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Riel Hamard

Captain
May 9, 2024
440
527
As I write this, I have an HOI2 VH Campaign in September, 1937 where we started and early war against Japan that might be in a stalemate, but does not matter. What matters in that game is we got into an early war with the UK and Germany appears to be continuing as if nothing is going on. We would be starting as scheduled in 1939 with much more experienced units and more material, but less Manpower. We will also be starting with the USA as an ally.

Then we got interrupted and downloaded HoI3 and Darkest Hour. HoI3 is not yet stable. DH is stable. So we will continue our campaign in DH. Format is similar. We will start by looking at our initial position and options..

We believe we fixed most of the music in this game. I crack a smile every time I hear something from the Vicky 1 soundtrack. I will add stuff from EU2 soon enough.

Part 1 - Politics - Government and Domestic Policy
I am trying my best to find correct titles and appreciate corrections and education. It appears a lot of regulars in this forum have studied a lot more on these subjects. Introducing the government and cabinet:

His Majesty King George V - ML Stern Imperialist
Right Honorable PM Ramsay MacDonald - SD Corporate Suit
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Sir John Simon - SC Cloak and Dagger
Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain - SC County Fair Capitalist
Minister of Security Sir John Gilmour - SL Compassionate Gentleman
Minister of Intelligence Hugh Sinclair - SC Quex

Chief of the Imperial General Staff Sir Archie Montgomery-Massingberd - ML Fire Support
Chief of the Army Sir Archie Montgomery-Massingberd - ML Trench Warfare Expert
Controller of the Navy Sir Ernle Chatfield - ML Decisive Battle
Chief of the AIr Staff Sir John Salmond - Army Aviation

Going through the highlights of the above, I get the following total effects:
1.05 Consumer Goods Need
0.95 Unit Cost
1.30 Dissent Growth
1.57 Money
-5% IC
+2% Resources
+5% Foreign IC and Resources
-6% cost to things that go BOOM
-5% cost specifically Artillery

Our Domestic Policy is:
3/5 Democratic
4/5 Right
3/5 Open
4/5 Free Market
4/5 Demobilized
3/5 Dove Lobby
1/5 Island Mentality Politics
It is kind of nice they give the total effect of the DP.
1.10 Consumer Good Need
1.18 Dissent Growth
1.32 Tech Salary
0.92 Gearing
0.80 Upgrade Time and Cost
1.40 Money
1.30 Production Time
0.52 Production Cost

Consumer Demand - 0.20 x 1.05 x 1.10 = 23.1%
Dissent Growth - 1.18 x 1.30 = 1.534
So 0% Consumer means Dissent goes up 0.354% per day. 100% Consumer means it goes down 0.0501% per day. I think.
Money = 0.20 x 1.40 x 1.57 = 0.4396
We will be dealing with Dissent a lot during the term of Ramsay MacDonald and will take full advantage of this.


Part 2 - Industry and Resources
26/110 Industry
463.4 Energy
82.7 Metal
84.4 Rare

We are not sure if this is including peacetime penalties or not. We are kind of flying blind the first go around. We should be able to check quickly against a 1939 scenario. On the surface, this looks like we have large surpluses and should look at building a lot of industry.

1933 Merchant Marine seems to start out the strongest. So we should have few excuses. We have 2180 Transports and 150 Escorts.

Part 3 - 1933 and 1934 Technology List
Current Technology Projects:
1925 Marine Division
1931 Marine Division
1930 Artillery
1924 Seaplane
1928 Seaplane
1932 Seaplane
1930 Capital Ship Raider Doctrine
1930 Convoy Train
1933 Air Superiority Doctrine

Upcoming 1934 Technology Projects:
1934 Carrier
1934 ASW
1934 Battleship
1934 Battlecruiser
1934 Heavy Cruiser - Basically 1934 is a year for Capital Ships - Last Chance before WW2.
1934 CAS
1934 CAG
1934 Transport Plane
1934 Improved Naval Invasion

We will try to look ahead one year for Technology. The penalty for a single year is 54% and will basically cost twice as much. We will consider carefully if the technology is worth it. Most likely, it is not.

Part 3 - Foreign Intelligence
It looks like we get to see our Allies freely and will slowly develop a clear picture of our future Enemies.
Our Intelligence Level is 12. We hope this is not the AD&D 3d8 scale, because that would be pathetic. Intelligence is costing us £2.31 per day.

It looks like Diplomatic Deals with our Allies will cost us nothing. It is also possible we might have some pounds left over to meddle with other countries or bring them into our Alliance if we want to.

Part 4 - Force Roster
47 Army - 31 Infantry, 4 Garrison, 11 Militia, 1 HQ
5 Air - 1 Fighter, 1 Interceptor, 1 Tactical, 1 Naval Bomber, 1 Transport
149 Navy - 7 Carriers, 11 Battleships, 3 Battlecruisers, 19 Heavy, 30 Light Cruisers, 29 Destroyers, 11 Submarines, 39 Transports

10 1918/1931 Infantry
14 1921/1931 Infantry
7 1926/1936 Infantry
4 1921/1931 Garrison
11 1918/1926 Militia
1 1928 HQ
For our Militia, we should decide if there are different routes we should upgrade them.

It is harder to tell which air units are out of date:
4/5 Fighter
8/9 Interceptor
5/6 Tactical
2/3 Naval
1/2 Tactical

Navy is easiest to identify
39 1925/1925 Troopships
7 1915/1933 H Boat Submarines
4 1924/1933 Odin

2 1909/1933 H Class Destroyers
21 1916/1933 S Class
6 1923/1933 W Class
28 1912/1932 Town Class Light Cruisers
2 1922/1932 Emerald Class

3 1902/1930 Duke of Edinburgh Class Heavy Cruisers
16 1916/1930 Hawkins Class
2 1912/1934 Renown Class Battlecruisers
1 1918/1934 Admiral Class
9 1913/1934 Queen Elizabeth Class Battleships
2 1922/1934 Nelson Class
Are we supposed to demote 5 Battleships to Orion Class?

1 1912 Empress Class CVE
2 1916 Argus Class CVE
1 1922 Hermes Class CVE
3 1922/1934 Courageous Class CV
We are not sure what to do with CVE, quite honestly.

Part 5 - Obsolete Forces For Upgrade
We are best off without a plan for now.
Militia to Garrison looks like a good upgrade and very cheap and is all we need unless we are building more Infantry later.
Garrison compared to Infantry looks amazing, actually. The difference is 2 Soft Attack and the ability to retreat.
Most likely we will eventually upgrade to Infantry.

Part 6 - Proposed Initial Moves:
Lack of Manpower Growth until we mobilize means we will try to modernize as well as we can.
Domestic Policy - We believe we are 2 moves away from Market Liberal, which will open up Full Free Market.
An alternative is to move towards Hawk/Intervention
Finally, there is Open Society and a question of if we need more Open to get full Free Market. Eventually, we lose the point of going full FM. In that case, we should work on Hawk Lobby.
For Cabinet Change, we can install Administrative Genius for an 8% swing in IC, from 26 to 37 IC. We can put off the rest of the changes for when the Dissent is more stable.

For Navy, assuming our first foe is Germany, and later Italy, our strategy should be Range.
12 Battleships, 34km, with Float Plane and Fire Control, plus whatever we want. 44km range.
18 Cruisers to absorb hits. So 27 Naval Vulnerability, if we even need improved hull.

We only appear to be picking up 0.54 MP per year. Basically we are modernizing whatever we have. A lot of that will be picking up Naval Upgrades we believe we will need.

