Hi
This AAR will be limited to just this post... Cuz I already finished it ;-). Might add a screenie later.
My goal was to achieve a WC (all world in Axis hands) by 1947 with Germany, on the Road to War scenario, vanilla 1.06 normal/normal.
I almost did it... Should I try again I think I know what to do. Next attempt will be on hard/agressive though...
Anyway, the game started normally, and I was trying to do everything historically.
The first three years, from 1936 to 1938, I dedicated to research. My goal was to get good tanks and superior (to the soviet) infantry. I also planned to construct a strong (though not that strong, since planes don't conquer provinces, they just bomb them) airforce.
My intervention in the Spanish civil war secured a lightning victory for Franco... And a few useful techs for yours truly!
The Anchluss went fine, as did Munich. The added steel production REAAALLY helped the German war machine.
My attempts to influence eastern Europe were going well. By January 1939 Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania were ready to become my client states.
The winter of 1938 saw a huge increase in defense spendings, aimed mostly at the conscription of a large infantry force. Some planes, including (regretfully) a few Stukas, were constructed.
In March 1939, just after the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the Panzer IV 70mm tech was ready! The volkswagen factories immediatly began to churn up these babies... Whatever ancient PzKf IIs dicisions were left immediatly underwent upgrades.
The summer of 1939 saw an expansion of the Axis. Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary joined the Third Reich in their revisionist struggle.
By August my tanks were ready, and were promptly given to Rommell, Guderian and Manstein. The three military gurus proceeded to the Polish border at max speed, to join the masses of German infantry already poised to attack. My infant air force was also in a state of readiness, eagerly awaiting the 'go' signal.
Molotov Ribentropp went nicely, and Memel was promtly ceded to me.
Poland initially refused British protection, but a month later joined the allies anyway. Go figure.
The big day came, and on the first of September 1939 declarations of war were exchanged. I had some 15 inf divisions to guard the French border, and some 50-70 inf and 15 tank divisions to take care of Poland. The classical double evelopment was used. Pincers from Slovakia and East Prussia met east of Warsaw (Warszawa... damn those Poles have some spelling, eh?). A thrust from Berlin along the Vistula (Visla...) went straight through the brave Poles as if they weren't there... The Polish resistance collapsed very rapidly, andby the 20th of September the campaign was done for. Poland was annexed, Ribentropp-Molotov kicked in,and all my forces immediatly raced for France.
On a side note, btw, these first few months of the war always offer the best fun! Invading the USSR is also nice, but it can get tiresome. What I really hate is warring around Asia and Africa, in crappy low infra provinces with stupid inf divisions sneaking from the deserts and taking over useless sand dunes.
By October 1 the Wehrmaht was amassed along the French-Belgian-Dutch border and the battle was ripe. I DoWed the low countries and took them over in no time. The Maginot line was overcome, a barely defended Paris fell to the raging panzers of Manstein, while Guderian and Rommell threw themselves towards western and southern France... There was only one tough battle, south of Paris and North of Vichy, but with a bit of air support Manstein made it.
By the end of November France collapsed and Vichy was formed. A huge pocket of surviving Allied units formed in the Southeastern-most corner of France, on the Italian border, in the damn alps. I sent some units to contain it, all the while having my troops racing north and east. During the whole campaign vast amounts of infantry were trained for the upcoming Barbarossa.
December saw the Danish walkover. The damn bastards ceded Greenland and all that to the US.
In January I really wanted to take over Norway. To do that you just have to conquer Narvik and Oslo (only point-bearing provinces). Well, Oslo was very easy... But Narvik proved a pain. I had constructed a small transport flotilla for the invasion, and transported some infantry to the Norwagean sea... The Narvik attack commensed, and succeeded, if barely. Norway was annexed. The Narvik steel proved really helpful.
By the time Norway fell it was March 1940. There had been a slight setback in clearing the French pocket, but Guderian came and took care of it. Infantry divisions, fresh from boot camp, were being thrown at the Russian border.
In april I had some time and decided to take over Jugoslavia. The campaign was very rapid. By the end of the month Romania (??) annexed Jugoslavia... Bulgaria took Skopje.
