WW2-Global

[oljb007]

Walhid,

there are two ways out of the med, take Suez!

Jeffery,

that is a very loaded couple questions. The designer of this scenario is out for another few days, when he returns maybe he'll answer it.


As for me playing. Well, my HDD finally gave out, so no more computer for me for a few days till I get around to fixing it.

Rocotech, Sorry if you have answered this already, but what is the ETA on the new big map?

 

[Hyperborean]

History really repeats itself. I was just going to play a couple of turns to see what was new in this version, but once again I found it extremely hard to quit. I just had to see what would happen in the next turn, so I went on playing for most of the night, which was really stupid since I have a lot of work to do, but what can I say, this is a very addictive scenario.

My field report:

Germany - Sid - 1.9 - week 46 1939

Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium are mine in the first turn. The Wehrmacht stands at the gates of Paris. Paris falls after two turns with minimum losses thanks to concentrated bombardment from Luftwaffe. The rest of France was a bit harder to take. I lost my best panzers again.
On turn 2 I declared war on Norway for asking me to remove my units from their territory. Declarations of war on Denmark and Sweden followed in the next turn. Danish submarines took out two of my destroyers. Gothenburg and Västervik were conquered by a combination of marines, paratroopers and elite infantry, backed by the Kriegsmarine and a detachment of Luftwaffe. Norway attacks Germans in Sweden. Norwegian units destroyed. Oslo taken. Bergen fell with the loss of one elite infantry division.
The Finns seems to make less progress this time. Hammerfest is the only city the Finns has managed to take so far. Continued advance through Scandinavia halted due to Russian attack on Germany.
Stalin tried to extort me, and if there is one thing I do not take kindly it's extortion, especially not when I'm playing a war-mongering German. If anyone should do any extortion around here it's me!
This was really disappointing: having to go to war with the Sovietunion so early in the game (week 43). I had not yet conquered all of France, and was planning to take the Iberian peninsula, followed by Yugoslavia, Greece, and the rest of Scandinavia.
The problem is that I have 2 rules to avoid the game from getting too easy (I'm playing on Sid-level this time): 1. Only build infantry armies (at least until the summer of 1941, when Operation Barbarossa was initiated), and 2. Once war has been declared between Russia and Germany there can be no peace until one of us is destroyed (this is to simulate that Stalin and Hitler never would have given the other a chance to rebuild his strength).
So now I'm forced to annihilate the Sovietunion this early in the game. I would have prefered to save them for the last since the Soviets are more challenging than any of the other civs. It would have been more fun to fight for Lebensraum in the East in 1941 than in 1939. Despite reinforced defenses I'm afraid the Sovietunion won't prove much of a challenge.
It's week 46 now and as soon as I have destroyed the Maginot Line I'm going to transfer the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht to the Eastern Front. Everything else I had planned to do will have to wait until the Russian Bear has been beaten. And that should take about a year I reckon (unless something unexpected happens).

 

[Hornblower]

Germans - V1.9 Emperor
Week 32 1941. After my allies declared war on me they discovered after two turns that nobody could attack anybody. The Italians sued for peace with me which I granted. We all settled down to what seemed to be the status quo. The next turn saw the Italians declare war on the Fins. My MPP required honouring my agreement with the Fins and declaring on the Italians. Again my allies are at war with each other! It has all become very messy and is accomplishing nothing.
In the meantime I have accumulated a force of 170 Panzer IIIg's strategically positioned along the Soviet border.
The UK home island is German as is the whole of Europe. Reykjavik persists in attacking Scotland with what appears to be a very effective long range fighter-bomber. Could it be the SBD?
The US is constantly sending streams of 39' DD flotillas in stacks of four. There is a string of 300 VII and IX subs stacked at strategic points along my Atlantic zone of control knocking them off as they come by.
In an effort to hold to see the AI in full flight in the latter stages of the game I am deliberately not attacking the USSR or Africa. Unfortunately having a valuable fleet trapped by the Italians force me to retake Tunis. I freed my 10 Bismarcks and put them on search and destroy in the Atlantic. I am now using Tunis as a staging area for 'testing' my new Panther tanks. I only send them out 1 at a time from Tunis to annihilate any Somuas and hopefully encourage the AI to stop sending massive streams of units against the Japanese. The Japanese have been fought to a standstill in Burma but are advancing very slowly down the Malay Peninsula. A large Japanese fleet is alternating between bombarding Midway and Hawaii.
Both Chinas only have one city left in Nepal/Tibet.
Once I get total peace with my axis allies again I will take Suez with Panthers and roll up Africa without reducing the number of units I have on standby against the USSR.
On the tech front I am well into 1942 research by researching at 80% but still have +52 gpt thanks to a lot of non-productive cities devoted to wealth. My friends in Sth America contribute quite well with trade agreements.

