Back in the Saddle
Explanation
Sorry for the long delay with this update. I planned on taking a short break and then continuing the AAR but I ended up having less free time available to me. I was burned out from HoI3 but I knew in time I’d come back to it. Well that time is now and I’m going to continue with the AAR if anyone still remembers it!
I never finish saved games after a long break but this is a different matter. The benefit of an AAR is being able to go back and read it. I’m generally back up to speed after reading the last update.
This will not be a big update. It is a warm up for me to get back into the groove. Before I took a break from HoI3 I had some of the next update already written. I thought scraping it. Just reload a previous save were my last update left off. I decided against it to keep things more honest and to post my actual thoughts while I’m playing the game.
I’m breaking this update into two parts, mini updates 1 and 2. The first one “Mini Update 1” is my progression since the last update that I had finished before I took a break but never posted. “Mini Update 2” is my fresh perspective of the situation after looking at it again for the first time in two months.
Mini Update 1
Starting the game I was surprised that the previously stable front is now under attack, clearly the reload reset the AI to my disadvantage. The terrain around Eden is a nightmare to deal with and the infantry stationed there withdrew when the Germans attacked because it was not worth holding. The Axis attack at Muster was a different matter. Armor was sent to bolster the defense. Meanwhile the Germans began to launch attacks from Eden; perhaps I was mistaken to have abandoned it without a fight. The attacks launched from Eden were more serious than previous expected and reinforcements were sent to the besieged provinces.
Axis troops renewed their attacks against Munster and I was forced to retreat much to my displeasure. The Germans launched attacks all across the front and I had to shuffle divisions around to counter this. It took the entire months of February and March for these battles to finally finish and the front stabilize. Lack of manpower is becoming a real problem for the divisions in constant battle.
Things are not much better on other Allied fronts. Singapore has fallen to Japan, there isn’t much left in the Pacific for Japan to conquer except Vietnam and the vital black soil resource. In Africa mass rebellions have given large chunks of territory back to Italy.
As we get into April more and more convoys are sunk. It has once again stopped shipments of IC from the United States. There is no available manpower to replace these ships. Destroyer Escort Efficiency finished around this time and the tech will be left in the queue.
By mid-April Africa was back in French hands, thanks to allied units. While on the subject of allied divisions the USA sent enough to form the 6th Allied Corps. This unit is moved into Belgium. My armored units are still badly under manned so I have no choice but to wait until manpower catches up. I will also begin to upgrade motorized brigades into mechanized. I’m very hesitant to pull these units off the line for an extended time but the upgraded firepower will be useful.
Embarrassingly I wasn’t aware that all you had to do to see a nation’s manpower was just send spies in or I would have done it sooner. Spies were dispatched into Germany (I don’t think I mentioned it in previous updates but I stopped tech spying as it was too costly.) Germany has over 1,000 manpower.
I’m not surprised I was expecting them to have plenty of manpower. I wasn’t expecting their resources to still be fine however. They have an enormous amount of fuel, oil, and rare materials. They don’t produce enough metal but it mustn’t be by much because their IC seems unaffected.
It is June 1st and not much is happening. My armed forces still need reinforcements and I’m upgrading what I can with the IC available.
Mini Update 2
From the start I notice that I’m in for a fight as soon as this game gets unpaused. Little green arrows are pointing across the border at French divisions all across the front. From now on great care will need to be taken on deciding when to save the game and stop playing. When the game is loaded it seems to refresh the AI, much to my disadvantage.
In production are 12 motorized divisions that are being upgraded to mechanized units. Other than that, nothing significant is being produced. Building infrastructure, air bases, and naval bases (AKA whatever doesn’t take manpower) are also in the queue. I need convoys desperately but do not have the manpower for it.
Technology wise things are alright. The army is in good shape; all the units in field have their appropriate research up-to-date. Army doctrine is up-to-date except for central planning which I will add to the queue. Curiously I have been researching heavy tanks. Not sure what my thinking was. It would take manpower I don’t have to build them and they’d still be outdated for quite some time before research catches up. Looking other research I must have just needed something to spend points on. All necessary technology is up-to-date or being researched now. The only thing I’m not happy with (realistically speaking that is, I’d love to have an updated navy to protect the convoys) is the air force doctrine.
Current research queue:
France’s armed forces in the field could be better. Three fighter wings (12 interceptors) are badly damaged and need to be grounded ASAP to avoid loses. The army is fortunately organized along the front so I won’t have to worry about that. My initial worries the situation were not as bad as I first thought. The 4th and 5th armies are still sitting in their same spots since the beginning of the war holding down the Maginot line and the Italian border respectively. The 3rd Army is spread thin in the center of the line. The 2nd Army, 1st Armored, and the 1st Allied Army are in the north concentrated in a small area. I’m worried that they are in too small area actually.
There are some random forces scattered about the globe. The 1st RR Corps is stationed in Saigon to protect the Black Soil strategic resource. There is the 6th Allied Corps that I don’t have any room in the OOB for. A few random allied divisions are around; 4 marine, 3 infantry, and 1 HQ. Three of those divisions are in Africa. What I would like to do is make another allied corps, ship it to Saigon and take the 1st RR corps back to France.
Before I conclude here are a few pictures that show the military statistics:
*NOTE* I wanted to show the Land Units but the chart was unreadable due to the amount of units. This allied comparison will help with that though.
Lastly here are all the ships France has sunk, far too few Submarines have been killed.
My apologies for posting the update like this. I thought about posting a new update like I never took a long break but I felt this was more honest and interesting (hopefully). As always thanks for reading and it’s good to be back!
