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Topic: Making History- The Calm & The Storm: Italy AAR
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:38am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturion  Posts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | I’ve played most WWII ‘grand-strategy’ games, and although I’ve known about this one for a while, only picked it up after reading too many HoI3 developer diaries and feeling a gnawing emptiness inside that demanded attention.
It lacks the detail, the grandeur, and the historical flavor of HoI, that’s for sure, but to my surprise this far more streamlined game brings a delight of its own.
Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict by Paul.M.Kennedy is one of the most interesting and educational books I have ever read. Kennedy describes and explores the relationship between economic power, growth and decline and military power, growth and decline, then uses this as a lens through which to analyse great power life-cycles and conflicts.
This game brings that book to life for me. The economic strength of the Axis primaries combined were dwarfed by that of the US alone, hence Churchill’s comment upon learning that the US was entering the war, "All that remains is the proper application of overwhelming force".
After several partial play-throughs of this game as Italy, then a few more where I simply opted to play a dormant minor and advanced the game to see what would happen, I can say that the Axis nations were very reliably and comfortably defeated every time.
The game uses some fairly loose scripting to prompt historical actions along with a system of variable country aggressiveness and relations. What I have observed is that:
• The Commonwealth nations quite frequently declare war on Germany before it invades Poland, prompted by German declarations on Austria or Czechoslovakia.
• Combined, the UK and France have a larger industry, greater resources and stronger military than Germany.
• If France declares on Germany along with the UK, Germany normally gets beaten within a period of months, after a fierce battle on the German side of the Maginot line
It may be possible, if Germany as the AI was left free of declarations from France and the UK whilst it gobbled up Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Nordics and the Low Countries, that it could hold its own against the UK and France, but the closest I have seen to this is in a single game where Germany managed to take Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark and Luxembourg before being declared on by France, UK and Poland and collapsing within months. I find this rather realistic given that the game models fairly well economics and technology, and does not hold the UK and France back from bold moves into a vulnerable Germany.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:41am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]Game Set-Up[/b]
The Rise of the Reich is one of several scenarios one can choose from within Making History, and has the earliest staring point at 1933. Although you can see the 8 majors as selectable nations in the nation selection screen, one can also choose to play any nation in the game.
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/01RiseoftheReichSplash.jpg[/image]
Tannu Tuva is not for me though, onto glory with Italy. In this game, my goal will be to enable an Axis alliance victory by supporting Germany as well as I can as Italy. There are multiple difficulty levels and scenario settings. I am choosing to play on the second to hardest difficult setting, since I am familiar with similar games, even if I am not in any way accomplished with this one.
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/02ItalySelection.jpg[/image]
I normally play with a screen resolution of 1900 x 1200 on a 24” monitor, but will play this game in 800 x 600 to make the screen captures easier and more suitable for forum posting.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:43am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1933 Opening Preparations[/b]
I know from previous partially completed games that Italy is simply too weak to pose enough of a threat to France to provide Germany with the help it needs when war is declared by the UK and France. I have also learned that Italy begins with sufficiently passable great power relations that it can engage in a few wars of aggression to expand its holdings without triggering a declaration of war (DoW) itself from the UK or France, which would surely be its rapid undoing.
Italy has the major problem of having an abysmal resource base, unable to support even its own meager industries with the metal, coal and oil it needs.
So, my initial moves are as follows:
• To reduce the need for arms, which are military supplies, I immediately mothball (disband) the Corvettes and Basic Submarines that make up a large part of the Italian navy. Corvettes are lower tech versions of destroyers, which I keep along with the Early Cruisers, Early Battleships and single Early Carrier Italy starts with. I also move the entire navy into port, which reduces arms consumption.
