I would absolutely kill for joining one of the World in Conflict matches! What DLC do I need?
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Sorry for the lack of updates guys. Some terrible personal issue came up in my life. I will update once I feel more stable and have spare time. Meanwhile I ask my fellow players to update after next session so the AAR wont die.
@Flando: You need Their Finest Hour and the small multiplayer mod which is used by most MP groups nowadays. You are welcome to join us.
@Flando: You need Their Finest Hour and the small multiplayer mod which is used by most MP groups nowadays. You are welcome to join us.
I was planning an update with the battle of Denmark and the air battle of England but it's not over yet, that's why I'm waiting. vector and ikar could write something about France I guess, but really nothing special happened there.
The last 2 sessions where quite interestign with UK and Germany punching each other pretty badly, with losses on both sides. I'm ready to write an updae but all of my saves are bad for the screenshots, I'm waiting for a group mate to send me some more suitable ones
Things got better in real life and I will write a summary of what happened till now. We are very close to Barbarossa (november 1940; Barbarossa usually starts very early 1941). I wont include that many details as I didn't take that many screenshots during the weeks, but will do my best to include as many as I can remember. I was happy that I could even focus on the game. I will try to make the best of it though and players of the game can of course make comments if I accidentally put in something wrong.
I hope you all understand I couldn't update the thread earlier and that the next update will cover a large period in a fairly small post: ~3 pages of A4 with only text.
I hope you all understand I couldn't update the thread earlier and that the next update will cover a large period in a fairly small post: ~3 pages of A4 with only text.
As mentioned before, due personal issues I had to quit the updates for this thread. However, we are still playing the game and we made some progress till close to Barbarossa. I will give a short overview of the most important things that happened till now:
Europe
We've seen the Allies were sitting in Denmark with a strong number of forces. I played the UK a few times myself since we temporary had some manpower issues in real life. As the UK I managed to hold the Germans back and even sink the entire surface fleet of the Kriegsmarine in a second engagement where – for an unknown reason – they sailed out with transport fleets from Königsberg to the north and blocked the Southern Baltic with their surface fleet. Many ships were sunk and the remaining once I later bombed down in the port.
Also I started an invasion to knock down the three INF INF ART ART divisions in Guldborgsund. Tanks, marines, pure infantry, artillery. We all smashed it at the three divisions and we managed to get their org lower and lower, eventually resulting in the loss of the first division. This made it impossible for the other two divisions to hold the line and they also got destroyed. This was quite a huge victory for the Allies, as destroying three strong German infantry divisions + the entire surface fleet of the Kriegsmarine is a fairly good result in 1939.
Once I left the UK I don’t know exactly what happened, but I assume the UK forgot to block the straits properly or wanted to fight and bleed Germany, but forgot that the massive amount of artillery would eventually deorg him badly. Anyway, as a result the Allied victory became a disaster where the UK lost I think 3 arm brigades and plenty infantry brigades. They couldn’t escape anymore on the fleet. More bad news was that the UK got a transport fleet stucked in the Baltic Sea, which the Germans eventually destroyed with their bombers.
The Battle of Britain kept raging and both sides saw many, many casualties. The UK lost plenty of industrial capicity during the bombing raids, it suffered from slow repairs but managed to damage the Luftwaffe too. This does cost Germany IC and manpower to repair. The biggest win for the Allies were the total destruction of two tactical bombers and an interceptor. In the end I think Germany payed a fairly high price, but UK suffered much more. So it was definitely worth it for the Axis.
Anyway, such things happen from time to time and it’s always accept the loss and go on. The Allies were preparing for a hard battle against Japan. The European Axis however first made an attempt for Gibraltar. They quickly conquered Spain and took an empty Gibraltar. The UK was – especially with the earlier loss – in no condition to fight the several panzer corps that were rolling through Spain. With Gibraltar opened and Spain conquered, the Axis launched their convoy raiding operations. The German subs survived the naval battles and were send to the Atlantic. Also the large numbers of starting Italian subs were send out to raid the British merchant navy. From Sevilla and La Coruna the Axis launched a large air operation to bomb the convoy routes. It forced the UK to build large quantities of convoys and that is always lost IC of course, as nobody wants to spend IC on new convoys.
