Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

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Bombur
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Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by Bombur »

I´m playing a GD 1938 game with ernie. He plays the Axis+USSR, while I´m playing the western nations+China. We are playing an alternate WWII where Germany will be friendly, or at least neutral, towards USSR (think of a neutrality pact being signed by 1938, instead of 1939). V0.94 (not yet released) creates alliances and a few exotic features, like Chile and Mexico being annexed by USSR in case of coups. If the west nations are eventually defeated we can see a final showdown between USSR and the Axis. The idea here is to text the flexibility of the diplomatic features of the game and also the new tech tree.

January 1938.
Germany annexed Denmark and Austria
Italy annexed Hungary and Yugoslavia
The scared Norwegian government agreed with an alliance with United Kingdom, while the Greeks asked to be accepted in the British Commonwealth. France annexed Luxembourg. Germany agents toppled the government in Cuba. The USA is nervous with an hostile government close to his own shores. An extensive program of armed forces expansions was started.
In China, there were some inconclusive land battles with moderate losses to both sides. The obsolete Chinese fighters did well against Japanese planes, achieving a 1:1 kill rate.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by ernieschwitz »

Also, in january 1938, agents from the Soviet Union coup´ed Rumania. ... I think Bombur just forgot in the heat of the diplomatic actions.

And despite the earlier reports of Hungary being annexed, it remains a free state. However, Albania was annexed by Italy.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by ernieschwitz »

My thinking:

Germany and Italy are protected by a diplomatic shield. No-one can attack them, until they themselves have attacked. So, it was time to use some of those PPs on diplomatic expansions.

In this version of the game (version 0.94), Czechoslovakia and Denmark can be annexed by Germany, outright. So, I had really two ways to go, i think. I could either annex Denmark and Austria, or annex Czechoslovakia. Annexing Czechoslovakia is nice, because it gives me access to a major coal source, which would provide me with enough fuel for a long time, as well as supplies. However, if I don´t Annex Denmark, it may be coup´ed by Great Britain, who then gains access to the baltic sea, through there. And Also France is able to coup Austria, which with it's German population really produces alot... So my choice fell on Denmark and Austria. With any hope the gamble would pay off and I would get Czechoslovakia next turn. France and Britain both have the option of bringing Czechoslovakia to their alliance.

The coup in Cuba. Well, it only costs 10 PP, and it might be a good submarine base. Cuba is also the only country that USA can bring under her protection, without making a coup... So, to annoy, I chose to try and get a coup in Cuba. Seeing that it only succeeds 25% of the time, and 10% of that time there is a counter coup giving it to the USA, it was a chance to take. It paid off, luckily.

Italy also had some needs. Among others to be able to fight on a single front. The best way to do this was to ensure that countries around it, are not annexed or join the opposing forces. However, Italy also has some nice options. For instance taking Spain would open up the Med so forces from the Axis could meet up. Also one might choose a coup in Turkey. In the end i decided that my flank was more worth it than these two other options. So the Italian leadership (Mousolini), chose to exhert some pressure on the Yugoslav and Albanian governments. Both succumbed and joined Italy.

Japan also has a sort of diplomatic screen. They can not be attacked by any other power than the Soviet Union, unless they decide to go to war with a western power (however small). Also they start off embroyled in a war with China. I was assuming that the chinese would not sue for peace, so I had to fight here.

I decide to make some small skirmishes, while moving my units in better position for assaults on important locations. I also send my airforce after the Chinese airforce, to try and engage and destroy as much of it as possible. Mixed results on that part. As bombur reported a 1:1 ratio. Not good, but neccessary. China cannot replace its air losses, at least not in the foreseeable future. I can. I bring some of the Japanese fleet to bear on Tsingtao, bombarding it, and preparing it for assault sooner or later. I also send out submarines from Taipei to blockade Hainan. Hangchow is bombarded, and the position in and near Shanghai is held.

USSR i was not really sure what to do with, yet. I have this vague plan of them somehow being able to contribute to the Axis war-effort against the capitalists. I try some coup´s. One in Finland, One in Romania and perhaps one more, I can´t remember exactly. Only one of the coup´s succeed. That in Rumania. But that is ok. Russia will have plenty of time to conquer Finland, without interference by anybody. As for the three Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania... they can be taken over by annexation in this version of the game. However, no need to hasten this. The only other country able to in any way get a hold of them is Germany... and we are friends with Germany.

