A fine performance by the AI and a well deserved British victory, despite the presence of the French albatross they still got the win. ( 
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A fine performance by the AI and a well deserved British victory, despite the presence of the French albatross they still got the win. (
What would it take for you to be impressed by them, dammit?
If I ever end up doing a HOI game at least I won't have that problem. GB and France will have long been in the same state by then.
A fine performance by the AI and a well deserved British victory, despite the presence of the French albatross they still got the win. (
What would it take for you to be impressed by them, dammit?
If I ever end up doing a HOI game at least I won't have that problem. GB and France will have long been in the same state by then.
You guys break me up. The Odd Couple of the Paradox forums.
Quick to comment, slow to write...that's us.
Lord Pip needs to write a French AAR of his own and try to stay an Anglophile throughout. I bet he can't do it. In fact...that'd be a great summer project. No deep history or anything. Straight gameplay and commentary trying to explain away the UK decision making process (not going into historical depth might prove harder than being nice to Paradox AIs).
I've been looking for a summer AAR project to do to help unwind after graduation (hopefully...
) and I could always do the opposite: try to save France's Bacon (eh? eh? what a title!) for as long as possible. Only for me, it would be my very first game. Watch in awe as I repeatedly fail to do anything and make the AI look competent.
I guess the only thing I'd really love to see is your recreation of a post-war Europe- who gets what spoils and how territories are altered and such.
Well, you may get some of what you wished! I’ve learned a bit more basic map and save file editing, as a practice really (I like modding, but almost all of it has been done in Civ 4, so I’m using this as a bit of a tutorial). I’ll see what I can come up with in the next few days.
The Allies gave ‘em an offer they couldn’t refuse!Good for Greece!
Many thanks and glad you enjoyed it! I like the question marks the ending I chose left hanging ...
Ourah!
The question of whither the Soviets and Japan is an interesting one - I will ponder it a bit before letting it go. Thanks for the compliments on the game itself: I was very pleased to finally survive as France in a game after a good few failures and then surprised how quickly I was able to take them down in the end, given the wall of death stacks poised in Northern France for three years.
Yes, I did make a point of stressing the Allied effort and I thought it made an interesting similar-but-different parallel to the OTL Allied effort.Victory at last! And with the AI doing its fair share? An oddly fitting end to this AAR that truly captures the spirit of Allied cooperation in this time of trial and tribulation!
I must ask, now, if our esteemed authAAR will be adding a new AAR to his portfolio, now that this one has its happy ending, in order to maintain his own "Rule of Three"?
Thank you my friend for following and yes caps off to the AI (the UK one anyway - the US was largely AWOL).
I did do a French AAR once - Mea Culpa - A French Confession. It was both different and exactly what you'd expect, did get a Character Writer of the Week Award so it can't have been that shabby an effort.
One day I may restart it, in fact I may restart it before I resurrect King Haakon just to further wind up @Hightemplar ...
Good job! Man, I haven´t checked any AAR for quite some time and now I had to read for 2 months and I am astonished by your achievements!
Beating the Axis with relative ease and than protecting Europe from the Soviet bear.
Keep up the good work!
Beating the Axis with relative ease and than protecting Europe from the Soviet bear.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you my friend - I really enjoyed the game at the time, and am happy my little experiment of creating an AAR out of a long-finished games where no screenshots were taken at the time (and much of the detail for decisions etc had faded from the mind) still worked! I found I was surprised myself with quite a few things that happened as I sifted through the old saves, though of course I recalled the overall course and result.Good job! Man, I haven´t checked any AAR for quite some time and now I had to read for 2 months and I am astonished by your achievements!
Beating the Axis with relative ease and than protecting Europe from the Soviet bear.
Keep up the good work!
With the last couple of episodes, I really tried to keep the ending up in the air, even though I did by then know the end date and that Greece had ended up being invited to join the Allies before I needed to invade them. It was a replication of what I thought at the time - the end came suddenly and unexpectedly, as I geared up for another campaign.
