[HEADING=2]Entry 16 - Kriegsmarine[/HEADING]
On today's title - Unfortunately, there's not a lot I can do to visually show you naval warfare. You don't capture provinces, and you don't get to spread your ships out like land units, making it basically impossible for me to convey any sense of battle or excitement to you.
Why name the entry after content that I'm not including? Well, because the expansion of my navy is by far the most important event to happen in this period, and I need to honour that somehow.
Just note that I build a
lot of ships, and the battle for the Atlantic begins in earnest. I develop better doctrine and radar, increase the quality of my ships and Naval Air Squadrons, and I build the single largest fleet in human history.
It's always being upgraded, and parts of it are completed before others, but it's roughly (as of writing) - 16 Carriers, 12 Battleships, 20 Battlecruisers, 24 Heavy Cruisers, 30 Light Cruisers, 50 Destroyer Flotillas and 36 Wolfpacks.
I'm a bit behind on naval tech, especially radar, so it's not like I suddenly jump up and kick the Americans off the water, but I do start to secure my coasts from convoy raiders, and I engage in a few large naval battles, none of which were decisive.
As an experiment, I'm going to try to troll my Italian "Allies" with the game's War Goals system.
I'm going to Demand Egypt and the Middle East as a War Goal from the UK. Hopefully, when they surrender, the Italians will lose their territory in British Egypt and the Near East.
Serves 'em right, they've done absolutely bloody nothing this whole war. They even managed to lose ground in Africa to the British, which is remarkable considering the fact that the Italians have no battle front, while the British have three (and occupied home islands).
Ah, politics system, we meet again...
See, the game is a little confused as to what "Britain" is. On the one hand - all the British people live under German occupation. On the other, "Britain" includes India, Africa, Middle East etc.
So, I'm still at war with Britain. But they aren't a Government-in-Exile, like France, they just never surrendered. So, I'm influencing the British government, by owning Britain (the British Isles).
This means that, on the one hand, I'm at war with Britain, who holds India.
On the other, the entire British cabinet is either from the British Fascists League or the National Socialist Union.
This game can be a tad strange at times.
Harrumph. The Japanese don't seem to be getting anywhere, and I now see why - the Americans have landed in French Indochina.
Just when I thought I had one competent ally...
In Lagos (British West/Central Africa), British Jungle Fighters repel an attack from the Panzers. In the tight jungles and heavy rains, I can't move the heavy armour across the river. I need lighter-armed infantry units for this.
Here's the plan - first, the blue arrow.
I'll retreat back along the coast, allowing the Brits to cross the river behind me.
At the same time, I'll loop around behind them from the North. Then, I'll counterattack from the South as my other forces arrive, and catch them in a very, very wide pincer movement.
As a remnant of the American invasion of Scotland a few years back, I decide to finally take back these islands in the North Sea.
Bad news - the 8th US Marines. They fight off the Paratroopers I dropped there, and I'm forced to bring in some extra firepower.
This time, it's four full divisions, and there's no way the 9,000 man garrison can hold the whole battleground.
I overwhelm them.
My new Marine Army, all ready for the Atlantic War. It's entirely possible that I'll need to do some serious coastal and island fighting here, so I've not taken any chances here.
150,000 Marines are stationed in naval bases in Northern Germany.
I also invade Norway, with landings at Oslo, Trondheim and Narvik.
Their army lacks the numbers or the mobility to really do anything about the invasion, so I don't foresee any dangers, such as happened last time in the invasion of Sweden.
Another 30,000 Marines and a host of new Paratroopers, about 120,000.
The Norwegians surrender pretty easily. They'd begun to attack Sweden, but since they lacked the offensive ability to fight me, they just kind of stood aside as I took their key ports and cities.
After rallying the garrison forces from Spain and Southern France, I kick the British force out of Cadiz.
I'd been expecting vicious resistance, but it turns out their men were in really, really poor supply. They gave up within hours of the attack.
The assault on Yugoslavia begins. I'm looking forward to seeing the completely blank map of Europe, with just "Germany" written on it.
Unfortunately, even after I deal with Finland and Portugal, Italy will still be there, the final piece of Europe left, albeit as my (completely bastard useless)lapdog.
The attack goes as you'd expect. They actually have quite a large army, but so do I. Seeing as how I'm not really "needed" anywhere, and I'm just gathering men in France, I can afford to send 250,000 against Yugoslavia.
An historic day, readers - I finally get past 1000 Industrial Capacity.
