HOI 1 1936 - Muddling Through as the UK

[Rensslaer]

Sorry, still on page 1. Wow! A one month conclusion of the Spanish Civil War?! That's unheard of! I can't even imagine it's possible. Wow. Not doubting you, just shocked, as it sounds like you were also.

Wait. You wrote..... what?

The manual, strategy guide, and supplement for HoI3? I have a copy of the manual in my basement.

Awesome! I had a lot of fun writing and helping with the Beta. I started writing a Victoria AAR in 2004 and finished in 2006. That same year they opened this job opportunity to the Forum community and my application was accepted. Really neat community engagement. I wrote the EU III Strategy Guide and a fellow writer/player named MrT wrote the manual. I later did both for EU: Rome, HOI 3 and Victoria 2.

I'm enjoying your trip through memory lane. Dive bombers and heavy cruisers as replacements for more expensive heavier units is an interesting gambit, and I bet a wise one

Rensslaer

 

[Riel Hamard]

UK Campaign - August 24, 1940 - Early War Experience Analysis

It is two months since the Germans DoW on the Low Countries and we have so far lost Luxembourg, most of the Netherlands, and a part of Belgium. Amsterdam and Brussels are still standing. We are moving troops around to defend them. This segment featured a brutal battle to defend Eindhoven.

We are slowly losing ships, but it is getting harder to track which ships we are losing.

We started an invasion of Italy and split the peninsula in half. The mountains are making it very difficult to completely remove Italy from the war. We might even do well with them still in the war, because bomber target practice.

Spoiler

Technology:
42UK Early War Experience Analysis - Navy
43UK Early War Experience Analysis - Air
44UK Improved Submarine Construction
45UK - Basic Ordinance and Equipment

We went heavy on doctrine instead of waiting one more day. It is not a big deal. We might have to wait a while for better submarines or equipment or something. It is going to be another year until we catch up to the Germans on Doctrine. Then the war should gradually switch to easy mode.

Force Report:
Germany
190 Land - 137 Infantry 19 Motor 1 Mech 4 Armor 1 Mountain 28 Militia
1 Navy - 1 Submarine
16 Air - 3 Tac 13 Dive
We mauled their forces in one fight, but not sure how many divisions we took out.

Italy:
75 Land - 55 Infantry 6 Motor 2 Armor 2 Mountain 9 Militia
16 Naval - 13 Sub 3 Transport
8 Air - 2 Fighter 3 Tac 2 Naval 1 Transport
Their air appears to be in Ethiopia and we will be getting rid of that soon enough.

Japan:
76 Land - 59 Infantry 8 Cavalry 5 Motor 1 Marine 1 Mountain 2 Militia
46 Navy - 5BB 2CR 14DD 2AC 10SS 13TT
45 Air - 18 Fighter 5 Tac 10 Dive 12 Naval

UK:
88 Land - 45 Infantry 21 Motor 10 Armor 3 Marine 9 Militia
149 Navy - 15BB 50CR 28DD 7AC 9SS 40TT
39 Air - 14 Fighter 3 Bomber 5 Tac 6 Dive 11 Torpedo

War on Transports:
Over the last two sessions:
We sunk 115 Italian Transports.
We sunk 2 Japanese Transports.
We lost 1 Transport to the Germans..

RIP:
49th Destroyer Flotilla
24th Destroyer Flotilla
HMS Coventry
HMS Diomede
HMS Aurora

So it's 2 of our old destroyer squadrons and 2 of our old cruiser squadrons we lost in our adventure in French Indochina and we lost 1 Basic Cruiser to the Italians. Our overall numbers still look okay and the units we lost were not at the cutting edge this time.

 

[Riel Hamard]

UK Campaign - September 7, 1940 - Enter the Soviets

August 26 Hungary annexed Yugoslavia. August 27 the USSR DoW on Germany.

Spoiler

September 1 the Germans created Croatia. The Soviets have already started moving their industry.

September 2 we captured Addis Ababa and destroyed a bunch of Italian air just sitting there.

Technology:
46UK Improved Aircraft Carrier

 

[Riel Hamard]

UK Campaign - September 24, 1940

September 13 - We were expecting a very tough fight in the mountainous terrain at Bologna. Can we win this?

Spoiler

It turned out they had no organization left and we had them badly outnumbered. We had our armor finish off 4 more divisions and then decided they will be more useful defending Western Europe and sent them that way. We assigned a few more transports to pick up our marines and take out Cagliari, then Rhodes, then Dodekamisos. The fight in Rhodes looked tougher.

