My current War has a few twists

[markkur]

I'm sure this is not as rare as it seems to me but thought I'd share anyway. Now into about my 10th HoI3 game, I'm playing as the USA for the third time and I'm watching a much different war unfolding than I've seen before as any nation. This game can be pretty awesome sometimes.

1. The whole thing started when the Czechs said No to Germany and France crossed the line and invaded German soil.
2. Germany and France (as far as I can tell have been slugging it out to a draw {more or less} with Germany only taking Lux and 3 Belgian provinces and several French and that's it. Meanwhile Italy has overrun most of the lower half of France and is now 2 provinces south of Paris with the Germans having possession of only 6 provinces.
3. Italy took Tunis and has marched 3 provinces west but the Brits are on their back-sides and attacking Tripoli after making their typical dash across N. Africa.
4. France took Ethiopia with some UK assistance. So, with all the gained land and since Paris has not yet fallen, nor the northern most cities, France is still kicking, even with most of it painted green.
5. I've seen my 1st 'alliance'. Italy and Hungary signed a joint-alliance before either of them joined the Axis.

Meanwhile, around the globe.
a. Copenhagen and 2 bordering provinces have been walled-up for months but have not fallen.
b. Norway remains untouched.
c. There was no RM-Pact, leaving Romania whole, Poland entirely in German hands and the Baltic states remain independent.
d. The Japanese have taken Singapore and the UK ports to the N.E.
e. Italy did take Albania as usual but Albanian partisans are only 2 provinces shy of taking the entire country back.
f. Japan did not wait to have French Indo-China handed to them, they now have it mostly in hand from the French outright.
g. The SU has gained no lands yet, it's 1940 and there was no Winter-war.
h. Greece and Yugoslavia are peacefully trading while cheering-on the steamrolling partisans in Albania.

Anyway, it looks like a tough road ahead none the less, since France will fall and then Italy is going to be much more potent, unless Germany is scripted for the lackluster win. After France falls, if Italy keeps gains, they will likely take the Med back since the Brits will have to focus on India or lose it.

Even doing all I can, I'm still far from being able to enter the war. Hmm, I quit trading with Japan when they joined the Axis but maybe I should embargo Japan now, instead of waiting to prod them to declare war on me. I've been playing by my personal rule that I will trade with any country 'till they join the Axis' and after that I embargo. {except Japan for the RL timeline} Idk, the US seems too important to the global system to economically starve all the nations that I know will be trouble later on. I want them in their best fighting form, no matter who they are fighting in the end.

You know, one thing bugs me the most about Diplomacy in this game and I always wonder what else the developers were doing the day they decided how Allies would react to each other. This game now, for whatever reason, neither came to me to sell supplies early on and it was always Japan and Germany. France finally did but not the UK. So the UK is at 10 and France around 20. "No, we don't want cheaper trades with potential allies, let our enemies get the bargains." Now, here I am giving 25 LL to both the UK and France and neither are ally-friendly.<L> That's nothing short of nutz! Well, at least it was in 1940.

 

[Uppslitaren]

Interesting read. Is it just me or HoI3 AI usually try to keep everything historical until something unexpected happens with Germany? It's as if all bets are off if that occurs, anything can happen.

 

[10000 Tanks]

My impression too.

 

[Oof]

Your game as the US is probably screwed though. Japan will DOW in November 1941 but it's very unlikely that any of the US events will fire that lowers your neutrality.

 

[Kovax]

I've seen most of those things happen before, but it's unusual to see that many oddities in the same campaign.

Depending on whether Germany sets the "Fall of France" wargoal or not, Italy may either get most of France or get a couple of provinces along the border and nothing else. It could go either way. I would assume that the Winter War isn't firing because Germany is right on the Soviet border now, but that's the only item that I can't say I've had happen.

Copenhagen has lasted for several years in at least one game where I played an Axis minor (I eventually sent troops to take it myself), Japan has been knocking on the door to India (and had a secure beachhead on Australia) by the time France collapsed, Germany's transports got sunk, resulting in and no landing in Norway, I've seen games with Albania taken by partisans or liberated by the UK early in the war (later retaken by the Axis), Italy took Paris a few times, and the M-R Pact occasionally wasn't signed because of an early start to the war. All of that never happened to me in the same game, though.

