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Very nice gains! and clever strategy for taking over guiana. Also have you thought about building some armour? it could probably punch through most of the places you're having trouble with

I think his IC and Manpower - as a small country - are a bit too thin for that kind of thing. But I could be completely wrong. I've never had much success with deploying tanks as a minor power though.

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As for the update, great work! A couple of theatres will be nicely wrapped up soon, then on to bigger and better things.
 
Nice update! A lot more "stinging" going on; although that was some fancy footwork in Guyana. I am curious as to your fighting units' levels of experience (and your commanders also). It seems that quite a number of the battles have lasted for significant periods and this tends to lead to good experience bonuses - IIRC. Hey - every little bit helps!
 
The 4th cavalry is soon going to have to replace its standard bearers who otherwise fall off their horses under the weight of battle honours. Some of your transports could play catch me can you with the south african cruisers pulling them away enabling others to land troops in Durban.

You've still got some Dutch Caribbean lands to take before you finish off the Dutch East Indies so that it all goes to you outside continental Holland on their annexation by the Germans. I'm not surpised to see the Dutch gifting units to the British, they'd evaporate due to lack of supply, if still Dutch. Good work in isolating those units in the Americas, Malaya and south africa.
 
I wonder if that Mountbatten is the admiral, after all - his photo shows a nice white uniform, which looks more like a naval uniform than an army uniform to me. I could be wrong, of course...

All those lovely rares, and all the oil you're capturing from Southeast Asia... I'm guessing you probably have far more than you know what to do with (with your own IC - I'm sure you're trading some away). A nice situation to be in. :)

South Africa (actually, all of Africa) seems to be wel in hand. How much do the South Africans have left to fight you with? Is their collapse imminent?
 
I wonder if that Mountbatten is the admiral, after all - his photo shows a nice white uniform, which looks more like a naval uniform than an army uniform to me. I could be wrong, of course...

never underestimate the delusional qualities of the British Royal Family, they collect uniforms and titles like the old Soviet Politburo, so yep its him ... just because he styled himself Admiral doesn't mean he ever actually had much to do with ships or was at all competent - as an awful lot of dead Indians testify to.
 
Another great update ;) only one question though,Do the Brits pose much threat to your convoys and if they are,how much do they sink every week(approximatly)?

You know... I have half a mind to tally it up, because I'm curious. But I would estimate that we're losing about a dozen merchant ships every month (so about 2-3 a week or so), and 1 or 2 escorts, on average. However, the Brits and other allies are losing about 20 merchant ships per month to our commerce raiders (mostly to Chita and her fellow Condor bombers) when we're able to keep up that focus, which is for whole months sometimes, these days! I keep freighters in the production queue to absorb and expand past these losses. Overall, these are sustainable losses, just annoying. Welcome, Megaherz!

Very nice gains! and clever strategy for taking over guiana. Also have you thought about building some armour? it could probably punch through most of the places you're having trouble with

Thanks! As Viperhawkz already mentioned, we really don't have any kind of capacity to build armour, and we'd have to build it through license, which is expensive too. Our "armour" (scouts) are our cavalry units, backed up by infantry. That's about the best we can do as a minor power.

As for the update, great work! A couple of theatres will be nicely wrapped up soon, then on to bigger and better things.

Thanks! It's fun taking on a great power and just totally confounding them! :D

Nice update! A lot more "stinging" going on; although that was some fancy footwork in Guyana. I am curious as to your fighting units' levels of experience (and your commanders also). It seems that quite a number of the battles have lasted for significant periods and this tends to lead to good experience bonuses - IIRC. Hey - every little bit helps!

Thank you -- year, Guyana was quite a ride! I've found that most of what I've been doing, all game, is stopgaps in coordinated fashion. Seat-of-your-pants command, for sure! :) I'll see if I can remember to check the experience levels when I do the next update.

The 4th cavalry is soon going to have to replace its standard bearers who otherwise fall off their horses under the weight of battle honours. Some of your transports could play catch me can you with the south african cruisers pulling them away enabling others to land troops in Durban.

You've still got some Dutch Caribbean lands to take before you finish off the Dutch East Indies so that it all goes to you outside continental Holland on their annexation by the Germans. I'm not surpised to see the Dutch gifting units to the British, they'd evaporate due to lack of supply, if still Dutch. Good work in isolating those units in the Americas, Malaya and south africa.