The Axis had the initiative and some small naval assets were lost by Britain in 1940. Another important thing that happened in Europe was the battle of Suez Canal. Where the Allies were distracted a lot by Japan and send a lot of units to the area, the Axis felt confident as they didn’t spot big Allied naval fleets in the Mediterranean Sea and noticed UK was stretched thin. They launched quickly a fast airborne assault and took unopposed the province of Ismailia. This is the key province, as it prevented the UK to send in a battlefleet. Probably a local fleet was trapped and destroyed, I am not sure as I didn’t play the UK. The Axis quickly landed tanks and infantry and killed some units. The Allies tried to retreat quickly to Basra and Kuwait to save some divisions. In the end only 3 infantry divisions survived, I guess about 5-8 divisions were lost.
Situation in Europe at the end of last session
Far East
Where things were going not so good in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.. the Far East went much better. As soon as Japan declared war on the Allies they prepared to hit them hard. Japan also quickly conquered Siam (it didn’t take it by puppet on event) but preferred to annex them. The Allies were dug in in Singapore with heavy artillery support and an armoured brigade, as the Japanese didn’t have anti tank guns. Also Rangoon was protected well and the Allies took positions in Thaton, the small corridor province behind a river.
The Dutch capital of Palembang was defended, along with Oosthaven. This made a good supply hub for the Allies, prevented Japan from raiding huge amounts of rares and it was possible to drop supplies on Singapore by air if the port went down. Americans put four corps, including five LARM INF INF divisions (enough to let Japan not pierce it), on the Philippines. Again, it proved to be a great supply hub and the Japanese always had to be aware for the Americans in their back. The Pacific Islands were protected decent, where Wake was weaker and Midway was the vital position before Pearl. Guam was left empty. Japan focused entirely on Malaya and Singapore. They managed to take Siam, Malaya all the way up to Singapore, but British tactical bombers made several logistical bombings and made life hard for Japanese units.
Meanwhile, on the seas Japan had superior Carrier Task Forces, but the Allies were tactical superior. I played the USA two sessions of war as our initial player sadly enough had to drop due real life issues, and can tell it was enjoyable. Auqia did put up a fight, where some people prefer to hide. In the session before I took over the Japanese fleet battered the Allied fleet badly and I was afraid that 6 BB and a lot of screens were lost. However, I managed to sneak those out and I could repair them. We had several heavy clashes around Singapore, but I designed a fast fleet of a few BB and a lot of modern DD. I smashed this fleet with air cover in his CTF and sunk I think one carrier at the very start of my temporary USA time. In the engagements that followed, both side had heavy damage and repair in the ports where Japan did lose another carrier on the retreat.
With the threat for Rangoon gone as the Imperial Japanese Navy wouldn’t dare to fight behind Singapore now anymore, the Allies slowly moved up to former Siam and attacked Phet Buri. After fierce battles where Canadian tanks, Australian infantry, British infantry and American marines were involved, the important air field and port of Phet Buri were conquered. The Allies split forces, some were send south, while the main force kept pressure on the units retreating to Bangkok. Japan had plenty units in Siam- Indochina. I landed with several USA divisions behind their lines and that forced them to run away. We moved to Saigon and cut off some divisions between Saigon and the center of Indochina.
On the seas heavy battles kept going. I lost two carriers myself, but I didn’t mind and actually planned that as those were fairly heavy damaged. It was, however, such great moment to strike the Japanese fleet once they again moved out to Saigon-Singapore area. I sunk another four carriers in several engagements. The Japanese fleet was battered, but stood still strong with several CTF’s (18 carriers and plenty modern screens) and my fast BB fleet that I smashed in was sunk for the most part (3 BB 10 DD). That was a blow, but it was kinda expected as I was okay with trading some obsolete USA BB for modern Japanese CV. After we invaded Indochina, Japan tried to rescue as many troops as possible. Several clashes followed, and my great old 6 CA 14 DD fleet did harass Japan already for months. It took down smaller fleets, transport fleets and now proved to be great to sacrifice themselves in order to make the invasion of Indochina a success. Japan lost all it’s battleships and maybe the biggest win for the Allies was that Japan lost all landing crafts and only had two transport ships left. They couldn’t really made good efforts to evacuate the islands. Meanwhile we conquered some unimportant, but by Japanese militia defended islands at the very end of the Japanese Pacific islands.
