Playing As The USA

[unmerged(76390)]

So I'm in the middle of about my 4th iteration as the USA after getting frustrated with my buildup to entering the war. Basically I would screw up one or two pieces that would really piss me off so I'd start over.

It's earlyish 1942 and I have totally finished off the Japanese navy, like they have 2 or 3 ships left in total. I had a few bad losses and my navy just wasn't up to snuff yet with the older capital ships. I've lost about 20 ships in total but haven't lost a single CV and am still holding strong with my lvl 2 and 3 CV's. So at this point it's just Island hopping.

Here is where it gets weird. In every playthrough I've ever done, none of them come as close to this one in terms of weirdness. Japan has all of India, Australia, New Zealand, the usual Detch East Indies, and they've even take British possessions in Oman, and the UAE, and have landed in East Africa. Britain lost Gribraltar, all of the Middle East, North Africa, and are now losing almost all of East Africa. Iraq created an uprising that is now pushing into Palestine too. Germany is almost to Stalingrad as well.

Anybody run into something similar? Like I said, this is the craziest I've seen it.

 

[unmerged(76390)]

I forgot to add, the war started in March of '39 after the British guaranteed the independence of Poland. The Germans triggered the Treaty of Munich but not the annexation of Czecheslovakia. The Italians, Japanese, and Hungarians joined the war right at that time too so France was conquered by July of '39. The Italians basically finished off the British by early '40.

I was convinced Operation Sea Lion was gonna happen as I had to sit on the sidelines hoping Japan would attack me earlier.

 

[Kovax]

There's apparently a slim chance that Germany won't manage to reduce CZE's National Unity sufficiently to enact Munich on time. That can delay First Vienna, to the point where Germany can DoW on Poland before it happens. There's also a slim (10%) chance for CZE to refuse Munich, leading to an early war.

If GER builds up a decent navy and both GER and ITA manage to keep most of their fleets intact until France is out of the war, the UK is forced to split its fleet between the Med, Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Atlantic, leading to MUCH better performance by Italy and Japan. The reverse happens when GER sends too many divisions to starve in the mountains of central Norway, and both GER and ITA throw away their fleets independently against the combined UK and French fleets before France falls.

What you're seeing isn't the usual course of events, but far from the weirdest I've encountered. Then there are the campaigns where I took things off the rails myself, and THOSE are just bizzare. Consider GER guaranteeing Nationalist China, and warring with Japan in 1938. How about Poland joining the Axis? The real fun comes in trying to work around the hard-coded lumps in the sandbox, and see just how much you can mess up history.

 

[unmerged(76390)]

Interesting. That all makes sense. I've now liberated NZL and AST (only the east coast) so there's more work to be done there. I haven't even touched the European theater yet though as I'm too focused on cleaning up the Pacific. It's been a fun twist on the historical game.

 

[unmerged(76390)]

So I've landed troops in Europe (Northern France, Southern France, and Italy. How do I get additional Allies to support my offenses there?

 

[50shadesofgreen]

Click on the province and in the bottom of the new box should be some flags showing ownership and cores. To the right of that line is an arrow. Select the arrow and another scrolling list of flags appears. These are Allies and selecting these should tempt them to advance to the location. Only recall this working with a viable land link. Never seen an Ally use amphib to do this.

 

[Kovax]

Click on the province and in the bottom of the new box should be some flags showing ownership and cores. To the right of that line is an arrow. Select the arrow and another scrolling list of flags appears. These are Allies and selecting these should tempt them to advance to the location. Only recall this working with a viable land link. Never seen an Ally use amphib to do this.

In one GER campaign, I got ITA to take Gibraltar fairly early in the war that way, otherwise it's way down on their list of priorities. You can "suggest" targets for your allies, and it seems to increase the likelihood of them going for it, but in the long run they're still going to do whatever they want. A long-distance overseas link may be beyond their effective operational range, and they generally won't bother.

 

[unmerged(76390)]

That's what I've been doing but with no such luck yet. I just landed in France in May '44 and now it's August. I have too small an army to really punish Germany because they're just throwing Bulgarian and Hungarian troops at me. Germany and Italy are out of manpower.... I'm trying to get the British to join the fun but they're just looking at me from across the Channel saying nah, you've got this.

 

[Palmerdale]

I have seen Japan go bonkers before, but I was playing Italy. They took Oman and most of India. Germany seemed to be doing okay (don't know/remember about the events triggered). UK was put up a good fight in the Middle East before I booted them. I had turned my attention to the Soviet Union, one of my many attempts to invade across the Black Sea and open a 2nd front there. Once I did that, Germany seemed more interested in flooding into my sector and their sector stalled out.

 

[Kovax]

I have seen Japan go bonkers before, but I was playing Italy. They took Oman and most of India. Germany seemed to be doing okay (don't know/remember about the events triggered). UK was put up a good fight in the Middle East before I booted them. I had turned my attention to the Soviet Union, one of my many attempts to invade across the Black Sea and open a 2nd front there. Once I did that, Germany seemed more interested in flooding into my sector and their sector stalled out.

Yes, the German AI seems intent on sending troops to "reinforce" all of its allies', whether it's needed or not. In one HUN campaign, I had driven my own corridor just south of the German advance, and had about a 3-5 province wide path to roughly 2-3 provinces shy of Stalingrad. That's about when GER spammed 100+ brigades of 'gourmet" divisions (including a whole lot of MOT and some ARM) onto my supply lines, well behind the front. They wouldn't advance to the front to assist, but effectively cut off all supply to the front by consuming it themselves.

Meanwhile, GER no longer enough units on its own front to make attacks at good numerical odds, burned tons of manpower in fights against superior numbers, and eventually ran itself out of manpower just short of Moscow, while the divisions parked on my supply lines sat there and did nothing. From there on, the Soviets drove them back with ease, while I tried desperately to extract my own troops from the suddenly outflanked and vulnerable corridor. The outcome was depressingly inevitable from there.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I've seen AI Italy send units to help AI Germany in Belgium and never recall them while Italy itself gets slowly overrun by France and the UK. Note that these weren't expeditionary troops either. It's so annoying.