Some quick France AARs

[unmerged(18595)]

(note : this a copy of a thread I posted on another forum, so please excuse me if the formatting happens to be somewhat strange sometimes )

First try ...

I recently started my 1st "real" (was just toying with HoI before) game with HoI II, as France in 1936.

My goals were :

- Get as many techs advance as possible, especially get Infantry 39 ASAP : done, but I'm afraid I dispersed myself a little too much, researching things I'll never use (like strategic bombers)

- Pursue the Maginot line all along Belgium : sort of done, I was able to build level 1 (out of 10) fortifications all the way, as well as some AA, but this is far from what I have at the "real" Maginot line (level 10 fortifications and several AA)

- Try to ensure Italy won't declare war on me : done, by influencing them loads of times over the years, and being finally able to get a new non-agression pact just before the war (august 1939). That said, I don't know how this will be handled if they ally (and they probably will) with Germany. Because of alliances, they'll technically be at war with me, but what with the non-agression pact ? Maybe I should have left the Allies ...

- Build up my defenses at the Maginot line : partially done, managed to build some infantry divisions, as well as some AT, AA and ART brigades.

- Build up my air force to counter Germany : failed

- Build my resources and supply : done

Ok, so now, it's november 1939, war was declared in september 1939, as expected So far, Germany has been sending waves after waves of bombers and fighters over my troops, but I'm holding the line.

I had 3 mountain divisions watching over Italy just in case, but I doubt they would have been enough if Italy had decided to invade me, so instead (and because of my good relations with Italy), I moved them at the frontier with Spain. Despite my financial help, republicans have lost, and Nationalist Spain is just there, apparently waiting to jump on me (with more than 10 divisions in each province on the border ) If they declare war on me, I'm toast, I'm afraid ...

Regards.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

End of february 1940 : still holding, but I'm now bombed to hell by Hermany, Romania and Hungary

I started the production of a Fighter Wing, as well as 3 x 6 Infantry '39 divisions. Finally only kept 6 for the moment, as I'm about to finish some research which should improve their production time

Trying to improve my relationship with Spain (rather good success so far), hoping to get a non-aggression pact with them too

A few screens :

The situation, end of february 1940 :

My current researches, and the overall view of my technologies :

My production queue, ressources, trades and convoys ...

My political situation :

Regards.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

Uhoh, 2 may 2940 : Germany and its allies declared war to Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands. The end is near

May, 8th : Luxembourg is no more

May 23 : Belgium and Netherlands are both reduced to one province, and have retreated to France when they could.

May 29th : Belgium and Netherlands are conquered, and Italy just decided to break our non-agression pact. Well, goodbye world ...

June 15th : well, erhh, how can I say this ?

Hmmm, let's say we found reasonable to found a new government in Vichy, and cooperate with this great country called Germany.

Some dissidents went away in Africa and called themselves Free France. Bah ...

(end of game for me even if I could continue with Free France ...)

Ouch, that left a mark ...

(Germany attacked in Reims with 23 divisions against the poor 6 of mine. Needless to say, they did not resist for long. As soon as they retreated, Germany rushed for Paris (and I had no mean to stop them), seizing my resources and supplies => the end ....)

Regards.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

Second try ...

I tried another game, where my goal was to get involved in the spanish civil war. I tried to get my interventionism setting to the max, as well as guaranteeing independance of Republic Spain.

Unfortunately, it's the republicans who declared wars on the nationalists, so I could not use that to declare war on the nationalists. Moreover, a random event put back my interventionism level one notch down, just enough for me to not be able to declare war just for the sake of it (nationalists were not belligerant enough).

Well, so much for Spain, I then turned on Italy. Declared war early 1938, and the battles were going rather well (seized 4 provinces, cutting 2 in the north out of any supply), even though I feel I would have had trouble eventually (not enough troops).

But Germany, seeing the mess, decided to start the war earlier, by declaring war on United Kingdom, and thanks to alliances, I was at war too, of course.

Well, quickly said : make hasty peace with Italy, try to fall back to German border too late, Germans in Paris early July 1938 !

Regards.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

Third try ...

Ok, so I started another game, with pretty much the same goals as before : build up the Maginot line northwards, focus on infantry, and try to block the germans maybe even attack them early. Then we'll see

Despite my best efforts, it's november 1939, and I'm pretty much in the same situation as my 1st game : not enough troops built, so unable to atatck Germany. However, I was able to build level 7 fortifications and level 5 AA all the way up to the Channel, so maybe this will buy me enough time to produce enough troops to resist some time (the idea being to resist until D-Day )

Regards.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

Update (aka, I'm not dead yet) : it seems my level 7 forts up to the Channel pose a slight problem to the Germans

It's now end of October 1940, and they still did not attack. They annexed Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, of course, and are piling up on the border, but no sign of land attack yet, only a few planes here and there

As a result,this bought me time to build more and more infantry. Not loads though, but I have roughly 11 divisions on every province on the border :thumbs:

For now, my problems are elsewhere though : Italy joined the Axis rather soon and so is at war with me.

And the bastards are causing me a lot of problems.