All goes well with this game but I look forward to the improved v2.0 with large map. Perhaps we can look forward to country specific leaderheads in that one too?

 

[Hyperborean]

Germany - v 1.9 - Sid - Week 1, 1940

I guess I spoke too soon. The Russians are tougher than I thought. I don't know if this is because I'm now playing at Sid-level, or because the Russians have been given more units in this version. Either way, I had to change my strategy. At first I just concentrated on the cities, and took Lwow, Lublin, Vilnius and Riga. I ignored the Russian units I left behind in my territory, but when they started to make dangerous counter-attacks I had to revise my plans and make a slower but safer advance through Russia.
The Russians took Vilnius back for a short while, but now it's mine again. Luftwaffe no longer attacks the Russian cities to soften the defenses before the ground units attack, instead they are used to annihilate all units left behind to secure the newly conquered territories. This new strategy has come late, however, and I have lost a lot of units. My panzer is nearly non-existent, and I have only 15 infantry divisions left (the Russians have over 100). If it wasn't for my 3 SS infantry armies I would be in big trouble. I lose units faster than I can produce them, but at least I have greatly reduced the Russian forces. They have "only" 42 T-26 left now.
I could have done a bit better if I had not tried to conquer Scandinavia at the same time. I made a failed attempt to take Stockholm and lost 4 infantry divisions. It was a rash decision, but the Finns are having serious trouble with the Russians, only Helsinki and Kuopio are left, and I thought I should relieve them by opening a Scandinavian front. Unfortunately I didn't have enough units for this, and I attacked Stockholm without the support of the Luftwaffe or the Kriegsmarine. The Kriegsmarine is busy in the Atlantic trying to eliminate the remaining Allied Fleet.
I have 25 type VIII u-boats and 20 type IX. I haven't encountered any destroyer SOD this time, only SODs of cruisers and battle ships. I captured Brest intact from the French, with a manufactering plant and all that. But the American fleet reduced Brest to rubble before my u-boat fleet arrived.
In the East the Japanese seems to make slow progress, only half of China has been conquered, and Foochow has been razed. As usual, neither the Sovietunion nor Japan has managed to take any cities from each other. The only real progress the Japanese have made was to take all of New Guinea (including Port Moresby). I wonder if they can hold it.

 

[eaglefox]

hyperborean:
i was playing the germans in the special ai version at sid level. my wars against the russians have been the toughest just because of the shear number of forces they threw at me. at one point i was fighting them with 161 panzers to their 230 t 34s and kv 1's. it took me many turns to destroy their army. for many turns i only concentrated on destroying all the forces that had penetrated my land and that would end up using up all my airforce and available tanks. but slowly and steadly i killed more than they could produce and then i started taking some cities. i went as deep as gorki in the north and magnitogorsk in the south. and then the next two turns what do i see - i see they have produced 40 tanks and tons of aircrafts. so its just their production that's so good, better than even the americans. i took peace soon afterwards cause i wanna focus on the brits now. i have taken jerusalem, all of egypt, tobruk, murzuk, and luxor. i have about 80 tanks but most of them need to heal.

