The Hellenic EmpiAAR.

[unmerged(348778)]

This shall be my first attempt at writing an AAR so I wouldnt expect an awe-inspiring display of writing prowess but hopefully it should be reasonably entertaining. I was bimbling through the A-Z of nation AARs and was shocked to see not a single Greek AAR. Shocked twice over because I'd just fought a crazy game as my Greeks which saw an empire spreading from the Mediterranean to far off shores.
Hence I decided to try and recreate that save as near as possible and advance the Hellenic war machine once more.

I'll be starting from 1936 on normal or hard (I havent decided quite yet on the difficulty as the Greek economy is pretty darn fragile) but if it goes anything like the last game I played it should roll on till around 1944 at the least.

Any advice in terms of improving the general quality of the AAR once fully underway are much appreciated.

Paul

 

[Sgt Jack]

Should be interesting, different to the usual AAR's will keep an eye out for this one

 

[unmerged(348778)]

Well when I started the first game I wanted to see whether I could hold off Italy (one of my favourite hoi3 nations) without just sitting in Athens for years until the Russkis arrive.
Things went completely different, a serious save became the single hardest land mass to defend that I've ever seen, bearing in mind manpower never really got above 30.

 

[unmerged(348778)]

I'm gonna have have to see whether I can map screenshot to another button because f11 dosent do screenshot on my pc for some reason so it may or may not be a pictorial tale.

General strategies:
The theory I used in the last Greek war, and so all going well in this one, was that of parallel war whereby I joined the axis to secure friendly superpower neighbours whilst not fighting any of the big powers myself. This had the benefit of not antagonising the British or Soviets but also allowing me to build the "Greek" air-force with no research whatsoever.

As with most Balkan nations the first step is a Balkan campaign of preying on ones neighbours but this is where Greece's different status to that of say Romania comes in handy, I will not be a German pawn fighting to gain a tract of Russian land but an independant empire carving out its own empire, but with powerful friends.

The Greek armies mainstay fighting force is of course its infantry, chronic manpower shortages (I have 9 manpower left by 1937 in this new save) force the Greek army to become a highly modernised force unable to rely on sheer numbers. The main pride of my Greek army will be my mountain troops whilst more expensive in than the standard infantry almost all of Greece's campaigns will be against heavily mountainous regions, and a lot of the time against larger armies within them. The mountaineers becoming even more useful when its time to start an Afghan campaign.
The breakthrough unit of choice for my Greek empire is the humble Ippiko cavalry, most campaigns do not favour armour in the slightest not to mention the fact that the Greek economy is almost incapable of fielding armour unless if were 2 or 3 brigades which is fairly pointless, but I also like the idea of using thethrowback units from days of yore. Reminds me of the old phalanxes etc.

Currently Greece has 13 neutrality and 4 mountain divisions in addition to the rest of the starting army. Japan is apparantly my biggest threat (of course) and I'm preparing for my Albanian "campaign".
As I say I'm trying to sort out the whole screenshot mess I have atm so the next post should actually be an interesting pictorial and more informational piece but I thought I'd state a few guiding principles and general strategy first.

Paul

 

[unmerged(348778)]

And we've joined the bads guys.

Due to my new place as the fourth axis power neutrality no longer has any meaning to Greece allowing the much anticipated and carefully planned "Operation Epidamnus" to begin.

Rejoicing in the streets of Athens as the newspapers (not radios, we dont have them yet) report that King Zog of Albania has officially surrendered and Albania has become the first new province of the Hellenic Empire. The generals host a rousing party over their brilliant military strategies which allowed a plan thought doomed to failure to succeed.

A meer month later yet another great day for Greeks everywhere as they discover the radio!

Apparantly fearful of the startling progress made by their up and coming neighbour Bulgaria increases their border forces to 6 divisions. The pretext of a warmongering Bulgaria rattling their sabres near sovereign Greek soil was cooked up at Athens HQ and in response Greek forces launched "Operation Thrace".

