To the last... - a 1936 Germany multiplayer AAR

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This is going to be my first AAR so please apologize if things are not too perfect yet...
What are the preferences / settings for this game?

1. We play the 1936 campaign as multiplayer game in AoD 1.04

2. "We" is: my friend General Huzzelman plays United Kingdom and Admiral Solo (me) playing Germany (we threw a coin, I really didn't want to be the bad guy). It is absolutely acceptable (if not necessary) to yell and shout at each other during the hot phases of the game, call it war psychology.

3. We use a modified version of the game that leads to more historical results. The philosophy behind these changes was that if you would just watch the game, things would turn out the way they did in history. It is the human player that has to make the differences. This means for example that Austria will always agree to become part of the Reich in 38 and Japan will always declare war on USA in December 1941. Also USSR is much stronger. This is of course a certain determinism but either party can win the game and that is the important point. This will also guarantee that the game should be well balanced and the war will not be over in 1941. Some leaders have been deleted from the game (because they were stone dead) others were added, several leaders got their skills and traits adjusted. Anyway, I will tell you more when the game proceeds.

4. We use the graphic improvements that were made by the community (SKIF and others), a big thanks to those who threw in all their creativity and time to make this a much better game!

5. It is not allowed to take command of other nations complete forces except for:
- UK: all commonwealth forces (SAF, CAN, NZL, AUS), its puppets (i.e Iraq) and Free France (if exists)
- Germany: its puppets (i.e Slovakia), Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria (the latter two are weaker than they used to be, mostly provide 36" Inf until 1942), Finland only if Moscow and Leningrad are taken.
Also, it is not allowed to bring nations into your alliance before September 1939. The UK player shall not invite USA to join his alliance unless US are at war.

6. No gamey tactics or intended AI exploits

7. I will continue this AAR whenever we have a new game session. It might or might not happen that you will read about the authors defeat...in a multiplayer game anything is possible.

8. As you may or may not have realized, AoD is in some regards not really fine-tuned or well-balanced (some of these problems do not affect us, cause our events are heavily modded). Means, this game is also meant to find out if there are further things to be changed in terms of balancing. We'll see.
To give you one example: many have complained that Russia is easily defeated, way too easy. If Germany would defeat USSR in 41 the game would be pretty boring very soon. This has been changed in our version, USSR is the big bear you don't want to mess with. First, his units have more organization (cause he has the doctrines he is supposed to have, a bug in the original version) and second he does get units with every lend lease delivery. Now that Romanian units are weaker you will not see 41" Romanian infantry beating 36" Russian infantry in the middle of winter 1941/42 any more. Not going to happen.

 

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What has happened so far?

To spare you the "boring" parts of the game I want to give you my first report in April 1940. What has happened so far?

The domestix
- Starting in 1936 I have made slider adjustments towards "Central Planning" and "Professional Army". I still have two more changes to make, which means my domestic tasks will be finished in 1942. Interventionism and Hawk Lobby slider movements happened all by events as usual.
- I have built some infrastructure in Oppeln and in Berlin (140% now), also a couple of AA (10 in Berlin) and oil- and rares refineries.
- In Spring 1936 LtG Wever, one of the fathers of the Luftwaffe, dies in an air crash. We will have a bomber group named after him. Hopefully that one doesn't crash down as well.
- Kabooom, the airship Hindenburg goes up in flames in 1937. I get 1% dissent and recall that I did have a bomber group with the same name. Maybe I should reconsider the naming pattern for bombers.
- Shortly before the Anschluss of Austria, two of our highest ranking officers, General von Fritsch and FM von Blomberg were essentially removed from office. Since many older generals of the former Reichswehr have already died or retired from active service, our new officer list in early 1939 only contains three Field Marshals and many younger leaders risen to higher ranks.

(Note: "Old Guard" Generals Vollard-Böckelberg, Liebmann and Hammerstein will retire soon.)

