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Crusader Kings III Available Now!
The realm rejoices as Paradox Interactive announces the launch of Crusader Kings III, the latest entry in the publisher’s grand strategy role-playing game franchise. Advisors may now jockey for positions of influence and adversaries should save their schemes for another day, because on this day Crusader Kings III can be purchased on Steam, the Paradox Store, and other major online retailers.
Oh Glorious God of Tea and Britishness, more gifts of a sadly lost timeline...... oh to have lived in such a world.
If only...IF ONLY!!!!
If only...IF ONLY!!!!
Great bunch of updates. Now that I'm caught up again, I'll have to do my best to stay on top of this AAR.
Errmmm, about your carrier, trek, I'd like to point out that the Typhoon is not a carrier-borne jet like the Rafale or Hornet, or is it one in TTL? 
Also I thought you'd be putting in some VLS since you have the RAM which appeared in the 90's.
Also I thought you'd be putting in some VLS since you have the RAM which appeared in the 90's.
Lord Strange Agreed.
Hardraade Thanks!
gaiasabre11 In TTL the Typhoon is indeed also available in a navalized and in a two-seater Strike-bomber version, which is also used by the FAA. Also I just noticed I forgot the CIWS systems. No VLS, we have the cruisers and Destroyers for that.
Hardraade Thanks!
gaiasabre11 In TTL the Typhoon is indeed also available in a navalized and in a two-seater Strike-bomber version, which is also used by the FAA. Also I just noticed I forgot the CIWS systems. No VLS, we have the cruisers and Destroyers for that.
Sadly concur. Having been onboard CDG I can say the Rafale is a good bit of kit, but you have a better airframe: go for the JSF - then show the world how Britannia triumphs...Errmmm, about your carrier, trek, I'd like to point out that the Typhoon is not a carrier-borne jet like the Rafale or Hornet, or is it one in TTL?
Well, the JSF won't exist in TTL. As for the Typhoon, I've seen the idea for a Navalized version tossed around quite a few times so far, amongst others one AH where the CVF is a bigger type that fields an Airgroup of EF-2000Ns. I also believe that if the Typhoon is, at least on the British side, developed as a fighter for both the RAF and the FAA, then it should be possible. The two-seater Strikebomber version is also plausible IMO, as the basic airframe of the two-seated Trainer version could be used.
Quite correct the first major Capital ship in a monarch's reign is named in honor thereof. In the case of the KGV, King George VI skirted the issue by naming the lead ship after his father, Prince of Wales in honor of his brother's former title, and Duke of York in honor of his own thus honoring all three but only specifying his father.
I suppose that for the KG-VI class, the Queen wanted to honour her father when she requested that name. Bear in mind that there are several other, as of yet unnamed Carriers out there, all of the KG-VI class. The other nuclear Lusties are probably going to be Ark Royal and Eagle.
Also, I got my hands on a pdf with the original script for the very first Dr Who episode. Woot.
Well, the CDG got some VLS, so I thought you'll go for it.
I should also remind you that the JSF doesn't exist in the 90s yet, and had just made her maiden flight in 2006. Anyways if you're going to say my Rafale is goint to lose to JSF I will tell you that I'm planning on writing a new AAR, where the Rafale will be kicking some nuts...Le Jones said:
Looking forward to itWell, the CDG got some VLS, so I thought you'll go for it.
Anyways if you're going to say my Rafale is goint to lose to JSF I will tell you that I'm planning on writing a new AAR, where the Rafale will be kicking some nuts...
- the Rafale is a good aircraft but there are better out there...
Indeed. But given that both the RN and the RAF, amongst others, deploy a super-sonic Harrier which flies at least Mach 1.5, we have no way of knowing how TTL planes perform.Looking forward to it
Well, the new AAR I'm talking about is still far from ready, yet when I say kicking nuts I mean something like 2 Rafales incapacitating a whole CVBG. Any thing like that in your mind, trek?Looking forward to it
No. The closes to that will be two British Carriers clobbering a Japanese mixed Surface Action group with BBs and CVs.Well, the new AAR I'm talking about is still far from ready, yet when I say kicking nuts I mean something like 2 Rafales incapacitating a whole CVBG. Any thing like that in your mind, trek?
gaiasabre11 Perhaps.