My tank armies, who had hardly suffered any losses and were doubtlessly with the highest morale ever, proceeded to the German- Russian border.
And thus, on May 14, all my troops were on the Russian front, poised to attack. The odds were not that good. I had a good number of infantry, maybe 80-100 divisions, but the Russians had maybe 3 times that! Still, half of mine had various support battalions (often engineers).
In the skies, the Soviets had around two times the amount of fighters I had, but mine were brand new Me109s, so I had little doubts of my air superiority. I had a slight advantage in tactical bombers (which was to serve to some tragic incidents...).
My Ace-up-the-sleeve were my tanks. I had 25 tank divisions, all high quality Pz IVs. I also had the necessary tank commanders - good ole Rommell, Guderian and Mastein.
There was my dilemma - attack now, in May 1940, with a slight numerical disadvantage, or wait for the vast amounts of troops under construction (a lot of inf divisions and airplanes) and meanwhile use 1940 to conquer, say, Turkey and Greece, and maybe even Iraq, thus opening a second front in the Caucasus.
In the end, because of Hitler's gambling spirit I guess, war was declared and the Wehrmacht surged into the Russian plains.
The plan was on the historical lines. The armor, divided into three groups, formed the backbone of the army. Groups North and Center were supposed to go around the pripet marhses and meet at Gomel, thus forming a pocket.
Group South raced for Rostov.
Well, it was tough, but my troops broke through, and eventually formed some pockets in the Ukraine, which I proceeded to clear up with infantry. Sevastopol was isolated. Rostov was taken.
In the north, through some tough fights the pocket was eventually formed. Regretfully I lacked the strength to hit at Moscow, and used all my forces to contain and reduced the pocket. In the south, I conquered Kursk and even Morozovsk (near Stalingrad), and then was forced to race north to help up the situation there. I left the Romanians to tend the Ukraine. That was a mistake.
By the fall of 1940 the front froze in a stalemate. The pripet marshes pocket was being reduced, but very slowly (damn marshes). The situation in teh south became critical at one point, with Russian units breaking the Romanians and almost retaking Odessa! Guderian raced there and saved the situation, however, retook Kiev and once again setup a steady front.
Here a tragedy occured. I had comissioned a lot of tactical bombers at the beginning of the war, and now they were coming out of the assembly line. I put a 12 stack in some front province (short range...), and at one point, using the garisson of the province to counterattack somewhere, left it unguarded (it's truly annoying - cuz by default you see the icon of the plane, and in the heat of the battle it's very easy to forget to check if there's a garisson in the province). One stupid Russian inf division came and destroyed the whole stack! ARGH! I was really, really angry. The planes should be made to bloody escape in such situations, IMO.
What's worse... Now don't laugh at me guys, I'm no dumbass, it's very easy not to notice there's no garrison when cuz of the damn uppermost planes icon... I lost 2 more 12 stacks in the same way.
36 planes lost just like that...
Yeah, I know...
Still, that didn't save uncle Joe. Sevastopol fell, and, in the summer of 1941 my forces, reinforced by hordes of normal and mech infantry (around 20 mechs by that time!) went for Moscow. It was a classic Tula - Kalinin (was it Kalinin?) pincer... And it almost succeeded! The province northeast of Moscow took another 2 months to fall...
The Moscow pincers were commanded by Guderian and Rommell. Meanwhile, Mastein along with Von Kluge (who commanded a large mech inf detachment) surrounded Stalingrad.
After Moscow Rommell pushed and took Novgorod and Tikhvin. Finland then joined the Axis. This in late 1941 all three major cities were surrounded.
Meanwhile more and more mch and regular infs were coming to relieve the armor surrouning Moscow. Eventually Leningrad and Stalingrad were stormed. The Moscow garisson died from hunger ;-). I decided not to take Moscow just yet (not sure if that's an exploit cuz the enemy forces were still supplied. Just didn't want to move the capital...).
A large armored Force took Kuibishev and Magnitogorsk, setting up the bitter peace. That happened in early 1942. The summer saw me trying to take Baku.
