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I have had to wait a few days for a new diplomat due to trading arrangements but I am now able to DOW Portugal and proceed with another simple campaign. Taking mainland Portugal is fairly simple but I will not be able to annex for the foreseeable future since they have VPs all over the world.
You're not the only one who gets annoyed by French resilience in Germany WC games. Whenever I'm crazy enough to invade Africa, I always find that the French military puts up a defence far beyond its means. In a historical game, I suspect French military equipment would be provided by factories in the UK. If the UK has been taken, the US might take over, but the US is not necessarily in the war. What then are those 15 off-map French ICs supposed to represent? And why don't colonial powers such as Britain get off-map ICs when their main industrial centers are taken? I understand the necessity of keeping French technology and equipment up to date, but there should certainly be a reasonable limit to this in ahistorical games.
Why the hell did they did they actually remove that VP from Crete? It was quite historical - the government of Greece moved to there (with some forces, even), and it shouldn't be possible to claim that the country has been conquered before that island is taken, really.
It is also such an important base because of it's location that I see no real reason for taking those VP's away.
...and, of course, it lead to the historical and rather exiting paradrop when playing Germany. Which I would love to see in this game, too
I suspect the real reason for the change is to cause the rest of Greece to fall when the mainland VPs have been taken. The German AI has difficulty in considering the Greek campaign being over unless the country has been annexed and the AI is of course pretty useless at taking defended islands. The historical reason for taking Crete was nothing to do with finishing of Greece, it was all about acquiring convenient airbases to support action in North Africa and, incidentaly, a shipping route that went nowhere near allied island bases.
In most games Crete is almost immediately taken by the British, often because they already have a unit present. I am hoping for great things from the Italians in this game so if Crete is taken off me I expect them to take it back (and they are welcome to it).
Nice work with Greece and Portugal, some quick action there, just as planned I suspect. And I see you are moving large forces against the British in Scapa Flow, shall be nice to see that attack carried out so that you are able to take full control over the British Isles.
Big relief that those 10+ divisions are in Scapa and not in Stornoway!
Did you consider the OTM of nations you're attacking but can't (yet) annex, like Portugal?
I understand the value of having a 'neutral' fighting Italy that can concentrate on Africa while not being distracted by the Balkan but I've always found Greece a pain in the *ss to garrison.
I don't worry too much about occupied territory as it doesn't account for much compared with partisan levels. The UK and Portuguese territory OTM will account for less than 2% of TC when I go into the Soviet Union and most of this is from the UK. Being unable to annex Potugal is a pain but when it comes to crossing the Atlantic I want their islands. Taking them out now has definite advantages as they are completely dependent on the European territory for IC and hence supplies.
Greece will temporarily be a pain to garrison but the declining partisan rates should make it harmless by next spring. If partisans arise on the islands I will simply ignore them for now as their only real effect is to reduce the partisan TC load.
The carrier fleet has temporarily been sent to escort an invasion of Northern Ireland. This is being carried out by landing the panzer corps from Plymouth and hence the need to clean up southern England to get things moving. The troops will be ashore and the transports safely hidden well before the concentration at Inverness is ready and therefore the carrier fleet has time to spare for this operation before returning for the attack on Scapa Flow.
The invasion of Portugal is proceeding well despite the minimal resources assigned to it. I have made little effort to contain the Portuguese and they will probably capture La Corunna before I defeat them. If they prefer to die there rather than in Oviedo then so be it.
It is now 4 months since France DOWed us (April 5th). It seems like far more time has passed but the destruction wrought upon the Allied powers has all been done in so little time. Soon the whole of Europe will be under my authority. Currently the war is starting to wind down as major forces scattered around Europe have little to do and some units are sitting idle. It pains me to have forces doing nothing but it is part of the lead in to fighting the Soviets.
The allies have attempted to interfere with my landing but they have sent too little to late.
06:00 August 9th 1939
The panzer corps drives straight to Dublin hurriedly releasing a DOW as they cross the border. Ireland is an easy annex as I only have to drive to Dublin. Again I have a weak enemy whose effective fire power is far less than it first appears. Their effective strength against a panzer division target as about 3.2 whereas mine back at them is 17, approximately a 5:1 advantage. Armour versus infantry declines through the time period of the game but whilst the enemy has 1936 infantry divisions I have a dramatic advantage.
The carrier fleet returns to Scapa Flow for more attrition and ready for the army in Inverness to attack. Not all the units have arrived yet and the constant activity has left them at relatively low org so there will need to be a small wait. There are a variety of small naval battles but unless I can engage during the day they are of limited effect.