Ahh, the Caribbean front is definitely not over yet! Yes, I think that's what happened to the Dutch units. Thanks!

I wonder if that Mountbatten is the admiral, after all - his photo shows a nice white uniform, which looks more like a naval uniform than an army uniform to me. I could be wrong, of course...

All those lovely rares, and all the oil you're capturing from Southeast Asia... I'm guessing you probably have far more than you know what to do with (with your own IC - I'm sure you're trading some away). A nice situation to be in. :)

South Africa (actually, all of Africa) seems to be wel in hand. How much do the South Africans have left to fight you with? Is their collapse imminent?

You may be right about Mountbatten. I wonder if that's a continuity error, or if he was regularly placed in land-based assignments (like India). The South Africans do have some divisions, still, but they're increasingly weak and disorganized. The British have some divisions in-theatre too.

never underestimate the delusional qualities of the British Royal Family, they collect uniforms and titles like the old Soviet Politburo, so yep its him ... just because he styled himself Admiral doesn't mean he ever actually had much to do with ships or was at all competent - as an awful lot of dead Indians testify to.

If you can change your name from Battenberg to Mountbatten, I suppose you can change your uniform and service, too! :)

Good British AI!
The last stand of the empire... could be in Guyana? :p

I have a few provinces left, first... :p

I would like to see some overview maps of the America's, Africa and the East indies :) Don't know if i'm the only one :D

Hmm... I'll see what I can do. All in all, I don't like the HOI 3 maps in large scale because you can't really see or distinguish much. But if I can get sensible maps, I'll try to do so. Thanks!

I will be producing an update for this sometime this week -- that's about as specific as I can be. But I'm excited about where we are in the AAR, so that probably means sooner rather than later.

Thanks again for your readership and comments! I do appreciate it.

Rensslaer
 
All right.... "update sometime this week" is going to mean this weekend. :D Sorry -- got delayed with stuff. Update for I Am Siam going up today at lunch, which means this one is up next.

Renss
 
I think I may have jumped the gun in an earlier update and said Turkey was on the Axis side. This screenshot shows that hasn’t happened yet. Italian and Greek troops are flooded across the Bosporous on two fronts, having already captured Istanbul, and driving into mainland Turkey.

24Oct1940Bosporous.jpg


Much of the Portuguese war during the last of October and the beginning of November, 1940, was characterized by a mopping up of British opposition in already opened theatres. By the end of October, the last Dutch/British resistance was eliminated from Sumatra. Only a small Dutch headquarters detachment remained, and they were finished off in mid-November.

28Oct1940Sumatra.jpg


It’s definitely nice that we can now supply 32 units of Crude Oil to Germany and have plenty left to refine for our own uses! :D

We have been intermittently going after those trapped British divisions north of Singapore. Their strength is significantly reduced now, which means they’re closer to the day when they’ll no longer be mostly useless and instead will be completely useless in a prison camp.

4Dec1940Singapore.jpg


This is a little out of chronological order, but it’s important to note that by mid-November the number of troops brought to bear against the British in Guyana was telling. The British had been out of supply for two months, and that, combined with constant pressure, had worn them down. A squadron of tactical bombers was brought in from Africa to relentlessly beat the British down, further reducing their numbers and organization.

14Nov1940Guyana.jpg


On 19 November, the British under Mountbatten surrendered, and all of Dutch and British Guyana became fully occupied by Portugal – a closed frontier! This, of course, meant those troops could be re-deployed except a small force to maintain security and control.

On the 6th of November, the 4th Cavalry, which had been making the rounds of the interior of Guyana, and had had quite some time to recover from their earlier exhaustion, landed at Andros in the Bahamas again.

6Nov1940Bahamas.jpg


Immediately, a battle began. But the 4th Cavalry was more prepared to resist it at this time. They kept fighting until the 10th Garrison Division could be brought in from its completed duties in Guyana. They attacked Grand Bahama from Eleuthera. This double-fronted battle against what then became a superior number of Portuguese divisions caused the British 43rd Wessex Division to cease their attack upon Andros.