Anything else to add here? A courtesy picture of our initial situation?
1746144868942.png
 
Nothing to add, soon long since I played. But nice to see this pop up.
 
It's a couple of false starts and a couple of rules that I will try to look up:
1. I noticed when I neglect my production, the cost goes up. More specifically, the cost of my initial build went from 1.10 to about 3.65 in about 4 months. What happens?
2. General lookup on Intelligence rules.

One part of my initial strategy in my HoI2 games was to set up a bunch of builds with the biggest discount we can obtain. We still had King George V providing a 10% discount and we could shift our DP to get us another 15%. So we set up a long list of builds at 76.5%. If we do something similar here, then that strategy might not work.

Intelligence I do not know how it works. I will look it up.

Convoys in HoI2, I would set up manually. Here it looks like automated is the way to go - until we have a stable situation overseas, anyway.
 
Muddling Through Darkest Hour Session 1 - Day of Decision
March 4, 1933 to April 10, 1933

Action:
March 4, 1933 - We started with some changes in Domestic Policy and the Cabinet, raising further questions about Confidence. We initiated a massive Consumer Spending Program in response. Then we called up all of our Allies and updated their Research Projects with Blueprints. We will run a weekly update until everybody has a long list of Blueprints to copy.

World Political Stage:
March 4, 1933 - There is quite a lot to unpack here.
The Japanese Threat - Shanxi Clique
The End of the Third Encirclement Campaign - Commie China get ready for the Fourth
Fourth Encirclement Campaign - Natty and Commie China, sure enough
Natty China DoW Commie China - San Ma Clique joined with Natty China
The Nanjing Decade, Begin Modernization - Natty China
The Changing Geopolitical Situation - Japan
The Pacification of Manchuria - Manchukuo
Natty China and Sa Ma Clique are also at war with East Turkestan, and it looks like an area so remote, my school world atlas does not show it well. My school atlas is very old and I will try to locate these places relative to Mount Communism and Lenin Peak. This all looks like parts of the Old Silk Road. East Turkestan has no Victory Points and no Resources. We see one Industry and no way to support.
We should be aware of any other wars going on, but we are not. We did not find any.

March 5, 1933 - Japan had the Sanriku Earthquake.
Germany had a General Election and voted for Nazi Germany.
March 6, 1933 - Natty China Wang Jingwei went Fascist. However they still appear to be Paternal Autocrat.
Japan began an Economic Recovery Policy.

March 7, 1933 - Shangxi Clique executed the Drug Dealers to deal with their Drug Problem.
Women and Education - Shangxi Clique and Commie China
Manchukuo was on the receiving end of Japanese Investment in Manchuria
Japan held their super-secret Five Ministers Conference. Their advice was to Go West. They decided to Expand Southwards.

March 9, 1933 - USA announced their First New Deal and also released the Philippines as a Puppet State.
March 10, 1933 - Japan and the East Hebei Autonomous Council announced the Tanggu Truce.
Imperialist China is somewhere on the map as a new Independent Nation. Natty China reacted with Damn!
March 11, 1933 - USA announced the Emergency Banking Act.
March 16, 1933 - USA repealed Prohibition.
March 21, 1933 - Sino German Cooperation Pact. Eventually Germany will align with Japan and this will be replaced with the Sumo German Cooperation Pact.
March 28, 1933 - Kirin Province Subjugation.
March 29, 1933 - Germany prohibited the Weimar Republic Flag and we can see the change in Flag now. They also announced their ERP.
March 30, 1933 - Bolivia ended their Partial Mobilization.

April 10, 1933 - ERP is also available to us. If we use it, we pick up a bit of Production and make a move towards Central Planning. One idea would be to stop the game here and ask and wait. Our idea is to save it for a General Election in case we need it. It appears we have another DP Slide available in 1935.

Initial Production List:
0.50 x299 HMS Barham BB5 -83.94% Complete
0.35 x350 Destroyer Division 39 DD5 -40.12%
0.45 x108 3rd Submarine Division SS4 -73.09%
0.54 x284 HMS Orion CL5 -77.34%
0.54 x306 HMS Neptune CL5 -75.61%
0.54 x720 HMS Arethusa CL5 -42.45%
0.54 x728 HMS Ajax CL5 -41.73%
3.46 Total Initial Build - It shows up initially as 1.10, but readjusts right away.

Blueprints to Acquire:
Air Superiority Doctrine - Acquired from Egypt March 5, 1933
Interwar Seaplane - Acquired from Canada March 4, 1933
1936 Cavalry Division - Acquired from South Africa March 5, 1939
Strategic Destruction Doctrine - Acquired from South Africa March 5, 1939

New Research Projects:
33A 1924 Interwar Seaplane - Start 33.03.04
Hawker Aircraft, Skill 7
13 x3 x2 x2 x0.53 =82.68 Research
5 +5 +8 +4 +10 =32 days - April 6

33B 1933 Air Superiority Doctrine - Start 33.03.05
Enfield Arsenal, Skill 7
41.34 Research
4x17 +34 =102 days - June 17

33C 1925 Naval Infantry Division - Start 33.03.06
Royal Marines, Skill 7
41.34 Research
3x25 +2x15 =105 days - June 21

33D 1930 Basic Interwar Field Artillery - Start 33.03.07
Royal Small Arms Factory, Skill 6
12x3 x2 x0.53 =38.16 Research
4x11 +21 =65 days - May 12

33E 1930 Capital Ship Raider Doctrine - Start 33.03.07
Percy Noble, Skill 5
11x3 x2 x0.53 =34.98 Research
5x18 =90 days - June 7

Completed Research Projects:
33-01 1924 Interwar Seaplane - April 6, 1933
Time 32 days - exact

Spy v Spy:
Germany - From 38/19
Italy - From 31/22
Japan - From 0/0
USSR - From 20/7
March 6, 1933 - Italy attempted to disrupt our Production and failed. Most likely, this is because we are not building anything. Relation +45 for some reason.

Changes in Domestic Policy and Cabinet:
March 4, 1933 - 4/5 Democracy
This automatically installed Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, SC Guilty Man
We also installed Armaments Minister David Lloyd George, ML Administrative Genius

Effects are as follows:
Dissent Growth Rate from 1.18 x1.30 =1.534 to 1.20 x1.00 =1.20
Partisan Activity from 0.97 to 0.96
DoW Dissent from 0.97 to 0.96
Release Puppet Dissent from 13.3 to 14.4
Money Production from 0.20 x1.40 x1.57 =0.4396 to 0.20 x1.40 x1.00 =0.28
Unit Build Cost from 0.95 x0.52 = 0.494 to 0.90 x0.52 =0.468
Unit Build Time from 0.95 x1.35 =1.2825 to 0.90 x1.35 =1.215
Consume Demand from 0.2 x1.05 x1.1 =23.1% to 0.2 x1.00 x1.1 =22.0%
IC Percentage from 39 -10.00 -5 =24% to 39 -11.50 +5 =32.5%

Dissent from 10.00 to 11.50 as Confidence declines.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with an average voter.
We should have vetted David Lloyd George before installing him into a position of power. It is a five minute Wikipedia search.