- Early 1939 Hjalmar Schacht realizes that all I am is a warmongering fool (where did he read that, dammit?) who will ruin all the finances he tried to consolidate, so he resigns. He doesn't like me at all and really seems fed up with this "marching up and down the roads", so I don't even have a chance to keep him in office. Well, Fritz Todt gets the job, he gives us an additional 10% on industrial research, which is good to have at this point. Also note Frick as Minister of Security, who is "Silent Lawyer" and reduces supply consumption by 5%.

- Tech team Mercedes Benz has lost one point of research skill. "How are these guys ever going to build automobiles that are superior to anything else?", Eva asks her fiance. He doesn't have a clue...
- After the annexing of Poland I have made Himmler Head of Security because this will give me more use of annexed IC at the cost of manpower growth (what a dirty sociopath he is). You can see the cabinet in the attached thumb.
- I have extended the German Army to 2 Army Groups with 72 divisions of infantry and 9 mountain divs. In addition two Panzer Groups with 9 Light and 9 Regular Armour Divisions (more details to follow). I have researched advanced motorized divisons, but none of them are ready yet. Paratroopers are also under construction.
- The German Navy has two Type IV Battleships (Bismarck and Tirpitz), two Type IV Battlecruisers (Scharnhorst and Gneisenau), three Type IV Heavy Cruisers (Admiral Hipper, Blücher and Prinz Eugen) and three Pocket Battleships (Deutschland, Adm. Graf Spee and Adm. Scheer)*. These capital ships are accompanied by 6 light cruisers and 6 destroyer groups. In addition two older Battlecruisers, the "Schleswig-Holstein" and the "Schlesien" each accompanied by a type II destroyer squadron. The submarine fleet, which has to fulfill my greatest expectations, has 15 flottillas so far (1 type I / 2 type II / 5 type III / 7 type IV submarines)
- The German AirForce consists of six groups of interceptors (each four divisions) and one group of fighters (four divs) The Tactical Bomber Force is divided into four Air-Fleets with 16 bomber divisions. The CAS force is not finished yet, only 6 cas div's are ready so far but it should be 12 in the end. Also I have finished 2 air transport divisions. Unfortunately I do not have any Naval Bombers at my disposal so far.
- My building strategy has been very different compared to a single player game. My UK opponent has a huge fleet at his disposal which he will use wisely to sink my tiny fleet and make my convoy sinking missions for my submarines as difficult as possible. I have built quite a lot of interceptors to make sure I can have air superiority over the Channel when France is defeated, which will allow my fleet to reach its new bases in France.
* The Pocket Battleships are slightly stronger than heavy cruisers and have much longer range - perfect raiders, once the game bug that disallows fleets to sink convoys is resolved...(probably better to wait for 1.05). This unit cannot be built by anyone, once these ships are sunk, they're gone.

The historix
- By the mid of 1936 Mussolinis troops had finished the campaign in Ethiopia and annexed the country, the only African country that had never been submitted by any European Imperial Power. The proud Ethiopian forces suffered 18,000 casualties, the Italians 10,000, mostly due to the hostile environment and diseases.
- The Spanish Civil War did last from 1936 to 1939. I did send the Legion Condor, Italy and USSR sent forces as well but it was clear from 1937 on that the Nationalists would win this conflict. UK and France stayed neutral. When my Condor officers returned I was happy to see that Adolf Galland had reached skill level 8 and Hugo Sperrle did make some experience as well (he made it to level 6 in Poland). Our experience made in Spain brought us two plans for CAS doctrines. As rumours have it former Republican commanders have found their way into the ranks of the Red Army (Taguena, El Campesino) or simply returned to the USSR (Shtern aka Kléber, Swierczewski aka Walter and others). When the Civil War had ended 150,000 Republicans and 82,000 Nationalists were dead.