 

[Hornblower]

eaglefox, Hyperborean:
I can only dream of facing such challenges! Perhaps I should quit this Emperor caper and turn up the volume on a harder level. Considering I was only a regular Warlord player before finding this scenario I approach each turn with caution but still find Emperor quiet easy. I think that the difficulty levels are slightly different to a regular game. How do you think they translate to this version?

 

[eaglefox]

eaglefox, Hyperborean:
I can only dream of facing such challenges! Perhaps I should quit this Emperor caper and turn up the volume on a harder level. Considering I was only a regular Warlord player before finding this scenario I approach each turn with caution but still find Emperor quiet easy. I think that the difficulty levels are slightly different to a regular game. How do you think they translate to this version?

higher difficulty levels only come into play when you start from the ancient times. when your entire nation is already well set up, diffuculty levels matter less. that's why you find emperor level rather simple. SID is a lot more fun though.

 

[eaglefox]

Germany vs AI - Sid Level

Week 8, 1942

German panzers are surging forward at full speed in Africa. I have already conquered most of north Africa (except for the formerly Carthaginian empire) and have now entered central africa. France is bearing the major brunt of the assault. Their army once had 68 tanks. now they have only one left. i doubt they have any oil left either. i saw a couple of their cities producing flamethrowers. i have also taken Khartoum, port Sudan in the east. The Brits don't have too much to fight with either. They are mostly on the defensive. I currently have 98 tanks and over 100 aircrafts, 60 German 88's and over 80 infantry.
Russia has managed to increase its strength to almost 100 t-34 and about 15 kv-1. very impressive even after all their losses. they aren't out yet.
the americans however look like the most powerful. they have about 170 tanks - 108 of them are wolverine, 47 M-24 sherman i think, 80 aircrafts, and tons of infantry and mg's. they also have 6 carriers and one iowa class battleship. they have captured 4 cities from the brazilians and that might hurt my victory point race.
japan hasn't done anything whatsoever. don't know what's happening with them. but sure looks like the americans are keeping the pressure on them. they just might end up losing all their colonies by the end of the year. not sure how to help them. after africa is taken i might have to fight the russians again. they are becoming too powerful again.

 

[Hornblower]

Germans - V1.9 Emperor
In week 45 1941 I continue to have fun with my confused allies. The Italians aren't sure whether I am the enemy or not. They offer peace which I give. This then allows me to make peace with the rest of the axis in that same turn. It seems though that the italians remain at war with the Finns. They are unable to attack but somehow I am always forced to honour the MPP with them which causes war with the Italians and then everyone else all over again. In an attempt to refocus the axis I returned a bucketload of cities to the Sov's that I took from them in the early weeks of 1940. I want the AI to put up a real fight with the yet to appear T-34. With my Panther, StuG IIIg and others coming online it should be fun. As a result I engineered a Soviet declaration of war and now sit on the border letting the Italians and Finns fight someone else. Hopefully it will get me the peace with my axis allies that I desire. I won't attack the Sov's as such but allow them to attack me. They still only have T-26's though.
My test of the Panther in North Africa was a resounding success but seemed hardly fair so I have withdrawn them back to Europe. In line with the limited numbers of Panthers and Tigers produced in comparison to the other Panzers I have resolved to only ever have 20 of each type at any one time. It should make it more interesting.
I have also taken Suez with infantry and artillery and will commence the lengthy wrap up of Africa with the weaker versions of Panzer types. I think that I will raze most of the cities though and just have colonies on the resources.
The naval battle is all but over in the Atlantic and Indian oceans with no challenges aside from the odd DD flot. I have no less than 5 U-boat SOD's consisting of 50 type VII and IX's in each stack roaming the oceans. It seems that the German and Japanese navies are in the ascendancy here. I built one Hindenburg BB with a view to creating a large stack like my 15 unit Bismarck fleet but discovered the new BB only has 6 move points. It shall be the flagship for the carrier taskforce instead.