18th June 1940
Paris, France
Ministry of War
The room from which the Republic of France directed her war effort was drastically different from it's counterparts in London or Brussels. Where the British and Belgian General Staffs were cautiously confident, in the French one resignation took hold. The British continued to refuse to detach a few Divisions from the BEF to shore up the French line in the south, saying that sending units pincemeal would only have them destroyed one by one and that the greatest strength of the BEF lay in the fact that it could concentrate so much firepower along it's lines. Marshal of France Weygand snorted. The British were simply not willing to put their units under French command as it would be needed if they were to operate on and from French soil. The French forces were taxed to their limits and steadily forced back. The greatest fear nowadays was no longer a breakthrough towards Paris but rather that the Axis Forces might catch the Maginot Line in the rear, something for which it had not been designed. Weygand was however confident that when the British sent at least a quarter of their strength south, this would allow some of the French units to be placed in reserve and to regain their strength. Picking up the phone from his desk, he once again called the Prime Minister. The exchange of pleasantries only took up about half a minute before the General cut down to what he wanted. “Monsieur le Premiere Ministre, we need these British Divisions. Four or five would be enough, they can defend Belgium with 120.000 in 1914, not the 320.000 they have now, despite their stupid counter-attack last week.” He was referring to a drive by I (UK) Armoured Corps that had aimed at re-gaining several lost positions in Northern Belgium. On the other end of the line the Paul Reynaud sighed. The Generals refused to accept the fact that France could not afford another 1914, and that the British, despite all that had recently gone on, still did not fully trust the French, and with good reason. France was still torn apart by rebellion and the French Communist Party was organizing strikes at every corner. The strife, particularly in Northern France was so bad that the British refused to have their supply lines guarded by French troops and had detached several Cavalry Regiments and a Regiment of their famed Ghurka Rifles to guard the roads that led from the ports in Northern France to the front in Belgium.
Not that Reynaud faulted them. Shortly before the Marshal had first demanded British troops, a band of raiders, dressed in French Uniforms had attacked and destroyed a supply convoy that had carried Artillery shells for the British, and that only days after Weygand had assured the British liaison Officer on his staff that the 'insurgents' and 'fifth colloumnists' had been stamped out. Ever since the French General Staff was not trusted in London. This was all kept out of public view of course, but despite the cheery face that everyone put on for the newsreel cameras, the rift between Engl... the British Empire and the Republic of France was growing. While he himself still believed that cooperation with the enemy was out of the Question and that the British were the key to the survival of France, dissent grew, not only within the Army. He looked over his desk to the person who was sitting in the opposite seat. He cut of Weygand with a short: “ I will look into it.” and hung up. On the other side of the desk Sir Thomas Carter, his Majesty's Ambassador to France did as if he had not heard the Marshal and continued to smoke the cigarillo Reynaud had offered him a minute earlier. Reynaud began to talk, as if to break the uneasy silence between the two men. “So... can you do anything about I just discussed on the telephone?” Sir Thomas took another drag and sighed. “I have been instructed by London that the deployment of the BEF in Belgium is in the responsibility of GOC British Expeditionary Force and the Belgian General Staff. And I don't assume they changed their standpoints during the last three days.” Sir Thomas leaned back. In his heart he knew that the French probably really needed these Divisions, but the orders from No.10 had been clear. For political reasons there would be no British troops under direct French command. He didn't know why Winston had decreed this, but given the general state of Chaos in France and the fact that the French General staff was rigid in it's thinking if one put it diplomatically and 'bloody damn stiff and as open to new ideas as the Stuarts' if one listened to what the liaison officer had to say, it was hardly surprising. He could only imagine what kind of hell the first request had raised at Aldershot: “Two Armoured Divisions in order to provide spot-reinforcements for the line” meaning they had intended to break up half of the Armoured strength the Empire had at the moment and disperse the individual regiments with the Infantry. According to what was rumoured General Fuller, titular head of the Royal Armoured Corps had 'had kittens', and the Prime Minister had given an unprintable reply to the aide delivering the French message. Reynaud's next question brought Sir Thomas back into the Office: “Are you sure, Sir Thomas?” “Indeed I am, Sir. As usual I will forward any personal request, but I will not make any predictions on the outcome. You must understand, Monsieur le Premiere Ministre, there are also political considerations to be made, and London has also instructed me to tell you that from the standpoint of the IGS no troops can be spared from anywhere for possible reserves.” Reynaud exploded, but only inwardly. In the most diplomatic prose possible, Sir Thomas just had indicated that the British knew better what France needed than the French, something that no statesman could abide. Sir Thomas knew as much, and beat a hasty retreat using some feeble excuses. When he was gone, Reynaud lifted the telephone again. He still had work to do.
