1941 Hitler's Dream - New Scenario
Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 5:46 pm
Alternate Historical Background
In this alternate history Poland is the only country Germany has invaded. As with our timeline this campaign lasted just over a month before the Poles capitulated
The UK and France signed no treaties guaranteeing the sovereignty of Poland. Poland fought and lost alone. The Germans then built up their forces for the only war Hitler really wanted: the invasion and destruction of the Soviet Union.
A pro-German coup in Yugoslavia saved Hitler the trouble of invading. Mussolini warned and threatened in equal measure by Hitler embarked on no foreign adventures in Africa or south-eastern Europe. Greece remained independent and neutral as did Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands in the west.
The now isolationist British are content to occupy themselves with their empire and want no part of another bloody continental war. An "Empire First" grass roots political movement came to power a few years after the Great War and the UK no longer looks towards Europe confident the largest navy in the world can protect them from any aggression directed at them from European shores. Winston Churchill, a former politician turned artist, told anyone who would listen that Hitler was a menace and that Britain should rearm was commonly derided as a warmonger.
Hitler, an ardent admirer of the British Empire, is content to let the British rule their quarter of the world while he only has eyes for the Germanic destiny of lebensraum in the East.
After a brief civil war in the first half of the 1930s a fascist government took power in France. This regime is sympathetic to Nazi Germany and wishes them success in their quest to rid Europe of Bolshevism. Whilst the French government has chosen not to participate in the anti-communist crusade so soon after their own civil war some Frenchmen anticipating the coming war of ideologies have crossed the border and joined the German Army. Other like minded individuals from across Europe have also joined the German armed forces.*
In the US President Lindbergh recently returned from a state visit to Nazi Germany. He found Herr Hitler a "most amicable fellow" and hoped the return visit would see Hitler in Washington DC soon where he would be granted the honour of staying in the White House for the duration of his visit. After Stalin and the Soviet Union had been dealt with Hitler promised his next journey would be to the United States.
In military circles in Tokyo high-ranking staff officers are openly discussing the new war plans which would see Japan secure its oil resources by invading and capturing the Dutch East Indies. Wisely Admiral Yamamoto stubbornly refused to include in the plan any sort of attack on the US or the British Empire. The Netherlands was half a world away and without any allies could do very little to stop the Japanese taking the oil-rich East Indies. Better to leave the Americans alone and not provoke that particular sleeping giant. After all, President Lindbergh has been very generous in his dealings with Japan since coming to power.
*NOTE: There are just the historic foreign SS units. No new units have been created in this scenario.
Theatre Boxes and Reinforcements
The only active Theatre Boxes (TB) are Axis Reserves (AR), Finland (FIN) and Soviet Garrison (SG).
Western Europe (WE), North Africa (NA), Italy (IT), Balkans (BA), Norway (NO) Theatre Boxes are inactive.
If a unit (ground or air) was due to arrive in any of the now inactive TBs then the unit will arrive in AR.
Any units that were in the now inactive TBs have been moved to AR.
Delays and reinforcement schedules have not been changed. The units will still arrive on the date they did historically but now they will arrive on the Map or in the AR, SG or FIN TBs.
What has changed is the internal withdrawals and transfers between TBs.
I have cancelled some of the transfers to SG because it was easier to cancel all of the transfers for a unit and then not have to reinstate any transfers to SG. SG still has to be populated as normal. I have not made any changes to the requirements for FIN or SG TBs. The difference now is you can decide which units you send to SG. You can send all the Rumanians or Italians if you like.
All Finnish units remain in the FIN TB. I have unlocked the German units in the FIN TB so they can be moved but you will need to replace them with other German units of your choice. Only Finnish and German units can be sent to the FIN TB. You cannot send the Italians, Rumanian or Hungarians there. As far as I am aware these restrictions are hardcoded and there is nothing I can do about them.
In the Reinforcement screen all you should see under the "To" column is MAP, Axis Reserves, Finland and Soviet Union Garrison as they are the only 4 destinations a unit can ever have.
German Amphibious Task Forces
The Baltic and Black Sea TFs are in this scenario. I used the 1941 No Early End Campaign as my template and in this they are delayed out of the scenario. I reinstated them. The Baltic TF can be found in the port of Hel in the Bay of Danzig and the Black Sea TF will arrive at Constanta in Rumania on the Black Sea coast on 20th July 1941 (Turn 4).
My reasoning for doing this is historically Germany had a sea-lift capacity in the Baltic during WW II and with the UK and France being neutral there would be nothing to stop the Germans sending some ships through the Mediterranean to the Black Sea and also Rumania would have had some shipping which could have been placed at the disposal of the Axis high command.
Game Events and Lend-Lease
I have made inactive all Events which involve or include the Western Allies (UK, US) and all Events pertaining to any of the inactive Theatre Boxes.
Lend-Lease was a problem which I think (and hope) I have solved. I tried changing the size to zero for all Lend-Lease factories but they would always change back to default and the same happened when I deleted the Lend-Lease locations or factories.
