Fatherland - Deutschland über alles

[Kanitatlan]

04:00 1st February 1942​

The home fleet has sortied to claim some victories off the Sheffield invasion. The enemy fleet is pursued up the east coast of Britain but Luftwaffe air power claims all the victories. The home fleet is undermined by their commander sticking to the engagement range if the flagship battlecruiser instead of closing to light cruiser range.

00:00 2nd February 1942​

This ahs been completed early due to the stolen blueprint but this still isn’t really advance3d enough so we go straight on to the next tech. Upgrade costs are already ridiculously low so I am making no attempt to delay the upgrades.

03:00 2nd February 1942​

German troops are now closing in for the kill.

08:00 2nd February 1942​

A last chance for kills gives the home fleet the credit for one transport. Better than a poke in the eye with a wet kipper but still rather dissatisfying.

21:00 3rd February 1942​

The British seem to have developed an over-inflated opinion of their own troops. My marines may be isolated in their bridgehead but its going to take a rather bigger and more sensible attack than this to move them. The allied forces in India are clearly getting desperate.

03:00 4th February 1942​

I don’t know whether this is a reinforcement or rescue mission but under the circumstances it is soon not going to be anything at all. This disrupts the task force providing shore bombardment support but this doesn’t matter as the allied defenders of Ahmadabad are already defeated.

02:00 5th February 1942​

This is slightly concerning but as ever my defences are more than adequate. I am slightly surprised at the US managing to pick out this target but I’m not surprised they reached it without challenge. Small fleets are milling about all over the place and can easily slip by my defences and reach anywhere they want.

00:00 7th February 1942​

This panzer group now needs to strike all around the northern border of India and clear the allies away from their supply lines. I am looking to completely clear northern India. No doubt the Luftwaffe will perform the key mopping up role but the ground troops have to winkle the enemy out there trenches.

 

[Kanitatlan]

04:00 7th February 1942​

A decent but inferior enemy fleet attacks in the Malacca straits. My task force retreats after four hours due to damaged ships being at possible risk. According to the on screen count the enemy task force is 3 ships smaller but I get no combat credit for it. I am now erring on the side of caution to make sure I don’t lose any ships.

12:00 7th February 1942​

In turns out invading Portuguese West Africa was a bad idea and my single motorised division turns tail and runs. This is a little more spectacular than I expected. Assuming those really are South African divisions then overrunning their homeland will be a spectacular success. My panzers are definitely going to get there first.

02:00 10th February 1942​

My retreating task force manages to sink two Persian (?) DD flotillas flying the British flag. I am now skirmishing with care.

11:00 10th February 1942​

The spread of allied forces across northern India is getting rather annoying and although I can disrupt them with ground forces we definitely need a redirection of the Luftwaffe to get rid of them.

16:00 11th February 1942​

Closing in for the kill. German forces are looking to split up this long pocket and start reducing its components and destroying the enemy. There are about 40 divisions present which is quite a modest haul for one of my campaigns but dozens have already been aliminated, many from the use of airpower.

01:00 13th February 1942​

I am now camping the Malacca straits again with good consequences but incessant heavy rain is significantly reducing enemy losses.

04:00 13th February 1942​

This is not good as there is very limited interceptor presence in the theatre so I could be stuck with a lot of messing around to suppress these bombers. The main reason I don’t like enemy strategic bombers is the difficulty and messing around needed to get rid of them rather than the damage that they do.

The B17s turn up in unseemly numbers, full wings of 400 aircraft.​

 

[Kanitatlan]

04:00 13th February 1942 b​

This is the end for the South African forces defending their border and my troops are now driving flat out to reach their VPs.

22:00 13th February 1942​

The remnants of Vichy were undefended and their ability to provide supplies had failed. I have manually triggered the transfer of Vichy central Africa and Vichy American holdings to the Free French. This gives the French a significant boost and lets them take over the defence of remaining Vichy territory. It also allows me to annex occupied Vichy territory, which suits me nicely. This is probably not all that realistic but there should have been some union much earlier. This removes another enemy but leaves me facing the Free French who do appear to have significant ground forces available.

08:00 14th February 1942​

The British haven’t quite given up yet and are fighting back to open up the pocket. In truth they have had it unless naval evacuation turns up but they would need most of the worlds navies to back it up.

