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So a small update..yes I am still alive.

I actually had a leave planned and I was meaning to upload at least 2 updates while home.

Buuuuut...then the Turks happened...
Due to the current situation in the Aegean sea we are on alert and leaves were canceled as some of you may have seen in the news.

So blame Erdogan for no updates :p

If everything goes to plan (and we don't have a war cause 2020 feels like it) I should be able to update around the 8-9 next month
 
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"Leading the charge" at 1kph...

Also, if Erdogan decides to hoist the flags up the yardarms, for sure the Americans are going to be right there...
 
Turkey's new maritime claims are ridiculous. Syria, Libya, now this? He's sullying Ataturk's heritage and trying to recreate the Ottoman empire on a budget. It's not working out for him thus far. The Turkish economy is in a bad way, the Syria campaign has stalled against heavy opposition by Assad's and Iran's forces, with occasional Russian Air Support. Libya is still just as much of a mess as it was before Turkish involvement. He's quickly ruining both Turkey's relationship with the US, and Turkey's relationship with Russia. I wish you all the best, and I do expect that Greece can deter his maritime ambitions. If not, I'm sure help will be forthcoming as I don't think the Italians or the French want Turkey to set up shop in North Africa. And at sea there's no way Turkey beats Greece & Italy, and that's if the US and the UK decide to stay on the sidelines. To conclude, he may have become a tinpot sultan, and done all of the above, but the worst thing Erdogan has done, by far, was to delay this AAR with his antics.
 
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So a small update..yes I am still alive.

I actually had a leave planned and I was meaning to upload at least 2 updates while home.

Buuuuut...then the Turks happened...
Due to the current situation in the Aegean sea we are on alert and leaves were canceled as some of you may have seen in the news.

So blame Erdogan for no updates

If everything goes to plan (and we don't have a war cause 2020 feels like it) I should be able to update around the 8-9 next month

So a few years ago a work trip in the Med coincided with one of our destroyers being in port - I managed to get an invite to the cocktail party (and RN hospitality truly is exceptional) on this British warship in a Turkish port. The coastal waters claimed in the maze of islands are mutually sensible and neither the Greeks or Turks 'push it'.

Anyhoo, halfway through the evening, just as the Turkish guest is escorted, with the CO and a couple of other dignitaries, to take the salute, a Greek jet roars past a couple of miles out (so in international airspace, but just, only just). It was wonderfully demonstrative, and got a cheer from the Greek attendees.


"Leading the charge" at 1kph...

Also, if Erdogan decides to hoist the flags up the yardarms, for sure the Americans are going to be right there...

Turkey's new maritime claims are ridiculous. Syria, Libya, now this? He's sullying Ataturk's heritage and trying to recreate the Ottoman empire on a budget. It's not working out for him thus far. The Turkish economy is in a bad way, the Syria campaign has stalled against heavy opposition by Assad's and Iran's forces, with occasional Russian Air Support. Libya is still just as much of a mess as it was before Turkish involvement. He's quickly ruining both Turkey's relationship with the US, and Turkey's relationship with Russia. I wish you all the best, and I do expect that Greece can deter his maritime ambitions. If not, I'm sure help will be forthcoming as I don't think the Italians or the French want Turkey to set up shop in North Africa. And at sea there's no way Turkey beats Greece & Italy, and that's if the US and the UK decide to stay on the sidelines. To conclude, he may have become a tinpot sultan, and done all of the above, but the worst thing Erdogan has done, by far, was to delay this AAR with his antics.

I find the Turkish posturing truly bizarre, they are genuinely a 'can do' NATO nation and at the Operational level are trying to increase their presence; their new Turkish High Preparedness Navy Headquarters is presumably going to join COMs UK, IT, FR and SP MARFOR in the rotational high readiness cycle based in their new LPD / baby carrier thing which is hugely impressive given that other maritime nations haven't the HQ and / or the Afloat Command Platform. But at the strategic level they're just blundering around. The F35 debacle was mad.