Situation on April 10, 1933:
We reached a crossroads and have another Day of Decision. Here is the ERP.
1746325697219.png

Our Production would soar from 40 to 48. The big consequence we see from Central Planning is we lose some of our Production Bonus. Specifically:
Production Cost from 0.9x0.52 =0.468 to 0.9x0.57 =0.513
Production Time from 0.9x1.35 =1.215 to 0.9x1.4 =1.260
So combined we are 13.7% less on production. Assuming we eventually convert 75% of our Production to Projects, the difference is 36 to 30 and we get an adjustment 36 to 34.1 giving an edge to the ERP and Central Planning.
We should be able to avoid all of this cost if we plan about 40 to 50 hammers and 20 manpower worth of builds right now.

We can also save this for a General Election, because that 2% can give us the edge we need to win the election.
Supporting the Right will shift us towards Hawk Lobby, which is also useful.
Supporting the Left will shift us again towards Central Planning.
 
Muddling Through the Darkest Hour Session 2 - The King's Birthday
April 10, 1933 to June 6, 1933

World Political Stage:
April 12, 1933 - Xinjiang had a sudden change of government. It appears they are Paternal Autocrat.
USSR promoted Tukahevsky to Grand Marshall.
April 14, 1933 - FDR Fireside Chat
April 22, 1933 - Italy passed an ERP. Germany passed the Enabling Act.
April 23, 1933 - Germany withdrew from the League of Nations.
May 1, 1933 - Natty China admitted Defeat at the End of the Fourth Encirclement Campaign. This ends their war with Commie China and they are still at war with East Turkistan.
June 3, 1933 - USA founded the California Arabian Standard Oil Company.

Completed Research Projects:
33-2 1930 Basic Interwar Field Artillery - May 21, 1933
Time: 74 days - 9 days behind schedule.
More specifically 13 +13 +12 +24 +12 =74 days.

We will be studying our Research Times in more detail shortly. So far, we have initiated 5 Research Projects.
33A -1924 Interwar Seaplane, Exact
33B -1933 Air Superiority Doctrine, Exact so far
33C -1925 Naval Infantry Division, Level 8 appear to be taking 30 days instead of 25. (2000 /82.68 =24.19 days)
33D -1930 Basic Interwar Field Artillery, Everything took slightly longer, adding a total of 9 days.
33E -1930 Capital Ship Raider Doctrine, Level 4 is consistently taking 20 days instead of 18. (1200 /69.96 =17.15 days)
We have two close save files we can compare and grab more data.

5/10 1933 Projects have been started. 2 have been completed. We are stubbornly running 3/7 Research Teams and waiting for Blueprints and other Discounts.
1746368093860.png

April 20, 1933 - Theoretical Breakthrough in Rocketry. Now available are:
Rocket Test and Research Facility
Rocket Engine
Turbojet Engine
Flying Bomb Development
Flying Rocket Development
If we wait until the end of the year, we might claim a bigger discount.

Spy v Spy:
April 23, 1933 - Instead we invested £550 into Level 13 Espionage. It now costs £2,86 per day, up from £2.31.
We get a Foreign Intelligence Efficiency of 50.50% and a Counterespionage Efficiency of 74.99%.
We are suspecting that if we are initiating Missions against ourselves, our Efficiency is 40.2%.
May 10, 1933 - Italy attempted to steal our Blueprints, but failed. It would cost us £49 for an 11% chance to steal a Blueprint, for an expected cost of £539. Our Research Projects are currently not costing nearly so much. It might only be worth the trouble if we know what we are looking for.

Our next big decisions are:
What to do for the King's Birthday. Looking it up, he is 68 years old.
Prepare for Election Season
 
Muddling Through the Darkest Hour Session 3
June 3, 1933 to October 19, 1933
We moved along so quickly, we forgot to grab a bunch of Autosaves. We are missing July and August, but this is no big deal.

World Political Stage:
June 9, 1933 - USA Agricultural Adjustment Act
June 16, 1933 - We reached a point where we could call an election, but chickened out.
June 20, 1933 - Danzig HoS Resigned
June 23, 1933 - USA is selling Treasuries.
July 12, 1933 - Soviet Intervention in Xinjiang. USSR DoW East Turkestan.
July 28, 1933 - Kirin Province Subjugation
August 2, 1933 - German Unemployment is down to 5%. It appears their economy has recovered and we have yet to pass a single ERP.
September 18, 1933 - German Autobahn Network.
September 21, 1933 - Another Sino German Cooperation Pact
September 23, 1933 - USA passed the National Industrial Recovery Act
September 24, 1933 - USSR annexed East Turkestan. They picked up 5 BB for the deed.
September 28, 1933 - Natty China demanded the return of Xinjiang, which the USSR ignored. The USSR now has 10 BB.
October 7, 1933 - USSR had their Victory Parade, then ended Partial Mobilization.
October 19, 1933 - Ecuador had a sudden change of government. They are now Market Liberal.

New Research Projects:
33F 1928 Basic Seaplane - Start 33.06.19
Hawker Aircraft, Skill 7, Research 82.68
7 +7 +10 +5 +13 =42 days -August 1

33G 1931 Naval Infantry Division - Start 33.07.01
Royal Marines, Skill 7, Research 20.67
39 +39 +20 +20 +39 =157 days - December 8
I am too lazy to be exact with our time multiplier bonus.

33H 1930 Convoy Train Doctrine - Start 33.07.21
Robert Watson Watt, Skill 7, Research 41.34
4x10 +20 = 80 days - September 21
Again, too lazy to be exact with time multiplier bonuses. We got them wrong anyway, by an entire year. We will recalculate.
We now get about 4x8 +16 =48 days - September 9

33I 1932 Improved Seaplane - Start 33.08.01
Hawker Aircraft, Skill 7, Research 20.67
20 +20 +32 +16 +39 =127 days - December 8
We used an average multiplier of 1.25, reflecting about 9 months average.
This completes our list of 1933 projects, except we are pushing the Rocketry Project into 1934 and probably 1935.
We will suffer for this, because we are currently running 3/7 Tech Teams and this is a great time to plug a bunch of slots with a long project we believe will take two years. Okay, we will try it.

33J 1931 Rocket Test and Research Facility - Start 33.08.01
Handley Page, Skill 7, Research 20.67
Estimated Cost 8 x2200 =17600
Estimated Average Research Bonus: 1.75
Estimated Time: 486 days - December 7, 1934
We can divide this up into 8 parts of 61 days each to determine if we are close.
The first part took 75 days, much longer than anticipated, and gave us a multiplier of 1.42.

Completed Research Projects:
33-03 1930 Capital Ship Raider Doctrine - June 16, 1933
Time 99 days - 9 days behind schedule
We are starting to learn there is some kind of sliding scale on how much of a bonus you get for being behind on research. We believe this scale is:
1 +D/1080 - Where D is the number of days following 31.01.01.

33-04 1933 Air Superiority Doctrine - June 17, 1933
Time 102 days - Exact

33-05 1925 Naval Infantry Division - July 1, 1933
Time 115 days -10 days over because we confused 2xLevel 4 with Level 8.

33-06 1928 Basic Seaplane - August 1, 1933
Time 42 days - Exact

33-07 1930 Convoy Trains Doctrine - September 9, 1933
Time 48 days - It took a second calculation to get exact.

Spy v Spy:
July 15, 1933 - Italy tried again to steal a Blueprint and failed. We are not sure if they tell us when they succeed, but looking at the cost to benefit analysis, I currently see no benefit, especially if they are attempting to steal something far out of date. We checked Blueprints we can trade and counted 17.
September 26, 1933 - Italy attempted to fund Partisans in Palestine and failed. We still enjoy +50 Relations.