I managed to take it with a paradrop, but the troops were killed off since they had no supplies... Then, after some tough mountain battles, I managed to retake it.
And so, In September 1942, the bitter peace kicked in and Stalin surrendered!
Immediatly my troops ammased on the Turkish/Persian border. Persia, when asked, joined me! As did Turkey. Nice, eh? In the next few months Sweden, Spain, and even Switzeland also joined me.
Greece refused to join and was overran.
Meanwhile, Rommell dealt with an American occupation of Sicily. A huge assault in France was also dealt with. My armies being quite large, I threw all my IC at research.
From then on the game became slightly boring. '43-'44 were spent in the conquest of India and Africa. Saudi Arabia joined me and took over Oman. My forces broke Iraq and Persia annexed it. Tibet, Japan, and Afghanistan also joined the Axis. Portigal, too, joined me eventually.
In late '44 I nuked London and invaded Britain. Since I controlled a lot of its Indian provinces, and Ireland (teehee) controlled... Its own island... I was able to puppet very quickly, after only conquering southern England.
'45 saw me allying with Argentina and shipping Guderian there. Brazil also joined. By the end of the year South America was mine.
Since America had nuked me, I retaliated in kind. 6-7 A-bombs were thrown at them from a base in Cuba. Served them right.
Japan still couldn't defeat the Chinas. Idiots. Still, all the Chinas had were a few pathetic mountain provinces in the Himalais... Not terribly useful
I have a suspision that Japan could have puppeted either Commie or Nat China, but didn't cuz of stupidity.
In earyly '46 I shipped Rommell and Kluge with a lot of mech inf and armor (20 of each, maybe) into central America, and invaded Mexico. Once I reached the border, the Americans ammased 40 divisions there. Then they nuked Vichy! That could not be allowed. Texas was nuked, the 40 divisions vanishing in a second.
From then on, until the end of 1947, I fought America. Invading them is very annoying, let me tell you. The huge distances between the provinces mean that by the time you attack a province, half you org is gone... WTF? Also, they have copious amounts of planes and constantly bug you, until you bring some fighters. Then the American planes get wiped out in a split-second.
Worst of all is central USA with the damn Rockies. Seriusly. After a 2 months move towards some province (cuz they are big, right?), you get there at like 40 org only to see that it's raining and you have 1percent efficiency. Even with the best conditions the damn mountain reduces efficiency to 50% max.
The only way to break that is with planes. Except, sometimes, something happens (presumably US fighters?) and 6-7 planes just die. The others end up badly shaken and you gotta repair and wait for a while to max org.
Eventually, in late 1947, I went around to Rockies by walking along the Canadian border, surrounded 30 US divisions there, and annihilated them. Meanwhile I nuked all of the Eastern US...
When the game ended, the Axis controlled all of Europe, all of Asia except a small Chinese pocket (and of course the USSR), North Africa, all of South America, and Western and Central USA. The USA was broken (finally. Seriously, they are like the zerg, just come and come and come not minding the losses. Plus they always end up with super techs...) and would have been mine by mid-1948.
Canada would have been a walkover (they had nothing anyway).
So, all I didn't contril were stupid 0-20 infra provinces that take ages to walk over to and are imposible to defend since the defenders just plain disintegrate.
Also, stupid mountains (i.e. China), that the computer could not conquer no matter what, and that sometimes combined with low infra, were nigh impossible to take (I guess vast amounts of paratroopers could have done it.)
But, as far as I'm concerned, the WC was practically successful. The Axis ended up with 970 points.
I'm tired with this Historical stuff though. I'm gonna try games where the US does not join the Allies, or maybe one where the unholy alliance kicks in (anyone ever seen that happen?).
Also, I'm beginning to really hate African/ Asian warfare. It's just plain annoying with these huge provinces and mountains and low infra (lost 10 tanks in friendly Persia over a huge 20infra province! Never even saw how they dissapeared...).
BTW, in December 1947 I noticed I had (finally) discovered all techs ;-).
That's pretty much it... Have a nice day .
(P.S. I'm not gonna read this over... It's too long. So excuse any errors you notice plz.)
