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*