First UK Co-operative AAR!

[Formula51]

Well, just as the title suggests, this will be the first UK AND first Co-operative AAR with HoI2 1.1. Post here if you wish to take a Cabinet position. Cabinet members can give me suggestions on where to go, what to build, basically anything, but not completely outrageous things (like invading USA). I will play whenever the cabinet says so. The timeframe of pre-war sessions will be a month, and the war sessions 2 weeks. All this is open for discussion though.

Positions:
Head of State and Head of Government - Formula51
The one who does the playing.

Chief of Staff/Foreign Minister - Verto1
Has veto power on any descision made by Chief of Army, Airforce, or Navy. Can plan all types of campaigns. outlines operations for all sectors. Decides what diplomatic actions to do. (need more abilities, please suggest some)

Armaments Minister - Globe and Mail
Plans technology research, and plans province projects. Also commands the production of any units. Also the one who directs our slider clicks.

Chief of Army - Duritz
Plans campaigns, organizes, and suggests expansion of the army.

Chief of Navy - Sir Humphrey
Plans campaigns, organizes, and suggests expansion of the navy.

Chief of Airforce - Asimov
Plans campaigns, organizes, and suggests expansion of the airforce.

If there's any positions I missed that are important (eg. not minister of security or intelligence), or ones that are needed/wanted, tell me.

Plus, you can be any General or Admiral.

God Save the King!

EDIT: who should be in charge of the DP sliders?

Land OOB 1 January 1936.

Home Isles
Bristol
1 Army HQ
6 Infantry (6 Eng)

Ulster - Ulster Garrison
2 Garrison


Mediteranean Command
Gibraltar
2 Garrison

Malta
2 Garrison


Middle East Command
Jerusalem
3 Inf (3 Eng)

Port Sudan
3 Militia

Mombasa
6 Militia


Far East Command [The Wookie]
India
12 Inf (2 Eng)

Singapore
2 Inf (2 Eng)
2 Garrison


East Asia Command
Hong Kong
1 Garrison

Air Force OOB, 1936

Home Isles
Liverpool:
1st Fighter Wing- 1 Int F Group
1st Tactical Wing- 1 Tac Group

Norwich:
RAF Strategic Bomber Command- 3 Str Group

Portsmouth:
2nd Fighter Wing- 1 Int F Group
3st Fighter Wing- 1 Int F Group
2nd Tactical Wing- 1 Tac Group

Middle East
Tel Aviv:
Middle East Air Command- 1 Tac Group


Far East
Rangoon:
Far East Air Command- 2 Tac Group

Screenies!

 

[Duritz]

I take it the style is you play and tell me what happens and I suggest ways forward excetera. Is this right?

I'll put my hand up for the Army chief......... but only if you promise not to sack me when the Jerries invade Whitehall! I suggest that the Chief of Staff outlines the operation (goal of the mission and forces involved) required and I actually plan the operational plan (putting divisions into formations, suggesting leaders and lines of advance) and oversee the tactical development of the operation (let the Germans take X province, then hit him at Y and continue on to Z for encirclement.

Duritz.

 

[Sir Humphrey]

Can I be the Chief of the Navy?

 

[Formula51]

Yep, thats what it is, and I'll be following you're instructions, with some addons of my own (approved by the cabinet, of course).

OK, request noted and positions taken down. (don't worry, I'll just wait till you lose the Crown Jewel ) If you wish, you can start out with plans/expansions/orginization, whatever, it doesn't matter. Or, we can just wait until we get a full cabinet.

PS: If you wish to rearrange fleets/armies, tomorrow ill post an abbreviated OOB, or, alternatvely, you can check it our for yourself. Note you can ask the Aranaments minister for production of units, but you must say how much/where they should go.

Is there any way to post a save (so you guys can make good descisions about expansion and re-orginization.)

We will get this rolling when we get an aranaments minister and a CoS.

Also, I think the sliders should be the aranaments minister's authority, any objections?

 

[Duritz]

No probs, I'll check out the OOB tonight and post my opening moves, requests tomorrow.

Duritz.

P.S. Do you want to PM this info or just keep it in the main thread?

 

[Sir Humphrey]

Okay, as Head of the Royal Navy, there are a number of items on the agenda.
Three main ports of Operation. Portsmouth for the Home Isles and the Atlantic. Alexandria for the Med and Arabia and Singapore for Asia.

Rough deployment:
Majority of Battleships and Battle Cruisers to be deployed in home waters.
Older Battleships to be deployed in the Med
Majority of Aircraft Carriers to be deployed in the Med
Majority of Submarine Force deployed in the Far East.

Rest of forces to be spread around.

