Nuke èm by 1943 - a German AAR

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 24
Northern wing pockets Soviet armies in Finland​

The South front is finally secured, not much is going to happen here until BP. A good training ground for air fleets though - all low infra provinces with just 1 to 2 Soviet divisions make air fleets shine without heavy damage causing delays in repeated bomber raids ...

July 25 in the North of the USSR another encirclement was just closed east of Moscow at Vladimir. This one is especially hard to close - you have to take chances - as the entrance into Saransk is extremely slow (it´s an infra 20 province).



Further North the Fins could already be puppeted by the Soviets. 5 of 7 victory points taken, but again the AI scripts are unable to either spot or take advantage of the opportunity. Which opens exactly the opportunities I aimed at - the pocketing and destruction of all Soviet armies north of Leningrad. German armies closed yet another encirclement around Velikije Luki and slowly cut off the Soviet armies en route Tichvin, Timosjino and Segezja. No real organized resistance anywhere and German armed forces are doing well even in woodlands.

August 11 the trap was closed. Bypassing Tichvin and using opportunities German forces had secured Timosjino, Petrozavodsk and Segezja. A temporary hole at Leningrad and Viipurii was used to push trough there. Note that even a level 5 land fort is not going to help you if an understrength corps of 2 infantry divisions is attacked by brute force with the help of an airfleet. While German divisions already captured back Helsinki for the Fins, armoured troops are just pushing the Soviets out of Tampere. From now on the Soviet troops will lose org and strength and slowly vanish.



Remind yourself to watch the oil drops displayed in the units window closely after having entered allied terrain. You can nearly take supplies for granted, but oil is a different thing. If necessary set up a supply convoy to allied terrain - if you provide enough oil, your mobile troops will get their share.

I could have fired Bitter Peace just a few weeks after. But having a boring time before me anyway I decided to prolong the war until early November, the Soviets down to just some 50 divisions and a few aircraft wings. The 12 ship strategy for the fleet blockading Leningrad paid off btw - the fleeing Soviet fleets (21 ships, among them 13 subs) were beaten without too much damage and no German ships lost.

But before entering the boring time between end of 1941 and late 1943 (attack on the USA) let´s take a look at Germans loyal allies.

Far East the japanese had recovered from initial backslashes - supported by strategic redeployments of Soviet troops - and secured Vladivostok already.



The annexation of Australia and New Zealand by Japanese and Italian (!) troops was only a matter of time, both countries more or less forceless and not able to resist any longer. In the long run just another AI oddity popped up - the Italians had a sizeable force (including good armoured) at the "important" isle of Hobart south of Australia still early 1944.



South Africa saw the strat of the stalemate between Italian and South African forces that would last for another year. 6 South African divisions faced 1 (!) Italian, but the whole Italian bomber force. Which - in good supply - would attack with 1 (!) plane at any given time. Supported by as well repeated attacks of the 1 (!) Italian division the story would be long but not amusing - but I did not bother, South Africa was not on my list of to be annexed countries. In fact I was glad this war was drawn for that long - otherwise I would suddenly find Germany at peace and with a few hundred more IC having to contribute to consumer good demands.

 

[Dr Rare]

Whats Next?

Its all going really well,got to wonder who is going to be left for you to nuke once you get all the nuke techs.

but of course i guess its going to be the USA.They seem worryingly quiet about whats happening in the pacific!!!And can your allies be trusted not to declare war on them? STRIKE FIRST!!!!

Hopefully when they do join in you will be closer to nuking them by plane/or ICBM than they are to nuking you

Loving the detail,breakdowns,tactic tips and game pics !A great all rounder AAR

Dr

 

[unmerged(46903)]

Really enjoying this one. I however must continue to protest the lack of Fallschirmjagers !

The crushing breakout from Metz (and the casualties) could have been avoided with a well plopped paratroop.

When you grabbed Karachi and noticed the Indian Mountain province empty, a jump would have been in order.

