Let's bring them Socialism!

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This is an AOD AAR for my current game playing as the USSR. As a student of military history I wanted to play out a version of the Suvorov-thesis, the theory that Stalin had prepared to invade Western Europe and had signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact hoping to be able to take advantage of Germany being at war with France and the UK, effectively using Germany as an 'icebreaker' and only attacking once all three major European powers were exhausted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Suvorov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icebreaker_(Suvorov)

Personally, I think Suvorov was wrong about quite a couple of things, but mostly I find untenable the view that Stalin was just about to attack Germany and had been preparing for that for a long time. I find it inexplicable that Stalin would have purged the Red Army of his most experienced officers. Stalin was by no means a fool and should have realised that this would cripple his forces. Also, in 1941 the Red Army was far from ready and Stalin was apparently so afraid of 'provoking' the Germans and starting a war (too early) that he forbade elementary preparations for defence, such as reconnaissance overflights and dispersing the forces along the border or preparing for defence in depth. Stalin was at least somewhat experienced in military matters, having directed the defence of Tsaritsyn (the later Stalingrad, current Volgograd) during the Soviet civil war.

That being said, if anyone could have been preparing to attack Germany, it would have been Stalin. My current game and therefore this AAR is based on that premise. So basically, I'm trying to play a 'perfect game' as the USSR and intend to attack Germany early.

This won't be a narrative AAR, but much more a descriptive one as I'm quite pleased with the results so far, although I've come up against a random CTD and have not yet been able to progress beyond May 1941. Despite that, a lot has happened already.

Game settings:

Start year: 1936
Difficulty: Normal
IC Takeover: Off
Tech Team Takeover: On
Cheats or file modifications: As little as possible (It was my goal not to cheat at all I've only used the acceptall cheat a few times, see below, aside from the Nofog cheat, but now I've had to trick the US and UK into not declaring war on me too early)



1936

Since the USSR starts off with a base IC of 162, whereas Germany starts with 153 but can get huge bonuses due to its worldview, I decided to proceed with a parallel run of 25 IC, most of them of only one IC, but designating 5 major industrial cities: Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Nizhny Tagil and Sverdlovsk, which all have runs continuing into the mid 1940's at least, as well as a few others with runs of some 2 to three IC. I'm hoping to rapidly increase my IC and thereby being able to achieve parity with Germany in the most essential unit classes. At the same time, I'm paying off the dissent I start off with as rapidly as possible by increasing civil spending. Espionage spending is set at 10 and then left alone for the duration of the game, increasing proportionally with my IC. In technology, I focus on land doctrines, switching to the German ones. Perhaps a bit gamey, but then my Red Army is not the one Stalin fought with in WW2, but the one Tukhachevsky could have built if not executed senselessly. I reserve one slot for land doctrines, one for air doctrines, up to two for doctrines that improve industrial production and furthermore concentrate on upgrading land tech, land support tech, aircraft tech and only occasionally incresing naval tech or anything else. Nuclear or advanced rocketry tech I hardly touch at all and I don't build a rocket test site. Also, the navy is mostly disbanded, all except Level II and Level III subs and one (1) transport in the East are disbanded. I set the sailors to work in the factories or induct them into the army for now.

As for diplomacy, I mostly went for increasing my Interventionism, with secondary emphasis on Standing Army.


1937

First run of industry completed. Production focus is then changed primarily to land forces. I set up 2 lines of HQ (which are absolutely essential!), 2 lines of T-28 ARM (almost as important!), 2 lines of MOT Inf 1940 and 2 (later 3) of Inf 1936, with secondary emphasis on air forces, consisting of two runs of Interceptors. These lines are regularly upgraded whenever newer types become available. Two more lines are added for brigades so I won't have to retool my main unit lines whenever there is a new brigade and I won't end up with massive numbers of units with a single type of brigade and little of any other combination.


1938

I go with: no need for brutality and take another whopping 30 percent dissent on the chin. I switch civil expenses to maximum effect again, paying the dissent off by 0.11 per day.

ScreenSave169: By June 1936 I have no dissent penalty anymore. Hurray! Full steam ahead! Oh wait, there is no navy anymore...

ScreenSave170: The OOB in June 1936. Looks great, doesn't it? Wrong! All those Inf are Inf 1918!

ScreenSave171: Production in March 1938

ScreenSave172: Production in March 1938 (Continued)

ScreenSave173: National Army comparison March 1938. The Germans are rapidly expanding their forces and closing the gap, but I'm close to maintaining parity in ARM and have a big advantage in MOT, mostly due to the units I started with.

 

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1938 (Continued)

ScreenSave174: Already, the Luftwaffe would have the Red Air Force for breakfast...

1939

After reducing the dissent hit to zero, I continue my production lines, assembling three unit groups containing 1 tank unit and two MOT Inf or consisting of three Inf 1936, with as many brigades as possible. IC is still quite low, so much more than that I am unable to do.

I go with the historical Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and then launch the Winter War. I take what I wanted in the first place, leave behind enough Inf so I can counter a Finnish attack when it comes and then move all available units to Soviet Occupied Poland.

ScreenSave175: The army OOB on the eve of Fall Weiss. I've neatly closed the gap with Germany in armoured units, taken full advantage of the ability to produce MOT Inf. The combined arms groups are commanded by my crack 'Panzer' commanders, including Zhukov. Too bad I don't have the IC to upgrade my forces and most of my Inf is still Inf 1918, except for those I built myself.

ScreenSave176: Most of my better units are now based in the North, prepared to launch the Winter War.

 

[chalbersma]

I like this one.

 

[unmerged(93436)]

Thank you Chalbersma, I thought this was an interesting scenario and am quite happy with how it played out so far, therefore decided to share!

Unfortunately I made few screenshots during the early phase of the game, so I'm only adding them now.

1940

Evidence suggests that Stalin, as many others, did not see the lessons of the Polish campaign, did not expect a short, decisive war. Instead, he expected a long mobilization and a relatively long fight along the border as the initial stage of a major war. Perhaps Stalin overestimated the Soviet army based on its size, I can offer no other explanation. Therefore Stalin may have decided to wait with declaring war until the most opportune time, then found to his great distress that the Germans knocked out France in just two months and were then, at least in theory, ready to go to war with the Soviet Union.