Cabinet Changes:
September 1, 1933 - Chef of the Army Cyril Deverell, ML Guns and Butter
We will get to keep more Supplies and we are not sure what we will do with them when we collide with our limit. We are already at 7.0/12.8k.
September 18, 1933 - Head of Intelligence George Macdonagh, SC Industrial Specialist
It appears we are doing this for 2 more IC, but not collecting the edge we were describing for running an ERP.

The big decision here is what to do with our production.
1746412057782.png

We have 41.34 /53.00 available. We have a production list to work through and that will leave us with 37.88. We only have 20 Manpower to work with and it is not replenishing quickly, because we are in Peacetime.

We can start to work on some of our ship improvements. Floatplane and Fire Control for our big Capital Ships. That will give our BC a range of 42km. If we want to go Cruzerg, we can give one of our CA Torpedoes.

We can kick the can down the road by building Factories. We will run test for costs:
We did not have the foresight to install our Mixed Economy Proponent. However, the difference appears small.
Factory in London costs 5.0 x437 =2185.
Factory in Bristol costs 5.0 x441 =2205, or 30 more because of the difference in Infrastructure. It will cost 57.0 to fix the Infrastructure.
For another city like Oxford, it will be 5.0 x455 =2275 or a total of 90 more. Fixing the Infrastructure will cost 190.
Fixing the Infrastructure will only be worth it if we are building Industry for a few years.
 
Muddling Through the Darkest Hour Session 4 - Damaged Economy Recovery Plan
October 19 to January 1, 1934

New Production List:
5.00 Factory in London
6.00 Infrastructure in Glasgow, Sunderland, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol
3.46 Initial Build List
14.46 Total Production
0.52 Supermarine Walrus Floatplane added December 8, 1933

The rest is going into Upgrades and Modernization. We are upgrading our 11 Militia as follows:
Garrison 5 - Freetown, Bermuda, Jamaica, Ceylon, Fiji, Nigeria, Gold Coast
Infantry 9 - Somalia, East Africa, Rhodesia, Sudan
We really should just make them all Infantry, but we can always change our minds later.

World Political Stage:
October 21, 1933 - Estonia had a sudden change of government. They are Social Conservative.
October 24, 1933 - Sa Ma Clique ended Partial Mobilization.
October 26, 1933 - France had a sudden change of government. Apparently they beat Germany in the race to National Socialism.
Just kidding. They are Social Liberal.
November 5, 1933 - The SovItalian Non-Aggression Pact announced.
November 6, 1933 - Tennessee Valley Authority launched by USA.
November 7, 1933 - Natty China ended Partial Mobilization. The world is settling back to a permanent state of peace.
November 8, 1933 - Afghani Head of State died.

November 23, 1933 - The Fifth Encirclement Campaign. Natty China DoW Commie China. Again.
Their 19th Route Army defected, but the Commies decided that they cannot be trusted.

November 26, 1933 - The USA finally decided to recognize the USSR as a legitimate state.
December 7, 1933 - Mongolia ended its partial mobilization program.
December 11, 1933 - USSR joined the League of Nations.
December 12, 1933 - France announced another ERP.
December 13, 1933 - Xinjiang ended Partial Mobilization
December 17, 1933 - Germany issued Mefo Bills. Tibet HoS died.
January 1, 1933 - John Salmond retired from politics and is no longer available as a Cabinet Minister.

Upgrade Parade:
October 25, 1933 - 6 Infantry upgraded to 1921. 4 remain.
October 27, 1933 - 1 Infantry upgraded to 1921. 3 remain.
October 30, 1933 - 1 Cavalry Brigade upgraded to 1921. We have a total of 5 Brigades to upgrade to 1932.
November 1, 1933 - 3 Infantry upgraded to 1921. We now have a total of 24. A second Cavalry Brigade was upgraded to 1921. 3 remain.
November 6, 1933 - 3/5 Cavalry Brigades upgraded to 1921.
November 8, 1933 - 2/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
November 11, 1933 - 3/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
November 14, 1933 - 5/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
November 20, 1933 - 6/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
November 21, 1933 - 8/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
November 23, 1933 - 9/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
November 26, 1933 - 10/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
November 27, 1933 - 11/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
November 19, 1933 - 12/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
December 3, 1933 - 13/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
December 4, 1933 - 15/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
December 7, 1933 - 16/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
December 9, 1933 - 17/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
December 11, 1933 - 18/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926. 1/3 AA upgraded to 1924.
December 13, 1933 - 19/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
December 18, 1933 - 20/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
December 19, 1933 - 21/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926.
December 25, 1933 - 22/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926. 1/4 Garrison upgraded to 1931.
December 26, 1933 - 23/24 Infantry upgraded to 1926. 2/3 AA upgraded to 1924.

New Research Projects:
34A ASW 1934 - Start 33.12.01
John Brown and Company, Skill 6
12 x3 x0.53 =19.08 Research
27 +53 +27 +27 +53 =187 days - May 8
We might lose a day due to starting early, depending on rounding.

34B Ark Royal Class Fleet Carrier - Start 33.12.01
Harland and Wolff, Skill 8
14 x3 x0.53 =22.26 Research
28 +28 +27 +27 +54 =164 days - April 15
This time we bet on losing two days due to starting early and very bad rounding.

34C 1934 CAG - Start 33.12.01
de Havilland, Skill 7
13 x3 x0.53 =20.67 Research
4x30 +2x59 =238 days - June 29

34D 1934 Air Transport Plane - Start 33.12.01
Avro, Skill 7, 20.67 Research
2x68 +2x34 +59 =263 days - July 24
We might lose another day due to bad rounding. This looks like another horrible project we should have saved for Blueprints or Time.

34E Improved Naval Invasion - Start 33.12.02
Royal Marines, Skill 7, 20.67 Research
3x97 +2x49 +1 =390 days - January 2, 1935

Normally our convention is to name each project after the year we started, but we decided to distinguish these projects for some reason.

Completed Research Projects:
33-08 1931 Naval Infantry Division - December 2, 1933
Time 151 days - 6 days ahead of schedule. Tonight, we are too lazy to try to figure out why that is.

33-09 1932 Improved Seaplane - December 8, 1933
Time 127 days - This time we were exact.

This marks the completion of 9/10 Projects for 1933. We are missing the Rocketry Test and Research Facility.

Spy v Spy:
October 23, 1933 - They stole our war chest and have achieved Level 14. They will move again in 6 months if there are still funds by then.
December 5, 1933 - Ireland attempted to turn the World Public Opinion against us, but failed. Our L14 Spies are paying off, maybe.
December 17, 1933 - Italy tried to steal our Blueprints again and failed.

War Games:
October 23, 1933 - We also decided to initiate some War Game simulating the UK in the Darkest Hour. Our prize winners were:
Major General Bartholomew, Skill 3
Rear Admiral Philips, Skill 5
Rear Admiral Harwood, Skill 3 OG Runner
Guess what we are doing next year on the King's Birthday!

1933 Summary:
Our Damaged Economy Recovery Plan turned out to be a DERP indeed. This is when we discovered that our 6 Infrastructure Projects take over a year to complete, as opposed to a couple of months, because we did not carefully check the year of completion. It means we sent about 2500 hammers towards Infrastructure that could have built a Factory. We will simply continue with it and we will continue with our Armed Forces Modernization Program.
1746498367872.png

We are obtaining way too many supplies and should look around for people to buy them. We will accept Pounds, US Dollars, or Oil. We have also long exceeded our storage limits for all raw Materials. We should have been looking for Allies to store them for us.

It also appears we can annex Newfoundland, because they plan to vote their self-governing colony out of existence.
 
