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Part V: The World Ablaze (Seg. 1)
This post is cut into two segments due to it's ridiculously large size. Enjoy!
I received a telegram earlier in the day requesting that I meet with Hitler at the Berghof immediately. I took a car ride to Obersalzberg and entered the Führer's famous retreat with a lump in my throat - I could swear I was a dead man. "I've been informed of your success on all fronts Marshal Ringel. Thank you. How will you proceed?" Hitler said. I couldn't believe my own two ears! I took a pen and a chart and drew up Ober-Generalplan (A copy of which is found below).
This plan was meant to keep up the success that operation Julius had witnessed only a few months earlier. Hitler was struck by the invasion of the UK the most. "How will we do that? How will you get your troops on British soil?" asked Hitler in amazement. I then took a few moments to explain to him how I'd merged every last ship we had into one ridiculous fleet, and had already managed to successfully manoeuvre them around the UK and determined that the port of Aberdeen was not garrisoned - meaning it was a soft target. Hitler immediately gave me his blessings & well wishes.
Armed with my recent Führer-Diplomatic victory, I knew I had to translate this into a victory on the battlefield or he'll have my head. Surely enough, within a few days, Panzerkorps V had landed in Aberdeen.
On the eastern front, the first of two major encirclements was just about to begin. Izyaslav would fall in a matter of days.
Following the fall of Izyaslav, Krzemieniec - which is also instrumental to the next encirclement - didn't stand a chance. Panzer speed!
And the trap is sprung. 135,000 men & machines have been trapped in the province of Zloczow, and were now facing certain defeat.
In no time, the province of Krzemieniec is reinforced and secured for 2nd encirclement on the eastern front. The Russians also surrender in Zloczow.
Some strategic redeployments later, and the world is almost ready to witness the deadliest encirclement of the war so far. Following the collapse and capture of the Husiatyn column, morale in the red army was at an all time low. It also served our cause because we knew there were less armoured divisions to pierce through our ranks.
In Britain, our beachhead has now developed into an entire front. May God be with our valiant Wehrmacht...
In Italy, fortune favours our advance; and we soon trap some more hapless allied forces in Manfredonia. The Manfredonia pocket as it is now known, will cost the allies nearly 40,000 men in all.
The calm before the final storm. The USSR has no idea what's about to hit it.
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Part V: The World Ablaze (Seg. 2)
Picking up where I left off, Równe & Kostopol were the only two provinces that we had to occupy in order to cut off 292,000 Russian men in the pocket that would ensue north-west of Kostopol. We began offensive actions in Równe on the 16th of November, 1944. Only one day later, the battle of Kostopol had already begun.
On the 19th of November Kostopol fell to our mighty armoured spearhead. On the 22nd of November, we began to close down the Kostopol pocket.
Two days later, we had already driven through enough marsh and swamp lands to get a clear hint of impending victory.
An opportunity to encircle 18,000 mechanized troops in Shepetivka is too good to miss. We strike out before the snow becomes too thick in this region for proper manoeuvring.
On the second of December, 1944, Japan turns Nationalist China into another client state. It's vast army will be put to good use fighting off the British and Americans in Burma. Feel free to check out the state of the Axis powers in the thumbnails found below.
The Kostopol pocket continues to collapse at every opportunity. What a shame, and to think we thought we were fighting men!
In the meantime, I'm using my V2s to bomb the infrastructure and supply depots of London... It's an effective way to stop supplies flowing to the northern segments of the country.
The following image dictates two very important battles that I've won. The battle of Fort William has allowed me to effectively split the UK into two and encircle well over 72,000 machines in the northern segment of the country. Soon they will join the suckers in Shepetivka, who surrender entirely only hours from now.
The image found below only specifies how many units are trapped in he Klesow-Kostopol pocket now. They total 292,000 men.
