Manifest Destiny - A USA mini-AAR

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Introduction and Background

I'm getting started rather late on this AAR as I originally hadn't planned on even finishing this game. After reading about the IC rush strategy for the US on the HOI3 wiki I just had to try it. I figured I'd just see how much IC I could build, then get bored with the overpowered result and start a new game as Germany or SU or something. However, the game was a bit strange from the start and eventually got interesting enough that I want to play it out. Dates in this AAR may be a bit off as I'm going from memory. On the up side, I get to use some hindsight in interpreting the events of the game and will be adjusting governmental policies and public opinion accordingly. This is not a historical game at all.

1936 Major World Events:

January 1936: Civil War in Spain! In the early 1930s imperialists took over the government of Republican Spain using a variety of sleazy tactics including bribery, intimidation, and rigged elections. Knowing full well that Spain simply could not support their grand scheme of re-establishing the Spanish colonial empire, a group of Spanish generals organized a coup in an attempt to avert the massive bloodshed that would result from the government's aim of recolonizing South America. The coup is only partially successful, and soon fighting erupts in the streets.

The imperialist "Republican" government eventually wins.

1936 Domestic Activity:

Some units under construction at the beginning of the year are completed. President Roosevelt breaks the campaign promise that got him elected in 1936 after his 1932 loss and continues the Republican economic policies that brought the nation roaring back from the Great Depression. He does, however, change the focus of American industry to producing consumer products in an effort to make life better for the people. (Switched to consumer product focus law -- gives more effective IC due to massive reductions in consumer goods requirements) Tax incentives on consumer products result in massive investment in new factories. (I'm IC-whoring)

The government also starts on a campaign to export oil. The USA produces far more oil than it can use, and collecting a stockpile of cash will aid the country in future years when the demands of industry outstrip the nation's domestic capacity to produce raw materials.

1937

War in the Far East! Japan attacks China!

The forces of the Imperial Japanese warmongers quickly overwhelm the Chinese, and all the Chinas are annexed in relatively short order. While the US officially disapproves of Japan's aggression, the public greets the news with apathy, regarding China as a backwards nation not worth worrying about. They hardly even have any cars and their farmers can't even hire a tractor to help with the harvest. How uncivilized.

On the home front the economy continues growing rapidly.

1938

The benevolent ruler of Germany, Adolf Hitler, has a grand dream of a peaceful united Europe. Hitler negotiates a union with Austria, which is quickly approved by an overwhelming majority of Austrian voters. The population of Czechoslovakia is divided, however, with the Slovakian population against such a union. They fear that a union with Germany would destroy their cultural identity. Hitler suggests that Slovakia join Germany as a member of a federation rather than becoming part of Germany proper. He had intended something like this all along, as it would be nearly impossible to get France and certain other countries to agree to the formation of a single European union otherwise. Slovakia agrees, and becomes a semi-independent state.

Back on the home front we're still building nothing but IC.

1939

There are no wars in 1939. The world is at peace. The British, however, are growing progressively more belligerent. Publicly they claim Germany is preparing revenge for WWI, but in truth the British Government fears that a united Europe would undermine their power. Britain convinces Poland to join their alliance with a promise to give them eastern Germany and East Prussia, and help them with colonial expansion in the event of war with Germany. Italy, seeing the opportunity for territorial gain from a war with the UK, offers to help Germany in the event of war. Italy also negotiates a mutual assistance agreement with Japan, and convinces Germany to sign it on the grounds that Japanese action in the far east would divert British forces away from Europe to defend their far-flung empire. Germany also approaches the Soviet Union about the belligerent posture of the British Empire. The Soviets are not willing to help against the western powers, but accept Hitler's offer to help keep order in eastern Poland in the event of war.

The USA continues building nothing but more IC.

1940

January 1940: War! The Imperialist British attack Germany without provocation and their French and Polish allies join in the attack. The imperialist Spanish government is eager for a piece of the prize and joins the British led alliance. German forces quickly crush Poland, but are unable to breach the Maginot Line. Hitler is unwilling to attack neutral Belgium, The Netherlands, or Luxembourg. Italy, however, has great success. Italian forces quickly breach French defenses in the south, overrun France, and push on into Spain. France surrenders to Italy, leaving northern France occupied by Italy and resulting in the formation of Vichy France in the south. (This event needs work...) A few short months later Spain falls and is annexed by Italy. Fearing for their existence, Portugal joins the Axis. Italy renames Italian controlled France to "Gaul," and restyles itself as the Roman Empire.