 

[marxianTJ]

Another thing to watch out for is a lot of the time when Germany's tree gets screwed up Japan can end up at war with the USSR - which is handy for the USA because it's less troops to fiddle with in the pacific, but it makes the race to Berlin a bit more interesting because ideally you don't want Germany to turn into it's post-Barbarossa victory juggernaut form lol.

One of the best USSR games I ever played when I was first messing around with not doing the purges, Germany attacked the Czechs outright, no Munich, and Japan declared war on me in the summer of 39' and I had an epic fight with them in Manchuria, Liberating the Far East, and saving Mongolia (since I had hardly anything in the far east), only to have Germany DOW me on a shortened border in 1940 and have to massively reassign forces to the other side of the country and set up a stable defensive front in the East (France fell almost immediately lol). Tukhachevsky had his work cut out for him that day.

 

[Afganitia]

Another thing to watch out for is a lot of the time when Germany's tree gets screwed up Japan can end up at war with the USSR - which is handy for the USA because it's less troops to fiddle with in the pacific, but it makes the race to Berlin a bit more interesting because ideally you don't want Germany to turn into it's post-Barbarossa victory juggernaut form lol.

One of the best USSR games I ever played when I was first messing around with not doing the purges, Germany attacked the Czechs outright, no Munich, and Japan declared war on me in the summer of 39' and I had an epic fight with them in Manchuria, Liberating the Far East, and saving Mongolia (since I had hardly anything in the far east), only to have Germany DOW me on a shortened border in 1940 and have to massively reassign forces to the other side of the country and set up a stable defensive front in the East (France fell almost immediately lol). Tukhachevsky had his work cut out for him that day.

As USA, a gamey tactic is that before entering war, you lend lease to every axis member at war with urss. Then, they won't fall, or they will do it much later, past 1945. So then you have time to spare to take everything west Berlin and something in the balcans, generally Greece.

 

[ragupasta]

When I've played the USA my relations with Japan are usually high. They don't usually pearl harbour me until I embargo them. After the embargo it's usually a few days after the Dow me. That is if 41' has passed. Sounds an interesting game. Keep playing it and report how things evolve

 

[markkur]

Thanks guys, all good info. And I will report what happens. But, I'll just say that now for whatever reason, things seem (unfortunately) to be fast-tracking back to normal.

It's Feb 41. France fell and even though Germany was far from doing much in France, Germany got the Vichy and Italy, though the actual the Conqueror of France, got the usual Nice region and no more. I have that save I think ,so I suppose I could do a reload and set Italy a conquer goal.<L> But since Vichy appears a scripted event (as far as I've seen, WGs are never actually set by the A.I.) I doubt it would make a difference.

Demark & Belgium both finally fell...about a month after France, just now. The Winter War started as the Late Winter War and is now in full swing. And now my events are starting to trigger. Italy has Malta and Cypress but that's always hit or miss but they have taken Alexandria, so they might reclaim the Med yet. Japan has taken some of the key strategic holding of the Netherlands, so all in all things started heading back to normal m/l/ a couple months after I posted the OP, which is a shame really. The Baltics and the GER/SU relationship still seems a tad iffy but after this reversal it will likely fire too. Too bad but we'll see, the timetable is certainly a mess, so maybe something unusual can still occur. One last 'sort-of' strange thing for me is how close Romania is to the Allies part of the triangle. They're not even under Influence and are heading north fairly quickly. (probably 2/3rds of the way)They've been trading with me like crazy and all the while I been hoping they are making a better army than normal.

 

[Kovax]

You may need to backtrack and have Germany set the "Conquer" wargoal for France BEFORE it sets "Fall of France" (which will usually prevent them from placing their special wargoal). That should give Germany everything that Italy doesn't occupy, but Italy should get whatever it physically controls as long as it sets ANY regional wargoal.

Once "Fall of France" (or any other "historical" wargoal) is set, it will override all of the other wargoals by everyone else, because it occurs LAST and makes changes to provinces REGARDLESS of what has been done already.

 

[markkur]

Thanks Kovax but as You'll read...I blew it! Oil-well, the war-gaming gods had mercy on me and gave me another 10%er.

Ok, a delayed and odd cross-game update.

I continued on for a bit to see how the war would unfold but then did a major bonehead thing by deleting the wrong save-folder. However, as it turned out, that 10% chance happened again for a twice in a row. So, this update is a step backward (in time) but also proving the same unusual game. For now I want to mention a challenge that I have going on right now...naval action.

