Slitherine

This is the AAR of my first, completed game of McGuba's brilliant Battlefield Europe mod viewtopic.php?f=147&t=47985, where you can play with all Axis nations and battle in whole Europe, North Africa and Middle East until turn 99 comes and the war ends (How? That depends on the player's echivements.).

WARNING! SPOILERS CAN BE IN THE STORY!

Difficulty: Rommel

Part 1.

Background: after the quick and decisive victories in Poland, France and in the Balkan where my army took major part in it a new, an even greater challenge awaits us - defeating the Sovietunion! But before the major offensive began, many events happened which surprised me really!
1., Adolf Hitler, the leader of our Third Reich was removed from power.
2., I was promoted to General Feldmarschall and to the major leader of all military forces of the Axis powers.

- Of course, this will be a complicated task because I have to take attention to the sensibility of our allies and make decisions according their interest but still it is a very good result that all of our allied sees the importance of a main strategical center which makes coordinated activities possible.
- We don't wanted to be in war with the Brits and we still don't sees them as our real enemies but since they don't want to make peace with the Axis powers they have to defeated too. Or, at least neuralised to avoid all possible threats from their direction.
- Although we are already in the 3rd year of war the Axis industry is still working as it would be peace time! It cannot be continued in that way because war needs soldiers and weapons so I already contacted my friend Albert Speer which has brilliant abilities in organising that he should tune up the industry. He prmoised me that he will do everything, what is possible, but of course this takes time. So, for now, we have to fight with what we have right now. We cannot wait because our enemies are strenghtening their forces in fast speed and I don't know how long the USA can be hold out of the war too...
- But we have some benefits too: although our air transport capabilities are really small and the naval transport is also limited but the Deutsche Reichsbahn working together with rail organisations of our allies enables fast and precise transport of our troops on land. And secondly, we have an effective spy ring in England and a smaller one in Moscow (what remained after the Purges...) so maybe we can not completely rely on their informations, still we can anticipate many moves of our enemies. For example, it is good to know, that after the defeats in 1940, the Brits are not capable to mount any landings on the European mainland now. Their air power is another theme...

Still, first, big decisons has to be made: on which fronts, in which theaters, against which enemy should we move first? The major offensive against the Sovietunion cannot be stopped, but the strenght of it can be modified and it's current destinations too - if needed. All war material needs oil. The resources for it are very unbalanced: while the Axis powers have a few of them (mainly the oil fields in Ploiesti, Romania), the Allies have many in the Middle East and in the Caucasus. So if we want to make or chances bigger to win this war, the oil fields of the enemy has to be captured!

Part 2.

1941.
West: as our spy ring informed us, we have not to fear any landing tries of the Brits. As our forces will be tied down in another theaters, Axis landing is also postnoted for later period - eventually after the defeat of the Sovietunion. As all airpower is needed elsewhere too, major measures were initiated to handle this situation: almost all land units were transported to the south, where they were not in the radius of Allied planes. The ships were also moved out of the French ports to the Bay of Biscay to avoid further damage taken from British bombers. All existing AA batteries were moved to the area opposite to the English shores and to protect the major industrial centres in Germany and West Europe (major objectives). Additionally, a few Italian units were directed to the southern area of Vichy France to supress any partisan activity. The whole transportation project was a difficult task, but eventually it succeed.

Balkan and Greece: intelligence reported that the Balkan mountain give excellent opportunities to gerilla warfare so it was a must that Axis troops has to stationed here to deal with the situation. The Croatian, Italian forces seemed enough to be to this task. Even I pulled out the Italian 75/12 gun formation to use it elsewhere. The soldiers of the Bulgarian army seemed also very though guys so high command made a decision to ask the Bulgarian goverment to use these soldiers in Russia. After several, long discussions (and some pressure...), they agreed. Just the cavallery stayed on the Balkan. Replacing them the Romanian replacement divisions were directed to partisan-fighting duties. The German garrisons in Greece were also mostly replaced with Italian troops.

