Road to War 7 (Multiplayer) U.K. AAR

[wazzul]

Great Britain King of the Seas ​

The United Kingdom started off with a balanced naval, air, and land build in 1936. The main plan of the U.K. was to use spies on countries in Europe to maintain the largest navy. If any other nations started a massive naval build up, production would be switched to maintain the naval supremacy of the seas. It was quickly realized through the spy network that Italy was building and teching aircraft carriers. Spies had also gathered intel that Germany was building troop transports and destroyers. Intel also showed that Italy was experimenting with new submarine tech and working on submarines. With this in mind the U.K. diverted some of its development towards new ways to combat submarine warfare.

To counter this the U.K. set forward the plan to have two modernized aircraft carrier fleets by 1940.

Construction began on the first modern carrier in 1936 with modern light cruiser escorts to support it.

The Plan for naval supremacy was underway but if Italy and Germany allied could Great Britain still control the seas?

 

[wazzul]

Tension Rises​

​

With the Naval build in motion all Great Britain could do is wait and see how Germany and Italy would use their resources. It became a game of spies and espionage between the countries with many spies dieing every month.

As the final Carriers were being finished in December of 1938 our spies came to the realization that the Germany and Italy had completely abandoned their naval focus and switched to an air-land build. While the two countries ruse seemed to have worked on British Intelligence, Italy had wasted a lot of leadership and industry on the few carriers and escorts it had already completed. While the U.K. did not need to build such a big navy it now secures complete naval dominance in Europe.
​

 

[wazzul]

War in France​

​

With Poland quickly defeated the Allies dug in waiting for the German attack. Germany declared war on Belgium and the Netherlands on January 1st 1940. They immediately landed paratroopers behind the river lines in Belgium and began moving troops across the river. Early attempts to break through on the Maginot line were easily repulsed but France and England rushed troops into Belgium to try and hold defensive positions. However with the rivers lost Germany was easily able to push against the inferior French and Belgian troops. Quickly pushing into France in only 3 weeks.

Great Britain maintained air superiority over France with minor skirmishes happening every so often however with the invasion advancing so quickly it seemed that Germany didn't need bomber support. The few bombings done by Germany were easily repulsed heavily damaging German bombers and no other bombings were seen after the French lines were broken.

German Panzers pushing into mainland France to encircle the Maginot line.

French troops eventually had to retreat from the Paris river line and Paris was encircled. It doesn't look Like Paris will be able to hold out much longer.

There were minor successes for the allies in the air with some successful battles between interceptors and the strategic bombing of Stuttgart completely crushing the industrial base of the city.

This however is nothing compared to the inevitable lose of France.


At the same time Paris was being surrounded Italy officially declared war on Great Britain and France. Great Britain responded by sending fleets south to the Mediterranean and by advancing in Libya with tanks. However intel from planes showed that it appears Italy has completely abandoned Africa.

It appears that Italy knowing that it didn't stand much of a chance against the British Navy has taken up defensive positions and is looking towards the Balkans after taking Greece.

 

[Lord Romanus II]

How many players are there?

 

[deathn]

He is playing UK in our multiplayer group in this game:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...s-14-00-us-eastern-19-00-gmt-20-00-cet.863101/

We are currently always between 12 and 16 players, depending on who is available that week.

 

[Cybvep]

Subscribed.

 

[mosin_nagant]

Suscribed

 

[WSnova]

suscribed too

 

[wazzul]

Operation Turtle : Stage 1​

​

With Italy joining the war Great Britian responded by sending 1 battleship and 2 carrier fleets to the Mediterranean. Scrambling its marine divisions it sent out a corps to invade Sardinia. The carrier fleets quickly found the entire Italian navy in port north of Rome and started bombing the port to stop any counter attack. Operation Turtle was underway. The name representing that Germany was the tough shell while Italy was the weaker underbelly. The marines with battleship support started the invasion.

It was quickly discovered that Italy had completely abandoned Sardinia and the island was easily secured. Now Great Britain had an air base to operate from that made every city in Italy in range of its strategic bombers. Next the allies would secure the island of Crete. Crete had also been abandoned and was secured quickly giving the allies more airbases in the Mediterranean Sea.

Part 2 of Operation Turtle involved invading Greece and holding southern Greece to bring British troops against the German and Italians. However before part 2 could start the Axis nations started a crushing u-boat attack on allied shipping.

Great Britain was surprised by the delayed attacks and responded by moving all fleets to the Atlantic.

After a month of constant loses allied fleets started finding success against the subs destroying about 12 u-boat squads. Some damage had been done to allied shipping with Great Britain building convoys to make up the loses.

After 2 months of searching the seas all of the u-boats appeared to be mopped up and convoy attacks stopped completely. Now it was back to part 2 of operation Turtle to invade Greece.




To be continued
Part 2
Allied Bombing Campaign

 

[wazzul]

Allied Bombing Campaign​

With the air base is Sardinia now secured plans were made to start a bombing campaign in Italy. Focusing on industry and rare materials. Canada and Australia moved into the Mediterranean with their fighter squadrons to support the bombing campaign. Immediately clashes between the allies and the axis began. With British Fighters achieving minor air superiority over the sea. With bombers more likely to reach their targets they were sent out to major cities starting with Rome.

Dusseldorf and Milan were also successfully bombed.

Hitting Germany and Italy the bombing campaigns were successful in destroying all of the industry and resources in the cities. However after months of successful bombing runs Germany sent interceptors south to help Italy in the fight.

Germany changed the game as he added many more fighters to the fight and German fighters had better range than the Italian fighters. Bombing runs took longer to repair and the bombing campaign was slowed but not stopped. Focus shifted to taking out Italian air bases starting with the large air base in Palmero. The Palmero air base was bombed to oblivion and complete air superiority in the south was won.

With the success of the bombings Britain started focusing on more bombers to increase pressure on Italy and Germany.

Bombings even came to Athens which was under control of Italy which shed light on the fact the there were no troops stationed in Greece.

With this the plan to invade Greece moved to the forefront of British Plans.

 

[Traks]

Ah, competitors
Did anybody invade Yugo or Swiss, maybe Spain?

 

[Ibikyo]

Ah, competitors
Did anybody invade Yugo or Swiss, maybe Spain?

Yugoslavia has been invaded. by house rules it's prohibited to invade Swiss; and Spain can only be invaded from 1942 on

 

[wazzul]

Invasion of Greece​

​

With the axis submarine fleet defeated for now the allies moved forward with the plan to invade Greece. While not vital it does provide some IC, Materials, and Manpower to Italy. It always would establish another front that the axis will have to defend. With naval superiority Athens serves and a good province to defend from. The invasion fleets prepared in Egypt and the invasion started.

Italy had only left skeleton forces to police the Greeks and exploit there resources. The invasion was easy and there were no problems.

Bombings continued in Italy.

At the same time Germany started the invasion of Yugoslavia.

British and Australian land forces would finally see their first land battles against the axis.

​

 

[Laurwin]

it was interesting to see strategic bombers used so heavily. Italy seems to be more vulnerable to bombing than Germany, over the channel water.

You seemingly made small error in your priority of targets, at the beginning, though.

you could have begun the bombing campaign with the following targets: 1. runway cratering, 2. logistical strike at specific airfield towns, 3. followed by regular bombing attacks.

Even the mighty German bf-109s and fw-190s don't rise up from damaged airfields?!

I suppose in reality, they could have used ad hoc grass airfields in good infrastructure areas such as western Europe.

Then again, runway cratering would be useless if airplanes could take-off from anywhere. In reality bombing attacks on airbases could also damage and destroy planes on the ground of course, but not in this game.

In Russia the ad hoc airfields didn't always work so well in the mud and adverse conditions.

 

[wazzul]

Yes true the bombing campaign has hurt Italy greatly. We have hit Germany too hitting Dusseldorf, Paris,

and Stuttgart regularly killing about 25 IC. Axis propaganda reported that the bombing campaign wasn't

very effective in their aar but American spies have reported that Italy is now below 50 IC and still

vulnerable to more attacks as our bombers are getting through with little damage. I will post another

update but after next session Sunday as there is too much sensitive information that could affect the

game. So there should be 2 posts next week.

 

[Laurwin]

Yes, bombing can be deadly to industry. Still I'd recommend putting small groups of bombers on runway cratering. Then after the fact, you could log bomb the airfield too, so the effect stays longer. Strategic bombers and rockets are best for this effect usually. But they require more investment compared to tac bombers, tech and rocket test site. Then again Uk starts with handful of strat bombers in the beginning of the game. Rockets and flying bombs v1 are quite good for log bombing in my opinion. Rockets are quite cheap with practicals, and bring down infra to zero, with no risk for damage to bombers. I think cpt easy used rocket bombings with great effect in carnage multiplayer AAR, but he bombed frontline infrastructure to make encirclement easier.

In the long term, damaged enemy airbases make it impossible (extremely difficult) for enemy to get air superiority. When enemy bases are damaged, then you get the repair advantage for your own interceptors and multirole because your bases are intact. There isnt often enough repair facility in airbases, in frontline areas. So, there are long periods where interceptors need to rebase into rear lines, for repairs.

Good thing is also Uk decision modifier 'their finest hour' which gives a big bonus to your spitfires when they perform intercept missions (anywhere globally, I think, not only the English channel for this bonus!)

 

[deathn]

Runway cratering is useless. You need to kill all runways in Europe to achieve any success. Else the Axis can rebase to repair without problems.

Strategic Bombers are forbidden to LogBomb in our game. As far as i understood we also banned it for rockets. For exactly the reasons you stated, its too effective.

 

[Traks]

Not exactly. There are areas in game where runway cratering is giving you distinct advantage. For example, North Africa or Russia.
France - not much, Germany either. Italy and UK - worth it, but then you need air superiority for enough time to suppress local airfields.
UK in game that I play suffered quite a lot from huge German airforce and successful runway cratering.

 

[wazzul]

Fighting Intensifies​

Our next plan was to take Sicily and push up into Yugoslavia. WE saw before that Italy had no troops in Sicily so the invasion would be easy. Due to rules Vichy France had to be invaded at the same time as Sicily so we planned accordingly.

The plan was to push into Italy until resistance was met. Troops made it all the way to Napoli before they found the enemy.

As a defensive line was established in south italy and with the new airbases the bombing campaign took off again. This time the allies had a clear advantage bombing the runway in Rome down to 0 Britian had control of the skies. This really increased bombing runs and at one point American intel had base Italian IC below 40.

Italian land troops were also being bombed to low strength numbers.

With south Italy secured and Barbarossa underway the allies decided to push into Yugoslavia until resistance was met to relieve pressure off of Russia.

We quickly found almost zero resistance in Yugoslavia and decided to push as fast and far as we could.

A push was made to Bucharest the capital and supply stockpile of Romania. Again no resistance was found and British troops removed all the supplies they could. Esitmated numbers put Coal looted at 40k, Metal 2-5k, Rare Materials 20k, Crude Oil 20k, and Fuel at 40k. (Looking at the change to British supplies). Unfortunately air assualt pilots overshot the destination of Bucharest and landed in the province to the north (Due to misclick) and the were captured when German paratroopers landed in the province cutting them off.

Germany moved an infantry corps down underestimated the number of British troops and the advance continued.

Beograde was captured for about a week until Germany moved 3 Panzer Corps down with Hungarian light tank support. Fearing being encircled British troops retreated south to the mountain line in Greece. Overall 1 Armored Division 1 Infantry Division and 4 Paratrooper division were lost in the attack. However the allies considered it a victory when weighing how much Romania had lost.

 

[Traks]

Really? No Barbarossa and Axis ass is getting already kicked? I don't think that Germany will even start Barbarossa with such odds against them.