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Ah, the restless ghost of the Ottoman Empire stirs... :)

Good progress against the Australians in Papua New Guinea, but that look at Darwin was sobering: even if the Australians for some reason banished most of their forces to that location, it's still a large force to have to face. But maybe you can lock the Aussies on their continent for a while, while you tidy up things elsewhere.

Those Canadians are troublesome and if you keep having 'victories' like the second battle of Grand Bahama, you're going to be in trouble real soon... Here's hoping that your heavy cruiser and the Condors will be enough to at least deter the Canadians (if destroying them outright is too much to ask for).
 
You need a second heavy cruiser out there to dispose of the Canadians.

Operations against the Germans by the Ottomans will mean no Barbarossa either. Quite an advance by the Ottoman, sorry Turks.

The Italians look not to have the strength to get into Alex the hard way. Probably waiting to race you in. Pity you have no paratroops. Could you lease the ability for transport and paratroop unit from the Germans? I expect you''ll continue to research to increase your IC. Are you still limited to Portugal proper for your builds or have doine a deal with the Boers to utlize South Africa?

2 divisons of Australians bagged. Lots of Portuguese children will be learning Waltzing Matilda from Australian POWs. I'd expect to see those surviving south african cruisers helping out the Aussies.
 
It almost appears as though Portugal is the 'Old Guard' sedentary power that is being pecked on by lesser powers (i.e Canada and Australia). My how the worm has turned. Exciting race in Egypt!

The way to deal (I know, this is all long ago in the past) with the stockpiled troops in Darwin would be to force the dispersal of the Aussie army by landing and retreating. This doesn't wholly account for the Aussie navy, but a distracted AI rarely fights and regroups successfully.
 
Great AAR, specially for me since I a Portuguese, will start following it
 
Good Lord, that's a huge defence of Darwin. I wonder what Sydney looks like...

Yeah - Run Away! :) I'm cautious even where I LOOK now, because I'm not wanting to mix in with any of those roving Australian cruiser squadrons. Maybe next update I'll get to show you, or the one after that.

Turkey fighting beside the Allies? Never seen that before.

Yeah, I don't think I have either. I don't have the full history, and so I don't know if this was the Turks' idea, or if it was a failed Greek or Italian invasion attempt (kind of like the Italian invasion of Greece).

Ah, the restless ghost of the Ottoman Empire stirs... :)

Good progress against the Australians in Papua New Guinea, but that look at Darwin was sobering: even if the Australians for some reason banished most of their forces to that location, it's still a large force to have to face. But maybe you can lock the Aussies on their continent for a while, while you tidy up things elsewhere.

Those Canadians are troublesome and if you keep having 'victories' like the second battle of Grand Bahama, you're going to be in trouble real soon... Here's hoping that your heavy cruiser and the Condors will be enough to at least deter the Canadians (if destroying them outright is too much to ask for).

Yeah, at this point in the game I was not quite sure what to do with Australia. Still taking her measure. As for Canada vs. Bahamas, at this point I was starting to get very worried. That garrison I have there won't be able to recover strength if it's attacked over and over. It's kind of like being on the business end of a Portuguese-style "isolate and grind down" attack. Hmph!

How many isles are there on Bahamas to protect? :D

Well... That depends how you parse the question. There are about 5-7 islands anyone could choose to land on. But most of those would be incidental at best, and would remain unsupplied. Realistically, there's only one island that can be supplied to, because there's only one port. When we first invaded, we took a smaller island, though, and built the strategy from there. I think the Canadians are focused mainly on Grand Bahama.

You need a second heavy cruiser out there to dispose of the Canadians.

Operations against the Germans by the Ottomans will mean no Barbarossa either. Quite an advance by the Ottoman, sorry Turks.

The Italians look not to have the strength to get into Alex the hard way. Probably waiting to race you in. Pity you have no paratroops. Could you lease the ability for transport and paratroop unit from the Germans? I expect you''ll continue to research to increase your IC. Are you still limited to Portugal proper for your builds or have doine a deal with the Boers to utlize South Africa?

2 divisons of Australians bagged. Lots of Portuguese children will be learning Waltzing Matilda from Australian POWs. I'd expect to see those surviving south african cruisers helping out the Aussies.

I agree. We need big, BIG guns! (anyone catch the movie reference?) :D Still limited to Portugal for deployments, and I don't have time for an involved angle on this. Expanding research requires more research focus than we really have -- Portugal is pretty screwed from the beginning on research! :D Thanks for the encouragement on New Guinea -- it's a small start, but worthwhile.

very nice, though Darwin looks scary...