This AAR will be limited to just this post... Cuz I already finished it ;-). Might add a screenie later.
My goal was to achieve a WC (all world in Axis hands) by 1947 with Germany, on the Road to War scenario, vanilla 1.06 normal/normal.
I almost did it... Should I try again I think I know what to do. Next attempt will be on hard/agressive though...
Anyway, the game started normally, and I was trying to do everything historically.
The first three years, from 1936 to 1938, I dedicated to research. My goal was to get good tanks and superior (to the soviet) infantry. I also planned to construct a strong (though not that strong, since planes don't conquer provinces, they just bomb them) airforce.
My intervention in the Spanish civil war secured a lightning victory for Franco... And a few useful techs for yours truly!
The Anchluss went fine, as did Munich. The added steel production REAAALLY helped the German war machine.
My attempts to influence eastern Europe were going well. By January 1939 Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania were ready to become my client states.
The winter of 1938 saw a huge increase in defense spendings, aimed mostly at the conscription of a large infantry force. Some planes, including (regretfully) a few Stukas, were constructed.
In March 1939, just after the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the Panzer IV 70mm tech was ready! The volkswagen factories immediatly began to churn up these babies... Whatever ancient PzKf IIs dicisions were left immediatly underwent upgrades.
The summer of 1939 saw an expansion of the Axis. Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary joined the Third Reich in their revisionist struggle.
By August my tanks were ready, and were promptly given to Rommell, Guderian and Manstein. The three military gurus proceeded to the Polish border at max speed, to join the masses of German infantry already poised to attack. My infant air force was also in a state of readiness, eagerly awaiting the 'go' signal.
Molotov Ribentropp went nicely, and Memel was promtly ceded to me.
Poland initially refused British protection, but a month later joined the allies anyway. Go figure.
The big day came, and on the first of September 1939 declarations of war were exchanged. I had some 15 inf divisions to guard the French border, and some 50-70 inf and 15 tank divisions to take care of Poland. The classical double evelopment was used. Pincers from Slovakia and East Prussia met east of Warsaw (Warszawa... damn those Poles have some spelling, eh?). A thrust from Berlin along the Vistula (Visla...) went straight through the brave Poles as if they weren't there... The Polish resistance collapsed very rapidly, andby the 20th of September the campaign was done for. Poland was annexed, Ribentropp-Molotov kicked in,and all my forces immediatly raced for France.
On a side note, btw, these first few months of the war always offer the best fun! Invading the USSR is also nice, but it can get tiresome. What I really hate is warring around Asia and Africa, in crappy low infra provinces with stupid inf divisions sneaking from the deserts and taking over useless sand dunes.
By October 1 the Wehrmaht was amassed along the French-Belgian-Dutch border and the battle was ripe. I DoWed the low countries and took them over in no time. The Maginot line was overcome, a barely defended Paris fell to the raging panzers of Manstein, while Guderian and Rommell threw themselves towards western and southern France... There was only one tough battle, south of Paris and North of Vichy, but with a bit of air support Manstein made it.
By the end of November France collapsed and Vichy was formed. A huge pocket of surviving Allied units formed in the Southeastern-most corner of France, on the Italian border, in the damn alps. I sent some units to contain it, all the while having my troops racing north and east. During the whole campaign vast amounts of infantry were trained for the upcoming Barbarossa.
December saw the Danish walkover. The damn bastards ceded Greenland and all that to the US.
In January I really wanted to take over Norway. To do that you just have to conquer Narvik and Oslo (only point-bearing provinces). Well, Oslo was very easy... But Narvik proved a pain. I had constructed a small transport flotilla for the invasion, and transported some infantry to the Norwagean sea... The Narvik attack commensed, and succeeded, if barely. Norway was annexed. The Narvik steel proved really helpful.
By the time Norway fell it was March 1940. There had been a slight setback in clearing the French pocket, but Guderian came and took care of it. Infantry divisions, fresh from boot camp, were being thrown at the Russian border.
In april I had some time and decided to take over Jugoslavia. The campaign was very rapid. By the end of the month Romania (??) annexed Jugoslavia... Bulgaria took Skopje.
