After Action Reporter

New Years celebrations in 1940  are muted. Fireworks, deemed entirely inappropriate, are replaced instead with the waving of small flags and the singing of patriotic songs expressing solidarity with the workers of the world.

January – March 1940

At the start of February we finished and deployed another factory. On the same day German declared war on Norway. I approve of this – it sees the Germans heading in entirely a different direction than towards Spain! We also receive a surge of volunteers, pushing our manpower up to 98, which is quite respectable. Now we only need to get the damn units we need built!

By the end of February two new Interceptor wings are build and another tactical bomber wing is put on order. I want to have two interceptor and two tactical bomber wings, each composed of 3 air wings, ready to go by the end of the year.

In other good news, by the end of March, Germany still hasn’t made a move against Norway! Those plucky Vikings must be staring down the nasty Huns.

April – June 1940

At the start of April, German declares war on Luxembourg. I can’t imagine this will be a long fight. Five days later, and they’ve surrendered. Call yourselves a country, pish!

By mid-April, it’s the turn of the Dutch to feel the German war machine. I hear it’s leathery. We also pick up our third interceptor wing of the year, hurrah! In other good news our cavalry techs are finished and we move on to the motorized technology.

On April 25, it’s Belgium’s turn to taste sweaty Kraut leather but by June the Germans have only succeeded in claiming about half of Belgium and Netherland’s territory. It’s unclear what is causing the delay in the annihilation of these minor countries, but I consider it a good omen.

Fortunately, June is quiet other than Belgium losing a couple more provinces. Meanwhile, we’ve managed to work through a few light armor techs and I’m looking forward to tackling the medium armor challenge!

July – September 1940

July is not a good month for Belgium or the Dutch and both countries are almost completely occupied. July also sees the Italians join Germany’s war and embargo us. I can’t help but think the 20+ drift towards the Allies is really doing us no good, and our intelligence agents aren’t able to stem the tide.

In September the Germans finally occupy the lowlands and begin their invasion of France through conquered Belgium. What to do? Mobilize? Move troops to the border? Panic? So many options!

October – December 1940

France is falling quickly. By early November, Paris is almost surrounded.

By Christmas, Paris is cut off and the Germans are deep into France. There will be wurst and schnapps in Berlin this night! Meanwhile, the prostitutes and artists of France are no-doubt weeping into their absinthe.

By New Year, Paris has fallen.

January 1941

Our second tactical bomber wing is completed in early January and deployed and I order new units – two motorized divisions (three brigades of motorized infantry – ready for the medium armor brigades to be attached) and two division of standard infantry supplemented with anti-tank brigades. I really, really need to start churning out the units.

Fortunately, we’re close to learning how to build medium tanks! In addition to those techs I’m going to work on artillery, anti-tank and infantry theory techs.

With France defeated I’ve decided it’s time to reinforce the border. Just in case. I notice also, curiously, that Belgium currently controls one province in Southern France. How peculiar!

February 1941

In global news, Hungary is admitted into the Axis powers and Italy declares war on Greece. Spain sits and panics.

Hmm, there are a LOT of Germans on my border. I hit the mobilize button.

Perhaps sitting right up close to the border isn’t the smartest idea, but if push comes to shove I want to reduce the German’s freedom of movement as much as possible. If need be I can pull troubled troops back and sacrifice land for time then, but I’d rather not do that right away. The move arrows are me moving an anti-tank equipped division to the potential front lines. I also bring thee battleship fleet around to the north coast in case we need their big guns helping the defenders, should war come.

March – May 1941

It’s a quiet and non-existent war but the threat of real conflict has me worried. I try to offer Germany a non-aggression pact but  they refuse. Damn. A few days later Germany starts influencing me towards their faction. I take this as a good sign.

June – August 1941

June and everything is quiet. Our two motorized divisions complete (yay!) so I’ve added Tank Destroyer brigades to the construction queue. If war comes my motorized troops will at least have some mobile anti-tank guns to take with them on campaign – at least until the medium armor starts rolling off the production lines.

In continued good news, our final Tactical Bomber comes off the lines. We now ave an airforce consisting of, in total, six wings of Interceptors, six wings of Tactical Bombers and two wings of Strategic Bombers. Sure, it’s not a huge airforce, but it’s enough to hammer a couple of provinces round the clock, and that’s what I’d be aiming for should war break out.

We have also begun researching Medium Tanks!

And to top all this great news off – it looks like Germany is pulling troops away from our border! Could they have decided we’re no threat? I hope to god that’s so.

In August, Persia joins the Axis block and both the UK and Germany fight to influence our nation. Pleasingly, we are hovering around, going nowhere. This may keep us alive a while longer.

September December – 1941

In September we complete another infantry division and two more are ordered (one motorized). We also re-organize the troops and create a new army to hold the motorized and light scout corps.

Come October, another Infantry Division with Anti-Tank capabilities is deployed to the Corps currently holding the motorized divisions. To see a whole corps created in less than a year is exciting and makes me think we might just have a chance!

In December, another infantry division is finished and the Tank Destroyer brigades are completed and added to the motorized units. By December 31, our forces are deployed widely across North East Spain, we’re close to being able to produce medium tanks, and we have another couple of divisions cooking.

What we don’t have, is a plan. If the Germans aren’t interested in us, perhaps we should be interested in someone else? Our neutrality is now at 23, quite low, but no one else is threatening. I’m tempted to pre-emptively strike against a fascist-leaning Portugal, or to take on Vichy France, but unless I can get their threat up, it won’t happen, and as far as I can tell, moving threat is damn hard. Hmmm. Ideas welcome!

Part six is up! HOI3 AAR: Viva el Socialismo! – #6