Fortress Europe

[unmerged(37264)]

Since all my previous games(twice as SU, once as USA and once as Germany) have been easy victories, I decided to try something else this time. I am playing as Germany, my goal is to capture all of Europe(including my wannabe allies, but not Finland), and then create westwall(coastalforts) and eastwall(landforts all along the russian border). I might possible also expand towards Africa.
Game played in normal/furious.


1936-37

The very first thing for me to do is cancelling the naval projects and starting the build up of industry. 15 new factories are ordered to be built. Rest of the IC go to building supplies and enough consumer goods to satisfy the people.

Secondly I fire the armaments minister and installing Fritz Thyssen in his place, giving -20% in consumer goods. This mean I can place even more production on supplies.

Then I start to build up my resource pool, trading all excess supplies and energy for rare materials, oil and metal. This gives me a surplus of 39.25 metal, 60.45 rare materials and 61.39 oil each day.

Then it is time to set up the tech teams, since almost all 1936/37 techs have already been researched, I put all my effort into industry technologies. Once the first few techs had been researched, giving me boost in manpower, industry effeciency and manpower, I decide to start researching the blitzkrieg doctorine and light tank techs, while the other 3 teams will still continue to work with industry techs.

 

[unmerged(37264)]

1937-38

By January 14 the 15 new factories have been built and the last one is ready by February. Immediatly another batch of factories(16 this time) are ordered to be built, in effort to raise the industrial capacity into maximum before war. Also more supplies are traded away in order to increase the resources stockpiles.

No minister changes are made, because they would not benefit me in any real way.

In the field of technology the research teams are now concentrating on the army and air force, while 1 team still works with the industry. By march 1937 the basic light tank has been researched. The basic field artillery technology is their next goal. Soon after basic CAS is developed, and the team continues it's work in the field of aircrafts, this time researching basic interceptor.
Both of these should fit our 'defensive' strategy, as well as the offensive operations we are planning in Europe. The research of basic infantry division is started soon after.

At the end of may we finish researching Blitzkrieg doctorine, and start the research of Bomber Veteran Initiative. Soon other projects are finished, and more effort is placed into aircraft research.

In May 1937 we decide to propose Anti-Comitern pact to Italy and Japan. Should they accept it, they will still only be cannonfodder and nothing else. This affect our policies, and as a result our people demand less consumer goods. This means that we can use more of our industrial capacity to build supplies, and that is what we do. These supplies are then traded for metal, rare material and oil, which now increase at rate of ~200, ~150 and ~150 each day. Our stockpiles for each are almost 40 000 now and by 1939 we expect the stockpiles to be large enough to last for several years of warfare.

In June the nationalists in Spain finally win the war.

In december we complete the building of 15 factories, and the 16th will be built in Jan of 1938. More factories are ordered to be built. We are gambling(canno't build units before 1939) but hopefully this will pay off in the long run.

 

[Minodrin]

Hmm, too bad that I watched American Idol recently, so I'll be brutally honest.

Your writing, while not bad, doesn't offer anything I haven't seen before.
Ofcourse, the premise of building lots of forts might be interesting if you pull it off right, especially how you will defend them against a Soviet offensive. But what is the gimmick of this AAR that makes me want to read it instead of all the other 20x German 1936 AARs? Story-based ones are always interesting, but if you don't have a story, you need to (in my opinion), find another "red line" to follow, which in your case seems to be "I did, I plan...". Still, I hope you continue writing this, and remeber that when you told yourself you wanted someone to comment on your AAR, you had to accept the possibilety that your the comments might not be stellar.

I hope your game is interesting, and I'll check this AAR out from time to time.

 

[Rapcw]

I like this AAR. Keep it up.

 

[unmerged(37264)]

Hmm, too bad that I watched American Idol recently, so I'll be brutally honest.

