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TheCheeseMaster

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Mar 3, 2010
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ScrambleForAfricaEmblem.jpg

Through Africa and beyond!

Welcome
Hell everyone, this is my second "Doomsday, we're all going to die, why didnt I pick Germany?" AAR and my third AAR overall.

I am English, and therefore, know absolutely nothing about Ethiopia and their history, except what I can gather from wikipedia, Paradox games and a hint of imagination. If I do make a mistake, you might be the only one that notices it so keep your mouth shut!
Deja vu? for anyone who read my Polish AAR

I will be playing with Semper Fi with Common Weapons, the 1936 Scenario and most the Sprite packs (the exception being the recent German addition).

Contents
Part One - The War Of Fearlessness
[post=12786533]Chapter One - Fame[/post]
[post=12787572]Chapter Two - The initial set-up[/post]
[post=12788052]Chapter Three - Fighting[/post]
[post=12790128]Chapter Four - The End Is Neigh[/post]
[post=12790345]Chapter Five - Victory In Ethiopia[/post]

Part Two - The Preparations
[post=12793503]Chapter Six - Lines[/post]
[post=12794564]Chapter Seven - Boring Year[/post]
[post=12797564]Chapter Eight - Winter Peace[/post]
[post=12867648]Chapter Nine - End Game[/post]
 
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Chapter One - Fame

The Haile Selassie reign of power began in 1916, he is the current King of Ethiopia and one of the worlds greatest minds. In 1935, the world watched as he gave the League of Nations a piece of his mind saying that Italy will breach LON's rules and invade another nation within the League. His speech became famous, but his fame cannot buy you a army capable of defending from the tyrant that is the Italian Africa.

Fame could only buy you pathetic Militia regiments.

Selassie-on-Cover-of-Time-Magazine-1930.jpg

Time magazine declares Haile Selassie the "King of Kings"

Its now January 1936, Italy has declared war on Ethiopia. The "King Of Kings" has his work cut out for him as he, and his guerrilla forces have to fight the tank rolling, body smashing death machine surrounding them and attempt to counter back at them to invade the continent.

This is the Scramble For Africa.
 
Man, you have some courage!
Tried this one too, wanted to try a comic AAR, but it ended so quic... eh, nevermind. Good luck!
I've got a pretty damn good plan. I can assure you I will last until 1939....assure you...

____
Chapter Two - The initial set-up
Ethiopia is the most powerful nation in Africa, out of all the 3 nations, it has the largest economy, military and area. It's situated on the horn of Africa, bordering France, Britain and the enemy - Italy. At the start of the war; Ethiopian borders looked like this:
HoI3_1-13.jpg

Ethiopia - The Greatest Nation In Africa

As soon as the Italian-Abyssinia war was declared, Emperor Selassie knew the importance of getting the administrative stuff out the way, as soon as possible.

Diplomatically, Ethiopia was right in the middle of the alliance "triangle". The German/Italian Fascism was becoming a threat to the other two, relatively peaceful alliances (of the Soviet Union and of Democracy).

The Ethiopian Political System was leaning the nation towards Fascism and Democracy but generally, Politics don't matter.

All of the nation's greatest minds come together to help sort out the nation. Unfortunately, the nation's armies need leaders for this war more then any other thing, which will greatly harm the country's espionage and diplomacy. However, you cannot say no to a powerful army.

HoI3_3-14.jpg

Selassie sorts out stuff

Next on the agenda is the nations industrial power, as was stated earlier, Selassie is in charge of the economically greatest nation in Africa with a full 16 factories in its cities. All industry was put where it was needed and the rest being used to pull together some reinforcements for the war.

HoI3_4-13.jpg

Best economy in Africa, laughable.

With all the boring stuff out the way, the Emperor Selassie deals with what Emperors should deal with, war! But first, an overview of what the army looks like: the army is divided into 3 corps. The first and most powerful army is the Imperial Army based in the nations capital, the other 2 are comprised of Militia regiments and based in the north and south. Ethiopia is split in two by the terrain. Mountainous in the north and deserty in the south.

HoI3_9-10.jpg

The Grandest army for such a grand nation

And then, IT WAS TIME FOR WAR (planning)! The plan that Time's "man of the year" was to follow was a quick and nice defensive line in the north that would be backed by one Militia corps and the Imperial Army.
HoI3_11-11.jpg

Defend is the best form of Attack

While, conversely, down south, the second Militia corps would attack to attempt to gain land. The attack seemed far fetched but the numbers seemed to speak for themselves.
HoI3_12-6.jpg

Attack is the best form of Defense

Selassie looked at his watch:
01:00 January 1 1936
 
Chapter Three - Fighting
The battle for southern Ethiopia was well under way, the majority of the fight took place in the province of Dhuusa Marreeb where 21'000 Ethiopian soldiers met 21'000 Italien's. However, the battle didn't last long as on the 4th January, due to tactical reasons the Emperor Selassie himself asked for a retreat. The government did not expect the local river to give such trouble, the casualties were minor though.
HoI3_13-8.jpg

The battle report

The corps retreated towards Addis Abeba, the capital of our nation. This was due to a different Italian regiment edging their way up the flanks of the country.