My tank armies, who had hardly suffered any losses and were doubtlessly with the highest morale ever, proceeded to the German- Russian border.
And thus, on May 14, all my troops were on the Russian front, poised to attack. The odds were not that good. I had a good number of infantry, maybe 80-100 divisions, but the Russians had maybe 3 times that! Still, half of mine had various support battalions (often engineers).
In the skies, the Soviets had around two times the amount of fighters I had, but mine were brand new Me109s, so I had little doubts of my air superiority. I had a slight advantage in tactical bombers (which was to serve to some tragic incidents...).
My Ace-up-the-sleeve were my tanks. I had 25 tank divisions, all high quality Pz IVs. I also had the necessary tank commanders - good ole Rommell, Guderian and Mastein.
There was my dilemma - attack now, in May 1940, with a slight numerical disadvantage, or wait for the vast amounts of troops under construction (a lot of inf divisions and airplanes) and meanwhile use 1940 to conquer, say, Turkey and Greece, and maybe even Iraq, thus opening a second front in the Caucasus.
In the end, because of Hitler's gambling spirit I guess, war was declared and the Wehrmacht surged into the Russian plains.
The plan was on the historical lines. The armor, divided into three groups, formed the backbone of the army. Groups North and Center were supposed to go around the pripet marhses and meet at Gomel, thus forming a pocket.
Group South raced for Rostov.
Well, it was tough, but my troops broke through, and eventually formed some pockets in the Ukraine, which I proceeded to clear up with infantry. Sevastopol was isolated. Rostov was taken.
In the north, through some tough fights the pocket was eventually formed. Regretfully I lacked the strength to hit at Moscow, and used all my forces to contain and reduced the pocket. In the south, I conquered Kursk and even Morozovsk (near Stalingrad), and then was forced to race north to help up the situation there. I left the Romanians to tend the Ukraine. That was a mistake.
By the fall of 1940 the front froze in a stalemate. The pripet marshes pocket was being reduced, but very slowly (damn marshes). The situation in teh south became critical at one point, with Russian units breaking the Romanians and almost retaking Odessa! Guderian raced there and saved the situation, however, retook Kiev and once again setup a steady front.
Here a tragedy occured. I had comissioned a lot of tactical bombers at the beginning of the war, and now they were coming out of the assembly line. I put a 12 stack in some front province (short range...), and at one point, using the garisson of the province to counterattack somewhere, left it unguarded (it's truly annoying - cuz by default you see the icon of the plane, and in the heat of the battle it's very easy to forget to check if there's a garisson in the province). One stupid Russian inf division came and destroyed the whole stack! ARGH! I was really, really angry. The planes should be made to bloody escape in such situations, IMO.
What's worse... Now don't laugh at me guys, I'm no dumbass, it's very easy not to notice there's no garrison when cuz of the damn uppermost planes icon... I lost 2 more 12 stacks in the same way.
36 planes lost just like that...
Yeah, I know...
Still, that didn't save uncle Joe. Sevastopol fell, and, in the summer of 1941 my forces, reinforced by hordes of normal and mech infantry (around 20 mechs by that time!) went for Moscow. It was a classic Tula - Kalinin (was it Kalinin?) pincer... And it almost succeeded! The province northeast of Moscow took another 2 months to fall...
The Moscow pincers were commanded by Guderian and Rommell. Meanwhile, Mastein along with Von Kluge (who commanded a large mech inf detachment) surrounded Stalingrad.
After Moscow Rommell pushed and took Novgorod and Tikhvin. Finland then joined the Axis. This in late 1941 all three major cities were surrounded.
Meanwhile more and more mch and regular infs were coming to relieve the armor surrouning Moscow. Eventually Leningrad and Stalingrad were stormed. The Moscow garisson died from hunger ;-). I decided not to take Moscow just yet (not sure if that's an exploit cuz the enemy forces were still supplied. Just didn't want to move the capital...).
A large armored Force took Kuibishev and Magnitogorsk, setting up the bitter peace. That happened in early 1942. The summer saw me trying to take Baku.