Your writing, while not bad, doesn't offer anything I haven't seen before.
Ofcourse, the premise of building lots of forts might be interesting if you pull it off right, especially how you will defend them against a Soviet offensive. But what is the gimmick of this AAR that makes me want to read it instead of all the other 20x German 1936 AARs? Story-based ones are always interesting, but if you don't have a story, you need to (in my opinion), find another "red line" to follow, which in your case seems to be "I did, I plan...". Still, I hope you continue writing this, and remeber that when you told yourself you wanted someone to comment on your AAR, you had to accept the possibilety that your the comments might not be stellar.

I hope your game is interesting, and I'll check this AAR out from time to time.

Not actually writing it for the 'audience', instead more of an AAR of what happens when one tries a diffrent approach. And since we don't have a strategy forum, I suppose this one fits in here better than other forums.

On the other hand, there is not much to tell before the war begins, maybe I will get creative at some point.

 

[unmerged(37264)]

1938-39


January:
After reviewing the cabinet, it is decided that everyone should keep their places, mostly because there are no good replacements available. Armaments minister could be changed to Hjalmar Schacht, which would give us a 10% bonus in industrial production. However, it would give 1% dissent, as well as 20% increase in consumer good demands(current minister bonus). Therefore Fritz Thyssen can keep his position until the war begins, in which phase the CG demand will drop anyways.

In economics, our metal stockpile is now over 100k, and increases with 300 per day, at the same time oil and rare material stockpiles amount to about 70 000 each. One factory is finished, and a new one is ordered to be built in Oppeln. This bring the total amount of facotries being buil to 18, which means that during 1936-1938 49 new factories were built.

February:

Currently we are producing 50 extra supplies. Instead of stockpiling these, it is agreed that we must increase the oil stockpile even more so that our airforces can be kept operational for years to come.

The Heinkel Flugzeugwerke discovers how to build basic naval bombers. Since they were so succeful they are given another task, the developing of basic tactical bombers. Rheinmetall has also been busy developing Basic static anti-air artillery, which they finish researching 20th of february. This technology should give us an edge in our effort to destroy the allied air armadas. Rheinmetall is gien another task, they are to study the early marine division. We suspect that these might be needed in the distant future.

Ten days later Mauser Werke finishes studying the needs of basic infantry division, giving us the much anticipated knowledge of how to build 1939 infantry. Despite their effort and succes in this field, we canno't give them another researcg goal. Instead they are replaced by Hugo Sperlle, who is given the task of studying 'Battlefield Interdiction Doctorine'.

March:
On 9th of march the first succes in our campaign for Total Domination is taken: Anschluss of Austria, the austrians happily join our great nation. This gives us 19 more factories, as well as several new divisions, which however are poorly equipped and trained.

Few days later Ernst Udet finishes researching Logistical Strike Doctorine, he is immediatly given new assignment in the field of Air Doctorines.

We are again building more supplies than we are using, and these are traded for rare materials.

April:

I. G. Farben finishes researching Production Planning, which gives us 5% mroe supplies, which again are traded for more resources. Farben continues to research Production Control.

The armed forces are redeplyed along the French and Czech border.

May:
A rainy month...

Sperrle finished his project and is fired. We give Krupp the order to research Improved Light tanks. Our stockpiles are now 150k for steel, 100k for rare materials and 100k for oil.

June:

Rheinmetall developes basic marine division. They are switched to MAN who is given the task of researching early self-propelled artillery.

Heinkel developed basic tactical bomber, they are replaced by Porsche who get's the task of researching basci encryption devices.

July:
We move one step towards Hawk lobby(now 9).

Enst Udet finishes his job and is given another assignment in the field of strategic bombing.

August:
Nothing happens.

September:
Production Control is researched, Farben is assigned into the researching of Assembly Line Experimentation

On the 30th of the month we take another step in our road for domination: we demand Sudetenland, and the Czechs give in. Or the allies actually. This gives us more IC and manpower, on a sidenote our available manpower is now 2000, which means that we can build about 200 divisions.