Anyway, keep safe and look forward to an update.
 
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So I was sitting here sipping my hot chocolate and writing the update...and then my phone rings and I got notified that my leave is cancelled and I have to go back to the island and be on full alert.

. . .

I am pretty sure Erdogan just doesn't want this next update to go through...

Anyway have to run see you guys when I can
 
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If only I could 'Talk some Turkey' to the current leadership there ... good luck man.
 
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MEETING THE NEIGHBORS


I awoke finding myself lying between my Tiger miniature and a bunch of plastic Wehrmacht soldiers feeling a soft breeze hitting my face.

Looking up I saw PASTA floating mid air and spinning wildly producing the current that was hitting my face.He spotted my movement and stopped.

“Huff huff puff….You are finally awake Boss! Are you okay?”

“PASTA i had the worst possible dream...i dreamt that an Italian was leading Germany just as i am leading Ital..” A jarring noise like a chainsaw entered my ears.

Turning around I found ,perched between my libraries, a hammock… But not just any hammock! This one was a bright yellow color and painted full of Palm trees.

And inside that was the man of my nightmares Intelligenzo Artific himself making the glass displays tremble with his snoring.

I took a deep breath and pinched myself...realizing this was now a reality I left out a sob full of despair.

My poor poor Germany…

Hearing my sob he woke up.

“Yawn that was a good nap...you should have told me you needed a siesta and I could have come later!

“I didn't need a siesta you damn… Never mind that's not important! Explain yourself!! Why are you leading Germany?? Why did it take you so long to do ANYTHING after Poland? Where is Rommel and WHY ARE YOU HERE??”

"Oh that's a lot of questions. As to why I am here since France is about to fall and we are about to enter a new phase in the war, I thought it would be nice if we coordinated a bit so we can decide how we will lose.”

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The battle for France has been won all that's left is one last push for Paris

“How dare you assume we will lose!My knowledge of the Glorious Wehrmacht is on the line! I don't intend to lose!!”

“Yeah yeah that's what all people sent here by GOHI say..you guys are all fire and fury until you run out of gas...sometimes literary!” And with that cheap shot he started laughing.

As I felt my temper rise I heard a coming from the map. Looking down I saw a glorious scenery.


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PARIS HAD FALLEN AND VICTORY WAS OURS!

But wait...something seems...off?

Swirling around i looked at Artific

“Aritific...where is Vichy France?”

“Oh that? Yeah that weirdo Hitler had that idea but i rejected it...its too much work and it would be another country i would have to take care of...i am not paid enough for that. Besides i am sure you can take care of the south just fine!”

I looked at the map feeling a headache forming...this would make sure that France would continue the fight with all of its remaining forces for sure.

And speak of the devil..

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Yeah they would definitely not take this lying down..

Taking a deep breath to calm myself i turned around to look at Artific

“So when can i expect to have some help in North Africa.. Namely Rommel?”

He was already heading for the door as he answered while twirling his giant mustache.

“Sure I will send you that annoying guy and his Corp...bunch of annoying fellows broke through the maginot against my direct orders!! You can have them, I say!”

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And with that he was out of my room.

I sat there silently still reeling from multiple shocks.

I know had a new objective...not only win and save my knowledge of the great German Army but also find a way to save them from the hands of the fat Italian weirdo


PASTA came flying closer to me

“What are we gonna do Boss?”

“I am not sure yet...all i know is that if we hope to win this war with that dead weight leading Germany we have to make Italy stronger.. Much much stronger!”

“So build more Pizza factories?”

I sighed...maybe i was already doomed...

===================================================================
WOW I ACTUALLY MANAGED TO UPDATE!
getting back to writing this after so long was not easy but i do think its passable

This update has quite a bit of setup and not a lot of action or humour but it important to set the stage...i hope you guys enjoy it and i promise we will be back next time with HEAVY action

i cant promise when the next update will be since we are stll on alert and Turkey keep extending their Navtex ...this is how i made this update btw :p
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:eek:

Interesting times indeed ..