Radio Athens announces a special broadcast on the 18th May stating that Bulgarian resistance has crumbled and as a result the government of Bulgaria has capitulated to Greek forces who are even now restoring order in Sofia.
The Hellenic Empire now stretches from the former state of Albania to the former state of Bulgaria, provinces from times long past finally re-united with the father of democracy.

Humble beginnings for Greece, but the die is cast and Greece has begun her journey of conquest. Economically were fairly stable for the time being and theres a healthy growth in all resources and manpower is slowly rebuilding but thats the major factor to consider on the whole with Greece.
Politically Greece is totally fractured, somehow the Communists are the most popular party within Greece at the moment which makes no sense to me but father of democracy so I'll roll with it.
Granted the military campaigns have been fairly short thus far but Greece has to be the opportunistic nation taking only countries that she can beat quickly and at the end of the day AI Albania is never a tough nut to crack and Bulgaria for some reason pulled back as soon as I attacked.

Next campaign on the Greek agenda is "Operation Illyria" where theres actually some fighting, theres even some sort of shiny phoenix dropping great balls of naptha on the confused Greek troops.

 

[Avindian]

How did you get the Germans to let you into the Axis? I bet Mussolini won't be very happy...

Sounds like an interesting concept; I'll follow along!

 

[unmerged(348778)]

I just aligned myself to Germany from day one, Britain dosen't bother with Greece because of Italian events and such later so you've pretty much got free reign to do what you want you coiuld even go Comintern if you wanted but I dont see how that could help you.
Mussolini's gonna hate me later, about 90% of Italys territory obtained from WW2 becomes Greek.
The really ironic thing that happened for me last time was Italy absolutely loved me because I was trading oil to them from my as yet undisclosed oil fields so I bought loads of aircraft off of them. If memory serves I had 3/4 wings of 1940 Italian fighters, 2 wings of 1938 German Stukas about 5 wings of various Japanese divebombers and fighters from 1941-2, and one wing of Spitfires I bought from Britain (I bought those before I went axis). Japan and Italy sold me blueprints for about £200 whereas Germany wouldnt even sell to me if I gave them £5000 after I had the 2 stukas hence I buddied up to Japan.

Should I put more economic and/or political stuff up? in most other AARs I see quite a lot of other bits and bobs up with cabinets etc.

 

[unmerged(348778)]

Without much further ado...

1938, a year of much change, Hitler absorbes the Sudetenland, A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn, Italy beats Hungary 4–2 to win the 1938 World Cup, Adolf Hitler is Time magazine's "Man of the Year" as the most influential person of the year, but the year will forever be remembered as the year that Greek armed forces annex Yugoslavia.

The Greek industry has been set into overdrive following the two successful campaigns into Illyria Minor and Thrace.

The world will tremble at the massed outdated Greek artillery and will learn to fear the awesome might of Greek Militia units.

September 1938 - Following numerous accusations of "warmongering" and "imperialism" from our Yugoslavian neighbours as well as slurs over our people Greek High Command sent the code "aspis" to all units on the Yugoslavian border signalling the start of Operation Illyria.
Greek troops smashed across the Yugoslav border and in a matter of hours had encircled 2 Yugoslav divisions in addition to siezing several other territories and forcing the Yugoslav army into full retreat.

...ok...cheers Romania.

Greek forces continued to advance along the entire front, casualties were light the Yugoslav forces pulling back in the face of the brave Greek troops.

A strange new weapon utterly unknown to Greek High Command was seen in the war...aircraft. Yugoslav tactical bombers caused the losses of at least 250 Greek Soldiers of the Cretan division, this prompted HQ to begin measures to establish their own air-force, luckily Greece has friends who have already begun research into these new weapons of war.

Not idly did the Greek troops say it'll all be over by christmas. By the end of October the Yugoslav troops had been forced back so far that the government in Beograd capitulated to the Greek demands. Illyria had returned to the Greek Empire.

