Fascist Country random map game - utter failure!

[Westheim]

I'm still alive, I guess, and trying a new AAR. This time with the full force of 9 opponents on a watery map. Note that it is shrouded now but I heavily edited it before to prevent a few things from happening:
- landlocked AIs on islands without coastal towns
- towns on one hex islands
- too few coastal towns
Of course I have an idea now how the world generally looks, but well ...

This is the start of Fascist Country's attempt to bring torture and pain into the world. Yes, I'm the bad guy again. If my memory serves me right, this is one of the smaller islands in the northern hemisphere, with my capitol Fard Soul ... do I find that name ... strange? Maybe. Likely.

Four or five AIs are on a big continent to the south. Oh, yeah, map loop is on, by the way. Here it goes. Production will be PP, supply, engineers, and trucks for now, with ship construction starting around turn 3 or 4. One more thing, seasons and rebellions are on!

There won't be turnly updates until the game really kicks off and I meet the first opponent, and I can't guarantee I can play at all during the week (still that busy job at the tax advisor's office, I mean, I like it, really, but I have already gobbled up about 70 hours of overtime this year alone, including sundays ... and it's the busiest time of the month now, oh well ... I just hit OK now ...)

[Westheim]

Round 4; I haven't found any other settlements yet. (1-VP-island? Please not ...) Meanwhile I researched SMGs and Cruisers. I will actually start building cruisers rather than cargoships now. I haven't built a single infantryman yet. Remember, rebellions are on, so this is quite dangerous. In other games I played I saw them as early as round 3.

[Westheim]

Round 7; there come the rebels! But I have two infantry and an engineer divsion ready at Fard Soul, so they shouldn't become a problem, plus my second fleet with two cruisers to give them a little taste of pain.

The real bad news is, that I'm indeed on a 1 VP-island, so I have to push out to the seas even sooner. I started to build cargoships now, but the fact that I only have four production slots available is handicapping me, since with supply and PPs I can't produce anything else anymore ...

[Westheim]

In Round 8, rebels sprang up under my banner on a distant northeastern island, but were unable to capture a town and will likely be "taken care of" soon.

Round 9; my first cruiser found another land mass. Sadly, no settlement yet, but I'm about to get a small force ready to land there, consisting of an engineer and an infantry unit. I hope, I'm not doing stupid things there with supply and the like. Ah, we'll see ...

[Westheim]

Round 11; found something to fight against. The land south of that border there belongs to the Twilight Commune. That's the same island I just spotted earlier, so if I want to get a foothold in the north, I better hurry. The cargoships with my 2nd Engineer and 4th Infantry Division are already on the way.

[Westheim]

Round 13; some good news at least. A cruiser force of mine scouted another island to the west (beyond the map loop, so on the map it's actually far east). Also, I landed my expedition force on the southeastern island, only to find ... nothing. There's a peninsula with woods on it, that's it. Too bad. This would have been a good place for defense. To the south, my lone cruiser there has been killing enemy supply like crazy, around 200-300 per round. There's another enemy down there, the Cyborg Empire. There's nothing to do down there, so I will turn him north to my island again.

[Westheim]

Round 15; well, that should become interesting ... about six hexes and a Twilight Commune unit of unknown strength are between my expeditionary force and the city of Bushbane there. I immediately launched reinforcements from Fard Soul, consisting of another engineer division and two infantry divisions. The next step would be to create a HQ for them. But right now I'm unsure where to land my reinforcements anyway - to the peninsula or assault Bushbane? They're more than two turns away from any target right now anyway. By then it will be summer again and I don't have *any* armour researched yet. I just got machine guns ...

[Westheim]

Round 16; surprise - there's more of cities, and more of Twilight Commune units. I feel like attacking is not an option.

[Westheim]

Round 17; huge Twilight Commune forces scouted west of Bushbane/Horsepin! If they conduct a consequent attack at my bridgehead there, they would toast everything I have there, which is about 75% of my land army. The I Corps was installed in the makeshift port, but with nothing there to produce from, this is merely visually appealing and nothing else.

To the west one of my carrier groups scouted a coastal village, which is already occupied by the Communist Core. It looks like I have to fight with a single VP location for the time being, as I decided to not attack Bushbane with my troops. They are too few against these stacks.

[Westheim]

Round 19; my bridgehead is under heavy pressure and I don't think I can hold it. I have yet to find an unoccupied settlement somewhere, but I feel I'm too late already. I researched Armoured Cars and put the first of them to the bridgehead, but they won't be of much use, I fear.

[Joshuatree]

That's the problem with the AI, if it manages to find more cities early on in the game... you're into trouble. It will expand fast and already will have some forces to reckon with, while you have still only Inf. and some ships.
Good luck.

[seille]

If Westheim comes into trouble then cause he did not build transports early enough.
Engineers is in a island game the wrong investment in the first turns. Build 6-8 cargoships in the first turns plus some infantry and small amounts
of supply and send the ships (loaded) in all directions.
Expansion must be much faster. 19 turns gone already...

[Westheim]

I must admit I haven't played too many island games and am totally unexperienced there ... I don't like ships, if I think about it ... they are ... on water ... and the water moves ... and that scares me.

Well, I'm too late indeed here, I think. The Commune outnumbers me about 4:1 ... which isn't good, I guess.

There are 80 VP on the map, and about half of them on the southern continent, so there's room for AIs to gobble up way more producing power than me.

Edit: By the way, there's a reason for me saying I'm the worst AT player of all time [;)]

[Westheim]

Round 21; my bridgehead is about to be lost, completely with 160 men infantry and a dozen vehicles. In addition to a giant amount of enemies pressuring it into the makeshift port, a cruiser III (read: three!!) appeared at the coast and I had to move my navy group (1 cruiser, 5 cargoships) away.

To the northeast from the bridgehead is a small island with a coastal village. It's occupied by the Cyborg Empire, though.

[Westheim]

Round 23; my bridgehead was completely destroyed between turns, no survivors, and the Twilight Commune also annihilated my six vessel fleet north of the peninsula. I believe this could be described as total failure.

Next attempt to gain a 2nd VP: with my limited (very limited) ressources I will try to capture the village on that island. The left fleet consists of four cargoships (no convoy) with two divisions to conquer the island. The right one holds two cruisers and three cargoships. No troops. I have only four infantry divisions in total, by the way ... [8|]

[Jeffrey H.]

Something I've been doing for quick expansion is using paradrops. I read around that some guys think that a bit gamey. But I think seille gives the best advice for island games.
 
Oh, BTW, this one's lost.....

[Joshuatree]

The only chance Westheim has at this stage is when the AI's start to battle each other. I doubt it though, because even when they battle each other they still have enough production power to expand their empires.
... Four Inf. divisions left....

[seille]

Think this game is lost and yes i think expansion by paradrop is gamey in PBEM at least.
What you do against AI is an other story [;)]
But you do not need these tricks when you expand in the right way. VERY early cargoships (loaded)
in all directions. There must be the focus at the start, not at engineers or any reasearch.
 
Try this next time Westheim and you´ll see how much better it is.

[Westheim]

I surrendered.

[Jeffrey H.]

Aww too bad. I was looking forward to reading another one of your AAR's.......bummer !