Yeah. Obviously that "remote" port is not a practical invasion spot. And there aren't many other practical invasion spots in the gazetteer! :)

2nd Post! can't wait to read up on what i missed since i last was here. (1st post in tech support :() Great AAR!!! :D

Thanks! Welcome, Skylar! I always appreciate it when someone graces me with one of their very first forum posts! Looking forward to having you along for the ride!

It almost appears as though Portugal is the 'Old Guard' sedentary power that is being pecked on by lesser powers (i.e Canada and Australia). My how the worm has turned. Exciting race in Egypt!

The way to deal (I know, this is all long ago in the past) with the stockpiled troops in Darwin would be to force the dispersal of the Aussie army by landing and retreating. This doesn't wholly account for the Aussie navy, but a distracted AI rarely fights and regroups successfully.

Wouldn't it be ironic if we taught our enemies how to destroy us? :eek: :D I think everyone will enjoy the coming conflict with Australia! It's quite exciting. Probably on par with, or better than, South Africa! Portugal may be powerful, but it just is not a first-rate power yet.... And it shows! :D

Great stuff as always!

Thanks! You know, you've been in my other AARs, so I didn't realize until I checked the stats that this is your first post here, so... Welcome, KyrionMyrthar! I hope you'll find this old AAR as interesting as the others you've been following! :D

Great AAR, specially for me since I a Portuguese, will start following it

Welcome, Soulstrider! Thanks! And great to have another Portuguese follower! There are several here, which is fun.

p.s. Out of curiosity, how did you (or other Portuguese readers) happen to notice this?

fascinating to see Turkey redeeming the allies ... till Portugal can turn its attention on them ... & as Stuyvesant says it is a bit of a turn around to see you being the victim of small hit and run attacks

Well.... "Redeeming" may be a little of an overstatement. :D Yeah, it is quite funny to see how vulnerable I am to my own tactics, now that I've become more than just a pest.

Hey, I've got this AAR up "on deck" next.... Can't guarantee exactly when the next update will be, but I'm going to try to make it this weekend.

As always, thanks for reading, and especially for commenting!

Rensslaer
 
Welcome, Soulstrider! Thanks! And great to have another Portuguese follower! There are several here, which is fun.

p.s. Out of curiosity, how did you (or other Portuguese readers) happen to notice this?

Since we weren't relevant at all during time period, I guess most of us went looking for Portuguese AAR to see how would Portugal fare if it joined a side in WW2
 
Very much enjoying the AAR, Rensslaer. Your AARs have helped me learn all of the various game lately. :)

That's great, Kyrion! I do try to include as much as I can about gameplay strategy and general military strategy. That's the thing I love about HOI 3 -- to a great degree, real military strategies work, and are important to know, going into the game!

It looks like the British ordered all of the Aussies north to Darwin. :) The entire east coast could be completely undefended.

With the trouble in the Caribbean a long Australian campaign might be a bit to much.

If only that were true! Sadly, it's not -- there are more Aussies everywhere! :) If I want to do anything with Australia, I'm going to have to scare up some troops... ALOT of them!

Welcome, Hardradi! To this AAR anyway (thanks for patronizing my others too!)

Since we weren't relevant at all during time period, I guess most of us went looking for Portuguese AAR to see how would Portugal fare if it joined a side in WW2

Well, cool -- glad to provide the entertainment!

Your signature :D

I was reading Sforza, and i happened to notice something about Portugal there, so i got hooked :p

Great! Must have been an improvement over watching my constant wars with Portugal in Sforza! :D


Ironically, it was planning for a WW II version of my Fire Warms the Northern Lands AAR that caused me to first realize the potential of Portugal as a worldwide power in the 1930s - 40s. In the scenario, Portugal was going to be one of the Axis countries that would oppose the western constitutional democracy in Germany. All those bases, all over the world, seemed like quite a vaulable asset, so I started playing Portugal in the beta, and really found it had potential! :)

Okay, well, I lied. Sorry. I got the wrong weekend -- wasn't able to update last weekend, but I promise to try really hard to update this weekend! :) I also lied about this AAR being up next for an update. I did Kriegsgefahr yesterday. But this one really is next! This time. :)

Thanks again for reading!

Oh, and if I didn't mention it before, I really appreciate that some of you voted for Imperio Novo in the 1st Quarter AARLand Choice AwAARds! Imperio Novo got 3 votes there (Kriegsgefahr got 8, I think), and it was great not just to have 3 AARs (including I Am Siam) getting votes, but also that Imperio Novo had not been forgotten! :D Anyway, thanks!