With 20/20 hindsight, I decided that if there was any opportunity for the USSR to win an early victory over Germany and its allies, then it would be to go to war in mid 1940, by June at the latest. I had hoped to be able to do so with at least a slight advantage in armour, but despite my massive 5 year plan, my OOB still left a lot to be desired...

Early 1940 I switched ALL production off and directed my IC to producing upgrades, which I so desperately needed. How could I hope to hold out against the Germans with 1918 inf and even Zhukov commanding a Light Armoured division instead of brand-spanking new T-34's? The T-34/1940 is not available in the game, so most of my armoured units by 1940 are still equipped with BT-7M's! Tech-wise, I was only a little behind in land doctrines and was researching Mot Inf 1941, Inf 1941 and T-34 '41, but they were just not there yet. I decided to postpone a little to take as much advantage of available upgrades, but previous games had shown that the German AI was perfectly capable of holding France with one hand and driving a wedge between my nothern and southern army groups with the other, just by flexing some armoured muscle and taking full advantage of its excellent officers and ample Inf.

By late May 1940, I could wait no longer. The order was given. Attack! An 0,70 dissent penalty hit and I had little capacity left to counter that, but so be it...

Disposition of forces was as follows: A long line of Inf, as upgraded as possible, most if not all at least Inf 1936 by now, many Inf 1939. I was still researching Inf 1941, but could not afford to wait any longer. My three unit ARM + 2 MOT INF groups, commanded by Zhukov & Co were -dispersed- along the front. I decided at the last moment that a broad front attack was the best strategy. Previous games had shown that concentrating armour was not my forté as my lightning attacks had always run out of steam pretty swiftly, then been dealt with by German armour and my front then penetrated with great potential for disaster. By now I've built up some experience playing Hoi2 and AoD, but I'm no Gaga Extrem. I've had to learn the hard way that I need those HQ's and that I need to take full advantage of the able officers I have, so I have several generals and Field Marshalls among my crew.

So, I was all set for a surprise attack against German territory, with my units in the South set for a determined defense for now. Everything South of Stryj was just Inf, with only two MOT Inf and three Cavalry *cries* as support. The die was cast, there was no way back...

ScreenSave178: Western Europe. With the UK sitting on its hands, the French are getting clobbered. Notice our comparitive IC, I've kept up pretty well if I say so myself. Also notice Rommel. Don't worry, the Germans have gambled everything at defeating France swiftly and aside from about two armoured, the front is mostly defended by only a few Gar and a few Inf. The Luftwaffe is also a little preoccupied right now and I have quite a few Int ready, although my air doctrines leave much to be desired.

ScreenSave179: The Army OOB on the eve of war. I have a slight advantage in Inf, but I'm guessing the Germans have more Inf 1939 than I do. I also have a big advantage in Mot Inf. However, the Germans have only ARM and even one armoured division more than the USSR...

ScreenSave180: The Air Force OOB on the eve of war. Outmatched. There is no other word for it and that is not even taking into account the fact that I'm probably way behind on air doctrines.

ScreenSave182: The Western Front is looking good from Germany's POV. Too bad I'm about to stab them in the back... Also notice France's IC and compare with the Germans in ScreenSave178. Merde.

 

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1940 (Continued)

Breaking through the lines was not as easy as I had hoped. The Germans were outnumbered by far in the centre and the North, but still they put up a good fight. Delay was potentially disastrous as any shifting of forces by Germany might quickly turn the tides of war.

In the South, there was little to no movement. The Germans took Stryj unopposed and from there even managed a brief penetration of the front, but then the lines held until I was able to push them back again and stabilize the lines with my last fresh forces for a while.

ScreenSave 184: June 12th 1940: What a difference just a few days can make! Germany suddenly has a big jump in Inf and jumps ahead of me, becoming the biggest kid on the block! However, these are probably mostly divisions borrowed from their Axis allies. Nevertheless, it illustrates the real power balance. Only the fact that I am able to concentrate all my forces on one front gives me an advantage.

ScreenSave183. June 12th 1940: Poland is 'liberated'. Hurray for the Soviet Union! But the Germans still have large forces in the South, including Rommel's armoured divsion. The other one from earlier was surrounded and crushed, but Rommel was quick enough to escape. For now...

ScreenSave187. June 19th 1940: Pushing ahead almost as far as I dare, I have surrounded Berlin. If I can hold on, I'll probably win. If I can't, I'm well and truly out of luck. Fortunately, the Germans have most of their troops in the West and in the South. The French are battered, but still holding on, despite the Germans taking the Low Countries, the Channel coast and last but not least Paris. Tres bien! Too bad the Brits are, well, out for tea. Only the RAF and the RN appear to be doing anything and the Norwegians, with one (1) division in Southern Norway are left to fend for themselves.

ScreenSave154: July 1st 1940. I've decided to push forward again and help out the Norwegians and close off the Baltic, locking up most of the Kriegsmarine by closing the Kattegat in the process.

Ok, surrounding Berlin and not taking it was perhaps a bit gamey, but I tend to think it would have had a crippling effect on Germany, especially with the Nazi regime in power and the German Army fighting a two front war. Nevertheless, things were not over yet. I do have to say I think I got lucky this time, I've seen the German AI respond by charging across Germany with its Panzers, penetrating my front and then exploiting that situation. I guess this time I just barely had enough forces to prevent that by mostly carrying out a flexible defense, using my armoured forces in reserve mode, somewhat similar to what the Germans did in the later war years.

 

[tuore]

Hehe, my tactic.

 

[chalbersma]

If you have any transports in the baltic and a few troops to spare you might be able to knock out Bulgaria. There's a Bulgaria switches sides event that is really useful. With those troops you can generally knock out hungary too.

 

[unmerged(93436)]

If you have any transports in the baltic and a few troops to spare you might be able to knock out Bulgaria. There's a Bulgaria switches sides event that is really useful. With those troops you can generally knock out hungary too.

My only transport is sitting in Vladivostok, so that's not much use... But Bulgaria has turned either way...

 

[unmerged(93436)]

Ok, let's summarize the rest of the game so far.

1940-1941

After securing Denmark I started to slowly move west, each province costing the Germans IC and coming closer to the Western Front. The French managed to create a small pocket by reconnecting to their forces in Normandy, then moved north. I took the Netherlands, a sliver of Belgium and Luxembourg, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romenia, as well as occupying northern Italy except for the two westernmost provinces, which remained in Italian hands. Bulgaria turned as I partially occupied it.