I managed to take it with a paradrop, but the troops were killed off since they had no supplies... Then, after some tough mountain battles, I managed to retake it.
And so, In September 1942, the bitter peace kicked in and Stalin surrendered!
Immediatly my troops ammased on the Turkish/Persian border. Persia, when asked, joined me! As did Turkey. Nice, eh? In the next few months Sweden, Spain, and even Switzeland also joined me.
Greece refused to join and was overran.
Meanwhile, Rommell dealt with an American occupation of Sicily. A huge assault in France was also dealt with. My armies being quite large, I threw all my IC at research.
From then on the game became slightly boring. '43-'44 were spent in the conquest of India and Africa. Saudi Arabia joined me and took over Oman. My forces broke Iraq and Persia annexed it. Tibet, Japan, and Afghanistan also joined the Axis. Portigal, too, joined me eventually.
In late '44 I nuked London and invaded Britain. Since I controlled a lot of its Indian provinces, and Ireland (teehee) controlled... Its own island... I was able to puppet very quickly, after only conquering southern England.
'45 saw me allying with Argentina and shipping Guderian there. Brazil also joined. By the end of the year South America was mine.
Since America had nuked me, I retaliated in kind. 6-7 A-bombs were thrown at them from a base in Cuba. Served them right.
Japan still couldn't defeat the Chinas. Idiots. Still, all the Chinas had were a few pathetic mountain provinces in the Himalais... Not terribly useful
I have a suspision that Japan could have puppeted either Commie or Nat China, but didn't cuz of stupidity.
In earyly '46 I shipped Rommell and Kluge with a lot of mech inf and armor (20 of each, maybe) into central America, and invaded Mexico. Once I reached the border, the Americans ammased 40 divisions there. Then they nuked Vichy! That could not be allowed. Texas was nuked, the 40 divisions vanishing in a second.
From then on, until the end of 1947, I fought America. Invading them is very annoying, let me tell you. The huge distances between the provinces mean that by the time you attack a province, half you org is gone... WTF? Also, they have copious amounts of planes and constantly bug you, until you bring some fighters. Then the American planes get wiped out in a split-second.
Worst of all is central USA with the damn Rockies. Seriusly. After a 2 months move towards some province (cuz they are big, right?), you get there at like 40 org only to see that it's raining and you have 1percent efficiency. Even with the best conditions the damn mountain reduces efficiency to 50% max.
The only way to break that is with planes. Except, sometimes, something happens (presumably US fighters?) and 6-7 planes just die. The others end up badly shaken and you gotta repair and wait for a while to max org.
Eventually, in late 1947, I went around to Rockies by walking along the Canadian border, surrounded 30 US divisions there, and annihilated them. Meanwhile I nuked all of the Eastern US...
When the game ended, the Axis controlled all of Europe, all of Asia except a small Chinese pocket (and of course the USSR), North Africa, all of South America, and Western and Central USA. The USA was broken (finally. Seriously, they are like the zerg, just come and come and come not minding the losses. Plus they always end up with super techs...) and would have been mine by mid-1948.
Canada would have been a walkover (they had nothing anyway).
So, all I didn't contril were stupid 0-20 infra provinces that take ages to walk over to and are imposible to defend since the defenders just plain disintegrate.
Also, stupid mountains (i.e. China), that the computer could not conquer no matter what, and that sometimes combined with low infra, were nigh impossible to take (I guess vast amounts of paratroopers could have done it.)
But, as far as I'm concerned, the WC was practically successful. The Axis ended up with 970 points.
I'm tired with this Historical stuff though. I'm gonna try games where the US does not join the Allies, or maybe one where the unholy alliance kicks in (anyone ever seen that happen?).
Also, I'm beginning to really hate African/ Asian warfare. It's just plain annoying with these huge provinces and mountains and low infra (lost 10 tanks in friendly Persia over a huge 20infra province! Never even saw how they dissapeared...).
BTW, in December 1947 I noticed I had (finally) discovered all techs ;-).
That's pretty much it... Have a nice day
.(P.S. I'm not gonna read this over... It's too long. So excuse any errors you notice plz.)
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