I will be pushing the secretary of state for armaments for the laying down of new battleship hulls and new cruiser hulls. I will also be campaigning for construction of Naval Bombers (they fall nominally under my command in the British system). Also stress to Head of the Army that units in Hong Kong and Singapore be upgraded and fortifications worked on.

Could post up OOB thanks.

 

[unmerged(37701)]

A British AAR at last! Good to see!

Looking forward to this one. Best of luck, and God save the King!

 

[unmerged(2833)]

I though you would be playing Cooperative MP, the option that was added in HOI 2...

 

[Formula51]

Duritz, you can keep it in here, so that lurkers, generals/admirals and ministers can chime in with good ideas.

Good Suggestions Sir Humphrey.

Although you forgot, good destroyers and light cruisers should be in the North atlantic, to combat the Kreigsmarine's U-boats, and a few carriers to take out any Naval bombers and engage any capital ships the KMS may have.

Duritz, what do you think we should do about the BEF, egypt and garrisons.

DarthMaur, how would this be done (example: could Sir Humphrey command Sea Forces, or Duritz land forces).

The free positions are Aranaments minister, chief of staff, and chief of airforce

 

[Asimov]

May I be the Chief of Air Force? I'm looking forward to defend Britain's airspace.

 

[Formula51]

Ok Asimov, you're in.

Since no one's doing it, I'll post OOB in an hour.

Army:

Home Isles

2 GW garrison on every beachhead, all at 30% strength

Bristol
Aldershot Command: 1 1936 HQ, 2 GW Inf, 1 w/arty bde. (Ironside)

Edinburgh
Northern Command: 1 GW Inf (Alexander)


Portsmouth
Southern Command: 1 GW Inf (Wavell)


Mediterranean/Africa

1 Garrison at Gibraltar and Malta

Middle East Command: 2 GW Inf (Alanbrooke)

About 10-15 Garrisons scattered around Africa.

Far East/India/Asia

1 Garrison at Singapore and Hong Kong

GW Inf Divs in India @ Bombay, Karachi, Mangalore, Cochin, Madurai, Calcutta, Rangoon and Madras and 2 in Delhi.

Don't have time to do anymore now, as the Navy's huge.

 

[unmerged(38288)]

I'd be willing to do either of the remaining titles just pick one out for me hehe I can't seem to decide on one.

Looks like a blast!

 

[Sir Humphrey]

Will Naval Bombers fall under the Admiratly (me) or the RAF?

I can suggest to thr Araments Minister that consturction begiun emidiatly of the most modern designa vailable fro battleships and battle cruisers, and the serial run of destroyers (even if they arn't the best) they ill be useful.

 

[Duritz]

Montgomery-Massingbird surveyed the room. He could make out the PM and his other two service chiefs but the other faces were all dark and unidentifiable. He shuffled his notes and began –

Prime Minister, Ministers and fellow officers. I’ve decided some massive changes for the way that Britain shall defend herself and her empire. Before I go into practicalities let me first of all give a brief background.

The history of warfare has always been a struggle for supremacy between the infantry and the cavalry. The First World War saw the balance shift, I feel inexplicably, to the infantry. It is this that Britain must understand and incorporate into her designs. The age of Cavalry is dead, and when this is realised we must then focus on infantry and their development.

The other lesson of history is that Britain is primarily a maritime nation. The army, always small and professional, has relied on her sister service to get us to the theatre and away again in total safety. I rely on my colleagues to continue this for Britain is a World Wide Empire and our wars have predominantly been small affairs. The emphasis is on speed of attack and defence, letting the thin red line take care of the rest.

Now the army gets lots of criticism in the press about our backward ways but I don’t feel this is fair. The British Empire has long been at the front of military developments and it intends to stay that way. To that end I commissioned a report into the combustion engine with the aim of finding ways to improve our military. Their findings, I’m happy to say, matched my concept of what the British army needs and I’m confident that Britain will reap the results into the future.

Now, down to business:

You all have infront of you a detailed OOB. Now I’m suggesting massive changes, so we have to start with massive cuts if our changes are to remain within budget. These will come from removing obsolete units and savings made to supply networks.

I’ve requested the establishment of 5 new Infantry divisions, all to be provided with Engineering brigades. I also ask for engineering brigades to be deployed to the 4 existing divisions in the Home Isles and the two in the Mid East. These should be built in serial to maximise savings. Their deployment should be such that the Home Isles ends up with 6 Inf divisions, the Middle East is brought up to Corp strength with 3 Inf divisions while the last two are sent to Singapore to maintain security for the fleet and our Dominions. Costs for this expenditure will be found by disbanding several garrison units. Units from England shall be sent to double the garrisons at Malta and Gibraltar and the units in Ulster shall remain but all other garrisons in Britain will be disbanded. To further save on supply costs, the African units will be concentrated in two groups, two corps at Mombasa and one at Port Sudan. The garrison unit in Ceylon will also be shipped to Singapore until our new Infantry units are trained and deployed.