8Nov1940Bahamas.jpg


Then, the second phase of this new invasion started. The 4th Cavalry was withdrawn, and so was the 10th Garrison. They were sent off to capture the southern Bahama Islands. This allowed the 43rd to recapture Eleuthera, but, of course, this exposed Grand Bahama, which was left undefended except for small detachments. The 10th was dropped into Grand Bahama, and thereby cut the 43rd off from supply, just as had been done in Guyana.

27Nov1940Bahamas.jpg


Suddenly, the 43rd was trapped on Eleuthera without supply, and the entire rest of the Bahamas Island chain was in Portuguese control – just three short weeks after the whole operation began. Supply was being run in to the Portuguese through Grand Bahama, and once they were no longer required in Guyana Gen. Gouveia’s squadron of bombers was brought in to hammer the Wessex Division as other divisions began to attack it – making this battle much like those in Singapore, Sumatra, Guyana and elsewhere.

The Portuguese were blessed to now have access to the stockpiled supplies in the Bahamas, too. Supplies that had been gathered there to support British operations throughout the Caribbean.

4Nov1940SAfrica.jpg


Portuguese dominance in South Africa was also made evident by the end of November. Not only was the southern coast entirely in Portuguese hands, and units driving northeast on two fronts from Capetown, but other operations to the north were causing South African commanders to worry gravely.

In fact, as the South Africans retreated, they became aware that another division of Portuguese cavalry had actually connected with the Portuguese holdings in northern Mozambique – a solid line of territory across the breadth of Africa. Portuguese units remaining in Mozambique were again given access to supplies, and could begin to make offensive moves again.

23Nov1940Africa.jpg


The South African invasion of Mozambique had stalled, months before, when the Portuguese drive along the western coast had gained steam. That early worry had become completely realized, and the South Africans had never completed their conquest of Mozambique – which had seemed entirely certain at one point.

The 3rd Cavalry, by early December, having first connected with Portuguese Mozambique, was now forced to fight the retreating British units who were trapped in the south. Most particularly, they found themselves in heavy combat with the 7th Motorized Division of the British Army, which had been stationed in Bechuanaland, but which had had its attentions focused southward because of the Commonwealth defeats there.

5Dec1940Rhodesia.jpg


They had remained rooted in Bechuanaland until it was too late, and they became trapped. Units just to the north, in Tanganyika, were performing a strategic withdrawal upon orders from High Command, which had decided that the situation in South Africa had deteriorated to the point of no return. British units in East Africa would retreat to defensive positions and would prepare to hold the torrent of Portuguese strength which was expected to be directed there.

If the Portuguese didn’t come, then this would be the barrier to northward progress by the Axis. This situation was undermined by the fact that the Italians controlled Ethiopia and Somaliland, and though they were not as active as the Portuguese, they had already ventured south into the frontier areas of Kenya. The year 1940 had not been at all friendly to the Allies. It was, in fact, a total disaster, from which little could still be recouped.
 
good to see your South African gambit pay off so well, even if Italy stays on the defense those UK forces in E Africa will be basically useless due to intermittent supply as you feast on their remaining convoy networks (esp as you'll soon be able to interdict both the entry to the med and the entry from the Atlantic to the Indian oceans.

overall, this has the air of a real success ...
 
South African forces are now gravely worried. Only now? Their country is about to be annexed into Portugal. It's far too late to be gravely worried. You've secured Guyana, apart from Vichy French Guyana and the Bahamas. That's a useful base from which to watch America. Is Brazil on the Axis side? A chance to return that country to its rightful place in the orbit of Portugal would be most welcome.

When the Dutch do finally surrender, you'll have all the East Indies. There are some Dutch Caribbean Islands, but I expect you'll occupy them soon, too.

The torrent of Portuguese about to flood in to East Africa. The ill equipped outdated Portuguese troops? The ones who will be landed in rear areas trapping the British forces.

You'll soon have interesting strategic choices to make. Do you attack Egypt? Do you attack Australia and New Zealand or do you assault Hong Kong?
 
Well done and well played! I still think India may a ways off, but I do agree with Chief Ragusa that you will have interesting choices to make should this conclude successfully and soon. Have any of you conquests to date increased you research ability thus far? Have you made some research progress with the economic techs? I think this might go a long way toward moving Portugal from "Side-Show Bob" to the position of center ring!
 
