The long way back, an Dutch AAR

[badvoice]

The long way back

This is a AAR were i play the Netherlands from 1936 to the end. Who knows where that will end? My settings are normal/furious.

My strategy is to build plenty of Industry in the east indies and leave my homelands for the Germans. The reason i will give up my homelands without a fight is because a tried a game where i built lvl 10 forts all along the borders(4 places) and that made the game really boring. France held their ground and nothing was happening. So now i will try to build up to be able to fight both Japan and Germany in the east instead. I will build all ships with names and try to have as many planes as possible.

The biggest problem i will have is Manpower. Netherlands get max 0,07 manpower a day, and to do a quick calculation, that is 113 manpower before Germany invades. Also the dutch east indies has no manpower. I am hoping to get some of the manpower boost events, but that only time will tell.

Netherlands was in a good position in 1936. They had the rich east indies and several other colonies that gave them huge amounts of materials to trade and get rich on. Their army was outdated and their navy was small and also outdated. The airforce was mostly lacking, though they had the fokker factories. The army was of 11 divisions with old equipment, and the navy was of 12 ships.

Since Hitler had taken power in Germany in 1934, there had been growing concern among the politicians and armyleaders in Netherlands. With this new aggresiveness at their nabour things had to be done to prepare for the worst case scenario. Some thought that if a war would break out between Germany and France again, the war would leave the Netherlands alone. But other more pessimistic, and perhaps realistic voices thought that the Netherlands would be caught in the middle of the fight. These dicussions were in secret meetings in the government. The leading voice for preperations of war was prime minister Hendrikus Colijn. During the start of 36, he managed to convince the majority of the government that they had to prepare for war.

The first means taken to prepare for a possible war was to build and move most of the heavy industry to Indonesia. All of the military leaders thought it would be impossible to stop the Germans if they came for the Netherlands, so to have a place to be safe and be able to properly prepare for war, the Dutch east indies was chosen. The military leaders did some calculations, and came to the conclusion that Netherlands would not be prepared for a fullscale war before 1942 or later. Almost all of the income each year was spent in the east indies to improve the industry there and to set up new factories. Every soldier were sent there to begin an extensive training to become elite soldiers. One of the divisions being prepared was the elite division Zwarte Duivels, the black devils.....



P.S: All of my IC is set to build industry on Java

[Graymane]

wow, good luck with this =) Sounds like quite a challenge.

[rcduggan]

good luck. you WILL need it.

[lifeless]

good luck! be sure to build some ships too so you can repel the japanese and invade the home isles

[General Jac]

Good luck, and good building!

[Lafayette53]

Good Luck, looks awesome!

[grayghost]

I like the idea of you continuing the war from the East Indies, but dont forget your carribean holdings.

[Raze]

I sense that this has excellent potential. A possible Dutch Empire to surpass Britain.

[badvoice]

Originally Posted by Graymane

wow, good luck with this =) Sounds like quite a challenge.

Thank you. I will need it.

Originally Posted by rcduggan

good luck. you WILL need it.

Thank you

Originally Posted by lifeless

good luck! be sure to build some ships too so you can repel the japanese and invade the home isles

Thank you. I will build some ships. Not just some ships, i will build all the ships with names and that is 125 ships. I think i will be finished in 1942 with the ships. That navy will then be among the biggest in the world. I will need it to counter the Japanese and the Italians. And later when i am doing amphibs, i will need the shorebombardment.

Originally Posted by General Jac

Good luck, and good building!

Thank you, and if its one thing i do use alot of time doing, its calculating how to spend my IC.

Originally Posted by Lafayette53

Good Luck, looks awesome!

Originally Posted by grayghost

I like the idea of you continuing the war from the East Indies, but dont forget your carribean holdings.

I wont forget Curacao or surinam, but that is an area with relative peace i think. I dont think anyone will ever endanger them. The continuation of the war in the east is my only choice if i want a fun game. Stay tuned and see what happens, i am quite sure you'l like it

Originally Posted by Raze

I sense that this has excellent potential. A possible Dutch Empire to surpass Britain.

You are getting it
The thing is, I have priorities. My first pri is the safety of Indonesia. The second pri is helping the allies on difficult fronts. Then comes the fun part, to attack where i can to do most damage. I dont think i will ever be able to surpass Britain, but i can try.