Even the United States can't match that bid. The factory complexes of Germany must look like something from science-fiction. Mind-bogglingly vast expanses of structures, huge plumes of smoke, the clink and clank of turning gears and infinite conveyor belts.
And, speaking as someone who played as Luxembourg (who have 10 IC), it feels damn good to operate on this kind of scale.
Speaking of scale, I must get you guys a shot of the Red Army. They can't supply it properly, of course, but
dayum , it still frightens me.
Ljubljana and Zagreb fall into German hands just as the assault on Belgrade begins.
I'd like to speak about some unexpected drama, just to spice things up a bit, but there's really nothing to say.
Yugoslavia surrenders. Yawn.
Albania, the tiny lilac smudge nestled in Southern Europe.
I'm not sure it even HAS a military.
No, no it does not. The purple/grey stripes look kinda cool.
What? There really is no commentary to be made here!
The Allied raids on my convoys begin (on a smaller scale) once more.
There's two possible reasons. One, is that the Allied fleets have moved into a naval base closer to my sea lanes.
Two, is that the Allied ships are operating from the US, but have extended their ranges.
Since I really, really want it to be the first one, I begin eliminating all possibilities. I start with the Canary Islands.
Admittedly, 90,000 men may have been overkill, but trust me, it's worth it to stop fucking convoy raiding. Convoy raiding wrecks Nationial Unity (and, in a drawn out war, it does far, far too much damage), you can't do shit about it, and you can't ever really raise your National Unity again.
I know that (in real life) convoy raiding is a big deal, but it still irritates me that it effects you no matter if the convoy actually matters.
See, if the convoy was for vital food that the nation would starve without, OK. Or, if it was for oil, fine. But convoys that run alongside land routes, that supply random military garrisons "count" as convoys, even if you can supply yourself via land, which I can.
This means that (in theory), I could sink all of the US's convoys for long enough, land in one province and the entire US would surrender.
My scheme works beautifully in Africa. I outmaneuver the British, zipping behind them and cutting off their supplies.
Important stuff here, not just expanding my Empire by eating up little countries like Albania.
I begin my campaign in Persia, the doorway to India.
Things go pretty well. I begin using mobile forces to eat up territory as fast as the Persians can retreat (sometimes faster), and supply isn't as bad as I'd thought.
But wait for it. You know what's coming. It came in France, it came in Spain, it came in Iraq.
QUELLE. GODDAMN. SURPRISE.
My forces are halted the unexpected arrival of the British. If these guys don't surrender when I take their Indian cities, and I have to manually destroy them, I'm going to nuke *everything*.
Not in game, you understand, I'm going to cause an actual nuclear apocalypse.
Bizarrely, the Canadians land in Persia. I assume they were operating from India, but still. It feels really odd.
Having now experienced the risks I take engaging in jungles and deserts (and since it's entirely likely I'll have to fight in more jungles and deserts), I begin work on... well, truth be told, it's not so much an Afrika Korps.
It's an Afrika Army. Composed mainly of infantry (tanks run like pudding through jungles and deserts), it's about 450,000 men, trained solely for fighting in South America, Africa and Asia.
My Winter coats did their duty, it's time to roll up the sleeves and put on the green camouflage paint.
A quick peek at the Allied armies in Persia. It's not quite the colourful array we saw in Kuwait, but it's trying its best.
I finish the naval and air bases in Iceland. It's not enough to facilitate the N. American campaign by itself, but I really need a base I can use for the attack on Canada, and the UK is just a little too far away.
Greenland, unfortunately, doesn't come with the existing ports of Iceland, and it's simply too cold to effectively run an invasion from there.
I'm starting to bog down in the territory. My men are still superior, but in these conditions, it doesn't take much bolstering from the British to establish a new Persian defensive line against me, even pushing me back in a few places.
I'll probably have to bring in some more men from Yugoslavia, and retreat a bit to hold my position steady until I'm ready for a fresh offensive.
That, or I could try to tip the scales just that little bit farther to get the Persian surrender, stranding the Allied armies in German territory.
Hm. Tough question. It's a problem of risk vs. reward, I suppose.
But we'll tackle that question next time.
I break the Spanish garrison in Africa, basically the only thing between me and dominance of West Africa as far south as South Africa.
Well, save the Portuguese, of course.
END OF ENTRY 16
P.S. - I know it wasn't a great entry, but hopefully it'll pick up a bit with the attack on India.
