Fatherland - Deutschland über alles

[unmerged(47937)]

AI + Nukes = Armageddon

The paradox equation...

this AAR has already shown some weird things, so now it even gets weirder, nice, nice, nice.

I like it

 

[Lord Strange]

Yes. Update. PRoof that mobs bring good changes. NOw just to throw out that evil Gorsdon Brown, ALso eeek. Allied nukes. BEt you they bombed somer random place in Africa

 

[darthkommandant]

This brings a whole new dimension to the game. After this I think the use of nukes by the Reich is fully justified.

 

[unmerged(53911)]

Nukes now?! "Curiouser and curiouser!"

 

[Beakmiester]

April 1st 1943

... Details to follow ...[/CENTER]

hang on, check the date......April fool's??????

 

[Juan_de_Marco]

eyah! the dissent hit!

 

[Kanitatlan]

Earlier reports of a strange new weapon turn out to be a hoax perpetrated by two British gunners assigned to the headquarters entertainment section. These two practical jokers appear to have easily breached HQ security due to the guards being low quality goons as a result of the best recruits all going to frontline units.

Whilst the general staff were easily taken in having developed an overconfidence in the accuracy of reports, our great leader clearly has a greater familiarity with human behaviour and knew at once this could not be true.

On a slightly more disturbing level it appears the image was from an American comic book, a copy of which has turned up in our intelligence reports. It turns out the author was arrested and extensively interrogated by US security services immediately after it was published creating a suspicion that the US is well aware of the possibility of such weapons despite no trace of any practical research being detected by our extensive spy networks.

Points to Beakmiester for spotting the date.

(You did all enjoy the excitement didn't you )

 

[4th Dimension]

You... You.... You... You.................&/&&///&%&!&/!&/#)!#(/#!/)#.
/gets draged away by Gestapo

 

[Kanitatlan]

April 1st-3rd 1943

00:00 April 1st 1943​

The new month starts with further desperate attempts to keep eastern Siberia secure. I still only have 9 divisions here and the Petal Throne seems inclined to drop significant numbers of garrisons in the provinces it controls. All I need is for 10 to be dropped whilst busy clearing other provinces and I will have to concede full Petal Throne control. Still, I guess a retreat here is fairly innocuous really. Makes for a bit of harmless fun and a little tension. Wouldn’t want things to be too boring.

01:00 April 2nd 1943​

My convoy attacks out in the Pacific seem to have conjured up some allied response but this half decent fleet is unable to close and hence only has one ship in range to my 15 (counting the CVLs). This does not go well for them demonstrating the effectiveness of these cruiser taskforces. Notice how their capital ship goes down despite having loads of screens. Once doctrines get quite good gunfire ships have a reasonable chance of bypassing the screens and if you don’t have lots of capital ships this means a lot of concentrated gunfire on one target. Take this as a hint about the importance of a good numbers balance between capital ships and screens so that damage is spread out. One of the key issues in fleet make up is spreading damage to minimise actual ship losses.

22:00 April 2nd 1943​

Just less than two days from their first attack this month Hannibal is already launching another attack. Airpower has weakened this newly deployed force but they need removing promptly. Constant action doesn’t seem to be causing any problem to our divisions, as they are easily retaining full strength and high org. This army is easily the busiest force in the entire Wehrmacht.

00:00 April 3rd 1943​

This is the end of research into stolen fighter doctrine blueprints until I can obtain some more. I have been monitoring enemy research and Canada and the Petal Throne have started on the next round of fighter doctrines so it may be worth waiting before doing any more myself. I am now moving to complete my 1943 ground doctrine set. Firebrigade is the less important one since it is dominated by defensive combat events and with my focus on attack these are obviously less important but the other HQ improvements are, however, very useful to reach full capability.

HQ event effects are now sufficient to make it very useful to have an HQ near every single combat. I believe that players underestimate the value of this and I suspect that at the level I have achieved combat events may be equivalent to an average of a 10% combat bonus but this is largely speculation since we do not have precise figures on effects.