• I set up aid package deals with the UK, France and US. I give them manufactured goods each week, which very slowly improves my relations with them. I do this to reduce the likelihood they will DoW me early
• I set up my cities to produce sufficient arms to support my military and set the rest to producing trade goods to offset the punishing financial losses I know I will be making until I can further reduce my military and turn over more of my cities to goods production
• I set up purchases of sufficient metal, coal and oil on the international market to allow my industrial centres to function without penalty
These are my opening economic, trade and diplomatic actions. My military plan is to:
• Use the forces I have in East Africa to annex Ethiopia, has useful food production
• Invade Yugoslavia, Romania and Greece in that order
Yugoslavia is not exactly resource rich, but the extra coal and metal will be welcome along with its population. Romania is the real prize in this trio for its oil production will allow me to be more or less self-sufficient, a huge boon for my balance sheet. I will take Greece because I will otherwise have an extremely unfriendly minor that I shall need to garrison against indefinitely, in contrast to the very low risk presented by unguarded borders with Hungary & Bulgaria.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:44am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]Economic basics in Making History:[/b]
My population is split into skilled workers, unskilled workers and military
• Unskilled workers are the default population type. Everyone I do not draft into the military and do not create work for by expanding industry or resource production will remain an unskilled worker. Unskilled workers produce food
• Skilled workers are those that work to produce resources in resource centres and goods or arms in industrial centres. They consume both food and goods
• The military consume both arms and food and produce nothing
The domestic consumption of food and goods generates revenue for me. If I had a surplus I could try and sell it on the international market. I will not have a surplus however, as Italy can barely meet its own food demand and I will have too many other production needs to have a goods surplus.
Producing goods requires coal, producing arms requires metal, coal and oil, and producing military units requires coal and sometimes metal and/or oil. My goods production will need to generate sufficient revenue for me to buy the metal, coal and oil that I cannot produce myself on the international market.
As I move more and more workers into resource and industrial production, there will be less and less unskilled workers to till the fields and grown corn. This may mean that at some point I will need to start importing food in addition to raw materials.
Cities produce Industrial Production Unit’s (IPU’s) which are used for producing goods, arms, military units and conducting research.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:45am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]Yugoslavia, February 20 – May 29
[/b]My aims are to:
1. Complete the campaign quickly in order to move onto the richer bounty of Romanian oil
2. Take few or no losses, since my armed forces have two more major campaigns to complete and I do not want to reinforce them
3. Minimise supply consumption by minimizing time-in-combat. Units in combat consume extra supplies.
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/1193320FebYugoDoW.jpg[/IMG]
By using one single large army, I achieve the latter two aims at some marginal expense to the first. So be it. I can cope with a few weeks of extra financial difficulties.
Yugoslavia’s dispersed forces are destroyed and by May 29th I have annexed the country. This takes away the large “occupied territory” penalties that are applied to regions that are occupied but not owned. I now mass my armed forces, including my 10 Basic Fighters, on the Romanian border.
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/2193329MayYugoSurrender.jpg[/IMG]
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:47am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]Ethiopia January 08 – February 28
[/b]I take Ethiopia since its large food production, large relative to most of my Italian regions anyway, will be of value to me and it gives me a second city in East Africa which can produce units for the eventual conflict with UK and France.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:48am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]Romania June 19 – September 04 [/b]
Unlike the complete annexation of Yugoslavia, I plan to leave Romania with a tiny rump of a country to live in after taking its oil producing and industrial producing regions. Making peace with Romania rather than annexing it completely will give a boost to my relations with the UK and France, and I will need this boost to reduce the risk that they will declare on me once I invade Greece.
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/3193319JunRomDoW.jpg[/image]
The Romanian air-force, consisting of Basic Fighters, actually manages to destroy two of my Basic Infantry divisions left alone on garrison duty in Serbia. Meanwhile, my own air-force achieves nothing, and I decide to mothball it now to avoid the costs of maintaining it.
The battle for Wallachia grinds on for 8 weeks and I lose 3 of my Basic Fighters, but after this Romania is defenseless and I am able to make peace after taking taken all regions bar Bessarabia in the North East.