Later in 1940:
The Roman Empire continues its advance, pushing the British across North Africa and invading Greece with the help of their new Bulgarian allies. While the Greek campaign stalls at Athens for a couple months, eventually Greece is incorporated into the Roman Empire.

Back on the home front, we reached 99 construction practical in 1939 and built one more round of factories. Thanks to an aggressive public relations campaign American neutrality is now below 55 and the economy has moved to a war footing. IC builds are stopped in early 1940 at a total of 560 base IC with around 785 effective IC. As the world situation becomes increasingly tense American production is shifted to war preparation. The naval bases on Guam and Wake Island are built up to level 10 in less than a year (99 construction practical is just disturbing). Coastal fortifications are added along with runway improvements. Large scale radar installation construction is also started. The main focus, however, is on the military, particularly the navy. 10 destroyer flotillas, 5 Midway class fleet carriers, and 4 (Model 1940) battleships are ordered in early 1940.

1941
Europe is sort of at peace. While the war continues at sea and in the air, there is no land combat in Europe. The Roman Empire crushes British forces in North Africa and presses on into the middle east. By the end of the year Iraq is in Roman hands.

The United States continues the military build-up in preparation for war. Educational resources are reallocated to production of trained military officers. This first batch of destroyers is completed and a second larger build is immediately commenced. The US also orders a few new submarines and continues building air and land units. After much internal debate, the composition of the armed forces is finally agreed upon by the general staff:

Naval:
Along with the existing fleet, USA will build:
1. More Battleships than any one single country.
2. Enough aircraft carriers such that we have at least 50% more than all the world combined.
3. 2 DDs for every modern capital ship, plus one for each obsolete ship.
4. A few subs. They're almost invulnerable, only good for convoy raiding, and very good at convoy raiding.

Army:
The army will be built around these core unit designs, on an as-needed basis:
General Purpose Armor: 3x arm + 1x sp-art + 1x eng. Good power plus high flexibility.
Heavy Armor: 3x H-Arm + 2x sp-art. 34% softness, great for defense & kills anything soft that sets foot in the open.
Breakthrough Exploitation: 1x L-Arm + 2x Mech Support brigades are too slow. These cost more than L-Arm, but use the same amount of fuel and I don't care about the price with 785 IC.
Heavy Mobile Infantry: 2x Mech + 1x mot + 1x TD + 1x sp-art. Lowest fuel-consumption combined arms unit I don't consider too gamey. Mot + TD bothers me.
Light Mobile Infantry: 3x Mot. Not really intended as a front line combat unit.
Line Infantry: 3x Inf + 1x Art + 1x TD or 3x Inf + 2x Art
Defense Infantry: 3x Inf + 1x Art
Garrisons: 3x Gar + 1x AA. Mostly for Islands.
Invasion Forces: 3x Mar
River Monsters: 3x Mar + 1x Eng.
Mountain: 3x Mtn
Airborne: 4x paras

Air Force:
We are ignoring CAS. Most of our efforts are going into interceptors, tactical bombers, and due to the large naval build, carrier air groups.

 

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November 20, 1941

We are at war. The Japanese Empire attacked us without provocation. Before the attack the American public was mostly concerned with British aggression. After the attack the popular sentiment of the country has changed dramatically. The press is popularizing the idea that the world is full of savages. The only major powers that have not started a war recently are Germany and the Soviet Union. Of course no one trusts the Bolsheviks and the popular sentiment is that they must be put down in good time. The more pressing concerns are the British, Japanese, and Roman empires. As long as they continue supporting the Roman and Japanese empires Germany will also need to be dealt with even though the peaceful Hitler has started no wars so far. With nearly all the "civilized" nations of the world embroiled in war, the public's view of the backward and un-industrialized regions of the world is also shifting. Savage until proven otherwise is quickly becoming the rule, and so far the only exceptions are Germany, the low countries, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Scandinavia.

Note: The game forced me into the Allies when Japan attacked. With 785 IC having allies is no fun, so I edited my save and made the USA unaligned.

Early 1942

Japan's empire continues expanding. Japanese forces have invaded eastern India with the help of their new ally, Yunnan. The Japanese Empire also took the area around Singapore, depriving the British Empire of it's main source of rare materials.

Persia joined the Axis, and with the assistance of Roman troops is advancing into India from the west.

