Games [Sign-Ups open] 22-Sept Hearts of Iron IV - The W3DHub Showdown

[Nodlied]

Game will start in one hour. Be there before that time! Game password will be W3D.

[Voe]

oof

[Nodlied]

Right then, the first part of round one has finished. The game isn't done yet and we'll be finishing it at a later date, but here are a few screenshots to show what has happened so far. Note that I do not have any good screenshots that show the progress in Asia.

 

Spoiler

Yes the war started early. Very early. And the Axis managed to come up with an unexpected strategy. Or at least, it would have if the French player, Pluk, didn't know about it in advance. We pushed through the Maginot line. It's crazy, but it worked.

 

Shortly after the fall of Paris, both Britain and France decided that it was a good idea to boost morale by combining their nations. It was big news, yet the world was also very interested in the death of Rudolf Hess, who somehow flew to Britain in an airship before it went up in flames.

 

The African campaign went well for the Italians and, after beating up the British fleet in the Mediterranean, they managed to land all over the place, taking Malta, Cyprus, the Suez and even Gibraltar.
 

Talking about Gibraltar, here's the naval invasion by mountaineers (yes, I know, it doesn't make any sense). The invasion force was supported by the Italian fleet as well as German and Hungarian bombers. The coastal fort was heavily damaged by an earlier bombing campaign.

 

I'd show even more screenshots, but they contain spoilers that our enemies might use against us. So we'll have to wait until next time.

 

[Pluk]

8 hours ago, Nodlied said:

Yes the war started early. Very early. And the Axis managed to come up with an unexpected strategy. Or at least, it would have if the French player, Pluk, didn't know about it in advance. We pushed through the Maginot line. It's crazy, but it worked.

Sadly, because the war started this early both Britain and France had to commit every division on the mainland to hold the Italian, German and Belgium fronts. Which meant that my mobile respons army that sat right behind the maginot - in anticipation for the eventual breakthrough - had to move to Belgium to prevent that front from collapsing. Which meant I had little to nothing to push back the Jerries and defeat was inevitable. 
Most of the british and french troops did manage to evacuate, though.

 

I still blame the whole debacle on those filthy commies.

Edited September 23, 2018 by Pluk

[Category 5 Hurricane]

After speaking with both the filthy commies at work, it seems both of them are so down on their performance that they think they want to quit. And they aren't even at war with the Europeans yet!

But not Britain! There is no quit in Britain. I mean, seriously, there isn't even a Q or a U. I'll be spending the time between now and the next game continuing from the save and see if I can dig myself out of this mess.

Edited September 24, 2018 by Category 5 Hurricane

[Nodlied]

18 hours ago, Category 5 Hurricane said:

After speaking with both the filthy commies at work, it seems both of them are so down on their performance that they think they want to quit. And they aren't even at war with the Europeans yet!

But not Britain! There is no quit in Britain. I mean, seriously, there isn't even a Q or a U. I'll be spending the time between now and the next game continuing from the save and see if I can dig myself out of this mess.

Me and my fellow Fascists have also had a talk. We've decided that going to war with the barbaric communists will pretty much win us the game right now, so that's precisely what we will not be doing. To keep the game fun for as many as possible, we're not going to war with the Soviets until they feel that they're ready. So eh... prepare for some good old fashioned broadsides, Allies!

In any case, have fun with finding the correct strategy. I'm interested in what you can come up with.

 

Oh and when do we continue the game? This Saturday at the same time? If not, let's discuss to find a good date for everyone.

[TheIrishman]

Maybe the 20th of next month? I'll have to ask off again.

[Liten]

31 minutes ago, Nodlied said:

Me and my fellow Fascists have also had a talk.

Meanwhile, at the childrens table:

[Voe]

1 hour ago, Liten said:

Meanwhile, at the childrens table:

[Category 5 Hurricane]

8 hours ago, Nodlied said:

Me and my fellow Fascists have also had a talk. We've decided that going to war with the barbaric communists will pretty much win us the game right now, so that's precisely what we will not be doing. To keep the game fun for as many as possible, we're not going to war with the Soviets until they feel that they're ready. So eh... prepare for some good old fashioned broadsides, [Cat5, because you're the only one in the Allies right now or in the foreseeable future]

In any case, have fun with finding the correct strategy. I'm interested in what you can come up with.

