HoI3 Multiplayer Signup

[Lord Romanus III]

Ya, that'll be fine. Also, I'm not taking an AAR of this. Too much would be spoiled and I'm really disorganized. Maybe next game we try.

[Poach]

That is indeed the next open slot for us all, as far as I know. Abbs generally can't make mondays.

Hil: Indeed, it would give away too much to the enemy if we wrote a detailed AAR. Still, I might write one in private and just post it all upon the conclusion of the game.

[Halbard]

Any chance we can play on Tuesday?

[Lord Romanus III]

No, not at all.

[abbews]

Got a tight schedule today but can play from 6 my time(that's 5pm for you Halbard) for about 2 hours.

[Halbard]

Got a tight schedule today but can play from 6 my time(that's 5pm for you Halbard) for about 2 hours.

That works great for me. I have to be at the stadium at 8pm, lisbon time, so

[Lord Romanus III]

I'll only have about one hour today, as I do have to be at one class today for about an hour. We can still get that hour in, though!

[Halbard]

So, we playing Friday ( today, 21st of September)? 6pm works for me, Lisbon and London time.

[Poach]

This game has officially ended with an Axis victory.

- The Red Army was broken, with almost nothing left to defend Moscow. Something near 300,000 men were about to become a pocket along the Hungarian border, of roughly 1.4 million men total along the whole front. The Germans had almost 900k troops on the front, with around 3-400k allied forces added. Forces were roughly even. Germany was 4 months into Destiny and it was September. Even the coming winter wouldn't have stopped Moscow's fall, and the loss of the majority of the Red Army's southern front imminent, there would've been little to oppose a German-Romanian-Hungarian general advance across the Black Sea and threatening Stalingrad.

- The Imperial Japanese Army had landed in force in Iraq and forced local British forces back. Against roughly 20 Japanese divisions there stood around 12 British and a token few Iraqi. A British army in Turkey of around 10 Divisions could've been sent back to shore up the line, but a further 32 Japanese Divisions were forming up to land in force near the Suez in Axis Saudi Arabia, which had been puppeted by Japan as the Iraq invasion began. Opposing the 36 Divisions would have been 2 British Divisions.

- The Imperial Japanese Navy had 2 Carrier Groups of 4 Carriers each standing ready to take the fight into the Med when the Suez was opened. It also had 3 groups of 3 modern Naval Bombers prepared to move up to meet the expected Royal Navy Carrier fleets.

- 18 British Divisions were engaged in a war in Spain to deny the Germans access to Spanish Tungsten (15% hard attack bonus). They had succeeded in pocketing a large number of Italian and Spanish forces in Galacia, but would have been unlikely to redeploy to the Middle East on time to prevent its fall.

Spoiler for Screenshots: 

Japan/UK Screenshots











Russia/Germany

Some comments from my end:

- Halbard left most of his armies to AI control and tried to control only small sections to influence major engagements. This failed, as you can see, and while he was desperately trying to plug the lines in the north after several major German encirclements he failed to prevent or break, Abbews encircled his entire centre line in the south. That's about 3-400,000 men in there.

- I expected Romanus to fight tooth and nail for Egypt and the Med as a whole. Originally I hadn't intended to contest it actively: I wanted to take Oman, Yemen, the Ethiopia area, and simply keep a reasonably large garrison in those areas so the UK was forced to forever station substantial forces around Suez and Iraq to make sure I never snatched it. This changed when three things happened: Abbs invited Persia to the Axis (and I had 2 armies in India), I noticed Rickie hadn't garrisoned Kuwait at all, giving me a free landing, and Rickie began stepping up the pressure on Abbs as the Germans were succeeding with Barbarossa. These three threw me into action.

- My plan was threefold: First, draw his armies east with an invasion of Iraq using Saudi Arabia and naval landings in Iraq itself. Second, Land a small force in the south of Egypt to tempt him to forward deploy anything he'd left in the area down there a bit to buy Alexandria and Suez time while he pulled out of Iraq to get back to stop me, and then land a full army in Saudi Arabia's northwestern reaches so I could quickly cross into Israel and seize the Suez Canal, isolate and capture Alexandria, and pin his armies between the Iraqi and Egyptian forces. Third, land the third army (minus the corps in the south of Egypt) in Tel Aviv or Beirut to both beef up the Japanese forces in the region and establish a north-facing line to prevent the British forces in Turkey from making a relief attempt. I expected them to be evacuated from a Turkish port, and intended to try to stop them.

