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"Well, gentlemen.", Durant said, after downing his glass of champagne. "That was, admittedly, exceptionally good. The best I've had.. well, perhaps ever. But, now, I must converse with you once more."

Lerew looked up, slightly wary, but still under the warm glow of success. "Yes, Prime Minister? I mean, Durant."

"Well, essentially, since our catastrophic failure at Liverpool, we cannot again attempt an direct amphibious invasion of England. However, I have been briefed on a new unit of ours - they are named paratroopers. A most cunning plan has been revealed to me, and, of course, I'll need you two to look over it."

He gestured to a map up on a nearby board, and threw on the lights.

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"Now, my friends, let me explain - just now, and I'll take your critiques in a minute."

"Firstly, we move the 1st Carrier Taskforce to the east of Inverness. With the British Fleet decorating the bottom of the ocean, and the Airforce dedicated to fighting off German raids, we should be able to to accomplish this with ease. Secondly, a paratrooper landing is made in Inverness, and, meanwhile, approximately six infantry divisions, and three armored ones are brought to the coast of Inverness. As soon as the paras secure the coast, we land our troops, and use the 1st Carrier Taskforce as an escort to secure the passage of more troops up the coast. One of our three-division infantry corps will capture Scapa Flow, and a division from the second landing will take Stornoway. With these areas captured, the British will be unable to effectively encircle our troops, ensuring the safety of the invasion."

He took a breath, and continued. "Our second infantry corps from the first landing will secure the major landing zone - Dunfermline and Aberdeen, and sit at Dunfermline to ensure that we can land trops there for some time. Our tank corps will move swiftly south, taking Glasgow and Edinburgh, where they will stop, as any further advance will be liable to take far more troops."

"From there, we will move the Second Carrier Taskforce up in the area, as to support our troops in Edinburgh. Once we hold Edinburgh, and have made sure the airbases in Glasgow can be used, we will transfer the majority of our airforce in Northern France to Glasgow, which will then conduct devastating raids on Blackpol and Sunderland."

"Once we have secured Scotland, we will be able to move the majority of our troops in France and Spain into Glasgow and Edinburgh, and, from there, crush the British with superior numbers and air power."

The two men had sat silently, listening. Lerew almost felt the need to raise his hand before he spoke. But he spoke, and there was only one complaint. "Durant.. I'm not sure if our transports have that sort of range."

"I have commissioned the increasing of transport range with an independent company, Mr. Lerew. If our transports are not sufficient, they will be within the year."

"I see."

Colvin sat there, simply smiling. "This is easy enough, sir. Our carriers are up to the task, with the Navy out of commission. Provided that Lerew can get the paratroopers in there, I'll have no trouble hauling the rest of the army across."

"Excellent. Colvin, Lerew. I expect preparations being started tomorrow. The more quickly Britain falls, the better.."
 
"Well, sir, the invasion has been completed. Britain is ours."

"This... this is the greatest day of my life. No, our lives. We have wrested France, America, and Britain back from the Syndicalists.. we have accomplished almost everything we could ever want to do. I must say.. go over the slides again. Show me the glorious invasion once more. I wish to remember it, every strategy, every cunning tactic you used, General. It will be etched in my mind forever."

Uncomfortable, the general sat, and flicked up the first slide.

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Phase 2

"Well, sir, as you know, we took Dunfermline following the paratrooper assault - an assault which was made successful by our coup and alliance with Ireland, which allowed us to ferry Irish troops to Dunfermline to prepare for an assault on Glasgow. However, the Brits managed to push us back, holding twenty divisions to our twenty. Unable to move forward, it looked as if the invasion had ground to a halt. However, they had left the south undefended."

"So we took Plymouth, which they had left entirely ungarrisoned, and, from there, landed a major invasion force, which pushed up through Bristol, London and Birmingham. With the retreat of the British forces in Portsmouth, we landed a tank corps there, and took Dover."

"Another corps landed in Sheffield, effectively encircling the six British divisions in Norwich, which we then destroyed."

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Operation Locked Doors

"We begun what we termed Operation Locked Doors, which was, in effect, to lock our forces in place, and prevent any effective British counterattack from emerging. With our force in Dunfermline preventing the usage of the largest British force on the isle, however, they were unable to effectively counter our incursion. With our airforce operating at full efficiency, and continuously attacking them, although conducting raids that produced heavy losses on both sides, the Brits were unable to maintain an effective organized army, allowing us to advance at will."