 

Oh and when do we continue the game? This Saturday at the same time? If not, let's discuss to find a good date for everyone.

Shockingly, after running a test, I found out that I have access to a wildcard that may change the war in unexpected ways.

I am actually available this Saturday but I don't know about the other two. I assume TheIrishman must work. October 13th is the earliest we can submit an ask off right now.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Category 5 Hurricane

[Nodlied]

I'm fine with October the 13th as well. But we'll have to see if Voe and Liten can make it on that day. (And Pluk, since he''s probably a real balancing asset.)

[Voe]

I'm up whenever.

[Pluk]

21 hours ago, Nodlied said:

I'm fine with October the 13th as well. But we'll have to see if Voe and Liten can make it on that day. (And Pluk, since he's probably a real balancing asset.)

Hon Hon Hon - oh wait, I mean: Freedom! 
I'm fine with the 13th, but I'd like to have a strategy meeting with the allies and communards (if they're willing to continue their land war in asia that is) beforehand.
Something with we can still do this, but its gon be extreemly hard though...

[Liten]

I can do basically every weekend because I have no friends and I don't work weekends.

45 minutes ago, Pluk said:

Hon Hon Hon - oh wait, I mean: Freedom! 
I'm fine with the 13th, but I'd like to have a strategy meeting with the allies and communards (if they're willing to continue their land war in asia that is) beforehand.
Something with we can still do this, but its gon be extreemly hard though...

Surrendering is not that hard, the French are in fact experts at it.

[Pluk]

2 hours ago, Liten said:

Surrendering is not that hard, the French are in fact experts at it.

Except the French did in fact not surrender in this case.

[Nodlied]

1 hour ago, Pluk said:

Except the French did in fact not surrender in this case.

Do you really think that you're safe under a different flag?  

[Voe]

1 hour ago, Pluk said:

Except the French did in fact not surrender in this case.

Yeah, you got annexed.

[Category 5 Hurricane]

17 hours ago, Pluk said:

Hon Hon Hon - oh wait, I mean: Freedom! 
I'm fine with the 13th, but I'd like to have a strategy meeting with the allies and communards (if they're willing to continue their land war in asia that is) beforehand.
Something with we can still do this, but its gon be extreemly hard though...

How do you want to do the meeting?

So far, I can't imagine a strategy that would get us to the point where we can win. Maybe can hold the isles, but I can't imagine getting to the point where we can do an invasion of Europe for like 10 years.

[Voe]

Rule Italia, Italia rules the waves...

 

[Category 5 Hurricane]

100% accurate representation of the battle between Britain and Italy in northern Africa

 

[Voe]

Video unavailable

The uploader has not made this video available in your country.

[Pluk]

On 9/27/2018 at 7:40 AM, Category 5 Hurricane said:

How do you want to do the meeting?

So far, I can't imagine a strategy that would get us to the point where we can win. Maybe can hold the isles, but I can't imagine getting to the point where we can do an invasion of Europe for like 10 years.

Just in a seperate ts channel right before we continue the game, so we can coordinate a resistance to the fascist menace.
Especially a coordination between the allies and communards.

[Category 5 Hurricane]

It seems as if we're going to have to aim for the 20th instead of the 13th due to staffing issues at our work.

While I'm at it, I have a proposal. Skyhater sounds like he will be unwilling to play from the current save. Since you guys were willing to effectively stall the game to give us a chance and try to have a more fun game, I came up with the idea that we could start from an earlier save. I know for sure we have one from February 1936, but I believe Nodlied should have one from when Skyhater's laptop crashed. I believe that save was before the Comintern made their critical strategic error that more or less ensured Axis victory.

If the Comintern is allowed to take back that mistake and I'm allowed to make some changes based on what I learned since then, I think we should be able to make a more competitive game out of this, without having to start over completely.

[Nodlied]

I'm fine with moving it to the 20th. As for rebooting back to the earlier start, I'll have to discuss everything with the others first.

[Voe]

2 minutes ago, Nodlied said:

I'm fine with moving it to the 20th. As for rebooting back to the earlier start, I'll have to discuss everything with the others first.