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/4193307AugRomWallachiaBattle.jpg[/image]
In the combat report visible above the numbers from left to right, blue, red and yellow as as follows: Units in combat, Units lost in this week of combat, Cumulative units lost in this combat
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/5193304SepRomSurrender.jpg[/image]
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:52am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]Greece September 25 1933 – February 19 1934 [/b]
Before I began the Yugoslavian campaign, I had 27 Basic Infantry, 1 Mounted Infantry and 7 Field Artillery divisions. I now have 21 Basic Infantry and 2 Field Artillery versus the 7 Basic Infantry, 1 Mounted Infantry and 2 Field Artillery divisions of Greece. If Greece could successfully defend itself against me, that would be a disaster as the time and money it would take me to create more forces would present a significant set-back.
However, the real worry is that the UK will declare on me. If they do, I am done.
So, I declare on Greece and t he dice are rolled. Whenever you declare on a country, this affects your relations with other countries who can declare war on you, declare a trade embargo, or offer you an alliance.
In this case, the first reaction is from Germany, who clearly admire my dynamism and offer me an alliance. I decline, since I need to be able to pick the time that I enter the war to support Germany for maximum impact, rather than be bound by their timeline of that of the nations that declare on them.
Next, the UK announces a trade embargo against me. This is a great relief! The UK and it allied nations are major exporters of coal, but I manage without them until I can improve relations enough to end the embargo.
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/6193302OctUKEmbargo.jpg[/image]
The battle for Macedonia turns into a extended struggle, and I become really concerned about the possibility of not being able to complete the campaign. In the end it takes 15 weeks and the loss of 5 Basic Infantry but I do emerge victorious.
After I take the industrial and resource producing regions, I offer peace demanding that Greece cedes the occupied territory and install a friendly government. It refuses, clearly not defeated enough! I take Pelopenessos and the Ionian Islands and then try again, this time successfully.
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/7193405FebGreecePeaceOffer.jpg[/image]
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/8193405FebGreecePeaceReject.jpg[/image]
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/9193405FebGreeceConsequences.jpg[/image]
Even if it were not for the foreign relations boost, taking the remaining Greek islands would require an engagement of Greece’s significant navy, which I could certainly win, but the cost of the naval operation would place a burden on my fledgling economy.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:55am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1934 Strategic Planning
[/b]My military adventures are now well and truly over for the foreseeable future. It is possible I could take Bulgaria without triggering a DoW, but they are a friendly nation to me and I would rather have them as a future ally than pick up more resource poor land and culturally penalized cities. I could also probably take Albania, who are not so friendly, but it poses no threat and would provide negligible benefit.
I don’t plan to be in armed conflict again until I am ready to fight against France and the UK.
[i][b]Short-Term goals [/b][/i]
• Improve my dire treasury
All this time I have been fighting I have been running a huge financial deficit in order to be able to produce the arms and trade for the resources I need. My treasury is so far into the red that I now have a 1% production penalty applied, which I want to get rid of.
[i][b]Medium-Term goals [/b][/i]
• Improve food infrastructure.
Any region with decent food production and a pool of unskilled labour will be upgraded to the maximum level possible. Infrastructure requires maintenance, so this will push up my cost base, but I wish to be as self-sufficient as possible in food production. Later on, I will post a series of screenshots of the Agricultural development level of my regions, beginning in 1934, to illustrate the progress made and comparison with t he rest of Europe.
• Develop my industrial base
Cities are industrial centres and are classified as either pre-industrial, industrial or advanced in nature. Pre-industrial centres require the largest number of skilled workers per production unit, and advanced centres the least. It is my goal to develop all the mainland Italian cities to at least advanced status and all the remaining cities to industrial in order to achieve a measure of efficiency.
• Begin accumulating resource stockpiles
Acquiring the Romanian oilfields has made me more almost self-sufficient in oil, at whilst I have a small military. Once I go into heavier production of arms or a military build-up, I will go into a weekly oil-deficit, but by then should have a reassuring stockpile.