First, they're seizing all my provinces in Africa. That was not unexpected, though, as I had evacuated everybody back to France right at the beginning to support the main fight. The loss of Algiers is a blow, because of the resources I was able to convoy from there.

Then, they managed to paradrop some troops right in the middle of southern France. As all my troops were positionned either on the german border, the italian border or the spain border, I of course had no one ready to fight back quickly. So the bastards freely roamed through the country, seizing my provinces, making me lose a good deal of industries (to the point I lost temporarily a research team, which was researching the Infantry 41 tech )

After diverting some troops from the italian border, I chased them during a few days around southern france (loosing in the process more industry) : Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, up to Toulouse and Saint Etienne, before being able to crush them

Then, I decided to retaliate. I prepared a counter-attack on the italian border. Moved all my planes (3 fighers, 2 + 3 tac bombers in Marseille) and was about to launch the assault, when the bastards managed to land or paradrop (not sure) 2 divisions in Marseille. My fighters were in the air at that time (luckily => I rebased them at Toulouse immediatly), but *poof* no more tac bombers I quickly dispatched the bastards, though, before they could move to another province.

When moving back to the italian border, I unfortunately lost a moutain division, which was blown to hell by german bombers. Same thing happened to a garrison division I moved to Marseille trying to secure the town for good. The Italians begin to cost me a lot.

I was finally able to launch that counter attack, first on Genoa, then on Turin, with two 7divisions armies (nearly half of them being elite moutain troops). Despite the presence of 1 german division in these 2 provinces, the fight was quick, and I'm now trying to dig in there. I seized 3 and 7 industries in the process, so hopefully, this will calm the Italians a little. It would be nice to get Milan (12 industries), but I don't have enough troops to try this.

Well, here's the situation at the end of october 1940. I hope that my fight against Italy did not divert too many resources, and that I'll be able to hold on the german front. We'll see Needless to say, I'd be glad if another front were to open somewhere (russian front anyone ? ), so that Germany has to divert some of his efforts elsewhere before they're able to outnumber me by too far a margin ...

Really nice game so far

Regards.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

Early january 1941 : I'm still there, trying to build up my defenses. 11 or twelve divisions all along the border with Germany, a new interceptors air wing, 2 radars stations, and some garrisons troops here and there

Still no sign of attack from Germany, and no counter-attack on Italy : I'm still holding Genoa and Turin

Meanwhile, it seems the brits are kicking italian arses in north-eastern Africa That could be good for me : maybe this will give me the opportunity to pursue my attack in north Italy ... But I'm lacking troops there, and above all an HQ (and this take a long time and lots of ressources to build) ...

A few screens ...

Overall situation, Europe and N Africa

The french-german front

The french-italian "front"

Brits kicking italian arses in Africa

Regards.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

It's now end of April 1941, and I'm still holding off the Germans

Besides, Pearl Harbor happened in february 1941, and as a result it's now a full scale war all over the world.

It's time to do a little something for me : my enemies will probably be a little busy elsewhere, I'm reaching my limits as far as supplies are concerned (i.e. I have so many units that my industry barely manages to produce enough supplies), and time also to make the game a little more busy and interesting

So, my plan is the following :

• stop reinforcing the german front and switch to the italian one
• as soon as I have 4 armies of 9 divisions there, launch a full scale attack on Italy, backed up by my interceptor planes (to avoid being shredded to pieces by german bombers)
• Use 2 armies to secure north of Italy, and entrench there to avoid german counterattacks
• Use the other 2 to slowly push back Italy south and south again.

Given the fact that my industry is already stretched to its limits, or nearly, and in order te be able to sustain this plan, the following things will have to be done, :

• Use only twelve divisions per province on the german front, send the rest to the italian one. It's a risky bet, but I need to do something now
• Shuffle my 3 HQ on the german front, and send one to Italy. 2 HQ will allow me to cover all provinces on the german front except one (either the most southern or the most northern, I'll see). I'd prefer to keep everything covered, but I don't have the resources nor time to build another HQ. And an HQ will be needed for this campaign, no doubt about that ...
• Build more forts on the german fronts (already begun for 2 provinces).
• Build some brigades (AA, AT, engineer, artillery) for my "italian" armies
• Maybe send my navy roam the italan seas to cut them off of some supplies (not sure I'll be able to do that. Besides, I completly avoided building up my navy, so I have what I had in 1936, so not that great ...)

The preparations will of course take some time, probably at least 6 months. Likewise, the italian campaign will be long, as I will be attacking with infantry only (like ships, heavy armor was out of my reach, mostly, so I focused on infantry and brigades support).

If my plan works out, this will have several advantages :

• Remove the italian threat, freeing up more resources against germany
• Give me a little more industry (the ones I will seize in Italy) to work with
• Threaten the germans on their southern front, probably giving me some opportunities to bother them.

Wish me luck

Regards.

 

[Passivocalia]

Good luck! Vive la France!

Seriously, Germany's bogged down worse than they were in World War I it seems. And Hitler's just the type foolish enough to declare war on the Soviet Union regardless...