I then took out Yugoslavia and Greece, then Italy almost singlehandedly. The British made an appearance in North Africa, but only managed to move across the Egyptian border in the East and the Lybian border in the West after I'd already taken the Italian boot and Sicily.

This part was horrible though, not because of heavy opposition, but because of annoying and seemingly random CTD's. I switched to saving every month and kept reloading and starting over again and again until I got lucky and the game didn't crash until either I saved when I achieved something interesting or I reached another autosave point. By now all of a sudden the problem seems almost over and the game seems to run smoother to boot. Go figure.

Meanwhile I had used the acceptall cheat to force Bulgaria to give me some remnants of the Kriegsmarine. Basically I got all the capital ships, ten transports and 5 subs. They were a bit battered as they had been locked up in the Baltic and had been transferred from Germany, to Slovakia and finally to Bulgaria, none of them being able to repair or reinforce them. Nevertheless, they were useful in providing an escort for two small landing forces, allowing me to occupy Lybia and force the annexation of Italy. World War two had ended, in autumn 1941. The British returned to their tea and the French to watching the Eiffeltower. Magnifique!

I then started to prepare for my second offensive. Nationalist China and its allies, including Communist China, were still bravely holding out against the Japanese onslaught. I decided to help out and started putting units into position. Please check the next post for the current branch of my game, see below for what happened initially.



1941-1942 Alternate history

Now I was surprised by a most unwelcome attack by the United States of America. Why? I have 'democracies can't declare war' on, but that was apparantly ignored. My belligerence was probably quite high due to annexing all those countries, but on the other hand, I was helping out, right? Yes, I was secretly plotting to attack France and Britain (Spain had gone to the Republicans) after finishing with Japan. I think it's a bit unfair, considering a) I was on the allied side and might have joined their alliance if the game mechanics had let me and b) I think annexing and gaining IC but not 'liberating' nations because that results in a dissent penalty for some reason is the thing most players will do. Well, that'll teach me for not taking stock of geopolitical considerations and bilateral relations...

At first I wasn't worried. The US had a much smaller army than I did and the US was far away. Plenty of time, I thought, so I switched from production back to upgrading and repairing provinces to gain some IC. However, the US, oblivious to the Japanese onslaught and singling me out for, well, a nasty spanking, started sending troops over. Unfortunately, they started doing so right after I'd allied with Communist China and therefore become embroiled in a war with Japan... Now there was no way back and pretty soon I was battered from two sides. Now it really started to hurt me that I had practically no navy and even the ex-Bismarck, the ex-Tirpitz and the other Kriegsmarine ships, which I had not bothered to rename but had pressed in to service as a stop-gap measure before building a proper fleet, could do only so little. I managed to sink a few TP's, but it's now 1942 and the US keeps sending reinforcements. They've occupied part the coastline between Vladivostok and Kamchatka, with the Japanese taking Kamchatka until I forced them back and then landing just north of the Americans. Of course, the Americans still don't bother fighting the Japanese, because I'm a much bigger threat than Japan. Well, they're right, but I'm not quite ready.

So, I have a bigger army, but parts of it are still in Europe and really should stay there just in case the Allies declare war on me, otherwise I'll lose for certain. I have no navy to speak of and interfering with US landings is only possible because the US Pacific Fleet is, well, I dunno, shall we say, otherwise engaged? Most transports have at most a DD or CL escort and my ex-KM force can deal with that. The Japanese are a bigger problem, although they haven't really bothered with my surface task force and in the only engagement I lost a battlecruiser for them losing the Kongo. Nevertheless I can't really risk my only surface ships in a futile attempt to destroy the landing craft. Also, my subs have tried to intercept the convoys supplying the hostile invasion forces, but have failed utterly and are being picked off one by one or even several at a time. My air force is of little use as I possess a sizeable force of Interceptors, but only four (4) Tactical Bombers and -no- other aircraft.

Fortunately the Japanese are doing very badly and I've managed to annex Manchukuo, am threatening Korea and have secured Communist China for the time being. They are throwing wave after wave of inferior militia and other substandard infantry at me, but most of the time my combined arms units save the day. Nevertheless, I now somehow have to outfight the US. I had hopes for creating a pocket, but that pocket was opened just in time and now the US has about 60 divisions on my soil, most of them armoured or mechanized. I know I can't reasonably expect to out build them and the infrastructure in the East is so poor that whatever reinforcements I can put down (oddly enough even in Vladivostok when it was cut off from the rest of the USSR) take a very long time to get up to strength and up until then are of little use.

So, there goes my plan right out of the window! I had planned on knocking out Germany and its allies, then waiting a year, build up IC, then wait another year and build up forces and start building a navy, then take on Japan, then take delivery of my Navy and conquer the rest of the globe...

Well, we'll see. If I can achieve local superiority over the Americans I might still drive them into the sea and my ex-KM fleet can be sacrificed if need be. But this is going to be much tougher than I'd hoped.

ScreenSave192: The ex-KM ships come in handy when helping to secure the Sicilian Straits for an attack...

ScreenSave200: I'm DOW-ed by... The Phillipines? OH THE NOES!!! But the US is a bigger problem, although I have a much larger army then they do, it is now a few months later and they already have more armoured than I have. Well, this game is called Arsenal of Democracy for a reason, I guess...

ScreenSave211: A Province Too Far. I try for an encirclement, but that plan is thwarted by a US counter attack just in the nick of time... Notice my gains against the Japanese versus me losing ground to the US.

 

[unmerged(93436)]

Harrumph.

I think it's time for some good, old, Soviet style rewriting of history. I've decided to get rid of the all-too-early DOW by the US and went back to a previous savegame from just before annexing Italy. I then took control of the US, deleted a ridiculous amount of warship and armoured construction, then took control of Japan and forced them to DOW the US in November 1941. By now the Japanese are holding off from the Chinese at least a little and are rampaging through the Pacific the way they were supposed to do in the first place. I'm taking the opportunity to a) build up my industry a bit more b) send some more units East while maintaining quite a few units in the West against an Allied suprise attack and c) upgrading all my units and repairing provinces so when I release my puppets in the West they will at least have a decent chance of doing something useful.