That was my thought process in turn 1.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by Bombur »

Turn 2

GB: A disastrous covert operation by the Foreign Office resulted in a pro German government in Persia. The Italians also got Arabia after a Fascist coup. Most of the Middle East with its rich oil reserves are now in Fascist hands.
France annexed Belgium
The USA goes on with military expansion. The first batch of Fighters III rolled out of the assembly lines
China lost Tsingtao. Chinese units retreated from the shores, where they can be hit by the IJN with lethal effects. On the good news, it´s reported that Japanese fighters lack the range to protect some units in the Chinese mainland. This resulted in Chinese air attacks, followed by a land counteroffensive that almost wiped out two Japanese divisions.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by ernieschwitz »

Turn 2 (or rather febuary 1938).

Germany completes it´s short term take over plans, and annex Czechoslovakia... We also try for a coup in a south american country, that shall remain nameless (for security reasons), and it failed. Too bad really, it would have made a nice place to stash a few submarines as well.

Italian leadership realizes that it cannot maintain it´s african ambitions without a supply source of some kind. (In this game cities produce very little supply, but there are oil wells and coal mines that do). The only country around that has any potential for this, is Arabia. So we try a coup there, and as bombur has reported, it succeeds. Ah goody, an italian thorn in the side of the allied rear. Maybe this is going to be Italians war after all - they are kind of a puny nation, so they need some luck to be able to become an empire.

The Japanese concentrate on taking Chinese cities. The less the Chinese can produce, the less we need to fight them. Tsingtao is taken, after a heavy dose of artillery, shore bombardment, and bombing from the air. This is good news, as it will allow me to start linking up my forces in the South (near shanghai), and in the North (Peking, Manchuria and so on). Also a division is landed on the northern shores of Hainan. Next turn they will try to capture the city.

In Moscow things are quiet. A few coups are planned, but with the usual luck (or lack there of) these fail. The Soviet Union will have to use military means, most likely to persuade these countries to join later.

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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by Bombur »

Turn 3
-Sweden joined the great British alliance
-Italian annexed Switzerland
-China loses Hainan. Chinese troops are inflicting 1:1 casualties in the Japanese Army, but the Chinese Army is losng ground.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by ernieschwitz »

turn 3 (still 1938)

The Germans consolidate themselves, trying to figure out what to do next. Abwehr is charged with trying to topple the Polish regime, that seems so anti-german it is hard to think of. Whatever do they want from little Germany... they already have Danzig! ... I guess that is really the main beef. Who will get Danzig, when and why.

The Italian intelligence services manages yet another glorious coup! This time, Switzerland. This will really help to quell french enthusiasm for war. If they decide to go against Italy, the French will have to fight on a much broader front, and the Maginot line might be circumvented by a route through Switzerland.

Hainan falls to the japanese forces that landed on the north coast of the island last turn. It was a close battle, but not close enough to stop the Japanese thrust. While the battle officially ended in a draw, both parties being to exhausted to fight any more... the Chinese surrendered to the Japanese, who couldn´t march into the city because of the hard battle they had fought. In the North, an important bridge was taken, near Tsingtao. Japanese forces are rushing across to see if they can link up with forces in Shanghai.

The Soviet Union had another series of fiascos, trying to turn a few countries goverments to seeing the light. Stalin did however persuade Mongolia to join the ranks of the Soviet Peoples Paradise.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by Bombur »

Turn 4

The Japanese troops keep advancing in China, using airstrikes and artillery to weaken the Chinese defenders. Preparatives were made for a desperate defense of Kaifeng. The Japanese, however, are still taking relatively heavy losses.
The Foreign office achieved another sucess by organizing a pro British coup in Ankara. However, the entire Eastern Europe is in hostile hands.
No significant news from France and United States
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by lion_of_judah »

question: when one coups a nation does this nation become your terrority or just allied with you and those nations keep their own units and whatnot? very good read indeed and looking forward to some screenshots....
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by ernieschwitz »

ORIGINAL: lion_of_judah

question: when one coups a nation does this nation become your terrority or just allied with you and those nations keep their own units and whatnot? very good read indeed and looking forward to some screenshots....