A joint military parade was held in southern Austria as German and Greek troops were met by cheering crowds as the German Panzers and Greek cavalry rumbled and thundered down the streets in a grand display of military power and friendliness between two former great powers reclaiming their former strength.

Here begins the next step of upgrading the Greek army to an elite force, research into Cavalry will be an essential as well as buying some sort of airforce followed by a small marine corps. But as ever greek manpower is so short it takes an absolute age to prepare any sizeable troops, for now its artillery and a few militia as police. Then I'll take a trip to Berlin and ask Mister Hitler if he wouldn't mind awfully selling me some Messerschmits for the next Greek advance.

 

[eqqman]

Should I put more economic and/or political stuff up? in most other AARs I see quite a lot of other bits and bobs up with cabinets etc.

I would only bother to post what you find relevant to the story you want to tell, but if people ask for it `always give the people what they want` is usually a good maxim.

I'm not sure I followed entirely your plans from the first post... are you planning to attack Italy before they go Axis?

 

[unmerged(348778)]

Nope, Italy can do whatever they want as far as im concerned. My plan involves another Greco-Persian war and eventually I'll have a land bridge to south coast of China. In the save I played before I discovered the Greeks had no coverage, I conquered every neutral an un-aligned nation in a giant long line, going Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, I think its Sinkiang after that, then south through Yunnan ending with Guangxi Clique. I would then be able to deploy fresh troops trained in athens directly to Shanghai.

After that It'll be upgrading the almost non-existant Greek navy and conquering any other nations that havent hopped on the war wagon such as Ireland or Portugal.

I only got as far as China last time before Germany started getting pushed back on the Eastern Front, hopefully this time around they'll win and that will allow me to invade South America.

I have bold plans for Greece.

 

[eqqman]

Nope, Italy can do whatever they want as far as im concerned. My plan involves another Greco-Persian war and eventually I'll have a land bridge to south coast of China. In the save I played before I discovered the Greeks had no coverage, I conquered every neutral an un-aligned nation in a giant long line, going Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, I think its Sinkiang after that, then south through Yunnan ending with Guangxi Clique. I would then be able to deploy fresh troops trained in athens directly to Shanghai.

After that It'll be upgrading the almost non-existant Greek navy and conquering any other nations that havent hopped on the war wagon such as Ireland or Portugal.

I only got as far as China last time before Germany started getting pushed back on the Eastern Front, hopefully this time around they'll win and that will allow me to invade South America.

I have bold plans for Greece.

Keep in mind that there is no infrastructure linking up Afghanistan with Sinkiang, so you can't walk there by land. And the gap extends into both countries, so even if you took the Afghans and built a road up to the border, you couldn't pass across. You'd have to rely on Paratroops to take Sinkiang for you, which means airlifting in supplies as well. I discovered this myself when I wanted to do your plan from the Chinese side.

 

[Deus Eversor]

subs

 

[unmerged(348778)]

That explains the Greek paras grinding to a hideous halt.
Im assuming therefore that were I to build infrastructure in both provinces supplies could roll on out?

I remember there being horrible issues and dangers at that point of the game, as aforementioned USSR started to win and whilst I wasnt at war with them I cant imagine them liking fascist Greece sharing like 3 seperate borders with them. The other being Britain, who I shared vast borders with but again wasnt at war with.

All it takes is one of them declaring war and its pretty much game over or a boring little save whereby I have no manpower at all and get steamrolled.

 

[eqqman]

That explains the Greek paras grinding to a hideous halt.
I'm assuming therefore that were I to build infrastructure in both provinces supplies could roll on out?

Yes, but don't forget that not every country even starts with the capability to build infrastructure. You need to have Advanced Construction Engineering first.

 

[unmerged(348778)]

I guess I'll just have to dedicate a leadership point, sigh, a quarter of my total research. Although by that point it might only be a 5th or if were lucky a 6th.

I guess Greek research maxed out with the phalanx.

 

[Avindian]

It would be awesome if you went after Italy right now... that would shake things up!