(To be continued)


1941-1942

Compared to my previous game, the remainder of 1941 was pretty uneventful. Undaunted by plenty of crashes, I'm proceeding to build up the beginnings of a navy and of an air force. I would prefer to let the US and their Allies to do the heavy lifting for now, but as far as I can see the US Pacific Fleet is cruising around Pearl for now and the IJN is mostly staying near home waters. But since the Japanese have backed off from Communist China and even Nationalist China a little (haven't noticed them being annexed anyway, despite huge stacks of militia being squeezed into the last four or so remaining provinces) I have decided to take full advantage of this brief period of peace before I join the fight and hopefully crush Japan in mainland Asia. Ideally I'd be able to rely on a brand spanking new fleet, but that simply would take too long. Before December 1943 I won't even have my four Sovietsky Soyuz Class battleships and 5 light carriers. Strangely, the US is this time -not- invading mainland China, although it seems the Japanese landed on Borneo and were kicked off the island, and are having trouble in the Philippines as well.

 

[DeveronMagi]

very nice tactic, liking the storytelling

 

[unmerged(93436)]

very nice tactic, liking the storytelling

Thank you, I'm glad people are enjoying this! I hope to keep you entertained and may do this again, I like the comments.

1943-1945

After annexing Italy the game hasn't been that eventful.Things are mostly proceeding as planned. After concentrating on building up my army in the East, while gradually building up my fleet, I DOW-ed Japan. Japan was woefully unprepared. Now engaged in a three-way war with the Chinese, the Allies and the Comintern, they have been kicked off the mainland. The Allies have islandhopped their way to the Japanese home Isles, taking several provinces, but I managed to grab Tokyo in order to be able to force annexation. But this was the easy part...

This is really an understatement. The Japanese army, despite its size, was not able to put up any effective resistance. I quickly annexed Manchuria, Manchukuo was annexed by Communist China and their army is by now, April 1st 1945, reduced to four (4!) Inf divisions and about three dozen Gar. The IJN is probably out of oil and certainly not able to interfere with landings even on the Home Islands. The only way to get it to fight appears to be taking a province with a harbour sheltering parts of their Fleet. Not that I want to take on even the battered and bruised IJN...

Other than my previously mentioned war booty and a few older subs, I've so far taken delivery of four Sovietsky Soyuz class battleships, 5 level 4 CVLs and 5 level 5 Heavy Cruisers. These form my brand-spanking new CCCP Northern 'Red Banner' Fleet commanded by Grand Admiral Kuznetsov. Furthermore I'm building 5 Fleet carriers and 5 more CVL's. I realise that is a bit much, but the Soviets had ambitious plans and I've had a brief WW2 with no enemy soldier's boots on home soil, profited from German -and- Italian know-how (I have Tech Team take-over on, which helps greatly) about two years of peace before DOW-ing the Japanese, while profiting from having occupied most of Western Europe. Yes, USA, I admit it, I've occupied these countries. Booyah! This has the US of A's panties in a bunch and they are desperate to declare war on me. I accidentally clicked on Accept to one of Japan's desperate pleas for peace, where they offered me most of the territory I had already taken from them, which is a nice gesture but not really something I want to settle for and immediately the US DOW-ed me. I went back to an earlier savegame, but this is actually a bit of a problem for me as I am not quite ready. Yes, I have a nice fleet, but I've also come to the conclusion I've made a few mistakes and it's too late to properly correct them. But hey, at least I'm learning.

The problem is, Arsenal of Democracy is a fitting name for the game I'm playing, from the US perspective that is. The USA has the second biggest Army, after the Nationalist Chinese who have ample Militia units to use as cannon fodder. (But it did nothing for them against the Japanese and only after I all but defeated the Japanese were they able to gain ground and now they're grabbing provinces I handed over to the Communist Chinese despite them not being at war with each other) The US has the entire Eastern Seaboard lined with most of about 32 Arm, 48 Mech, 74 Mot Inf as well and 112 (probably modern) Inf, as well as 36 (!) Marine divisions, a 281 ship Navy and I don't want to get depressed so I'm not even checking on their Air Force. The UK and France are a different story, they both have armies of about 150 - 175 divisions but consisting mostly out of Inf although they're helping out here and there too.

My own OOB is quite a bit different. I have the third largest army, mostly Inf and Mot Inf but with 4 Mech, 25 Arm as the core. My Navy, as stated above, is high quality, but not well balanced. My Air Force is decent, but consists mostly of Int and is only now taking delivery of Strat Bombers, CAS and fighters. I have no Marines, no Paratroopers, no subs, no destroyers, hardly any convoys or escorts and only 12 transports as part of my Ex-Kriegsmarine Reserve Fleet, which has been pressed into service as my transport fleet. I am at this stage still -very- poorly prepared for a war overseas, or even a forced crossing of the Channel, let alone challenging the US and UK in the Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean. I'm sure I could do some damage, but still. I need subs, Marines, Paratroops. Or huge, huge amounts of luck.

My strategic disposition is also not without problems. I have a decent force in Europe, but most of my forces are in the East, with a few gaps in a temporary coastal defence line I implemented before attacking Japan to prevent a two-front war. With those gaps, a US landing could wreck havoc with my plans. Landing in the America's is at this point impossible as I have no bases nearby. Maybe I can get a base by annexing Japan, I don't know yet.

So at least, I want to be able to choose the time and place for the next war. I don't think I want to risk an immediate war as soon as Japan collapses, so I've taken the liberty of giving the US and UK lots of isolationism. Maybe that'll give me the time to complete building up my fleet. Let's just assume there was an international conference and Stalin was very persuasive, resulting in the US of A deciding to hold back a bit on declaring war on a country they have been friends with for quite a while now. Maybe he said something along the lines of:

"Comrades. When the Allies were at war with the Axis, who helped you out and single handedly took out your enemies and their allies in the Balkan, even Greece when they turned against us? When you were at war with Japan, who took out the largest part of their army? Have we ever raised a hand against you? Do you understand how costly this war was? Why haven't we freed the Netherlands you say? Because the game mechanics don't allow it, that's why. They have hardly any IC or manpower, so who cares about them? Also, why not release them as puppets? Because it hardly reduces our belligerence and I needed the IC, man! Also, haven't you noticed how there are no potholes in any street in Germany anymore? We -paid- for all the repairs needed after you stratbombed the Living Daylights out of them! Also, these Bourgeois pigs were planning to attack us for the third time in just over a century and we need to educate them a little before they are ready to 'freely and democratically' elect their own puppet masters... I mean, politicians."

