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Excellent AAR! Deeply enjoying watching Germany bring true freedom and justice to Europe. I hope you can hold off the Red juggernaut.
I don't know if it's in the Vanilla game, perhaps in a mod, so you would want to check event files before trying this, but if Germany launches multiple nuclear attacks on the UK, the UK should surrender after a few grand English cities are reduced to glowing craters, what with high population and industrial concentration and all.
edit: Confirmed. It might take up to 3 nuclear bombings on different cities, but after the 3rd nuke, the UK is guaranteed to trigger a surrender event. Of course, those nukes might be better used to knock holes in the Soviet lines/bust massive stacks.
 
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Excellent AAR! Deeply enjoying watching Germany bring true freedom and justice to Europe. I hope you can hold off the Red juggernaut.
I don't know if it's in the Vanilla game, perhaps in a mod, so you would want to check event files before trying this, but if Germany launches multiple nuclear attacks on the UK, the UK should surrender after a few grand English cities are reduced to glowing craters, what with high population and industrial concentration and all.
edit: Confirmed. It might take up to 3 nuclear bombings on different cities, but after the 3rd nuke, the UK is guaranteed to trigger a surrender event. Of course, those nukes might be better used to knock holes in the Soviet lines/bust massive stacks.

It is not Vainilla, its "Mixed Mod". Are you sure that that event also works if the US are in the war? I would say it does not, but I´m not sure, and as you say I´d rather drop the bomb on the Soviets. Besides, by the time I have 3 A-bombs I may be already dead...
 
Chapter XXI: Into the East (I)



As soon as the last snow stopped falling on Polish soil, reconnaissance units and engineers brigades located at the frontlines were ordered to start with the first tasks to prepare "Operation Hindenburg", and after a few hours the German Spearhead began the major offensive against the invading hordes of the USSR. With such a perfect timing that only the Wehrmacht could achieve, the armored and motorized divisions began crossing the bridge and anticipated to the surprised Soviet defenders, and while the rest of the infantry attacked many strongpoints and resistant corps that the Soviet Union had distributed along the southern parts of the border.



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Bruckenpionere getting ready to cross a river


Further west, the Luftwaffe decided to concentrate all its defensive power in the basin of the Rhine and around Hamburg, and while that decision entailed a constant bombardment of Cherbourg that was hardly stopped by the interceptors stationed in France, in the Eastern Atlantic shore 16 interceptor squadrons mercilessly pounded the American bombers in two consecutive victorious air battles. Although sometimes lonely allied aircraft managed to break through the new air wall, the wound inflicted was severe and forced the Americans to temporarily stop its bombing campaign, allowing large numbers of German aircraft to be repaired. As a preemptive measure, the german Government launched a major propaganda campaign to warn the Germans about the dangers of night bombings.


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A poster warning of the dangers of night bombings


For his part, and after several days of terrible struggle, the motorized units of Lieutenant General Hausser penetrated the Russian defenses and captured the province of Lublin, the first point on the road marked for the campaign towards the heart of Soviet Russia. Upon arrival, Hausser was forced to fend off the desperate attacks of the Russians trying to regain control of the province, and OKH decided to strike with all his strength the nearby province of Radom in order to liberate Lublin from the Russian pressure.




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Hausser had to defend fom the Russian counter-offensive



The undisputed tactical and technological superiority of the Wehrmacht would cause a general flight of Russian troops, who suffered enormous casualties by being constantly bombarded by the powerful Stukas led by Kesselring. However, the Wehrmacht would also suffer heavy losses, and certain officers commented with concern how many Russians did not surrender under any circumstances and fought to the last man. Finally, relief units arrived to the province of Lublin and stopped the Soviet counterattack, also allowing the capture of the territory of Radom and a large number of Russian prisoners of war. The first major combat action from the Russian front closed with 150,000 Soviet soldiers dead and 40,000 Germans heroes killed or missing in action.



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More than 200.000 Soviet soldiers died in the Torun and Radom battles


The tenacious and sometimes incomprehensible Soviet resistance to surrender, continued even when defeat was certain and no retreat was possible, was not casual and responded to Stalin´s "Order 227", which established the death penalty for any soldier that retired from combat and even created special detachments with the task of shooting those who fled from the unstoppable German advance. Such a decision would condemn hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers to a certain death, and prevented any chance of developing an in depth defense against the German Schwerpunkt.



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"Not a step back!"


In the north, the German army would follow a similar strategy than the one used in Lublin, and while von Leeb launched a massive assault against Warsaw in order to divert Soviet forces to that battle, von Blomberg and Guderian prepared the second major encirclement maneuver in Eastern Prussia. While the offensive against Warsaw forced the Soviets to relocate some troops in the city, the clever and experienced Marshal Zhukov guessed the German plans and rushed to the defense of Allenstein more than 180 divisions, including several T-34 Armored Divisions. But, once again, the German superiority was incontestable, and despite the apparent numerical and technical superiority of the Soviet tanks the German Panzers destroyed many Soviet tanks, apparently more resistant but manned by inexperienced soldiers. According to the battle report of a German officer, the Russian tanks always attacked with its hatches closed, preventing any effective capacity to aim and leaving them defenseless against the German units.