Rensslaer
 
So, from the last update, you know Portugal’s war has passed through its brief respite from fervent activity, and it’s again engaged in Egypt, Somalia, Australia, New Guinea and the Caribbean. I was going to group these screenshots together by theater, but there are too many theaters, and it would seem peculiar! So here goes – this will give you an idea of how many directions my own attention is being drawn at this stage in the war.

In the 1st week of March, 1942, Portuguese troops march into Cairo. The British troops defending Alexandria appear not to be in an offensive mood, and the Italians are keeping a watchful eye on them. The Italians themselves don’t appear quite moved to cross the river delta against Alexandria by themselves, and so we set our own troops on a tour across northern Egypt for the month of March, seizing oilfields and other resource locations, as well as the entire western bank of the Suez Canal. Then we return to Alexandria.

2Mar1942Cairo.jpg


We have, now, scouted the entire northern, eastern and western coastlines of Australia, and have determined that every seaport is guarded by strong enemy garrisons except for Perth, in far southwestern Australia. Moreover, there do not appear to be a great number of Australian army units in the region, and so we begin to think we might be able to accomplish a landing, and defend a perimeter long enough to bring reinforcements in.

Some of our generals, mind you, think this is stupid! There are enough Australian troops within a months’ march that they can begin to whittle us down, and by the time our reinforcements get there they either won’t have a base to arrive at, or they will just take the place of the spent troops they’re coming to reinforce, and we’ll never get the upper hand. This, of course, is considered, and not dismissively. We’re gambling here. But when haven’t we gambled in this war, eh?

4Mar1942PerthLanding.jpg


The first landing is made immediately to the north of Perth, which itself is defended only by a garrison brigade. Mind you, we only have 2 brigades in our own garrison we land, and so it’s not like we outnumber them significantly. But this army is meant mostly just to hold the territory. We land another division further up the coast to the north, at Carnarvon. This division begins stairstepping down the coast toward Perth. You might ask why we did this, and don’t think I didn’t wonder to myself as I come upon it in the AAR a year or two after I played this! But if I had to guess it’s because I figured I wanted a larger base from which to move out. The bases on this huge island are far enough from each other that I didn’t want to move against Darwin, or someplace else, and leave behind a mere perimeter around my only conquest. And I may also have wanted a “canary” – an advance warning system – to let me know when the Australians were starting to close in on Perth. I would have been concerned about missing that threat, because my attention is so scattered to multiple theaters at the moment.

13Mar1942PerthAttack.jpg


On 13 March, the attack was initiated. The enemy was outnumbered 2:1, and my general was clearly more able than the guy they had in charge. These things, combined with the landing of another division (probably the one from Carnarvon) to the south of the city, made me believe I would eventually prevail.

In Somaliland, remember, there were 2 (I later found a third) British divisions, still – isolated, but not toothless. I begin operations to reduce them. As in Alexandria, the Italians seem content to let me make the offensive moves, as they don’t apparently (and haven’t, over 3 years) feel confident enough of victory to move against these guys.

18Mar1942Somalia.jpg


On 19 March, the Australians attempt a landing against Port Moresby. A massive fleet appeared, and an Australian division, which apparently had made the crossing bunked one to each stateroom. If this attack is allowed to continue, I feel I will lose. My divisions are still not fully recovered from the campaign which gave us most of New Guinea in the first place. And so we call in the Condor bombers to attack the enemy fleet.

19Mar1942PortMoresby.jpg


The Condors do remarkably well, despite enemy air cover from fighters based in Darwin (or somewhere – I suppose Darwin – seems a long way – Darwin and Brisbane appear to be equidistant). The naval bombers are able to severely reduce the strengths and operational stati of several transport flotillas, and the attack withdraws.

Despite our multiplicitous engagements elsewhere, we still have a couple of transport-division pairs free about the Indian Ocean, and so our troops who had recently secured Yemen move into Abu Dhabi. Now, this seemed like a quiet theater with not a lot of opposition, but as soon as the transports sidled up to the wharf at Abu Dhabi, British naval bombers hit us, and darn near sunk the whole flotilla in one attack! They went from 95% to 3% in an instant.

22Mar1942AbuDhabi.jpg


This had the potential, of course, to end our Persian Gulf wanderings. Moreover, it wasn’t quite clear whether our ships would be safer in port, or at sea, or our troops safer on land or evacuating with our transports! I pondered this for long enough that it appeared a subsequent attack would not totally destroy us, and so I waited.