09:00 14th February 1942​

My response is to send a major panzer army hurtling down the coast in a sweep that should finish off this section of the pocket.

00:00 15th February 1942​

Back in Persia the end of the pocket is in sight but is taking an incredibly long time to come about. There is one last British division still slowly retreating to its final destruction.

17:00 15th February 1942​

A further series of Malaccan skirmishes. These form no particular pattern but just represent a few of the battles that take place.

10:00 17th February 1942​

The pocket is finally beginning to collapse.

03:00 18th February 1942​

I have enough task forces to begin patrolling another location which seems every bit as rich as the Malaccan straits.

 

[Lord E]

Nice to see this AAR having reached 1942.

But the war still rages on, and you are continuing to push forward in strength in India. I am impressed by the work done by the German forces in both Persia and India in destroying the Allies forces. Also the war at sea has seen some fine battles, but you have also lost some ships that will be very expensive to replace. So I think in the future further monitoring of naval battles will be needed as to make sure this will never happen again.

But all in all great progress

 

[Kanitatlan]

Nice to see this AAR having reached 1942.

But the war still rages on, and you are continuing to push forward in strength in India. I am impressed by the work done by the German forces in both Persia and India in destroying the Allies forces. Also the war at sea has seen some fine battles, but you have also lost some ships that will be very expensive to replace. So I think in the future further monitoring of naval battles will be needed as to make sure this will never happen again.

But all in all great progress

Nice to see you are still reading. Lord E continues to be one of my more successful Generals (and - coming soon - even gets a mention in despatches)

 

[Kanitatlan]

10:00 18th February 1942​

The US has returned to its first love, landings in Ireland. This is a fairly feeble attempt but it is why all these troops are here.

Photo captured from US reporter after the landing

14:00 18th February 1942​

This is a less than ideal situation with two fleets almost mixing with each other in a melee with resulting errors by my ships. Fortunately night attacks are fairly poor but who would have thought the likes of Blue Emu would be targeting friends.

16:00 18th February 1942​

This is the last stand for the forces on the South African border. They have retreated to Beira first but soon their freedom will be over. A few thousand more POWs for the great prison camp.

18:00 18th February 1942​

With the capture of Ahmadabad the British forces launch their last play but my naval support makes it really hopeless (instead of just hopeless). This has got to be the beginning of the end.

00:00 19th February 1942​

Somehow sinking a Russian submarine always cheers me up.

04:00 19th February 1942​

Air support is all on interdiction rather than ground attack. The final offensive wants to be a rounding up exercise not picking over burnt bodies. There are only three provinces left to take and these will soon be mine. It is now time to begin thinking about what next.

06:00 19th February 1942​

The USA has launched another attack in Ireland. It seems like they really have returned to the old theme.

 

[Kanitatlan]

11:00 19th February 1942​

This is an interesting battle. My fleet is able to immediately close to heavy cruiser range and begin targeting the enemy. The enemy battleships fail to target on their first opportunity and soon the firepower of massed cruiser goes on a wrecking spree through their fleet. This is the first significant success for a while.

14:00 19th February 1942​

The attacks in Ireland are starting to build up with the invaders committing sufficient force that I must keep an eye on things rather than just ignore it.

22:00 19th February 1942​

Further escalation but still not reaching the concerned level.

02:00 20th February 1942​

Now we hit concerned level with 6 divisions attacking Cork. A little redirection of naval bombers and the attack begins to look well doomed. In reality I was probably quite safe anyway but better safe than sorry.

It seems very stupid of the AI to keep launching these attacks but whilst it looks pointless they are actually achieving something. Currently I have approximately 15% of my army assigned to Western Europe. This force represents significant manpower that would be better used elsewhere. The US is reducing my offensive strength by 15% (probably more for airpower), which is no insignificant achievement.

In the end it all still just amounts to more beach obstacles.

16:00 20th February 1942​

With strategic movement at a very low level I currently have fairly good TC. It isn’t marvellous since it is in the red but it isn’t too outrageous either. The occupied enemy territory is currently costing me around 400 TC and it is hard to see how this can be dramatically improved unless I manage to annex Russia.

Other industrial parameters are all reasonable with my supply stockpile now beginning to run down quickly but at such a rate that it will take a year to run out..

10:00 21st February 1942​

The Kriegsmarine has returned to the happy hunting grounds and the constant stream of victims slowly builds up the enemy’s total losses.