October:
Improved Light Tank is researched. Research on basic medium tank begins immediatly.
Early self-propelled artillery is researched, the team is given a new goal: basic heavy tank.
Basic encryption devices is reseached, Siemens is given the task of developing Improved computing machines.

November
Enst Udet finishes and continues his research work.

We finish building the factories and switch into building infantry. At first we shall build 72 infantry divisions. This is done by having 24 parallel runs, each producing 3 infantry divisions. It takes 217 days, 134.4 IC and 720 manpower to finish this project. But, at the end we should have enough force to destroy both Poland and France.

Where to get this IC then? Simple, half is gained from the factories which we finished building, and the rest comes from supply production. This however means we must stop trading supplies. We also decide to start building 2 light armored divisions.

Some IC is put into upgrading old units to new standards. However, this is not the main priority at the moment.

December:
Nothing happens.

 

[Stonewall]

If I may offer some advice. From your description, it sounds like you ardered 15 factories to be built. When they were finished you ordered 15 new ones. Instead of ordering new factories, take advantage of the serial production bonus and built 15 parallel runs of 4 or 5 serial runs. Every subsequent factory will be produced 18 days quicker, so that by 4th run, you're only taking ~290 days per factory instead of the full 360. That serial production bonus applies to all units you build, including province improvements.

 

[unmerged(37264)]

If I may offer some advice. From your description, it sounds like you ardered 15 factories to be built. When they were finished you ordered 15 new ones. Instead of ordering new factories, take advantage of the serial production bonus and built 15 parallel runs of 4 or 5 serial runs. Every subsequent factory will be produced 18 days quicker, so that by 4th run, you're only taking ~290 days per factory instead of the full 360. That serial production bonus applies to all units you build, including province improvements.

My polisices change quite a bit during those years(intevernetionism, hawk lobby), do the bonuses they give only apply to units/improvements built after the policy has been changed, or do they automatically also effect the units/improvements that were started before the change?

 

[unmerged(37264)]

January of 1939

Fuehrer finally decided to sack Fritz and install Hjalmar in his place, giving us the 10% bonus in industrial capacity.Wilhelm Canaris was also removed from his duties as the head of intelligence, he was replaced by Hans Oster who gives us 5% bonus in industrial capacity.

Our supply stockpile drops by 200 a day, with this pace it will last only 50 more days. That should however be enough to grow our resource stockpiles large enough for the next 5-6 years.

On 26th the first batch(24) of infantry divisions is ready. They are all deployed in the Polish border. Von Böhm-Ermolli(FM), von Amsberg(general) and Von Bötticher(lt. general) are given control over these units.

The research on basic heavy tanks is finished, and Rheinmetall is given order to develope improved field artillery.

February of 1939:

Some techs are finished, among them basic medium tank.

March of 1939:
Our metal stockpile reaches 250k and rare material stockpile is now at 148k. Since we are down on supplies(~2000) most trade treaties are cancelled, and as a result only oil(and energy naturally) is still gorwing.

15th of March our great leader gives an ultimatum to the Czech leader, and as a result their nations is now part of ours. We had to however give some of the territory to the Hungarians. This is our last step in the road to total domination...soon we will start running.

With the added IC we begin the construction of 2 transport flotillas and 1 AA-battery.

On 24th we claim Memel from Lithuania, but they refuse to give it to us!
Note: the event seems to be bugged...'lithuania refuses' reads in the title but the text reads they accept it.

On 28th one panzer division is ready, we immediatly begin to build another.

April of 1939:

One more panzer division is built and deployed in the polish border. One more is ordered to be built. Another batch of infantry divisions is ready, and they are deployed along the Hungarian border. Von Bergman(General), Heye(general), Von Schleinitz(lt. gen) and Von hammerstein-something(lt. gen) are given order over these troops.

Some research is finished, another one started.

