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1940, first half – The Balloon Goes Up[/size]
As promised, this update comes with plenty of action, adventure, and romance (the latter only happens behind the scenes with my wife – sorry!)
”…although, I could have used a little more cowbell” – Bruce Dickinson
Sorry, Bruce!
”Never question Bruce Dickinson!” – Bruce Dickinson
This game has gone totally wild. Germany has declared war on the Allies
before causing any further ruckus over Czechoslovakia or Poland. I’m curious if there is any time delay on those events, so the AI fuehrer can pick them up later. I think the issue on how this came up though is that Germany may need to be at peace in order to fire those events, which will now never happen with the Allies fully engaged. But this could work out well… if the AI Germans fail to get a border with Soviet Russia, then maybe they won’t ever go to war and I won’t have to worry about losing my last decent trading partner. With all this wackiness going on I would be surprised that anybody else could try to replicate this game.
The main reason I spent an uneventful 1939 is that I am waiting for some very time-intensive items to come out of my production queue. I think this waiting causes me to make a bad strategic error down the road. Most games might be won or lost by things like this, and not your actual battles- what you build and when, and when and whom you attack, seems to be far more important than any individual battle.
3 January: I get a Call to Arms from Germany. Since I’m not ready for war yet against so many powerful nations, I have to decline. My relations with the Germans are now at -35, I don’t know if this is because I declined their request or it was bad from the beginning.
16 January: Republican Spain joins the Allies. Odd, since I thought my declaration of war on them would have placed them in the Allies already. Not answering the call to arms is definitely a hit to relations, a second one from Germany comes up and refusing it knocks me down to -85.
26 January: Belgium surrenders to Germany and is annexed.
27 January: Australia joins the Allies. This time, I’m sure!
1 February: There is a hitch in our battle plan, Il Duce failed to take Gibraltar as he passed by it and now Allied troops are advancing out of it.
The Germans are advancing on Paris, so I need to position my troops for war with the Allies. I will be forced to attack France or forfeit Indochina to Japan. Since I am desperately short on ICs, I don’t think missing out on this area is a good idea.
7 March: Paris is surrounded. I don’t want to gamble on a French surrender, so I’m going to DoW the Allies. I don’t consider myself ready for this, but my street cred doesn’t rely on me playing it safe. It’s time to take the plunge.
”Time, time, time, to see what’s become of me…” – Simon & Garfunkel
So before we start officially joining the Second World War, here’s the position of my forces…
Two corps have been positioned around Hong Kong. This is a bit excessive, but I need to guarantee that I sack this city immediately, otherwise I’m in extreme danger of Allied troops pouring in.
One corps is directly facing off with the French on the Indochina border.
Two corps are at the junction of India, Siam, and Indochina. One will push into India and the other to Indochina.
One Militia corps and one Infantry corps are covering the Tibetan border. The Infantry is heading for Lhasa but will not be in place before hostilities begin. Note that the British have a Medium Armor division up here; I don’t know how successful they will be in those mountains. With that, the Asian empires declare war on the Allies.
”Cry, havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!” – William Shakespeare
8 March: Something odd happens, the border provinces near two of my corps flip to my side before I even move into them (and as it turns out, I can’t due to infrastructure problems).
I discover that my two corps here are stuck, since the areas I planned to move into don’t have sufficient infrastructure. So I will send one up to north India and the other will go over to support my troops attacking the French. This was very annoying since before war starts, I have no way of verifying if I would be able to move into those provinces or not.
11 March: Hong Kong crumbles. It was a UK Garrison division I defeated, while historically, the port was defended by Canadian troops. The troops had to fight without their heavy equipment, since it was still on the boats en route when war broke out. When the attack commenced on the Philippines, the cargo ships were redirected. I want to leave one corps there to guard my ports, and I’m not sure where to send the other. Indochina isn’t presenting me with enough frontage to make it practical to flood the area with troops just yet.
12 March: I see that my command structure is getting too spread out trying to fight along such a huge front, so I make some new high-level HQs (not that I even have the leaders to staff them).
14 March: Britain’s stooges (I mean “allies”) go on the attack.
”Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk” – Curly Howard
29 March: I lose my first province in combat. The men that I thought would be a spearhead in south India are slowly coming up by rail to beef up my forces in north India. I am also still slowly wearing down the French at the Indochina border (or are they wearing me down?)
I’m starting to take a national unity hit, so I shut down every convoy that isn’t going to Russia.
3 April: France is defeated, and Vichy formed, mere days before I would finally have broken through their lines at Tien Yen. I immediately declare war on Vichy France in a last desperate bid to secure Indochina ahead of Japan. Or, I don’t, since I’m forced into a non-aggression pact for the next six months! Words fail to express how annoyed I am.
4 April: Indochina is surrendered to the Japanese. On the plus side, German troops are now pouring into Spain. There is a rump of French territory in between Indochina and Siam, but I’m worried that if I attack it from Indochina, the Japanese will claim it. I don’t have my first warship commissioned yet, so I am planning an attack on Siam with Transports alone.
7 April: The Brits are having a field day up here bombing me, and with no air bases of my own in the region I can't even attempt to send my single Interceptor over to retaliate. The first of my two corps that are trudging up to the Indian front are finally arriving though.
12 April: My men load up for the attack on Siam.
However, at the same time I am departing to set sail, British warships appear to launch an invasion of Hainan, and my ships are bloodied and forced home.
19 April: Major naval battle going on in the Hainan Strait. My little Interceptor is trying to do its part. The Japanese win shortly thereafter, and Hainan is saved.
”Come back and we shall taunt you a second time!” – French soldier
26 April: The Ethiopian puppet government surrenders to the British, now they get to be a British puppet! Canada joins the Allies.
9 May: My second corps finally arrives in northern India. The lone British TAC up here bombed an isolated HQ and shattered it. I’m trying to get the airport at Imphal so I can put a stop to this kind of behavior; however, since there is also an airfield in Bhutan it will be tricky. With Imphal in my hands though I can transfer my own Interceptor up here and give my men some relief. I don’t think their existing AA defense is quite adequate. As an aside, I had asked in the main forum what sort of support brigades people attach to their HQs, and the wiseacre answer was “just keep your HQs out of the fight”. However, as I can see here, when the enemy has superior air power no area is out of the fight.
German troops are closing on Gibraltar…
Germany is also at war with Norway but that attack has gone nowhere. Pretty much a sitzkrieg.
10 May: I have Imphal, the British attempt a relief operation.
12 May: Siam accepts pressure from Japan. Maybe I should have just given Siam a declaration of war even though I wasn’t going to attack them any time soon? Would that have kept them out of the Axis? Or allowed me to conquer them after they joined the Axis? The Thai people have no idea how some British Marines sacrificed in the Hainan Strait saved their nation. Anyway, since that axis (pun intended) of attack is now completely closed off to me, I will send one of my corps meant for Siam up to join the Indian front, and the second corps will move through Siam to make a thrust at Singapore. If I see that attacking from a puppet allows me to keep the territory for myself and doesn’t hand it over to Japan, then I will keep going south. I’m very bummed that I missed two of my main short-term war goals. I could have attacked Siam, but I wanted to wait until my remaining Transports had repaired all their damage from the Hainan Strait battle, as I know the Thais have warships to defend themselves with.
18 May: My first warship rolls off the assembly line. I must give her a suitable name…
And with this, I conclude this update.