Author Topic: Poor Earth AAR  (Read 12401 times)

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Offline CharonJr (OP)

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Poor Earth AAR
« on: July 16, 2019, 03:23:11 PM »
Hi,
the setting for this AAR is Earth in 1870 with the 8 major GDP nations as player nations and Germany the only power with TN tech researched. No ICBMs or shipyards. In addition I will edit resources on Earth to “fairly poor” and delete any minerals on Luna if there should be any. The AAR will be in a matter of fact style where I will try to explain at least some of my thought process for certain decisions. In addition I will try to replay this campaign once C# is out in order to get a better impression of the differences.

Setup
Top 8 (GDP) nations in 1870 (rounded numbers, hopefully not that far off from realistic numbers):
                                      Sector shares      
Country           Pop (m)   GDP (m)   Agri  Indu  Serv    Divisions Factories
UK (incl. India)   285      235        35%   30%   35%    19          765
China              370      190        80%   10%   10%     5          190
US                  40      100        30%   35%   35%     5          350
Russia              90       85        80%   10%   10%    30           85
Germany             40       70        40%   35%   25%    40          210
France              40       70        35%   35%   30%    30          195
Italy               30       40        50%   20%   30%    22          100
Japan               35       25        55%   15%   30%     2           55
Rest of World      360      290                           10          435


Each division represents 10k soldiers (low tech INF for everybody, only TN is allowed to build low tech ARM)

Initial POP (in order to get more commanders) = POP(m) + number of research labs * 10 + number of divisions

"Real" POP = POP(m) - I will use SM to lower the numbers before starting the first turn

Conventional factories = GDP * (Industry% + Service%) *5

1 Military Academy and 1 Training Facility per nation

Research labs based on tech tier (very simplified)
4 = UK & Germany (& Rest of the World which will be passive except for war participation)
3 = US, France, Italy
2 = Japan, Russia, China

The basic idea is to give NPRs a fairly long time to expand and build up while there is still stuff happening on Earth. Due to this I will try to follow the steps described below.

Only Germany will get the TN tech at game start, but the other nations will try to research it once they learn about it from their spies (once a espionage team of 5 members is established it will generate an “automatic success” after 1 year in existence – even if they should get killed earlier).

The UK will be the first target for Germany due to its fairly high research (with 4 labs and 5k for TN tech it should take less than 5 years to complete the research). Essentially the same time it will take Germany to research Mobile Infantry.

After this war it will be about 50 German divisions (most likely still largely low tech INF with some low tech ARM and a couple of Mobile INF minus whatever is still needed to control 350m+ pops from the UK by this time) vs. 100 divisions (all low tech INF) from the rest of the world when the second war starts. And the longer Germany waits to build up the more nations will get to TN and research either GAR or improved combat values. In addition each other "major" has a Training Facility and Germany either just 1 or maybe 2 if the one in the UK did not get destroyed or resources are diverted to building a new one (2:6 ratio seems most likely).

Without the UK's industry the rest of the world has about 1.4k conventional factories with Germany having about 110-120 converted ones and 760 from the UK (at occupied production).

Essentially Germany has a 6-7 year headstart and especially due to the difference in starting divisions and TF I am not sure if Germany will win. My fall-back option is that the rest of the world stays united after defeating Germany and heads for the stars. 

All of Earth has 27 labs at game start (minus whatever gets destroyed in the wars), so once Earth is unified research speed should actually be decent and pop numbers most likely around 1.5bn.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2019, 03:32:12 PM by CharonJr »
 

Offline Father Tim

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2019, 06:10:45 PM »
I would suggest editing Human tolerances so that their lower grav limit is 0.20 or higher, to limit the effect of the Earth-Luna economic superhighway.

I assume you are playing all the empires here as player races, and that therefore you plan to do the same in C# Aurora -- or will you give Steve's new multi-faction AI a chance?
 

Offline CharonJr (OP)

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2019, 12:45:08 AM »
Good idea and a good question. I think I will have to take a look at the AI first, because I am not sure if all would go into ("get TN fast and build up the military in the meantime" mode).
 

Offline Garfunkel

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2019, 11:36:17 AM »
Will be interesting to see how this goes! Hopefully the game doesn't get ruined by NPR vs NPR war causing eternal 5sec increments.
 