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The Final Offensive

"From here, sir, we simply advanced - keeping the Brits unable to respond to our attacks, and, at this time, the war was almost over. The invasion began in June, sir, as you would know, and this is in November, some months later. Consistent early British counter-attacks in the north prevented us from landing the second invasion force until much later."

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The Siege of Glasgow

"The Siege of Glasgow. Begun on November 11th, ended on December the 26th. For nigh on two months, those Scots held out, sir, against a force with overwhelming air and sea superiority, a 4-1 advantage in numbers, and consistent air and sea attacks. We suffered approximately 82,000 casualties, out of the 18 divisions that were there, discounting Irish forces, who comprised another 22 divisions, and suffered much higher casualties than we did, losing perhaps 160,000 men, the vast majority of our forces there. Glasgow was almost impossible to take - our forces were primarily armored and mechanized, and the city was a winding maze of mess. The Scots threw up back time and time again - eventually, we had to strike against all logistical areas in the city, primarily the streets, and razing most of the houses to the ground, to be able to take it. This was, incidentally, sir, against a force of 100,000 men. We estimate they suffered perhaps 18,000 casualties during the siege. However, upon the taking of Glasgow, as you ordered, we took the prisoners, and interred them in the Isle of Man, which the Syndicate had fashioned to use as an isle for political prisoners."

Another slide came up.

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"And this, here, Prime Minister, is the current strategic situation in Europe. Dark-green areas are occupation zones, light green areas are either countries we are allied with, or

"Excellent, General. Incidentally, how did our sideshow campaign in the Pacific go?"

"Well, sir, we managed to take the vast majority of land from both Siam and Burma, leaving them with a single city each, so that we would be seen more favorably by the Germans, and also, in the case of the Siamese, to serve as a buffer against China. We suffered minimal losses, but the resources gained are well-worth it, in industrial terms. However, Bingham-White's spy network tells me that we have just exceeded Germany in industrial capability - at an approximate ratio of 21-20. It is very minor, but give me three years, and I'll give you an army the equal of Germany's, sir."

"Excellent, excellent. You'll have your three years, General. We have the most powerful navy in the world - but our airforce has been once again superceded, and so I wish to build up our army to a level where we are challengeable only by the Germans..."
 
I've liberated Scotland, yeah. It cost me dissent, but, at this time, since I'm not planning to go to war for awhile, I can deal with it. Plus, considering Scotland total has around 12 IC, which equals 4.2 IC for me, the dissent there isn't worth it, unlike England, which is worth around.. 80 IC, so the 28 IC from England will pay its own garrison forces off. (Well, it's more like 35, really, given my industrial efficiency)

Russia has more-or-less collapsed - Turkestan is now hungrily absorbing the Don-Kuban Union, having finished Persia off, and is now a 70 IC monster (from a humble 30 IC beginning). The Soviets have around 80 IC, but they're in no shape to do anything.

Of course, at this point.. Germany outnumbers the Allies with around 240 divs total, 40 aircraft wings, and 117 ships. It has another 200 divs and 10 wings from its assorted allies, although only a few scrappy ships from those.

By comparison, the Entente has around 280 divs total (but almost 100 of those are American ones, and I'm unable to milcontrol them), probably 60 air wings, and over 150 ships. We're horribly outmatched on land, but we have almost 20 carriers, to the German 2, and another 16 CVLs.

And the Siege of Glasgow was insane. The Scots seemed determined on inflicting MASSIVE manpower losses all the time, irregardless of how much I interdicted and coastally bombarded them. In the end, I just kept attacking, reducing their infra so they couldn't recover..
 
Ah, another posting fool. But, I am finally caught up. I really had to cringe when Durant ordered the French syndicate officers shot. Nice European campaign though, right up to the liberation of Scotland, which does make sense. You'll bring your dissent down, but putting up with scottish rebels...Och.
 
Now, I think, is a time for a brief explanation. A few days ago, I enjoyed a LAN party. Normally, this would be a time for celebration - mainly because I played an intensely fun and awesome game of DD during the LAN, (Russia and Britain versus Germany and the US?). Of course, today, I decided to turn to my Kaiserreich, and continue the AAR.

Mystery. No KR. Weird. I ran a search on my hard drive, found absolutely nothing. Very strange. So, then, I talked to one of my friends who was there later today.

"Oh, yeah. I noticed you had three versions of Hearts of Iron on your PC, dude. And we were running out of room for other games we were playing then, so I deleted two of them. That's fine, isn't it?"

Arrrgggggggghhhhhhhh.