02:00 April 3rd 1943​

I am now in the process of moving fleets in towards the Gulf of Tonkin and these two groups have managed to engage and destroy a small Mexican fleet. My purpose in Tonkin will become apparent in due course (if you can’t guess already)

07:00 April 3rd 1943​

The build up in the Gulf of Tonkin has triggered a massive allied response with a series of engagements as the allied fleets come out to fight. The overstacking of the Kriegsmarine fleets its quite damaging for combat effectiveness but they still manage to sink a few enemy ships. Unfortunately the biggest problem is the presence of carriers as they are successfully keeping the range wide open despite the fact the CA range would be just as safe against these destroyers. This is a definite weakness in the naval battle AI which should shorten the range despite having carriers if the enemy range is less.

 

[unmerged(59906)]

Playing with the Petal Throne is certainly keeping you busy. Carriers and gun ships fighting together is a problem we all have to deal with which, in a way, helps the AI so I won't complain too much

 

[Kanitatlan]

Playing with the Petal Throne is certainly keeping you busy. Carriers and gun ships fighting together is a problem we all have to deal with which, in a way, helps the AI so I won't complain too much

I can't help feeling changing the battle AI would help the AI more than players. As players we are aware of the problem and separate our forces but the AI does not and submits strange mixed task forces all the time.

 

[Kanitatlan]

April 4th-5th 1943​

01:00 April 4th 1943​

Well it happened, my next cycle of attacks (and I didn’t waste anytime getting to it) has had to be cancelled due to the odds. I can’t afford a fight at equal numbers given the current combination of weather and terrain. Fortunately this is the one province I can afford to be stuck on so I don’t have to precipitate a wild retreat just yet. If Petal Throne forces build up here they may be able to launch attacks of their own which will precipitate a substantial withdrawal. Nice to have a bit more harmless excitement.

06:00 April 4th 1943​

The new month has started nicely for anti-convoy activities although the majority of action is now solidly focused on the Malacca straits. The worry about this focus is that once the Kuala Lumpur convoy route is drained of transports we will stop sinking anything. The Convoy route to Kra is far harder to pin down and we could be left with a long slow process knocking out the last few convoy transports.

4:00 April 1, 1943: Our forces in South Malacca Strait have sunk 11 transports and 3 escorts
20:00 April 1, 1943: Our forces in South Malacca Strait have sunk 0 transports and 1 escorts
6:00 April 2, 1943: Our forces in Bangka Strait have sunk 11 transports and 3 escorts
19:00 April 2, 1943: Our forces in South Malacca Strait have sunk 2 transports and 0 escorts
11:00 April 3, 1943: Our forces in North Malacca Strait have sunk 0 transports and 1 escorts
19:00 April 3, 1943: Our forces in North Malacca Strait have sunk 0 transports and 1 escorts
19:00 April 3, 1943: Our forces in North Malacca Strait have sunk 0 transports and 1 escorts
6:00 April 4, 1943: Our forces in North Spratly Sea have sunk 12 transports and 2 escorts

Month so far – 36 transports and 12 escorts

Average 9 transports and 3 escorts per day

09:00 April 4th 1943​

The naval build up in the Gulf of Tonkin is still drawing enemy forces, a wide variety of them. Whilst we aren’t sinking much I suspect their damage levels are rising sharply. There is a definite issue of whether to disperse to optimise naval combat or carry on regardless. If I disperse then the AI reaction may become reduced and hence the long-term effect would be minimal but if I remain concentrated the enemy naval ability is likely to remain existent (if not all that effective) for some time.

00:00 April 5th 1943​

I have decided to go for the carry on regardless option with the attack on Haiphong. This is obviously pretty good whilst the naval support is in place but is going to be rather less ideal if we lose it. Fortunately the attack is strong enough that it won’t collapse when naval support is interrupted and no doubt Krelian’s fast learning of Jungle skills will help. The harsh penalties on the enemy units are limited in increasing the rate of combat so exhausting enemy org levels will take a considerable time. The penalties do affect their defensiveness so they are taking extra casualties as a result of the naval bombardment but even so the battle is looking like a multi-day affair.