Offline Father Tim

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2019, 12:16:04 PM »
Good idea and a good question. I think I will have to take a look at the AI first, because I am not sure if all would go into ("get TN fast and build up the military in the meantime" mode).

The VB6 Aurora AI doesn't handle 'conventional to TN' AT ALL, so a pre-TN NPR will stay pre-TN forever.

Steve said he planned to change this for C# Aurora, but not for the v1.0 release (realistically, not until v2.0 at least).
 

Offline CharonJr (OP)

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2019, 02:39:02 PM »
Those are the game details and 2 NPRs were generated at game start (will use this color as my SM-voice;) )



The NPR generating should prevent the NPRs spawning new NPRs and keeping the processing time manageable. The same for "No detection without player presence" which will hopefully avoid any NPR wars. In addition I just removed the "Use known Star Systems" since this should raise the chances to encounter habitable planets and this new NPRs (AFAIK). Activating "Invaders" might be a tad optimistic, but I will cross that bridge when I get there ;)

Background
In 1850 German geologists started to explore the geologic anomalies called the “Nördlinger Ries” (24km diameter) and the “Steinheimer Becken” (4km diameter) which were supposed to be meteorite impact craters. And while the much larger Nördlinger Ries was concluded to really have been caused by an meteorite, but the Steinheimer Becken showed subtle differences.



In 1862 – while searching for the original meteorite – instead of it a large metallic object surrounded by smaller metal objects was found. It was fairly obvious that this was no meteorite but a man-made object which has been largely destroyed, but much less than it should be considering the large crater it caused.
Under the highest secrecy the objects were brought to Berlin and further investigated. It became clear pretty fast that those metals had properties never observed before, but at the same time those metals occurred on Earth as well, but have simply not been extractable from other minerals. Till the end of 1869 ways have been identified to produce 11 new metals with astonishing properties. Using those metals Germany began to improve its industry and build a new type of military unit (armored self propelled cannons). The existence of those metals and the way to produce them was to be keep a secret.

1870
Germany starts to research Mobile Infantry Batallion with Timo Geiszler (20% Engergy Weapons specialist) in 4 labs. In addition a low tech armor division starts to be trained and 110 conventional factories are to be converted to Construction (using 60% of construction) and 100 converted to Mines (40% of construction).

The other nations are all starting to train 1 low tech infantry division. No industrial production at the moment and no fuel production will take place before TN tech is researched. Most likely I will manually add conventional factories for the other nations at the end of each year to simulate some economic growths. And all nations start to search for ways to expand their civilian economies.

In the beginning only the US is able to form a espionage team and sends it into Germany in order to investigate the rumors about the discovery of previously unknown minerals. Since this is way too low I start to add "initial Pop"/10 new officers to each european major power till most have a team - this will help with the fairly low number of ground force officers as well. After the first round of buffs the UK and Russia joined the spy-club, and after 3 additional round only Italy was left without a team.

Dang, it seems like having the player chance to generate a new NPR > 0 works right at the start as well, spawned a NPR right on Earth ;) Note: Set spawn chance to 0 at the start. Takes about 5 seconds processing time for 5 days at the moment, I hope this gets better once Earth is "unified" ;)


The US is the first to complete training its new infantry division in July 1870, has a fairly capable Planetary Governor, but will most likely lack the workers to expand the industry much further.


France follows 1 week later. Ground unit training bonus is a 5%.


The remaining nations follow by mid August (exept Germany with its armor).

The UK:


China:


Japan - this is really the best admin they have:


Italy:


Russia:


In Oktober the Russian Espionage team is captured in Germany, but they have learned enough to ensure that news about the TN materials will trickle back to Russia by the beginning of the new year.

And in November the first armored division completes training in Germany, at the same time a new administrator is installed (+25% shipbuilding, +10% factory production, +15% wealth, +10% population, +20% ground unit, +20% xeno, +10% logistics):


That's it for today...
 
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Offline Garfunkel

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2019, 11:34:27 AM »
Good idea and a good question. I think I will have to take a look at the AI first, because I am not sure if all would go into ("get TN fast and build up the military in the meantime" mode).

The VB6 Aurora AI doesn't handle 'conventional to TN' AT ALL, so a pre-TN NPR will stay pre-TN forever.