In the end I arrived at a simple and elegant solution. Or at least it will be if it proves to work. What I did was for each of the 3 Lend-Lease Locations (Pacific, North, South) set the Historical City Owner Change on 22 June 1941 to the Western Allies. So in theory the Soviets should see none of the Lend-Lease stuff. I have played head to head up to Turn 10 and so far the Soviets have received nothing from the Western Allies.
Country and Region Specific HQ Units
I thought long and hard about these units and what to do with them. In the end I decided to do nothing. They can be brought to the map and you can use WMBef. Denmark as an army HQ in the Caucasus. I thought about delaying them out of the scenario and adding their manpower to the manpower pool, I thought about removing them and not adding their numbers to any of the pools as this could simulate the border forces Hitler would have needed in the west and south east. I considered renaming them but I came to the conclusion it is probably best to leave them as they are. The Axis player will probably just disband them whilst they are in the Axis Reserves as they will never have a shortage of higher HQ units. If you wish to consider them locked into the AR even though they are not as that goes against the philosophy of the scenario.
In conclusion Hitler effectively has at his disposal not only the armed forces of Germany but also the armies and air forces of Italy, Finland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
If you play this and see anything that doesn't fit with the criteria laid out above then please let me know in this thread. I have noticed the Italian units in the AR have “Frozen for 249 turns” on their detail screen but if you bring them to the map they are not frozen and can be used as normal.
Sometimes support units do not show up in the Commanders Report. In my playtest I brought 3 Italian arty battalions from the AR and were not visible in the CR. I eventually found them attached to German 4th and 9th Army HQs. I do not know why this is. I suspect it is something to do with the game coding itself and not my scenario as such. In the editor I attached any Italian support unit which did not have a higher HQ set to OKH. If you bring an Italian support unit to the map I would recommend you have already brought either Italian 8th Army HQ, Italian Expeditionary Corps HQ or Italian Alpini Corps HQ to the map as most of the other Italian support units are attached to these HQs.
I intend to create a version of this scenario where the Soviets have no TB boxes other than Northern Front and Soviet Reserves (Stalin's Dream).
Then I intend to combine the two scenarios together to create a truly titanic war in the east where the Axis and Soviets have all units available to them. (Dual Dictator Dreams)
A Note To Anyone Who Plays This Scenario
The in-game editor is currently being worked on by the devs and consequently I will hold off on making any changes to this scenario until all the improvements to the editor have been thorougly tested and completed. The last thing I want to do is edit my scenario with the new editor and find it is irreparably damaged.
Thank you for your patience
In this alternate history Poland is the only country Germany has invaded. As with our timeline this campaign lasted just over a month before the Poles capitulated
The UK and France signed no treaties guaranteeing the sovereignty of Poland. Poland fought and lost alone. The Germans then built up their forces for the only war Hitler really wanted: the invasion and destruction of the Soviet Union.
A pro-German coup in Yugoslavia saved Hitler the trouble of invading. Mussolini warned and threatened in equal measure by Hitler embarked on no foreign adventures in Africa or south-eastern Europe. Greece remained independent and neutral as did Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands in the west.
The now isolationist British are content to occupy themselves with their empire and want no part of another bloody continental war. An "Empire First" grass roots political movement came to power a few years after the Great War and the UK no longer looks towards Europe confident the largest navy in the world can protect them from any aggression directed at them from European shores. Winston Churchill, a former politician turned artist, told anyone who would listen that Hitler was a menace and that Britain should rearm was commonly derided as a warmonger.
Hitler, an ardent admirer of the British Empire, is content to let the British rule their quarter of the world while he only has eyes for the Germanic destiny of lebensraum in the East.
After a brief civil war in the first half of the 1930s a fascist government took power in France. This regime is sympathetic to Nazi Germany and wishes them success in their quest to rid Europe of Bolshevism. Whilst the French government has chosen not to participate in the anti-communist crusade so soon after their own civil war some Frenchmen anticipating the coming war of ideologies have crossed the border and joined the German Army. Other like minded individuals from across Europe have also joined the German armed forces.*
In the US President Lindbergh recently returned from a state visit to Nazi Germany. He found Herr Hitler a "most amicable fellow" and hoped the return visit would see Hitler in Washington DC soon where he would be granted the honour of staying in the White House for the duration of his visit. After Stalin and the Soviet Union had been dealt with Hitler promised his next journey would be to the United States.
In military circles in Tokyo high-ranking staff officers are openly discussing the new war plans which would see Japan secure its oil resources by invading and capturing the Dutch East Indies. Wisely Admiral Yamamoto stubbornly refused to include in the plan any sort of attack on the US or the British Empire. The Netherlands was half a world away and without any allies could do very little to stop the Japanese taking the oil-rich East Indies. Better to leave the Americans alone and not provoke that particular sleeping giant. After all, President Lindbergh has been very generous in his dealings with Japan since coming to power.
*NOTE: There are just the historic foreign SS units. No new units have been created in this scenario.