 

[Adler17]

Hmm. The Hindenburg- class should have been also driving 30 kn. Only slightly less than the Bismarck class. It should be corrected.

Adler

 

[Rocoteh]

Walhid - I have not checked closely in 1.9 but earlier versions had ALL infantry units with marine ability. This was part of an earlier "solution" to US marines being overepowered. Check it out!

Rocoteh - Something you might want to change or not?

Bob1475,

No.

It was a good decision to give most infantry type units
amphibious assault capacity.
You do not need Marines to make invasions from the sea.
No Marine divisions took part in the amphibious landings US did
in Europe for example.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Rocoteh,

The new map looks great. I always look forward to your refinements. The WWII-Global scenario has given me such joy with the old faithful C3 that even with Civ IV coming out I will continue to play this baby.

Germans Emperor - v1.9
In week 49 1940 whilst giving the Sov's a jolly good flogging I was surprised by the previously sighted US destroyer squadrons. In one turn they took Sicily off the Italians and then proceeded to launch a major attack on German occupied Corsica. I only had 4 conscript infantry guarding with my only two marine units. They attacked with 6 marines and won! To add insult to injury my small 4 ship Mediterranean C2 CA raider force was destroyed. Without marines I can't take the islands back! Lucky for them....
The italians have given up on multiple attacks in the USSR and have now concentrated their force in central USSR. They attacked and raised the Medium sized city before retreating back to Italy to heal.
By turn 50 the Sov's again begged peace to the Germans. As with before I wish to see the latter stages of the game and granted their request. Not before they gave me 1400 gold and 50 gpt as well as the city of Alexandrovsk (my idea). I then gave Alexandrovsk to the japanese to consolidate their position on Sakhalin.
I now also notice that for the first time in the game I can trade with South America and Thailand. I can't pick a particular conquest that opened up those trade routes but those nations are happy with my goodwill trades. Not sure how you set up the trading rules but it is interesting anyway.
I intend remaining passive on my frontline in the Urals and concentrate on regaining naval parity by sinking the beligerent US destroyer fleet! Perhaps an evil move on Sweden just for fun...

Hornblower,

Thank you. I am very glad to hear that.

On Corsica and Sicily: As mentioned in the post before this, most
infantry type units can make amphibious assault in WW2-Global.

Your overall strategic situation looks very good.
Looking forward to follow this playtest.
Welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Hyperborean,

Thank you for the report on version 1.8.

"I sent my only transport with a destroyer fleet to take Iceland.I conquered the island but lost my fleet to the British." Hyperborean

This should be harder in version 1.9.

"The conquest of France was pretty easy, but I lost quite a lot of units because I didn't have the patience to let Luftwaffe destroy more French units. Still, France became incorporated into the Reich, and Spain was next. And I took Portugal and Gibraltar as well." Hyperborean

A very good start.

"It was pretty amusing to see Greeks and Turks fighting each other in my territory while I was busy with the French. I destroyed them both in one sweep. "
Hyperborean

Turkey should be much harder to attack in 1.9.

"Unfortunately the AI isn't very smart." Hyperborean

I agree!

"The Brits allowed me to sink their carriers by sending them right into my u-boat fleet in the North Sea. And the British attacked, and managed to damage one of my poor mine fields!" Hyperborean

It will be interesting to see if AI will be better (as stated) in Civ 4.

"However, knowing the behaviour of the AI I set a trap for them. I moved all of the remaining Kriegsmarine and all of Luftwaffe to Bergen, and then I sent out a lonely u-boat. The AI swallowed the bait, and while the destroyers chased my u-boat I used the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine to pick them off one by one, far away from the nearest friendly port." Hyperborean

A very good move!