Spoiler

We forgot to assign a headquarters. It would also be good to figure out logistic distances. I think they were supplied from Naples and that might be across the Eastern Mediterranean. Google maps said about 1300km. So maybe it's 2 points per 100km. These differences are a bigger issue the lower the overall number is, theoretically.

In the Netherlands, we had a very bloody battle with the Germans in Eindhoven. We drove them off, but took about 40MP worth of damage. Our MP reserve is dwindling. We seemed to do quite a lot of damage to them, maybe even 120 and they cannot sustain that. Our full armor is on its way to help in this front.

Technology:
47UK Paratroopers
48UK Jet Engine Design

We are starting to build a Paratrooper unit. We might even try to go for cheesy behind the lines wins.

War on Transports:
Last two sessions we sunk 16 Japanese transports and 185 Italian transports. The Italian merchant marine does not matter anymore. I do not believe they have any more outposts.

Force Report:
Gernany:
194 Land - 146 Infantry, 17 Motor, 1 Mech, 2 Armor, 2 Mountain, 26 Militia
4 Navy - 2 Submarine, 2 Transport
18 Air - 1 Fighter, 3 Tac, 14 Dive

Italy:
47 Land - 30 Infantry, 5 Motor, 1 Mountain, 11 Militia
18 Navy - 2 Destroyer, 12 Submarine, 4 Transport
2 Air - 2 Naval

Japan:
82 Land - 64 Infantry, 8 Cavalry, 5 Motor, 1 Marine, 2 Mountain, 2 Militia
56 Navy - 5BB 2CR 21DD 2AC 12SS 14TT
44 Air - 18 Fighter, 5 Tac, 10 Dive, 11 Naval

UK:
93 Land - 50 Infantry, 21 Motor, 10 Armor, 3 Marine, 9 Militia
152 Navy - 15BB 51CR 29DD 7AC 10SS 40TT
40 Air - 15 Fighter, 3 Bomber, 5 Tac, 6 Dive, 11 Torpedo

Here is the political situation:

Spoiler

Our Marines need a new job. Maybe we should check out what's going in on Croatia.

In Italy, we have 29 divisions remaining. Pushing further has a lot of obstacles - Mountains, rivers, both.

The China front looks stable, but there is not much we can do with it yet.

 

[Rensslaer]

Just finished the pre war updates. So you're actually going to try to defend Poland? I don't recall how common that is. I swear I've read multiple AARs as the Allies but I don't remember specifically seeing anyone do that.

Rensslaer

 

[Riel Hamard]

Just finished the pre war updates. So you're actually going to try to defend Poland? I don't recall how common that is. I swear I've read multiple AARs as the Allies but I don't remember specifically seeing anyone do that.

Rensslaer

The idea was to waste time and even take out a few units. As the defender, we have a bit of a speed advantage and we have more power to choose our battles and we always have the option of trading space for time and position. Time seems to work in our favor.

This might be less doable at a higher difficulty level. I am playing this on normal. From an RP point of view, it is probably very unrealistic.

I remember old-school AAR's! A lot of people put a lot of effort into inserting background history and RP.

In our game, we lost Poland because at least three more fronts opened. We opened a front at Hamburg. The Japanese joined the war and later the Italians joined.

 

[Riel Hamard]

UK Campaign - October 13, 1940

September 24 - We reloaded the game and suddenly the skies cleared over Eindhoven and we also cleared the skies of enemy bombers.
September 25 - The USSR annexed Estonia. They have claimed the Baltic States, but have not opened up on Finland.

With our Marines, we decided to push into Croatia and found their beaches undefended. So we started to push inwards. We are really trying to open up an easier front against Italy. Croatia has two provinces remaining and we are trying to weight the pros and cons of annexing. I am guessing it gives us badboy and when the Germans push back, it will be reclaimed as their territory.

We captured La Spezia. This gives us a solid mountain and river defense against an Italian counterattack.

Spoiler

We picked up our 12 Artillery units to move towards Croatia and we left our 9 Engineer divisions and 5 Aussie divisions to defend the Italian peninsula.

Short report.

Technology:
49UK 30mm Light Tank Destroyer
50UK 30mm Light Assault Gun
51UK 70mm Improved Medium Tank
52UK Conditional Control Transfer
53UK Improved Centimetric Radar Warning Sites

Transport War: It has slowed down. We sunk 8 Japanese Transports and lost 1.