Steve said he planned to change this for C# Aurora, but not for the v1.0 release (realistically, not until v2.0 at least).
Yeah, even with the improvements to NPR AI code in C#, I would not run a multi-faction Earth start with NPRs as the other Earth powers. Maybe a multi-faction Sol start, where the NPRs are elsewhere in the system in an aftermath like in the test campaign Steve had.

This is definitely an interesting game setup CharonJr! Your choices regarding NPR spawn chances and detection are definitely the best and while I wouldn't turn Invaders on at the start, it's your funeral  ;D I've never had an NPR spawn on Earth like that, it shouldn't be possible AFAIK, so maybe something went bonkers in game creation. Hopefully it won't cause any issues in the long run, like ghost contacts etc.
 

Offline CharonJr (OP)

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2019, 03:19:39 PM »
Thx ;)

1871
News trickles in from the espionage teams of the non-Asian major powers about Germany’s research into TN metals and all governments assign all of their research capacity towards researching the new materials as well (except for Italy, who still have heard nothing about it).

All non-TN nations have expanded their industrial capacity during the last year, with the Japanese Empire having the largest growth (+5%) and the UK (due to its already fairly advanced home industry and no real industrialization in India the smallest (+1%) (in absolute numbers still the largest growth with +5 conventional factories – together with the US) .

Based on the change in mineral stockpiles a larger proportion of German production is allocated to mines (50% now from 40% before). Earth minerals were cut in half after starting to game to make expansion harder and slow down the game further.


1872
German intelligence indicates that one of the world’s greatest specialists in the fields of construction and production is working for the UK on researching TN metals. Based on evidence found at the Russian espionage team in October 1870 the Germans are fairly certain that TN metals are no longer a secret. Due to the capabilities of the Germany’s world leading scientist in sensors and fire control (which is supposed to the equal to the UK’s c/p specialist) it is calculated, that the UK might finish their research in about 3 years – making it October 1873. It might take an additional half year to find a military application for the research and less than half a year to deploy the first TN unit. Due to this the UK has to be attacked by summer 1874 at the latest. The other nations are not expected to complete their research in less than 4.5 years unless there are some unexpected breakthroughs.

By the end of May Germany completes research into Mobile Infantry Battalions and assigns newly appointed Heike Zenz (+20% logistics/ground combat) to research improved ground unit strength (12) which is expected to complete in early February 1873 (about 8 month) while the alternative research for Assault Troops would take 5 times as long. Once the current training of an additional ARM division is completed training of the new TN unit will start, based on a cadre of experienced low tech infantry.

By the middle of October the Japanese Empire has to halt its training of its new infantry unit due to material shortages and decides to stop expanding the military and focus on the industry instead.

Tensions are rising all around the world due to the continued military build-up of all nations in combination with the paranoia what the discovery of the new TN metals could mean of the future.

By the end of November the first TN combat unit – 48th Mobile Infantry Battalion – is completed by Germany and assigned to Generalmajor Emma Lindenbaum (+15% politics, +25% ground combat bonus), the longest serving officer of the German Heer.

1873
By early February Heiko Zenz completes research into new infantry weapons which improves German combat capabilities by 20%. He continues this line of research and expects to manage another improvement right around the time for the planed offensive against the UK in the summer of 1874.

By the end of November the UK becomes the second TN-power on Earth. Due to fairly heavy traffic between the university and No. 10 Downing Street in combination with the scientific estimates German spies are fairly certain about what has happened. Alfie Kirk (LG 10%) starts research into improved ground combat which is expected to complete by mid-October 1874. Another German Mobile Infantry Battalion will complete training at the end of May 1874. The attack will start immediately after new weapons become avaiable by the end of June 1874.

1874
By the middle of June the German units start to move towards their attack positions, with the 4 Mobile Infantry Battalions and 3 armor divisions assigned to key areas and the 35 infantry divisions following in their wake. The UK currently has 26 infantry divisions at home and abroad.