May of 1939:

Some air doctorine is finished and another one placed under study. We finish studying the Assembly Line, and start studying on how to produce more tanks faster.

The anti-air battery is finished as well as the two transports. 9 divisions are immediatly transferred into East-Prussia.

June of 1939:
Last batch of infantry is finished brining our total strenght into 129 divisions. These units are deployed in the Polish border under various commanders.

After much consideration, another 72 infantry divisions are mobilized, and the recruiting begins immediatly.

Research on basic self-propelled artillery is finished.

July of 1939:

Improved Field artillery is researched.

All aircraft, apart from one interceptor, is transferred to the eastern front. Plans for capturing Poland and Hungary in one thundering strike are being made.

August of 1939:
The plans have now been finished, however we just discovered that 24 new divisions will be available on 3rd of September. It is decided that half of these unit will be deployed in the French border, and the other half is used to attack Denmark.

We finish building a tank division, and deploy it in the polish border.

On 24th we propose a pact to the Soviet Union, they accept it and propose that we join in arms! We shall do no such thing.

 

[unmerged(37264)]

The War begins

30th of August 1939
We give an ultimatum to Poland; Danzig or War. They resfuse to give us Danzig, which is rightfully ours. There are no other solutions than war to this problem anymore, therefore Operation Fall Weiss is put into effect. War is declared to Poland and Hungary and our forces cross the border immediatly, and so the real war begins.

The red and blue arrows show the planned routes of attack:

Our supply stockpile is extremely low, but this is only a temporary problem, we used all the IC we could to upgrade our units to new standards. That is enough supplies to last for 2 days, and 2 days is enough to change back into supply prodcution, which we did.

Now, regarding the plan itself. It calls for a quick drive through southern-Poland into Warsaw, encircling as many Polish divisions as possible in the Poznan area. In Hungary we aim for a quick breaktrough. Air forces are flying interdiction and air superiority missions all over Poland.


September of 1939:
1st
Bratislava, Czestochowa, Danzig and Bygdozscz are captured. All of the enemy units are quickly defeated in all offensive directions.

2nd
Györ, Radom and Torun fall to our forces. 10th panzer division is defeated in it's attack towards Warsaw. Apparently it was far more heavily defended than we though. Reinforcements are on the way.

3rd
10th panzer division is defeated by the polish counterattack. However, we encircle 9 divisions in Poznan and Lodz and defeat them soon after. Zilina and banska Bytrica fall to the AGH(Army Group Hungary). Later on XL. Armeekorps led by general hammerstein-somethin arrives in Radom and beings an attack towards Warsaw. They are supported by air forces. Preparations are being made for more divisions to join the attack.

Cracow falls to our troops.

4th
More units join the attack. Premyszl, Budapest and Pecs fall to our troops.

5th
battles all over continue.

6th
We stop our attack into Warsaw. our 20 divisions were not enough to drive away the 11 defending divisions. However, several mroe divisions are about to arrive and paner divisions are about to encircle the city.
Szeged, Suwalki and Lomza are captured. Our attack into Stryj fails, the unit was too exhausted.

7th
Kosice is captured. First attack into Debrecen fails, but another one with 9 divisions has immediate succes. Hungary is almost ours. Warsaw is now completely cut off, attack is planned to happen on 8th or 9th of this month.

8th

Attack into Warsaw begins.

In few hours the last defender surrenders, and so 11 more divisions are eliminated. The drive towards east continues.

9th
We now controls all of 'western' Poland.

10th
Soviet Union snatches Eastern Poland. We annex Hungary and Poland.

10th-30th
Our forces are re-organized into the Yougoslavian and Romanian borders. Series of fortifications are being built along the Soviet border. 12 divisions are sent to the Danish border, it has been decided that the control of those straits belongs to us.

Our total losses were 70 manpower. Most casualties were taken when attacking Warsaw. More than we expected, but still minimal enough to be easily replaced.