"But as I turned defeat to victory in the seas the situation was reversed on land. The early conquest of Turkey was a mistake. It exposed me to the counter-attacks of the allies. I took Damascus, Baghdad and Amman easily enough, but then my troubles began. I split my forces: some were sent to secure the Arabian peninsula, while others were moving towards Iran, and yet others turned towards Egypt. I should have focused on capturing Suez. The battle of Suez became my El-Alamain."
Hyperborean

Maybe its best to wait with Turkey until Soviet have been defeated.

"One on one I could have defeated them. But now I had to fight the Russians, the French and the British simultaneously in the Middle East. Even the Chinese sent a couple of infantry divisions! Shouldn't the Chinese be busy fighting the Japanese?"
Hyperborean

AI has strange ideas.

"Still, despite using nothing but infantry initially I managed to push the Russians back. I razed a lot of cities: Odessa, Vilnius, Smolensk, Tallinn, Novgorod, and a few other cities. Leningrad was tough to take, but I took it, and began to encircle Moscow instead of trying to push through the fortresses." Hyperborean

I am considering a house-rule in version 2.0 with regard to city-razing.
It would mean that human players should not raze cities by intention.
Looking forward to feedback on this.

"And Saigon took them almost a year to conquer. And Singapore didn't fall at all. They razed a lot of cities, though: all Burmese cities except Mandalay, and a city on New Guinea. And when they were in war with the Russians they razed Vladivostok and a couple of other cities." Hyperborean

I will add more Great Wonders to prevent AI from razing cities in future
versions of the scenario.

"I had a lot of fun playing this scenario, even the setbacks were kinda fun. I didn't take it too seriously, I mainly wanted to see how fast I could conquer things, and now that I know what to expect I'm going to start a new 1.9 game where I will follow a more historically correct plan. To a certain degree, at least." Hyperborean

I think its very positive that AI can be a challenge.

Thank you and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Judging from the minimap, I'd say the previous huge map (el mencey's?) looked better. I'm still looking very much forward to it, though. Assuming that the huge map will be version 2.0, will you include flag leaderheads in 2.0, or will that be included in a later graphic exspansion?

P.S.Y.C.H.O.,

However Europe is larger in aeldriks version.
That is important.

On new leaderheads:

Yes, they will come with graphic expansion.

Rocoteh

 

[eaglefox]

i personally never raze cities even though i am about to lose it. it doesn't look nice and it wouldn't have happened in the real world. plus it leaves a huge gap in the map that i don't like to look at. if i can't hold all my cities - well first of all never get into that situation - all i do is leave some of the inner cities with minimun protection and amass all the troops in the outer cities. then if the ai fights in the outer cities it will have more losses. if it decides to move inside to take the weakly defended cities, you can pick the units off with airforce and other artillery. normally if its early in the game the ai shouldn't have too much to throw at you anyways. but never fight the russians if france is still in europe. just remember never to take right of passage with them, even when they agree to give it. perhaps they are in a tight situation when they are agreeing with it. once they get out of it, they'll declare war on you to get rid of it.

 

[Rocoteh]

Hornblower,

Thank you for the reports.

"Once the Italian AI became furious it declared war on me! Having a locked alliance was obviously going to tax the way the AI did things so I have become a rather interested observer. It seems that upon Italy declaring war on its allied partner Germany... the other axis members also declared on Germany. " Hornblower

This is very strange! Maybe its a bug within the game-engine.

"Week 32 1941. After my allies declared war on me they discovered after two turns that nobody could attack anybody. The Italians sued for peace with me which I granted." Hornblower

Again: Its probably a bug.

"In the meantime I have accumulated a force of 170 Panzer IIIg's strategically positioned along the Soviet border." Hornblower

An impressing force!

"All goes well with this game but I look forward to the improved v2.0 with large map. Perhaps we can look forward to country specific leaderheads in that one too?" Hornblower

As mentioned in an earlier post, the leaderheads will come with
the graphic expansion.
I really think that the huge map will give a new life to the scenario.