That's it for today... (this is one of the times where playing takes actually longer than writing about it)
« Last Edit: July 18, 2019, 03:21:45 PM by CharonJr »
 
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Offline CharonJr (OP)

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2019, 11:34:48 AM »
By the end of May Heiko Zenz completes the next level of weapons and tactics research (Ground Unit Strength 14) and start to look into further improving it, expected completion by April 1877. GUS16 still is cheaper than Assault Units (4k vs. 5k) and will provide more benefits in the medium term. While German High Command is fairly confident that the war against the British Empire can be one it is much more doubtful about the next war which might have to be started as early as the end of 1876. The British Empire is despised by most nations on Earth due to their large colonial empire, but it seems very likely the once Germany attacks any other nation that the other nations will support it in order to contain German aggression.

At dawn of July, 1st 1874 Germany starts its attack. And it seems like the High Command might have been a bit optimistic, I have not played Aurora for some time and was surprised by the British defensive strength of 99, I expected something about 75 (26 x 3). It seems there is a defensive bonus I forgot about.


Both nations start to mobilize their reserves, which Germany having the advantage to to having been able to prepare. Germany sends 10 replacement battalions to the front while the UK is only able to send one. Both expect to be able to send 1 additional replacement battalion every 15 days. I SM’d the tech in since replacements should be common knowledge, even thought about HQs, but decided that those might involve TN tech and refrained. But the replacement battalions themselves will be SM’d as well, with a maximum number of initial ground force units – 42 for Germany, 26 for the UK. 1 mine and 2 conventional industries were destroyed in the initial fighting.

At July, 16th the first replacement battalion reaches the British lines.

On August, 16th French spies successfully acquired TN technology from Germany.
Julie Amyot (LG 15%) starts to look into Mobile Infantry Battalions whos power can currently be observed in the fighting between Germany and the British Empire. The overall battle is pretty much a stalemate, but Germany managed to destroy 1 enemy division during the fighting. On September, 16th the British manage to destroy the first German combat division in return. By the start of October it is getting harder for both nations to find volunteers and capable soldiers for the meat-grinder the fighting had become, reducing the rate of reinforcements to 1 battalion each month.

On October, 26th Alfie Kirk has completed research into new weapons and tactics for the British and continues his research into it.

On September, 26th the badly mauled (but fairly experienced) 22nd German Infantry Division is withdrawn from the frontlines and turned into the cadre of a new Mobile Infantry Battalion. And despite the improved British weapons and tactics the German offensive is gaining momentum (combat strength getting close to 2:1). At the same time German intelligence is starting to hear rumors about France having acquired TN tech and an investigation is ordered.

1875
By mid-January the German advantage is 3:1. Information gathered by German intelligence strongly indicates that Frances does posses knowledge of TN materials and it was acquired from Germany.

On February, 1st, with 5:1 odds against them and neither new troops, new technology nor allies on the horizon the British Empire capitulates and starts to be integrated into the German Kaiserreich. All remaining military units are dissolved and for the common people not much is expected to change. The capitulation of the British Empire to the German Kaiserreich is signed on February, 6th. Overall about 5 million people, more than 30 TN factories and mines were lost in the fighting in addition to more than 60 conventional factories.



All units and officers who participated in the fighting are awarded campaign ribbons and combat medals with a couple of leaders who distinguished themselves being awarded the Iron Cross for exceptional bravery or leadership in combat. Any idea how I can display the medals in the commander screen, or has this been removed for version 7.1?

In joined sessions between German High Command and leading scientists there are heated discussions what should be done about France. It is expected that they will need at least until the summer of next year before being able to complete any applicable research and field TN weapons, later for TN units. But even with just counting conventional units German would be outnumbered by 41 (3 of those ARM and 5 Mobile Infantry) vs. 147 low tech infantry divisions. Even with 2 Training Centers under control and better units, weapons and tactics those odds seem fairly bad. High Command assume that the other nations will be able to reinforce the defender (most likely France) with 10 divisions every 5 days with the first wave of reinforcements taking about 1 month to mobilize and arrive. Or maybe attack in the east and open up a second front. Mesons can not be used against ground units, correct?

That’s it for today…
 
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Offline Garfunkel

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2019, 06:10:39 AM »
Mesons can not be used against ground units, only PDCs and ships.

There's a specific Medal/Awards window that shows the graphical representation of them.

HQs can make a big difference in combat but only if there is a capable general leading it and the units attached to it have had time to train/prepare.
 
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Offline CharonJr (OP)

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2019, 03:09:46 PM »
Thx, any idea how to display this window, I can not see it on the "commander screen" (F4)?