Or maybe he just said:

"Have you guys heard of the secret weapon I'm building? Of course not, it's secret."

Either way, I hope that works out and I'll be ready for war by 1947.



Memo to self: Perhaps it's better to quickly occupy Iran and the Middle East, hopefully starving the Allies of oil. Oh and build subs, marines, para's and all that quite a bit earlier, old chap.

 

[unmerged(93436)]

Well, that was odd...

I forced Japan to become my Puppet as it would otherwise surrender to the USA. This gave me some islands in the Pacific. Niiiice.

However, after that it didn't work out the way I wanted it to. Nationalist China DOW-ed Tibet, I brought the Tibetans to my alliance and happily started teaching them all about modern warfare and the difference between militia and real Inf / armoured spearheads. Next thing I know, the Tibetans go weak in the knees, sign a peace treaty with the Nationalist Chinese, while giving away most of China to the Nationalist Chinese even though these provinces were occupied by me and by the Communist Chinese. I'm sorry, was there a summit we were invited to but did the invite get lost in the mail? Did we delegate a dissident to represent the USSR who backstabbed us? Bah. Humbug. Possibly even worse, immediately afterwards the USA DOW's me again. Big bullies that they are.

So I'm going to have to try something else or just duke it out with the United States of America.

 

[walrus]

Nice AAR!

Just a suggestion though, maybe you should host your screenshots on an external site (such as imageshack) so that you can then embed the screenshots into the relevant parts of your post?

Of course, if you're doing it the way you currently are for a reason, ignore me

Good luck against the Americans, you'll need it

 

[unmerged(93436)]

Good luck against the Americans, you'll need it

Absolutely! I had one run-through already, spending a lot of IC and research on nukes, but I ended up with only a few and my bombers were shot down before they reached their targets. Moreover I'd wasted a lot of IC on building carriers and then upgrading them. It wasn't very efficient, as it should be as you would basically need to start from scratch. So I decided my IC could be used more appropriately and I'm currently setting up to try again, concentrating on building a small but effective navy including subs and a few transports, plus marines, paratroopers, transport planes, a decent air force (but probably nowhere near that of the Allies, it is just insane) and expanding my IC a little.

My current plan is to try to take Hawaii, then move on to central America. I'm still considering what would be more effective, a quick war in Western Europe as a prelude, hoping to draw off the massive number of troops the Americans have in the US, or either taking a base in the Americas and then quickly advancing north (and probably being crushed hopelessly unless my strategy is better) or just trying to take and hold Central and South America, perhaps even Western Europe and Africa as well and then strangling the US. Slowly. Basically, aside from Britain and France, the rest of the world is a lot of small powers who can be easily defeated.

There is certainly one possible advantage to invading from the South: the possibility of splitting the US and Canada in two.

I'll be back shortly.

 

[quaazi]

Glad to see some westeners are reading modern russian historians.

You should try to find M. Solonin's works. I'm not sure if they've been translated to english, but they are very detailed critisisms of both Suvorov and the Old Guard, while being essentialy the logical conclusion to Suvorov's works now that more archives have been opened (still no enough though).

 

[unmerged(93436)]

1945-1948

I've maintained peace by using the acceptall cheat to force the US and UK as well as French to sign non-aggression pacts with me, renewing them whenever they expired.

I used this (somewhat artificial) peace to build up my air force, my navy and my army to somewhat close the gap between me and the US. However, the US still holds a very significant advantage and I'm overstretched.

By late 1948, I decided not to force the US to extend its pact with me and was DOW-ed on January 23rd 1949. I didn't have all my units in the best position, but figured it was unfair to be fully prepared anyway and the only option would be to use the acceptall cheat again anyway.

Let's crunch some numbers, first US, then USSR, situation in Jan 1949:

Inf: 151 / 187
Mot Inf: 100 / 63
Mech Inf: 58 / 27
Arm: 56 / 37
Par: 4 / 9 (Located in Amsterdam, I'm hoping to Blitz the Brits)
Mar: 47 / 9 (!)
Mnt: 0 / 11
HQ: 33 / 12

UK & France: Lots of Inf, 77 and 145 respectively, but the British have only four armoured and the French only two, neither had any mech at this point in the game.

Furthermore, I'm allied with Communist China, which still has the eighth largest army after the US and USSR, I have Japan as a puppet, with still the fourth largest navy after the US, UK and USSR, as well as Bulgaria (with the 10th largest navy, right after Belgium, due to getting handed the KM after I annexed Germany and Slovakia). The Bulgarians are doing nothing with those ships though and I haven't bothered to take control of their forces. I doubt they even have enough fuel.

Unfortunately though, I had barely enough IC to build up all these forces, nevermind keeping them upgraded, so even my Armoured, Mechanized and air forces are mostly still way behind tech wise. I don't know the status of the US units, but will no doubt find out the hard way soon...

My navy now had some 50 subs, a main fleet consisting of 5 Fleet Carriers, 10 CVL's, my 4 Sovietsky Soyuz class battleships and a number of cruisers, but I added three transports. My Reserve Fleet consisting of KM ships turned out not to have the necessary range to reach Hawaii and is hopelessly outdated anyway. The US Fleet is 285 ships, versus 135 for mine... Ouch.

I had concentrated the entire Red Air Force in Western Europe, but my armies were all over the place, with a heavy concentration in Western Europe.

1949

So far, things are going about as well as might be expected. My air force was outnumbered and outfought, but I think it gave me just enough cover to get some traction early on in my campaign against the French. I've occupied all of continental France by april 1949. The French had two huge stacks, one in Dunkerque, one in Paris, with some smaller groups in two provinces in between. This made some sense and they stalled by advance on the Channel Coast for a while, but I made some good gains, conquering most of Southern France from Genoa and Milan until the French split off some forces and negated those gains. But that was irrelevant as I managed to wear them down in the north until I was able to take Paris, then cutting off the coastal provinces and picking off the remaining forces in a couple of pockets. The French still have a few dozen divisions elsewhere though, as well as a nice fleet. They refuse to negotiate any terms which I can accept though and when I use acceptall to force them to become my puppet, they give almost all their overseas provinces, as well as their fleet, to Britain, which is not a good deal for me. So I've decided not to use that trick, even though it seems silly to have the whole of continental France under my boot and not have the French surrender. But I'm guessing they are all, like, "Pour la patrie" and all that. Swell.