(Note: This picture was taken in 1937. Largo Caballeros Government had recently been replaced by Negríns left-wing radical regime. Francos troops had already been able to connect their southern and central territories and conquered Asturias. The following Nationalist offense would lead to a breakthrough at Castellón, dividing the Republican territory in two halves. In 39 Madrid was completely encircled and cut off trom the government in Valencia, which led to the surrender of the Republican forces)

- Between 1937 and 38 the Soviet Union was shaken by the Great Purge, a series of repressions, show trials and executions under NKVD chief Yezhov. Many competent officers, most prominently three Field Marshals of the Red Army, were executed. As much as the purges have weakened to Soviet State, the rise of leaders like Zhukov, Rokossovsky, Konev and others could have strengthened it in the long run.
- Austria agreed to become part of the Reich in spring 1938. Several leaders of the Austrian army joined the German Forces, most notably Air General Alexander Löhr. The integration of the Austrian Army brought us 14 infantry divisions, 9 armoured car brigades, 1 artillery brigade, 1 cavalry division, 1 HQ, and 3 tactical bomber groups. The latter were to form Luftflotte IV under Löhr's command.
- Following our "peaceful" annexations of Austria, Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia and Memel, Mussolini decides to annex Albania in 1939. Since the Albanians refuse the "peaceful" offer, they get the violent one: War! The tiny Albanian force is not able to defend against the Italian landing: 4,000 casualties on each side and the country is annexed few days later.
- In China things develop very slowly. The Japanese have conquered the entire Shanxi Area since mid 1937 and have reached the Nanjing-Shanghai line, but China is far from being beaten yet and they also have formed the United Front with Mao. The British have finished the Burma Road an keep sending supplies to General Chiang. When I recalled LtG von Falkenhausen he had made 40 points of experience and I made him commander of the III. Korps as successor of Brauchitsch, who had been promoted to commanding officer of the 1st Army. I am sure the Japanese advance will continue, even further after the takeover of Indochina if I should be able to defeat France. No matter what, the 2nd Sino-Japanese War has already turned into a giant butchery for both sides: General Chiang and his allies have lost 487,000 men, the Japanese and their allies 320,000.

- To defeat Poland has been a matter of two weeks, like it always is. I did leave the 3rd Army in the West, and attacked with the 1st, 2nd and 4th armies in the East plus my armoured forces. My overall casualties were some 39,000 soldiers. The Polish suffered a tremendous defeat and lost 363,000 men with the complete dissolution of their army. Rumours say that several Polish officers under General Sikorski have made their way to London and joined the British Army with their experience. Well, if they want to taste defeat twice they can have it...
Unfortunately the German Army was moving way too fast to allow time for any photographs at the time, I want to give you an idea by adding these pics only few weeks before the war.

Only the 3rd Army was ordered to secure the Western Front. In April 1939 General Volkmann was commanding officer, just having returned victorious from Spain. Meanwhile he was replaced by Kluge and has been ordered back to Berlin to create a new 5th Army (but, psshh, that is still a secret)

-Following our victory over Poland the Soviets had their sphere of influence east of it, which led them directly into the Winter War. I am not sure if it was a good sign that the Red Army was able to succeed with a moderate peace already in January 1940. The numbers of casualties were moderate as well: the Finnish suffered 7,000, the Soviets 20,000. Now, in April the three Baltic States still exist, likely not for long.

- So far there have been no battles between English and German Forces at all. I have sent two older submarine flottillas up to the Faroes and they sank six convoys and an escort without taking losses. The British lost one Polish submarine they had hoped to bring out of the Baltic but our forces sank it. A Polish destroyer squadron was able to escape. The French, however, tried to target our industrial bases at the Rhine and our troops in the West for bombing. Our fighter commands were prepared and shot them down, wave after wave, resulting in 20,000 dead for France and a clear sky for Germany.