[i][b]Long-Term Goals [/b][/i]
• Develop arms and transport capacity stockpile
As my foreign cities hit industrial status, I move some of them into goods production, and set others to make arms and transport capacity (which allows land forces to move over water). I have learned that I prefer to build such things continuously rather than having to having to make major changes quickly to cope with hostilities. The other disadvantage I avoid by continuous production is that I can better ensure t hat I have sufficient resources coming in. If for instance I needed to ramp up arms, military and transport capacity production very rapidly, I would also find my oil and metal requirements soaring, leaving me exposed if I had not planned for this.
• Devote 200-250 IPU’s to research
Before I begin fighting the UK and France, I really want to have Advanced Infantry, Medium Tanks, Advanced Fighters and Light Bombers as a minimum, and would like to have Advanced Submarines and several of the Tactical and Advanced Technologies researched too, since when I do start fighting, arms and unit production will probably curtail me to no more than 150 IPU points for ongoing research.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:57am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]Diplomacy Primer[/b]
Each nation has a relationship with each other nation ranging from 0 (terrible) to 1000 (very close and probably allied). This relationship can be improved or worsened by actions taken. For instance, setting up an aid deal to another nation will result in a steady improvement. Declaring war on a nation will cause an immediate deterioration in relations with nations that are friendly to the nation you declared on, but may improve relations with nations hostile to the nation you declared on.
So if as Italy I declared war on Greece for instance, which has great relations with the UK but poor relations with Germany, my relations with UK will deteriorate whilst those with Germany improve.
Diplomatic options include:
[ul][*]Declaring War[*]Making Peace[*]Propose Alliance[*]Requesting Military Access[*]Transferring Territory[*]Requesting Aid[/ul]
If you do join an alliance, even as the alliance leader, which I think is simply the most powerful nation in the alliance, then any subsequent actions will be subject to a veto by the major alliance partners.
For example, if as Italy I create an alliance with Japan, and then try to invite Bulgaria to join, Japan can block the offer and Bulgaria will not receive the offer. If I declare war on Bulgaria, Japan is then given a choice, they must either break the alliance or join the war.
Very often, if country a is at war with country b and country b then declares war on country c, countries a and c will create an alliance. For instance, if Republican Spain is at war with Germany and Germany then declares war on Poland, Poland and Spain may create an alliance. The probability of them doing so is probably influenced by their ideology and relations.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 4:58am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1935 Opening[/b]
IPUs 363
Financial: -685m USD
Relations UK: 223 / France: 176 / US: 412
• Two cities have reached advanced level and all cities have at least achieved Industrial status, emerging from the skilled working sapping pre-industrial stage
• My food infrastructure investment is helping me remain self-sufficient so far
• My treasury is still nearly 685 million USD in the red, but I am constantly running a balance surplus in addition to building a resource stockpile. Now is the time to build the stockpile, since once global war begins, I may find myself unable to trade with the countries that have significant surplus resources
• I have begun my first research project: Improved Infantry. As more cities reach advanced level, I will build up my research until it has the desired 200-250 IPU’s assigned
I plan to develop 3 cities beyond size 50 (the break-point for Advanced status) towards 75-80 IPU. The reason I have chosen these three to form my industrial heartland is:
[ul][*]They are regions which produce little food anyway, so I will not miss their agricultural production[*]They do not border with any potentially hostile nations[*]All three can be protected from amphibious invasion by the placement of one navy in the Adriatic.[/ul][IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/18193521JanFutureIndustrialCaps.jpg[/IMG] |
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:00am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]Technology Primer[/b]
Research in Making History is divided into:
• Land Forces
• Air Forces
• Naval Forces
• Tactics
• Advanced Technologies
Each category then has a number of sub-categories, for instance, Land Forces has:
• Infantry
• Tanks
• Motorized Infantry
• Artillery
Finally, within each sub-category, there are a number of evolutionary levels. For the Infantry, this simply runs from Conscript > Basic > Improved > Advanced. Generally speaking, the later levels provide more effective units, often at greater cost, but there are exceptions.