Anyways, I used my main fleet, the infamous Northern "Red Banner" Fleet, now headed by Kuznetsov, to land three marine divisions on the easternmost island of Hawaii. The US tried to interfere with the landings, with three 30 ship fleets (!) each including carriers, headed by Nimitz, managing to close to about one kilometre and battering my ships, but once the landings were complete most of my fleet got out nevertheless (I tried to expedite this by forcing them to break off the engagement as soon as the landings were complete, but this only resulted in utter destruction of my fleet for some reason), although all ships were very badly mangled and will need a lot of yard work to be of any use again. All in all I lost three CA and three TP. So I guess I have to postpone any further invasions although I will try to sneak in a few more troops. It does appear as if the US troops in Hawaii are in -very- poor shape though, some of them having little to no org. They seem to be having supply problems for some reason even though I have no illusion that this could be due to my subs...

The British are perfectly useless so far, just good enough to be annoying while protecting themselves. The British Isles have been turned into one giant airstrip and any province with a beach is guarded by at least a few divisions. The RN is out and about and even managed to cut me off when I tried to sneak some transports into Cherbourg.

I think I've found a bit of a bug though. It seems to me the AI does -not- reinforce allies and the Brits are happily reinforcing North Africa (where I defeated one British armoured division by trapping it against the Egyption border and crushing it) while not doing anything with those troops. Neither are the Americans reinforcing Britain or France except with aircraft. Lots and lots of aircraft. Unfortunately, that means the US is still a big military camp (hopefully with supply problems) and I'm still up against millions of US troops if I ever do manage to invade the Americas.

Edit: Well, I just loaded the game as the US and although with the exception of Hawaii they have no supply problems, they have just over 8 % dissent, probably as a result of declaring war on me. So they've spread their forces out all over the country on anti-partisan duty. Serves them right... Also, if I were able to invade it would work to my advantage, but I don't see that happening very soon. I need to quickly capture Pearl and then hope that the US Navy gets distracted. On the other hand, the US is island hopping again and has already retaken Okinawa, so who knows what's going to happen next...

In the East, there is at least one consolation. Despite having withdrawn a number of units from China in order to have forces ready to invade the US, I managed to fight the Nationalist Chinese to a standstill and when they offered me a peace deal I happily accepted. Gains in China are of little consequence right now and I can handle only that many sideshows. The Nationalist Chinese were already ready to trample over Mongolia anyway, so giving away most of China while gaining parts of Tibet and Western China seems like an acceptable deal to me.

Talking about sideshows, my troops are walking across Norway as they are part of the Allies, but have neglected to build any troops and the British are, again, reluctant to help out an ally when they can go and take a nice walk in the desert.

Also, a lot of smaller South American nations like Colombia and Equador are jumping over each other to declare war on me. Well, fine by me. Let them eat borscht. When I'm done with them, they will have to develop a taste for it. Too bad they're so far away.

Anyway, not too bad for now. So what's next?

I think I'll try to get Republican Spain to join me. It might at least allow me to cut off the Gibraltar Straights. If I manage to shift some forces to the Middle East I could cut off the Mediterranean and safely move some forces into West Africa, from where I might just possibly be able to invade Brazil.

But for now they won't unless I use acceptall and I'm still trying to cheat as little as possible.

Edit: It's now June 1949 and I've succesfully taken Pearl Harbor, depriving the US of their primary naval base in the Pacific. It was actually too easy, as I could not contest control of the seas, but the US just didn't bother stationing at least one ship in the sea zones between Hawaii itself and Pearl. Crossing the straits is impossible even if there is only a transport in one of those sea zones.

Also, the sideshow campaign in Norway has been completed with the annexation of Norway, as Norway had only one (1) division and zero allied support. As for the sideshow in Africa, it is turning out to be quite interesting and a little reminiscent of the real thing in WW2, with the frontline moving to the west, to the east and then to the west again. Since I had been able to spare only a few divisions, 6 Inf, one group consisting of 1 Arm, 1 Mech Inf and one Mot Inf and an incomplete group of 1 Arm, 1 Mech, I had little units to spare. Nevertheless I was able to bag the cream of the British army, at least two of their four armoured divisions. I've now decided to send over a few more units, if I can transfer them safely from Taranto to North Africa. I'm including Timoshenko in command of the Africa Front (formerly Leningrad front, which was stationed in sunny Nice, France).

Edit:

The North African campaign is going exceptionally well. British and French infantry is no match for Timoshenko's African Front. They may also be having supply problems as they seem particularly weak. I've taken control of most of the North African coast. In addition, I've landed forces on Crete, Cyprus and even in an undefended Suez, giving me control of the Suez Canal. Meanwhile, Kuznetsov's forces have mostly recovered and they will soon be rebased to Hawaii. Then it's time for the end game: conquering the Americas... or dying on the beaches. Or in the hills. Or in the tropical forests of Brasil. Or who knows, perhaps in Death Valley. Wouldn't that be almost poetic?

Glad to see some westeners are reading modern russian historians.

You should try to find M. Solonin's works. I'm not sure if they've been translated to english, but they are very detailed critisisms of both Suvorov and the Old Guard, while being essentialy the logical conclusion to Suvorov's works now that more archives have been opened (still no enough though).

He sounds interesting, but unfortunately I can't read Russian and am unable to find any English translations of his books. :S

ScreenSave296: Hard fighting in northern France, but Paris is about to fall and with that La Republique is in big trouble...

 

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1950

Well, it's not exactly a blitzkrieg, but operations are commencing more or less as planned.

As of June 1950, I'm slowly reinforcing my troops on Oahu (better known as Pearl Harbor in the game) as it will be a pain shipping all my units all the way from the Soviet Mainland to the American coast. Only when I have sufficient forces in place do I dare try for a landing in the Americas.

I just loaded up my current savegame as the USA to see what was up and as it turns out the USN has taken a battering. Apparently the battle during the landings on Hawaii has damaged their forces as well and unlike me, they are -still- repairing. The US is well supplied with everything except money. Cutting off the oil from the Middle East would have been a wast of time this late in the game, as I had expected, so that little sideshow has been postponed indefinitely. I certainly don't need the oil either.