02:00 23rd February 1942​

The final fall of Rajkot leads to vast numbers of prisoners. This is another one of those 250,000 men pockets.

We are now receiving a wide mixture of different nationalities in the prisoners. We have divisions from all over the world.​

 

[unmerged(62857)]

Is there anything in the AI script that will allow them to try and land in force with appropriate troop types? In other words, the AI has researched Basic Marines (You thieved the tech from them) and yet the AI continues to attempt landings with 1941 inf. Also, it seems to consistently attempt landings with one or two inf at a time. Isn't the ideal number 6? It just seems odd when the AI should have plenty of divisions and fleets available (to the point where they are sending numerous leaderless troops at you) that utilizing proper force concentrations ought to be possible. :wacko:

Edit:

Apparently it would behoove me to wait until the updates have all been posted... o

 

[Kanitatlan]

22:00 23rd February 1942​

Oooh, a real US landing but in exactly the wrong place. I think I can guarantee that this won’t work, especially attacking at night in winter (all seems a bit excessive).

00:00 24th February 1942​

The German marines are getting bored so they have gone off to raid Rangoon. I have no real intension of staying there as I really don’t have the troops to deal with all the jungles in Burma but it is worth a quick landing and a bit of looting. Rangoon is the only allied naval base west of Singapore so it seemed a good idea to take it off them for a bit.

03:00 24th February 1942​

Yet another experimental attack on Peshawar is immediately abandoned due to unpleasant combat modifiers despite the odds. Whilst I do now have the strength to defeat the defenders I am unwilling to spend so many lives for any single objective. The CAS continue to bomb but I am constantly frustrated by the level of digging in (and the effects of the weather).

13:00 24th February 1942​

The enemy has moved for me and exposed themselves to bombing. My armoured division has everything going for it in defence but the odds are just too high for it to be worth fighting (even with a tactical withdrawal event) so they retreat immediately. The CAS will do the job and do it cheaper.

20:00 24th February 1942​

In eastern India operations are being severely hampered by the constant bad weather. We are extremely lucky that India its listed as a mud location. It ought to be really as the monsoon makes a real mess of things.

00:00 25th February 1942​

In central Africa the French are starting to spread north and all my tentative advances have been halted. With so few German divisions present any concerted French attack will trigger a general retreat.

00:00 25th February 1942 b​

Further south enemy strength is equally disturbing with the interesting revelation that these huge stacks are French divisions and not South African. This means there will be a big fight after taking South Africa and potentially the whole of west Central Africa will be immune to my assaults for the foreseeable future. There are also quite a few enemy air units with excellent capability for causing trouble. My soon to be achieved aerial technology advantage is likely to be very useful if there is disputed air superiority. Interceptors will be of very limited use here due to serious range issues.

17:00 25th February 1942​

The sweep down into South Africa is now in progress and everything looks highly promising.

 

[Kanitatlan]

19:00 26th February 1942​

Enemy troops in Punakha all jump out of their trenches and rush down the mountain to hurry my HQ on its way (ie retreating to where it was going anyway). They may regret jumping out those trenches…

03:00 27th February 1942​

This is one of several intermittent attacks launched out of the north Mogolian mountains. This is mostly aimed at making sure there are moving targets but also bags the odd garrison division plonked down by the Petal Throne. Unfortunately the air support reliably finds a pointless dug in target behind enemy lines and is proving quite useless.

Nice terrain – is this worth fighting over?

07:00 28th February 1942

Ah, the smell of sinking Podlodoks – nice.

12:00 28th February 1942​

I now have major air power in Calcutta and they need moving targets to attack so I have to oblige. I am definitely NOT going to advance into the jungles since this mobile group is all I have defending this corner of India.

00:00 29th February 1942​

Rangoon falls and I immediately set to bringing the ships in to evacuate. There is no point in staying here and it looks like it could get a little unfriendly.

10:00 29th February 1942​

The allies come down out of the mountains. There is now a race between the TACs in Calcutta and the enemy units. The enemy is just sitting there so I expect my bombers will kill them before they can advance.

20:00 29th February 1942​

The AI has pulled off an extraordinary coup. This I didn’t expect, they have advanced into Multan – as expected and then two hours later Brazilian troops landed in Hyderabad. Suddenly my troops are all cut off again, but not for long. Retribution will be swift and deadly.

