How is the buildup of land forces going? It seems like naval and air combat take the scenery.
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Lord Strange Not only will there be lots of air wrecks to dive for but there will also be a fair variety with all the different models from different nations.
Medi Whilst i would be surprised if your statement about groups was correct I really can't find any convincing evidence against it. It really is quite odd as sometimes it seems obvious that the count really is individual units and other times groups seems plausible. I am simply going to play as if the intel on air units was total gibberish.
Roman_legion If you look back to 11:00 April 27th you can see the main build up in Martinique and Trinidad. Forces elsewhere are simply those forces actively used elsewhere. There are further forces to bring across but we are now getting close to a full ground force presence.
Medi Whilst i would be surprised if your statement about groups was correct I really can't find any convincing evidence against it. It really is quite odd as sometimes it seems obvious that the count really is individual units and other times groups seems plausible. I am simply going to play as if the intel on air units was total gibberish.
Roman_legion If you look back to 11:00 April 27th you can see the main build up in Martinique and Trinidad. Forces elsewhere are simply those forces actively used elsewhere. There are further forces to bring across but we are now getting close to a full ground force presence.
April 28th-29th 1944
01:00 April 28th 1944
01:00 April 28th 1944
Convoys have reorganised (due to attacks on them) and the current mixture is as above. This is probably quite a good arrangement for me as it shows the Bahamas convoy operating as far south as is ever likely under AI control. I’m not really keen on it navigating around Cuba as that is a little exposed but the default route is off to the north regardless of apparent vulnerability.
02:00 April 28th 1944
I’m only showing this naval battle so we can all get to see the new record garrison for Colon. I really wouldn’t want to get this pile stuck in my Colon but the AI seems to be coping with it quite well. Perhaps some ointment would help although I am tempted to just issue a laxative and watch what happens.
00:00 April 29th 1944
Now that is interesting, or on the other hand no it isn’t. None of their ministers have died. What they really mean is that one of their congressmen or senators with no special position has died.
01:00 April 29th 1944
Well this is interesting. Just when the fleets have been shuffled so this one is a bit isolated the AI sends its bumper carrier fleet out again. Yet again this is quite well done although the screen mix remains a little odd, not to mention the concept of a night attack.
Two posts in one day! Woohoo! Looking forward to the outcome of that last surface battle. Did our fleet even engage?
I suppose even the AI has to get things right occasionally. With the relatively small theatre and a great deal of dispersed naval activity this is perhaps the best its going to get for the naval AI.
How about taking a few of those central american countries, thereby cutting lots of American divisions of and then massacring their convoys?
With lots and lots of naval support it should be feasible, those countries are only lightly defended. They'd send their entire army to come crush you, leaving you with an open east-coast
With lots and lots of naval support it should be feasible, those countries are only lightly defended. They'd send their entire army to come crush you, leaving you with an open east-coast
WhisperingDeath ... and here it is
El Pip, UncleAlias i think you are being a little negative, this is true expert play by the AI standards we have become familiar with.
DirtyCommiePuke, Lord Strange I'm not sure that laxatives are a good cure for piles. I suspect it just makes things worse. I guess we will have to wait and see.
zeekater Well I have to agree that would be a reasonable plan but I would need to take Colon and the canal so I can cover both coasts. Also, the US forces in the south will be able to draw supplies from their allies so it doesn't completely solve the problem.
El Pip, UncleAlias i think you are being a little negative, this is true expert play by the AI standards we have become familiar with.
DirtyCommiePuke, Lord Strange I'm not sure that laxatives are a good cure for piles. I suspect it just makes things worse. I guess we will have to wait and see.
zeekater Well I have to agree that would be a reasonable plan but I would need to take Colon and the canal so I can cover both coasts. Also, the US forces in the south will be able to draw supplies from their allies so it doesn't completely solve the problem.
April 29th-30th 1944
02:00 April 29th 1944
02:00 April 29th 1944
Range immediately closes and a vicious gun battle ensues. We are a long way from morning so the battle continues until I accidentally continue into daylight. It is rather difficult to get a good fix on dawn and hence when to retreat. Most of the battle has been from within screen range and towards the end it is reduced to point blank presumably due to a complete lack of screens.