Here's hoping, anyway.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

Hoping too, TBH

Forgot to say that I had to completly ignore the spanish border. I hope Spain won't have the idea to declare war on me ...

Next update as soon as I find some time to play again

Regards.

 

[unmerged(47162)]

well as they say.. third times the charm. good luck!

 

[unmerged(41688)]

Going good so far.

 

[Prufrock451]

Vive le France!

It definitely looks like you'll be able to push Italy back- move to the Milan-La Spezia line for starters.

If you have a spare cavalry division, try loading it on a transport and seeing if you can land it in northern Germany somewhere. Forcing the Germans to redeploy to stop you from advancing out of Hamburg will buy a little time.

If you're building brigades, first priority is engineers for your Maginot troops.

Whatever you do, do NOT kick the Italians out of the provinces on the Alpine border. You're a lot better off having a weak Italian army in Venice than Rommel's boys pouring in from Austria.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

October 14th, 1941 : at last I'm about to launch my attack against Italy.

I was not far off when I said this would take 6 months These months were spent on the following :

• Build up 2 more infantry armies at the italian border. I now have there two 8 divisions armies which will be used to attack north of Italy, and two 9 divisions armies which will support those 1st fights, then turn south.
• Send one HQ there. I only have 2 HQs left on the german front. Unfortunately, Dunkerque, my most northern province is not covered anymore by an HQ. I would have prefered that the most southern one was in that case, but I thought it was better to avoid too much shuffling just in front of german noses
• Keep a consistent german front : 11 divisions in the 3 provinces of the Maginot Line, and 12 on the 4 others to the north (plus the 2 HQs)
• Garrison my most important provinces, as well as the spanish border.
• Build more fortifications north of the Maginot line : level 8 achieved everywhere, and more still building. Then I'll add more AA, possibly.
• Pursue my researches
• Upgrade my troops : the only point which I did not completly manage to achieve.

So, overall, things are looking good. A few screens now

The overall situation :

The german front :

The italian front (note that germany sent some new divisions there, apparently my built up did not go unnoticed. This should not be a problem, hopefully).

My production queue and sliders :

(Now, a question, if you don't mind : I have a slight problem with the supplies slider. I've always been above the recommended setting for it, but after some time, I noticed I was loosing supplies. As an example, with the slider set 10 points higher than the recommended setting, I was supposedly getting 50 units of supply each day, while in reality I was getting only 1 A bug maybe, or am I missing something ?)

Well, Italy, here I come

Just saw this too :

Whatever you do, do NOT kick the Italians out of the provinces on the Alpine border. You're a lot better off having a weak Italian army in Venice than Rommel's boys pouring in from Austria.

Ah well, this was not my plan, which was to annihilate italian army in the north first, then leave there 2 armies to avoid german counter-attacks, and push slowly south with the 2 others. Well, you live and you learn : I'll try my plan and see who was right, I guess (I'll keep a savegame, just in case, hehe ...)

Regards.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

Could not resist launching the attack before leaving

October 28th, 1941 : things are going fine. Italian troops were nowhere to be seen (except on the south or in Venice, their turn will come ...), and Germany only had 3 divisions waiting for me : they've been pushed back to Germany or south Italy.

As you can see below, Venice is in a nice pocket though they will escape to Germany

I'll let my men rest for a few days (though they barely lost a little org), and then finish off Venice. But that will wait for tomorrow

Regards.

 

[Rapcw]

If Germany and Italy are allied, it's not a pocket and the Italians will retreat into Germany. If you capture Innsbruck and then attack, a pocket it will be. Nice Job so far, and good luck.

 

[Klavo Hunter]

(Now, a question, if you don't mind : I have a slight problem with the supplies slider. I've always been above the recommended setting for it, but after some time, I noticed I was loosing supplies. As an example, with the slider set 10 points higher than the recommended setting, I was supposedly getting 50 units of supply each day, while in reality I was getting only 1 A bug maybe, or am I missing something ?)

Probably your convoys out to Africa and SouthEast Asia.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

If Germany and Italy are allied, it's not a pocket and the Italians will retreat into Germany. If you capture Innsbruck and then attack, a pocket it will be. Nice Job so far, and good luck.

Yep, I know, that's why I said they will retreat to Germany And thanks

Probably your convoys out to Africa and SouthEast Asia.

Well, no, I only have incoming convoys, nothing is convoyed out of France.


Hmm, after a night of reflexion, I'm beginning to think I've been a little too ambitious. I have the feeling that I should have one more army at least to push south. Time to shift the plan a little : start building more infantry at any cost, then push to Rome and try to stop there while waiting for reinforcements. Maybe use some garrisons to secure the north a little more too.

Regards.

 

[unmerged(18595)]

December, 22nd 1941 : my attack has come to a halt. As I thought I actually needed one more army to keep on pushing south.

So, I've been sending garrisons to the north to secure north of Italy, and I'm in the process of building a 3rd army for the south. This will take some time, but winter is here, we'd better rest anyway

Here's the current situation :

As you can see, Germany clearly reinforced its border with italy

Regards.

 

[Lurken]

You might survive this, good work!