Even better news: I've -outbuilt- the US at least in terms of building up my IC, I have 523 / 371 versus them 469 / 340. As a result, they are unable to do everything at once. They are unable to make enough consumer goods to feed their large civilian sector, while also building new ships and planes, reinforcing their damaged fleets, etcetera. I may actually have a fighting chance!

So, things are looking up. Yes, I will have to take on an onslaught of American armoured forces once I land and they have plenty of HQ's to counter any stacking penalties. Furthermore, I'm even having trouble kicking the Americans out of the Hawaiian Isles so it certainly will be a long, hard fight. Nevertheless, the game isn't over yet!

Meanwhile I'm resuming research on nuclear techs as I'm running out of non-researched techs by this time. I'm still debating building a few more reactors and going for a production line of nuclear bombs, while I'm already researching intercontinental bombers. However, the US doesn't have a nuclear program at all. This is probably due to the 'AI not constructing buildings' bug. So, I think it should remain a nuclear free scenario as it would give me an unfair advantage and it seems unlikely the US would not have nukes by 1950. Seems to me the AI could have skipped all the nuclear techs if they weren't going to use them anyway. Ah well, I'll just have to use my intercontinental bombers, once I start building them, for conventional strat bombing.

In other theatres, things are going well.

-In Asia, the Nationalist Chinese have a peace treaty with me until september 1950. The forces which were removed from their territory when we concluded peace have been sent back and are now parked along a line drawn roughly along the Yellow River. If war does break out, I hope my mobile forces will once again best the huge stacks of Inf and Mil, with hopefully at least a little support from the Communist Chinese.

-In Europe, I'm quietly preparing to invade Britain. I'm building transports which I will somehow have to move into the Channel. The RN is at least doing something right, when I try to move transports into the Channel, they are intercepted. As the Northern Fleet is needed elsewhere and I don't have the time or the IC to build another fleet, they have an advantage there. The French are also doing one thing right: despite me occupying not only France itself, now including Corsica after an unopposed landing, as well as most of North Africa, they absolutely -refuse- to accept my peace terms. Therefore the Channel ports aren't 'legally' mine and that somehow means I can't just send river barges to the ports and use them as transports. Right. Well, let's just assume the French Resistance is blocking my efforts and that RAF and USAAF bombers have destroyed enough rivers to make river transport impossible.

I do have naval bombers and subs assigned to patrol the Channel however, so if I do manage to get my transports there, I'm hoping I'll be able to carry out a landing operation. If this were a narrative AAR, I'd be calling it "Operation Tsarina". I'd also be explaining about various 'Maskirovka' operations to shield the true goal of our current enterprise. Together with my paratroopers, my landing force should just about be sufficient. The British Army was largely defeated in North Africa, so they have hardly any reserves left.

I'm currently considering bringing the Spanish in or otherwise just annexing them so I can take Gibraltar and maybe get my transports in from the Med or from Spain itself. Maybe that route is a little less defended.

Edit:

The rest of 1951 was pretty uneventful, although Nationalist China Dow-ed Communist China (and therefore the Comintern) on cue as soon as our peace treaties expired. However I was not only able to defend against an onslaught of inferior militia forces with only a handful of decend units, but even expand our territory a little. Amazingly enough, a strong Nepalese (!) attack just after I had conquered the neighbouring province of Kagan was one of the few setbacks I suffered. The Nationalist Chinese only now realise they've bitten off more than they can chew and are offering me territory in return for peace, but although it will be another long, bitter battle before I can defeat them, there is no turning back now. I'll hold the lines for now and wait until I can shift additional forces to Asia, while I concentrate on Britain and prepare to (finally) invade the Americas.

I decided there was no way the RN was going to let me move those transports to the Channel coast, so I rebased the Northern Fleet, from Pearl to Casablanca. This met with little Allied opposition. December 1951 I had Spain up to +200 relations, but they still didn't feel for joining our alliance. So I made them an offer they couldn't refuse...

1952

The next year has so far been much more interesting.

First, I raced across the Spanish Plains with no rain in sight. I quickly took out the UK colony which had replaced Portugal and Spain became just a little bit bigger. I then easily took a poorly defended Gibraltar and thereby locked the Allies out of the Mediterranean at last.

Moving the Northern Fleet again through Bordeaux to Rotterdam, I used it not only to harass any French or RN ships I could find, but also, after a brief skirmish with the RN in which they lost their obsolete carrier Hermes, I used my fleet to escort all the transports I had finished to Cherbourg.

Now I was ready. I had been saving quite a large part of my interceptor and fighter force and now I turned them loose, shooting down at least one enemy air unit and gaining control of the skies over the Channel and Southern England. I then quickly landed a small Marine force in Portsmouth, while simultaneously landing a large force mostly armoured units in (completely undefended) Plymouth and air landing troops in Bristol. The Paratroopers took the long way around, but thanks to my earlier suppression of Allied Air units, it all ended just the way I wanted. I had a foothold on the British Isles and the British were in no way, shape or form able to contest that. I then isolated London, then took out the single unit there. Skirmishing with the RN whenever they were forced out of their current port, I raced north until another paradrop took Edinburgh. After that, there was no real resistance left, only one lone Inf. After another air drop in Belfast, I took Scotland and capped it by taking Scapa Flow. Unfortunately, most of the RN managed to escape.

Still, this is a nice victory, as the British are now reduced to 8/6 IC and no doubt can no longer even supply their huge Naval and Air forces, let alone the remaining 87 Inf and lone Arm. Their total army strength is 96 as compared to 475 for me. In an amazing feat of stupidity, they've moved their capital to Malta. Yes, transfer your capital to a completely isolated province you can no longer supply and which can be easily taken by my forces! What about Newfoundland? Too cold, you say? Well, you've got me there, but still... In any case, this finally ends the incessant pounding of the Continent by Allied Air Forces. Someone's going to get a medal and I bet it's going to be Zhukov.

Meanwhile, Brasil has declared war on me and after the expiration of a peace treaties with Ecuador and Colombia, those nations followed suit. Weird, especially considering that nations such as India, Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey, although they don't like me, are still at peace with me.

I think I'm now in an excellent position to land in Brasil from Africa and Panama from Pearl.