Muddling Through Darkest Hour Session 5 - The Army Modernization Plan
January 1, 1934 to June 3, 1934

Action:
January 1, 1934 - We annexed Newfoundland. To celebrate, we played another round of Darkest Hour War Games.

New Years War Games:
Our winners were:
Major General Miller, Skill 3 Logistics
Major General Atcherley, Skill 2 OG Spotter
Rear Admiral Noble, Skill 4

April Fools Day Winner was:
Wrong Cunningham. I got very excited for a while
Rear Admiral JHD Cunningham, Skill 4
Unless it was the Air Commander Cunningham. For April Fool's Day, we were delivered a triple ambiguity.

World Political Stage:
January 8, 1934 - France Stavisky Affair
January 11, 1934 - Japan started the Campaign Against Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army
January 24, 1934 - Estonia had another sudden change of government. They are now Paternal Autocrat.
February 6, 1934 - France February 6 Crisis. They are still Social Liberal, but they probably have a lot of Dissent.
February 20, 1934 - Magistrate Albert Prince found dead. France probably has quite a bit of dissent.
March 5, 1934 - New troops arrive to defend Nanjing. We checked and saw no immediate danger.
March 8, 1934 - The long March. Natty China 19th Army surrenders.
March 11, 1934 - Commie China had a leadership change as Zhang Guotao left.
March 15, 1934 - Commie China retreated to Shanxi.
March 21, 1934 - The Sino-German Cooperation continues.
May 11, 1934 - Manchukuo started its Campaign against NEAJUA, not quite pronounced NINJA.
May 21, 1934 - US Unemployment is down to 15%.
May 28, 1934 - USA unveiled New Deal 2.0.

Upgrade Parade:
January 12, 1934 - All Infantry upgraded to 1921 and this happened with no investment YTD.
January 16, 1934 - Tactical Bomber upgraded to HP Heyford Tac 6. I looked at a picture and it does not look ready for WW2.
January 27, 1934 - 2/5 Cavalry Brigades upgraded to 1924.
January 30, 1934 - 2/4 Garrison upgraded to 1931.
February 2, 1934 - 3/4 Garrison upgraded to 1931.
February 6, 1934 - 4/4 Garrison upgraded to 1931.
February 14, 1934 - 1/4 AA upgraded to Basic 1930.
February 16, 1934 - 1/5 Cavalry Brigades upgraded to 1928.
February 17, 1934 - 2/5 Cavalry Brigades upgraded to 1928.
February 19, 1934 - 1/2 Armored Car Brigades upgraded to 1929. Checking the picture, it sure does not look like an AC.
February 20, 1934 - 3 Cavalry Brigades upgraded to 1924. Gladiator Division upgraded.
March 2, 1934 - 2/11 Militia upgraded to Garrison 1931.
March 7, 1934 - 1/31 Infantry upgraded to 1931. This is going to be a long train.
March 8, 1934 - 2/31 Infantry upgraded. Cavalry upgraded to 1924, but hard to track. 3/11 Militia upgraded to Garrison 1931.
March 9, 1934 - Another 1924 Cavalry. They seem far behind.
March 10, 1934 - This time a 1928 Cavalry. These are harder to track, so we should only capture the 1932.
March 12, 1934 - 3/31 1931 Infantry.
March 13, 1934 - 4/11 Militia upgraded to Garrison 1931.
March 15, 1934 - 7/11 Militia upgraded to Garrison 1931. That should be it for the Garrisons. We also upgraded 14 Floatplanes to Walrus.
March 24, 1934 - We now have 5 of the 1928 Cavalry Brigades. It is one more upgrade from here.
April 6, 1934 - 4/31 Infantry upgraded to 1931.
April 17, 1934 - 8/11 Militia upgraded to Infantry 1931.
April 18, 1934 - 6/32 Infantry upgraded to 1931.
April 27, 1934 - 7/32 Infantry upgraded to 1931.
April 29, 1934 - 9/11 Militia upgraded to Infantry 1931. We should be getting much more efficient soon.
May 13, 1934 - 10/11 Militia, 11/34 Infantry upgraded to 1931 Infantry.
May 29, 1934 - 12/34 Infantry upgraded to 1931.
May 30, 1934 - 11/11 Militia, 14/35 Infantry upgraded to 1931 Infantry.

Production:
February 7, 1934 - 3rd Submarine Flotilla, 4.05
April 18, 1934 - Walrus 15 deployed to HMS Royal Sovereign

New Production Lines:
14.47 - Current Production Line
1.37 - Improved Heavy Submarine
2.44 - HMS Ark Royal

New Research Projects:
34F Post War Tank 4 - Start 34.04.13
Vauxhall Motors, Skill 7, 20.67 Research 20.67
4x17 +34 =102 days - July 25

34G Improved Battleship - Start 34.05.13
John Brown and Company, Skill 6, Research 19.08
4x37 +74 =222 days - December 25

Completed Research Projects:
34-01 1934 ASW Equipment - May 13, 1934
Time 192 days - 5 days later than scheduled. We do not know why. In fact we had an extra error that puts our calculation off further.
We forgot how to add. Time was 162 days and our calculation should have been 162 days.

34-02 Fleet Carrier - May 14, 1934
Time 163 days - We predicted 164 and had a funny date predicted. We will use our fingers to count months instead.
We marked some corrections in our notes, but not the post above.

Spy v Spy:
February 18, 1934 - Italy tried again to steal our Blueprints. There are 14 available for them to steal.
April 20, 1934 - Italy only has 12 Blueprints available to steal. Maybe they are succeeding on occasion.
April 23, 1934 - Apparently we waited to Monday to increase funding. We are now Level 15 and daily funding is £3.96.
May 14, 1934 - Ireland tried to smear us again.

Cabinet Changes:
January 1, 1934 - Minister of Foreign Affairs Anthony Eden, SC Ideological Crusader

June 3, 1934 - We are signing off to celebrate the King's Birthday again. As a Canadian, this business about celebrating the King's Birthday really makes me feel like I came from a different planet. I have been my entire life celebrating the Queen's Birthday, knowing it was the Queen's Birthday, but not that Queen. That Queen. There is a Paradox game named after her. That Queen. We are celebrating her Birthday in less than two weeks, on the second last Monday of May. I knew it was the Queen's Birthday and celebrated it knowing it was the Queen's Birthday without knowing it was the Queen's Birthday. We simply called it Victoria Day.

As for the Upgrade Parade:
We have 21 Infantry Divisions left to upgrade, and 12 Brigades.
5 Cavalry, 3 AA, 1 AC, 1 Light Armor, 2 ASW
We forgot to add a line of ASW to our Production. We will do that in the next Session.

Here is a look at our production line:
1746589647720.png
 
Muddling Through the Darkest Hour Session 6
June 3, 1934 to January 1, 1935

The Winners of the Kings Birthday Wargames were all Land Commanders:
Major General Charrington, Skill 2 OG Panzer
LG Christie Miller, Skill 2 OG Logistics
MG Franklyn, Sklll 3 Defense
LG Blair, Skill 2 Defense
LG Dill, Skill 4 Logistics
We have been averaging 3 Promotions per Wargame and have no idea if it is worth it.