I'm playing as Japan again and just like the last game, navigating superior Fleets is the name of the game but due to different circumstance this time. My 41/Japan had to contend with huge numbers of enemy warships because I had the only remaining Axis navy but now it has been because I m/l/ have the only Axis navy at the war‘s outbreak. Italy and Hungary signed another alliance (also making another 2-in-a-row) and were long delayed in joining the party. So, from March of 39 till about a week ago (early June) I was up against both the UK's grand fleet and a very healthy French fleet and I was the only show in town.
Needless to say there are lots of enemy subs and surface-fleets in Japanese waters and I cannot do a thing about the invisible pests, other than keep some convoys in queue to not lose ground ahead of the coming-war with the U.S.A.

Again, this is has been a "Royal" pain in the arse with any sea-fight turning into a tag-team affair that ofc I cannot win; more so, since when taking new lands for needed resources airfields are few and far between, so in addition, allied-fleets generally have better land-based support than I can muster. I'm holding my own by sinking as many of theirs as they sink of mine but good admirals will already know, a game of naval attrition is not want the Emperor wants and not one we can win. As it is, my losses knocked me down from my own grand-fleet status and when things are already a tad difficult, losing the org-bonus just makes each sea-joust more difficult.

This 10% twist is a huge change-up to the war. Just like last game, Germany begins the early war fighting in full strength...no where. Poland and the Czechs both put up good slow grinding resistance and the French did the “stab-in-the-back” routine by taking 5 German provinces and then erecting a new [[tank-wall]]. Until the Germans could knock out the enemies in the east, the A.I. was content to add enough forces in the west to hold-the-line till all their forces could be brought to bear in the west.
Another impact that also struck me is how impacting the early war is regarded not only the early beginning of the war but how unprepared I was for an early, full blown war in the Pacific when my mind was all about numbers. I was more sleep-walking and that fact cost me in a few ways.
1. I was not expecting war, so a full Infantry Army was sitting in central China doing partisan duty as I was replacing those units, sitting on much needed resources, with MIL/MP units. This was not real bad since I'd already learned the lesson of building lots of GAR/MIL.MPs and they were in the process of deployment. What was not great though is, with the forever-treks to the coasts and transports, I was far from being optimized operation mode. For the war's start, I had a few Inf-Corps to initially utilize but only 1 marine-corp; I was completely focused on building Naval units 1st and air units were just coming on my radar screen.
2. I attacked the usual places; Hong Kong, the French colony next door and then looked for UK Oil and French Rares which sent me landing forces in Indochina and British Kuatua Beliat.<sp>
3. After 4-5 long tag-team matches, all of my fleets had to retire for repairs and this set the stage for the next dismal state of affairs...my supplies constantly being sunk, while I waited on the Italians to join the war. Until then, I knew there was no reason for the A.I. to ease-up on my forces; A.I. German Navy is always quickly sunk with little fanfare. However, without the Italians sailing the Med, I kept getting unwanted ocean-parties...yes that's right I said "Ocean". It was there too praying on my poor little TPs. “Wait...you just wait...you're days are numbered!”.
4. The last thing I found a hassle, was the fact that since I was not planning to go to war for another 2 years, I was at the beginning of massive upgrade costs and that was only the tip of the iceberg, with Radar coming on board and well...when Radar finished the 1st round, I was not about to delay the upgrading of all my warships and planes; making by CAGS elite had been planned to happen “after” getting the Navy and Radar techs in 1st rate form. So, again...everything was now happening in slow motion but with my fleet facing 2 good fleets with nothing better to do than control the mid to southern south-pacific.
Italy is in the war now. My fleets are mostly repaired with a massive DD build hitting in a few months that will retrieve my GF status and replace serious DD losses. Btw, ‘pulling-out' a few units, after invading, has helped very nasty supply conditions. Now my armies are on very slow marches in 2 areas gathering much needed resources along the way. The French fleet has finally been forced out of Indo-China and the Brits will soon be backed to Singapore and no further. Things are looking better, except I am now racing against the clock to bolster my neglected land and air-power, with the U.S. sure to get cracking much earlier too.