- As I said earlier, I expected Rickie to fight tooth and nail for that area. I had 2 Carrier Groups and 3 Naval Bomber Squadrons ready to face off against his own Carrier fleets and attack any transport fleets which were either trying to get his Turkish troops out before my third army closed off ports, or from landing reinforcements from Spain. I expected 3 armies (~450k) would be enough to outfight whatever he had in the region. I turned out to be right: 48 (+4 more marine) Divisions would've been fighting initially 12, at most 24, British Divisions. He had little air power in the region, whereas I had 16 CAGs, 9 Naval Bombers, and 6 Interceptors moving up. I also had 3 TACs I could've thrown in if needed.

- He admitted post-game if Suez fell and he couldn't see him easily taking it back he'd just abandon the Med. As such, the fight would be mostly Naval as he tried to rescue his troops. I'd committed to a major, life-or-death, nasty fight for the area that wouldn't have happened.

- After that, my plans were to declare war on Russia and invade Baku and the Crimea with 2 armies, leaving the third to hold Egypt against any potential British counter-attacks.

[Lord Romanus III]

I knew you would've invaded Russia! HA! That said, it was quite a sad defeat. I also had Kuwait garrisoned with two poor infantry divisions.

[Poach]

You didn't. There were 2 ports and 2 Divisions on one, the other was wide open. I landed 3 Marine Divisions unopposed.

[Halbard]

Alright, it was my first MP game of HOI !

So, next game, when can we start? I'd like either a shot at UK or a do-over with the USSR.

[abbews]

German report.

The Advance on Moskva

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The gates of Moscow had been reached, and two infantry armies and the entire II. Panzerarmee were organised for the encirclement of the Soviet capital. Guderian reckons Moscow would fall within the week.

The Advance on Leningrad

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Simultaneously, in the North, Heeresgruppe Nord prepared a push for Leningrad. The area was deemed lightly defended and the offensive operation would start once Tallinn had fallen.

Operation Südwind

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Meanwhile, in the South, the biggest German manoeuvre in the war so far had earned results. OKH had deliberately left the Northmost Hungarian/Slovakian border lightly defended. The Russians poured in. That was Phase I of the operation. Once enough Russians were committed, Phase II began with Rommel's panzers cutting the bulge in two. The game ended before I could finalise this operation, but it would have succeeded in pocketing and destroying a very large amount of Russian troops.

OKW Situation

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The OKW had been left very strong, due to the threats of UK invasions. One army had been left in Italy to guard it from the Brits, two armies were in France proper together with a substantial amount of garrison divisions. One army was also sent to relieve Spain...

The Legion Condor returns

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

OKW was worried of the advance of the British army in Spain. Italian and Spanish troops had been cut off in the area of Galicia and they were desperate for evacuation. The 6. Armee under Paulus, supported by Dietls Gebirgsjägers, were sent to Spain. Dietls troops quickly established a base in Barcelona, to prevent the Spanish from surrendering. The 6. Armee would arrive one month later, and it started to push British forward elements back.

Additional comments -
- I made a big gamble tech wise this game. I ignored updating and upgrading the Luftwaffe, instead I focused everything on land techs. In early February 1942 I would have '44 weapons, armour and doctrines.

- This resulted in the Luftwaffe performing quite poorly, but the infantry absolutely smashed the Russians, even the Brits!

[abbews]

Also for next game, I would like to be the UK.

[Poach]

I am undecided on who to play. Maybe a minor, or Italy.

[High Chunker Greens]

In a few weeks the EU3 game will no doubt end, in which case I can jump in as any nation really.

[Halbard]

The Luftwaffe was completely destroyed by the Red Air Force. Too bad that aerial supremacy in this game counts for very little, because IRL, it was vital. In fact, Barbarossa early success depended heavily on the aerial supremacy attained by the germans.

My strategy was giving AI control of the main armies, while i managed the paratroopers, along with some Armoured Divisions. It seems that AI botched the game. They did make good use of the Air Force, but on the ground it was a mess. I hope to be able to knock out Romania and Hungary quickly out of the game, in order to attack Germany through the south. The AI proved not to be competent enough, and i've learned my lession.

So, the next game, when we playing? i can play today, from 5.30/6pm UK time till 9/9.30 or so.

[abbews]

In a few weeks the EU3 game will no doubt end, in which case I can jump in as any nation really.

The game is already ending

Glory to Austria.

[Halbard]

So, current list of players(i assume)

Abbs
Poach
Halbard
Lord Romanus/Rickie

More people are welcome, FTM3.05 is the version. UBBY is the checksum, i believe.

Still to decide on which factions to go with, but id like to play as the UK, but do not mind playing SU again, provided that im allowed to declare war on some countries, tough i would of course not exploit the laws to get more IC.

[High Chunker Greens]

The game is already ending

Glory to Austria.

I'm not gonna hijack this thread but...

I will end you. The Netherlands are rightfully British.