 

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The German Army

So it is April 1940 and interesting things are going to happen. It is time to give you an exact overview of what the German Army looks like:

Following the victory over Poland I have moved my troops into position for the campaign against France and the Lowlands. These forces are divided into two Army Groups: Heeresgruppe A (FM v. Rundstedt) and Heeresgruppe B (FM v. Bock).
For those of you interested in details: Each division has a commanding officer, three divisions make a corps (one of these three officers must be at the rank of LtG at least and is regarded as the corps commander), six corps make an army (equals 3x6 divisions = 18 divisions) led by a hq with an officer in generals rank at least, two armies (plus attached Armoured Groups) form one Army Group, led by a Field Marshal with hq.
So here's what the German Army looks like in 1940 before the Invasion of France and Norway (skill level and traits in brackets):

Land Forces
Heeresgruppe A (HQ) - FM v. Rundstedt (5 OFF/DEF)

1. Armee (HQ) - FM v. Brauchitsch (4 OFF/ENC)
I. Korps - LtG v. Witzleben (4 OFF)
II. Korps - LtG v. Förster (3 WIN)
III. Korps - LtG v. Falkenhausen (3)
IV. Korps - LtG. List (4 OFF)
V. Korps - LtG. Halder (4 OFF)
VI. Korps - LtG. v. Reichenau (4 OFF)
2. Armee (HQ) - Gen. v. Leeb (4 OFF/DEF)
VII. Korps - LtG v. Both (4 OFF)
VIII. Korps - LtG Dollmann (3 DEF/OLD)
IX. Korps - LtG Strauss (3)
X. Korps - LtG Blaskowitz (3 OFF)
XI. Korps - LtG v. Weichs (4)
XII. Korps - LtG v. Küchler (3 OFF)
1. Panzerarmee
Panzergruppe I - LtG v. Kleist (4 OFF/PZR)
Panzergruppe II - LtG Hoth (3 LOG/PZR)
Panzergruppe III - LtG Reinhardt (3 OFF/PZR)
2. Panzerarmee
Panzergruppe IV - Gen Guderian (5 OFF/TRI/PZR)
Panzergruppe V - LtG v. Manstein (5 PZR/OFF/TRI/FOB)
Panzergruppe VI - LtG. Rommel (5 PZR/OFF/TRI/LOG)
(Total: 32 Divs Infantry, 9 Divs Light Armour, 9 Divs Armour)

Heeresgruppe B (HQ) - FM v. Bock (4 OFF)

3. Armee (HQ) - Gen. v. Kluge (5 OFF/WIN)
XIII. Korps (Engineers) - LtG Jacob (3 ENG)
XIV. Korps - Gen Ulex (3 LOG)
XV. Korps - Gen Grün (2 DEF)
XVI. Korps - Gen v. Wietersheim (3 OFF)
XVII. Korps - LtG Hartmann (3 FOB)
XVIII. Korps - LtG Busch (4 LOG/WIN)
4. Armee (HQ) - Gen. Keitel (2 OFF/HIF)
XIX. Korps - LtG Heinrici (3 DEF/FOB)
XX. Korps - LtG Ruoff (3 OFF)
XXI. Korps - LtG v. Schobert (3 OFF)
XXII. Korps - LtG Leeb (3 OFF)
XXIII. Korps (Engineers) - LtG Behlendorff (3 ENG)
XXIV. Korps (Engineers) - LtG Becker (2 ENG)
(Total: 32 Divs Infantry)

7. Gebirgsarmee (no-HQ) - Gen. v. Falkenhorst
XXXIII. Korps - Gen v. Falkenhorst (3 OFF/WIN)
XXX. Korps (Mount) - LtG Dietl (5 WIN/COM)
XXXI. Korps (Mount) - LtG Schörner (5 LOG/DEF/COM)
XXXII. Korps (Mount) - LtG Böhme (3 COM)
(Total: 3 Divs Infantry, 9 Divs Gebirgsjäger)