I want to recap one thing about the 10% game, it really IS a different game and a harder start playing as the Germans or Japanese. Germany starts the war fighting 3 nations on 2 fronts and Japan single-handedly starts fighting 2 healthy Allied navies, which alters previous plans to a large degree when the player has to suddenly adjust his reality from "this is want I want” to “this is what I need".
Cheers

 

[markkur]

Well the game-clock slowly moves forward and it is now 6 Dec. 39. What I have found out in this "10% game" is playing Japan makes me think more about how long and excruciating WWII played out in the Pacific. Island-hopping might not be a necessary strategy in HoI3 but I am playing as it is. Thus, this game is one tedious bit o' work.

Fighting 2 fleets has not been easy since I've had to go where the enemy has lots of land-based aircraft and ofc, I have very little that can reach. I'm current and even a little ahead on some Air/Navy techs but hey, it's the British and they're just as good as I am. Taking each of the 5 ports in New Guinea was a long drawn out affair but as I am still playing a RL approach, it had to go first before my going for the rich prizes in the Dutch East Indies; and there was also a lot of oil there.

As far is the Naval clash the French Navy fared better against me than I have against them. We both have sunk 11 ships but I sunk 7 TPs and the French only 3. I took out 1 Cap but they took out 3. On the other hand I have fared much better against the British; I've sunk 25 while losing 13 but here again there was a big desparity in Cap-sinkings and it was well in my favor 10-2. (4 BBs and 6 CAs vs 2BCs) And CL & DD were just as grand for me sinking 13 to losing 3.

At this point all but the Dutch Oil-refinery is in my hands. Singapore remains and is stacked with warships...probably several fleets considering I've captured 10 ports that the Allies were using. (btw, I'm not tagging/peeking this game)
I made a royal blunder by doing a French War-goal. I chose French Indo=China since I had taken it the hard way and didn't care for the gimme that happens w/ Vichy. I did this to add the French Pacific Islands and got them but what I did not stop to realize was that Siam would not follow this play of mine. They are not in my corner and already have given the Brits access. Oil well, I'm now deploying a 5 Division army and it will get a payback soon.

Nothing strange went on in western Europe this time. Even with the Czech "No" the cards played-out as usual after the Germans broke the French Maginot lines.

Wait! There was one fun thing; Mighty Luxembourg took a German province, Bitburg. Needless to say, I did a double-take thinking. "Wth?" For some reason the French gave them 1 good larm-div and 1 inf-div. That was a first for me, seeing Lux deployed in a few places and defending along the line.

The worst aspect of this current game by far is convoy losses. I taken out a few subs from different allied nations but it is nowhere near enough. UK, Neth, French, Can, and Aussie subs are all over the place and there is little that I can do until I reach better ASW techs and that's going to be a while.

After Siam falls, then I will take Singapore by land and save my ships and that will deter at least some of this BS activity. I know the subs were brutal in RL but in this game it seems a tad over the top and really starts getting on the nerves. Maybe this would have been a good area to get more abstract as they have done in other areas where I wish they had not.

 

[Forster]

It seems you are lining in interesting times.
This is really interesting. Too bad you didn't do this as an AAR.

 

[markkur]

Yeah, in hind-sight I think you're right about making a good AAR. I do have a lot of saves but idk, it has been a serious grind and it could read that way too.

Siam fell and is now a puppet. That was a huge mistake (my taking Indo-China as a WG instead of waiting for the handout) because I could not give Siam LL due to a weird glitch. When Siam called it quits, for some crazy reason the Game had them sign a Truce with the Allies! When your puppet has a truce, you cannot give them LL. Supplies were not horrible, my Marines did move down towards Singapore but I did run out of the goodies a few times.

The Oil-refinery, the last Strategic is mine now, Siam's a puppet and a lone Marine-corps is nearing Singapore by land and it's December 39.

Huge convoy losses continue. (even with my ASW being research 2 years ahead of time) However, far worse to me is the insane amount of Naval bases that the Netherlands has even with losing so much land and wealth. There are still like 10 bases left for all allied-warships to collect in and <imo> that is more than silly ...t is ridiculous that a level-1 port could hold such large numbers of ships. The designers could have put an "entry-limit". If a port can only repair 10 ships, then only 10 can enter the harbor and the player has to decide what can dock and what cannot.

Btw, anyone ever found out why it appears Netherlands cannot be beaten? After they fall in Europe, there is no 'Red" in their surrender-bar even though they have nothing left but 1 VP...and those 10 dag-nabbit ports!!!