 

[unmerged(68789)]

You must have nerves of steel to have pitched that cruiser fleet against those Petal Throne carriers! Did you have some idea that they might be able to close the range like that, or were you just banking on all carriers' apparent difficulty in handling sitting ducks?

With regard to other water-borne birds, assuming Blue Emu is still a fleet commander, what's he up to? We haven't heard much of the U-boat fleet since their diversionary role in the invasion of Britain, paint-scratching port strikes notwithstanding. Are they still convined to harbour by the US Navy?

 

[unmerged(53911)]

I am surprised that there was no 1941 wrap-up. Are there plans on the drawing board for a Spring Offensive? It will likely be quite some time before you can aanex Russia as Vladivostok seems out of reach. BTW - 73 manpower doesn't seem so bad...

 

[Brad1]

I'm guessing that there will be a planning session after next month's updates? Your detailed plans you write before large campaigns (best example is before the first Russian campaign) are my favorite parts of your AAR. I'm sorry if you posted it, but what is your build que?

 

[unmerged(72831)]

Lol, no internet at the weekend and now I finally managed to read all updates. Great job in India, I honestly didn't expect it would be so easy and thought there would be more units resisting the advance.
What are your next plans? Can't wait to see what's next on the kill list.
Adding to Brad1's request, can you show us your total land, air and naval divisions counts at the moment (end of Feb 1942)?

 

[Kanitatlan]

Good Egg The cruiser v carrier battle wasn't planned and once started I have to fight for four hours. Once engaged the cruisers closed range and all I did was leave them whilst watching for severe damage. Watching for damage is the principle of every battle, once I have a ship at risk of sinking I will retreat.

WhisperingDeath The round up is at the end of the campaign (probably starting tomorrow). The low manpower is a reflection on its decline rather than the current total.

Brad1, DNG Big round up of everything soon. All requests duly noted.

 

[unmerged(51709)]

Wow... took a break from HoI for a while so it took me quite some time to read through all I have missed, and I'm almost speechless, this is one great AAR if I've ever seen one. A short while ago I told someone at another forum that I probably learned more about HoI2 from your threads here and especially from your AARs than from any manual or other source, and even after years of playing this game and reading your AARs you never fail to show something new.

And to be honest, you reaching a point where you are unsure whether you could win this... I didn't really think something like that was even possible anymore, I'm really eager to see where this goes from here, and of course I'm sure you will manage to paint the whole world grey eventually

 

[Kanitatlan]

...... eventually

Yes, its that word eventually that has me concerned. Whilst I am clearly continuously gaining ground I am beginning to be concerned about just exactly how many years of playing time it will take.

 

[Kanitatlan]

03:00 30th February 1942​

The counter-attack on Multan is instantly successful and the bombers have almost done their work already.

05:00 30th February 1942​

Kasakka instantly reclaims the province preserving it as a supply line for some time to come. The I attack / you attack cycle is going to continue for a while but I will have the province for a few days whilst Hyderabad is cleared up.

14:00 30th February 1942​

Hmmm, the smell of sinking subs.

02:00 2nd March 1942​

With the Brazilians defeated one of South Americas lesser powers decides to try and help. This is too little too late and we soon have a load of Venezuelan prisoners to augment our growing South Americans prison camp. The AI is intent on trying to cut off India and I am clearly going to have to maintain coastal defences here for the foreseeable future.

05:00 2nd March 1942​

Over Ulane Ude the B17s have got what was coming to them with a good solid interception. This isn’t good for my interceptor group but it is worse for the enemy. These strategic bombers are likely out of commission for long enough for my interceptors to recover.

23:00 2nd March 1942​

The marines have moved on to their next target. Malaya is normally quite attractive country since it provides large amount of rare materials but since I have near infinite stockpiles of everything I have no need of them. What I am after is the bases in Singapore. If I can take and hold these they will form an excellent forward base for further naval operations. The only concern is the degree of enemy response and what sort of defences I will need to put in place.

 

[Kanitatlan]

09:00 3rd March 1942​

More brief strikes into the Gobi desert have resulted in Alexus improving his skills in this terrain. This will probably be quite useful since we are likely to be fighting here for some time to come.

10:00 4th March 1942​

South Africa continues to develop nicely with quite limited opposition and clearly no capability to handle the strength of my attack.

