Germany - v 1.9 - Sid - Week 5, 1942
The situation looks much better now. After carefully studying the map I decided to make my landing on Chimo on New Year's day. This proved to be a good decision. I have more room to manoeuvre here, and the great distance to the closest cities works to my advantage. I didn't count my own forces, but there must have been at least 60 divisions involved in the first wave, and just as many followed in the second wave. The enemy was surprised by this move, and Chimo was easily taken. The Americans sent an even larger SOD this time (I counted at least 95 divisions), and they made multiple airdrops in the forests of Labrador. They could have attacked me from all directions, and I was really looking forward to this game's biggest battle. However, the AI started to act in the usual way: the SOD broke up into smaller groups, and they just moved in random ways instead of attacking me with everything they had. The Luftwaffe had an easy job methodically destroying division after division. Still, the Americans had lots of tanks in the area, it appears as if they were using the land-tongue to Greenland to recapture the airfields there, but my invasion made them change their minds. They have almost run out of tanks now, and after I'm done with them I'm going to concentrate on the infantry. I guess I could seize this moment to attack the cities, but right now I'm far more interested in a battle of annihilation. I will not allow them to escape south. I'll bomb the roads if I have to, even though I'm principally against bombing the terrain to gain an advantage.
Seeing the Americans pulling a lot of divisions out of Halifax to move to Labrador, I sent my third invasion wave to Halifax and recaptured the city. This was easy. They obviously expected me to attack there again, since they had at least 20 divisions there, but when I landed in Labrador they practically abandoned Halifax, and only left a small garrison there. And I destroyed 20 planes in the city. That made up for my own losses. I think that together the Germans, the Americans and the British have lost some 50 planes in Halifax. One would think that someone should have learned that it is a mistake to place so many planes in Halifax by now.
It remains to see if the Allies will make a counter-attack against Halifax. If they do I'll be ready, but if they don't I'll send my troops forward within a couple of weeks, and perhaps I'll coordinate it with an offensive in Labrador. I have circa 100 divisions in Labrador, and 50 in Halifax. I think that should be enough for a nice little offensive.
And as that wasn't enough I'm also planning a third attack somewhere else. This invasion will have to manage without support from the Kriegsmarine or the Luftwaffe, but I think it'll work. The Allies should be too busy to notice my third invasion.
In Africa the Japanese have reached Kongo. It seems that they don't destroy Belgian cities either. The good news is that the Japanese have conquered almost all of India without razing a city (so far). Only Madurai remains. I sunk a Dutch submarine outside South-africa. Portugal declared war on Britain. I have sent half of my u-boats into the Indian ocean. They are going to help the Japanese in Indonesia.
A comparison of the forces of the most powerful nations, week 5, 1942:
. . . . . . . . . . . . Germany Japan U.S.A. U.K. Finland Italy France
Workers . . . . . . 79 . . . . 31 . . . 42 . . 31 . 3 . . . . 4 . . 1
Paratroopers . . . 7 . . . . . 1 . . . -- . . -- . -- . . . . 2 . . --
Marines . . . . . . . 5 . . . . 121 . . 39 . . -- . -- . . . . 1 . . --
Infantry . . . . . . 148. . . 127 . . 167 . . 70 . 12 . . . 57 . . 18
Machine-gunners 0 . . . . 205 . . 114 . . 88 . 28 . . . 14 . . 15
Artillery . . . . . . 37 . . . . 7 . . . 21 . . . 8 . . 2 . . . . 12 . . 1
Tanks . . . . . . . 83 . . . . 0 . . . 18 . . . 78 . 16 . . . 11 . . 0
Planes . . . . . . . 87 . . . . 77 . . 47 . . . 90 . 0 . . . . 19 . . 8
Destroyer flotillas 0 . . . . . 59 . . 28 . . . 11 . 7 . . . . 7 . . 0
Transports . . . . 38 . . . . 21 . . . 8 . . . 9 . . 0 . . . . 1 . . 0
Carriers . . . . . . 5 . . . . . 0 . . . . 2 . . . 0 . . 0 . . . . 0 . . 0
Submarines . . . . 67 . . . . 0 . . . . 0 . . . 0 . . 0 . . . . 0 . . 0
The on-going battle in North America has taken its toll on the American air-force, and on the number of tanks. Their numbers were far greater until a couple of weeks ago, when I started targetting the tank divisions. Most interesting development is Finland. The nation has risen from the dead. When I defeated the Soviet Union Finland had only Helsinki, 5 infantry divisions and 6 machine-gunners left. After I have given them Tampere, Vaasa, Kemi, Kuopio, Petsamo, Murmansk, Kem, Arkhangelsk, Hammerfest, Narvik, Trondheim and Luleå they have become my second most valuable ally after Japan. Italy has not been of much use to me. I expect the Finns to do better. Their destroyer flotillas are already helping me fighting the American fleet in the Atlantic. In the defense of the Italians I could say that they are at least trying to help, but they keep getting in my way. The latest example is their landing near Freetown, Liberia. They are blocking the road, and are preventing my panzers from advancing towards Nigeria. Very frustrating. I wish they could go and bother the Japanese instead.
Also, I think the French don't have much strength left. Even the Netherlands are stronger, they still have a submarine (at least until I sunk it
), and some light tanks too. It's weird, in my 1.8 game the French built tons of Somua, and they really caused me a headache, but in this game they have hardly built any tanks at all. I'm not really complaining, though, I just wish they could have kept the fighting spirit from that game to this. They seemed more focused on building destroyer flotillas than tanks this time.
My infantry divisions:
German: 148
SS: 26
Romanian: 36
Bulgarian: 15
Hungarian: 14
Russian: 15
Communist (China): 8
I also have 71 German 88. So I guess that gives me the second biggest army after Japan.