We lured the Japanese in a trap and they send out again a large part of their carriers. Two CTF’s were send while the other two were repairing in the port. We send all of our carriers (25-30) we had and the British send their five carriers of their CTF too. Japan bites and engaged us while we were attempting to retake Guam (with success). Initially Japan might have thought it went well, but soon he was confronted with the large numbers of the Allied fleets. His 12 CV stood no chance against the 30+ CV of the Allies. We chased them and killed three carriers and several light cruisers. Eventually we forced them in the port of Palau. I quickly designed a new fast BB – DD fleet (the other one was partially gone). The Japanese fleet in Palau was heavily damaged (about 1-30% strength left for almost all ships except 1 CTF). We invaded south of Palau and moved up with ARM MAR MAR MAR divisions. The Japanese units stood no chance, surrendered and at that moment it was clear: Japan would lose another 9 carriers and 7 light cruisers.
At this moment I gave away the command of USA to Callan and Barkas and I can’t be very specific anymore. I know that Japan put up quite a decent fight in Indochina and almost pushed the Americans back in the center of it. However, after long bombing of the port, they ran out of supplies and are about to get destroyed now. Americans also invaded up north near Hanoi and quickly killed some divisions there. The last two transport ships of Japan were destroyed too and thus means basically all troops are trapped in Indochina, China, Korea and the Islands, unless being at the home islands of course. The USA invaded southern China near Haikou, Macau and is now battling for Guangzhou, which will succeed after a time. Though, some Militia is incoming to support the Japanese force in the city. Auqia knows he won’t beat the the Allies on the sea anymore and prepares to bleed them. Fortifies the home islands and expands the air force big. The Japanese air force is making the American march to victory hard and giving them several supply issues. Britain send in fighters to battle the Japanese Airforce.
Where Japan has only 6 carriers left, you should think it’s virtually impossible to make some serious damage on the seas. I was kinda shocked when I was informed that Japan sunk a battleship and five carriers. There clearly went something wrong in the USA camp, most likely not concentrated enough or bad communication between the two players. The USA still has a large advantage over Japan in terms of carriers and battleships. USA has 20-25 CV left and UK has about 10, where Japan has only 6. Though, Japan with soon a large air force, plenty CAGs ready to use as land based naval bombers will hurt the Allies and mostly USA if they don’t pay attention. We’ll see how it works out, but Japan itself isn’t beaten yet. The Allies are close to getting the Pacific War Conditions to allow USA to move with full force into Europe.
Situation in Indochina - China at the end of last session
NOTE: We are currently at 8 November 1940. In this update I didn't include the USSR, they fought the Winter War and annexed Finland. Now they are preparing for the inevitable German attack. They build up a decent army and a large air force. The expectation is a long retreat due a superior German Army. We hope the gamble to choose for air power was the right one, but the first year will be very, very, very tough.
Chapter 4 - Back in action: a summary of the battlefields till late 1940
Europe
We've seen the Allies were sitting in Denmark with a strong number of forces. I played the UK a few times myself since we temporary had some manpower issues in real life. As the UK I managed to hold the Germans back and even sink the entire surface fleet of the Kriegsmarine in a second engagement where – for an unknown reason – they sailed out with transport fleets from Königsberg to the north and blocked the Southern Baltic with their surface fleet. Many ships were sunk and the remaining once I later bombed down in the port.
Also I started an invasion to knock down the three INF INF ART ART divisions in Guldborgsund. Tanks, marines, pure infantry, artillery. We all smashed it at the three divisions and we managed to get their org lower and lower, eventually resulting in the loss of the first division. This made it impossible for the other two divisions to hold the line and they also got destroyed. This was quite a huge victory for the Allies, as destroying three strong German infantry divisions + the entire surface fleet of the Kriegsmarine is a fairly good result in 1939.
Once I left the UK I don’t know exactly what happened, but I assume the UK forgot to block the straits properly or wanted to fight and bleed Germany, but forgot that the massive amount of artillery would eventually deorg him badly. Anyway, as a result the Allied victory became a disaster where the UK lost I think 3 arm brigades and plenty infantry brigades. They couldn’t escape anymore on the fleet. More bad news was that the UK got a transport fleet stucked in the Baltic Sea, which the Germans eventually destroyed with their bombers.