"In an attempt to refocus the axis I returned a bucketload of cities to the Sov's that I took from them in the early weeks of 1940. I want the AI to put up a real fight with the yet to appear T-34. With my Panther, StuG IIIg and others coming online it should be fun." Hornblower

Do you know how many workers militia units Soviet now have?

Thank you for the reports and welcome back.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

i personally never raze cities even though i am about to lose it. it doesn't look nice and it wouldn't have happened in the real world. plus it leaves a huge gap in the map that i don't like to look at. if i can't hold all my cities - well first of all never get into that situation - all i do is leave some of the inner cities with minimun protection and amass all the troops in the outer cities. then if the ai fights in the outer cities it will have more losses. if it decides to move inside to take the weakly defended cities, you can pick the units off with airforce and other artillery. normally if its early in the game the ai shouldn't have too much to throw at you anyways. but never fight the russians if france is still in europe. just remember never to take right of passage with them, even when they agree to give it. perhaps they are in a tight situation when they are agreeing with it. once they get out of it, they'll declare war on you to get rid of it.

eaglefox,

Yes, I agree:

Its unrealistic. The new house-rule will probably come with version 2.0.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Walhid,

there are two ways out of the med, take Suez!

Jeffery,

that is a very loaded couple questions. The designer of this scenario is out for another few days, when he returns maybe he'll answer it.


As for me playing. Well, my HDD finally gave out, so no more computer for me for a few days till I get around to fixing it.

Rocotech, Sorry if you have answered this already, but what is the ETA on the new big map?

oljb007,

No problem.

Its The European Theater of Operations.

This is a joint project with Sarevok and it will use the Barbarossa-system.

Rocoteh

 

[Rocoteh]

Hyperborean,

"History really repeats itself. I was just going to play a couple of turns to see what was new in this version, but once again I found it extremely hard to quit. I just had to see what would happen in the next turn, so I went on playing for most of the night, which was really stupid since I have a lot of work to do, but what can I say, this is a very addictive scenario." Hyperborean

Thank you.

"Continued advance through Scandinavia halted due to Russian attack on Germany."
Hyperborean

An very early Russian attack!

"Stalin tried to extort me, and if there is one thing I do not take kindly it's extortion, especially not when I'm playing a war-mongering German. If anyone should do any extortion around here it's me! " Hyperborean

Yes, that is right!

"I guess I spoke too soon. The Russians are tougher than I thought. I don't know if this is because I'm now playing at Sid-level, or because the Russians have been given more units in this version. Either way, I had to change my strategy. At first I just concentrated on the cities, and took Lwow, Lublin, Vilnius and Riga. I ignored the Russian units I left behind in my territory, but when they started to make dangerous counter-attacks I had to revise my plans and make a slower but safer advance through Russia." Hyperborean

Russia is much stronger in version 1.9!

"This new strategy has come late, however, and I have lost a lot of units. My panzer is nearly non-existent, and I have only 15 infantry divisions left (the Russians have over 100). If it wasn't for my 3 SS infantry armies I would be in big trouble. I lose units faster than I can produce them, but at least I have greatly reduced the Russian forces. They have "only" 42 T-26 left now" Hyperborean

I think Soviet will be a real challenge this time.

Thank you for the reports. I am really looking forward to follow this playtest.

Rocoteh

More comments on posts tomorrow.

 

[Hyperborean]

Hornblower, you should definitely try Sid. It's not as hard as I thought it would be. If you can win on Emperor level you shouldn't have much of a problem with Sid. I think the AI produces units faster on higher levels, but not fast enough to become invincible.
I tried a regular game on the Sid level once, and I was beaten so badly that I've been afraid to try it again ever since, but in this scenario it's just fun.
And it would be even more fun if you tried my self-imposed restrictions: no mobilisation, no drafts (unless Germany itself is threatened), no panzer armies (at least not until 1941) and no peace with the Russians (once war has been declared).