The United States is largely passive in the war, dedicating most of its energies to the military build-up. American submarines based from the Philippines and Guam are raiding Japanese convoys and the Marine Corps captured the Cape Verde islands from Portugal, but otherwise the United States has engaged in almost no combat.

Heavy convoy raiding forced the end of trade with several nations, particularly the Netherlands which were providing us with much needed rare materials. We lost over 20 convoys in a month trying to run the English channel. We still have enough reserves for more than two years, so this is not a major problem. Even without trades our domestic production can support nearly 600 IC, so running out would not be crippling.

In the Spring of 1942 the Japanese Empire attacked the Netherlands. The Neverlands quickly allied themselves with the British Empire, and Germany was forced to occupy the Dutch homeland in order to protect herself.

The American public has finally had enough of British "suggestions" that the United States come to the aid of the Empire. Their Canadian allies are perhaps even more annoying, as proximity makes them much more difficult to ignore. By July 1942 Americans are so fed up with Canadian rhetoric that "blame Canada" jokes regarding the cause of the war have displaced anti-British jokes as the second most popular topic of Sunday newspaper cartoons, though of course anti-Japanese themes hold the top spot.

 

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September, 1942

The public can no longer tolerate the behavior of the warmongering British Empire or their Canadian lackeys. The intelligence service has evidence that Canadian spies acting on behalf of the British were the primary cause of our war with Japan. Shortly after the news breaks the people take to the streets demanding punishment for Canada and the Empire. The US congress has no choice but to declare war on Canada.

Canada falls within 10 days. With all their important cities near their southern border within easy reach of American forces Canada quickly capitulates. Several divisions refuse to surrender, and most of the country becomes defacto British territory. While resistance is minimal, it will take some time to bring the country under control.

As Mexico and Panama are also allied with the British Empire they were attacked simultaneously with Canada. Panama fell almost immediately, though the war in Mexico will probably continue for several months. While their equipment may not be up to Canadian standards, the Mexicans are a tough and hardy people and mor importantly have geography on their side. Forcing our way through the mountainous terrain of Mexico will take some time.

The President and Congress believe that due to cultural similarity annexing Canada is the best option, and lays out a plan for the Canadian provinces to eventually become states. Canadian schoolchildren are tasked with coming up with new layouts for the stars on the American flag.

The United States Navy finally engaged in its first real battle of the war, with a fleet of 3 old New York class battleships and a half dozen modern destroyer flotillas engaging a British fleet composed of a Battleship, a Battlecruiser, the Carrier HMS Hermes, and two light cruisers near the newly conquered Azores. The battle goes somewhat poorly. While the American Battleships moved withing gun range of the Hermes, the light cruisers were successful in protecting the carrier and absorbed most of our fleet's fire. Our destroyers pursued the carrier, forcing the British battleships to flee with the Hermes to protect her from our destroyers. During the chase the 67th destroyer division was destroyed by the HMS King George V. Our old battleships were unable to keep up with the more modern King George V and their engines were no match for the speed of the battlecruiser or carrier. The British got away with serious damage to one light cruiser and mild damage to the King George V, the battlecruiser, and the other light cruiser. We suffered the loss of the 67th, along with significant damage to several other destroyer groups and light damage to the USS New Mexico.

Elsewhere in the world the military situation appears stable. Persian and Roman forces moved slightly into India from the west while the Japanese made small gains in the east of India, but otherwise the situation is mostly static. Germany still hasn't started a single war.


Commentary:
Since I built all that IC I decided to DOW as many countries at once as I had a good reason to, or at least all the factions. I'll attack the Soviet Union as soon as threat & neutrality allow me to. I'd like to be at war with all three factions at once.
The "Panama Canal" strategic effect is so good it's gamey. +10% resources and supply. I almost don't want to get the "Gulf of Mexico" effect, but leaving all those islands in French and British hands is just intolerable.
Germany still hasn't attacked anyone. The British attacked them and their allies started some wars, but Germany hasn't. So far they hold most of Poland and the Netherlands.

 

[Nikolai]

"Peaceful Hitler"...

 

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This sounds rather fun.

But is there going to be another update?

 

[Baltasar]

Seeing that peaceloving Hitler, the USA might want to not actually fight them, as the Wehrmacht doesn't seem up to anything at all save securing their country. Even occupying the Netherlands was merely self defense. You'd might want to edit the safegame to have the Germans drop out of the Axis at some point