The Battle of Britain kept raging and both sides saw many, many casualties. The UK lost plenty of industrial capicity during the bombing raids, it suffered from slow repairs but managed to damage the Luftwaffe too. This does cost Germany IC and manpower to repair. The biggest win for the Allies were the total destruction of two tactical bombers and an interceptor. In the end I think Germany payed a fairly high price, but UK suffered much more. So it was definitely worth it for the Axis.
Anyway, such things happen from time to time and it’s always accept the loss and go on. The Allies were preparing for a hard battle against Japan. The European Axis however first made an attempt for Gibraltar. They quickly conquered Spain and took an empty Gibraltar. The UK was – especially with the earlier loss – in no condition to fight the several panzer corps that were rolling through Spain. With Gibraltar opened and Spain conquered, the Axis launched their convoy raiding operations. The German subs survived the naval battles and were send to the Atlantic. Also the large numbers of starting Italian subs were send out to raid the British merchant navy. From Sevilla and La Coruna the Axis launched a large air operation to bomb the convoy routes. It forced the UK to build large quantities of convoys and that is always lost IC of course, as nobody wants to spend IC on new convoys.
The Axis had the initiative and some small naval assets were lost by Britain in 1940. Another important thing that happened in Europe was the battle of Suez Canal. Where the Allies were distracted a lot by Japan and send a lot of units to the area, the Axis felt confident as they didn’t spot big Allied naval fleets in the Mediterranean Sea and noticed UK was stretched thin. They launched quickly a fast airborne assault and took unopposed the province of Ismailia. This is the key province, as it prevented the UK to send in a battlefleet. Probably a local fleet was trapped and destroyed, I am not sure as I didn’t play the UK. The Axis quickly landed tanks and infantry and killed some units. The Allies tried to retreat quickly to Basra and Kuwait to save some divisions. In the end only 3 infantry divisions survived, I guess about 5-8 divisions were lost.
Situation in Europe at the end of last session
Far East
Where things were going not so good in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.. the Far East went much better. As soon as Japan declared war on the Allies they prepared to hit them hard. Japan also quickly conquered Siam (it didn’t take it by puppet on event) but preferred to annex them. The Allies were dug in in Singapore with heavy artillery support and an armoured brigade, as the Japanese didn’t have anti tank guns. Also Rangoon was protected well and the Allies took positions in Thaton, the small corridor province behind a river.
The Dutch capital of Palembang was defended, along with Oosthaven. This made a good supply hub for the Allies, prevented Japan from raiding huge amounts of rares and it was possible to drop supplies on Singapore by air if the port went down. Americans put four corps, including five LARM INF INF divisions (enough to let Japan not pierce it), on the Philippines. Again, it proved to be a great supply hub and the Japanese always had to be aware for the Americans in their back. The Pacific Islands were protected decent, where Wake was weaker and Midway was the vital position before Pearl. Guam was left empty. Japan focused entirely on Malaya and Singapore. They managed to take Siam, Malaya all the way up to Singapore, but British tactical bombers made several logistical bombings and made life hard for Japanese units.
Meanwhile, on the seas Japan had superior Carrier Task Forces, but the Allies were tactical superior. I played the USA two sessions of war as our initial player sadly enough had to drop due real life issues, and can tell it was enjoyable. Auqia did put up a fight, where some people prefer to hide. In the session before I took over the Japanese fleet battered the Allied fleet badly and I was afraid that 6 BB and a lot of screens were lost. However, I managed to sneak those out and I could repair them. We had several heavy clashes around Singapore, but I designed a fast fleet of a few BB and a lot of modern DD. I smashed this fleet with air cover in his CTF and sunk I think one carrier at the very start of my temporary USA time. In the engagements that followed, both side had heavy damage and repair in the ports where Japan did lose another carrier on the retreat.
With the threat for Rangoon gone as the Imperial Japanese Navy wouldn’t dare to fight behind Singapore now anymore, the Allies slowly moved up to former Siam and attacked Phet Buri. After fierce battles where Canadian tanks, Australian infantry, British infantry and American marines were involved, the important air field and port of Phet Buri were conquered. The Allies split forces, some were send south, while the main force kept pressure on the units retreating to Bangkok. Japan had plenty units in Siam- Indochina. I landed with several USA divisions behind their lines and that forced them to run away. We moved to Saigon and cut off some divisions between Saigon and the center of Indochina.