ScreenSave352: After a circuit of Britain, my Paratroopers have landed in Bristol, while Soviet Marines are landing in Portsmouth and Armoured units arrive in undefended Plymouth.

 

[chalbersma]

This is quite interesting....

 

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This is quite interesting....

Thank you, it's interesting to share this with others and it does keep me motivated. I'm pretty sure this is the longest HOI-game I've played so far and I don't mean because of the lag...


1953

After establishing bases in West Africa and building up sufficient forces there, I tried to land a small corps of Marines in Recife, Brasil. Understandably the Brazilians didn't like that very much and they fought back. Hard. They are at least a few years behind me in tech, but still managed to prevent me from executing a successful landing operation. I also carried out a second attempt at Rio de Janeiro, as I had drawn off their forces to the north and considered it very useful to have a naval base in the Americas to support my campaign, but that attack was cancelled when I saw it was going nowhere. I did manage to sink Brasil's Dreadnoughts in the process though. Sorry about that, but at least one of them was due to sink to the bottom anyway...

After recovering, my Marines tried again, but this time I selected an easy target: Suriname, a Dutch colony just north of Brasil. Unopposed, the Soviet forces went ashore and I quickly followed up with my main force. I then pushed west into Colombia, which had declared war on me again about a year or 2 ago and had already decided this had been a mistake. My troops slogged their way through tropical rainforest, not making much progress, so I decided to see if it was any easier when I proceeded through the northernmost Brazilian province. It wasn't, but I kept the province anyway and thanked the Brazilians by offering them a peace deal in return for that province. They wisely accepted (the British and French should take notes) and I was on my way. Progress was slow, so I used my paratroopers again to speed up the process a little, but at least there was movement and I annexed Colombia. Next up was Panama. Crucial not only to my plans, but also strategically essential to the US. Surprisingly enough, the Canal Zone was -completely- undefended. Not even a Gar division, let alone some of the literally dozens of Marines the US can wield or even a single squadron. Odd, but movement was slow enough as it was and I happily took the first piece of US soil on the American Continent (I'd already taken the Hawaiian Isles).

I think I keep switching strategies a lot, but although the AI is not really pushing me that much, things just don't turn out exactly the way I expect them to. I had hoped to be able to do with a relatively small, but high quality navy so I could just build it, be done with it and concentrate on getting closer to equality with the US with regard to air and land forces. However, I've now switched production back to producing naval vessels instead of troops and aircraft. I decided to do so because I had already built up a huge army and currently I have numerical superiority, if only by a few units at most even when taking into account I have dozens of Gar divs. In the air, I'm still outmatched by a huge US fighter force. But it has become pretty clear to me that the threat of the huge USN was just to big for my one (1) fleet.

Just a few weeks or maybe months before I took the Panama Canal zone, the US rebased three (3) fleets to the Eastern Seabord. My main Northern Fleet, still the only one available, was surprised as I was too focused on the fighting on land. Kuznetsov performed admirably again and lost by retreating his entire force except for one by now outdated CA, while the US won by surviving with three battered fleets minus the BB USS New Jersey, an older BB, a CA and a CL. Yeah, well, I call that a strategic victory for me but a tactical victory for them. I wouldn't mind 'losing' a few more battles that way. In any case, it certainly proved me right. As of now, my fleet is almost completely repaired, while many of their ships are still damaged, so I may have a small advantage for a few months, but if they dare risk it, I'm still hopelessly outnumbered and any wrong move could mean that I will have to leave the seas to the Americans and if that happens I could be in real trouble.

So, I'm building a new navy, consisting of 2 modern carriers, which will be called Lenin and Stalin, 10 modern CVL, the first five of which are named after Soviet Republics, the next five will be named after various annexed nations, as well as a few dozen CA, CL, DD. Most will be ready by June / July 1954. I've also built a few SSN, but although I can force them out to sea, I'm unable to get them to actually do something useful, so I've currently abandoned that program. Maybe I just don't have enough nuclear fuel, maybe it's a bug, I think someone else mentioned something like this happening.

I'm also building new reactors and by early 1954 the first one is coming online, which makes four, which should mean I could build nukes if I'm not mistaken. I'm also building a few SS-6 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, which I'm hoping will be a lot more intercontinental than my Bison Strat Bombers which I've had to rebase to South America and which can now threaten the Eastern Seaboard. I'll hold back on using nukes if I can, but the US Army is still a major threat, even if it doesn't want to come out and play. If I'm going to have to beat it on its own soil, where it is supported by the entire combined Allied Air Forces, while the USN threatens my supply lines and Eisenhower and Co, supported by plenty HQ units to prevent over-stacking, well... Let's just say that after all this effort, I just don't want to lose, so if I can get one or two nukes ready, that'd be a nice insurance policy.

I've decided to wait until my new navy is available before moving any further. Slogging through rainforest and marching across mountains is not getting me anywhere and if I need to march all the way from Panama to the Mexican / US border, then it could take another year or so anyway.

With my new navy I might just be able to best the USN, considering the few close scrapes I've already had which still turned out pretty good for me. I'm gambling that Kuznetsov and Golovko will be able to save the day and when the USN returns home, two other fleets mostly consisting of transports but with a few escorting vessels (including the by now positively ancient ex-Bismarck & ex-Tirpitz) will land troops at various locations on the coast. I only have 9 Marine units, but that'll have to do and perhaps a few paradrops may help out. I need to be very careful though, especially if I attack Mexico. So far the AI has absolutely refused to send any forces -by sea- to an allied nation, but they have moved into each others territory from one of their own provinces or landed in one of ours. So the moment I cross into Mexico, by sea, by air or by land, I'm expecting the ground to tremble as the US Armoured Divisions start moving into Mexico, while I fully expect their air forces to bomb any small force to smithereens. Therefore, any invasion of Mexico has to be carried out at full strength, preferably by land so I can create and maintain a defensive line. I'll worry about breaking a possible stalemate when I don't have to worry about being crushed and overrun.

If I do manage to break the US, then I've quite clearly won and can just do amphibious landings on any piece of territory the British, French and Dutch still own. That is, if they don't surrender when I take Washington, DC.

Oh well, musn't get ahead of myself. There are still over 60 Armoured divisions waiting for me to come see them up close... This is going to make Khursk and Kharkov look like a stroll in the park...