P.S. i am still not sure what happened to Vichy...but i will roll with it..
 
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Whoo! Glad to see you're back, well, sorta.
 
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Happy to hear they let you write updates in the barracks... how very thoughtful.

As to Vichy, I'm not sure if it's a feature or a bug, but there's a chance Vichy doesn't get formed. The same happened in my game in 'Odin'. Factors that could possibly influence the formation of Vichy:
France's political landscape is very different to historical. In the game in question, France is run by the Action Française.
Italy grabs too much territory, though this doesn't seem to be a consistent factor in the non-formation of Vichy. Some have suggested that Germany needs to hold the town of Vichy for Vichy to be formed, but I haven't been able to confirm this. I've seen games where Italy grabs more than half of France, and Vichy still gets formed...
If France falls too quickly, Germany may not have gotten the Vichy war goal event, which is the precursor to the eventual formation of Vichy. As you did conquer France in June 1940, I don't think that applies here though. There's definitely an element of randomness as to which option the AI goes for when that event presents itself.

In your case, I don't see the 'Fall of France' event in your screenshots. If it hasn't yet, that event could still trigger several days after France has been conquered, and result in either a historical Vichy France, or no Vichy France and full Axis occupation.

Let's hope you will soon be able to continue writing in a more comfortable circumstance. In the meantime, maybe try to get permission to hang a yellow hammock in there so you can role-play as Artific...
 
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MEETING THE NEIGHBORS
It's back! Hooray! It's back! :D

And inside that was the man of my nightmares Intelligenzo Artific himself making the glass displays tremble with his snoring.
I must sadly admit that this one took me a minute to get, quite an accurate personification of the AI though! Paradox I'm sure is flattered by the character. :p

"Oh that's a lot of questions. As to why I am here since France is about to fall and we are about to enter a new phase in the war, I thought it would be nice if we coordinated a bit so we can decide how we will lose.”
I am thoroughly disturbed and repulsed by the thought of an AAR where the infamous Paradox AI has the tightest grip on reality of any character. :eek:

“I am not sure yet...all i know is that if we hope to win this war with that dead weight leading Germany we have to make Italy stronger.. Much much stronger!”

“So build more Pizza factories?”
I see no flaw whatsoever with this absolutely war-winning plan.

"14" divisions, lovely. If Paradox counting is any indication, we may finally have an explanation for Paradox AI. Well, we already knew this explanation, but further proof is welcome.

As to Vichy, I'm not sure if it's a feature or a bug, but there's a chance Vichy doesn't get formed. The same happened in my game in 'Odin'. Factors that could possibly influence the formation of Vichy:
France's political landscape is very different to historical. In the game in question, France is run by the Action Française.
Italy grabs too much territory, though this doesn't seem to be a consistent factor in the non-formation of Vichy. Some have suggested that Germany needs to hold the town of Vichy for Vichy to be formed, but I haven't been able to confirm this. I've seen games where Italy grabs more than half of France, and Vichy still gets formed...
If France falls too quickly, Germany may not have gotten the Vichy war goal event, which is the precursor to the eventual formation of Vichy. As you did conquer France in June 1940, I don't think that applies here though. There's definitely an element of randomness as to which option the AI goes for when that event presents itself.

In your case, I don't see the 'Fall of France' event in your screenshots. If it hasn't yet, that event could still trigger several days after France has been conquered, and result in either a historical Vichy France, or no Vichy France and full Axis occupation.
Poking through the game files, as one does, It looks like the event that fires to allow Germany to set the Vichy war goal on France has a mean time to happen (MTTH) of 1 month anytime after FRA and GER are at war, so that should almost certainly have fired by now as there is perhaps a 0.05% chance that it hasn't (barring funniness with saving and reloading the game at odd times). However, the popup indicates that Germany enforced the conquest war goal, so somehow this event didn't fire or else the war goal was somehow invalid. If you're playing in two-month intervals, it's...less improbable that the event didn't fire correctly, given how the event system actually works, but it still should have fired by now.