Luftwaffe
Bomber Fleets:
Luftflotte I (TAC) - AM Sperrle (6 TAB/CPT)
Luftflotte II (TAC) - Gen Kesselring (4 TAB)
Luftflotte III (TAC) - LtG Grauert (3 TAB)
Luftflotte IV (TAC) - LtG Löhr (5 TAB)
Luftflotte V (CAS) - LtG v. Richthofen (5 TAB/CPT/SUP)
Luftflotte VI (CAS) - Gen Udet (4 TAB/SUP)
(Total: 16 TAC/6 CAS)

Fighter Fleets:
I. Fliegerkorps (INT) - Gen Milch (3 SUP/SPT)
II. Fliegerkorps (INT) - Gen Felmy (3 SUP)
III. Fliegerkorps (INT) - Gen Klepke (3 SUP)
IV. Fliegerkorps (INT) - LtG Lörzer (4 SUP)
V. Fliegerkorps (INT) - LtG v. Greim (4 SUP)
VI. Fliegerkorps (INT) - MjG Mahnke (3 SUP)
XV. Fliegerkorps (FTR) - MjG Galland (8 SUP)
(Total: 21 INT/4 FTR)

Lufttransportflotte I (TRA) - MjG Sommé (4)
(Total: 2 TRA)

Kriegsmarine
Bismarck Flottille (Bismarck, Blücher, Prinz Eugen, 1 CL IV, 2 DD IV) - VAdm Lütjens (3 SUP)
Tirpitz Flottille (Tirpitz, Adm.Hipper, Deutschland, 1 CL IV, 2 DD IV) - Adm Marschall (4 SUP)
Gneisenau Flottille (Gneisenau, Graf Spee, 2 CL III, 1 DD III) - Adm Böhm (4 SUP)
Scharnhorst Flottille (Scharnhorst, Adm.Scheer, 2 CL III, 1 DD III) - Adm Saalwächter (4 SUP)
Schleswig-Holstein Flottille (Schleswig-Holstein, 1 DD II) - Adm. Witzell (3)
Schlesien Flottille (Schlesien, 1 DD II) - VAdm Bastian (3)
Emden Flottille (1 CL II, 1 DD II) - RAdm Ciliax (3 SUP)
Torpedoboote (2 DD I) - Adm. Tillessen (2)
I. Transportflottille (3 TP) - Adm Carls (4 BLR/OLD)
15 Submarine Flottillas

Brigades
All surface vessels do have the maximum amount of brigades, submarines have none (only if I build the extra big ones, they'll get mines as brigade). All light armor has assault guns, all nine normal armor divisions so far were equipped with heavy armor brigades. The entire 1st Army has artillery brigades for its 18 divisions, also the 2nd Army will have them soon. All HQ have AA brigades. As indicated there are engineer corps, with specific leaders and brigades. Four divisions of the 4th Army have SP-Art Brigades (which are meant for the motorized divisions which are not finished yet). All bombers do have escort fighters.

Allies
So far only my Slovak puppet State and its four divisions. I keep sending them energy and a little oil so their production keeps going.

Officers
As I said, each division gets its commander (same for submarines), which is also somewhat my strategic approach to the game. The idea is to maximize the experience that leaders can get, so I hopefully always have the better ones than my opponents. After 1942 (provided I will not be able to have USSR defeated by then) I will have less manpower, fewer divisions and fewer fighters and bombers than the allies, I can partly make up for that by having hundreds of excellent commanders and experienced troops. So far the theory.