On the 11th of January a new battle report arrived at the office, in the mountainous north of the country, the Militia corps was under attack and, despite the numerical disadvantage, the Italian scum could still do some serious damage to our unprepared front.
HoI3_15-4.jpg

Three weak vs one strong

The Imperial Army had barely left Emperor Selassie's palace before he got to see the report. With a different enemy march down the end of the mountains, the Militia squadrons had to retreat in order to stop a major catastrophe.
HoI3_16-4.jpg

The situation looks grim

A new defensive line was drawn up with our forces being moved back one province. This would stretch our troops further in replace of actually having troops to defend, so a good idea. But, it would still take some time for the troops to get into place.
HoI3_18-4.jpg

The new plan

On the 18 January, a new war was declared: The Spanish Civil War. All around spain, thousands of Spanish lifted up their arms (and with their arms: guns) and fought their enemy. Within hours, the Civil War became a proxy war as Germans, Italiens, Soveits, Mongolians and Tuvanians all turned up to take sides in the conflict.
HoI3_19-3.jpg

The history of the new Civil War

On that same day, Emperor Selassie finally reorganized the nations leadership, switching from the no longer needed officer recruitment to evening it out on espionage and diplomacy as well with focus on research.
HoI3_20-3.jpg

The new leadership arrangement

Back to the war, the Militia corps was hopelessly surrounded as it couldn't make it to the defensive line in time for to defend. Instead it was outmaneuvered by the Fascist Blitzkrieg strategy, this meant Ethiopia was in dire need of assistance and Selassie would need a miracle to keep his reputation up.
HoI3_21-3.jpg

And a miracle is what ye shall have...
 
Talk about underdogs. Good luck. I guess if you can survive and join the allies you might be able to do some damage.

An idea might be to concentrate on researching doctrines like people's army (or what not) that do not cost any IC to implement, instead of equipment upgrades that you will have trouble affording the IC to upgrade to.
 
Talk about underdogs. Good luck. I guess if you can survive and join the allies you might be able to do some damage.

An idea might be to concentrate on researching doctrines like people's army (or what not) that do not cost any IC to implement, instead of equipment upgrades that you will have trouble affording the IC to upgrade to.
I didn't really think about that, I guess it doesn't really matter in the long term as we will have to upgrade the troops at some point. All the INF are level 0.
______

Chapter Four - The End Is Neigh
The conflict continued for days as hundreds of Ethiopians struggled to defend their nation against the powerful Italians. It was obvious our troops had worse weapons as despite our massive numerical advantage, the European guns were too powerful.
HoI3_24-2.jpg

The Battle Of Dese showed this very well.

An Italien Regiment punched through the mountains and was within a stones throw from the Royal Palace. A major retreat had to be made to compensate this. If the Italiens manage to take the capital, it would be all over.
HoI3_25-1.jpg

The situation at the end of the month

But Selassie had a plan, a plan that would change the course of history. This plan would instantly stop the war, showing the diplomatic power of Ethiopia and keeping the nation as the most powerful in Africa.

The shocking conclusion in around 1 hour
 
But Selassie had a plan, a plan that would change the course of history. This plan would instantly stop the war, showing the diplomatic power of Ethiopia and keeping the nation as the most powerful in Africa.

The shocking conclusion in around 1 hour

does this 'plan' have anything to do with becoming a rasta and really really confusing Mussolini?
 
does this 'plan' have anything to do with becoming a rasta and really really confusing Mussolini?
Er.....No. But I'm sure he would be confused why he lost the war.

_____
Chapter Five - Victory In Ethiopia
Haile Selassie stared out of the window, the fire and fighting on the streets of the capital distracted him from his work. He thought about his country, again, no troops, no morale, no weapons and no planes.
"I need to think of a way to get out this war without any fighting" he thought to himself.

He thought of something. He called a diplomat over, gave him a horse and sent him away. Away to Italian Eritrea to end the war.
HoI3_27-1.jpg

Ethiopia wins

It's over, the war that lasted a month, the war that will change the course of history is over! Ethiopia is returned to its former glory!
HoI3_28-1.jpg

The borders remain the same, yet morale is greatly increased.

It was now time to prepare. Sooner or later, Italy will send more troops into Ethiopia,, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day. We must join an alliance against the foul beast. We must join the Allies.
HoI3_29.jpg

Politics don't agree but enemies do

Another reason to join the Allies, is because a truce now lies between our nation and Italy, and Italy is the only opportunity for Ethiopia to expand. Italy is likely to declare war on the allies at some point, which would be a grand time to strike and take their ports, which are much needed for us to expand.

The diplomacy will take a while so in the meantime, Selassie will train more troops, research more doctrines and get ready.
 
Should be very entertaining, at least I've yet to see many Ethopian AARs :) Looking forward to the expansion of the mighty Ethiopian Empire.
 
A great idea, with such a mystifying decision by Italy that I can't help but follow!
 
