The Storm Breaks
We roll into Spring 1939 with some potentially gamey tactics on my end—I GoI Denmark, the Baltic States, Russia, Albania, Greece...just about every-frickin'-body. Why, you ask? Other than the free Interventionism and free DoW...no reason, really. Just had a couple-hundred bucks burning a hole in my collective pocket.
This strategy begins paying off almost immediately—Italy DoW's Albania at the end of March, a scant ten days after my GoI, and I breath a sigh of relief. That one action takes my Interventionism within one move of maxing-out.
Yay! Free slider movers!
Now we're heading into crunch-time. I'm considering the idea of cancelling all my upgrades and starting another run of INT/MIL just for a few extra by the time Fall Gelb comes a-knockin'. I also notice after this that I've somehow become a Paternal Autocrat, which suits me just fine, in all actuality. It'll help ease the transition to New France once Germany's been (hopefully) defeated.
At the end of May, I experiment with a new tactic: trading divisions. For a paltry few blueprints (in Britain's case) and the same plus a few useless old ships (for Canada), I get three brand-spanking-new 1939 INF divisions. It's a steal! Unfortunately the rest of the Allies are either puppets or too pig-headed to give into my reasonable request that they send their young men to shed blood for a pseudo-fascist France. C'est la vie, I suppose.
Since I don't really care about my navy, and I won't for quite some time, I'm going to beggar even more of it for some of those sweet, sweet Canadian divisions. I get a few more, which will certainly help.
On August 24th, I get yet another gearing bonus and this makes me incredibly happy. The Hitler-Stalin Pact goes off without a hitch, and I get precious, precious IC's to defeat the Nazis with. It means Poland's screwed, of course, but that was kind of a given anyway. So now we hunker down and eat lots of beans, prepating to fard in the Gerries' general direction through the winter. Right on schedule, Hitler declares war on Poland on August 30th, and that means WAR! WAR!! WAR!!!
Status of the Front Line as of 6 September:
As you can see, I've got a pretty hefty defense built up along the border with Belgium. The Maginot Line is manned by pure MIL, which currently outnumber their opponents, and should be able to repel any attack owing to their heavy fortifications. Everywhere else is a mix of INF and MIL, and I'll be breaking down the superstacks into pure MIL and INF stacks with proper leaders as soon as I can.
I've ordered my pitiable airforce to begin bombing the crap out of Hitler's industry, but I don't think we'll have too much impact. We'll have to see come June. Also by September 6th, the Poles are already on the brink of collapse, in what is predictably a hot Messer* through some creamy pochlebstwo**.
Warsaw is now a Frontline City
*German for knife
**Polish for butter
Once I have my Army organized (small stacks of MIL, large stacks of everything else), now I just have to wait for my obsolete units to upgrade and keep on churning out Panzerfodder. Looks like now I've got more total Army units than the rest of the Allies combined, which suits me just fine...though I believe I'm still outnumbered by the Gerries.
Guess what happened on September 25th. Betcha can't!
And you know what that means...SITZKRIEG!
While I'm sitting twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the German AI to kick into Fall Gelb (which is German for “Gobble France,” I do believe) mode, I do notice something rather interesting...the Germans are investing quite big stacks along the Maginot Line.
According to my tooltip, there are about 15 divisions in Saarbrucken, under von Kuchler; 11 divisions in Stuttgart under List; and 15 divisions in Freiburg under von Manstein. This means that three of Germany's best generals are tied down with 41 of Germany's troops, versus 16 of my own. Even if every single one of those divisions were Panzers, they couldn't hope to beat back my troops, given the intense fortifications and the penalty for crossing the Rhine.
Of course these numbers aren't set in stone, and I'll still be walking quite the tightrope, given that my spies tell me they have 84 Infantry divisions and 6 Armoured divisions...but hopefully that takes some pressure off my Northern flank.
As of January, my Air Force has been all but decimated by the Luftwaffe, and my IC ranges from 98-100 as a result of German bombing. I've started a few more runs of INF to help keep up with my MIL runs, and I'm slowly reorganizing my non-MIL stacks into an effective assault/defense force, spreading my HQ's around so they'll be more effective on the front, etc. Still waiting for the German assault.
On March 3rd, Germany went ahead with Fall Weserubung. Whether this is good or bad I have no idea, so I remain hunkered down.
On May 2nd, we're at the End of the Beginning.