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Von Blomberg faced a massive concentration of Soviet troops


Finally, von Blomberg´s offensive forced Zhukov to retreat and allowed the capture allowed of Allenstein, and once Guderian seized Torun more than 60,000 Russians were entrapped in the city of Danzig. For several days, the entire German transport capacity would focus on transporting troops to stop the Russian counteroffensive, but the tenacious defense of von Blomberg allowed the Wehrmacht to consolidate their control of the city and to capture more than 20 Russian divisions still in retreat; Stalin´s senseless order began to produce its painful effects to the Red Army.



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Status of the northern pocket by mid April



In less than a week, 200,000 Russian soldiers had been killed, and the world was beginning to wonder if Stalin did not overrate the combat ability of the Red Army. Without wasting any time, German engineers began to resupply forward units, who were preparing to continue their offensive to enclose more Soviet troops in Ukraine and Belarus. Would the German spearhead penetrate into the seemingly endless Russian reserves, or would Stalin achieve victory even at the cost of sacrificing an entire generation? Only the Gods of War knew...



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"Victory or Bolshevism"
 
I am starting to feel sorry for the Red Army. I knew you were going to make them regret it but damn, what a bloodbath. Keep this up and you'll probably have the favor of Khorne.

Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for the Skull Throne!
 
I am starting to feel sorry for the Red Army. I knew you were going to make them regret it but damn, what a bloodbath. Keep this up and you'll probably have the favor of Khorne.

Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for the Skull Throne!

Yes, it was a nice set of battles...when I saw Zhukov´s stock I nearly panicked, but old chap Blomberg did his work pretty damn well; I guess he won a Knight´s Cross :). And yes, I´ll try to make them regret it, but let´s not forget that i also lost 40K men and that while they can afford bloodbaths, I don´t.
 
I've found that with the massive number of divisions the Soviets have at this point, if you do manage to hold them at bay, they will eventually run into problems bringing all that stockpiled manpower to the frontlines simply because reinforcements will be spread so thinly across their divisions that it is barely noticeable they're getting reinforced; this usually goes hand in hand with the AI's incapability to prioritise its IC distribution. Or keeping wounded units out of the heat of battle whilst letting fresh ones do the heavy lifting.

At the end of the day, the Soviets cannot afford losses any more than you can. At least earlier on, they need to steamroll an almost equal enemy after his armies have exhausted themselves; extended periods of war where both armies maintain a coherent frontline and decent levels of organization (an easy task since you are much closer to home than they are) will make just about any battle a bloodbath for them. Additionally, the AI is occasionally too eager to attack when it has numerical superiority, sometimes disregarding the fact that the enemy troops are well rested and even better equipped, although I've seen this more often in a Franco-German war caused by the Reoccupation of the Rhineland, where the AI also suffers from horrific dissent maluses.
 
I've found that with the massive number of divisions the Soviets have at this point, if you do manage to hold them at bay, they will eventually run into problems bringing all that stockpiled manpower to the frontlines simply because reinforcements will be spread so thinly across their divisions that it is barely noticeable they're getting reinforced; this usually goes hand in hand with the AI's incapability to prioritise its IC distribution. Or keeping wounded units out of the heat of battle whilst letting fresh ones do the heavy lifting.

At the end of the day, the Soviets cannot afford losses any more than you can. At least earlier on, they need to steamroll an almost equal enemy after his armies have exhausted themselves; extended periods of war where both armies maintain a coherent frontline and decent levels of organization (an easy task since you are much closer to home than they are) will make just about any battle a bloodbath for them. Additionally, the AI is occasionally too eager to attack when it has numerical superiority, sometimes disregarding the fact that the enemy troops are well rested and even better equipped, although I've seen this more often in a Franco-German war caused by the Reoccupation of the Rhineland, where the AI also suffers from horrific dissent maluses.

Oh man, I hope you are right and the Soviet war machinery collapses before I end out with manpower, since my spearhead has real troubles to advance without the infantry losing lots of men.

Dammit,the Soviet hordes are coming :X

Yes...a clash of Titans, you might say.

That went rather well! Now you just need three or four more of those encirclements, and the Red Army will be broken as a fighting force.

Hmmmm....let´s hope it is as you say, but it seems that not all their divisions are in the frontline yet...
 
but it seems that not all their divisions are in the frontline yet...

Oh dear. But perhaps this is an opportunity to put even more Soviet divisions understrength? If they reinforce slow enough or you keep it up fast enough maybe you can get some kind of feedback loop going where they can't reinforce fast enough because their divisions keep losing more dudes and they keep losing more dudes because they can't reinforce fast enough.

Alternatively the soviets will actually repair their stuff at a sufficient rate, bleed you white and march to the Atlantic by 1946
 
Nice work on the Soviets right there. One down more to come! But let us convert this saying to Soviet's Russia one...