Should be very entertaining, at least I've yet to see any Ethopian AARs :) Looking forward to the expansion of the mighty Ethiopian Empire.
As do I. And I've fixed it for you :D

A great idea, with such a mystifying decision by Italy that I can't help but follow!
Mystifying!?!?! This is the second Ethiopian game I've tried, both times Italy were "Very Likely" to white peace, no matter the time. Try it yourself. Good to have you on board though.

Update in the next post.
 
Chapter Six - Lines
The first thing that the Ethiopian government decided to do, after the war was over, was to reorganize what the research department was going to do. Selassie called the shots, and, against the rest of the government, decided to cancel all research in Infantry weapons.

He replaced the "Small Arms" and "Light Artillery" with "Education" which will help the government research more, and "Peoples Army" which helps Militia Generals plan strategies... kinda.

Anywho, as we were no longer at war, the army was demobilized in an effort to save resources.
HoI3_1-14.jpg

No shooting from now on!

However, in the end, it didn't really affect anything and Ethiopia went through an economical crisis in which eleven of the sixteen government factories closed and consumer product demand went through the roof.

To help speed up Ethiopia's flow towards the Allies, Selassie officially granted transit rights to all Allie members.
HoI3_2-14.jpg

Barely helps but it doesn't cost anything.

Economical crisis over (thats right, it barely lasted one month), the nation restarted its factories with a great churn. And because of this, two fresh Militia regiments whooshed out of the academies and marched towards the corps. Each corps got a new Militia regiment.
HoI3_4-14.jpg

Every little helps.

Despite the transit right efforts of Selassie, the Allies were still reluctant to let our nation even come close to their alliance. Without the Allies help, Ethiopia would never be able to counter attack Italy and retake ancestral lands.
HoI3_5-12.jpg

Someone split coffee on the report in the office, so theres a bit of a stain.

The army needs to be strengthened even more then today, so, a mixture of new troops will be trained: one Cavalry Regiment, one more Militia Regiment and a garrison brigade for the capital.

The army is split into two "lines", one for the Italian Somalia (south) and one for the Italian Eritrea (north). The first is weaker, but sense would suggest that there would be less opposition there.
HoI3_7-13.jpg

The state of the southern line

The northern line is stronger and contains more well trained troops then the southern line. But, when the war comes around, the northern corps will have to deal with the treacherous mountains and hills.
HoI3_8-9.jpg

The state of the northern line

The war preparations continue.
 
Chapter Seven - Boring Year
Following the war, the year was as boring as a pen collection, but, some things the government still had to do. One of them was continue the attempt to get Ethiopia into the Allies.

Two things could have helped them achieve this goal: be horrible to the Axis or be nice to the Allies. The world wouldn't have allowed Selassie to place a official embargo on Italy or Germany so the later would have to take place. As soon as it was possible the government of Ethiopia sent the United Kingdom a random trade agreement that they would accept. The result of this would be better relations and a faster movement. I think I need a lie down...

Back to business, the Garrison Brigade has come out of the recruitment center. It was deployed at Addis Abeba to protect the grand HQ.
HoI3_2-15.jpg

The speed of the troops doesn't matter as its not going to go anywhere.

The Spanish Civil war was finally over! Thats it, the Ethiopian Press didnt cover the war very well, if at all, so nobody knows anything about it.
HoI3_3-15.jpg

This...... is..... good?

Our Militia regiments were upgraded, so now, every Militia trait is on par with the 1934 style. Its not European but its still good.
HoI3_4-15.jpg

Who's up for abandoning this soldier and replacing it with infantry?

In September, the brand spanking new Cavalry troops arrived in Ethiopia, they were sent to the Northern Line. In the future, when the nation is more powerful and in the Allies, a couple of these Regiments will be sent around the edge of Eritrea and try to use the Blitzkrieg strategy to destroy the Italian scum.
HoI3_6-11.jpg

Excellent

The Blitzkrieg strategy was created by Selassie, it involves faster troops maneuvering slower troops, flanking them and smacking them in the face! #ahem#

The next month, more Militia arrived from the academy and were sent to the south line. Now the south line has five regiments, all Militia. Which should be ample troops to hold the Italians back.
HoI3_7-14.jpg

Shocking

Good news keeps rolling as our first spy in Italy returns from his long trip. As you can see, Italy clearly has a nice blue democracy going on and, therefore, will join the allies! There is no threat whatsoever of the horrible beast threatening us!
HoI3_8-10.jpg

Therefore, Ethiopia has disbanded all its troops
 
Intelligence officer: Sir don't disband your troops the popular support of the Democratic parties is deceptive.

Haile Selassie: What do you mean?

IO: Italy is a dictatorship. Mussolini doesn't care how popular other parties are. He'll attack anyway.

Good work so far. I had vague Ideas of doing an Ethiopian AAR. Still why don't you give yourself cores on Eritrea so you can take it and grab it in a peace deal to get that all important port.
 
You're not seriously disbanding your few troops, do you? Besides, I'm getting confused with your mixup if regiments and ingame divisions... I suspect that you're talking about divisions, don't you?

I'll vote against upgrading the Militias. First of all you're already researching for them, secondly they'll demand a lot more officers and thirdly you'll most likely not see much enemy anyway. I'd suggest to build another 2 brigade infantry divisions, though, so you can conduct a two pronged attack :)