 

[unmerged(37264)]

October of 1939:

1st-5th
We finish moving troops into their positions.

6th
War is declared to Denmark. 12 divisions move into danish territory.

7th-11th
War is declared to Romania and Yugoslavia, operation Marita begins with full scale attack against enemy border defenses. In few hours all of the enemy forces have been driven back and the drive inland begins. In just few days most of the enemy forces have been defeated or forced into a position where they canno't cause our operations any harm.

12th
We annex Denmark after a succeful campaign.

[/I]13th-18th[/I]
Advance continues, the Romanians are able to gather some sort of defence in theri capital, therefore halting our offensive for some days. The Yougoslavians however are almost defeated.

19th-25th
The only thing slowing down our advance in Yougoslavia, is the speed of our units. On 25th we finally manage to capture all the remaining strongholds and annex the nation.

In Romania the reinforcements arrive and we attack Ploesti. Soon after the attack on their capital begins.

27th

Several enemy division arrive in Ploesti. However they are soon defeated, and our own forces arrive there, bringing doom over their capital.

28th
Romania is annexed. Some forts are built along the Soviet border.

 

[Usually_Insane]

You are a tentacled monster
What a brutal blitzkrieg...

I'm genuinly Impressed.
But how does your production look like? your sliders?

 

[unmerged(37264)]

Production:

Technology:

 

[unmerged(37264)]

October 28 1939 - November 30th 1939:

Basic Rocket Artillery is researched, Krupp is given order to start work on Improved Medium Tank.

Based on our experience in Poland, Hungary, Yougoslavia and Romania tank divisions are no longer used as separate units. Instead they are either grouped with infantry or grouped into formations of 3. Since we currently have only 7 tank divisions, that means we use two 3 unit tank corps and one infantry corps is strenghtened with a single tank division. This new theory is experimented in Bulgaria.

After few days we suddenly remember that Bulgaria is mostly mountaineous area(5 of 6 provinces), therefore rendering our tanks quite unuseful. Advance continues slowly but surely.

24 more infantry divisions are ready, bringing the total amount of divisions into 178, just 2 less than what is the strenght of Red Army.

On the 17th Soviet union declares war to Finland. Just a week before they declared our non-agression pact null and void. We wonder if they have some 'plans' considering us...

On the 25th we annex Bulgaria. our total losses(KIA, MIA, WIA) thus far all offensives counted are approximately 85-90 000 men. So far enemy losses are, POWs counted, at least 10-15 times that.

December of 1939:
Since the winter has now arrived, the operation Fall Gelb must wait until spring. On the other hand, we must produce some garrison units before conquering new areas, otherwise the partisan problem will grow too great to handle. Right now we have 30 infantry divisions guarding the 'Eastwall' and 15 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry divisions in anti-partisan duties in Eastern Europe and Balkans. Some division in Denmark/Coastal guard and the rest are guarding the French border.

Also the first level of fortifications is finished in Königsberg-Presov Line.

January of 1940:
No minister changes are made. One more tank division is finished, 4 garrison untis are placed under construction. On 24th the last 24 infantry divisions are ready, and 22 new garrison divisions are placed under training. The infantry divisions are, of course, deployed on the western front. 40 AA's(4x10) and several escost and convoys are also being built.

 

[unmerged(37264)]

February of 1940:
The first level of fortifications is finished in the Bacau-Braila-Tulcea -line. Some technological research is ready, Heinz Guderian is rodered to work on the Kampfgruppe doctorine.
All of our available forces are moved to the Belgian border. 95 divisions in total.


March of 1940:
Some garrison units are finished and 3 mountain divisions are placed under training. Few days later another batch of garrison units are ready. Eight naval bombers are being built now.

2nd level of land fortification in East-Prussia and Poland is finished. Soon the Eastwall is ready.