And they've met their maker. 292,000 men eliminated in the Kostopol-Klesow pocket and a further 18,000 in the Shepetivka pocket means that in all we've wiped out 310,000 Russian men off the face of the earth. Lovely.
In all this brings our total of destroyed Russian troops to:
36,000+136,000+72,000+135,000+292,000+18,000 = 689,000 troops & machines.
Total destroyed Allied troops are:
36,000+80,000+40,000+2,000 = 158,000 troops & machines.
Attachments
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Filling your remaining divisions with support brigades is a sound idea, not sure about the IC though seeing as you're about out of Rare Materials (Which I assume would be the reason you decided to do a late Seelöwe?)
You're doing very well against the Red Menace, how is their manpower and production holding up?
Indeed that is the reason I'm pulling off a Seelöwe at the moment. I need the rares honestly and trade is few and scarce. I don't consider it to be a late Seelöwe due to the over-aggressiveness of the Allied forces in the opening 2 months of the war. My rares supply will almost plateau though due to importation and I won't actually run out (fingers crossed).
I hope to keep up the pressure on the bleeding red giant. I don't do tag switching so I can tell for sure they've lost 689,000 men. Knowing the AI they're probably building garrisons all the time now as they feel impervious. I therefore guestimate that they've trained around 80,000 - 120,000 men in the same period. They should've lost about 550K net. Their manpower is untouchable; I've played as the USSR and the Great Patriotic War event will keep your manpower in the 1,000+ zone no matter how far you go with your recruiting habits.
Edited: you can't bleed them dry, but at least you can overwhelm their IC and not allow them to reinforce the troops
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Hmm, I wonder how many dissidents Stalin has left in the Gulag to replenish the Shtrafbats?
That's my plan exactly. I know I can't bleed them dry, but their inferior IC means I can force them into submission by relentless encirclements.
Following, great read so far
Thank you and welcome aboard, together we will all crush the Bolsheviks!
I wonder as well, but I can guess; I say they've probably got 4.1 to 4.2 million men all in all. The USSR starts out with 4.73 million spot. That's around a 580K loss in a 5 month period, bringing my average to around 116,000 men per month. Let's see if I can keep up the pace. (Note that the above stats don't include the Allied forces and the obliteration I've caused to them so far)
I can tell they're reinforcing from the Finnish theater (Leningrad HQ) because of the southbound movement of troops in my line of sight. That's a good sign as it demonstrates the shock caused to STAVKA over the past 5 months.
Now with winter approaching my troops cannot rest, they will move to the Romanian border region where the weather remains favourable (and far away from those annoying Soviet bombers!). Over there I expect to encircle anywhere between 72,000 - 368,000 men in one go - depending on the weather of course.
May god bless our advances & the stacking penalty!
I really have hard time believing that within the same year as D-Day, Germany decided to assault British isles... pure madness, which is why it might even work...
The only reason one would play Gotterdammerung...
I really have hard time believing that within the same year as D-Day, Germany decided to assault British isles... pure madness, which is why it might even work...
I believe in Karma
(Actually I don't) but really, its not madness...The entire British Isles would have around 120,000-160,000 men after you repel D-Day. Indeed, the entire British army is usually 450,000 men. My Oberkommando West has 817,000 men. It would be a shame not to take advantage of my sheer superiority. Also I can easily distract the Allies with only 60,000 men in Britain and that means my entire OKW can be sent to Italy if I felt like it. It has a lot of advantages honestly.
Interesting game, I'll follow! you'r doing very well so far, with the Allies soon off the continent and Britain under attack it is a matter of time before the full might of the Wehrmacht can be turned on the Russians.
I do wonder about China. If its a Japanese puppet again soon, might it be a good idea to call them to arms against the Red Army? The influx of troops, even poorly trained as Chinese, would be a huge problem for the Soviets.
I do wonder about China. If its a Japanese puppet again soon, might it be a good idea to call them to arms against the Red Army? The influx of troops, even poorly trained as Chinese, would be a huge problem for the Soviets.