02:00 April 5th 1943​

The Petal Throne has managed a dramatic build up in the far north but we are in time on this occasion to throw them out but it is not as cheap as I would like. Temporary redirection of air power to interdiction helps and the enemy forces are soon in retreat under a hail of bombs.

Overall these defensive battles are consuming manpower on a greater scale than I am used to. The problem is driven by two issues. Firstly the combat odds are often not as good as I can achieve during a general offensive and secondly there are many repeat battles. This is not the sort of things that most players would worry about since there is no risk involved and manpower consumption is less than manpower income. However, I feel like I am using manpower on the same sort of scale as during Barbarossa (actually losses are rather less) whilst not in fact achieving very much. I am half inclined to execute a general withdrawal and leave the enemy to mill around in peace for a bit until I am ready to actually crush and destroy them. My military instincts are shouting that a stalemate like this means that either I am doing it wrong or I am losing and we all know which of those two is applicable.

12:00 April 5th 1943​

The slightly unnerving appearance of enemy interceptors over the Malacca straits proves to be a non-issue since they have no org (and are obsolete). In fact my upgraded turbojet bomber groups (16/16) are pretty much a fair match for level V interceptors (15/9) so I’m currently not afraid of anything. Interceptors beware.

19:00 April 5th 1943​

Through the night my naval support is disrupted at Haiphong with unfortunate consequences for casualty rates but this is not enough to affect the outcome of the battle. The allied naval mix remains impressive in its variety if not its effectiveness

 

[unmerged(53911)]

Is there a plan to rekindle the general Asian offensive? Where will the returning Australian troops disembark? What are the paras doing? Will all this and more be answered before the end of April?

 

[Kanitatlan]

WhisperingDeath There are plans galore with the general objective being the defeat and destruction of the Petal Throne so that we can move on to skirmishing with a new continent.


ALL By the "two british gunners" is a competition of sorts. Anyone know who they are?

 

[unmerged(62857)]

Here's my shot in the dark...

Spike Milligan and Sir Harry Seacombe

 

[Kanitatlan]

April 6th-7th 1943​

04:00 April 6th 1943​

28 hours in and the defences of Haiphong have collapsed. This has been an expensive victory and has cost 2 divisions worth of casualties (16 manpower to replace with approximately 8 from trickle back). This has been a very expensive battle and probably worth doing with a little more care. I have grown rather more careless with German lives, which is not how it should be. The enemy naval power should have been suppressed much earlier and I should have had 100% naval support. I would just like to repeat the word expensive again – expensive. Remind me not to do this sort of thing. I’m annoyed.

09:00 April 6th 1943​

Shortly afterwards the Fallschirmjägers arrive to capture the enemy stockpiles (you knew they were coming didn’t you?). This provides a modest boost to my stockpiles and includes 2-3 days supply of oil (aren’t you all impressed, a whole 2-3 days). The main objective was simply to deprive the enemy and over the next few days their remaining depots should be quite interesting and hopefully revealing.

09:00 April 6th 1943 b​

The immediate situation is that the Petal Throne has 336 supplies left in SE Asia to last the rest of the day. I suspect this is plenty so there aren’t going to be immediate supply issues. They currently have no oil, which will affect today, but the area’s demands are so low I’m not even sure if they need to convoy any in (there is modest production in northeast Burma).

If we assume 336 is exactly one day’s requirements then we get a nice round number of 14 supplies per hour. Given that most of their divisions are infantry this would imply a force of around 300 divisions in the theatre and I am really not sure if that is plausible. I don’t think any conclusions can be drawn at this time.