Sounds interesting at the very least. And they probably deserve it yeah.
Even better, it doesn't seem as though you hit the typical endgame problem where the Germans run out of MP and leave you swatting aside understrength divisions with zero ORG, so it was a right proper takedown!
Indeed, and even with many German units as EFs now, they still have the second largest Allied army after France, and you will see soon about the same size as Japan, with only the Soviets having anything appreciably larger. The poor German AI I think had the traditional problems dealing with a two-front war.Even better, it doesn't seem as though you hit the typical endgame problem where the Germans run out of MP and leave you swatting aside understrength divisions with zero ORG, so it was a right proper takedown!
Makes sense. If France survives, the Germans can't get away with just port garrisons and some suppression forces in France, they need a full allotment of men to hold the allies off, in addition to not only pushing on the Eastern front but also defending their Italian allies once the landings start. So really it turns into a three-front war and even a human player would have trouble winning that! Which of course in this case speaks to the efficacy of the Allied leadership's ability to present such problems, of course.
Four shalt thou not count,
nor either count thou two, excepting that
thou then proceed to three.
Five is right out.
Episode 38: 21 March 1944 – Post-War Arrangements
Episode 38: 21 March 1944 – Post-War Arrangements
OK, I decided to have a bit of a play with the post-war set-up. This is how things have fallen out. Bearing in mind I’m simply doing this by in-game province editing and amending the save file to change Government types, ministers, etc. Not a mod per se. Let us take a peek at the world under the New Democratic World Order.
Comintern
First, the Comintern as it stands on 21 March 1944. As expected, a one-horse show.
This is a broad shot of the Soviet border with the west, from their perspective.
Axis
Similarly, the Axis is now really just Japan and its two puppets, plus a couple of governments-in-exile. Many (probably most) of those Manchukuo units will be Japanese EFs (especially all those marines).
And here is the main Soviet-Japan border situation, where fighting continues.
Liberated Allied Governments
The first order of the day is to reinstate Allied Governments that have been in exile – none of whose capitals France controls, and therefore is unable to liberate itself (any of them were liberated along the way).
For Norway, whose capital is controlled by the UK, I tagged over, released them, and Norway is free. Denmark and Poland are a little more complicated. By reading up a little, I discovered that a government-in-exile that now once again controls its own capital cannot liberate itself! The respective capitals are therefore assigned to French control (just using the console commands), so they can be officially liberated as well!
Alas, Communist China (which joined the Allies way back when) remains under the Japanese yoke, where it will have to stay for now.
New German Government
Next, Germany is ‘fixed’, or as close as I can make it quickly and using the leaders provided in the game. The new Government was nominally ‘Social Liberal’ as the game decreed (but then failed to populate accordingly). In the dead of the night, Hitler, Goering and any other Nazi leftovers have been arrested and sent off for war crimes trials.
The new Germany is overseen by Ludwig Beck as Head of State, in the largely figurehead position of President. It contains a mixture of the leaders of the OTL 20 July 1944 Plot against Hitler, some post-war figures and others who, in this alternate time line, were resistance or opposition figures spared:
New Allied Governments
The new German Federal government, as a good United Nations member (and in-game still a French puppet) immediately negotiates:
I’ve done my best to patch together a new Austrian government with what was available in-game. So, Franz Sebek wasn’t killed in 1943 and Julius Yllam didn’t die in 1942. The rest are either as close as I could get to post-war figures or are nondescript ministers who simply seemed a bit less implausible than others and were from the right kinds of parties for Karl Renner’s National Unity Government of Social Democrats and Conservatives. Again, I reset the election date from 21 Mar 44 (the end of the AAR) and made the political party organisation and popularity ratios reasonably logical. [Again, changing to the post-war Austrian flag was beyond my modest skills and purposes.]
The Czech and Albanian governments are left as the game reinstated them when I map-edited the countries back in again – the old crowd from before of Edouard Benes and King Zog.