For instance in the Air Forces, Bomber sub-category, the Light Bomber is succeeded in the tech-tree by Medium Bomber, Heavy Bomber and Advanced Bomber, but whilst those later developments do introduce units with new stats, the Light Bomber is actually the best of the bunch at bombing land and naval units - think of Dive Bombers and Torpedo Planes - with the later units being better at bombing infrastructure or industry.
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/10ResearchInfantry1.jpg[/image]
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/11ResearchInfantry2.jpg[/image]
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/12ResearchInfantry3.jpg[/image]
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/13ResearchInfantry4.jpg[/IMG]
Technologies sometimes have pre-requisites. For instance, to develop Advanced Subs, I not only need to have first completed research on Early and Basic Subs in the Naval Forces category, but also need to have developed Sonar technology in the Advanced Technology category.
Conducting any type of research requires the dedication of IPUs, and also consumes resources. So you need to balance research activity with industrial expansion, goods, arms and transport capacity production, and military unit production.
Not all the different levels of units have their own graphic, but many do, and the graphic also varies per country. The Infantry shown above all look the same, but only Italian infantry look like that.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:03am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1935 January 21
[/b]No sooner do I have my first 2 points of progress made towards Improved Infantry, do I see an “event” which takes this away from me. These events can give or take between 1-4 points of progress.
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/19193521JanResearchSetback.jpg[/IMG]
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:04am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1935 March 04
[/b]Pretty soon I am sure we can design some weapons that do not explode when we try to shoot them
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/14193504MarResearchSetback.jpg[/IMG]
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:27am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1935 June 10 – Battle for Grain is won[/b]
The agricultural infrastructure improvement campaign is completed. My infrastructure costs have risen from 40m USD to 54m USD whilst my food production has gone from 206 to 238. To purchase the difference of 32 food per week would cost me 6.4m USD, so I am effectively paying double for the somewhat dubious strategic benefit of being food independent, but just like Mussolini, I can say I have won the Battle for Grain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_Grain
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/15193419FebFoodMap-1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/16193507JanFoodMap.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/17193505JunFoodMap.jpg[/IMG]
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:29am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1935 August 10 – December 30
[/b]Conflict erupts between China and Communist China. It is a simple David and Goliath battle but David has no sling. China quickly overwhelms Communist China. China is the nation I now have the very worst relations with in-game.
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/20193505AugChinaWar.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/21193526AugChinaWarBattle.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/22193530DecChinaWarOver.jpg[/IMG]
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:30am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1936 Opening[/b]
IPUs 563
Financial: -691m USD
Relations UK: 256 / France: 200 / US: 438
Resource Stockpiles from left to right:
Transport Capacity - Arms - Goods - Food - Metal - Coal - Oil
[image]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/231936ResourceStockpile.jpg[/image]
Early in the year, my IPU passes that of France. I will put a significant distance between France and me now, but France has clearly conducted far more research and has a strong army. The ideal time for France to strike at me would be now, but of course I am sure they will not.
I start providing aid to Turkey, with relations currently stable 460. I do this because by 1940 or later, it may be nice to have some chance of military access to Turkey, in order to attack into Iraq or even Russia.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:31am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1936 Spanish Civil War
[/b]The Spanish Civil War opens up on July 06, but by October it is almost entirely over. Nationalist Spain does not begin with any regions in which there is not immediately a battle, and it loses all the battles. I have seen Germany enter the war against Republican Spain in previous games, but never seen it have any impact on the outcome.
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/24193606JulySpanishCivilWar.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/25193619OctSCWdecided.jpg[/IMG]
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:32am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1936 Closing[/b]
Research Completed: Improved Infantry, Early Tanks
By the end of the year, only my 3 industrial mega-cities are still increasing their industrial size, with all other cities having reached their targeted size. The mega-cities will also cease expansion soon, lest I grow beyond my ability to acquire the necessary quantity of coal on the world market.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:33am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1937 Opening[/b]
IPUs 749
Financial: -615m USD
Relations UK: 286 / France: 223 / US: 465
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/261937ResourceStockpile.jpg[/IMG]
I now have the 3rd largest IPU, behind the UK and the US. This is a little crazy, and I do wish that Germany would enlarge its industry, which is smaller than that of France. At this rate, I will need to do the heavy lifting. I’m kidding though, since even if I started to build my military right now, Germany would more than likely still have a far bigger military by 1938 or even 1939.