P.S.
Currently all three Pocket Battleships are attached to fleets. Normally they would go out into the Atlantic to hunt convoys. As there is a bug in 1.04 that does not allow surface vessels to sink convoys, they are pretty useless as commerce raiders but I hope 1.05 will resolve this problem. In the end it could look like this.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/839/deutschlandclass.jpg

 

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The Battle Plan for 1940

April 1940. Time to reveal the Battle Plan for our upcoming campaigns:

Norway
In few days one half of the 7th Mountain army (6 Divs) will be aboard their transports in order to be shipped to Norway, while the other half (6 Divs) will invade Denmark supported by the 1st Cavalry Division. Our naval movements in Kattegat will be guarded by five fleets incl. the Battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Air superiority will be ensured by the Fliegerkorps I and XV together with the bombers of Luftflotte IV. Denmark is expected to surrender quickly after this our transports will be able to pass the Oresund. In a first landing troops will fight their way into Oslo supported by naval shore bombardments and Luftflotte IV. Simultaneously, our six divisions in Denmark will be shipped to Narvik and Trondheim and will land quickly. This landing should be guarded by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau while Schleswig-Holstein and Schlesien will remain in the South of Norway. Hopefully, the Royal Navy will not plan for an intervention. I will move bombers into Oslo as soon as we have it so they could bomb ships at the west coast of Norway. If UK should move troops into Narvik (which I doubt he will) I will glady order submarines to sink their supply convoys instead of attacking him directly. The only real threat to my landings would be a naval intervention with carriers or a huge battlefleet in the very North. The Bismarck and the Tirpitz will remain in reserve in case we face heavy naval opposition.

France
We will declare war on Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg in early May. The main strike against France will be guided by our two Armoured armies and 2nd (green) and the 4th Army (yellow).
The breakthrough to Reims will be supported by permanent bombings of all available airfleets, which is well within our range and has no anti-air installations. Once, our armoured forces have taken Reims they will turn and head towards the Channel, while the following 2nd Army will slowly advance towards Paris. Hopefully we can cut off any division that the French have sent into Belgium. The 4th Army will hold the flanks and proceed in the rear area of the Maginot Line towards Chaumont. The task of the 3rd Army (red) will be strictly defensive, holding as many French divisions in the Maginot Line as possible.
The task of the 1st Army will be the taking of the Netherlands with mass of troops marching towards Rotterdam, thus isolating the Dutch from their Allies and tricking their French Allies into Belgium. Once the Dutch divisions are defeated the 1st Army will press into Belgium which should be at this point already cut off from the French mainland. I am pretty confident that our forces are strong enough to fulfill their tasks, however we do not know if the British will send an expeditionary corps or fighter support.

In the long run
Once I have conquered France new resources should be at our disposal. I have tried to stockpile oil and rares but only 28,000 of each are in our depots. I did build some oil and rare plants but this will likely not be sufficient in the long run if our IC is increased significantly. With the fall of France and Norway I will redistribute my submarine fleet, which until now, hasn't really seen any action. My idea is to have all Type III boats (5 flottillas) operate from Narvik into the Northern Atlantic and all Type IV boats from Brest or Bordeaux (7 flottillas so far) operating into the Western approaches and the central Atlantic. Likely, Franco will open his ports to our ships which will increase the range of our subs even further (however they need supply vessels, which are easy targets to British fleets). With France defeated Italy will join the Axis, which will give me a transport fleet in the Mediterranean. If I am lucky I could succeed in shipping some light armor divisions to Lybia in order to support the Italians. That might be a nice surprise for the British.
The main target after the fall of France will be trying to gain air superiority over a) the Channel and b) Southern England, which would allow me to bomb his provinces and take out the AA (he built up to 6 AA in each coastal province plus radar) and after that I should be able to bomb his airfields and his infrastructure. But how strong is the Royal Air Force? I will find out soon...

(Note: lots of AA, 1 radar in each coastal province, no coastal fortifications except for Dover, that's what we know... but how many planes and how much courage is what we don't know)

(Note: Stalin hasn't taken office of HoG yet, in France the Daladier cabinet has just resigned following the obvious failure of its appeasement policy. Uhh, and in England Chamberlains days are counted)

For now
I will be able to report if all these nice little plans on paper will turn into reality after the next seesion. Cheerio

 

[quaazi]

Well, good luck defeating a human UK.

 

[Cybvep]

MP AARs are always interesting. Somehow you can always feel a strange aura of uncertainty around them. SP AARs, on the other hand, are often very repetitive...