On the seas heavy battles kept going. I lost two carriers myself, but I didn’t mind and actually planned that as those were fairly heavy damaged. It was, however, such great moment to strike the Japanese fleet once they again moved out to Saigon-Singapore area. I sunk another four carriers in several engagements. The Japanese fleet was battered, but stood still strong with several CTF’s (18 carriers and plenty modern screens) and my fast BB fleet that I smashed in was sunk for the most part (3 BB 10 DD). That was a blow, but it was kinda expected as I was okay with trading some obsolete USA BB for modern Japanese CV. After we invaded Indochina, Japan tried to rescue as many troops as possible. Several clashes followed, and my great old 6 CA 14 DD fleet did harass Japan already for months. It took down smaller fleets, transport fleets and now proved to be great to sacrifice themselves in order to make the invasion of Indochina a success. Japan lost all it’s battleships and maybe the biggest win for the Allies was that Japan lost all landing crafts and only had two transport ships left. They couldn’t really made good efforts to evacuate the islands. Meanwhile we conquered some unimportant, but by Japanese militia defended islands at the very end of the Japanese Pacific islands.
We lured the Japanese in a trap and they send out again a large part of their carriers. Two CTF’s were send while the other two were repairing in the port. We send all of our carriers (25-30) we had and the British send their five carriers of their CTF too. Japan bites and engaged us while we were attempting to retake Guam (with success). Initially Japan might have thought it went well, but soon he was confronted with the large numbers of the Allied fleets. His 12 CV stood no chance against the 30+ CV of the Allies. We chased them and killed three carriers and several light cruisers. Eventually we forced them in the port of Palau. I quickly designed a new fast BB – DD fleet (the other one was partially gone). The Japanese fleet in Palau was heavily damaged (about 1-30% strength left for almost all ships except 1 CTF). We invaded south of Palau and moved up with ARM MAR MAR MAR divisions. The Japanese units stood no chance, surrendered and at that moment it was clear: Japan would lose another 9 carriers and 7 light cruisers.
At this moment I gave away the command of USA to Callan and Barkas and I can’t be very specific anymore. I know that Japan put up quite a decent fight in Indochina and almost pushed the Americans back in the center of it. However, after long bombing of the port, they ran out of supplies and are about to get destroyed now. Americans also invaded up north near Hanoi and quickly killed some divisions there. The last two transport ships of Japan were destroyed too and thus means basically all troops are trapped in Indochina, China, Korea and the Islands, unless being at the home islands of course. The USA invaded southern China near Haikou, Macau and is now battling for Guangzhou, which will succeed after a time. Though, some Militia is incoming to support the Japanese force in the city. Auqia knows he won’t beat the the Allies on the sea anymore and prepares to bleed them. Fortifies the home islands and expands the air force big. The Japanese air force is making the American march to victory hard and giving them several supply issues. Britain send in fighters to battle the Japanese Airforce.
Where Japan has only 6 carriers left, you should think it’s virtually impossible to make some serious damage on the seas. I was kinda shocked when I was informed that Japan sunk a battleship and five carriers. There clearly went something wrong in the USA camp, most likely not concentrated enough or bad communication between the two players. The USA still has a large advantage over Japan in terms of carriers and battleships. USA has 20-25 CV left and UK has about 10, where Japan has only 6. Though, Japan with soon a large air force, plenty CAGs ready to use as land based naval bombers will hurt the Allies and mostly USA if they don’t pay attention. We’ll see how it works out, but Japan itself isn’t beaten yet. The Allies are close to getting the Pacific War Conditions to allow USA to move with full force into Europe.
Situation in Indochina - China at the end of last session
NOTE: We are currently at 8 November 1940. In this update I didn't include the USSR, they fought the Winter War and annexed Finland. Now they are preparing for the inevitable German attack. They build up a decent army and a large air force. The expectation is a long retreat due a superior German Army. We hope the gamble to choose for air power was the right one, but the first year will be very, very, very tough.