These three nations are all signed up to the Allies, but as independent (not puppet) governments. So they are in the allies, but not automatically at war with Japan, nor mobilised (indeed they start off with no armed forces, just the clothes they stand in). I have however zeroed their neutrality. I'm assuming they would join the Allies if there is a new attack on them, but am not sure. I checked and the UK certainly has the option to give them a Call to Arms, which I imagine they would probably do if the game started running again.
New Map of Europe
With all these liberations, here is the new map of Allied Europe. Western Poland is back, but the Soviets still occupy a small chunk (one province) of central Poland – and all of Eastern Poland, which they absorbed under the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939. Finland remains a government-in-exile, its territory occupied by the Soviet Union.
A Post-Colonial World
In order to reflect this new world order, I went through and liberated (as puppet governments) all the available options to do so for the UK and France. No such option to release Libya from Italy. Similarly, some other British and French colonial possessions did not appear as options and again, I wasn’t going to do any serious modding here – just what the game would easily allow using the main screens with some minimal tagging. But that was plenty.
And, if I knew more about modding and could do it easily, I'd change Persia to Iran. But I can't. So I won't.
Indo-China is liberated, even though it is significantly occupied by Japan. What the hell. Liberté, égalité, fraternité for all!
However, these newly liberated governments remain (rather cynically) puppets of their former masters, in the Allies and at war with the Axis (Japan).
The World
The United Nations (in this time line) is based in Paris. It is at this stage made up of all the member nations of the Allies, whether original, conquered, liberated or recently decolonised. Neither the Comintern nor the Axis (of course) are invited or seek to join. Membership can only be gained by joining the Allies.
Here are the current members of the United Nations of the Democratic World Order.
And the current map of the world.
What comes next?
There, the set-up of the post-VE day world has been laid out. Having gone to that effort, my interest was piqued as to what could come next. Can the French-led Allied United Nations go on to defeat Japan and dominate the world? Or should things just be left now as they are? Are there other alternatives?
OK, I decided to have a bit of a play with the post-war set-up. This is how things have fallen out. Bearing in mind I’m simply doing this by in-game province editing and amending the save file to change Government types, ministers, etc. Not a mod per se. Let us take a peek at the world under the New Democratic World Order.
Comintern
First, the Comintern as it stands on 21 March 1944. As expected, a one-horse show.
This is a broad shot of the Soviet border with the west, from their perspective.
Axis
Similarly, the Axis is now really just Japan and its two puppets, plus a couple of governments-in-exile. Many (probably most) of those Manchukuo units will be Japanese EFs (especially all those marines).
And here is the main Soviet-Japan border situation, where fighting continues.
Liberated Allied Governments
The first order of the day is to reinstate Allied Governments that have been in exile – none of whose capitals France controls, and therefore is unable to liberate itself (any of them were liberated along the way).
For Norway, whose capital is controlled by the UK, I tagged over, released them, and Norway is free. Denmark and Poland are a little more complicated. By reading up a little, I discovered that a government-in-exile that now once again controls its own capital cannot liberate itself! The respective capitals are therefore assigned to French control (just using the console commands), so they can be officially liberated as well!
Alas, Communist China (which joined the Allies way back when) remains under the Japanese yoke, where it will have to stay for now.
New German Government
Next, Germany is ‘fixed’, or as close as I can make it quickly and using the leaders provided in the game. The new Government was nominally ‘Social Liberal’ as the game decreed (but then failed to populate accordingly). In the dead of the night, Hitler, Goering and any other Nazi leftovers have been arrested and sent off for war crimes trials.
The new Germany is overseen by Ludwig Beck as Head of State, in the largely figurehead position of President. It contains a mixture of the leaders of the OTL 20 July 1944 Plot against Hitler, some post-war figures and others who, in this alternate time line, were resistance or opposition figures spared:
- from execution by the Nazis in the last days of the war (Karl Sack, Hans Oster);
- From ‘honourable suicide’ (Rommel, Udet); or
- who didn’t go down with the Scharnhorst in 1943 after all (Bey).