Subscribed.

 

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With such a variety of brigades to make, I wonder why you put the same brigade on everything. I reckon a mix is better like they do in real life otherwise you would get owned by a combined arms enemy cause you can't handle airplanes, tanks, partisans, mech inf or rivers attacking you.

 

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With such a variety of brigades to make, I wonder why you put the same brigade on everything. I reckon a mix is better like they do in real life otherwise you would get owned by a combined arms enemy cause you can't handle airplanes, tanks, partisans, mech inf or rivers attacking you.

Well, I would like to build more and different brigades - if I only had the resources! Now that you have to calculate retooling time and research, smaller amounts of brigades become somewhat more expensive. Also I did forget to mention that I have three army corps with armoured cars, thanks to Austria. I thought about building tankbusters too, but you have to research them separately and I'd rather build an extra interceptor instead. Don't forget it's only 1940 and I don't even have 300 IC. When I took a closer look on England, he has built 6 AA on coastal prov's and London and has already researched 70% AA efficiency. Something tells me it's better to build more planes if I want to raise hell for him. Another problem which you cannot see is that I am already pushing a mountain of 380 IC of modernization ahead of me...means I should build less and modernize more - however, I didn't want to loose my gearing bonus on my big series.
Here a more exact overview of the brigades:
AA: 6 (all attached to HQ)
AT: 3 (were already available from the start)
AC: 9 (all built by Austria)
Art: 16 (and still building more, should be around 50)
Ass.Gun: 5 (will be 9 or more)
Heavy Arm: 8 (will be 9)
SP-Art: 4 (will be 25 or more)
Eng: 9

 

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Any intelligence on the UK armed forces? Do they have a large BEF in France?

 

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Any intelligence on the UK armed forces? Do they have a large BEF in France?

No idea. He killed all my spies and I rather used my money to influence Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. And I didn't go for air superiority over France yet. The French came over several times and I shot them down big time but that was it so far. But considered the amount of troops and the superiority of my doctrine I doubt that English forces will show up in France. I know, it's sad. The only chance he'd have to delay my operations would be defending Reims, which is the cornerstone of my attack. But that is very far away from the Channel. If I were him, I wouldn't go there - if these troops have to retreat they will likely be captured. Anywhere else near the Channel he'd either be encircled or too far away to help the French. Also keep in mind that the desert struggle against Italy might be more challenging for the Brits than it used to be in Armageddon (even further if I ship down Rommel with some tanks).

 

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A note on the poll

The general staff has issued a poll for all generals out there. The question is if it makes sense -in your opinion- to start the Battle of Britain. In earlier versions of the game it made practically no sense at all against a human UK player, cause there was little to achieve with air superiority in case you had it...as long as the Royal Navy still existed any landing was doomed to fail anyway. Now things are a little bit different, with the ability to bomb airfields and the units on these fields. Also damaged IC now cost resources to be rebuilt, which makes air superiority much more attractive. However, I am not sure if I have a chance to succeed in beating the RAF above its home bases with its massive AA installations. Otherwise I could save my resources to improve the Luftwaffe, stay defensive over the Channel with my interceptor force and rather deploy my bombers to North Africa and surprise advancing UK land forces with massive strikes in the desert. Your opinion is appreciated.

 

[Cybvep]

I would ignore UK, at least for know, and go for Spain (either diplomatically or militarily) and Gibraltar. UK probably won't be able to stop you in Spain, so it should be a good move. Try to help Italians with Suez, too. That would secure your position. You should consider performing a Sealion only if the opportunity arises and when you feel confident that you will have time to prepare for USSR.

 

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I would ignore UK, at least for know, and go for Spain (either diplomatically or militarily) and Gibraltar. UK probably won't be able to stop you in Spain, so it should be a good move. Try to help Italians with Suez, too. That would secure your position. You should consider performing a Sealion only if the opportunity arises and when you feel confident that you will have time to prepare for USSR.