November 16 Wargames:
FM Montgomery-Massingberd, Skill 2 OG Defense - Nice, but unfortunately he retires early.
Admiral Boyle of Cork and Orrey, Skill 3
LG Blair, Skill 3 Defense

World Political Stage:
July 3, 1934 - Germany had Night of the Long Knives. They are now officially National Socialist.
August 2, 1934 - In Germany, Hindenburg died. The USA is struggling with the Dust Bowl.
August 7, 1934 - Colombia elected Left and have a Social Democrat government.
August 14, 1934 - FDR had another Fireside Chat.
August 29, 1934 - El Salvador had a sudden change of government. They are Paternal Autocrat.
August 30, 1934 - Ecuador elected left. They are Social Democrat.
October 9, 1934 - France had the Assassination of Louis Barthou.
November 21, 1934 - Japan had the Military Academy Incident.
November 23, 1934 - Danzig HoS resigned.
November 30, 1934 - Mexico elected Left, a Social Democrat government.
December 14, 1934 - We had a bank go broke and this is disrupting the economy. The big effect is the permanent 0.5% loss to Production.

The Upgrade Parade Continues:
June 5, 1934 - 15/35 Infantry 1931
June 7, 1934 - 18/35 Infantry 1931
June 14, 1934 - 19/35 Infantry 1931
June 24, 1934 - 2/2 Destroyer ASW upgraded - And we forgot to start a string of them.
June 26, 1934 - 20/35 Infantry 1931
June 28, 1934 - 1/3 AA 1930
June 19, 1934 - 21/35 Infantry 1931
July 6, 1934 - 22/35 Infantry 1931
July 9, 1934 - 23/35 Infantry 1931
July 11, 1934 - 24/35 Infantry 1931
July 14, 1934 - 2/3 AA 1930
July 20, 1934 - 25/35 Infantry 1931
July 21, 1934 - 26/35 Infantry 1931
July 23, 1934 - 1/5 Cavalry 1932
July 26, 1934 - 3/3 AA 1930
July 29, 1934 - 27/35 Infantry 1931
August 1, 1934 - 28/35 Infantry 1931, 2/5 Cavalry 1932
August 17, 1934 - 3/5 Cavalry 1932
August 21, 1934 - 29/35 Infantry 1931
August 24, 1934 - 4/5 Cavalry 1932
August 26, 1934 - 30/35 Infantry 1931
August 28, 1934 - 32/35 Infantry 1931
August 30, 1934 - 33/35 Infantry 1931
September 12, 1934 - 34/35 Infantry 1931
September 15, 1934 - 35/35 Infantry upgraded to 1931.
September 19, 1934 - Armored Car Brigade upgraded.
September 26, 1934 - 5/5 Cavalry Brigades upgraded to 1932.
October 3, 1934 - 3/3 CAG upgraded.

Production:
August 3, 1934 - CL5.01 HMS Orion
August 18, 1934 - HMS Barham upgrade complete
August 20, 1934 - Walrus 17 deployed to HMS Resolution
August 25, 1934 - CL5.02 HMS Neptune complete with Walrus 18
October 9, 1934 - Destroyer Division 39
November 9, 1934 - ASW3 deployed to Destroyer Division 39.
December 14, 1934 - 6 Infrastructure Projects complete.
December 16, 1934 - Walrus 19 deployed to HMS Ramillies

New Production Lines:
18.28 Previous Production Line
0.52 Destroyer ASW
5.00 Factory in Birmingham
5.00 Factory in Glasgow
0.52 Capital Ship Fire Control
0.52 Fire Control
1.30 Improved Hull
1.56 Capital Ship Improved Hull - We are building a bunch of big hulls with no big ships to go in them.
5.00 Factory in Manchester
0.63 F-Class Destroyer

New Research Projects:
34H Close Air Support Aircraft - Start 34.12.25
de Havilland, Skill 7, Research 20.67
3x30 +2x15 =120 days - April 25 - We thought we started it month ago, but forgot to hit the button.

35A Southampton Class Light Cruiser - Start 34.12.25
John Brown and Company, Skill 6, Research 19.08
4x27 +53 =161 days - June 6

35B Product Standardization - Start 34.12.25
Anglo Persian Oil Company, Skill 9, Research 23.85
4x34 +68 =204 - July 19

35C Early Anti Tank Artillery - Start 34.12.25
Royal Small Arms Factory - Skill 6, Research 19.08
3x8 +2x16 =56 days - February 19

35D Improved Torpedo - Start 34.12.25
Short Brothers, Skill 5, Research 17.49
4x41 +2x81 =326 days - November 19

Completed Research Projects:
34-03 Post War Tank Brigade 4 - July 25, 1934
Time 102 days - Finally exact this time

34-04 1934 CAG - July 29, 1934
Time 238 days - Again we are exact - Once we finally remembered how to add.

34-05 Air Transport Plane - August 25, 1934
Time 264 days - We were one day late this time. Maybe it was a rounding difference.

34-06 Improved Battleship - December 25, 1934
Time 222 days - Exact.

Spy v Spy:
June 25, 1934 - Italy tried again to smear our image as the world bad guy for taking over Newfoundland.
August 19, 1934 - Japan tried to fund partisans against us. They would be better served buying our supplies.
August 24, 1934 - Ireland tried to paint us bad guys, but the world has since gotten over the fact we took over a bunch of moose pasture in Newfoundland.
August 25, 1934 - Italy tried to disrupt our Production this time. They would do better to buy our products with all that money.
October 11, 1934 - Germany is now trying to slow down our production. The task failed because it is a mission impossible.
October 23, 1934 - Intelligence Level 16. Funding increased to £4.51. That's an impressive 1623.60 per year.
November 6, 1934 - Italy tried to delay our production. Mission impossible.

We don't really have much of a picture to show, so we will grab our tech tree.
1746673260765.png

It looks like our prediction about the Rocket Test and Research Facility was just wrong. We are about 510 days in. We are estimating 532 days with no behind the times bonuses whatsoever. We are hitting on some of these projects and confused by others. We were also way off on the Naval Invasion Project. That error was due to confusing "Naval Training" and "Marine Training." So the Royal Marines were the wrong choice and cost me an extra 48 days on the project.
 
Muddling Through Darkest Hour Session 7
January 1, 1935 to August 1, 1935

New Years Wargames:
January 1, 1935 - Our winner was MG Denny, Skill 2 Tank Buster

World Political Stage:
January 1, 1935 - France got its unemployment rate down to 10%. We are the only cool kids who did not attempt an ERP.
January 10, 1935 - Saar Plebicite. Japanese Second Campaign.
January 13, 1935 - USA adopted its good neighbor policy.
January 21, 1935 - Italy is now down to 10% unemployment. ERP works.
March 1, 1935 - El Salvador sudden change of government. They are Paternal Autocrat.
March 4, 1935 - Shanxi Clique Fortification
March 12, 1935 - Credit is flowing again. With a bailout, we almost undid the damage done by the bank panic late last year. Our loss appears to have been fixing about one percent worth of dissent.
May 5, 1935 - The He Umezo Agreement. Japan appears to be winning politically.
May 10, 1935 - Manchukuo started on the Second Campaign
June 2, 1935 - The Chin Doihara Agreement.
June 15, 1935 - Germany completed the Autobahn Network

Upgrade Parade:
February 28, 1935 - Transport Plane upgraded.
May 11, 1935 - We might finally be finished upgrades for now.