Based on their experiences from the war against the British Empire Germany was able to integrate already existing command and control systems with TN materials. This lead to improved means of communications and better logistics.I SM’d Brigade and Divisional Headquarters in for Germany and added enough HQs to cover the current 41 units. Gabriele Schenk (SF35%) takes over the weapons/tactics research (Ground Unit Strength 16) from Heiko Zenz (LG 30%) who starts to look into a new type of infantry unit which is focused on attacking (Assault Infantry). The delay in getting new weapons/tactics from mid-October 1876 to the beginning of November 1877 seems reasonable for getting additional offensive capabilities especially since neither High Command nor the scientists came up with any other solution for being able to fight a global war without severely damaging and polluting Earth itself in the progress. The availability of Assault Infantry is hard to calculate since the UK labs which will be used for it which are severely affected by the recent occupation, as is industrial output.
By mid-May the waves of unrest following the occupation of the British Empire start to quite down a little bit, the population only considers itself to be occupied now. Industrial and scientific output are doubled.

By mid-June the Kingdom of Italy has completed research into expanding the civilian economy and since the existence of TN materials is fairly common knowledge by now Adreanna Balbi (CP15%) starts to look into it. And by the end of October German intelligence captures a US espionage team.

1876
At the beginning of February the British population is further getting used to being a part of the German Kaiserreich, industrial output and research continues to rise, with the former British industry outproducing the industry in German heartlands.

During the summer the French General Staff heard reports about German High Command having had success in integrating TN materials into their command and control. The French started to look into ways to do the same and shortly before the end of the year they were successful. They estimate that they can provide 1 Brigade Headquarters to the army each month, starting in January 1877.

By the end of December the US becomes the next TN power, research is started into improved weapons and tactics (GUS 12) by Salvatore Casady (DS 30%).

1877
Right at the beginning of the new year France completes research into Mobile Infantry Battalion and Julie Amyot (LG 25%) starts looking into improved weapons and tactics (GUS 12). The first French Brigade HQ is established.

By mid-March there are no conventional industries left to convert in Germany, followed by conversion to mines in May, a second Ground Unit Training Facility is started which should be completed in March 1879.

On October, 6th German research into improved weapons and tactics has completed (GSU 16) and Jana Scheele (LG 20%) starts to look into ways to transfer knowledge of command and control from a army unit scale to a planetary scale. At the same time the former British population is even deeper integrated into the German society, they are now considered a candidate population and well on their way for full imperial citizenship. Due to increased moral among the British their productivity reaches new highs.

At the beginning of November Julie Amyot (LG 25%) competes the initial research into improved weapons and tactics (GSU 12) and starts with improving what was learned. This is a problem for the “support France with units from other nations” idea, either I will have to use a 6:5 ratio to keep with the original combat value of those units or have to use them to attack Germany as a relief force. And since there are currently 2 German colonies this might even work. German would have to split its forces between the attacking colony (former Britain) and defend the initial colony at home.

1878
At the beginning of April Salvatore Casady (DS 30%) completes research into improved weapons and tactics (GUS 12) and continues to improve upon it, and at the end of June German counter-intelligence caught a French espionage team.

The US tries to use TN materials in their brigade level HQs, but after some time realizes that they seem to have hit a dead end, most likely a first TN unit has to be researched before further insights can be gained.

1879
By the middle of March an additional Training Facility is completed in Germany. The industry in the German heartland starts expanding industrial capacity and mining.

High Commands current plan for the next war involves blockading the French harbors with the combined German/British fleets in order to prevent reinforcements for France by sea. It is expected that Italy and some minor nation will reinforce France while the bulk of the other nations will attack Germany from the east. The main focus will be France in order to win as quickly as possible and prevent any further build-up of French high-tech units – they are known to produce Mobile Infantry. Once France has been dealt with High Command is very confident that it can contain any attacks on German soil. War is expected to start once a brigade of Assault Infantry has been deployed and are ready to rush towards Paris.

In July Julie Amyot (LG 25%) completed the next stage of improved weapons and tactics and starts to work on further improving them since a German attacks seems to loom on the horizon. She hopes that she will be able to finish in time (expected November 1882). A few weeks later China completes their research into expanding the civilian economy and starts to look into TN materials with Xu Ni Gamg (EW 35%) leading the team.

