My plan was to first attack The Netherlands, build a decent front along the border with Belgium and then roflstomp them into France. That plan went out the window with this dow. Because of this plan, my front with Belgium was pretty weak, only 4 divisions, two of which also had to deal with the French at the Magingot. So I wasn’t going to attack anytime soon. Because I wanted to stick to the plan at least on some degree I declared was on The Netherlands. Nine infantry divisions and one panzer division crossed the border.

ZrxvF8e.png


Poland surrenders to us on the 23rd. This frees up more panzers. Since the British and the French are lending troops to the Dutch and the Belgians, I decide to move the SS divions and 3 corps of infantry to the western front.

The attack on The Netherlands happens as expected. We roll up to Amsterdam pretty quickly. We have to wait for the SS to arrive before I can advance to the coast without leaving my flank open to Belgium.

Once they arrive I manage to sneak two SS divisions to Dordrecht. An attack on Rotterdam locks the remaining units in the pocket. There is Belgian infantry and some French armor in there. It would be nice if those can be taken out of action.

P7ijBZw.png
 
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I almost thought you would get defeated by the allies by attacking the Netherlands with the bulk of your army in the East, but, you did managed to cut of a nice amount of allied divisions! Well Done!
 
I almost thought you would get defeated by the allies by attacking the Netherlands with the bulk of your army in the East, but, you did managed to cut of a nice amount of allied divisions! Well Done!

It was a risk, but since my front with Belgium was weak I decided to defend by attacking. I could've gone for the other option which would have been to let Allied troops advance into Germany and try to cut them off at that point.
 
Chapter 6 21 August 1939 – 30 september 1939

Chapter 6
21 August 1939 – 30 September 1939

We take Rotterdam and trap five divisions in Den Haag. The weakened divisions give up soon after that.

poQDwGT.png


And that’s when things started to get interesting. The British are landing in Kiel! This is bad. My grand army in Denmark consists of 1 motorized division and two cavalry divisions. Not nearly enough to resist any kind of invasion.

3iacYEn.png


Luckily there are a few marines in a nearby port. Those were supposed to attack Sweden, but with the hard fighting in Belgium, that plan has been postponed for now. I move up the marines and manage to prevent the British from heading south with the bulk of their army. One division manages to outrun my units at first, but it is surrounded at Bremerhaven and after a tough fight, it surrenders.

xULieRR.png


Various battles at sea have us losing some cruisers and destroyers. The British lose an outdated battleship. The Bismarck is holding up nicely and our first carrier arrives.

QRHEqc5.png


Because of the tough battles, I decide to call in Italy. A little pressure at the Alps might give me the relieve I need. The advance through Belgium is steady, but it’s far from easy. The defense in the east of Belgium seems to have broken. So I'm hoping I can profit from that. The road to the heartland should now be open and with that, the road into France.

xua2G0Y.png


I’ll leave you with a screenshot of the British army, which is now stuck in the port of Kiel. Lets hope I can take a few prisoners there. There is one motorized unit running about on the peninsula. I’ll have to deal with that once Kiel falls.

Gt2cLun.png
 
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That's one hell of a doomstack in Kiel :blink:
 
Do the British have a massive fleet with that last invasion? If not you can probably bag them and prevent escape. Wittle the Royal Navy down one fleet at a time. With 4 battleships at your disposal that shouldn't be much of a problem.
I always think it's very annoying how easy the Low Countries join the Allies on their own accord. It makes sense with the threat and all, and Belgium and Luxembourg have the WW1 experience to back it up with, but the Netherlands certainly shouldn't. Not when Germany behaves more or less historically.
Still, excellent operation against the Netherlands, nice pocket in Fortress Holland.