Those pesky Canadians are still trying to invade the Bahamas Islands! A destroyer flotilla and some transports made appearances again and again, and our heavy cruiser did what it could to damage them and turn them back. Again, I remained concerned that repeated attacks could sap our strength and cause us to lose these islands. So I began fishing for another plan that didn’t involve the Condors, which were busy in the South Pacific now…

28Mar1942Alexandria.jpg


At the very end of March, we were finally done securing northern Egypt, and it was time to attack Alexandria. Gen. Andrade led the attack, which by itself was woefully inadequate. We hoped that, over time, given rest for ourselves, and hopefully assistance from the Italians, we would eventually overwhelm the British 58th Infantry. We were happy to find they were actually out of supply. Probably owing to the control of the Mediterranean by the Italian Navy, or else the British lack of shipping due to our constant raids, or Germany’s U-boats, or a combination of these factors.

Also, that week, we received word that the Australian defenders of Perth had surrendered! The below screenshot emphasizes to you just how much of Australia Portugal has taken in just one month! And… ironically… how little! That’s a good base to own – basically the whole western coast – but I still have no guarantees of how well this campaign will go. The Australians sure seem to outnumber us. And those distances are VAST! I’ll have to cross, literally, half the continent, along either the north or south coasts, to reach another seaport of note.

19Mar1942Australia.jpg


After a few days of indecision, in the Persian Gulf, it was decided that neither our troops nor our transports need remain as targets in Abu Dhabi. The British had little hope of mustering troops to retake it, and so they would do little good as defenders. We decided to target Kuwait, at the end of the Gulf. This would gain us yet more of the British oil producing provinces, and would perhaps hasten the defeat of Britain at the hands of Germany (I am still expecting that Germany is the heavy lifter in this war, despite the fact we little bumblebees have been the most frenetic and numerously successful, of late!).

On 18 April, Kuwait falls to Portuguese troops. There is an Iraqi army division nearby. Strangely, they do not seem to be at war with us. However, the British have military access through their lands, so we must still expect they may try to retake Kuwait.

3Apr1942Kuwait.jpg


Around this time, we also achieve a technological advance in Oil Refinement, which may come quite in handy, considering how low our reserves of Fuel are, and how expensive it is to purchase these things from Germany (which is where we are currently purchasing a good amount of Fuel, at great expense!).

By mid April, Somalia has become complicated. We reduced the northernmost British division some, which was now at maybe 30-40% strength and low organization. We decided, rather than sit and wait for developments, that it would be worthwhile to isolate this division by marching to the south. There had been a British division in captured Italian Ethiopia, but they began running north, and we had a brief skirmish with them and defeated them, which forced them into this isolated pocket which we now created.

22Apr1942Somalia.jpg


As you’ve seen elsewhere, Portugal makes a living off of isolating British divisions and pestering them until they surrender.

The Australians have been, during April, as persistent at attacking Port Moresby as the Canadians have been in the Caribbean. They return for yet another attack, which we send bombers against. Our defenders are having trouble recovering from each attack, having little time to recoup losses. And yet overall we’re winning. Moreover, further to the west, another division is harrying an Australian HQ unit, pushing them south along the coast.

27Apr1942NewGuinea.jpg


Those Australians in the north, west of Lae, are isolated without supply, and so they are not moving. We will come back around for them. But now that Perth has become a priority, there will be no further reinforcements coming into New Guinea – these guys are on their own. If they can hold out against the amphibious invasions, they should be able to secure the whole island eventually.
 
Interesting developments. I'd still want an extra heavy cruiser for carib cover. Your condors are tied up in the south pacific. The Australians are sending all thier spare troops and fleet at you in Papua New Guinea. If they are to recover western australia and Perth - which I had assumed was relatively lacking in troops - troops will have to be drawn from other coastal cities allowing Portugal to ferry in troops as you did to take other coastal cities. I can certainly see why you went on to improve your refining capability.

The Italians are waiting for you to exhaust yourself against the defenders of Alexandria and then race you in.

Overall, you still have the initiative. Allied command of the seas has yet to result in a coherent strategy against Portugal.
 
This division begins stairstepping down the coast toward Perth. You might ask why we did this, and don’t think I didn’t wonder to myself as I come upon it in the AAR a year or two after I played this! But if I had to guess it’s because I figured I wanted a larger base from which to move out. The bases on this huge island are far enough from each other that I didn’t want to move against Darwin, or someplace else, and leave behind a mere perimeter around my only conquest. And I may also have wanted a “canary” – an advance warning system – to let me know when the Australians were starting to close in on Perth. I would have been concerned about missing that threat, because my attention is so scattered to multiple theaters at the moment.

Great strategy, a land attack on Perth can only come from Darwin in the north or Adelaide to the east and you have "canarys" on each route. The central deserts would be impassable. A seaborne landing is the only unknown and this wont happen while the Australian navy is active in New Guinea.