A reminder that in the last update I mentioned this November/December 1942 period was where my gameplay had ground to a halt due to lack of inspiration, and frustration with some game flaws that were putting a damper on things. This is also, naturally, where I came back to the game a year or two later, when I regained the motivation to pick up gameplay again.
At that time, we had recently launched a new Heavy Cruiser. Now, you’ll see, we have a 2nd Heavy Cruiser being prepared, and even a Battlecruiser (for which we’d gradually been gaining techs for).
Our IC had grown to 72, mainly due to conquests, though we were slowly trying to add to Portugal’s internal IC also. Putting 51 IC toward production was a new luxury for us (the screenshot doesn’t show my whole queue, just the stuff at the end). It should be noted that soon after this (sometime in December) I changed (more likely set for the first time – another of those details that seemed a distraction while I had the British tiger by the tail) my Occupation Policies to improve my Manpower, but this had the side effect of reducing IC. I had actually found that I had insufficient Manpower to produce what I wanted to with all that IC, so I recalibrated for optimum result.
I also adjusted my generals and set certain units not to reinforce, so that my Manpower would not get sucked into unnecessary sectors. Coming fresh back to an old game helped me get my mind around details that could potentially impact things, long term.
Naturally, much of my challenge lay in transporting troops to the right locations. Since enemy cruisers still patrolled, here and there, I wanted cruiser escorts. The light cruiser Matosinhos escorted one convoy of transports back to South Africa to pick up reinforcements while the heavy cruiser Vila Nova de Gaia maintained protection for convoys near the front in Australia.
So there’s the new port I’d added to Adelaide (which should have been there all the time, but I had to mod it in, as well as one at Melbourne). Supply was now reaching all of our forces in the Adelaide Pocket, despite having no connection to our territory in Western Australia.
We brought in our airpower from Africa to try to tip the scales in these critical and close-fought battles in Australia. They based out of Adelaide, which was nearer than Perth to the fighting, but which still presented range issues even for our longer-range bombers.
Remember from last update that our cavalry and infantry had been about to capture Caiguna, thereby pushing through to connect with the Adelaide Pocket, when the Australian Vickers 6 Ton tanks had interfered with our plan.
Before long, the numerous, strong Australian divisions along the front were pushing the Portuguese back at every turn. Our forces were just too weak, and too battle-weary, to stand. We fell back to what we hoped would be better defensive positions.
Meanwhile, reinforcements were still mid-passage in the Indian Ocean. They did not arrive along the coasts of Australia until Christmas Eve. Now, you might think they would be best deployed either inside or outside of the Adelaide Pocket, since that’s where most of the action has been recently.
However, despite the recent defeats at the hands of Australian troops, the Australians would have a long way to go to consolidate their victories and make anything of them. To push Portugal off of their continent? Virtually impossible. We held too much territory, and our relative strength would grow as we fell back on Perth. So we decided to take an action that would help change the game – seize the initiative again, and perhaps initiate a grand-scale “flanking” movement, of sorts.
They landed on Christmas morning on the northwestern corner of Australia. They quickly initiated a small-scale offensive to capture all Australian held territory near the western coast.
The Australians continued to move westward from Caiguna, along the southern coast. Our troops were definitely on the run – too fatigued to take a serious stand, anywhere. But when the 3rd Cavalry retreated, they did so to the south, not to the west, so that they might flank any Australian advance, and at least cause the Aussies delays. Our units were tired, not toothless.
The NRP Mira, a Heavy Cruiser, was launched on the 8th of January, 1943. Portugal also introduced a new model of machine gun that would improve our defensive stands (Defensiveness advance from Infantry Support Weapons). Mira would soon be escorting more transports in an effort to round up more reinforcements from Africa, now that that theatre had gone quiet.
At around this point I checked the surrender progress of Australia and the UK. Australia was just under 35%. Britain had arrived at nearly 43%. But neither, obviously, was near to real collapse. What a slog!
Our Fuel supplies were dwindling, with all the frenetic naval and air activity, plus our newly motorized units. We made a treaty with Colombia to supply us with refined Fuel for a lucrative financial arrangement. This would be only temporary, until we could build our stocks back up. We were less worried as in the past about interdiction of our shipping by raiders. Much of that had dried up.
In the east, the 27th Division (Garrison) was very slowly pushing forward toward Melbourne without significant opposition. On 10 January, they captured Kingston. All the Australian units had apparently been sent to the hot front to the west. It made us wonder how well defended the eastern cities might be… But our naval forces were too heavily occupied to make an excursion to reconnaissance.
By mid-January, the 27th Division in the south and the 16th in the north began using naval transports to stairstep up the coast, securing strongpoints along the way. Gen. Azevedo’s 27th landed in Tasmania and left a small occupation force behind. However, when they approached Melbourne, they discovered an Australian naval squadron screening the harbor. They decided instead to return west and take Caiguna and Nuytsland by sea, vacated now that the Australians were advancing west.
When the Australian 1st Cavalry (their tanks) turned to attack the 27th Division, the Portuguese 1st Cavalry launched an attack upon her rear, having had some time to rest. The 3rd Cavalry soon joined in from yet another flank. The Australian armor was hard pressed. And their attack upon the 27th – a division whose nature was to doggedly defend – was hardly progressing toward any good end.
From the Adelaide Pocket, the 1st Motorised began a drive to capture more undefended territory and widen the pocket, eventually expanding it toward Melbourne. This would take time, of course, but with truck-mounted troops, it would mean less time. The Australian situation in the south seemed again dicey all of a sudden.
Portuguese submarines were able to establish that the port of Brisbane was defended only by a garrison brigade. However, there was another large naval squadron there. Perhaps Brisbane would have to be taken by land, once that could be arranged.
At the end of January, transports brought the 2nd Cavalry into Perth, from Somaliland. We waited for events to know where best to dispatch them.
The Australian 1st Cavalry (armored) was making progress against Gen. Azevedo’s troops in Nuytsland. But the total picture showed that the armored columns were at least part rushing to get away from their pursuers on the rear flank, who were taking their toll.
On the 29th of January, the 1st Armoured Cavalry was ordered to disengage and withdraw to the north. Portugal’s Gen. Lopes had finally won his breakthrough to connect with the Adelaide Pocket.
