myfirst campaign AAR

[BlueMak]

It's my second game and first AAR for this game.
My plan is to leave the western front as it is, just adding a fighter cover and focus , after Poland, only on the USSR. I will refuse the Pact and just continue onwards till I reach Moscow, or die trying. I will not attack any neutral countries, but I will try to win with DP, Spain, so hopefuly I will make things interesting for the French...
On the first turn I destroyed the Polish airforce and after that focused my airforce to provide CS for my armies.
On the fourth turn I captured Warsaw and ready, next turn, to RR send my troops eastern as possible and resupply the 2-3 units that need reinforcements.
With Red colour is the movement of my units that had as focus to avoid conflict and reach Warsaw , while with orange colour are the movement of my units that had as mission to either open the road ahead or delay the enemy or just hold a route for supploes to reach my spearheads.

[BlueMak]

1st of January 1940. I decided to liberate Lithuania to make it easier to supply my front line. For now I don't plan on

attacking any other Baltic state unless I see I need to for supplies reasons.


1st of March 1940. I am going to declare war this turn, to the USSR. My plan is the following. In cyan circlyes are the

points I will try to keep to any soviet attack. The northern Red arrow is the direction of my main spearhead into Russia

and its goal is Moscow. The southern Red arrow will first help capture Misk then as fast as possible join or support the

main thrust. The orange arrows are the lines I will try to keep open for as long as possible, mainly with inf div. The red

arrows will be mainly armor and motorised inf, with inf corp following behin to kill any troops that are too risky to be left

alive and follow as fast as possible the mechanised army.
With my PP I will mainly try to build inf like crazy to keep sending to the front to keep the supply open. My main worries

are two. First the amount of units the soviets will be able to buy during the first period. Second, the possibility of the

USSR not falling after I take Moscow, but requiring from me to capture more cities.

At least, that is the plan.

[cpdeyoung]

Good to revist this theme!

Your second fear is going to come true, as the Soviets will not fall till you have captured every victory point city they have.

For your reference here they are (I believe these are correct) :

Leningrad : 9
Magnitogorsk : 1
Moscow : 9
Orsk : 1
Perm : 1
Stalingrad : 9

Chuck

[BlueMak]

Thanks for your post.
Then I am more or less screwed because the french and the british just attacked me and I never planned on being able to capture more than Moscow, perhaps one more city near it. I will see how it goes, but I wish I had this information before I started this war lol.

[BlueMak]

9 May 1940
Western front extremely fragile.


The easten front is even worse. I did manage to reach Moscow, but capturing it any time soon or any other important city, is... a different story.
For me the war is lost, but I will just keep on fighting and see how it goes, let's not forget this is just my second game.

My only hope in the east is to manage to capture empty russian cities faster than he can protect them.

BTW, I am still with only one ally, Slovakia...

[BlueMak]

9 June 1940

The western front is ready to collapse,


The eastern front is not much better, but at least there are some good news there

Moscow has fallen.
The southern army has, barely, managed to keep the soviets from going further west. At the same time the central army has managed to encircle the local soviet army, IF things go fantasticaly great, but still within reason, then there is a small chanceI will manage to destroy the encircled soviet army and cut the south russian army from supplies in one move. If that works then I might have a new chance on winning this war. My two northern armies, very slowly, advance. If all goes well, they will meet to capture Leningrand As for the army that just captured Moscow, I will try to expand east. If it is not cut off the supply, there is a chance they will make it to the Urals.
I can win this, if I am very lucky. If I had at least one ally things would be so much better now. If either France/UK or USSR had another enemy to face....

Oh well, at least the americans haven't even started lend lease yet.

[BlueMak]

1st July 1940
Spain joined the Axis thanks to my diplo pressure. The first light in the horizon.


1st August 1940
I am getting a warm feeling over this.
I have more or less stabilised the western front for now. I hold allied forces in the "triangle" of Koln-Frankfurt-Stuttgart. Abandoning Saarbrucken was the right move to go into better defensive position. The 71st Inf Div is a beauty, it is defending and holding the industrial area near Saarbrucken against all odds.



The Spanish finaliy move against France. I am not very optimistic about their success on defeating France...but that was never the idea with getting them on my side. Since the war against the USSR is not going as horribly bad as I feared, if Spain manages to draw more and more allied forces towards south western France, then I can manage to keep them in check till I (I hope) win the war in the East.


And here is the big bet. The war against the soviets is going better than I thought it would. Leningrand is under siege and the whole northern soviet front is very close to be won by me. IF I manage to do this before the winter arrives then I will be celebrating.
The southern soviet army is, barely, encircled now. I doubt I will hold them there for long, but if I manage to delay them till my central army is free to march south west, I have won the war.