The strategic bombing campaign has been lifted now and it looks like it has cost me quite a few aircraft. Assuming minimal replacements whilst operating 12 squadrons from a level 1 base, it seems like the campaign as a whole has cost me about 90 heavy bombers. Quite expensive to replace but assume rather less impact than the critical industrial collapse was for the South Africans. Next time I am going to be more careful about enemy AA capability since I really do need to get by with lower losses.

04:00 5th March 1942​

Enemy interference fails to affect the landings although passing US transport aircraft are slightly worrying. Being realistic they must be a simple air transfer rather than anything else.

13:00 5th March 1942​

In northern India the allies are coming down out of the mountains in numbers. I have 16 TACs in Calcutta and 16 in Delhi. Both forces are currently assigned to weed out allied units in northern India. Even bombing the mountains is proving productive since the allied divisions are all moving in an effort to reclaim some territory.

14:00 5th March 1942​

The French have reclaimed their full border in central Africa but unless they actual send proper forces to the front I should be able to hold them here. Cross your fingers and hope the West African campaign won’t have to be redone.

14:00 6th March 1942​

Brazil is still trying to project troops into the Indian theatre and it is much better to sink them at sea rather than have to eliminate them on land. India will not be properly secure until I have taken the western end of the Himalayas as a secure inland supply route.

23:00 6th March 1942​

I am ashore in Malaya and one marine corps is assaulting Singapore with enough naval support to give the enemy no chance. Petal Throne forces are already reacting but in insufficient nu7mbers to prevent me from continuing.

00:00 7th March 1942​

Nice. What else is there to say? This will guarantee air superiority for a couple of year and also gives the interceptors two ground attack instead of one. This is particularly useful since a +50% mdofier (attainable at high experience) would take this up to three.

 

[Kanitatlan]

06:00 7th March 1942​

More allied divisions come down out of the mountains and get bombed to death. I now have a defence in Calcutta so it is probably fairly secure.

14:00 7th March 1942​

The Fallschirmjäger are fighting their way into Lucknow and will then move on eastwards. I can’t be bothered to wait for the infantry and the air support makes it pretty unnecessary anyway.

None have you will have noticed yet but all of my mobile divisions have just disappeared. There isn’t a single one in the Indian theatre. I wonder where has all the armour gone?

00:00 8th March 1942​

No significant change on the economic front as IC rises slowly by about 5 per month. Stockpiles are as stable as ever. The only area of industrial interest is the fact that I cannot finance all of my upgrades. This is due to the interceptor technology and the already low levels of reserve IC. I get very cheap upgrades so these will work through the system reasonably quickly.

Manpower is becoming an issue. Current income is up by 15% due to the occupation of India. This is quite a contribution for a foreign country and promises around 170 manpower per year if I continue to hold it. The manpower reserves have been declining rather substantially (down 100 over the last six months). I suspect this may be connected to my ground units builds. Currently there are 2 marine runs, 1 Fallschirmjäger run, 5 militia runs and 2 garrison runs. This is steadily depleting reserves and some of these will have to be cancelled. The marine and Fallschirmjager are aimed at achieving specific strengths and will be allowed to continue. Garrison builds will go first and then militia. Manpower is also badly affected by brigade, air unit and ship builds which have reached rather significant levels.

00:00 11th March 1942​

More upgrades. The improved aircraft have very little improvement in ground attack but are more durable in the air. This may be significant in some theatres. It is going to take a long time to complete all these upgrades as I am achieving the technology faster than I can upgrade. Again there is no intention to wait for further technologies before upgrading as costs are quite low anyway.

19:00 12th March 1942​

The allies have decided to push into Multan again. And again I see it as no issue. They will get bombed to death and with the lower force levels now applying I suspect they may not even arrive. This constant attacking and bombing is looking like a successful, if slow, strategy to clear out the western Himalayas. Enemy strength Feyzabad is looking rather lower than it used to be.

11:00 13th March 1942​

Troops pour into South Africa against no opposition. TAC bomber support has cleared out all the South African remnants and we now have a clear run.

01:00 15th March 1942​

Retreat from Kobdo again.

18:00 15th March 1942​

South Africa is trying the instant garrison defence but I easily have sufficient strength to drive straight through. This is a freshly deployed division so despite AI cheats it has quite limited org.