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Wow, intense action everywhere. Forcing the Allies to care more about the Pacific Theatre by HRs was a great idea IMO.
Very good summary.
Some addition from German perspective about the 2 most exciting actions in the war
Battle for Denmark
The landing on the island South of Copenhagen was a rushed decision of my sub when I missed a session. When the allies first attacked it and it seemed the Island could hold very long (they still hadn't brought up their marines and landing crafts, also we had total air superiority) I made another rushed decision and started to move into position to drop 3 tanks next to Stockholm, the plan was to take Sweden as fast as possible, from there we would have had much more chances to get Copenhagen. The hope was that UK wouldn't notice untill the declaration of war on Sweden, they would of course sail into the Baltic to intercept us but our blockading fleet would give us enough time to unload the transports. This didn't work as the British fleet sailed in the Baltic when our landing crafts were still far from position, the worst thing was that I had to keep the blockading fleet out to face certain death in order to get the landing crafts back in port fast enough (they were carring 3 armoured divisions).
After we accepted the loss of our poor 3 infanry divisions we didn't have any more time constraint for the capture of Copenhagen, so we could start a coordinated campaign of attrition. UK was already heavily under pressure in the battle of Britain, were all the infrastructures in the airport provinces were bombed to the ground and the IC was starting the be leveled. They weren't even trying to fight us in the air in Denmark, so we could level down the infrastructure of every province there as well, to prevent the divisions from regaining org, and started a tactical bombing campaign. We also patiently hunted the submarines blocking the straits by air, it was a long process but at times they were hit and UK had to rotate them in and out. Being already stretched sometimes the player was late in doing so and this allowed us to move to the first (undefended) island west of Copenhagen.
The second strait to cross was defended by strong UK forces on the other side. Again, we waited for a little mistake with sub rotation on the UK side to initiate the battle, they quickly moved the subs back into position but it seems that once you initiate the battle it is not broken by a naval blockade anymore. Still, you can reiforce the attack. The battle progress was never over 1% for Germany but our bombers steadily deorged the defending troops engaged in battle, meanwhile the British troops couldn't regain org on 0 infra. We succeded in crossing the straits and rushed Copenhagen, we conquered it hours before the British evacuation fleet got into the port so we effectively locked it in the Baltics. The British had 7 divisions in Denmark (including 3 armoured divisions), they all surrendered to the Germans.
Battle for the Suez
During the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece we noticed that Egypt was really undermanned by the brits and the Suez canal controller province was not garrisoned, also Gibraltar was already taken so reinforcements would have been very slow. We quicly put together a plan to conquer Egypt, the main problem being an enemy Armour division in Alexandria (meaning that paratroopers couldn't do the job by themselves) and the British fleet in Egypt that was not that impressive (6BB-8DD) but a victory by the Regia Marina was still probably depending on air superioriy. Our plan involved a huge air effort with several contemporary paradrops on the Suez controller and the provinces next to it and the airfield of Crete (Athens was too far to provide us with interceptor air cover). Meanwhile the Italian fleet would have sneaked in front of Alexandria and blocked the british fleet there long enough for the transport fleet to move in the canal and drop the panzers. what I really liked about this plan was that the paradrop on Ismaila (the Suez controller) would prevent the allies from moving into the canal and our transports would be free to land the panzers in all safety.
We started preparing our forces into position but suddenly the UK, probably noticing some weird movement, moved out their med fleet and sationed it right inside the Suez canal! Our plan was toasted but we decided to risk it and go on anyway, with the different that we would landed the armours next to Alexandria while the Italian fleet was stationing right outside the Suez to block the British fleet. It was far more dangerous but we went for it. Then another inconvenience happened, right after the italian fleet was into position, 2 british transports sailed past the Suez right into it and got engaged. Suddenly the British player was aware of our incoming attack and we rushed the paradrops and the landings in panic mode. Due to bad coordination the paradrop on Creete started late and the transport plane got intercepted and deorged, failed to drop the paras and so we couldn't even acheive air superiority with ints.