[BlueMak]

1st Aptil 1941
Situation FUBAR. In the west the spanish are trying hard, but it doesn't look they will be able to handle the french and the british for long. At the same time I am having problem keeping the enemy at bay.
In the east, while my original spearhead is moving more and more to the east, capturing unimportant cities and killing small pockets of resistance, all the other armies have stopped advancing for a long time now. Lack of resources for repairs, no such problem for entrenched enemy armies in cities (which apparently can resupply till the second coming although under siege, even create new units in case there is a small gap). So the situation in the USSR is having armies with undermanned units surrounded enemy cities with a single unit with no problem in supplies or manning them after they get damaged. Sieges end up with 20% or less chances of winning. I can't get inside them and they can't get outside. Using all the PP for repairs and holding the western front makes it impossible to buy either armor or airforce. At the same time the soviets buy garrissons in their cities, well armed too, and it is only a matter of time before they realise they can cause huge problem to me if decide to try something with them.
I am trying to get one more ally on my side. Hungary is in the 90% to join, but it looks like unless I pay them another 55 or so, they will never join (and I have 0). I would have imagined that 90% meant there is a 90% chance they will join, but apparently it doesn't work that way.
If Italy ever decides to join the war...but who am I fooling, that isn't going to happen.

I guess the only good news is that the USA is not joining the war yet.

http://img6.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=33308871.jpg

[BlueMak]

1st May 1941
The USA started lend lease AND military supplies to both UK and USSR. [:@]

[BlueMak]

24th May 1941

The french have broken through my defences. They are trying to hit the heartland.


In the east I have only one hope to win the war against the USSR and transfer all my troops in the west. While I can't take the majority of the soviet cities, in fact I risk losing my besieging forces due to lack of reinforcements, I have 2 armies that can do something. One in the north which goal now is to move to Stalingrand ASAP and engage the soviet forces there, to stall them, they can't possibly take the city on their own. My major army is in the east moving south, they have to capture two key soviet cities and then run towards Stalingrand before it is too late. With a lot of lack they will find the northern army there waiting for them.
NONE of my forces are at 100% or even near it. One of my southern armies is composed of divisions of stengh 0, while another of 1. I can't reinforce them since I don't get enough PP. I get partisan attacks very often and when I don't, I don't have enough money to repair more than a couple of corps etc.

[BlueMak]

16th June 1941
A couple of good turns and no resupplies = 2 armor units+luck+skill=pwnage.

[BlueMak]

1942, Russian Winter + siberian reinforcements, plus pearl harbor effect (USA +100...). This is annoying. If the USA has to enter the war, why doesn't Italy? Meh.

[BlueMak]

Damn this feels good!






I doubt that France can hold for a long time. So hopefuly Italy will join soon. I know I can't invade the british isles yet, if ever. I have only recently managed to buy some subs (tech 4), but them and armor(tech 3) are my only investment in research. No fleet, no money, etc. It looks like I will focus on the remaining neutral countries in mainland Europe. I could also send by rail troops to the Caucasus and invade Iraq and from there, north africa.
First priority though is France and saving Spain's ass that helped me so much and without her I might have lost this.

[BlueMak]

1st August 1942
DOW against Luxembourg and capture of it.
Move my "russian" armies. Divisions moving to various coastal cities just in case... Most of them move to France and a

good portion of them move towards the borders with Persia...

16 October 1942
While my attack in the west continues, my liberation of the Baltic states goes well and my army is gathering near Turkey, the british invaded from the Sea... This will be interesting.

[BlueMak]

1st December 1942

Invasion of Turkey beings. As soon as this is captured, I will move the army (reinforced of course) to Syria and north Africa.


16th March 1943
Turkey has fallen. Most of France is mine. I don't know why it hasn't fallen yet.
The british and the french and the...americans control mosts of Spain. Italy has yet to join the war...

Thanks to increased income and reduced expenses, I am spend money on research on everything than nukes. My army in Turkey will move to Syria ASAP, while another army will capture Yugoslavia and probably Greece. After the capturing of Archangelesk, which I won't try to take back, I am placing an infantry div in every single coastal city, no matter what the sea near it is.

Although there are another 3-4 years till the war ends, I am very confident. The invasion of the USSR so early in the game makes me think if indeed it was the best move or not. I know I did several mistakes in the process, and I delayed way too much trying to capture unimportant cities when I could just leave them back. Note to self, air superiority is a MUST if to achieve any success in besieging enemy cities.

[BlueMak]

16th March 1943
Romania Joined Axis. I was between spending the points for it or Italy. I will just wait and see when Italy will decide to
join on their own. Spain is ready to fall and I can't help, I am too far.

1st April 1943
Spain has fallen to France (mostly) and UK.

1st May 1943
The allies have a strong army moving up from Spain towards France. I plan on defending (orange) while my main army there attacks and tries to capture the rest of the French proper cities.