New Allied Governments
The new German Federal government, as a good United Nations member (and in-game still a French puppet) immediately negotiates:
- the return of all pre-war borders with Poland,
- the revocation of the Anschluss with Austria, and
- the full restitution of Czech lands seized from the Munich Agreement of 1938 onwards.
I’ve done my best to patch together a new Austrian government with what was available in-game. So, Franz Sebek wasn’t killed in 1943 and Julius Yllam didn’t die in 1942. The rest are either as close as I could get to post-war figures or are nondescript ministers who simply seemed a bit less implausible than others and were from the right kinds of parties for Karl Renner’s National Unity Government of Social Democrats and Conservatives. Again, I reset the election date from 21 Mar 44 (the end of the AAR) and made the political party organisation and popularity ratios reasonably logical. [Again, changing to the post-war Austrian flag was beyond my modest skills and purposes.]
The Czech and Albanian governments are left as the game reinstated them when I map-edited the countries back in again – the old crowd from before of Edouard Benes and King Zog.
These three nations are all signed up to the Allies, but as independent (not puppet) governments. So they are in the allies, but not automatically at war with Japan, nor mobilised (indeed they start off with no armed forces, just the clothes they stand in). I have however zeroed their neutrality. I'm assuming they would join the Allies if there is a new attack on them, but am not sure. I checked and the UK certainly has the option to give them a Call to Arms, which I imagine they would probably do if the game started running again.
New Map of Europe
With all these liberations, here is the new map of Allied Europe. Western Poland is back, but the Soviets still occupy a small chunk (one province) of central Poland – and all of Eastern Poland, which they absorbed under the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939. Finland remains a government-in-exile, its territory occupied by the Soviet Union.
A Post-Colonial World
In order to reflect this new world order, I went through and liberated (as puppet governments) all the available options to do so for the UK and France. No such option to release Libya from Italy. Similarly, some other British and French colonial possessions did not appear as options and again, I wasn’t going to do any serious modding here – just what the game would easily allow using the main screens with some minimal tagging. But that was plenty.
And, if I knew more about modding and could do it easily, I'd change Persia to Iran. But I can't. So I won't.
Indo-China is liberated, even though it is significantly occupied by Japan. What the hell. Liberté, égalité, fraternité for all!
However, these newly liberated governments remain (rather cynically) puppets of their former masters, in the Allies and at war with the Axis (Japan).
The World
The United Nations (in this time line) is based in Paris. It is at this stage made up of all the member nations of the Allies, whether original, conquered, liberated or recently decolonised. Neither the Comintern nor the Axis (of course) are invited or seek to join. Membership can only be gained by joining the Allies.
Here are the current members of the United Nations of the Democratic World Order.
And the current map of the world.
What comes next?
There, the set-up of the post-VE day world has been laid out. Having gone to that effort, my interest was piqued as to what could come next. Can the French-led Allied United Nations go on to defeat Japan and dominate the world? Or should things just be left now as they are? Are there other alternatives?
In Paris, de Gaulle has decided: enough is enough. He wishes to stay with his original decision, after France has borne the brunt of the last four and a half years of war. He is happy with the way things have turned out. France back in its dominant position in Europe, which has been liberated from Fascist tyranny and secured from the Communist threat. The United States a marginal player, despite its great industrial potential. Surely the Japanese will negotiate a reasonable peace and evacuate Indo-China?
But in Tokyo, the Government has other ideas. They have been largely victorious over the Soviets, though now the Germans have been defeated, the Soviets may be able to counter-attack more effectively. But Australia, with all its resources, remains deeply in trouble. Indo-China, foolishly liberated by the French, can still be conquered. The resources of the Dutch East Indies remain largely in Japanese hands. Why should they surrender – no, the Japanese Empire will fight on. Victory or Death!
