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Freyberg: YES! PHEW! That was bloody close. :rolleyes: Such a gamble... but now this fight is won, it's the beginning of the end - for China and Japan both.

Savage: VICTORY! Yay! But seriously, how? I mean, I know we always win, but how did you pull it off this time?

Freyberg: It's the exact reason why I wanted to take Fuling so bad! See the terrain?

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Savage: Hm, it's mountainous terain and has a river on two sides!

Freyberg: Yes! By this, the attacking strength of the Chinese in Chongqing (22) is reduced by mountains (to 11), and by the river crossing (to 5.5). Same with the Japanese, they are reduced as well (from 17 to 4.25). Troops from Enshi are affected by the mountain (from 4 to 2), and we have another 6 divisions attacking from Huaihua (reduced to 3). With this, even though they have 49 divisions, they only fight like 15. The chinese have horrible doctrine, and I'm sure they don't have properly trained officers to command those armies (command limit without HQ). So, all in all, they fight maybe like 10 divisions and take forever while our huge airforce pounds them in the open field.

Carr: I pwnd them :D

Freyberg: Pound, not pwnd :glare:

Carr: LOL

Savage: Wow, cool! So that means, no matter how many troops the enemy sends, they can't dislodge us from Fuling?

Freyberg: Exactly! And you know what's best?

Savage: What?

Freyberg: We are blocking the only mountain pass connecting industrious Sichuan to the troops in the south. Which means they are cut off from supplies!

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Savage: This is, huh, wow! Very good Freyberg! 50 divisions in southern China are starving! And they can't break out because the Japanese would attack them from the back! Muha! I give them maybe 2 or 3 months, then they will have no choice but to surrender! Yes, surrender to the glorious Kiwi Empire! HAHA! AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
 
Heh. Of course, you still have to make sure you get the spoils. Don't want the Brits breaking out of Hong Kong now, do we? ;)
 
November 24, 1943
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Troops in Southern China are completely defenseless, so the British move in for some easy kills.

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Savage: Pah! They've been sitting around with gazillions of tanks, and all they can do is steal our glory!

Freyberg: Yes, but the Japanese are overrunning the Chinese as well. We're doing all we can to keep them at bay with our airforce, but pretty soon we might have a problem here!

Savage: I know! Don't worry Freyberg, have a nice cup of tea!

Freyberg: ???

Savage: And now have a look at this map!

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Freyberg: What's this!?

Savage: Now that the Chinese are weakened, the Japanese are gaining momentum again! So we must deal them a blow as well! In wise foresight, I've reinforced your Kiwi Island Hoppers, so now you can take on Korea! It's the last Japanese "national" provinces!

Freyberg: But Korea isn't an island...

Savage: SILENCE :mad:

Freyberg: ...


10 divisions, 3 of which are motorized, are making their way up the Korean peninsula.

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Savage: We've even started up a navy! I'm buying all the ships the rest of the world doesn't want anymore :D

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Freyberg: Shore bombardment with a couple of destroyers? Really?

Savage: All hail the mighty NZ flagship, the HMCS Quebec!!

Carr: LOL

Freyberg: (facepalm)


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The invasion is progressing well. Also, the first long-range tactical bomber wing is finished!

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Freyberg: About time! FINALLY we can behave like a real military and actually bomb stuff in enemy territory, and not just in front of our doorstep!

Carr: this news is THE BOMB!! :D

Freyberg: :wacko:


Carr: Take that NORTH KOREA!!

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February 1, 1944


The New Zealand Air force has been patrolling the East Asian pacific for almost a year now. At first it had been only to protect the transports, but over time they've decimated the IJN pretty hard!

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Savage: I do believe that they barely have anything left! Our invincible transports are victorious once again! :D


And thus, with cover from the newly acquired long-range TAC bombers, New Zealand is slowly taking over all the Japanese islands in the pacific.

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Savage: "National province"... bah! How can you move your capital to bloody BONIN ISLANDS?

Carr: LOL

Savage: Like, if China were to relocate the capital to Taiwan island! That would be a laugh!

Freyberg: Moreover, suddenly they will deploy 20 divisions of infantry into the capital and turn the island into an invicible fortress!

Savage: Right! Enough of these shenanigans! We'll simply take away the islands, so they have nowhere to run :D


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February 24, 1944


At the same time, Freyberg's northern army group is cutting through the Korean peninsula like butter.

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Freyberg: The northeast is unguarded, and our bombers are patrolling Manchuria! Soviets won't attack us, so we can easily secure a piece of Manchuria!

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Savage: Yeah! Quickly Freyberg! I wanna annex it! Already got my finger on the button :D

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Savage: You know what's coming...

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.


Savage: :D
 
:laugh:

That's an impressive list of aircraft carriers sunk, by the way. 15 Japanese and two American by my count.
 