In August Heiko Zenz (LG 35%) finished research into Assault Battalions, afterwards he takes over the research into Command and Control. After some heated debate whether additional offensive technologies should be researched it was decided that by the time they would be available the war is already either won or lost. Due to this Gabriele Schenk (SF 40%) starts working on geological sensors.

One week later Italy finishes its research into TN materials, immediately Montrelle Castelnuovo (LG 20%) starts to look into improved weapons and tactics for the Italian ground units (GSU 12).

1880
In January Russia joins the TN-club and starts to research improved weapons and tactics (GSU 12) with Antosha Sidorov (PP 45%) leading the team.

During new year German spies have been able to get partial data about the French OOB. German High Command is very relieved that the French officer corps seems to be way below German standards.


In contrast the German officer corps is benefiting hugely from their experiences in the British-German war.


That’s it for today…
 
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Offline Garfunkel

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2019, 12:43:55 PM »
Cry 'Havoc!,' and let slip the dogs of war.
 

Offline CharonJr (OP)

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #12 on: July 22, 2019, 03:45:34 PM »
Yes, but a bit later - and it will include something from Ceasar as well ;)


In March GeoSurvey Sensors are completed, research into Pressurised Water Reactors is started by August Roth (PP 10%).

At the beginning of July Italy completed improved weapons and tactics for their ground forces (GSU 12), Montrelle Castelnuovo (LG 25%) tries for additional improvements.

In August Japan completes research into ways to expand its civilian economy and Yoshioka Teijo (PP 30%) starts to look into TN materials.

At the end of October German completes research into Improved Command and Control and construction of a Sector Control is started. Hans-Joachim Neubauer (PP 10%) starts to look into lowering fuel consumption by 10%. In addition the US get their second improvement of the weapons and tactics (GSU 14). Salvatore Casady (DS 30%) starts to look into Mobile Infantry next since the US hopes that this will help with integrating TN materials into the C&C as well.

The die is cast!
On January, 19th Germany attacks France. While the majority of German units are TN based, most other powers still are mainly using conventional units, which are hindered much more by the winter weather. Especially reinforcements and replacements will be harder to get to the front. It is expected that it will take the French allies at least 10 days before the first troops arrive in the theater. And with the Kriegsmarine blockading the ports in Western Europe there will most likely be no reinforcements from overseas at all.

Likewise it is expected that a potential attack on Germany in the east will take at least 10 days to materialize. But High Command has positioned the III. Infantrie Division consisting of 3 light brigades (8 Mobile Infantry, 1 low tech INF) at the eastern border already. Those units will have priority for the new Mobile Infantry or Garrison units soon under construction. The attack in the east is expected to be lead by Russia (about 40 low tech INF), supported by China (about 20 low tech INF), the US (about 25 units, largely low tech INF but some ARM as well), 6 low tech INF from Japan and about 10 low tech INF from an assortment of minor nations. Different Ground Unit Strength levels are taken into account by adding a factor to the number of units (e.g. US gets 1.4 times its number of units due to having GSU 14). It is expected that if will take a couple of months before all units arrive in the theater.

In the west the I. and II. Infantrie Divisionen will launch the attack on France. I. consists of 4 full brigades of Mobile Infantry (16) under the leadership of the best German officers while II. consists of 4 full brigades as well, but with a mix of units (7 Assault Infantry (3 more under construction), 2 Mobile Infantry, 3 low tech ARM and 4 low tech INF). France is expected to field 10-11 brigades of mainly low tech INF with some Mobile Infantry and low tech ARM between them. Italy is expected to reinforce the French, their army is thought to consist of about 35 units, mainly low tech INF. It is expected that all Italian troops will be in place in 1-2 months.

Initially the German forces have a close to 2:1 advantage, but this is not expected to last. All nations on Earth declare war on the German Kaiserreich following its renewed aggression. After 10 days of fighting France gets its first replacements and Germany moves 5 replacement battalions to the front in the west while the remaining 5 are deployed in the east. In addition the first 5 Italian fast reaction forces arrive in France (4 INF, 1 ARM). At the same time 5 low tech INF from minor nations and 1 from Japan arrive in Russia just in time for the Russian offensive. But the Russian offensive in the east grinds to a stop as soon as it has begun, it is estimated that they are outguned by the German defenders at a ratio of roughly 3:1. The attack is stopped for now and will only resume once all allied forces are in Russia. In France the situation is slightly improved, but the German attackers still enjoy a substancial advantage.