One other rub; it appears that even though the Philippines had not given the Brits access to their ports, UK ships head-in none-the less to escape from my fleets. There are not other ports for them in the region and yet they disappear and pop-out later.

 

[markkur]

I forgot 2 things that are different for me. 1 that Greece has taken all of Albania and so far the mainland remains untouched; they did lose Mytilene. And 2 is that Communist-China joined the Comintern. I was surprised to see they have a few INFs and lots of MILs. I had to deploy 1 Inf corps to the river just east of their border with me, in case something happens I'll have more than GARs sitting in ports and a few MILs on partisan duty much further south. I really wanted that corps doing more than guard-duty but it would take to long to reach the area without some sort of holding action if war develops.

It's St. Pats day 1940

* The Winter-War happened normally.
* The West fell normally except for my France WG debacle.
* Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are still free.
* Malta and all of N. Africa and Egypt have fallen to the Italians and now they are just outside Bagdad.
* Ethiopia and Mogadishu are in British hands.

 

[sebas379]

Nice going.
The reasin for the dutch issue is an event that fires when germany takes amsterdam and rotterdam, making the netherlands a gie even if they wouldnt be purely vp wise. This to fix the issue of having such a massive colony.

So if you hover over the dutch surrender bar it should say theyr already gie. Same with belgium btw

 

[markkur]

Ok I see. Thank you.

 

[markkur]

Wow. Looks like interest in HoI3 has really fell now. Here it is winter in most places and most fans must be into other games now.

14 April 40 Singapore fell
* I saw a very odd troop-movement by SU through Finland. Lots of troops cutting across to that distant port. Finland joined the Axis.
* Another strange thing is that neither the Russians or the Germans have a solid line of troops along the border. Further, the SU has very large forces stacked against Finland even though they won the Winter War as usual and are now under Truce. With empty provinces bordering Germany this looks really odd.
* The UK still holds Cypress and Gibraltar but that's it and Iraq has fallen to Italy.
* Siam finally went to war with the Brits. and now I can give them a little LL.

It is now June/40

* I've taken Rangoon. By now I have decimated the presky subs and convoy losses have fallen dramatically. I took 14 Ports from the Netherlands alone. All in all I've built 200 convoys solely to supply troops in all these ports and also to bring needed resources to Tokyo.
* I'm trying a new diplomatic strategy for me. Both Yunnan and Sei Ben Ma (sorry, whatever the name) are both near the Axis corner and both have decent armies for small countries. If I can get them on-board I will let them run for India and save me that bother. Also the latter is next door to Communist China and they could help my lone Inf Corps holding that large frontier.
* Romania is still closer to the Allies that to the Axis, so Germany needs to infulence them or they will drift further up.
* Bulgaria has not joined the Axis yet, even with all the fighting raging around them now. Italy finally landed to avenge their loss of Albania to the Greeks and have taken Salonica. Germany and Hungary are now pushing deep into Yugoslavia, so Greece will not be around long now.

 

[sebas379]

The Soviets love to stack insane amounts of troops on the Finnish border. Its an AI thing, I've seen it before. Even to the detriment of guarding the Polish sector, as you have seen here.
Good, keep going for thise ports and drive the Allied subs back.
The Romanian issue *should* be fixed with the SU taking Bessarabia right about now. Give it a bit of time. Bugaria has even less to fear so they tend to take longer for me. Bulgaria really isn't worth any effort though, so just leave them be. Once the Axis secure the Balkans they'll fall in line.

Interesting developments overall, perhaps write an AAR on it someday? I'd follow it

 

[markkur]

Thank you sebas379 you are always ready to help. I would like to do an AAR but honestly my health gets in the way. I wouldn't mind trying something co-op some time but then I'd have to do the on-line bit. You know, old dogs and all of that.

Hopefully the following will be of interest to you and others. This 10% game is really different; I suppose it's more like the game players create when they go the A-historical route which I have not done yet.

One quick Q before I post; Will Bessarabia fire w/o the RM-Pact? I thought I read someone say when it doesn't that all bets are off with Romania. I do hope that is incorrect because that might be a serious hiccup.