11:00 August 10th 1939
Another minor skirmish in the blockade of Scapa Flow. I’m not sure whether I am blocking more troops arriving or preventing existing forces from getting away.
Air superiority over the Bay of Biscay claims another victim. Given the success of this one fighter group I should probably be running a lot more of this to prevent further allied air units from escaping. Once all the UK air bases are gone I will have far fewer opportunities for this kind of action.
The picture says it all. Another country bites the dust. There is still a need for minor operations here since there is a South African division present.
August 11th Dublin
Unlike Athens, Dublin appears to have a least some resource stockpiles. Athens never got mentioned as there was no resource jump on capture whatsoever. Dublin’s contribution is still relatively small with 24K energy, 18K metals, 6K rares, 1K oil, 1K supplies (currently going down fast on a day by day basis) and $400. This is still significant. The energy, for example, will keep my oil conversion (yielding 53.4 per day) going for an extra 45 days before the energy stockpile is no longer high enough. Looking ahead slightly, there is also no visible gain from capturing Lisbon although in that case there is no associated annexation event.
The attack on Scapa Flow is finally launched in what turns out to be overwhelming force. The shore bombardment is critical here. The overall odds in my favour are a 50% advantage from numbers, 50% advantage from brigades and unit type (those militia are pretty useless), 100% advantage from combat modifiers (including the shore bombardment). Overall firepower odds estimated at 4.5:1. This leads to rapid victory and destruction of all 16 allied divisions for very limited losses.
For many players it would be good enough to win this battle but I am never happy with mere victory. It is all too easy to launch battles against the enemy and suffer grievous losses whilst only just winning. I am never happy unless the actual loss ratio is up around 40:1 since I do not want combat losses to make a big dent in my manpower. In this game the total enemy forces are probably fielding at least 20,000 manpower against me, more likely to be up around 30,000 by the end of the game. Certainly the SU has over 10,000 by this point; the UK must have at least 1,500 plus whatever hasn’t been used; Poland fielded about 1,000. It goes on, whereas I only have 3,500 manpower in reserves and units up to the current time. If I achieve a mere 10:1 loss ratio then I end the game with very little army. This is obviously not going to work so I probably need at least 20:1. My policy in this game has always been to aim for 40:1 and often achieve it.
It is perhaps instructive to look back at the Edge of Darkness AAR and the September 1941 campaign where the Soviet infantry army overran and destroyed the main German force. That battle ended with something like a 40:1 ratio. In the Scapa Flow battle the allies lost around 160 manpower and I need to have lost a maximum of 4 manpower to achieve the required ratio. Given the trickle back rate (50%) and the reinforcement rate (cost only 80%) this means I could afford to lose 10 points of strength. In fact I lost far less than this, sufficiently low to not even notice.
If you are going for a WC then it is important to keep losses down at the barely discernible level. If you let them creep up then they will seriously eat into the possible unit count and undermine your strategy. It is also easy to run into risks of balancing manpower reserves against unit builds. Many players get seriously nervous if manpower reserves drop below 500 whereas I am relatively unconcerned until it falls below 100.
The French fleet has now arrived back in theatre and is being harassed by the Luftwaffe. Fighter attacks will do little to them but it does allow me to track their location (and acquire another half a point of experience – only 160 more attacks like this and they will be 100 experience fighters). All I can say is “the more the merrier”.
20:00 August 18th 1939
The French fleet arrives off Scapa Flow, already down by one ship. They are no match for the Kriegsmarine and quickly retreat losing 3 more.
17:00 August 19th 1939
I have air support running down the east coast as well giving them no respite and the entire fleet is ultimately sunk by air patrols.
Scapa Flow has finally been occupied. Last time I knew there were 13 squadrons in the air base and I have not seen them leave. There were still aircraft there 5 hours before occupation but I have no way of determining exactly how many. I guess I can confidently say, “Hundreds of allied aircraft were destroyed on scattered around the air base at Scapa Flow”.
04:00 August 20th 1939
The British fleet has been flung out of its last European base and must face up to my carrier task force. I intend to harry them as they retreat and see how many ships I can sink before they are out of range. The first battle takes down an old carrier (I think Argus is the type I) and probably inflicts serious damage on a few other ships.
11:00 August 20th 1939
In the initial stages they are also in range of my land-based air power but expect them to soon pass out of range.
In the Mediterranean the French have kindly relieved me of the partisan load of Mallorca. I am quite indifferent to the fate of these islands and once the Med has been sealed off (which it will be) any forces there will simply slowly die. The islands have no value to me as I am not fighting a war in the Med.
