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I suddenly decided to do an AAR, my first. May be it already happened to you, waking up one morning with a strange but overwhelming urge? Buying a new car, getting a new job, invading a new minor country?
So here I am, starting this AAR.
The mod
I choose BlackICE because, quite frankly, I never played another mod (or vanilla) since the days of 2 brigades/division!
And before that I only played DiDay's ICE. And before that, pre-SF, Haa the memories....lets forget it.
(WWI excluded but that's like another game).
The country
Germany is too easy, SoV is too easy, USA too boring, Japan too easy, China too easy, Poland far too hard for me, Italy or UK not my cup of tea, not in a mood to play a minor, so... let's play France.
Some find playing France too hard but in fact it is trivial to play defensively, WWI style. Trivial and extremely boring. So my goal will be to play aggressively, Germany must fall as soon as possible. 1939, I have my doubts laugh, but 1940 should be doable wacko!
For those that don't know BlackICE, lets say that France got some horrendous malus, making offensive not so easy.
The difficulty
I usually play normal HOI/GROFAZ BI, all enemies on very hard and others Hard.
I don't want to lose too badly so I will tone it down for this AAR :rofl: :
-Normal HOI
-Hard BlackICE
(take that France!)
-Very hard German
(and that!)
-Hard Allied/China/Soviets/Italy/Japan
-I won't follow history. At all. I will play a very aggressive, with a case of very bad temper, France. This should be funny (and frustrating), having malus for a very disorganised France while playing a very militaristic, expensive one.
-No micro-transactions to artificially raise relations, no delaying a decision with -dissent knowing I will soon have a +dissent one or things like that BUT I will edit savegames if I attack a country with puppet goal, win, and UK, after doing nothing at all, decide to take the land for them. No way. Go back being useless on your isle and leave me alone, stupid AI.
-Yeah, my English is, to say the least, lacking . Don't hesitate to help me out on that front, it will be very welcome.
So I had the surprise to be appointed France's big boss this morning!
Great! Didn't expected it but I can think of many worse jobs.
Government is here, in front of me. I love this job already!
Ha no, somehow it seems Folies-Bergère is not the head of state.
Ok, this is not the same...
Leon Victor Bourgeois is my first appointment.
Wow, this guy sure can speak a lot. About brigade this, division that, and look at this militia...
I like order. And I don't like men sitting idle, when it is not me. So I ordered to disband all non-reservist units. Basically, all units attached to HQs. Yeah, all but one Inf-Tanks, not a big loss anyway. And AAs, and many R-Cav.
And I want 5 Divs/Corps.
5 Corps/Army.
Oh and why 3 theatre HQ in France, one is enough, With :
-an army group for the north, getting infantry army, a mobile army with tanks and semi-motorised units (getting back the one in north Africa);
-an army group for Italy, with the mountain divisions, including the ones in Djibouti;
-and one garrison army group, getting the colonial armies, stripped from their support units and placed over industries and resources provinces, and the garrisons divisions.
The cavalries go in south Africa, under Dakar HQ.
What I want my Divisions to look like :
Not the best quality, but somewhat affordable. Later. For now, nothing is affordable
Second appointment: François Darlan, chief of the navy.
Ok, I must admit, I am not a navy guy. So lets send everything in Marseille, I will reorganise there. Transports ships go to Obock. The HQ there will go to Syria, the mountains in France. I keep one transport ship in Saigon though.
Then Victor Denian, chief of the air weakness.
Every planes but the Cag in Paris!
Ha, Roger Salengro, head of dumbness and Pierre René, minister of danger!
Yeah, I am not drowning in LS, 7.43 for now.
10 spies in France only raising NU. Forget even Counter-espionage for now, at worst I will go fascist or communist, not so bad law-wise.
10 spies in UK just because, for counter-espionage and a little support the ruling party.
For technologies, I try to get first +ls, +ic, +mp, some nation techs then land forces techs, majors INT/CAS/FTR air forces techs, doctrines with operating doctrines last, they will lag behind but what can you do?
No officers for now.
Scary, isn't it? It will be better after I unpause.
Albert Sarraut, armament minister, hello!