Twenty down, two thousand to come! :D
 
Chapter XXII: Into the East (II)


Despite the glorious and speedy progress of the German Army and the destruction or capture of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers, the war was far from over and it seemed that the Soviet Union had an unlimited number of soldiers to send to the front. Many German officers murmured with concern about the Soviet tactics, since even though the Red Army was forced to sacrifice many soldiers without any chance of surrende, the Wehrmacht was suffering from great losses and was unable to achieve a definite advance to completely break the Soviet defenses. However, the worst news would come from the east, where according to some anxious messages by Marshal Antonescu the Russians had finally beaten the Romanian units defending the border and were approaching Bucharest at an incredible speed, ready to end the Romanian resistance once and for all.


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In a few weeks, the Red Army managed to defeat almost completely the Antonescu´s forces


Such news forced the OKH to slightly change the strategy on the eastern front. While it was still essential to create pockets in which the Soviet troops would be annihilated, it was also necessary to save the Romanian allies in order to prevent Stalin from installing it a puppet state in Bucharest that would allow the Soviets to relocate even more divisions in the border with Germany . Thus, a major offensive was launched ahead of schedule against Siedlce and Lublin, pinning down all Soviet troops in the area with the objective of allowing a rapid progress towards the southeast to help the Kingdom of Romania. As before, the German technical and skill superiority caused a general runaway of Russian troops, but the fanatical Soviet resistance would also bring heavy casualties for the Wehrmacht.


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Once more, the Soviets had to flee in front of the Wehrmacht supperiority


In the west, the Luftwaffe could finally provide good news. After applying the latest combat doctrines learnt from the Aliies itself and its practical enactment by Hugo Sperrle, the new Messermicht 109F interceptors were able to contain most allied attacks and downed hundreds of American and British aircrafts. In a few weeks, the German pilots managed to invert the sign of war, and the industrial network based in the Rhine and in occupied France was fully recovered. To the relief of the OKH, the Battle of the Atlantic was won.



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Not a single aerial battle was won by the Allies in March or April



Meanwhile, Von Blomberg forces in East Prussia consolidated control over Allenstein, after which the Marshall decided to assault and capture the six Soviet divisions encircled in Danzig. With support from the Reichsmarine, the battle would end in a few days, and more than 50,000 Russians surrendered to the Wehrmacht. Without stopping their advance, Army Corps north began assaulting Königsberg and Tilsit, where more than 20 Soviet divisions tried vainly to avoid the imminent capture by the Wehrmacht.



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Soviet troops surrendering in Eastern Prussia


Despite the great German offensive, the Soviet Union was able to bring forward even more divisions, and the Romanians were forced to retreat to his own capital, which started to feel the impact of the Russian artillery. Further east, British troops entered Baghdad and deposed the Iraqi government, certifying the fall of the last country to enter the Axis. Aware of the danger that a fall of Romania would imply, Chancellor Vogel asked the Army to save Germany´s allies "at any cost", and more than 150.000 German troops were ordered to move eastward immediatly. Under the name of "Operation Carol" such an unstoppable force would attempt to reach Transylvania before the Soviets could finaly vandalize the Romanian Army.


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First stages of "Operation Carol"


But this decision would prove fatal to the interests of the Wehrmacht, as even though forward units were able to capture Lutsk and Novi Sacz, an unexpected Soviet counteroffensive forced them to retreat and ended any hope of achieving a decisive victory in the coming weeks . Breaking completely the OKH forecasts, 30 Russian divisions supported by Vlassov´s motorized division broke the Romanian defenses in Presov and captured Bratislava within days, deposing the government of Jan Srobar Babro and installing a military administration in the country. Quite unexpectedly, German territory was now under threat, and dozens of divisions should be repositioned to prevent any Soviet attempt towards berlin towards Berlin.



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Vlassov´s units seizing control of Bratislava



This disastrous series of events lead to the first schisms within Germany. In late April, Alfred Hugenberg attacked the social democrat Government and stated that "the SPD was the only cause of the disastrous recent events", and wondered if Germany should not surrender to the Western Allies in order to prevent the Soviets from taking control of Germany. According to the leader of the DNVP, Germany had to assume that the war was being lost and opt for the lesser evil. Finally, President Crispien suffered a failed terrorist attack by some rogue members of the KPD, and only a lucky coincidence would save him from falling under the impact of the bomb. Germany began to falter and the Communist threat seemed ever closer.



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Crispien saved his life just by chance, but the danger of more terrorist attacks is still present
 
Sad to see Romania captured by the communists...

True, Mighty...and all occured so fast! I think Romania AI derped and moved too many units to the west and redeployed them to encircled provinces, because in matter of days the Russians were in the gates of Bucharest.
 
Well then, I guess this now allows you to take military control over whoever's left in the Axis

Yes, but the only ones remaining are Brazil and Romania....so not much to control. :(

Just subbed and only read this far - Breaking Bad reference there?

Glad you liked the AAR! Yes, it´s BBad reference, and in fact Walter White´s nickname cames from that guy in the photo (Werner Heisenberg).