Thank you all for your replies, it made me happy this morning to see that so many people wanted to drop a few words. Now that is encouraging. I hope you with follow the story. I am also open to suggestions, so feel free to come with any ideas.

[badvoice]

The trouble begins

Early in 36, there was trouble several places in the world already. Italy had been at war with Ethiopia since 1935 and were making progress into Ethiopia. China was a very turbulent place, with many different factions siding against each other, there was also a war between the Communists and the Nationalists in China. That war ended when the leader of Nationalist China were taken as a hostage in the early spring of 36.

Netherlands could do nothing but comdemn the aggression in Ethiopia. They did not have any power to anything else. No other nation willing to do anything about the conflict there either.

At March the 8th, Germany sent armed forces into the Rhineland. It was the first of many violations to the peace deal that settled the great war. France and United kingdom sent protests, but were unwilling and unable to do anything else against the Germans. In Netherlands, the government saw this as a start of a greater conflict and hurried to prepare the nation for a future war. The leaders were worried because they realised they were forced to leave the homelands, and the Dutch civilians would left at the mercy of the Aggressors. The civilians would probably see the abandonment of the government and the military as a treachery to them, but there were no other options.



Late in March, Italy declared that Ethiopia had surrendered to Italy and had been annexed to become a colony of Italy. Emperor Haile Selassie held a speach at the league of nations were he pleaded for help, but none were given. The emperor took refuge in UK after the Ethiopian surrender. At the same time, new technologies had several breakthroughs and both the industry and the organisation of Netherlands were improved.



In june, another conflict rose in China. Guanxi Clique declared war on the Nationalists, seeing the oppurtunity to take advantage of weaknesses among the Nationalists. They were not succsessful though. The Nationalists managed to score several important victories against guanxi, they had the support of Xibei san ma, and their combined armies managed to cut through the defenders in Guanxi.



In the mid of july, Spain was thrust into a civil war between the revolters, the nationalists and the elected government, the republicans. Although the nationalists had some early sucsess and conciderable aid from both Germany and Italy, the republicans managed to get the upper hand.



All of the army and navy had been sent to the Dutch east indies. The total number of divisions were 11, and the navy of 12 ships. The total number of men serving were around 120000. A small army compared to the greater european nations. The plan for the army was to disband most of the infantry, and try to produce armored divisions and motorised divisions. The reason why the army wanted to change was because infantry divisions are very volnurable and had high chances to be inflicted heavy manpower loss. With armored divisions and armored cars and motorised infantry, both speed and protection of the personell was achieved. The problem was to gain both tactics and good blueprints for these units. The most brilliant minds and companies in Netherlands was assigned to deliver new tactics and prototypes. The tactics was inspired by several foreign tacticians, notably some German and some Russian tacticians. To get a foothold on enemy lands, one had to strike from the sea, and with the lack of any tactics on this worldwide, the Dutch had to develop some of their own. The training of the elite divisions Zwarte duivels was central in the development of good tactics for amphibious assaults. The division was turned into a marine division.

[grayghost]

Nice little army in the East Indies. But I am betting it is your whole wad right now.

[badvoice]

Originally Posted by grayghost

Nice little army in the East Indies. But I am betting it is your whole wad right now.

It is what i start with and you are correct. I intend to disband most of them to have more manpower to build ships and armored divisions.

To everyone who saw the last post before i could update it (i had to turn off the computer to run some hardware update), sorry. But now it is updated.

[lifeless]

tanks and motorized eh? sounds like a plan especially with all the oil in the indies!

[General Jac]

You`l need infantry to garrison your pacific islands though

[Simon-1979]

Am i correct that you will only have the manpower you started with plus 0.007 a day until you loose holland plus what you can recycle from units!?!?!? - and events - if it ever happens - jesus, you have a bit of a sado-maschocistic tendency - i think i will watch this (voyeur)

[badvoice]

Originally Posted by Simon-1979

Am i correct that you will only have the manpower you started with plus 0.007 a day until you loose holland plus what you can recycle from units!?!?!? - and events - if it ever happens - jesus, you have a bit of a sado-maschocistic tendency - i think i will watch this (voyeur)

You are almost correct. My manpower increase by 0,07 each day. If my manpower had increased by 0,007, i would only have gained 10 manpower in 4 years, and that i can not play with. Fortunately, i get some more manpower, but compared to almost any other nation, it is way to low, but that makes it fun i think. Read the first post and you will see that i expect my manpower will increase by 113 before the war. The only way i can get manpower after that is by events. And to any reader who may think about such things, I will not cheat on the event that potentially may give me manpower (or any other thing either). I hope you will be watching it.

