Germany - v 1.9 - Sid - Week 26, 1942
Cities conquered since week 18: Cleveland, Toronto, Timmins, Charleston, Detroit, Mexico City, Georgetown, Luanda, Cabanga and Kong.
The war in North America has turned into a war of attrition more than anything else. I make progress, but at a high price. I had to bomb both Toronto and Detroit to size 1 before I could take the cities, and I'm about to do the same thing with the American capital of Chicago. In contrast I took New York pretty much intact, and the city has already produced its first panzer. I cannot waste units as I did at Boston. Before that battle I had over 150 infantry divisions and 100 panzers, but now I'm down to 80 infantry and 60 panzers. The good news is that I can replace my losses faster than the Allies, the bad news is that I have to ship them across the Atlantic. That takes time. But at least I think I have a numerical superiority in America now since I have brought in lots of Chinese and Russian infantry to fight the resistance in the cities I conquer, and to hold my gains against any Allied counter-attacks. I have finally begun researching Land 1942, and when I can produce Panthers I'm going to make some real progress.
Reinforcements in Central America have arrived, and I have just conquered Georgetown. Within a couple of weeks I should be able to advance towards the U.S. from the south. After I had taken Mexico City the Allied counter-attacked. The British sent a couple of Matildas, and the Americans sent 8 tanks and 2 marines. I only had 2 panzers and 2 German 88 in Mexico City, but I had plenty of artillery, and I used it to pound the enemy. This proved to be enough for them to turn and escape back across the border.
Mexico has made peace both with me and the Allies. But they are still at war with Chile, and Chile sent a few ships to Mexico, and one of them ran into one of my u-boats, so now I'm at war with Chile. Unfortunately Chile is without my reach, and they are probably going to sue for peace before I have a chance to send any force there.
In Africa Japan has razed Uganda, Gimbi, Mega, Addis Abeba, Caluula, Obbia, Mogadishu and Kismayu. Perhaps it would be easier to tell what cities they have NOT razed: and that would be the city of Moyale. I have absolutely no idea why they haven't razed this city (which belonged to the British). There is little more than smoking ruins in East Africa now. The only cities left (besides Moyale) are Asmara and Djibouti, and they belonged to France.
I tried to save Nigeria from being destroyed, but the Italians got in my way. But I have decided to try and save South Africa by cutting the Japanese off. For this reason I started a war with Portugal... wait, I mean: they started a war of aggression against my peace-loving troops, and I was forced to defend myself by liberating Luanda and Cabanga.
I formed the Deutsche Afrika Korps, consisting of 8 elite infantry divisions and one elite panzer division, and they liberated Luanda and Cabanga with a minimum effort. My primary aim is not to conquer South Africa, but to prevent Japan from razing more cities. If I'm successful in reaching the east coast I will bring in additional troops to take the last British cities on the continent at my leisure.
I hope you will continue this interesting playtest even after the
release of version 2.0.
Yes, I will. I have to play this to the end. Even though the war is essentially won I still have to fight all the logistical problems of conducting a war across the seas. And that is still interesting, the enemy would be less of a challenge if I could bring my newly produced units there faster. I am very grateful for the paratrooper plane. Without it my problems would be even bigger. I have 20 planes now, and that means I can transport 20 infantry divisions to America in one week, where the reinforcements are much needed.
The disadvantage of playing it to the bitter end is that I have to move several hundred units each turn, and that is very time-consuming. I think the turns takes twice as long to play now as they did initially when the war was being fought on my door-step, so to speak.