Ahhh, good to see that you're getting "stronger". Annexing South Africa should net you a good amount of IC and maybe some manpower, and you could really use both :) You can't keep "borrowing" stuff from the british in SA, at some point it's going to run out, so expand or die seems to be the order of the day :)
 
1940 was a bad year for the Allies, but a good one for Portugal: all that running around, shuffling forces hither and thither and carefully husbanding your resources is starting to pay off in a rather grand way. Echoing Chief Ragusa, I look forward to seeing what choices you'll make for 1941.
 
The British Wessex Division, in the Bahamas, spent the beginning of December, 1940, trying to dislodge the Portuguese garrison troops who had dislodged and trapped them. But it was of no avail – more brigades were brought in, and then the British cause was hopeless.

7Dec1940Bahamas.jpg


The map below will show you how deeply Portugal has penetrated into the Caribbean. All of Guyana, plus 4 major islands or chains. Portugal held the airbases and the naval bases. Some remained in the smaller island chains – naval bases, anyway – but they would be of no consequence in the war.

18Dec1940Caribbean.jpg


At the end of December, Portugal re-tried the invasion of Gibraltar. Much of this was dictated by HOI 3 conventions. Portugal had military access through Spain, but not supply access (this may have been changed in later versions – can you pass supplies through?). Without supply, the units could not attack.

30Dec1940Gibraltar.jpg


Eventually, having failed in the other attempt (and a previous attempt many months before), an amphibious invasion was tried. The danger of enemy ships catching them at sea, combined with the severe penalties for launching an amphibious invasion, made it a hopeless venture. The Portuguese re-boarded their ships and left for home.

Meanwhile, Portugal makes significant progress at increasing its fighting ability. Portuguese weapons improve, and as soon as we can finish our Upgrades all of our Infantry divisions (of which there are more now) will be more powerful – more able to compete with the Commonwealth troops who they are cornering around the world.

8Nov1940Mozambique.jpg


At the beginning of December, an attempt at landing more troops into Mozambique was made. But the South African Navy had other ideas – it should have been obvious they would be there, as there were no South African ports left. The transports retreated under cover of a destroyer screen and made another go at it a couple of days later.

This was the last brick in the wall to keep the South Africans contained. More battles were won – Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg. The gate was closing. South Africa was done.

13Dec1940Johannesburg.jpg


On 18 December, the Union of South Africa officially surrendered her army while her government went into exile. Immediately, the Portuguese refocused north to begin pushing into British East Africa.

18Dec1940SAfrica.jpg


A couple of British units remained trapped south of the line of occupation the 3rd Cavalry had established through Bechuanaland. But those units who were advancing north rolled them up as they moved. Those units who were already in Mozambique, including the 3rd Cavalry, began pushing north into Tanzania.

9Jan1941Tanzania.jpg


In fact, now that the South African cruisers were no longer in service (I assume this – I don’t think I ever saw them again), an assumption was made that the rest of the African coast might be clear. Troops from the south loaded aboard transports in order to be delivered further north. But once they got near to Dar Es Salaam, it was discovered that a British carrier task force was based there! Why they had not been active could only be because they were afraid of running into Portuguese war vessels – as unrealistic as that threat was in truth.

1Jan1941LendLease.jpg


On the 1st of January, 1941, the Axis received an unwelcome reminder that the United Kingdom was not, perhaps, as isolated as it had seemed. The United States of America entered the war obliquely, by providing aid and weapons to the British. This was dire news, indeed. Foreboding. What would this mean for the future?

No matter – the war continued, and what would happen in the future would happen, and would be dealt with.

17Dec1940Production.jpg


Portugal’s small industrial base had refocused numerous times since World War II started – both before and after it had actually entered the war. The first armored cars began assembly in the factories of Lisbon – these were licensed German models, as Portugal had absolutely no background with armored cars or light tanks, and had to get coaching from experienced German engineers.

Plus, Portugal would actually be able to deploy its first Messerschmitt licensed fighters shortly after the first of the year. More troop transports and a heavy and light cruiser were also on the ways. An attempt was being made to fortify Macao.

21Dec1940Tech.jpg


And more Infantry tech was being researched. Plus the industrial techs which had made the refurbishing of Portugal’s empire realistic in the first place.