The rest of the navy is pretty much sunk too... Also what's left of the Royal Navy is getting torn apart by Germans+Italy (with US ships).
Leaving Gemany the only naval power that can actually roam the open sea.
 
March 21, 1944


The situation in East Asia:

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1) Southern Chinese forces have been annihilated by the Japanese. Control of the area is constantly going back and forth, as British troops together with most of the NZ airforce are barely keeping the Japanese in check.

2) Manchuria is in Kiwi hands, and suddenly Japanese divisions in the north are cut off from supplies. They will be annihilated by the bombers.

3) This is actually Mongolia, not New Zealand.
Savage: ...yet! :D

4) In declaring war on New Zealand, China automatically aligned themselves with Nazis. As a result they are also at war with Soviets and Mongolia. China is now pushing into Soviet territory, but we'll see how THAT works out quite soon!
Savage: They'd rather attack Soviets because New Zealand is too strong for them :D

5) This little province (Daegu) is actually the last "national" province, so the Japanese have made it their capital.


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Freyberg: The arrogant Japanese would never pick a Chinese province as their capital.

Savage: Hah! Haha! But now they without supplies! The capital is surrounded! It's a death trap!

Freyberg: They have 130 divisions left, but what will they do without supplies?

Savage: The same every country does... bow before the might of New Zealand! HAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
 
Will they not still get supplies from Mengukou or whatever the heck it's called?

Not in HOI2 - supplies can only come from the capital. In HOI3 and in DH, however, troops cut off from the capital draw supplies from the provinces they're in if they're in a large enough pocket.
 
Not in HOI2 - supplies can only come from the capital. In HOI3 and in DH, however, troops cut off from the capital draw supplies from the provinces they're in if they're in a large enough pocket.

Actually they do get supplies from the allied capital in Mengukuo. Funny how the nation with 1IC can supply like 80 divisions. Anyway they're not out of supply. But not much longer ;)
 
Hum! Well some of them are Maori I guess! Although most of my army consists of bought Aussies and Canadians, as you can see from the infantry names. My strategy is such: to reinforce a bought division costs 8MP. Afterwards, when you disband it, you receive 10MP. If this division has an artillery brigade, you even receive 12MP. So in this way, you can "breed" new manpower by using massive amounts of resources and industrial power. Actually, I have about 5 divisions sitting in Wellington which are constantly "breeding". These are happy men :D

The mother of all exploits. ;)

This whole AAR is cray cray. I think I might lose my sanity reading this. But first, I have some questions.

1. How did the US not declare war on you while you were conquering Latin America? In my admittedly limited experience conquering Latin America (as Brazil), they usually declare war on me after attacking two or three countries. Even attacking just one country already lets the US declare war on you, right?

2. How many convoys do you have? Is there a tremendous stockpile of resources piling up in the Americas that can't be sent to New Zealand?

3. Have you ever lost ANY transports at all besides the one that was sunk attacking Peru? :D

4. Did you really manage to defeat the US with only 25 divisions? (I couldn't count exactly how many divisions you had there).

5. Aren't partisans becoming a problem with so much partisan territory and no garrisons?

6. New Zealand wouldn't have been able to declare war for a long, long time without that lucky ultraleftist event at the start. Was that all luck or did you make it happen?
 
Heya! First, to answer your questions:

1. How did the US not declare war on you while you were conquering Latin America? In my admittedly limited experience conquering Latin America (as Brazil), they usually declare war on me after attacking two or three countries. Even attacking just one country already lets the US declare war on you, right?
I'm not sure. I had +200 relations as the US had been my best trading buddy. To be honest, when writing this AAR I loaded the old savegames and sometimes the US would immediately declare war. So I guess it was a huge gamble, but Kiwis naturally prevailed :D

2. How many convoys do you have? Is there a tremendous stockpile of resources piling up in the Americas that can't be sent to New Zealand?
Don't know the exact numbers right now. I remember starting to build convoys only after annexing USA. They cost manpower after all. At the moment, Energy Metal and Oil are already piled up to max (9999) in America. Rare materials are getting more rare though (LOL). Also later in the game I will stop wasting the oil because it would become short. Remember that I must use these resources (mostly Oil, Rares, Supplies) in order to buy Infantry from my allies. I'm not getting short on anything, but the most scarce resources are also the best for trading. That means I must still be careful about Rares (and oil in the future).

3. Have you ever lost ANY transports at all besides the one that was sunk attacking Peru? :D
Actually I think I lost a transport invading Samoa, when the whole US navy suddenly switched to German control. However I found out that you can buy ships from allies at 100% strength. So no manpower investment needed! I have already started buying out all the TPs and DDs I can get my hands on :D

4. Did you really manage to defeat the US with only 25 divisions? (I couldn't count exactly how many divisions you had there).
Started out with about 25, had maybe 3 more in reserve. Over the course of the war it shouldn't be more than 30. It was bloody close though when I had them spread into Eastern and Western groups and US were regrouping. I guess the whole thing was only possible because Canada mounted a surprise attack straight after I declared war. So US troops wasted a lot of time taking back the East Coast, all the while not reinforcing the West Coast. So I could take it in a hurry and then redeploy everything to the East.