The other paradrops succeded and the med was instantly closed, Alexandria was cut off from supplies and we started logbombing it to deplet the remaining supplies (there were plenty of them as it was their supply depot). At this point the british were confronted with a chioce. Their Med fleet was still in the (closed) canal, it could escape at will but it was also the only fleet that could sail into the med. They could have tried to engage the italian fleet with air superiority and then attack the transports, but that would have meant to sail their fleet inside a closed Sea and lose it all in case Alexandria was taken anyway. There were some days of very high suspence while we were waiting for the British decision, but as time went by nothing happened and our armours could unload and attack Alexandria. At that point the Brits gave up and the fleet sailed in the Red Sea, meaning it was now locked outside the med. Egypt was then quickly conquered and all the allied divisions there destroyed. We then moved in the middle East where the Brits were trying to evacuate their forces, there was a pretty exciting chasing involving heavy air battles, in the end I believe the Brits could only get out one division (that I'm aware of) before Iraq fell. Overall the brits lost about 2 corps in the battles of the Suez and the middle East, one division being armours (canadian IIRC) and 2-3 being only garrisons.
The rest is pretty much well covered by feye the only other exciting thing he is missing was the axis attempt to move half the italian fleet (expeded to Germany) inside the Baltics to had naval superiority against the Soviets. The Brits were expecting this and the seas between Gibraltar and the English channel were filled with fleets. We took a very long route, sailing almost to the Bermudas, then North close to Canada and the East again between Island and Scapa Flow. When the fleet was almost there, just outside Norway, it run into a british heavy cruiser squadron and our hearts almost stopped. With our radars with could see every single British fleet in the Atlantic changing path towards Norway! luckily i was only an old fleet on anti submarine duty (there by chance) and it didn't have escorts, it was sunk very fast thanks also to our naval bombings and our fleet could reach the Baltic safe.
Some addition from German perspective about the 2 most exciting actions in the war
Battle for Denmark
The landing on the island South of Copenhagen was a rushed decision of my sub when I missed a session. When the allies first attacked it and it seemed the Island could hold very long (they still hadn't brought up their marines and landing crafts, also we had total air superiority) I made another rushed decision and started to move into position to drop 3 tanks next to Stockholm, the plan was to take Sweden as fast as possible, from there we would have had much more chances to get Copenhagen. The hope was that UK wouldn't notice untill the declaration of war on Sweden, they would of course sail into the Baltic to intercept us but our blockading fleet would give us enough time to unload the transports. This didn't work as the British fleet sailed in the Baltic when our landing crafts were still far from position, the worst thing was that I had to keep the blockading fleet out to face certain death in order to get the landing crafts back in port fast enough (they were carring 3 armoured divisions).
After we accepted the loss of our poor 3 infanry divisions we didn't have any more time constraint for the capture of Copenhagen, so we could start a coordinated campaign of attrition. UK was already heavily under pressure in the battle of Britain, were all the infrastructures in the airport provinces were bombed to the ground and the IC was starting the be leveled. They weren't even trying to fight us in the air in Denmark, so we could level down the infrastructure of every province there as well, to prevent the divisions from regaining org, and started a tactical bombing campaign. We also patiently hunted the submarines blocking the straits by air, it was a long process but at times they were hit and UK had to rotate them in and out. Being already stretched sometimes the player was late in doing so and this allowed us to move to the first (undefended) island west of Copenhagen.
The second strait to cross was defended by strong UK forces on the other side. Again, we waited for a little mistake with sub rotation on the UK side to initiate the battle, they quickly moved the subs back into position but it seems that once you initiate the battle it is not broken by a naval blockade anymore. Still, you can reiforce the attack. The battle progress was never over 1% for Germany but our bombers steadily deorged the defending troops engaged in battle, meanwhile the British troops couldn't regain org on 0 infra. We succeded in crossing the straits and rushed Copenhagen, we conquered it hours before the British evacuation fleet got into the port so we effectively locked it in the Baltics. The British had 7 divisions in Denmark (including 3 armoured divisions), they all surrendered to the Germans.