Production:
January 6, 1935 - Factory 11 in London
February 10, 1935 - CFC installed on HMS Nelson
February 14, 1935 - FC installed on HMS Exeter
March 18, 1935 - ASW installed on DD41
April 5, 1935 - Walrus deployed to HMS Renown
June 15, 1935 - Improved Hull on HMS Dragon
July 1, 1935 - CFC installed on HMS Warspite
July 5, 1935 - Fire Control installed on HMS Dragon
July 7, 1935 - HMS M2 Heavy Sub
July 18, 1935 - Walrus deployed to HMS Royal Oak
July 20, 1935 - ASW installed on DD38

New Production Lines:
30.38 Current Production Line
5.00 Factory in Sheffield
2.41 King George Class Battleship
2.00 We started two Infrastructure projects.

New Research Projects:
35E 1935 Mountain Division - Start 35.02.19
Royal Marines, Skill 7, Research 20.67
3x30 +34 +17 = 141 days = July 10

35F 1935 Static AA - Start 35.02.19
Royal Small Arms Factory, Skill 6, Research 19.08
5x21 =105 days - June 4

35G Strategic Bomber - Start 35.04.18
Avro, Skill 7, 20.67 Research
2x59 +3x30 =208 days - November 16

35H Advanced Oil Extraction - Start 35.04.23
Rolls Royce, Skill 7, 20.67 Research
4x34 +68 =204 days -November 17

35I Semi Modern Heavy Cruiser - Start 35.06.06
John Brown and Company, Skill 6, 19.08 Research
4x14 +27 days - August 29

35J Motorized Division - Start 35.06.06
Royal Small Arms Factory - Skill 6, 19.08 Research
32 +14 +32 +27 +53 =158 days - November 14

35K Advanced Mining - Start 35.07.10
English Electric, Skill 7, 20.67 Research
204 days - February 4

Completed Research Projects:
35-01 Early AT Artillery - February 16, 1935
Time 53 days - 3 days earlier
35-02 Improved Naval Invasion - February 19, 1935
Time 437 days - This is now consistent with our recalculation.
35-03 Close Air Support Aircraft - April 18, 1935
This is 7 days ahead of our April 25 forecast.
35-04 Product Standardization - April 23, 1935
This was way ahead of schedule because we obtained Blueprints.
35-05 Static Anti-Air Artillery - June 4, 1935 - Exact.
35-06 Southampton Class Light Cruiser - June 6, 1935 - Exact.
35-07 Mountain Division - July 10, 1935 - Exact.
35-08 Rocket Test and Research Facility - July 28, 1935 - We were way off on this one as we made multiple errors.
Final time was 717 days. It appears we got an average time multiplier of 1.30.


Spy v Spy:
January 8, 1935 - Italy tried to delay one of our tech teams, but failed.
January 12, 1935 - Germany stole our Documents for Fleet in Being Doctrine. Most likely they gain very little from it.
February 5, 1935 - Ireland tried to smear us again.
March 8, 1935 - Now the Soviets are spying on us. They tried to steal a blueprint, but failed.
March 15, 1935 - Italy tried again to delay production.
March 25, 1935 - Germany tried to delay our production.
April 23, 1935 - Level 17 Intelligence
June 4, 1935 - Germany attempted to smear us, but Japan succeeded. We do not see any BB, but probably some relations.
Oh. It shows up as Dissent.
June 9, 1935 - USSR attempted to steal a blueprint.
July 6, 1935 - It's Ireland trying to manipulate global opinion against us.

Domestic Policy Shift:
March 4, 1935 - 5/5 Democratic. We are now Market Liberal.

We will take a break here - maybe later tonight. Maybe tomorrow. More likely tomorrow, Friday Night Game Night. We almost made it up to 1939 and might try to make a comparison with our position in the 1936 scenario.
 
Muddling Through Darkest Hour Session 8
August 1, 1935 to

World Political Stage:
August 4, 1935 - Germany formed the Wehrmacht. I believe this is German for War Machine.
France and USSR signed the First Franco Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance.
August 13, 1935 - Aizawa Incident. Japan pardoned him. We do not know if this was historical, but might have lead to 226 which has not happened yet in this timeline.
August 21, 1935 - Ecuador had a Militarist Coup. They are still Social Liberal.
September 21, 1935 - Germany attempted a Coup in Austria.
October 14, 1935 - Canada elected Right and they are Social Conservative. Wait. They reelected Bennett?
November 2, 1935 - Canada's Governor General resigned.
November 14, 1935 - We reelected the Conservative Party.
This bumped our government back to 8 Democracy, 2 Left and we are Social Conservative again.
We changed our Armaments Minister back to David Lloyd George.
November 15, 1935 - Philippines elected left. They are Social Liberal.
November 25, 1935 - Greece had a Militarist Coup. They are Paternal Autocrat.
December 1, 1935 - Natty China has a new HoG.
December 11, 1935 - Cuba had a sudden change of government. They are now Market Liberal.
December 14, 1935 - Czechoslovakia had a sudden change of government. They are also Market Liberal.
December 27, 1935 - USSR had their first political purges.

Events and Action:
October 17, 1935 - Bank Run - Well this hurts. We get hit with -3.0 Dissent and -3.0 Permanent. I thought the UK banking sector was more stable.
October 18, 1935 - We attempted an Unconventional Monetary Policy to stem the damage. This will probably lead to worse events. If we are lucky, then it might turn out we have a genius in our Administration. This is highly unlikely.

Production:
October 19, 1935 - HMS Arethusa
October 23, 1935 - Walrus deployed to HMS Queen Elizabeth
October 19, 1935 - HMS Ajax
November 4, 1935 - Improved Hull installed on HMS Rodney
November 15, 1935 - ASW installed on DD37. Fire Control installed on HMS Rodney.
November 19, 1935 - Fire Control installed on HMS Cairo.

New Production Lines:
43.28 Current Production Line
0.65 Southampton Class Light Cruisers - It's 3.5 years just to build one?! This will give us a hint on what to do for a next game. I was told a story that Andrew Cunningham never liked the Southampton Class Light Cruiser, anyway.

New Research Projects:
35L Interwar Battlecruiser - Start 35.08.16
John Brown and Company, Skill 6, 19.08 Research
4x32 +63 = 191 days - February 27
Never mind we abandoned the concept of the battlecruiser and will never build one.

36A Grand Battle Plan - Start 35.11.07
Alan Brooke, Skill 6, 19.08 Research
2x37 +3x19 +3 =134 days - March 21

36B Carrier Scouting Focus - Start 35.11.11
Dudley Pounds, Skill 6, 19.08 Research
4x16 +19 =83 - February 4

36C Basic Hospital System - Start 35.11.16
Charles Portal, Skill 6, 19.08 Research
3x84 + 2x42 +3 =339 Research - October 25

36D Light Tank - Start 35.12.14
Vickers Armstrong, Skill 8, 22.26 Research
3x36 +2x72 =252 days - August 26

36E Cavalry Division - Start 35.12.16
Royal Small Arms Factory, Skill 6, 19.08 Research
4x19 +42 =120 days - April 15

36F Armored Car - Start 35.12.30
Vauxhall Motors, Skill 7, 20.67 Research
4x20 +2x39 =138 days - April 18

Completed Research Projects:
35-09 Semi-Modern Heavy Cruiser - August 16, 1935 - Our prediction was August 29 and we don't know why we missed by 13 days.
35-10 Advanced Mining - November 11, 1935 - This was way ahead of schedule because we obtained Blueprints.
35-11 Strategic Bomber - November 16, 1935 - This time we were exact.
35-12 Advanced Oil Extraction - December 14, 1935 - We were off by a month, because we missed a double in our calculation.
35-13 Motorized Division - December 15, 1935 - Again we were off a month. My scribbled notes had a calculation error which we corrected.
35-14 Improved Torpedo - December 30, 1935 - We were way off because we made a mistake in skill matches.