Weeeell, we have years of buildup towards a particular strategy already going on. We, the axis, cannot change our game plan at this stage, meaning the allies will know exactly what's coming their way.

[Pluk]

17 hours ago, Voe said:

Weeeell, we have years of buildup towards a particular strategy already going on. We, the axis, cannot change our game plan at this stage, meaning the allies will know exactly what's coming their way.

>implying we (I) didn't already knew what was coming our way :/

[Nodlied]

In any case, are we all still on for Saturday?

 

I mean, I'm in favour of continueing the current game, but I believe that it is best to discuss everything on TS before we start playing again.

[Category 5 Hurricane]

Well, we know what's coming either way. It's not like it's a surprise when WW2 happens while playing a Hearts of Iron game, and your invasion targets were predictable given the historical restrictions. Even if we go back to before the war started, it's not like the Soviets or myself are going to be able to position ourselves to stop your advances into other countries. We can only get ourselves in better position to defend ourselves.

To be honest, if we continued from the current save, I think I'd prefer that you guys just end it as quick as you think you can (the AI did it in a little as 3 months, but also took almost 1.5 years on another attempt), so that we can start another game sooner rather than later, because there is little point delaying the inevitable. Even if you guys didn't attack the Comintern, I don't think I'd be able to hold off a competent Axis trying to invade the home isles for two years before the USA is allowed to join (a restriction I wasn't aware of, I might add) I'd rather just concede that you guys won this game, and then restart from the advanced time so that we can get into another game really quickly and give it another go.

From my point of view, it's less about responding to what you guys did, but changing what we did, because we did some stupid things. The Comintern strategy that allowed WW2 to start early, for example, could be changed by the Com China player not attacking Japan and instead taking out the rest of China, and I'd put more force into defending France, because I previously believed Paris didn't count and wasn't preparing to defend France at all until Pluk asked me to. Oh, and I'd build my divisions differently and setup my Garrison orders better. I wouldn't be, for example, trying to invade Scandinavia before you guys do, because I don't think I have the skill to pull that off, nor the forces available to commit to it.

In turn, I'm sure you guys also learned plenty about us during that playthrough as well. 

The three of us are all off for Saturday, so in theory we should be available. I don't really know what TheIrishman's or Skyhater's plans are.

[Nodlied]

40 minutes ago, Category 5 Hurricane said:

Well, we know what's coming either way. It's not like it's a surprise when WW2 happens while playing a Hearts of Iron game, and your invasion targets were predictable given the historical restrictions. Even if we go back to before the war started, it's not like the Soviets or myself are going to be able to position ourselves to stop your advances into other countries. We can only get ourselves in better position to defend ourselves.

To be honest, if we continued from the current save, I think I'd prefer that you guys just end it as quick as you think you can (the AI did it in a little as 3 months, but also took almost 1.5 years on another attempt), so that we can start another game sooner rather than later, because there is little point delaying the inevitable. Even if you guys didn't attack the Comintern, I don't think I'd be able to hold off a competent Axis trying to invade the home isles for two years before the USA is allowed to join (a restriction I wasn't aware of, I might add) I'd rather just concede that you guys won this game, and then restart from the advanced time so that we can get into another game really quickly and give it another go.

From my point of view, it's less about responding to what you guys did, but changing what we did, because we did some stupid things. The Comintern strategy that allowed WW2 to start early, for example, could be changed by the Com China player not attacking Japan and instead taking out the rest of China, and I'd put more force into defending France, because I previously believed Paris didn't count and wasn't preparing to defend France at all until Pluk asked me to. Oh, and I'd build my divisions differently and setup my Garrison orders better. I wouldn't be, for example, trying to invade Scandinavia before you guys do, because I don't think I have the skill to pull that off, nor the forces available to commit to it.

In turn, I'm sure you guys also learned plenty about us during that playthrough as well. 

The three of us are all off for Saturday, so in theory we should be available. I don't really know what TheIrishman's or Skyhater's plans are.

I'm fine with any option. I'll see what I can do to gather everyone.

[Nodlied]

I'll be on Teamspeak in about 35 minutes from this post. Do we still play?

@Category 5 Hurricane @TheIrishman @Liten @Voe @Pluk