In Moscow, Josef Stalin contemplates what he sees of this capitalist-imperialist ‘New Democratic World Order’. And he doesn’t like what he sees. What he would dearly love to see is a new Communist World Order to replace these bourgeois United Nations. The Comintern is destined to grow and replace the Allies. Even if it takes years to achieve. But first there is still a war to be won against the Fascist Japanese. He would see how the Allies were placed after that – and maybe strike if they did not appear ready.
The decision, then? Perhaps not immediately, but in the foreseeable future, there will be a successor to this AAR. Quick and Dirty 2 – A Soviet Resurgence (March 1944 Start) – coming to a Paradox HOI3 Forum near you!
I plan the AAR to be in the same style as this one, though this time it will be ‘live’, with gameplay being done and then written up. And with the advantage this time of screenshots taken in play. But it will just cover events and a bit of strategy (though most of that can be dealt with in comment and response, rather than in-AAR).
Same no-frills, no-narrative, no-character, no-additional-pictures approach of France: Quick and Dirty. Except now trying to undo all of de Gaulle’s good work and see if the Axis can be fully defeated and a dominant Allied faction can be wound back. Maybe in that order, or possibly simultaneously. Who knows?
Until then, I will take a small break from this (though happy to keep discussion going for as long as anyone is interested). Part 2, when it is ready to launch, will be in a new thread. I’ll also put in a link here when it is up and running. Until then, thanks for reading this AAR and I hope to join up with you all again when Stalin is ready to turn the tables on those dastardly Allies!
******
But in Tokyo, the Government has other ideas. They have been largely victorious over the Soviets, though now the Germans have been defeated, the Soviets may be able to counter-attack more effectively. But Australia, with all its resources, remains deeply in trouble. Indo-China, foolishly liberated by the French, can still be conquered. The resources of the Dutch East Indies remain largely in Japanese hands. Why should they surrender – no, the Japanese Empire will fight on. Victory or Death!
******
In Moscow, Josef Stalin contemplates what he sees of this capitalist-imperialist ‘New Democratic World Order’. And he doesn’t like what he sees. What he would dearly love to see is a new Communist World Order to replace these bourgeois United Nations. The Comintern is destined to grow and replace the Allies. Even if it takes years to achieve. But first there is still a war to be won against the Fascist Japanese. He would see how the Allies were placed after that – and maybe strike if they did not appear ready.
******
The decision, then? Perhaps not immediately, but in the foreseeable future, there will be a successor to this AAR. Quick and Dirty 2 – A Soviet Resurgence (March 1944 Start) – coming to a Paradox HOI3 Forum near you!
I plan the AAR to be in the same style as this one, though this time it will be ‘live’, with gameplay being done and then written up. And with the advantage this time of screenshots taken in play. But it will just cover events and a bit of strategy (though most of that can be dealt with in comment and response, rather than in-AAR).
Same no-frills, no-narrative, no-character, no-additional-pictures approach of France: Quick and Dirty. Except now trying to undo all of de Gaulle’s good work and see if the Axis can be fully defeated and a dominant Allied faction can be wound back. Maybe in that order, or possibly simultaneously. Who knows?
Until then, I will take a small break from this (though happy to keep discussion going for as long as anyone is interested). Part 2, when it is ready to launch, will be in a new thread. I’ll also put in a link here when it is up and running. Until then, thanks for reading this AAR and I hope to join up with you all again when Stalin is ready to turn the tables on those dastardly Allies!
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So de Gaulle wanted to abandon the Kiwis, Aussies, and Indochinese to their fates ...
Perhaps we should seek new leadership
Perhaps we should seek new leadership
Very French though (El Pip would think soSo de Gaulle wanted to abandon the Kiwis, Aussies, and Indochinese to their fates ...
Perhaps we should seek new leadership
)?Stalin certainly thinks there should be new leadership - but provided by the Comintern!