I have bad news for you! Stop everything. Upgrade nothing, reinforce nothing, produce nothing, everything in consumer goods! For now. But, please, forget about these ships. Please. Thank.
Last, but not least, decisions!
Military academy, yes, of course!
Despite the IC malus, I take the seaport/railway/road level 1 decision. Mostly to get rid of them.
No help to Abyssinia and no recruiting of African units.
As I plan to get the agricultural industry, I choose long term.
I need my neutrality to drop hard, as fast as possible. I need -neut and +NU above anything else.
I like this title :laugh:
Image heavy update, because it is easier and I like images.
A. 1936, happy days
I don't want to brag, but one day in control of the country and the great depression end.
One day.
I know of some politicians that should call me!
People are so thrilled, they immediately throw parties in the streets!
Don't worry, I also have some others cool modifiers
Welded armor, may be not a wise choice, it cost more IC and France is more advanced in cast armor...but I want solid tanks later.
Yeah, again, I don't want to brag, but...
This seems too easy. So when they asked me if I wanted a tougher Japan, I said yes. :ninja:
Now that the great depression ended, I need money. I sell Fuel to SoV and USA (yeah right? Who would have thought?) and supplies to UK.
I forgot to tell you, 1936 was the year raves went mainstream. No joke. For example, here are the 2 scheduled for the 03 of January :
If you want the January-May program :
DJ UpriZing is the best. Do I want raves? (btw Panzeroo, there is a typo, it is written "revolt" in the pop-up), I reply yes, of course!
Partying all night long makes you hungry, so we need more food.
Costly, prevent you from taking short term investment, but still worth it, +15% manpower and events that give you +mp.
During this time, Germany reoccupied the Rhineland, but it's ok, nothing bad can come of it
February is here and I got some event with dissents attached. You get used to it when playing France
Then :
I usually take the security police option, as you gain some very valuable Elites and appease them is costly. But this time, as I plan to venture outside my borders, I took appease them. Time will tell...
Not everything is bad news :
Not everything is good news :
For this one, I hesitated a great deal. Losing 1 NU or getting 5 dissents. In the end I took the dissents, I can't afford to lose NU.
Of course I got also a great peace demonstration that dropped my NU without anything I could do (but at least it gave me -0.02 Neut for a short time).
My popularity is rising through the roof (very low), people are partying like mad.
They love me, really they do.
May 04 is Election Day. Notice the very welcome newcomer?
No, not Auriol (WT., as if I had too much IC to begin with), Paul Le Gentilhomme. Imagine my already invincible army, trained by this guy.
Also Italy finally won against Abyssinia, disgruntled citizens raid strategic supply reserves (they drank all the beers while partying).
July is already there and my revolt risk drop to 0. Then, the 13, it seems DJ UpriZing moved to Spain, a gigantic party began there. DJ hardcore UpriZing. I (and UK), in defence of the democracy, turn a blind eye. You can always count on us!
August, a minor launch some boat, another minor got some trial, and I buy some industries.
Nothing really happen in the last months of the year, but some events like :
It's ok, they couldn't prove anything.
B. 1936, production and techs
Near the end of January I managed to drop the dissent to 0 and started to build some stuff. You can't do a lot at first, I put a convoy(*20), some AT, some DivHQ and made a medium tank from the surviving Inf tank. 2 or 3 IC above the supplies needed, nothing in upgrade or reinforcement. Each time I got dissents, I pause production until it is back at 0. All the leadership goes to tech, but 0.05 in spies (I should have nearly 10 spies free when USA join in).
April 28, 1936
Mark this day.
YES! YES YES YES! Nothing can stop me now! My first produced units. These ATs are the ATs that will pierce the Heavens!
Enemy tanks are totally useless. It feels so good.
I could nearly stop the AAR here. Panzer? HAHA, let me laugh.
May 31, 1936
Mark this day.
YES! YES YES YES! My first tech! Unstoppable!
I will show the techs, for those not knowing BlackICE.
June :
July:
Mass event open party rally :
Monumental architecture advance give the choice between some buildings, but, for me, the first one is always
With Broadcasting, I choose to lower my CG needs
August :
September :
October :
November :
December :
That's it for 1936. I already survived one year. The world is mine.
I can't decide...are pictures better left or centered?
laugh