Theatre Boxes and Reinforcements
The only active Theatre Boxes (TB) are Axis Reserves (AR), Finland (FIN) and Soviet Garrison (SG).
Western Europe (WE), North Africa (NA), Italy (IT), Balkans (BA), Norway (NO) Theatre Boxes are inactive.
If a unit (ground or air) was due to arrive in any of the now inactive TBs then the unit will arrive in AR.
Any units that were in the now inactive TBs have been moved to AR.
Delays and reinforcement schedules have not been changed. The units will still arrive on the date they did historically but now they will arrive on the Map or in the AR, SG or FIN TBs.
What has changed is the internal withdrawals and transfers between TBs.
I have cancelled some of the transfers to SG because it was easier to cancel all of the transfers for a unit and then not have to reinstate any transfers to SG. SG still has to be populated as normal. I have not made any changes to the requirements for FIN or SG TBs. The difference now is you can decide which units you send to SG. You can send all the Rumanians or Italians if you like.
All Finnish units remain in the FIN TB. I have unlocked the German units in the FIN TB so they can be moved but you will need to replace them with other German units of your choice. Only Finnish and German units can be sent to the FIN TB. You cannot send the Italians, Rumanian or Hungarians there. As far as I am aware these restrictions are hardcoded and there is nothing I can do about them.
In the Reinforcement screen all you should see under the "To" column is MAP, Axis Reserves, Finland and Soviet Union Garrison as they are the only 4 destinations a unit can ever have.
German Amphibious Task Forces
The Baltic and Black Sea TFs are in this scenario. I used the 1941 No Early End Campaign as my template and in this they are delayed out of the scenario. I reinstated them. The Baltic TF can be found in the port of Hel in the Bay of Danzig and the Black Sea TF will arrive at Constanta in Rumania on the Black Sea coast on 20th July 1941 (Turn 4).
My reasoning for doing this is historically Germany had a sea-lift capacity in the Baltic during WW II and with the UK and France being neutral there would be nothing to stop the Germans sending some ships through the Mediterranean to the Black Sea and also Rumania would have had some shipping which could have been placed at the disposal of the Axis high command.
Game Events and Lend-Lease
I have made inactive all Events which involve or include the Western Allies (UK, US) and all Events pertaining to any of the inactive Theatre Boxes.
Lend-Lease was a problem which I think (and hope) I have solved. I tried changing the size to zero for all Lend-Lease factories but they would always change back to default and the same happened when I deleted the Lend-Lease locations or factories.
In the end I arrived at a simple and elegant solution. Or at least it will be if it proves to work. What I did was for each of the 3 Lend-Lease Locations (Pacific, North, South) set the Historical City Owner Change on 22 June 1941 to the Western Allies. So in theory the Soviets should see none of the Lend-Lease stuff. I have played head to head up to Turn 10 and so far the Soviets have received nothing from the Western Allies.
Country and Region Specific HQ Units
I thought long and hard about these units and what to do with them. In the end I decided to do nothing. They can be brought to the map and you can use WMBef. Denmark as an army HQ in the Caucasus. I thought about delaying them out of the scenario and adding their manpower to the manpower pool, I thought about removing them and not adding their numbers to any of the pools as this could simulate the border forces Hitler would have needed in the west and south east. I considered renaming them but I came to the conclusion it is probably best to leave them as they are. The Axis player will probably just disband them whilst they are in the Axis Reserves as they will never have a shortage of higher HQ units. If you wish to consider them locked into the AR even though they are not as that goes against the philosophy of the scenario.
In conclusion Hitler effectively has at his disposal not only the armed forces of Germany but also the armies and air forces of Italy, Finland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
If you play this and see anything that doesn't fit with the criteria laid out above then please let me know in this thread. I have noticed the Italian units in the AR have “Frozen for 249 turns” on their detail screen but if you bring them to the map they are not frozen and can be used as normal.
Sometimes support units do not show up in the Commanders Report. In my playtest I brought 3 Italian arty battalions from the AR and were not visible in the CR. I eventually found them attached to German 4th and 9th Army HQs. I do not know why this is. I suspect it is something to do with the game coding itself and not my scenario as such. In the editor I attached any Italian support unit which did not have a higher HQ set to OKH. If you bring an Italian support unit to the map I would recommend you have already brought either Italian 8th Army HQ, Italian Expeditionary Corps HQ or Italian Alpini Corps HQ to the map as most of the other Italian support units are attached to these HQs.
I intend to create a version of this scenario where the Soviets have no TB boxes other than Northern Front and Soviet Reserves (Stalin's Dream).
Then I intend to combine the two scenarios together to create a truly titanic war in the east where the Axis and Soviets have all units available to them. (Dual Dictator Dreams)
A Note To Anyone Who Plays This Scenario
The in-game editor is currently being worked on by the devs and consequently I will hold off on making any changes to this scenario until all the improvements to the editor have been thorougly tested and completed. The last thing I want to do is edit my scenario with the new editor and find it is irreparably damaged.
Thank you for your patience