Spy v Spy:
August 12, 1935 - Japan tried again to smear us.
August 16, 1935 - Germany managed to steal the Blueprints for Subsidiary Carrier Role for their second successful attempt. This will help them if they ever decide to build a Carrier Fleet.
September 5, 1935 - Italy managed to steal the Blueprints for ASW 1934. That is actually useful to them. Of course it is no use to them if we are coming after them with surface ships and from the air. We estimate a cost of £330 to steal Blueprints and just cannot justify the cost.
September 13, 1935 - USSR tried to do the same, but failed.
October 22, 1935 - Germany tried their luck again stealing our Blueprints.
October 23, 1935 - Our Intelligence Agency is now Level 18.
November 4, 1935 - Ireland tried to smear us again.
November 6, 1935 - Italy tried to delay our production.
November 14, 1935 - USSR attempted to steal a Blueprint.
December 7, 1935 - Japan tried again to smear us.
December 28, 1935 - Germany tried to steal a blueprint.

This catches us up to the normal 1936 scenario. It might be interesting to compare what we have in this time line and the 1936 time line.
 
Muddling Through Darkest Hour Session 9
January 1, 1936 to May 1, 1936

World Political Stage:
January 4, 1936 - Germany formed the one-nation Anti Commie Pact.
January 21, 1936 - King George V died.
February 2, 1936 - Germany reoccupied the Rhineland.
This triggered Gearing up for War 52%. Belgium left the Allies.
February 12, 1936 - Germany repudiated the Locarno Treaties.
February 13, 1936 - Peru sudden change of government. They are Social Conservative.
Nicaragua Militarist Coup. They are Paternal Autocrat.
February 14, 1936 - Arab Revolt in Palestine.
February 17, 1936 - Spain elected the Popular Front.
February 26, 1936 - Japan went with listen to their demands on the 226 incident. We are not sure which timeline we are on.
April 14, 1936 - Democratic Coup in Bolivia. They are Social Democrat.

Production:
January 1, 1936 - Walrus deployed to HMS Revenge
March 2, 1936 - Improved Hull installed on HMS Cairo.
March 4, 1936 - ASW installed on Destroyer Division 36.
March 21, 1936 - Fire Controlle installed on HMS Queen Elizabeth.
March 25, 1936 - Fire Control installed on HMS Caledon

New Research Projects:
36H Arial Supremacy - Start February 3, 1936
Andrew Cunningham, Skill 8, 22.26 Research
4x27 +32 =140 days - June 23

36I Modern Port Blockade - Start 36.03.21
Dudley Pound, Skill 6, Research 19.08
4x32 +37 =163 days - September 6

Completed Research Proects:
36-01 Carrier Scouting Focus - February 3, 1936 - we predicted Febuary 4
36-03 Grand Battle Plan - March 21, 1936 - Exact

New Research Projects:
36G Troopship - Start 36.01.16
John Brown and Company, Skill 6, 19.08 Research
4x27 +53 =161 days - June 27

36H Carrier Arial Supremacy Doctrine - Start 36.02.03
Andrew Cunningham, Skill 8, 22.26 Reearch
4x27 +32 = 140 days - June 23

36I Modern Port Blockade - Start 36.03.21
Dudley Pound, Skill 6, 19.08 Research
4x34 +37 =163 days - September 6

36J Infantry Division - Start 36.04.13
Royal Small Arms Factory, Skill 6 , 19.08 Research
5x16 =80 days - July 3

Completed Research Projects:
36-01 Interwar Battlecruiser - January 16, 1936 - This was a lot earlier than calculated.
36-02 Grand Battle Plan Doctrine - March 21, 1936 - We are exact.
36-03 Cavalry Division - April 13, 1936 - We were 2 days early

Spy v Spy:
January 8, 1936 - Italy tried yet another smear campaign.
January 22, 1936 - Ireland tried to smear us.
February 30, 1936 - Germany and Japan both tried to smear us.
March 1, 1936 - USSR also tried to smear us. We are popular!
April 23, 1936 - Level 19 Intelligence
May 1, 1936 - Germany attempted to delay a tech team.
 
Interesting choice of format. Have you considered making screenshots?
 
Things appear to be ticking along not too badly - any thing else resulted from the unconventional monetary policy yet?
 
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Things appear to be ticking along not too badly - any thing else resulted from the unconventional monetary policy yet?

Nothing bad happened as a result of our monetary policy. I never looked up the issue and suspect there is a die roll on whether something really bad happens or not. It looks like hitting the unconventional monetary policy is like a reset button that undoes all the damage done by the bank run.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. I got tied up with capturing as much of the change of political situation as I could and got legitimately worried about posting pictures that look like other pictures and take up server space. I am pausing until about Thursday or Friday as I got distracted by an Axis and Allies game. It is surprising how somebody might be able to spot something just by seeing the screen.

The general political map looks like. I decided to focus on China, because that is the likely focus of the next action.
1747180512935.png

We overfilled on resources quite some time ago. We should be looking around the world for buyers and am not sure if the AI takes care of that or not. We were eventually struggling to find buyers for surplus supplies, but that balanced out.

I also showed the list of decisions we can still make.

We were probably supposed to do the Economic Recovery Plan, because I thought there was an event that improves productivity saying that unemployment is below 10% and that has not happened for us.

We see not much point in General Elections and certainly no point in monetary devaluation.

Here is a look at our current government:
1747180890571.png

The next time we run this, we might not try so hard to get to full free market. It seems too far away and Hawk Lobby might be better.

Here is our Technology screen:
1747181028070.png

There is a surprising amount of 1936. Now what stands out is Radar Warning Sites and it will be a while before we have a slot available for it.

Added:
Also - Since I mentioned being distracted by Axis and Allies (Online) - I'm curious about HoI Mods. Is there a Zombie Apocalypse Mod? A&A had an Axis and Allies and Zombies version of their game.
I also loaded up some Old-School XCom. Is there an Alien Invasion mod? I think Darkest Hour is WW2 and gets followed up with a possible WW3 scenario. I think a WW2 game followed up by an Alien Invasion would be kind of funny.
 
Can't believe I missed this starting up.

I'm sure you will be fine muddling through...

Though I see you building CLs and strategic bombers...neither of which are good value...

But, you'll see that soon enough, so...have a good time?
 
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Can't believe I missed this starting up.

I'm sure you will be fine muddling through...

Though I see you building CLs and strategic bombers...neither of which are good value...

But, you'll see that soon enough, so...have a good time?

It's probably good then my pace slowed down. I thought I only built one line of Southampton Class Light Cruisers and saw that the first one takes 3.5 years.
1747701154194.png

Destroyers are probably useful build.
KGV is an RP build.
Cruiser takes too long.
We should have focused on upgrades.

MP is an issue and I don't know the results of a recruitment drive. I also have no idea how naval combat works. I had one land battle in Palestine that took much longer than imagined.

Added: That battle was surprisingly brutal!
1747701358041.png
 
Destroyers are probably useful build.

DDs are indeed useful.

I generally build Heavy Cruisers and DDs, and if I am the US or Britain, CVs.

But most of my naval kills come from Naval Bombers.

MP is an issue and I don't know the results of a recruitment drive. I also have no idea how naval combat works. I had one land battle in Palestine that took much longer than imagined.

Manpower is definitely an issue with Britain...I'm not sure I ever had a satisfactory army to take on the Soviets.
 
I hope this continues. I am interested to see where you take them
 
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