23:00 April 6th 1943​

The allied counter-attack on Haiphong is impressively weak and I even suspected the Fallschirmjägers might be able to hold until they could voluntarily retreat. It turns out that this was definitely not the case as their defences collapsed after a mere 4 hours fighting with not insignificant casualties. This is the penalty for making airborne raids since the game does not allow voluntary withdrawal within the first 24 hours which is what a real airborne raid would do. The “sneaky” way to deal with this is to drain the Fallschirmjäger’s org before hand by making multiple leader changes. This doesn’t affect their ability to drop but they lose the battle much quicker and retire with fewer losses.

00:00 April 7th 1943​

Next morning Kra has become established as the primary supply depot and Kuala Lumpur is empty. For some reason supplies are back up to 336 which is identical to the quantity immediately after they lost the Haiphong depot. This all seems a little odd so I am going to leave them for a few days before we have a thorough investigation. The problem is that multiple depots automatically create confusion about exactly what is being delivered and how much is being used.

01:00 April 7th 1943​

The naval battles continue in the Gulf of Tonkin but the Kriegsmarine is now proceeding to disperse back to its convoy hunting locations. Hopefully the temporary absence has had little effect on convoy losses but leaving gaps in the patrol line is a very bad idea. Given the lack of enemy units in ports bordering the Gulf I get the impression that they are now all but completely finished off.

 

[Kanitatlan]

Here's my shot in the dark...

Spike Milligan and Sir Harry Seacombe

Now that has got to be a record fast response. Not all that hard but you all ignored the original orange highlighting. As a reward I'll post another day.

 

[Kanitatlan]

April 8th-9th 1943​

01:00 April 9th 1943​

Northeast Siberia is still experiencing almost consecutive counter-attacks by this small German army. The situation here is becoming more and more concerning as each attack threatens to come close to the impracticality limit. In this case at least interdiction preparation has been adequate to make the battle relatively trivial but with mere 2:1 odds and poor terrain and doubtful weather I am still not happy.

01:00 April 9th 1943 b​

It is nice to get a blueprint from Australia at this stage, as they are about to be so moribund that there is no chance of anything in the future. It is almost worth letting them hang around for a bit to make sure they have nothing else. I guess they aren’t going to be annexed but they are down to a single research group. They are never at the forefront of research so there is unlikely to be much if anything I can nick (slang, verb, “to steal”)

Synthetic oil blueprints are definitely useful since I will be researching through to the bonus techs as soon as they come within the current time frame. I have massive energy reserves so these techs give me nothing until we reach the ones the increase the oil yield rather than just decreasing the energy cost.

02:00 April 9th 1943​

As part of an intermittent policy I am going to shown 24 hours of air action starting from this image. This shows the first four battles of the day, which are all well spread out and represent the usual mixture of enemy units types and group sizes. It is difficult to see the results of current air combat but the after affects of previous battles are a little more obvious with examples of heavily depleted bombers.

07:00 April 9th 1943​

The Manchurian front is definitely on a downhill slide at the moment with the Petal throne managing to retake Bayan Tumen although I see little chance in them managing to retain a position here. There has been a slight pause in German air activity around here due to lack of targets which has helped with upgrades but now they need to return to work pronto (Adv. Now or immediately. {Informal} [Orig. Spain])

12:00 April 9th 1943​

This is the second half of the 24 hours of air combat. I could show screen after screen of air combats as the next few days remain similarly intense but with many enemy units showing heavy losses. The scale of air combat would overwhelm the rest of the AAR and, I believe, not add very much. It can be interesting to examine the images carefully to observe the reappearance of the same unit over and over as it declines to nothing but this is definitely not going to be a popular audience activity. There is a certain satisfaction in seeing a 4 squadron group slowly melt away until there is nothing left.

 

[unmerged(62857)]

Well, this may be the only way a Canadian wins anything in this AAR... Fortunately for me and everyone else, it yielded another update... Sweet!!!

 

[unmerged(53911)]

It's certainly interesting to see Brazil sporting a better tech class of fighter than PT! Although that is some indication of the success of the current operation, it does not bode well for the assault on the "next continents."