Great progress; keep up the good work!

 

[unmerged(348778)]

Thanks for the support, if you like I could do a spin off campaign at some point.

I think the problem with Italy is I would have to rely heavily on German support (a limited war will see my annihilated) and they'd get most of the spoils unless I managed a Greek cavalry blitzkriegacrtoss the border and the Jerries attacked from my territory.
Amphibious landings are utterly impossible, I have 0 anti-armour, I have no planes, my artillery is 1918, and man power would run out after about a fortnight of combat.
On the whole I think their just too strong for me at the moment and they'll be joining the axis before I can build up enough to match them, but I'm happy to give it a shot later as an alternate history of my alternate history.

As an additional note, my army is currently still just the starting Greek army, but I upgraded 12 brigades of infantry to Mountaineers and I've build about 3 militia divisions of 2 brigads each as anti-partisan troops. I have 4 brigades of artillery (which I NEED to upgrade soon) in production and the other 2 militia.

EDIT In fact looking at the manpower situation I dont have enough to fully mobilise.

Providing everything goes smoothely with world politics the next step will be "Operation Istros".



A few statistics for the time being -

The Hellenic Empires approximate landmass = 373948km2 (144382)miles
Approximate total population = 35 million, figures are modernish, so I guess you could approximate that figure down to like 25-28 million.

 

[unmerged(348778)]

The hideously convoluted politics of modern Greece.

The hideously convoluted politics of the planet.

After months of watching the Balkans being re-integrated into the new Hellenic superpower a worried neighbour joined the axis ranks.

This was a great blessing for the Greek armed forces as their new neighbour was a friendly one who was quite happy to sell valuable technology to Greece at low low prices. Antione Frangulis was most displeased at suddenly finding that he actually had to work nowadays.

Quite a bargain at £35.

Yet another symbol of Greeces internal dysfunctionality as for the fourth time so far...

The problem was only exaserbated further when dire news reached Athens.

This blatant Luxembourgish attempt at scaremongering the Hellenic people into stopping theirgreat mission was just the cassus belli the government in Athens needed to "adjust" the terms of the transit rights given to them by their Romanian neighbours and so at one o'clock on the 16th June 1939 Greek troops initiated Operation Istros the planned invasion of Romania.

The initial assault met with 0 resistance as the Romanian army had recently re-deployed following Hungarys entry into the Axis.

Within 6 days the Romanian capital was encircled and the valuable oil fields of Ploesti firmly in Greek hands whilst the troops there defended against an attempted breakout by the beleaguered Romanian troops.

The Greek army started phase two and advanced along the whole front deeper into the Romanian heartland.

But Romanias will to fight was well and truly gone and on the 29th of June 1939 Romania offered her unconditional surrender to Giorgios II.

In a mere 13 days the Hellenic army had occupied her largest neighbour and secured for herself the vaunted oilfields of Ploesti, Dacia had become yet another Greek province.

This brought the Greeks into contact with a nation steeped in history and one already worrying the Greek high command...

In an attempt to dissuade any warmongering red giants on the borders, the entire Greek marine corps paraded the lenght of the Hellenic-Soviet border.

However change was afoot and news filtered through that Greeces German allies were perhaps not as peaceful as had been thought.

As nations everywhere began to mobilise for what could well become another world war Greece began preparing for her most important campaign yet, a campaign against her one of her oldest enemies who had terrorised Greeks for countless decades. Operation Lydia was entering the final stages of planning.

Approx size = 611448km (236081 miles)
Approx population = 53 million highest estimate.

Not too shabby a population considering Germanies was around 80 million in 1939, if only I could find this supposedly huge manpower base to draw upon Greece could concievably invade the USSR.

 

[KcindX]

Very interesting beginnings. Subbed!

 

[unmerged(348778)]

Hmm, the plan may well get drasticly altered at some point as Japan is annihilating China hence guangxi clique may get destroyed WAY before Greece is ready to start her China campaign. Oh well like the borg we will adapt.