The winter seems to be giving back to summer, and therefore time for our big offensive is at hand. The general staff is given orders to start preparing the plans for operations Westoffensive.

April of 1940:

The plans are finished and the weather is clear. Orders are sent to our forces, already stationed in the borders of our enemies, to start the attack. The 85 divisions, of which 8 are armored, stationed in the Belgian border in the province of Cologne is to give the main strike against our enemies. The panzer will head full speed to Paris while infantry forces will secure the rear and flanks and also encircle the Maginot-line. Some of them will be used to secure Belgium.

All units taking part in the offensive are given extra supplies, which eats up about half of our supply stockpiles(from 16 000 to 8700).

10 more divisions are stationed in the province of Aachen, they are to attack the Belgians and then head towards the province of Calais.

20 divisions are stationed along the border of Netherlands. They are to destroy the dutch forces and then drive down towards Paris. These units are also considered to be the reserve forces of AGW(Army Group West).

34 divisions are stationed in the French border, they are there to tie down french divisions(currently about 50 are sitting in the Maginot-line) and to make sure the French do not start an offensive of their own.


At 7:00 1st of April war is declared to Belgium and Netherlands. And so the tanks roll forwards. After 7 hours of fierce fighting the very last defender is driven back in all our points of attack. After 9 more hours the first troops arrive in the belgian province of Bastogne, naturally these two tank divisions are led by Guderian himself.

2nd
Six o'clock both Liege and Antwerp fall to our forces.
Sixteen o'clock Arlon falls to our troops, few hour laters the french forces in Reims are defeated. The road to Paris is open.

3rd
Reims falls to our troops. Advance continues. Compiegen falls to our panzer forces some hours later. Paris is defended by a single garrison division. They stand no chance against our tank divisions.

In Netherlands our forces have captured Groningen, Arnhem and Leeuwarden.

4th
Despite overwhelming numbers, we must stop our attack to Metz, for it is far too heavily defended. Forces are sent to another direction.

Nineteen o'clock Paris falls to the XXI. Armee, consisting of 4th, 6th and 10th panzer divisions led by lt. General Manstein. However, infantry is left far behind, and in order to stop the enemy from reforming, the tank divisions are ordered to continue their advance towards southern-France.

5th
The french are piling their divisions in Chaumont, our neewly arrived infantry forces are sent to attack them instead of marching towards Paris.

The belgian and Dutch forces are totally defeated, and the forces continue their advance towards northern-France.

6th
The battle over Chaumont is over and we stand victorious. The french forces are forced to retreat back into the safety of Maginot-line. Their chances of breaking through our lines are now non-existant.

7th
Our tank divisions advance in southern-France without facing any resistance at all. The enemy forces in Calais area are surrounded and destroyed and the rest of their forces are bottled up in the Maginot-line. Our victory is guaranteed.

8th
Our foces win the battle over Dijon.

9th
France surrenders. The whole campaign cost us approximately 30 000 men, this must be due to the new way of using tank forces.

Plans are being made to invade Vichy France...

Rest of the month
Several new garrison divisions are ordered and forces are re-positioned along the Vichy France border. Coastal fortifications are built all along the Atlantic coastline. This takes a lot of resources, but should prove to be beneficial in the far future.

 

[unmerged(37264)]

May of 1940:
War is declared to Luxembourg and Vichy France. Luxembourg offers more resistance. It falls in one day. After 6 day we reach the italian border, no enemy units are encountered.

After conqueting France we decide to take Switzerland. Most of our forces are amassed on the border and on 20th of the month the attack begins from all directions with approximately 120 divisions. Swiss forces are soon defeated and the country is annexed.

June of 1940:
most of the forces are now sent to the Spanish border, and a lot of re-organization conserning the garrison forces is done. Some research is finished, mainly the Improved Medium tank, which should give us a big advatnage in this field. It's a shame we can't really used that advantage against anyone.

 

[jaddboy]

Good stuff. Thanks!