Here is how the coup function works. First there is a 25% chance it will work, then there is a 10% chance it will backfire, and someone else will make a counter coup. If it works, the country becomes yours, with units and all, if it backfires, the country becomes the new owners property units and all. If it doesn´t work, it just says your agents are discovered, and nothing more happens. You can only try a coup once though!

Not all countries are eligable for coups by everyone. Take the Poland. Germany can actually attempt a coup, and the country might come under their control. If it backfires, the Soviet Union takes over the country. The Soviet union too can try a coup, which could backfire into a German coup happening instead. Britain and France (if i remember correctly) can take over by action card (which is an automatic takeover of the country).

This makes for an interesting dynamic. Do the Soviets or Germans dare to run a coup? And when, cause if they wait to long the country will become a part of France/Great Britain... not good at all...
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by ernieschwitz »

Sorry about not having a screenshot in this post...

Not much news from Germany, so we´ll go right to Italy, and... not much news in Italy either. :P

Japan: Offensives are made by both Armies located in China. The 3rd Army which is engaged in fighting around Kaifeng, found that there scouts reported a too high concentration of enemies there, so instead, they turned southwards. Here they found, after clearing some chinese forces from the Peking-Shanghai road, that they had the chance to inflict major damage on the Chinese local HQ. Some intense fighting resulted, and the enemy HQ survived the onslaught. The forces of the 4th Army decided to try and mount an offensive towards Hangchow. This was succesful and Hangchow is now a part of the area know as Protected (occupied) China. Japanese Generals swear that they will have this war over by 1940. We will see.

The Baltic countries decide they want to join the Soviet Peoples Paradise. And liberating forces stream to the countries from the Soviet Union. To celebrate of course! A naval visit is scheduled to happen by the Soviet Baltic surface fleet as well.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

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ORIGINAL: ernieschwitz
Not much news from Germany.

Ack. Forgot that Germany Annexed Hungary and Finland in this turn. (we are reporting with a 1 turn delay, can be hard to remember what actually happened). With that in mind here is a brief report from Germany.

Hungary and Finland saw the light and commited themselves to support Germany in all her efforts to once again become a major world power. Poland, that until now has resisted all attempts to join up with either the Soviet state or the German Reich, is surrounded on all sides by German, Soviet and countries friendly to their cause. The nearest friendly country to Poland is... Sweden, which is controlled by a puppet British government (I am sure the British papers will deny this, and claim that Sweden is a country like any other, that has chosen to align with the British by various pacts. You know the usual lies!)
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by ernieschwitz »

Turn 6, or rather June 1938.

Germany is peaceful, and apart from a few troop movements (friendly exercizes!) nothing is happening.

Italy is also quiet, it would seem that imperialistic ambition has been quelled, for now.

Japan does some straightening of the line, and not much else. Spurred on by recent victories in mainland China, the Thai goverment decides to ally with Japan.

In the Soviet Peoples Paradise, there is much talk of a new 5 year plan that will increase economic output and heighten the living standard.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by Bombur »

Turn 7 July 1938

-France: no more diplomatic annexations are possible. Improvements are being made in the armed forces. We hope to develop fighter III before 1939, as our fighters are considered inferior to the German and British ones. New armoured dividions are being raised.
-British: the Polish government is asking us for a mutual defense pact, worried with the aggressive behaviour of German and Soviet governments. However, we are already busy by upgrading Swedish and Norwegian forces to the same level of British ones.
-USA: Expansion of military forces is going as planned. We expect to end 1938 with a force of 8-9 fleet carriers. We are thinking about using them against a certain Asiatic country....
-China. Our forces are still retreating, but the Japanese are paying a heavy price. We were able to launch a small couterattack in the North, destroying one Japanese infantry division, but the situation in the South is dire, and we don´t know if Kaifeng will hold for another turn.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by ernieschwitz »

Turn 7, July 1938.

Germany salutes the winner of the world cup in football (soccer): Italy! The Italians are most pleased with this result. It was a thrilling match that ended 4-2 to Italy. The loser was Hungary. It is nice to see that these sporting events can still take place, despite diplomatic tensions, and countries signing pacts with each others... Most of these pacts are after all just mutual assistance pacts!