What? Moscow is empty? Send in the JU52's. You were lucky your Tank didnt arrive to find 15 infantry fortified at level 5 in Moscow. Leningrad and Stalingrad are also prime para targets.

I still prefer 1.06c for a couple reasons .... AI killer aircraft stacks can still be whittled down with consecutive attacks with fighter groups of 6. Send in first stack, when it loses, send in stack 2, follow up with stack 3 for the coup de grace. Keep the AI air units on the run.

Also 1.06c wont let you nab Austria prior to March 38. It also does a better job of beach garrisons (5 divisions in Coventry behind level 2 coastal forts is a tough nut to crack, I suppose its better then the 17 in Portsmouth or the 15 in Plymouth). The AI doesnt leave Gib empty, and is capable of plopping 15 divisions into Caen or Rouen in 1940/41. Of course waves of lone ranger suicide divisions are still prevalent to keep you honest.

Favourite UK invasion strats? A para in Sheffield (boom insta port but a longer supply convoy, usually from Kiel), or about 12 Divisions storming ashore in Coventry (no port but a quick convoy from Antwerp, tough intervention by the Home fleet from Portsmouth into the Eastern Channel).

I tend to avoid Southhampton (embarrassing when your English supply/resource stockpile goes poof on a USA DOW), Portsmouth (usually heavily garrisoned/fortified and guarantees driving the RN into the channel and your supply convoys right when you dont want them there), Edinburgh (too far north and too easy to bottle up at Glasgow/ Newcastle), or Plymouth (too far west and the channel traffic plays havoc on supply convoys).

In 1.06c even with Britain taken out the USA will show up with a 10-15 division D-Day across the Atlantic in 42. If you just have a couple Romanian's defending there's going to be trouble.

1.06 c also takes away Armoured Spearhead Doctrine from the Czech events, no Panthers until you do some additional research legwork.

For 1.06c my personal goals for March 39 are to have my Mark IV 70 mm's building (Mark III 50 mm are almost the same stats and good enough to start the war), Improved Fighter (FW190) rolling off the production lines, and about the same number of divisions ready to roll.

I bully Denmark however before I put the hammer down on Poland. The reason is two fold, Denmark is only 1 % dissent to DOW, as opposed to Poland's 2 %. It has a fairly good chance of making the Allie's DOW you, and if Poland has been scooped up you get into the war with a slight savings on dissent. It blocks the Baltic off (Danzig is a tough nut to crack with 15 French divisions garrisoning it). If the Allie's abandon Denmark, keep the war rolling, the Netherlands are another easy country to DOW (you are going to do it eventually). Eventually the goal is to make Britain and France DOW YOU. They will eat a nice dissent hit for that.

No M-R pact with the Soviets? Its very embarrassing to have the Red Army knocking on the Reichstags doors in 1940 after an early DOW, which usually comes right at the moment everyone is marching to France after razing Warsaw, most embarrassing to have to turn around or risk losing all your hard won eastern gains. Sure you can turn around and kick Soviet butt however doing that leaves France and Britain knocking on the door in the West. Let them have the Baltic states and eastern Poland (Build Infrastructure from Lwow to Wilno immediately after Polish annexation, your Panzers will appreciate it the next year when they roll east). the farther west the Soviets start the easier it is to encircle them and end it all when you invade.

Best not to risk Soviet intervention till the West is knocked out.

1.06 c is a lot harder than 1.05, and not just because of the air stacking penalty, which can be overcome by managing your aircraft. But I gotta agree Core 0.91 is probably the best of them all, although i hate the constant (U) upgrades on everything and the kitchen sink in Core.

Carry on, its always good to see things from a different perspective !

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 25
Bitte Peace​

November 06 I fired Bitter Peace. The USSR was down to less than 50 ground fighting units and had lost Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Magnitogorsk, Baku, Archangelsk and Vladivostok, no viable fighting chance left.