By the end of this year, I do need to be ready to start building up my military, in case war should break out early. In truth I don’t expect to be ready to fight the UK or France before late 1938 at the earliest. If war starts and I join too early, I will have no impact, but I need to join before it is too late and Germany is overwhelmed.
I am now dedicating over 250 IPUs to research and running a large balance surplus, so should expect to see myself in decent financial health and with some good research finished by the year end. I hope for an otherwise uneventful year.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:33am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1937 May[/b]
The Spanish Civil War is still ongoing. Battles for the two Spanish regions of Africa have been proceeding since the beginning of the year. That’s great. I have a terrible (70) relationship with Republican Spain, and they may join up with one or more of the Allies at some point.
My industry expansion is finished, with my 3 mega-cities making up 230 points of IPU combined. I intend to use these cities to produce all my military units, and use the others to produce the guns and butter.
I am now dedicating over 300 IPUs to Research, overshooting my target. I have never been so successful at this stage of the game with Italy before.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:34am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1937 Closing[/b]
Research Completed: Maneuver Warfare (Offence Bonus), Attrition Warfare (Defence Bonus), Light Bombers, Advanced Sonar
Although just second on the Bomber tech tree, Light Bombers have the best land and sea attack values of any bombing unit. Later bombers become better at infrastructure and strategic bombing.
Advanced Sonar is a pre-requisite for the research of Advanced Submarines, which I want to have early.
I am staking my hopes of fending off the Royal Navy and the French navy in the Med on a strong wing of Light Bombers and Advanced Submarines, with my dated surface fleet intended to be used as a last resort to prevent an amphibious landing (which the AI pulls off regularly) on my mainland.
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:35am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1938 Opening
[/b]IPUs 761
Financial: +659m USD
Relations UK: 308 / France: 250 / US: 493
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/271938ResourceStockpile.jpg[/IMG]
My resource stockpile is extremely healthy, and I can probably afford to push up my IPUs by expanding my mega-cities further. For context, here are the IPUs of the other major nations:
UK: 1084
US: 1026
France: 709
USSR: 711
Germany: 641
China: 580
Japan: 414
You can see why Germany is going to need me as a crutch. To put this in perspective though, Germany has 291 army divisions versus France 193. If it could fight a one-front war, it could probably overcome France. I have never seen it be in a position to fight a one-front war once it was at war with France.
I begin the year researching Advanced Infantry, Basic Submarines, Light Tanks, Improved Fighters, Vehicle Radios (vehicle offence bonus) and Infiltration (offence bonus). As soon as Advanced Infantry are researched, I will need to start building them to prepare for war. As soon as I start building up my military, my arms requirements will increase and the combined effect of increased arms demand and IPU dedicated to unit production will mean IPUs dedicated to research will have to ramp down. Thankfully, now that I have completely repaired my finances I can also afford to take some IPUs away from goods production too.
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/281938Research.jpg[/IMG]
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:36am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]1938 Jan 31
[/b]The Spanish Civil War is finally over, with the usual result.
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/29193831JanSCWOver.jpg[/IMG]
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| 7 MAR 2009 at 5:37am | |
Svend KarlsonCenturionPosts : 474 Joined: 12 JUL 2005 Location: UK, Rotherhithe, London Status : Offline | [b]Resource Site Expansion[/b]
I have been forgetting to mention, that fairly regularly, events occur that improve the output from one of the metal, coal or oil production centres. The increases are I think from size 1-4, and are always welcome.
[IMG]http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/Lykurgos/Making%20History/301938ResourceSiteExpansion.jpg[/IMG]30. 1938 Resource Site Expansion
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