Japan... well there is something happening in China. Two major offensives have taken place. The first to try and capture Wuhan, the second to try and capture Kaifeng. Here is a map showing the offensives.



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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

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As can be seen the road between Shanghai and Peking is now open. The last chinese unit retreated this turn. In the south 4th army broke the Chinese front protecting the southern approaches to Wuhan. In the north Kaifeng is being surrounded by troops of the 3rd Army.

We expect some counter offensives, but the japanese are pretty reckless in their headlong charge. Maybe it will come back to bite them. And, as can be read in Bomburs post above, it did. A division was decimated in the north, near Peking, where the fighting has been very non-existant (off map in this screenshot)... And in the South, the Division that was on the outskirts of Wuhan was pushed back, and surrounded. It did hold however.

There is nothing to report from the secretive Soviet Union.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

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Two turns have passed, and its now August 1938.

Nobody seems to care what is happening in Germany and Italy, and the truth is not much, at least according to the local newspapers. Some news has spread though. French observers have seen a new Italian airplane type they have never seen before, a biplane that seems to be incredibly manouverable. The Italians are great believers in agility in the air, apparantly. While we are still on the tech. front, Chinese infantry are discovering the value of semiautomatic weapons, as the Japanese seem to have developed these. In the Soviet Union there is still much talk of 5-year plans, and economic growth.

On the diplomatic front, it seems that Holland and its colonies, have entered a mutual defence pact with Great Britain. This move is sure to spark tensions in the long run.

The struggle to protect China from it´s many warlords, is going well for Japan. Here is a look at the map from the beginning of August. As you might notice, when comparing it to the one posted earlier, Japan has now taken Kaifeng and Wuhan. Also Japan has built a Chemical Factory, for civiilian use of course, near Sendai (off this map section). The Japanese fuel and supply situation has been much improved as a result.

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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by ernieschwitz »

October, 1938.

France has sent military advisors and "civilian" personel to Poland, which it has made an alliance with. This proved too much of a provocation for the Soviet Union, that immediately launched an Invasion of Poland. A few days into the campaign France and Britain jointly declared war on the Soviet Union. In an effort to defend it´s own interests, Soviet land, air and naval forces launched attacks on Sweden and Turkey (that are both British puppets, the western press just doesn´t want to admit it). Within days Lvov and Vilnius are captured, Stockholm is attacked by the Red Fleet, and several ships are sunk at their docking stations. Istanbul is raided by the Black Sea Fleet, and several smaller towns in Turkey are bombed.

It seems that in this timeline, world war does break out over Poland, but with the Soviet Union as the main aggressor.

Elsewhere, Canton falls to Japanese forces, who liberate the city from it´s chinese overlords. Japanese troops also stand before the gates of Sian.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by lion_of_judah »

I'm rather enjoying the screenshots and the read, good job on both. So is Germany just biding her time or is there now just nothing but niceness and sweetness coming out of Berlin.
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RE: Alternate WWII...a GD 1938 game

Post by Bombur »

France: The Poland cause is a lost one, but we will bleed the bear in order to make it think twice before attacking peaceful neighbours. One Soviet Division was badly mauled while reaching Warsaw outskirts. The defense of Warsaw is being prepared.
Great Britain: The Soviet propaganda machine seems to have forgotten the heavy losses suffered by their pathetic navy in the Offensive against Sweden and Turkey. The Swedish Navy was almost anihilated, but it managed to inflict heavy losses to the Red Navy, including an old Gangut class Battleship (Battleship I in game terms). The Baltic Navy was lucky, as the RN cannot enter the Baltic. On the other hand, the Balck Sea Navy was almost anihilated to the last ship and it now lacks anything bigger than a destroyer. Reinforcements are rushing to Turkey to defend that country from Soviet agression. The Black Sea will be soon a British lake, and we our destroyers will enjoy the opportunity to hunt some big fishes...
USA: President Rooselvelt made a strong speech against Soviet agression, but no additional steps were taken. It´s sais that most of the Congress is against involvement with this war, but the perspective of having the USSR in control of Turkey, Sweden and Poland isn´t well accepted too.
Here are the losses suffered by USSR and GB in their engagements. Mostly naval forces.

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