I apologize for the long, long delay! I’ve got all kinds of things hopping right now, and it’s only going to build. I’ll definitely try to keep this on a reasonable schedule, but I cannot promise. I can only try…
I'll also try to give feedback soon, for those many of you who've left it recently!
This one is sort of a problem-solving update. Two theatres, in fact, start to arrive at some degree of solution, and my specific tactics are worth noting...
___________________________
Nigeria and the Gold Coast hung in the balance in the 2nd week of October. Seemingly, everything had changed – the British and French had held all the ports and the land, and suddenly Portugal had captured them all, over the course of just one month.
But danger still lurked. Not only was there a mixed motorised division in the Kumasi region, but another British infantry division was moving through the jungle west of Lagos, Nigeria. Unless properly coordinated against, these had the potential to cause a lot of trouble.
In fact, the British under Gen. Gott mounted an operation to dislodge the Portuguese position at Accra, and it looked as if this venture might succeed…
Things remained desperate in Kuching, as well. Portugal’s naval bombers were assisting against the enemy, but the local commander was drawing upon every resource, the Focke Wulfs not the least. He brought in a headquarters brigade from Hong Kong to help balance the sides and try to hold on to the vital Bornean port.
However, in the Central African front, Portuguese cavalry was proving very useful in cutting off the French mountaineers from supply, and planned to continue on into the Belgian Congo to cut their coastal troops off, as well. The Belgian operative capital was deep in the Congolese rainforest, and so their supply had to get out, rather than to be shipped in. Once these local colonial divisions were isolated, they could be picked apart, hopefully.
From the jungles north of Accra, the French light armoured division aided the attack of Gen. Gott against our defenses there. This was a desperate fight to free the British division from entrapment, but with French tanks to the north, and only two garrison brigades to hold the line it was not a feeble attempt! Our tac bombers tried to lessen the impact of their armour, but it was not enough. We retreated, but a fresh division stripped from Abidjan fell into place within hours to keep the French and British at bay. That was a near-run thing!
In West Africa, our cavalry has finally reached the sea again, sealing a cordon around Dakar so that no one may approach without crossing the buffer zone.
Meanwhile, the desperate fight in Kuching continued. One infantry division had suffered since the beginning, and there was danger they would need to be evacuated to avoid danger of breaking. Then, there was some question whether the other division would be able to hold off the British, who still didn’t seem to be suffering from lack of supplies.
An HQ brigade was brought in to help, but that would surely be of little consequence on its own… Perhaps, though, it would provide the edge that was needed to survive!
Back to W. Africa… Remember, in order to keep the British surrounded, and to keep from losing Accra to reoccupation, we had to borrow our garrison division from Abidjan. And, remember, our cavalry just completed its mission north of Dakar. Keep in mind, also, that the garrison division – even the new, fresh one, even with air cover – isn’t going to be able to hold out long against a full-strength British motorised division (even if surrounded) and a French light tank division.
So… the 3rd Cavalry then embarks from north of Dakar, and speeds as quickly as possible to Abidjan, to replace the missing division and keep that from becoming a possible avenue of escape.
This is where our occupation of the British and French bases – almost all of them along the African coast – shows its worth. My destroyers would probably not fare too well against a British cruiser, or two, or three (or the French subs, which used to lurk in these waters, but who now have no base south of Casablanca!). But because I’ve ridded the Royal Navy of its nearby bases, there’s far less to worry about. Remember, also, that the British still have Freetown, as well as St. Helena and Ascension Island, but except for Freetown (where you can see they have ships in port), these bases make the AI less able to intercept me because they use different predetermined routes.
We’re still facing off against the British in Hong Kong. With a garrison division there, the British probably do not have the ability to take me before I could react (except for the small point that I can’t react AND keep Kuching, but the less they know about that, the better off we are – confusion to the enemy!!!). At the same time, we have found we cannot do anything against Hong Kong – they’re too strong there with their own garrison division. Stalemate. They have French ships in port, but they won’t have time to react when a transport from home arrives with reinforcements. Ideally, these reinforcements would stay at Hong Kong, but realistically they’ll be dispatched to Kuching to save our bacon.
In fact… Realistically, I’m going to need both garrison divisions from Hong Kong. Again, what they don’t know… And so both of my garrison divisions head south (the French ships, btw, are just transports, so no threat). Because we’re about to lose at least one division to low organisation, and since I need my transports free to roam and pick up reinforcements, I’ll take one province behind my current position in order to have someplace to retreat to. This will prevent any surrenders of my forces, due to not having a line of retreat. Now, to find something truly useful for my garrisons – a way of tipping the balance in Kuching, permanently…
The Support Weapons tech advance is welcome, even though it means we need to shift more IC into urgent upgrades. The Defensiveness value is what we really want to improve. Whereas before the war, I spent a lot of tech time improving my garrison stats, that job is pretty much over now, and I’m shifting to improving my infantry, starting with defensive values, and moving into offensive (ignoring hard attack for the time being – I’m not going to try to go against any tanks, the French in Africa being an unwelcome quirk in that plan).
Now, back to France for an update…
You’ll notice that the Italians are starting to make some serious progress in the south. They’ve got the French on the run. Up north, the Germans continue to make steady advances… Except right around Paris, where the French are making a very respectable stand! The Germans are rolling up the Maginot Line from behind. They’re advancing along the coast.
I’m still conflicted, at this point, as to whether I want France to fall or not. In some ways, the release of pressure would be welcome. At the same time, there are more lands that I’d prefer to have in my hands, and not kept by a postwar French puppet government.