Battle for the Suez
During the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece we noticed that Egypt was really undermanned by the brits and the Suez canal controller province was not garrisoned, also Gibraltar was already taken so reinforcements would have been very slow. We quicly put together a plan to conquer Egypt, the main problem being an enemy Armour division in Alexandria (meaning that paratroopers couldn't do the job by themselves) and the British fleet in Egypt that was not that impressive (6BB-8DD) but a victory by the Regia Marina was still probably depending on air superioriy. Our plan involved a huge air effort with several contemporary paradrops on the Suez controller and the provinces next to it and the airfield of Crete (Athens was too far to provide us with interceptor air cover). Meanwhile the Italian fleet would have sneaked in front of Alexandria and blocked the british fleet there long enough for the transport fleet to move in the canal and drop the panzers. what I really liked about this plan was that the paradrop on Ismaila (the Suez controller) would prevent the allies from moving into the canal and our transports would be free to land the panzers in all safety.
We started preparing our forces into position but suddenly the UK, probably noticing some weird movement, moved out their med fleet and sationed it right inside the Suez canal! Our plan was toasted but we decided to risk it and go on anyway, with the different that we would landed the armours next to Alexandria while the Italian fleet was stationing right outside the Suez to block the British fleet. It was far more dangerous but we went for it. Then another inconvenience happened, right after the italian fleet was into position, 2 british transports sailed past the Suez right into it and got engaged. Suddenly the British player was aware of our incoming attack and we rushed the paradrops and the landings in panic mode. Due to bad coordination the paradrop on Creete started late and the transport plane got intercepted and deorged, failed to drop the paras and so we couldn't even acheive air superiority with ints.
The other paradrops succeded and the med was instantly closed, Alexandria was cut off from supplies and we started logbombing it to deplet the remaining supplies (there were plenty of them as it was their supply depot). At this point the british were confronted with a chioce. Their Med fleet was still in the (closed) canal, it could escape at will but it was also the only fleet that could sail into the med. They could have tried to engage the italian fleet with air superiority and then attack the transports, but that would have meant to sail their fleet inside a closed Sea and lose it all in case Alexandria was taken anyway. There were some days of very high suspence while we were waiting for the British decision, but as time went by nothing happened and our armours could unload and attack Alexandria. At that point the Brits gave up and the fleet sailed in the Red Sea, meaning it was now locked outside the med. Egypt was then quickly conquered and all the allied divisions there destroyed. We then moved in the middle East where the Brits were trying to evacuate their forces, there was a pretty exciting chasing involving heavy air battles, in the end I believe the Brits could only get out one division (that I'm aware of) before Iraq fell. Overall the brits lost about 2 corps in the battles of the Suez and the middle East, one division being armours (canadian IIRC) and 2-3 being only garrisons.
The rest is pretty much well covered by feye the only other exciting thing he is missing was the axis attempt to move half the italian fleet (expeded to Germany) inside the Baltics to had naval superiority against the Soviets. The Brits were expecting this and the seas between Gibraltar and the English channel were filled with fleets. We took a very long route, sailing almost to the Bermudas, then North close to Canada and the East again between Island and Scapa Flow. When the fleet was almost there, just outside Norway, it run into a british heavy cruiser squadron and our hearts almost stopped. With our radars with could see every single British fleet in the Atlantic changing path towards Norway! luckily i was only an old fleet on anti submarine duty (there by chance) and it didn't have escorts, it was sunk very fast thanks also to our naval bombings and our fleet could reach the Baltic safe.
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Yes, we started with that a long while ago and if the Allies want a proper western front, they need to push back Japan first. It's a great rule and improves the Pacific Theatre very much. Most multiplayer groups nowadays do use the same or similar rules for the Pacific War. I always enjoy the theatre very much
Thank you for the additional information Rast!
Very well made Feye; I like the way you illustrate everything in detail which gives a good overview and insight on what's going on.
Far out!
Far out!
I hope I have enough time during Barbarossa to make a more detailed after action report. Though, with those enemies I'm facing I doubt I have much spare time for such luxury
I hope I have enough time during Barbarossa to make a more detailed after action report. Though, with those enemies I'm facing I doubt I have much spare time for such luxury
I think I'll be recording barbarossa and upload it on youtube after the game has ended. It would be interesting if you did the same to show the soviet side.
Well how would that work exactly? Does it only record my Soviet screen or does it record the entire screen, as I'm doing much more then only playing USSR during the game (other countries, but also personal stuff).
I don't know exactly because I play on a laptop and I can only do so on full screen. You should try it and see by yourself, I tried MSI afterburner, it's a free software very fast to instal and intuitive, it works fine.
I am also impressed that we do get an interesting African fight. Has never happened before