11 Nov 40
* Yugoslavia fell in July and Greece in August. For some reason Germany had a heck of a time taking Norway. They invaded Norway long before the Balkans and did not take Norway till mid-October.
* The Baltic nations are still free.
* Romania continues to slowly drift to the Allies.
* The Med remains unchanged, except for the fall of Greece. Cypress
and Gibralar remain in British hands.
* And the center of the German/Soviet line continues to have some
unguarded provinces on both sides.
* My diplomactic efforts to get Yunnan in the Axis now, didn't work, it was wasting LS. Looks like they need the Soviets to go to war again to get the needed nudge.

Well, things are looking very good now, at least pre/USA. I finally turned the corner and broke the backs of the French and UK fleets. For about 6 months it was tit for tat but my strategy of port-strangulation has paid big dividends. I executed my plan in this fashion. With 1 fast CVx3 Fleet and a solid BB Fleet, I used 2 of my 3 Marine Corps & LCTs to assault ports one
by one and leaving 1 MAR div behind until I could either free-up a INF div already guarding a port taken earlier or deploy a new GARx2. This was and is a long drawn-out affair with me making a dozen port garrisons at a shot. I expanded so fast in the Dutch East Indies, Burma and India that I did do quite a bit of swapping INF for MAR so I could keep rolling. Btw, If my assault-fleets took much damage I rotated in a fresh pair.

What happened with this strategy was really good because as I kept pushing 'near-bases' back from my region, it meant British fleets were constantly being reshuffled and I would get to exchange salvos with each port taken. The CVs could always slip my grasp but they were the only ships to be so lucky. For the entire war, the losses are very favorable to me. I've lost 18 ships of which only 4 were Capitols. On the flip-side, I've sunk 92 UK ships and 25 were Capitols. I peeked wondering what they could have left and they have only 1 BB and 2 CAs. This action has allowed both Germany and Italy to have better
fleets than they normally do in Nov/40. The Germans have a half-dozen CAPS and the Italians Fleet is now above 50 total with 3 BBs still surviving.

I have to share something silly but fun. The A.I. made 2 Fusos, so I took the old one and renamed it Markko<L> Sounds more Japanese than Markkur. Anyway it is an old WW1 era BB and I thought it would not last long; I had 3 BCs disappear rather quickly near the start of the war. I finally gave in and made 'Markko" my seriously obsolete BB, "my flagship". The old battlewagon deserved it. It is by far my most destructive warship of the war. 4 BBs sunk. 2 Heavy Cruisers, 3 CLs
and 4 DDS along with 2 TPS.

Ofc, I am not getting carried away because I know the USA will seriously outnumber my fleet when they enter the war, I have 109 ships, not much room to lose in keeping Grand-Fleet status. I would be in much better shape if I had not had to build about 250 Convoys just to supply my far-flung empire and also haul back the goodies. Even worse, is the enormous "Garrison requirement I had to play-by". (my rule) Since I have taken every port from the Brits from Karachi on back including all islands, the number of GARx2 has been huge. Currently I have built 164 GAR brigades and an additional 24 MILs for Partisan duty in China and Indochina. If China ever 'cools' most of those will go to India.

How do I compare to the Germans and Italians? Glad you asked. Total German Brigades stand at 452, Italy at 150 and due to the heavy port guarding load, mine is at 413, unfortunately only about 150 are true fighting units. In the water I'm way ahead of course but my Allies are not looking as destroyed as they usually do by this date. Against my 109, the Germans have 27 ships and the Italians 50. With planes I'm not quite where I had originally planned to be but since Germany is a good measure when it comes to planes, I'm not going to complain. They are sitting at 56 while I am right behind at 52. The difference between our Air-Forces is known to most players. Germany goes for the powerful combo of Interceptors and Combat Assault while the bulk of my focus is on CAGs and MRs. I also have 9 NAVs that Germany 'mostly' counters with TACs.

One thing does annoy me in this game; My CVs never sink anything but subs. I'm glad for that because the Brits have no more atm but do you guys see your CVs ever taking out surface ships?

To close for now; I've taken all ports in India and have 2 corps of INF pushing west from Rangoon and one INF Corps & 1 MTN Corps pushing north from Chittagong towards Nepal and Bhutan...those puppets will be out very soon. The rising sun might be near it's zenith but time will tell very soon. Peace with the U.S. will not last till Dec/41. Probably very early in the
year, my war will radically change. I've already moved a few fleets and wings to my major defensive base at Truk.