11:00 April 29th 1944
Despite the almost total lack of screens on the enemy fleet I have failed to sink even one carrier so we exchange 1 CA for 1 CL and 1 DD. I guess this isn’t really a disaster and the CA wasn’t even a properly named one – KMS Remble III escapes disaster yet again. Some ships have taken massive damage so a good part of this fleet is going to be out of operations for a while. Unfortunately I have very few spare CAs but lots of DDs. This is only to be expected but it does mean reduced naval capability for a while.
16:00 April 29th 1944
A few hours later the first Luftwaffe unit makes contact and reports numerous damaged CVs which they start bombing.
19:00 April 29th 1944
Soon more bombers arrive and the USA loses a ship – presumably a CV – claimed by the Luftwaffe much to the annoyance of the Kriegsmarine sailors who feel that yet again they did all the work and got no credit.
23:00 April 29th 1944
Further bombing claims another ship and the enemy fleet is last seen limping northwards back to their base. Strictly speaking I can probably be certain this fleet will be out of action for a month or more but unfortunately the next encounter will yet again take me by surprise.
03:00 April 30th 1944
The US still seems to have plenty of naval bombers to throw around recklessly. Watching the commanders on these units indicates that there are an awful lot of them – possibly 20+ NAV squadrons (originally). There are less now.
1 x Baja de Marajo
13:00 April 30th 1944
As can be seen this NAV group has turned up again and took limited losses in its night engagement. The daytime engagement is another matter despite the rain and results in very heavy losses after only one hour.
This has been a particularly busy day with a total of about 10 air battles.
Ouch, slightly hairy naval battle, thought of building a new run of fleets yet? Or have you not researched further?
It's indeed a big problem that most coasts are at the Pacific side of the province. You could go for Pearl Harbor, but that'll leave your supporting fleets on the pacific side without air support and stretched a long way.
The province to the right of Colon only has 4 divisions in it but it's coast is again on the wrong side. Perhaps using paratroopers? You can give naval support from the Atlantic side, right?
It'd be a very big risk and a bold move, but it would shorten the war and all those Germans could be home by Christmas! :rofl:
(not!)
Landing in any other place in South America should lure those divisions away from Colon, then you can take it, cutting those divisions off. I don't know if all those extra IC's you gave the South American countries would be enough to supply those 140 American divisions
Wow, I just read all 226 pages in less than a week. This probably wasn't a good idea to do in the middle of law school finals
Excellent job and very interesting aar, especially since I have never played HOI (I'm an EU3 fan who wandered over onto this side of the board)
Excellent job and very interesting aar, especially since I have never played HOI (I'm an EU3 fan who wandered over onto this side of the board)
I'm still wondering what you are going to be doing once you get all your forces sent over. I doubt that they will sit around for long, so I have to guess that soon we will see a landing somewhere in the Americas. The only question is where.
I suggest South America to draw the US out.
I suggest South America to draw the US out.
Lord Strange Fleet runs are not an issue as all the old ones ar still going. There are (I think) circa 10 CV runs and 18 CA runs. This is a dribble of ships now that the fleet is so large but does guarantee that numbers continue to increase.
BlitzMartinDK No kill yet I'm afraid.
zeekater Current policy is against a landing in central America. If I were to land there then I would have to commit very large numbers of troops to defend against the inevitable counter-attack and the Allies can much better afford troops for static fronts than I can. I need to keep things strategically mobile.
The_Archduke I have to agree, that probably wasn't a good idea but I hope you enjoyed it. HOI3 is quite cheap to buy now but obviously is far more combat orientated than EU3.
Brad1 And so to war ...
BlitzMartinDK No kill yet I'm afraid.
zeekater Current policy is against a landing in central America. If I were to land there then I would have to commit very large numbers of troops to defend against the inevitable counter-attack and the Allies can much better afford troops for static fronts than I can. I need to keep things strategically mobile.
The_Archduke I have to agree, that probably wasn't a good idea but I hope you enjoyed it. HOI3 is quite cheap to buy now but obviously is far more combat orientated than EU3.
Brad1 And so to war ...
May 1944 Review
There isn’t really a great deal to review at this time. The main issue is that the ground troop build up is mostly complete and the entire Caribbean island area has been occupied. Unfortunately the Luftwaffe build up is way behind but I do have 80 airfields due in a few days time. The completion of April’s activities means that the main current commitment is island defence (not exactly hard) and convoy protection. Since convoy attacks have been primarily mediated by naval bombers this means the focus is combat air patrols leaving most of the Kriegsmarine and Wehrmacht free for other activities.