No, it wasn't. 'cause, y'know, one of those was my HSR install (Which, thankfully, I hadn't got any important saves on), and the other was my Kaiserreich install. Luckily, I did play almost through the war with the Germans - and I'll be (unfortunately) finishing off this AAR with a brief run-down of that campaign, so far as I can remember it. It's kinda sad that it came to this, but I just don't possess the capability to rebuild a save game of that size, that had gone so far, from scratch

Firstly, a major attack was launched on the two Ottoman North African puppets, Libya and another who's name I can't remember, taking them with ease, and defeating a major Ottoman task force of around 18 divisions, encircling and destroying them.

The Ottoman navy managed to catch a Carrier Task Force in a storm, and sunk two of my finest carriers, for a single destroyer lost. With this, I requisitioned the Canadian and newly-built British forces in the area, as well around 15 Portugeuse destroyer groups, which managed to once again restore naval superiority within the Med.

I then invaded and puppeted Albania, giving me another European mainland puppet, and, from there, launched a major naval invasion of the Ottoman Empire. Australia invading the Ottoman Empire amphibiously. This time, though, the British were under our command, and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams - the Ottomans sat all of their troops in Istanbul, and, although we couldn't roust them from there, nor could they effectively counter-attack with any power.

We managed to puppet the Ottomans after a series of fierce battles, forcing them to relinquish most of their 'colonial' (non-national Arab provinces), and puppeting them, as well as all of their puppets beforehand (it crashed otherwise), giving me an excellent stranglehold on the Med. I owned Gilbratar, and the Bosphorus. Only Suez remained under German control.

Of course, relations with the Germans had never been better, at a consistent +200. It seemed they approved of our invasion of every nation that wasn't part of their alliance. Ukraine, on the other hand, was part of the German alliance. And Ukraine hated us. We had a NAP with them - so they DoWed Bhutan. Yes. Ukraine DoWing Bhutan set off WW2.

From there, it was an unwinnable war. We inducted the Japanese and the Turkestanis into our alliance, but the mainland was a German playground. Our forces in France were annihilated, despite the Fort-10s we'd set up there, mainly due to overwhelming German air power, and a 6-1 numerical disparity in forces. On the bright side, we conducted a successful invasion of Ukraine, annexing it within a few weeks.

We were driven back to Iberia, where we managed to hold the line for weeks. Britain was held by Irish troops. However, the battle for naval superiority would determine the victor. He who could move his men by sea would be able to win with ease. The fall of Suez allowed Australian troops to reinforce the Iberian front quickly - although the loss of Italy as well meant that German bombers operated unstopped in the Mediterranean, meaning transports had to be moved clandestinely.

As it stood, the battle between the Central Powers and the Entente was heating up, navally, when a major shift in power took place. I gained 1 more IC than the Combined Syndicates, allowing me to milcontrol them. Fifty divs were shipped to Britain immediately, a few lost due to German battlecruisers in the area.

It was then that the Battle of the North Sea took place - seventy German ships versus sixty Allied ones. It was here that a storm managed to cripple the Australasian fleet - eight carriers lost in the most disastrous fleet engagement since the war with the Ottomans. However, overall, the Allies won the engagement, especially with the air superiority that they had in the North Sea, destroying 80% of the German ships there, leaving them with no carriers, and 2 battleships.

From here, however, was the most painful part of the entire war. Repeating the events of the Great War, the German army invaded a stripped-of-men Australia, pushing inexorably on, taking the entire continent. India was held, luckily, keeping Australia in the war, although diminished. However, Germany began pushing into Iberia, cutting off almost forty divisions from their supplies, eliciting a major retreat, back to Britain, a Dunkirk of sorts. With the Entente driven from Europe, and Ukraine on the verge of falling to superior enemy ground strength, the conclusion of the war seemed almost foregone.

Here, I saved, thinking of a way to turn the war around. My plans were to D-Day in Normandy, and use my superior naval power to cut off almost all of the German army in Spain, and then encircling and destroying them. From there, I assumed, a long and bloody war to retake Australia was in order (The Japanese were succeeding marvellously at failing to take Darwin, despite an almost 4-1 advantage over the Germans there, and air and naval superiority), and, from there, using the Entente superior industrial power to fight a war of attrition that Germany would eventually lose.

Of course, this never came to pass, unfortunately, and so I will retire from the DD AAR scene for awhile - to write a little CK storyish-thing I have in the works, and, perhaps one day, Australia will once again rise to rule the world.

*mumbles something about never leaving his computer alone with his friends again*
 
I am sorry your friend deleted your games. Thanks for the rundown on what you could remember. Looks like things were getting a little desperate and could have been a good story. Good job overall. I will try to find you CK offering.