Europe German, the Pacific Japanese and only two minor allied countries left, South Africa and Canada.



So where to go from here?
I took a look at the forces comparison screens to evaluate US strength.






No surprise - it was just catching up in land forces, had numerical superior air forces and its fleet was apparently stronger than mine (the screen is a bit misleadsing as some dozen German battleships and cruisers are just in upgrade qeues to apply new radr techs). The USA had a 100% war entry level since late 1940.

My decision at this point was a conservative cautious one, I would go to war wth the US no earlier than after having my first nukes. If the AI eventually could provide a real challenge, the decision might have been justified. But here I admit I just was too cautious, I could have most likely thrown the US out of the way in 1942 taking Canada on the way.

But the decision has been made, thus I had to expect nearly 2 pretty boring in game years of pure research and armoured troops upgrades. The Japanese AI scripts not harmed by human brain interventions used the German idle time to annex Canada in late 1942, after a good dozen failed invasions by low numbers of Italian and Japanese divisions in the meantime.

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Really enjoying this one. I however must continue to protest the lack of Fallschirmjagers !
The crushing breakout from Metz (and the casualties) could have been avoided with a well plopped paratroop.
When you grabbed Karachi and noticed the Indian Mountain province empty, a jump would have been in order.
What? Moscow is empty? Send in the JU52's. You were lucky your Tank didnt arrive to find 15 infantry fortified at level 5 in Moscow. Leningrad and Stalingrad are also prime para targets.

I still prefer 1.06c for a couple reasons ....

1.06 c also takes away Armoured Spearhead Doctrine from the Czech events, no Panthers until you do some additional research legwork.
!

I got and considered your (and others) justification for paras. I just do NOT see it pays off in my experience. Its a complete tech tree to research (plus eventually para equipment after having the industry tech Nylon) and that just kills the whole idea. Your examples don´t give me a better prospect - I never ever had trouble securing Soviet cities on opportunity or after encirclements in a dozen games. The paras would have most likely not been available in Nepal and I usually reach Metz before French troops if my timing is correct ...

And a small nitpick - "Armoured Spearhead" is not on the list of received techs in the Munich events in 1.05. Thus - as I explained - I made it with basic medium 70 instead, the Panther jump is a real minor one anyway and would make NO difference.

Regards,

Thorsten

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 26
The world before the invasion of the USA​

September9, 1943, Germans were ready to storm the USA. Using the isle of St. John as a staging area for about 150 divisions and 50 air wings, the German forces are in their place just before the declaration of war. 3 nuclear bombs on board of Germans strategic bomber air fleet would take care for each troop concentration above 20 divisions on US soil.



The first target would be Concord, scheduled for the moment after the DOW when big parts of the US air units concentrated there would be gone elsewhere.

5 transport fleets at the coast of Savannah were ready to release 44 German divisions storming Atlanta.



But before we go into the action, let´s take a look at the world.



Europe is fascist. With the exception of Switzerland, Albania and Portugal each remaining country is in the Axis. Turkey did stubbornly refuse the exerted diplomatic pressure - yet. And Albania as Switzerland were simply too unimportant to draw attention - yet.

South Africa went to Italy finally in early 1943, Canada to the Japanese already in late 1942. South America is free and firmly democratic as no German efforts have been made to correct that mistake . It would not really matter, wether now nor in the future.

Before I explain the battle plan for the uS invasion and show the real action, I will once again (and for the last time) examine forces and research as well as consider the how, when and why of the upcoming invasion including potential risks and player mistakes.

 

[Dr Rare]

Invasion USA 1943!

Invasion USA 1943,i am looking forward to this and imaging the alternative history that would go with this game,Europe overrun and communism vanquished by fascism.Only America left Isolationist,surrounded....Wait up,i just realized,its like the script of "Red Dawn" only Nazis instead of commies in 43 instead of the 80's :rofl: