The Dual Advisory of Germany - A Multiplayer AAR

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This AAR will be played on LAN. I will play the general Franz, and a buddy of mine will play the general Fritz. The AAR will be very sarcastic and ironic, so don't focus on the historical errors..
Enjoy! (we also write very differently, which you will notice)

THE DUAL ADVISORY​

INTRODUCTION​

After seeing an advertisement in their local Rostock newspaper, two free-lance generals applied for jobs as Hitler's personal advisors. The ad called for much experience, and the two generals had much experience from previous world wars and held tons of vital information about the other major powers' ability to wage war. Hitler was impressed by their experience and hired the two instantly. He put the future of the Third Reich into their hands and they jumped into the job enthusiastically.

The year is 1936 and everything looks good. Both of the generals (whose names are top secret, by the way) believe in the wonders of science and has agreed on giving it top priority. The two generals prefer to call themselves Fritz and Franz, just to prevent confusion.

Fritz is a kind of Stalinist; he prefers to conquer nearly everything based on his own argument "Why not?". When he first gets his greedy hands on something he rarely lets go of it. He likes tanks and everything which is armed and goes on gasoline (a tank in other words). He likes to use brute force to reach his objectives and is very patient. He will be in control of the army and the airforce.
Franz is more of a moderate imperialist. He likes to conquer, but prefers that the people he conquers govern themselves (with certain moderations). As Fritz wants to keep everything he can get his greedy claws on, quarrels are frequent. Franz is more an international type of person and will be in charge of diplomatics, the navy, research, production and the economy as a whole. His preferations lie with nuclear weapons and carrier groups (which has shown to be essential in his previous experiences). Actually, Fritz thinks Franz likes nukes too much...
Well, everything is set for a nice WWII...which they don't know will come..yet (or do they?)

Germany in 1936​

1936​

The events of 1936 were few, but important. Hitler ordered the expansion of German industry to cope with his future plans for the country. This prioritization, however, enraged many citizens as there were other areas they would like to see improved first. Several riots occured in major cities. In particular there was a huge strike in Berlin that gathered momentum and the 3rd Infantry Division stationed near Potsdam had to be called in to assist the police.
On the scientific front, military planners focused on tanks and improved industrial tools. Tanks were to be the backbone of the German army, and three tank divisions were placed on production.
There were, however, flaws in the production plans and the production turned out unefficient. As a result, Werner von Blomberg was kicked as armaments minister. He was replaced by the sleek bureaucrat Franz Xavier-Schwarz, who knew how to kiss asses and made his way into Hitler's closest realm.

Outside Germany, things were changing. There were successful coups in Nicaragua and Cuba, a failed one in Japan and a revolution in Paraguay.
On May 7, Ethiopia capitulated to the overwhelming Italians that was invading the country. No major power took notice of this event, though.
In July, the unstable region of China collapsed into civil war. Guangxi Clique and Xibei San Ma attacked Nationalist China. The war brought nothing but defeats and next to no territorial changes. Therefore, the war ended on October 2.
Also in July, Spain collapsed into civil war. A nationalist nation under the leadership of a charismatic pragmatic called Franco emerged to fight the republican government. Germany and the Soviet Union were the only ones that took notice of this war. Germany decided to send aid to Franco in the form of supplies and leaders. The Soviet Union did the same to the republican government in Spain.

Re-militarization of the Rhineland​

Back in Germany, Hitler moved the first pawn in his chess-game and re-militarized the Rhineland, which had been de-militarized by the Treaty of Versailles. The French prime minister Léon Blum called his British colleague Stanley Baldwin to address this issue. Baldwin calmed his colleague down and decided to wait and see what mr. Hitler would do next.

1936 ended with raised tensions between the nations of Europe.

 

[VILenin]

A shared Germany? Hmm, looks like it will be an interesting AAR.

 

[Klavo Hunter]

Get drunk before playing 1937! That way it'll be fuuuuuun. :rofl:

 

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We thought about getting drunk while playing 1936, but it just didn't work out

 

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This post (and maybe more if you are in for the idea) will be split in half. The first half will be written by Fritz and the second by Franz. Then you will have two versions of the same year. Tell me what you think of the idea.

1937​

(Fritz' version)​

In 1937 Fritz decided it was time do something, since Franz refused declaring war on Poland so early in the game he decided it was time to reorganize his little army, so he gathered all his 37 divisions in Leipzig... and there they stood a half year while Fritz wrote so far you are reading now...

Franz then closed the case by merging all the divisions into one big group,
without asking Fritz before he did it of course...
Who annoys me since it's my army, he should stick to his economy bussiness or whatever he is doing, i never begin moving his sliders around without asking...
The high command then decided not to do more about the case before in 1938....
Thats what happend in 1937, a very exciting year indeed..

the 23rd februar we were asked if we wanted to join italy and japan in a anti
comitern pact, though it never came clear who that was asking, and we could find no reason whatsoever making a pact, we agreed on making one.
japan said "whatever" and agreed as well, but the italiens said no, but we
ignored them and made the pact anyway.
In Asia the asians began fighting again, Japan began invading nationalist
china as they usually do, the suprise came when communist china when feeling alone and left out of the conflict decided to declear war on china...
As usual, the lack of reason didn't seem to bother anyone...

Who ever said communists were strategic geniouses?​

1937 is a very important year, it is now the foundation of germany is being
laid, so if we dont do it right, we will suffer in furture wars that may come...
Few plans were made this year, we decided to postpone them as well to 1938...

1937​

(Franz' version)​

1937 was yet another slow year for German events, but internationally, things happened rapidly.
Latin America showed once again to be an extremely unstable area. Following last years coups and revolutions was a revolution in Panama and a coup in Bolivia.

On February 23, Italy, Japan and Germany sat down around the meeting table to discuss an anti-Comintern pact to join forces against the evil commies. Germany and Japan agreed, but Italy got cold feet and withdrew from the discussion.
On April 10, the civil war in Spain was over. The republican government managed to crush the remaining forces of the rebellious leader Franco. Germany granted him asylum the following day.
The victory in Spain was short-lived however. Several political groups took advantge of the chaos and anarchy ensued. Out of the tumult a communist government rose. The fact soon sunk in with German leaders that Stalin's
support for the republican government was really a means to ensure that the nationalists were thrown out of the game, so that communists could take their place. The relationships between Germany and the Soviet Union
cooled additionaly.

The three panzer divisions ordered last year was finally completed and Hitler ordered the construction of several more. The butt-kisser Franz Xavier-Schwarz managed to convince Hitler to give him a bucket full of medals for this.

At the end of April, major general Heinz Guderian presented his new concept of Blitzkrieg to the general staff. General Fritz was over himself with joy over the doctrine and he convinced Hitler to focus on this concept.

China at the start of the war​

On June 2, China collapsed into war once again when Japan declared war on Nationalist China and its puppet Xibei San Ma, Shanxi and Guangxi Clique. Shanxi was the first country to feel the Japanese might.
Japan marched forward, brushing the Shanxi soldiers in front of them. On Jne 18, the Shanxi government decided that they couldn't continue the struggle and joined forces with Nationalist China. The Nationalists were themselves
in trouble as the Japanese landed at Shanghai and conquered a gigantic bridgehead. At the end of the year, they had nearly conquered the whole coast from their ally Manchukuo in the north to just south of Shanghai.
In the midst of this struggle, the Communists in central China also got mixed into a war with Nationalist China. As they were not at war with the advancing Japanese, Communist China was able to expand their territory
as Nationalist soldiers fled from the front.
Nationalist China pleaded for support in the international community and the United States and the Soviet Union sent aid, both wishing a Japan as weak as they could have her.

China at the end of 1937​

The expansion of German industry was completed in mid-1937. The increased industrial output enabled the German high command to begin constructions of brand new bomber aircraft, new HQs and equipment for some mountain units.
The critical lack of rare materials in Germany soon became apparent and Franz looked to Asia to fill the hole. The Netherlands was the major supplier initally, but extremely steep prices paralyzed the German economy, and
Franz had to split the trade to more countries.

 

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1938​

(Fritz' version)​

Gosh, is it over already?
Can I invade Poland now?

1938​

(Franz' version)​

At the beginning of 1938, Franz found out he had problems with people named Werner. The first act of this new founding was to get the Gestapo to find some dirt on
Werner von Blomberg. As he had messed up the production in 1936, this wasn't a problem and Werner soon had to withdraw as a politician altogether.
To avenge this, Werner hired a group of thugs from the Berlin Thug Assosiation. They performed the assassination of Franz Xavier-Schwarz, the armaments minister. Hjalmar Schacht was to succeed him. Hjalmar seemed to be a industrial genious and soon gained trust within the government.
The second victim of Franz' hatred was Werner von Fritsch. He didn't have a ministrial position, but he was an active politician. The Gestapo managed to bribe a male prositute into saying he had had intercourse with von Fritsch and Werner therefore had to give up politics.

Austria is greeted into German realms​

On March 2, Hitler (and Fritz) had one of his dreams fulfilled. He performed the
anschluss, the annexation, of Austria. His birthcountry saluted this act by cheering. The incorporation of the Austrian army into the German was troublesome though. The Austrians still carried weapons designed for WWI and the German economy felt the weight of the new mass of soldiers requiring updated materiel. Stalin obviously felt that the anschluss was his cabinet and generals' fault and purged the ranks of his loyal subjects.

China in March​

March 5, the war in China was still in Japan's favour. Seeing how the Chinese
nations fell one after another, Guangxi Clique pleaded for a white peace and Japan accepted. For Nationalist China, this was a stab in the back.
Japan turned west and marched into Xibei San Ma, which already was fighting
the communists. Seeing the overwhelming power of the Japanese, they joined forces with Nationalist China.

China at the end of 1938​

Continuing the unstability of the previous years, 1938 saw more or less four coups in Greece, Paraguay, Ecuador and a right-wing coup in Japan.

On September 30, Hitler (and you guessed it: Fritz) saw another dream come true when France and Britain agreed that the German population in Czech Sudetenland should be allowed to join Hitler's Germany. Czechoslovakia wasn't told, but soon found out when Czechs in the area hoisted German flags.

Sudetenland is greeted into German realms.​

1938 ended with a feeling that war was just around the corner for European powers.

 

[elbasto]

Hilarious, waiting for the next update.

 

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THE GRAND PLAN​

"Ok, gentlemen. The greatest war of our time is upon us. The British Empire and France are on our western front and Poland is on our eastern."
Consantin von Neurath, the German foreign minister, pointed on a large map in the conference room. He had only been asked to clarify the international situation.
"The Soviet Union is pressing for territorial gains on Poland. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact assure them a large area of eastern Poland. I conclude that this was a wise decision indeed. A war with the Soviet Union is the last thing we would want at this time."
Fritz and Hitler exchanged looks.
"Japan has declared their sympathies with us and our ambassadeurs are working out plans for cooperation."
"Thank you, von Neurath. You may leave the room now."
Hitler gesticulated at the door. Von Neurath picked up his hat and walked out of the room.
"Let me be frank with you, gentlemen. I want Poland crushed as soon as possible. A two-front war is one of the few things that may topple the Third Reich (In addition to jews)."
"I can assure you that the Poles won't be a problem. We are superior in both quality and quantity. It's the western front that scares me," Ludwig Beck, the chief of staff, was the perfect man for a fast job, "Our whole scheme depends on the continuation of a stalemate on the western front. If the French are not contained, we would have to transfer valuable armored units from Poland."
"My men will hold the line. You have my word" General von Weichs was confident of his forces.
"How is the navy doing?" Hitler turned to Raeder, the chief of navy.
"Mein fuhrer, our navy is strong. Our cruisers can beat most of the vintage French and British ships sailing off our coasts. I believe that if we lure them into a grand battle, we will crush their spirits and scare them off our trade routes."
Franz let out a quick laugh.
"The Kriegsmarine battling the Royal Navy? Are you insane, man? Our fleet is not designed for large battles. Not only have the British numerical superiority, but they have aircraft carriers also! And then we have the French!"
"I remain confident. The carriers of the Royal Navy are old and rusty. They won't stand a chance against our modern cruisers." Raeder waved off Franz' complaints.
Hitler leaned on the grand map table. He let out a sigh.
"OK, Raeder. I'll give you a chance to prove the power of the Kriegsmarine."
Franz couldn't believe his ears, but knew the fuhrers words were law.
"If the fuhrer insists. But I strongly advice that some of the lighter ships are left behind, so that they can provide escort for our trasport ships."
"No. We cannot spare a single ship if we are going to bring the British Navy to its knees."
Hitler made an expression that said the discussion was over.
"How do we break France then? They have numerical superiority and the British might send an expeditionary force. The last thing we want is to have WW1 all over again. The Maginot Line will be hell to go through." Beck followed the Maginot Line with his hands on the map.
"What about Belgium?" Franz leaned over the table.
"What about Belgium?" von Weichs turned his head.
"Let us repeat the success of the Great War and go through Belgium. Avoid the terrible Maginot-Line."
"Good idea, Franz!" Fritz approached the table. "But I fear Holland will be a pain in the ass. I believe we should perform a large manoeuver through the whole of Benelux and be done with them."
Hitler thought for a moment.
"I like the plan. Let's do that. But I want to wait until next year for the offensive. We'll use the winter to regain force.
That will be all, gentlemen"
The generals picked up their hats and wondered off.

 

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1939​

1939 was a year of tension. At March 15, Czechoslovakia came to and end. Hitler broke his Munich-agreement and enraged the French and British governments. German forces seized the northern areas of the already scalpelled country and in the remains, Jozef Tiso founded Slovakia.
Further enlargements of the Third Reich came on March 24, when Lithuania agreed (after some fierce pressure of course) to secede Memel to the Germans.

Italy also had their enlargements. Mussolini sent an ultimatum to the Albanian king zog. "Give up or face war" was the basic outline. Zog immediately sent his refusal and Italy declared war. The Italian army was, however, not ready for this. And the Albanian capital of Tirana wasn't seized until April 17. Then Albania capitulated.

To stop further German expansion, Britain guaranteed Polish independence. Hitler had laid his eyes on Danzig, a Polish city seperating East Prussia from the rest of Germany. The non-aggression pact between Poland and Germany expired at this point.

Despite British interference in Poland, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on August 24, drawing up spheres of influence and splitting Poland in half.

In China, things progress greatly. Nationalist China saw the overmight and signed a peace agreement with Communist China. Following this deal was a Japanese decleration of war on the Communists. Nationalist China was on their way out into history as a small pocket around their capital was the only part still independent from Japan.

On September 1, Hitler issued an ultimatum to Poland. Danzig or war. Poland chose war. Germany was suddenly at war with half the world, mainly becuase of the influence of Britain and France. Hitler took this fact with extreme calmness.

German forces washed over the Polish lines with ease, encircling the Polish capital of Warsaw within a week of the war.

Only four days after the start of the invasion, the Germans were everywhere​

Two days later, they had encircled Warsaw​

This advance, however, had a price. A Polish army seized East Prussia early, trapping 27000 German soldiers in Königsberg.
After the first week of overwhelming victory, the Germans had to halt their advance. A Polish army in Warsaw halted a German march and a German army advancing on Zamosc had to be halted and turned so that Warsaw could be taken. The first defeat in Poland occured at September 6 outside
Warsaw for the Germans (Fritz himself address this situation as a "strategical withdrawal", but the writer has his doubts).
The Slovaks saw their opportunity as the Polish were driven back. They striked at Cracow, seizing the city. This enraged Hitler. As a punishment, he ordered all Slovak forces withdrawn from the front, allowing Polish troops to seize the eastern part of Slovakia. The Slovaks seceded Cracow to Germany instantly.

Slovakia has to teach who's the big boss around here and face Polish invasion before giving up Cracow to Germany​

Raeder had promised to show the might of the Kriegsmarine and sailed the fleet towards the English channel to break the naval siege on Germany. He encountered a large Britsh fleet with battleships, cruisers, destroyers and the carrier Invincible. Invincible sent her carrier air group and the German cruiser Karlsruhe was struck at her center, leaving her drifting helplessly without ever seeing her enemy. A salvo from British battleships made her sink so fast that several sailors perished within the hull, never having the chance of getting out in time.
Now the modern German cruisers had the British within range. A salvo struck several battleships, but didn't make any real damage. Then the British responded with another salvo. The German cruisers Köln, Emden and Königsberg were hit hardly and sunk instantly. The cruiser Nürnberg was hit at her bridge, killing the command and leaving the ship in disarray. Raeder decided to break off the battle and leave for home. Hitler was furious and told Raeder never to leave port again without Franz' approval.

After the Polish capitulation, most German forces were transferred to the western front. However, winter was at the door, and any offensives were postponed until spring (after much quarreling between Franz and Fritz).
The Soviet Union was the only country not to rest during winter. On November 17, they demanded territories from Finland and, with a Finnish rejection, launched an invasion. The bitter frost and low infrastructure made any progress hard, but the Soviets pushed on.
At the end of the year, only China and Finland were the hotspots of the world.

The eastern front after the invasion of Poland​

 

[VILenin]

1938
(Fritz' version)


Gosh, is it over already?
Can I invade Poland now?

:rofl: Keep up the good work! BTW, does it get boring mananging just industry or just army? I haven't tried a co-operative game yet so I'm curious how the game play ends up working.

 

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The period 1936-39 was pretty boring for Fritz, but from then on it's more than enough to do all the time.
Keeping the economy floating, managing production, convoys, the navy, diplomatics and so on is really a full-time job and keeps you occupied most of the time.
For us it work out pretty well. We've played with this organization on several countries; Japan, SU, USA, Italy and now Germany. As Fritz don't have to worry about anything other than the army and the airforce, he can concentrate more on his tasks.
Besides, if you get a two-front war, you can split up the responsibility.
(During the SU-game I got control over the thrust into Norway, while my friend administrated the main front against Germany.)

 

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1940​

1940 opened with a Polish rebellion. Torun and Suwalki managed to push out the horribly outnumbered German garrison and ruled the cities independently until German reinforcements arrived a few days after.
As soon as the Germans got reinforcements, the Polish rebels stood no chance and succumbed rapidly.

On March 4, Hitler initiated Fall Weserubung, the invasion of Denmark and Norway.
Admiral Raeder designed a bold and ambitious plan for the invasion of Norway, involving a destruction of the Norwegian fleet in Kattegat and Skagerakk and amphibious landings at Stavanger, Trondheim, Mo i Rana and Narvik with 120,000 men.
A German force of 50,000 well-equipped German soldiers soon crossed the border into Denmark and the Danish government, in discussion with the German government, gave up almost immediately and allowed German passage through the country. Fritz however, thought this was insufficient and declared the annexation of Denmark. The Danish territories of Iceland and Greenland went to the United States.
Then the Kriegsmarine, repaired from the disastrous battle in the English Channel, steamed into Kattegat to face the Norwegian navy. And they appeared. The Norwegian navy was hopelessly outdated and outnumbered and German cruiser got a few hits on the Norwegian flagships before the Norwegians withdrew to Oslo. The waters were now clear for the transports.
The transport fleets steamed northward and positioned themselves along the Norwegian coast, with German soldiers preparing for invasion. Suddenly, a French fleet appeared in the North Sea. The Kriegsmarine moved in to block the coast of Norway to protect the transports.
The French fleet proved inferior and lost the heavy cruiser Tourville
to German guns before withdrawing.
The Germans thought the coast was clear now and started landing the troops
along the coast.
But they were oon suprised by a combined French and British task force steaming northward, attacking the Kriegsmarine outside the Boknfjord. The allied task force had a carrier and several battleships. The air group on HMS Furious flew in advance and scored a direct hit on the German cruiser KMS Emden, before the German fleet exploited the narrow Norwegian fjords to escape the allies. And it did, with a few damages to the cruisers.
Worse was it for the German landing at Stavanger. The allied fleet blew the transport squadon to pieces and the landing dissolved before the Norwegian garrison.
The Kriegsmarine fled into the Trondheimsfjord, where a second German landing was taking place. A British carrier air group, based at the carrier HMS Glorious, discovered the German fleet and a detachment steamed into the Trondheimsfjord to intercept the Germans. The Kriegsmarine, however, managed to exploit the rugged Norwegian coastline to go around the British ships and managed to get the carrier in range.
As soon as the German cruisers opened fire on HMS Glorious, the British realized their mistake and sent their cruisers on the Germans.
A horrific battle ensued, which ended with the total destruction of the Kriegsmarine at the price of the carrier HMS Glorious.
The German high command didn't dare to call this a victory in any sense.
A carrier was a priced target, but the price was simply too high.
The German landing in Trondheim was blasted to pieces by the allies as it lost its cover. The Norwegian garrison fought off the Germans already at shore with the help of allied shore bombardment.
Now the allies steamed northward, but they were too late.
The first German victory in Norway appeared as they managed to capture Mo i Rana successfully. The transports managed to slip into the harbor and avoided destruction.
By an amazing feat, the commander of KMS Graf Spee, a heavy cruiser, had managed to float his heavily damaged ship north and got it to port at Mo i Rana. He was rewarded with a medal and a pat on the shoulder.
Less successful was the landing at Narvik. The allied fleet intercepted
the transports and sunk them all, sending 20,000 men to the bottom of the sea.
The rest of the German landing dissolved before the Norwegians.
The landing at Mo i Rana had split Norway in two and the Norwegians
put in everythig they had in order to crush this bridgehead. The Germans had to withdraw and fought their way into Narvik instead, capturing the city. The German ships in Mo i Rana were sunk by British carriers without even getting the chance of defending themselves. The German commander of KMS Graf Spee was seen jumping into the sea and swimming south. He was then seen floating ashore at the Faroe Islands, far to the west. He was pronounced dead at the site.
The Norwegians followed the Germans into Narvik and managed to crush the
Germans by encircling them and by support from allied battleships off
the shore.
The German invasion of Norway was the biggest failure of the German Army since World War One. The invasion had cost the German Army 120,000 well-equipped soldiers and the entire Kriegsmarine along with all the transports. The allied only lost a cruiser and a carrier.

The Soviet Union was way more successful in the north. On April 4 the Winter War was over with half of Finland occupied by Soviet troops. Finland gave up and Finnish territories in the east was handed over to the Soviets.

On June 4, Germany initiated the invasion of the west. War was declared
on Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Four days later, the Germans were standing in Brussels. Morale among allied ground troops plummeted as western European capitals fell one after the other. Amsterdam fell at June 10 and Paris on June 18.
French troops were swept away by the well-equipped and well-organized German armored forces. When the French eyed defeat they set up the Vichy government in the south and made peace with the Germans. Germany had their western front safe for now.

On August 5, the Tripartite Pact was signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
Here they divided the world into spheres of influence which the other powers would respect.

On September 5, Germany used its position as major power for the first time when it pushed Romania into accepting Hungarian takeover of northwestern mountain provinces in the Vienna Dictat.

In October, the axis, consisting of only Germany, expanding dramatically and now included Romania, Hungary and Italy. The allied commanders peed in their pants when they heard the news. What a disaster!
To counter axis power, Britain assured Greek independence.

In November, a second invasion of Norway was initiated. Instead of spreading the risk over a large front like the first plan, this new plan laid trust to German ground forces and laid the foundations for only one bridgehead, from which German forces would break the Norwegian Army and invade. Early attempts were folded as the Norwegian fleet was still active in Kattegat. But the opportunity soon presented itself and 90,000 German soldiers were landed at Kristiansand. The Norwegians were inexperienced and poorly organized. The German invaders managed to create two pockets around Stavanger and Oslo in which 70% of the Norwegian Army was encircled and destroyed.

1940 ended with axis advance and allied disaster.

 

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Norway; ouch. Gonna make it interesting for Barbarossa, who is usually a german rollover.

 

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Yeah, Norway really suprised us. I guess it's one of those "what if " scenarios as I've heard IRL the british and french navies never reached norway in time to defend it against Germany.