Somewhere between Toulouse and Carcassone, later that same day
The leadership of the Workers party was fleeing from the oppressors. At least that was what Maurice Thorez told himself. The leadership of the French Communist Party was on the run ever since the Communist International had voiced support for the Soviet-German Alliance and the Government was clamping down hard on professed true Communists. Maurice Thorez was public enemy number one at the moment, and the Party, despite the fact that it still commanded a lot of popular support was slowly falling to bits under the combined pressure of reactionary agitation and the fact that the Soviet Union had allied herself with the mortal enemy of France. This had led to some interesting ideological problems, and in the end Thorez had decided that the best thing was not to do anything. He also knew that he was not save in France, both the enemies of France and the enemies of the Communist Party would endeavour to kill him, and he had therefore decided to flee to America, were Communism was still on the track to it's inevitable triumph. From Toulouse they would continue on towards the coast where an American Freighter was docked. They had been assured by contacts that they would be taken on and that.....the world turned yellow, and he felt a quick pain, then nothing ever again. Thirty yards away a Captain of the French Cavalry was standing up from behind a Machine Gun. He took a deep drag from the Cigarette he was smoking and said to the man in the heavy coat: “Just who was it in that car?” “No one.” The civilian walked away, back towards a small side road where a car with Government plates was waiting. Inside he sat on the drivers seat and started the engine. Driving on towards Toulouse, he slowly started to smile. Offically the French Intelligence Services left internal duties to the Police, but this was a special Case. France was at war, and if he was honest with himself, the war could go better. Thorez and his Party were a menace, such a menace in fact that if it ever was to become public that he had been deliberately killed, the Communists would do even more to tear France apart. No, better this way. Soon the more active branches would take care of the Officer and the two men who had serviced the gun. It had been fortunate enough that a plant had told them where and when Thorez wanted to flee, no need to depend on luck, something he despised.
[Notes: There we go. We'll probably pick this up later on. The next update is a tech update, so I want to state some things that they are clear. I chucked out the tech tree, but I will not jump too far ahead. Whilst introducing new versions of the same tech is fair game, I will always say in the notes when I actually upgraded stuff, so for example when I upgrade my fighters or Tanks I will say so.]
Chapter 119
Paris, France
Ministry of War
The room from which the Republic of France directed her war effort was drastically different from it's counterparts in London or Brussels. Where the British and Belgian General Staffs were cautiously confident, in the French one resignation took hold. The British continued to refuse to detach a few Divisions from the BEF to shore up the French line in the south, saying that sending units pincemeal would only have them destroyed one by one and that the greatest strength of the BEF lay in the fact that it could concentrate so much firepower along it's lines. Marshal of France Weygand snorted. The British were simply not willing to put their units under French command as it would be needed if they were to operate on and from French soil. The French forces were taxed to their limits and steadily forced back. The greatest fear nowadays was no longer a breakthrough towards Paris but rather that the Axis Forces might catch the Maginot Line in the rear, something for which it had not been designed. Weygand was however confident that when the British sent at least a quarter of their strength south, this would allow some of the French units to be placed in reserve and to regain their strength. Picking up the phone from his desk, he once again called the Prime Minister. The exchange of pleasantries only took up about half a minute before the General cut down to what he wanted. “Monsieur le Premiere Ministre, we need these British Divisions. Four or five would be enough, they can defend Belgium with 120.000 in 1914, not the 320.000 they have now, despite their stupid counter-attack last week.” He was referring to a drive by I (UK) Armoured Corps that had aimed at re-gaining several lost positions in Northern Belgium. On the other end of the line the Paul Reynaud sighed. The Generals refused to accept the fact that France could not afford another 1914, and that the British, despite all that had recently gone on, still did not fully trust the French, and with good reason. France was still torn apart by rebellion and the French Communist Party was organizing strikes at every corner. The strife, particularly in Northern France was so bad that the British refused to have their supply lines guarded by French troops and had detached several Cavalry Regiments and a Regiment of their famed Ghurka Rifles to guard the roads that led from the ports in Northern France to the front in Belgium.
Not that Reynaud faulted them. Shortly before the Marshal had first demanded British troops, a band of raiders, dressed in French Uniforms had attacked and destroyed a supply convoy that had carried Artillery shells for the British, and that only days after Weygand had assured the British liaison Officer on his staff that the 'insurgents' and 'fifth colloumnists' had been stamped out. Ever since the French General Staff was not trusted in London. This was all kept out of public view of course, but despite the cheery face that everyone put on for the newsreel cameras, the rift between Engl... the British Empire and the Republic of France was growing. While he himself still believed that cooperation with the enemy was out of the Question and that the British were the key to the survival of France, dissent grew, not only within the Army. He looked over his desk to the person who was sitting in the opposite seat. He cut of Weygand with a short: “ I will look into it.” and hung up. On the other side of the desk Sir Thomas Carter, his Majesty's Ambassador to France did as if he had not heard the Marshal and continued to smoke the cigarillo Reynaud had offered him a minute earlier. Reynaud began to talk, as if to break the uneasy silence between the two men. “So... can you do anything about I just discussed on the telephone?” Sir Thomas took another drag and sighed. “I have been instructed by London that the deployment of the BEF in Belgium is in the responsibility of GOC British Expeditionary Force and the Belgian General Staff. And I don't assume they changed their standpoints during the last three days.” Sir Thomas leaned back. In his heart he knew that the French probably really needed these Divisions, but the orders from No.10 had been clear. For political reasons there would be no British troops under direct French command. He didn't know why Winston had decreed this, but given the general state of Chaos in France and the fact that the French General staff was rigid in it's thinking if one put it diplomatically and 'bloody damn stiff and as open to new ideas as the Stuarts' if one listened to what the liaison officer had to say, it was hardly surprising. He could only imagine what kind of hell the first request had raised at Aldershot: “Two Armoured Divisions in order to provide spot-reinforcements for the line” meaning they had intended to break up half of the Armoured strength the Empire had at the moment and disperse the individual regiments with the Infantry. According to what was rumoured General Fuller, titular head of the Royal Armoured Corps had 'had kittens', and the Prime Minister had given an unprintable reply to the aide delivering the French message. Reynaud's next question brought Sir Thomas back into the Office: “Are you sure, Sir Thomas?” “Indeed I am, Sir. As usual I will forward any personal request, but I will not make any predictions on the outcome. You must understand, Monsieur le Premiere Ministre, there are also political considerations to be made, and London has also instructed me to tell you that from the standpoint of the IGS no troops can be spared from anywhere for possible reserves.” Reynaud exploded, but only inwardly. In the most diplomatic prose possible, Sir Thomas just had indicated that the British knew better what France needed than the French, something that no statesman could abide. Sir Thomas knew as much, and beat a hasty retreat using some feeble excuses. When he was gone, Reynaud lifted the telephone again. He still had work to do.
Somewhere between Toulouse and Carcassone, later that same day
The leadership of the Workers party was fleeing from the oppressors. At least that was what Maurice Thorez told himself. The leadership of the French Communist Party was on the run ever since the Communist International had voiced support for the Soviet-German Alliance and the Government was clamping down hard on professed true Communists. Maurice Thorez was public enemy number one at the moment, and the Party, despite the fact that it still commanded a lot of popular support was slowly falling to bits under the combined pressure of reactionary agitation and the fact that the Soviet Union had allied herself with the mortal enemy of France. This had led to some interesting ideological problems, and in the end Thorez had decided that the best thing was not to do anything. He also knew that he was not save in France, both the enemies of France and the enemies of the Communist Party would endeavour to kill him, and he had therefore decided to flee to America, were Communism was still on the track to it's inevitable triumph. From Toulouse they would continue on towards the coast where an American Freighter was docked. They had been assured by contacts that they would be taken on and that.....the world turned yellow, and he felt a quick pain, then nothing ever again. Thirty yards away a Captain of the French Cavalry was standing up from behind a Machine Gun. He took a deep drag from the Cigarette he was smoking and said to the man in the heavy coat: “Just who was it in that car?” “No one.” The civilian walked away, back towards a small side road where a car with Government plates was waiting. Inside he sat on the drivers seat and started the engine. Driving on towards Toulouse, he slowly started to smile. Offically the French Intelligence Services left internal duties to the Police, but this was a special Case. France was at war, and if he was honest with himself, the war could go better. Thorez and his Party were a menace, such a menace in fact that if it ever was to become public that he had been deliberately killed, the Communists would do even more to tear France apart. No, better this way. Soon the more active branches would take care of the Officer and the two men who had serviced the gun. It had been fortunate enough that a plant had told them where and when Thorez wanted to flee, no need to depend on luck, something he despised.
[Notes: There we go. We'll probably pick this up later on. The next update is a tech update, so I want to state some things that they are clear. I chucked out the tech tree, but I will not jump too far ahead. Whilst introducing new versions of the same tech is fair game, I will always say in the notes when I actually upgraded stuff, so for example when I upgrade my fighters or Tanks I will say so.]
Come on now. If you leave the French all by themselves they are sure to fall apart. We wouldn't want that, now would we?
Let the French fall apart, focus on Nth Africa, then mess up the Axis with a surprise landing in Italy. Shazam!
STOP! COOKIE TIME