Eaglefox, the Germany vs AI version sounds very challenging. I think I'm gonna try it next. I'm having trouble enough with merely 50 or 60 T-26, so I can only imagine what it's like to face 230 T-34.

My field report:

Germany - v 1.9 - Sid - Week 10, 1940

The war in the East has turned! I lost Riga to the Russians because I forgot to move a stronger defensive unit there, so instead there was just a Bulgarian infantry division defending the city when the Russians counter-attacked and took it back. The 1st SS Army, which just had conquered Tallinn, turned back and liberated Riga again with the help of a panzer division. Meanwhile the 2nd SS Army conquered Minsk. After this the Russians were being pushed back on all sections of the front, and the fatigued Wehrmacht fought with a newfound confidence. In the following weeks a number of Russian cities fell into German hands: Novgorod, Smolensk, Kiev, Kharkov and Odessa.
The fortress of Odessa was destroyed by artillery bombardment combined with air raids from the Luftwaffe. After that it was easy to march into the city.
A spearhead panzer division has cut off the supply lines to Leningrad, but they have encountered 4 Norwegian infantry divisions in the forests north of Novgorod and a battle with uncertain outcome is about to begin. Meanwhile in Ukraine the shaken Russians prepare to defend Sevastopol and Kursk from the expected onslaught of the Wehrmacht.
The events in the Atlantic have been equally dramatic. I am now in a rather shaky control of the Northern Atlantic. I have lost a lot of u-boats trying to destroy the last Allied ships who dared to venture into the high seas, but I'm currently building u-boats faster than I lose them so it's not really a loss.
I have a large number of u-boats placed strategically west of Gibraltar, and have begun to send u-boats into the Mediterranean, as well as down south along the coasts of Africa and South America.
Now that the threat of the Allied fleet has been if not eliminated, so at least reduced, I have begun to send small detachments of the Kriegsmarine out into the Atlantic from their main base in Bergen. Passing Iceland was an interesting experience since the Americans has built an airport in Reikiavik, and they started to bomb my ships as they passed.

I'm currently debating whether I should save the Finns, who only have Helsinki left, or not. I don't think I have enough units to try to take Leningrad just yet, so I'm more concerned with taking what's left of Ukraine before I may turn my attention to the north again. I'm also wondering if taking Caucasus would be wise if it means I'm exposed to British and French attacks. I don't have enough defensive units to protect myself against Allied attacks.

Other news:

Very little has happened in East Asia apart from Japan taking Timor. America has declared war on Russia. Norway has declared war on Britain. Norway has declared war on Germany (well, I did try to plant a spy there, but it's pretty bold to declare war on me when I'm so much more powerful than they are. I wonder if Britain tried to do the same thing?). And Spain has declared war on Portugal. The only problem I have with that is that Spanish ships currently are blocking Gibraltar, so I can't send any u-boats into the Mediterranean right now. The three that made it through before the war began attacked some French ships bombarding Sicily. Now that Sicily has been connected with the mainland it's going to be a lot harder to send ships into the Eastern Mediterranean. Murzuk in Libya has been razed. And once again the British have damaged one of my mine fields.

Units, week 10, 1940:

15 type VIII u-boats
35 type IX
10 infantry
12 panzers
5 SS armies

Russian units:

50 T-26
80 infantry

The situation in Russia looks both good and bad at the same time. The good news is that my offensive capabilities are greater than ever. The bad news is that I have very few defensive units left. I have used all my reserves. Most of my cities (behind the front lines) are guarded by nothing more than one (1!) Rumanian infantry division.
Fortunately, the once feared Russian counter-attacks have lost most of it's potency. They still have a lot more units than me, but with 12 panzers, 5 SS armies, and Moscow within sight I'm not particularly worried. The Germans can smell the scent of victory. The Russians begged me for peace after I took Kharkov, but naturally I didn't listen to their pleas. The march towards Moscow continues.