Originally Posted by lifeless

tanks and motorized eh? sounds like a plan especially with all the oil in the indies!

After my industrial whoring, i can build them and supply them with my oil. Another thing, the allies are very good at giving me free oil when we are at war together and my oil is in the red. They will come in very handy in Europe where the speed and plains make them good. Before that, my most important division will be the marines. I intend to have 3 divisions and to use them very actively. The division Zwarte Duivels will allways be the first one in any battle. I am gonna try to make them extremely experienced.

Originally Posted by General Jac

You`l need infantry to garrison your pacific islands though

Do you think i have the manpower to do that No, i will choose a better tactics, i will try to beat the Japanese in what they are best at, island jumping. After the Japanese threat is eliminated, i will head for Europe.

The prewar years will go fast as i did not do anything out of the ordinary, and neither did any other nation. So in a few days i will start with the action.

[Olaus Petrus]

You certainly have chosen good challenge for topic of this AAR. I wish you luck.

[badvoice]

A revision on the defence plans and slow progress

The conflict between Guanxi and the Nationalists in China came to an end in the summer of 36. Guanxi saw they were loosing the battle and pleaded for peace, something they got but not without surrendering half of their lands to the Nationalists.



In August, the first factories and companies were in place in the Dutch east indies. This new wave of industrial growth made it possible to move more industries to the east. In Batavia both Fokker and the great Dutch naval shipyards set up shops and the naval dochs began to grow into becoming one of the largest and best equipped in the world. All these investments drained the wealth of the nation, but it was for a good cause.



In January 1937, Germany, Italy and Japan signed an agreement against communism. This of course made diplomatic relations between Sovjet union and these nations bad, but it also gave Netherlands an indication of new enemies. This agreement suggested that the three nations may cooperate more in the future, in the worst case scenario, war. Now both the Dutch east indies and the homelands were in danger from enemies. Still the easiest place to defend would be the Dutch east indies. The military leaders in Netherlands began to plan what they would be doing if Japan chose to go to war against the Netherlands.



Soon afterwards, a great blow against Germany and Italy came. The war in Spain was over and the Republicans won. The material they sent to aid the nationalist rebels were taken over by the Republican or destroyed. There were still some unrest in Iberia though.



Early in 37, research was focused on mobile warfare and improving the industry. Both of these were progressing nicely. Later on, research was focused on getting the best naval designes and tactics in the world. The naval leaders claimed that the way to control the seas was not to have the biggsest guns (though it helps), but to control the air. The most important naval vessel would then be the aircraft carrier.



In the summer of 37, another conflict rose in China. Japan found an excuse to officially declare fullscale war on China (there had been a constant smallscale war there for the past years). There was an incident at the Marco polo bridge that made the Japanese go to war.

The government and military leaders saw this as sign of expansive wishes among the Japanes, and the most likely place to expand to after China was the rich east indies. Japan had one of the most modern navies in the world, so to counter this possible threat, a stronger navy had to be built. The focus from now on was therefore to develop better designs for the navy.

Another wave of industrial growth came in the east indies around this time, and it made the Netherlands able to research more and more rapidly.



Later in the summer of 37, Nationalist China and Shanxi declared that Shanxi was to be annexed as a part of Nationalist China. The reason why is because Japan had overrun the Shanxi defences and were threatening to annex the nation.



In October, a new wave of industry was finished making it possible to build and move even more of the important factories in Netherlands.



A view of the build process.



Late in 37, Japan organised the interiour of China and formed the puppet nation, Mengukuo.



Netherlands were still not ready to build any new ships of units, but the time for it was coming closer. A new design for the worlds largest battleship had been developed, and plans to build 7 of them was made. There was also new designs for aircraft carriers finished, and 5 ships was planned for build.

[son of liberty]

Good progress so far. Is there any way to make an event to move some of your population to indonesia? Your basic strategy seems sound, but I think lack of manpower will be your undoing.

[Olaus Petrus]

Nice to see that your industrialisation process is going well in Indonesia.