Suez seems to be an interesting target, indeed, and it's also on the way to the oil in the Middle East. Spain is no option however, which will always stay neutral in this game (he'll open ports to submarines until US landing in North Africa). Even if it would be possible to have Franco in the Axis (or otherwise I could of course declare war on Spain) I would always prefer a neutral Spain as a buffer, rather than a potential landing zone for Allied troops later in the game. As long as the Italians do not take Suez, Gibraltar is not interesting anyway I think, it would simply mean an inconvenience to Allied troops, not more. The loss of Suez would rather be a catastrophe for UK, he'd likely loose Palestine and Iraq as well...

 

[unmerged(151142)]

Interlude: A little story from the OKH
Brauchitsch got nervous..., where did the poll go....? It simply disappeared. There must be some kind of technical problem with the platform. Maybe the Allies had a spy somewhere in the command chain who had disrupted communication with the other generals. Well, when he had looked the last time on the poll report his generals had voiced their opinions that pretty much 40% "recommended Sealion", 20% opted for a defensive strategy against UK and 40% wanted the Luftwaffe to give it a try and bomb England, its airfields and industries. The Führer took a look at the report, smiled (which he did the last time in 1914 when the First World War broke out while he was busy hanging around doing nothing. It's better to kill enemies than to kill time, he used to say back then) and nodded. "Excellent, Brauchitsch, this is what we'll do" he said. "And that would be?" Brauchitsch asked. "To win this war, of corrz" the Führer shouted at him "and to find a brighter chief for the army" he thought to himself, but Brauchitsch did hear that, too, because Hitler wasn't able to keep his thoughts to himself any more after years of shouting and yelling. "I am hungry like a wolf", Hitler continued, "what's on the menu at the staff dining room today?" Brauchitsch smiled "Meatballs, my Führer. I love meatballs." Hitler looked at him with a mixture of anger and disgust...

In the next interlude we might find out, if...
...the poll will reappear cause it just went for a short summer vacation in Denmark
...the Führer will follow the recommendations of his generals and conquer the British
...Brauchitsch made Hitler eat the meatballs or if he got fired while doing it
...fat Göring did eat all the leftovers in the staff dining room including the meatballs and the kitchen personnel

 

[Eugenioso]

maybe you could use more ass guns.

Ass.Gun: 5 (will be 9 or more)

 

[unmerged(151142)]

maybe you could use more ass guns.

No doubt, you are right. I hesitated first cause they looked ugly, but now that I have added pictures and correct model names to them (same for SP-Art) I like them much more . Also, if I have more ass. guns I will attach them to infantry.

 

[Eugenioso]

i still prefer the SP arty though, but thats just me.

 

[unmerged(71938)]

I'd use your tacs to bomb english fleets and convoys. Best value for your money :-/

 

[PB-DK]

excellent so far, my vote is definitely for an attempt at sea-lion, as the added threat of an invasion will make the brits put more troops at home while your italian allies race for Suez... and you will be able to hurt his industry of which the Brits have precious little of and all in the central uk area... but getting through his massive AA build-up is going to be difficult... but as soon as you have put his fighters down you will be able to bomb his installations and then have a free reign... though the cost will be high, your superior industrial capabilities should keep it in your favour...

and his fleet will only become a factor if he puts it to sea... and with air supremacy on your side... it will cost him...

 

[PB-DK]

german sealion or not

excellent so far, my vote is definitely for an attempt at sea-lion, as the added threat of an invasion will make the brits put more troops at home while your italian allies race for Suez... and you will be able to hurt his industry of which the Brits have precious little of and all in the central uk area... but getting through his massive AA build-up is going to be difficult... but as soon as you have put his fighters down you will be able to bomb his installations and then have a free reign... though the cost will be high, your superior industrial capabilities should keep it in your favour...

and his fleet will only become a factor if he puts it to sea... and with air supremacy on your side... it will cost him...