Anyway, in the US I had already about 20 wings of CAS aircraft which were bombing infantry 24/7. You can't really see how much air warfare is going on from the pictures, but my basic strategy is:
1. Concentrate all troops I have onto one single target, somehow dislodge them
2. Wipe out the retreating enemy with ridiculous amounts of aircraft

Like this I was BARELY able to keep the constant stream of reinforcements at bay. If US had managed to get maybe 10-20 divs more (they can do this in under a month!) it would have been over. Even losing a single army fight would be disastrous (manpower). It was actually a stalemate until the computer did that one REALLY STUPID move away from Washington, which I used to occupy Baltimore and win the fight.

Right now in China, I have 2 groups of 12 CAS each, one bombing daytime, the other bombing nighttime. This makes any advance almost impossible for the enemy, and I am relatively free to move my troops and execute surgical strikes in the right places.

5. Aren't partisans becoming a problem with so much partisan territory and no garrisons?
I was really surprised too, but they rarely ever rebel. I think it's because I'm only a LITTLE BIT authoritarian (just so much that I can declare war). But the risk is very low in most countries. I would say I get about 3-4 revolts a year. I just send planes to crush them, and if the province is valuable (IC/resources) then I'll send a transport there.

6. New Zealand wouldn't have been able to declare war for a long, long time without that lucky ultraleftist event at the start. Was that all luck or did you make it happen?
The first post got lost when I updated the images, I'm so sorry! Anyway it took more than a year for that event to appear. When you are a democracy you get regular "random" political events. So it was only a matter of time. I spent that year building up trade relations, stockpiling money, influencing friendly countries etc.
 
Dear friends!

I have news, which is awesome (for me) and terrible (for you)! Starting next week, I am going on a big trip, see the world, etc, which is great! However, it is quite possible that I might be gone for a whole year or even longer!

That means no updates for an even longer time! :(

Now I have already played the game until 1946, and I have amassed a huge number of savegames which can be used to reconstruct the AAR (I'm writing in this way). If there's any of you guys who would like to continue the AAR for me, I'll happily provide the savegames.

Otherwise thanks for reading so far, and see you soon - I'll definitely finish it one day!
 
I had almost forgotten this AAR. It is great stuff all along. Savage is a genius...

Probably the best AAR ever. Very adventurous, simple, well-written and entertaining narrative and excellent gameplay.
 
April 11, 1944


After the annexation of Manchuko, Freyberg quickly lands some newly bought motorized forces.

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Freyberg: Some of the guys will squash the remaining pocket in Heihe, and the rest will attack the Kwantung army from the rear! They have concentrated everything in the south, holding the line against our initial invasion (which is now being pushed by France, of all people)

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Carr: LOL froggies :D


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Freyberg's push from the north provides the perfect solution to the otherwise overwhelming troop concentration of the enemy. Scrambling to guard their rear, they hastily start moving troops to the north, dividing their forces. This proves fatal of course, since New Zealand has total air superiority. Over the course of the next month, all moving divisions are destroyed by air attack.

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Savage: It's genius! They simply don't have a choice!

Freyberg: I know 8)



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So far so good. Japanese forces are now thinly spread, and without air support they keep losing territory. Also, Mengukuo (which is supplying the troops) is about to fall.

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Freyberg: This will enable us to open a second front against the Chinese (from Hohhot against their ally, Xibei San Ma(green). Which again will relieve the stalemate we're having in the south. Things are looking good :)


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May 21, 1944

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Mengukuo is annexed, and, with all their supplies trapped in Korea, the remains of the Japanese army is down to half strength. With their morale radically decreased, they see themselves unable to mount a counterattack.

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The Japanese still have many divisions left, but now they are sitting ducks. Slowly but steadily they are reduced into pockets.

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With New Zealand now the mightiest country, all allied nations are putting their expeditions under Freyberg's control. With this massive force, it's time to strike.

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Savage: All right! Well done Freyberg! Now go and destroy the Japanese!!

Freyberg: No sir, that will have to wait... I have a plan!

Savage: What!?

Freyberg: Japan is no threat anymore, but China is building up again. They've got lots of industry and manpower in Sichuan. If we take the last Japanese-held provinces, we will have to divert our troops to control the border with China. As long as some Japanese troops are still there, nobody will move.

Savage: Well... hmm... I don't really understand all this... but ok! And remember, if it works then it was my idea! :D

Freyberg: :wacko:


With the Japanese safely contained, Freyberg is forming a pocket around Sichuan.


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...


...


Savage: ...and then we're sending the Frenchies into the grinder :D