Recent air actions have given us some insight into enemy air technology. It is apparent that the majority of our primary enemy’s forces are advanced piston engine models with a few types still operating improved models. Secondary enemy nations have a mixture of models going all the way back to string-bag biplanes. Our forces, on the other hand, are entirely turbojet models except for the strategic bombers (none of which are in theatre). This means I have a comfortable air combat superiority that leaves my bombers perfectly capable of defending themselves and my interceptors able to seriously damage the enemy even without a significant numerical advantage. Once air units are liberally available I can project air power anywhere that I want within range of Caribbean airbases.
Some Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine resources will remain committed to trans-Atlantic protection to allow me to continue some ground troop build up. Significant new troops are due over the next few months and these will be critical to maintain force levels for likely operations as existing troops become dispersed. The new cavalry divisions are not going to be brought over for the time being and they are currently being deployed across partisan areas throughout Eurasia.
This brings us to the question of operations. I am at a bit of a loose end so I am going to start some action but this is definitely of the indirect approach school of strategy. The first operations will be an attempt to removed one or two minor allied nations on the mainland and a start to gaining the initiative on the mainland and push the AI into reactive mode.
May 1st-3rd 1944
09:00 May 1st 1944
09:00 May 1st 1944
This nice to see with a group of 5 naval bombers getting a serious pounding in a running fight as they attempt to escape back to the US mainland. Losses over the Antilles are moderate (but still serious) but when intercepted later in the day by jet fighters they suffer cruelly with only 3 squadrons left after the end of the battle. I would estimate enemy losses from this group at around 200 aircraft – not bad for one day’s fighting and very limited losses on our side
09:00 May 2nd 1944
And here they are back again. This AI aircraft transfer issue is very serious – does anyone know if it is fixed in Armageddon??
12:00 May 2nd 1944
And here it is, what you have all been waiting for. The first operation is a direct landing at the Venezuelan capital. Venezuela represents a potential opportunity for capturing vast stockpiles of oil and this can be optimised by capturing the capital as many times as possible. To this end I am going to start with the capital.
The oil issue remains surprisingly positive, as I have actually captured more oil in the Caribbean than I have used since our last oil review with Cuba being particularly well provisioned. As has been discussed before, the AI bonuses seem to be a perfect solution for my oil issues as I can capture plenty from even the most unlikely of countries.
1 x Baja de Marajo
18:00 May 2nd 1944
This is the sort of thing I have been worrying about happening. I am currently forced to use TACs with escorts for combat air patrol and as turbojet models these are a good match for the P51D the US is using but that means I suffer losses suppressing their fighter wings. If this keeps up then I will have to withdraw these bombers for repair and with the slow Luftwaffe build up this threatens the possibility of uncontested bombing of my convoys.
21:00 May 2nd 1944
At the beginning of the month this US group had five squadrons and after this engagement it is down to a single one. This is due to persistent attempt to redeploy them back to the US mainland using a route that is intensely patrolled by the Luftwaffe. They are now down to about 50 aircraft and will probably be completely destroyed.
09:00 May 3rd 1944
I was wrong, they were down to about 20 aircraft. I guess this is the most uneven air battle I have ever seen. I wonder how many German aircraft actually saw one of the enemy (ratio circa 200:1)
12:00 May 3rd 1944
The US seems to have scrapped together a bunch of aircraft to bomb some of my ground troops but it has been very badly mistimed. My best guess is that I am likely to suffer a couple of casualties per raid so I don’t actually have to do anything about this if I don’t want. However, if this group keeps on coming then they are going to get intercepted sooner rather than later.
19:00 May 3rd 1944
Back north of the Bahamas we can see the US deploying some foolishly depleted air units which is going to cost them more losses. It looks like many of the target groups are now badly depleted so my convoys are probably now fairly safe. Some of my squadrons have taken significant losses but rest and repair will have to wait for replacement units to reach operational readiness.
You mentioned ship build runs but are there any plane builds in the pipeline? Also, how bad is the partisan activity on the Eurasian land-mass and in general?
I decided to test the airplane transfer issue in one of my own games. As Ecuador, I gave an interceptor unit to the USA as an expeditionary unit. Just about every day, I received a new "blahblah has arrived in {x}" message. Phoenix, New York, Pearl Harbour, Miami, pretty much every airfield in the USA. Very strange.