Mediterrean and North Africa: my comrade, Rommel reported that without significant reinforcements, he cannot hold the ground and capture Tobruk in the same time. His wishes was absolutely understood and he got significant reinforcements. This was not only for aiding the Africa Corps but the plan calculated with much further destinations: the capturing of the oil fields in the Middle East and after the success, moving further, eventually capturing the oil fields in the Caucasus and even later the advance to Russia from the south!
To achive this, the first step was to capture Malta as soon as possible! So, all available aircraft in the area were ordered to attack Malta: the bombers to bomb it, the fighters to defend them and engage any hostile fighters. Additionally, all aircraft from Western Europe (exclude the Bf 110, which was directed to the east) were directed to the south to add extra airpower, which will be also added to the "Oil Corps" (OC) - the task force with the destination of the oil fields. Further units were directed as part of the OC to the south: the three elite 150mm gun formations and the upgraded Pz IIIF unit, plus two Pz IIC (upgraded later on Malta to Pz IVs), two Kradschützen, a Gebirgsjäger formation, a Ju 88, and the Romanian He111 bomber squadrons. The panzer formations joined the battle only in spring '42, because they weren't needed earlier. Until that they fought in Russia.
In the meantime, the Africa Corps retreated a little in the western direction and prepared for the defense, until the reinforcements arrice. While the Allied units arrived on the scene, the M13/40 was transported to the European mainland and eventually to Russia as it was not useful in Africa. The AB 40 armored car formation was pulled back and upgraded to AB 41, while the elite Pz IIIG was upgraded to Pz IIIH and later on model J. The Italian fleet came also to aid the Africa Corps and later the Oil Corps. Just the damaged battleship, stationed in Taranto joined the battle later, because it needed still some repair.
The heavy fort on Malta was eventually destroyed but the landing force, carriing an Italian infantry unit was destroyed by the arriving British ships and submarines. So, the capture was done only in spring '42, when all remaining Allied naval vessels were destroyed. The capture of the Island was a great achivement and made a hard blow to the Brits, who loose one major bastion in the mediterrean, while the supplies to North Africa could arrive safely.
The first wave of attack at Tobruk could be relative easy to fend off. In the meantime, the Italian navy fought a hard battle in the waters and took heavy casualties but at the end they destroyed the British naval forces in this area. The winter of '41 brought also bad weather to the desert with sandstorms and therefore the second wave of attackers at Tobruk could be fend off with much greater casualties. But with the support of the still powerful Italian navy, not only the attackers could be destroyed, but in the spring of '42, Tobruk could be also taken and the AC and OC forces could advance to Alexandria. Not to mention there were heavy engagements in the sky also, with significant casualties on both sides, but the appearance of the Fw 190A's (one unit flown from France, one other upgraded from Bf 109) made the air dominance possible. The two Fallschirmjäger formation also made preparations on Crete to make a drop on Cyprus. The possibility for this come in worser weather, when the planes could fly undetected to Cyprus and when the clouds of winter disappeared, they landed on Cyprus and took the island easily. This give the Brits another hard blow and gave our airforces another excellent airfield - which will be also important later at the support of the OC.

East: analising the strategical studies, it turned out that reaching the Arhangelsk-Astrahan line, just before of winter is totally irreal - with the primitive, or non-existing transport infrastructure in Russia, our troops could not reach physically - even, without fight! - targets so far. The winter could be anyway harsh in this region, so decided but deliberate advancing is advised. The new plan in Russia calculates with the capturing of the Baltic territories, Pskov, if possible, Smolensk, Kiev and Dnietropetrovsk, before the winter. When everything is happening, as planned further advance to reach Moscow, Kursk, Kharkov and Maliupol is the task.
...it continues later...

Sounds like Rommel is getting the supplies he needs for a decisive victory in Africa! Very daring Airborne invasion on Cypres, risky too! Seems like your off to a good start! How does the map look like anyway?

LandMarine47 wrote:Sounds like Rommel is getting the supplies he needs for a decisive victory in Africa!

Because he needs it.

LandMarine47 wrote: Very daring Airborne invasion on Cypres, risky too!

Without it, the landings at the Middle East would be risky!

LandMarine47 wrote:Seems like your off to a good start! How does the map look like anyway?

What do you mean?

A screenshot of the strategic overview.

LandMarine47 wrote:A screenshot of the strategic overview.

You mean the actual stand? That would show not much because it happened not yet much (part 1, 2).
Or later, the progress of the advance?
Anyway, I will post visuals, but that takes time. And I'm right now playing the game again - targeting the DV! :
And I'm making also thoughts that maybe it has more sense to write about that an AAR, when I finished it.

Any new developments?

I'm really busy now - I'm playing it again. But this time on Rommel AND without any additional prestige rewards (convoy route, capturing Moscow, Leningrad, England, Malta)... So it is this time extreme hard!
To your question: when I have finished it, I will continue the story.

LandMarine47 wrote:Any new developments?