Speed is the essence of our new approach and as such contemporary artillery will not be able to keep up with our new units. Current artillery brigades will be disbanded. As a result the combustion engine will be used to bring fire power to the troops. Three Armoured Divisions will also be ordered (in serial) to provide firepower to the troops. These will be kept under central command and deployed as we see fit.

Development of the army is obviously the key to our policy. We request two teams be assigned to Army HQ for projects. The first will be to investigate the use of motorised transport for infantry divisions. We understand that this technology is far in advance of anything in existence (1940 build date) but Enfield Arsenal experts assure me it could be done if we were committed. Our need for mobility is best met by following this path. We also feel that if we continue to examine the combustion engine in line with artillery we may be able to develop better platforms, capable of keeping up with our new “motorised” infantry. We therefore ask that the government ask for tenders to undertake this work from the interested teams (take your pick of Royal Small Arms Factory, Leyland or Vauxhall).

My final point is that the job of Chief of Staff (Army) is time consuming and not allowing me to perform my duties as CIGS (Montgomery-Massingberd has two roles at start of 36 scenario). As such I intend to vacate my position as Chief of the Army in favour of my deputy, Sir Cyril Deverell. His knowledge of supply will allow him to maximise our resources at this time. [By doing this switch after you order thee infantry you get M-M’s bonus for infantry before he goes]. This will obviously cause some consternation (1% dissent hit) but nothing more than another editorial or two in The Times.

I thank you for your attention and recommend to you my successor, Sir Cyril. He is fully appraised of our plans and I sure you will all agree has a fine pedigree to fill this important position in His Majesty’s Government.

 

[Globe and Mail]

If I could I'd like to be the Armaments Ministers?

 

[unmerged(31656)]

I would like to be Chief of Staff.

 

[Formula51]

G and M, (a canadian, yay!) and Verto1 you got you're positions. Chime in with building projects and re-orginization and the like. Sorry Kaempf, but you can be a general or an admiral if you wish, and join in the discussion about you're respective branch that you choose.

Duritz, nice touch, Baldy likey. I think RSAF shall get the mot contract, the divisions shall get built, and Cyril shall get his place. Also, the Middle east command is very short on units, so I'll be deploying 1 more there and one in singapore. Also, any armoured divs I make will be not be prioritized, in fact, why don't we wait for a better tank to come.

SH, destroyers are OK a run of 5-10 should be sufficient, but but why BB and BC? Also, chime in on the navy's OOB re-orginization (ex. maybe we need more ships in the Med or the Far East. The naval bombers shall be the RN's authority, as we don't want a misuse of these resources. (That's what the luftwaffe didn't do, they wanted full control of the air, and the KMS suffered for it, as the luftwaffe had no naval bombing experience)

Edit: Duritz, Enfield got the contract. What about the indian armies? And, I took the liberty of disbanding an AT bde. The lone engineer bde will go to Singapore when the divs are built.

Asimov, speak up about those flyin' machines, we need some research targets.

About the 10th edit, but: from now on, all research and building requests should be OK'ed by G and M when they are requested. He has the power to change said orders if he so wishes. Also, G, is there any industrial tech you espically want? I think computers or machine tools.

 

[Globe and Mail]

My first thoughts:


I argee with SH about a serial run of our most advanced destroyers being useful. However we cannont sustain a full blown Naval build up.

Any techs to increase IC would great as we are gonna need.

For now perhaps might also want to squeeze in some IC increase so we have more to work with?

An increase of infantry divisions is acceptable.

Formula51 could you post our IC sit soon and a pic of our sliders?

Also Two Canadians helping to run the Empire?

 

[Formula51]

Screenies eh?

Done the inf divs, the bdes, and the destroyers.

Sir Humphrey only wanted to research BB and BC techs.

Back in a flash w/ the screenies.

G and M, where should our slider go, when I post a pic?

This was before I replaced Monty-Massingbird w/Sir Cyrill.

Also note, I disbanded all garrisons except 2, which will go to malta + gibraltar. The ceylon garrison will go to singapore (both divs, or just one?) when I get transports to it. You can transport garrisons, right? Oh, and i'm cancelling the eng bde order, and getting 11 of em so I can equip all the inf divs.

 

[Sir Humphrey]

Okay, this is my recomendation;

Begin Construction of 2 new Battleships (for home)
Begin Construction of 1 new Battlecruiser (for home)

A serial run maybe of a few Submarines for the far east.

If Coastal Command Naval Bombers and the Fleet Air Arm are sufficiant in the Med, then the protection of the Suez can be certain. I also recommend that Naval technology be given to the commonwealth, but not France, as their navy is to backward to benifit from it.