My best guess, and I'm truly spitballing here, is that the "Acquire Territory" wargoal enforced by Italy somehow interfered with the Vichy wargoal. Notably, the Acquire Territory wargoal does take a priority over the Vichy wargoal, probably specifically to deal with cases like this where human Italy demands territory that would otherwise go to Vichy. That might mean that the Vichy wargoal doesn't fire correctly and trigger the event that actually sets up Vichy France. Again, spitballing.

My last guess: if at some point the Italian player added a "conquer" wargoal (and neglected to tell me about it; I don't see a screenshot of this anywhere in the AAR), that would have broken the Vichy wargoal, based on how it is scripted. Of course, this is quite unlikely, it's not as if human players like to pop into the diplo window every month and add another wargoal just to see how much free stuff they can get out of a war...right?

...oh. Oh dear. :p
 
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"14" divisions, lovely. If Paradox counting is any indication, we may finally have an explanation for Paradox AI. Well, we already knew this explanation, but further proof is welcome.
I'm thinking that for some ungodly reason, the game system counts every brigade as a division... If my manpower count is correct, there are about fourteen brigades (13 combat and an HQ); which would make sense given how the system counts brigades as needs of the forces (think of the Theater needs demands) and also that much of HoI3 is supposed to be "evolutionary improvement" on HoI2 rather than revolutionary a la HoI4.

Makes sense given that the set up for HoI2 was for divisions to be built together into corps and armies rather than really to be left alone as divisions. Ugh. So. Much. Wrong. Needs. Fixing.

...oh. Oh dear. :p
This seems to be echoing across time and space throughout all of the AARs these days.
 
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Makes sense given that the set up for HoI2 was for divisions to be built together into corps and armies rather than really to be left alone as divisions. Ugh. So. Much. Wrong. Needs. Fixing.
I look forward to you throwing your hat into the ring as yet another player with aspirations of designing an HoI5 that solves everything. Don't be ashamed, we all indulge in this from time to time... :p
 
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I look forward to you throwing your hat into the ring as yet another player with aspirations of designing an HoI5 that solves everything. Don't be ashamed, we all indulge in this from time to time... :p

There is a whole subfolder in my HoI3 section of my GoogleDocs with an outline and even some pseudocode about it.... indeed, there's even a whole list on Amazon about game programming. About the only thing I'd lack is the graphics portion.
 
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There is a whole subfolder in my HoI3 section of my GoogleDocs with an outline and even some pseudocode about it.... indeed, there's even a whole list on Amazon about game programming. About the only thing I'd lack is the graphics portion.
I'm sure that if we get you and @roverS3 together, you can come up with an excellent presentation format. And then get @Bullfilter to pare it down to a usable UI and we'll have a nice GUI stew going!

I nominate Lord @El Pip to be in charge of South American cabinets of course. :p And of course the German economy unless we actually plan on selling this?
 
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Yes, welcome back to AARland! Artifico may have been a bit tardy, but ended up getting the job done around OTL equivalent time. You have Rommel to play with too ... and you might need more than 8 million bayonets to win!
 
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I'm sure that if we get you and @roverS3 together, you can come up with an excellent presentation format. And then get @Bullfilter to pare it down to a usable UI and we'll have a nice GUI stew going!

I nominate Lord @El Pip to be in charge of South American cabinets of course. :p And of course the German economy unless we actually plan on selling this?
An alluring thought. :D

With the mod I’m doing, the engine itself will not be tinkered with really. But the chassis and upholstery will be quite different and I’ll definitely be seeking help with the detailing! There’s so much that goes into that ... more than a single person can reasonably do, even with alt-history fairy dust to wave over zombies, poets and other random dudes put into the cabinets of various countries.

Let alone having to cope with PASTAs and Intelligenzo Artifics!
 
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