Italy manages to move 10 INF to front while in the east the first 5 US units (ARM) arrive, together with the remaining 5 Japanese units and 5 from China (all INF). The French frontline is stabilized further, but Germany still holds an advantage while in the east there is a miscommunication and the Russian attack only comes to a hold 5 days after the initial orders to stop the attack were issued. Forgot to stop the attack, but this might be a good representation of the untested Russian officer corps ;) They will get a couple of additional replacement units

Two weeks later additional reinforcements and some replacement battalions arrive on all fronts. Another 10 Italian INF bolster the French defense while the US is able to establish a steady stream of 5 INF each 10 days to Russia, in addition 5 Chinese INF and remaining INF of the minor nations arrive on the eastern front. But the Italian support has barely any noticable effect. Even German High Command is suprised by the large advantage their troops enjoy due to better equipment, morale, C&C and better leadership due to experience.

By the middle of March Italy manages to bring its last units into France 9 INF into France into addition to 1 Italian and 1 French reinforcement battalion. Overall Italy has moved 33 INF and 2 ARM units to France, but it seems unlikely that they will be enough to hold the line without additional help. Pleads for help are send to the other allies, but without breaking the German blockade additional reinforcements would have to be moved by land, which would take a lot of time. The Russians still want to try another assault once the coalition forces are assembled, if this attack fails they will try to move the coalition forces into France by land. In the east 7 Chinese INF and all but 4 US INF have arrived on the battlefield, together with 3 replacement battalions. In another 2 weeks all military units of the world will face each other along 2 separate frontlines. 1 French Research Lab is destroyed in the fighting, a very heavy blow considering that there are only 2 of those left now.

By April, 4th the final coalition forces have arrived in Russia (4 US INF and 6 Chinese INF) together with 3 replacement battalions. The overall number of coalition units on the eastern front is 100, with most of them INF. They start to attack.


Facing them are 9 German veteran units lead by experienced officers.


When Generalmajor Emma Lindenbaum realized that this human wave would be unable to threaten her positions she orders her troops to make themselves appear weaker than they really are and refrain from counter attacks. She wants the coalition forces to bleed themselves dry on her positions for as long as possible. She estimates that for every percentage point of lost combat power her units manage to inflict twice that number to the enemy.

In the west the situation looks even bleaker for the allies, here they bleed combat capability at a roughly 3:1 ratio. Without reinforcements from the east the war in the west will be lost, but when the eastern front were to be deprived of too many units the Germans might be strong enough to successfully attack Russia.

Again pleas are send to Russia to stop the attacks and keep enough units at the front to stop a German attack, but send everything else to the west as soon as possible. It takes another 5 days before the message arrives and Russia is able to stop its attacks. Russia will keep it own units at the eastern front and the remaining coalition forces start to move towards France. When the Germans realize what is happening they send one of their Mobile Infantry brigades together with 4 of the 5 replacement battalions to the western front. And since they are able to use the German railway for the transport they will arrive nearly 1 month before the bulk of the coalition forces from the eastern front will reach France.


That's it for today...
 
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Offline CharonJr (OP)

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #13 on: July 23, 2019, 02:40:04 PM »
With the bulk of the forces gone from the eastern front German High Command is confident that the remaining Russian forces can be stopped by a single German Mobile Infantry Brigade (the 10. Brigade), the other forces (and their HQs) together with all 5 replacement battalions are moved to the west by train. When the additional German troops arrive at the western front Germany has a 2:1 advantage in combat strength for the first time since the war started.

After another 20 days the first coalition units arrive, 4 US ARM and 5 US INF (initially 5 and 7, but they were reduced by 1.4 due to the higher GSU of France). 5 days after them 30 coalition INF arrive, a mixture of the remaining US and all Chinese units. The final coalition forces – 5 Japanese INF and 6 INF from minor nations – arrive during the next 5 days together with 3 replacement battalions. Germany receives 1 additional replacement battalion. The number of coalition forces declined while moving to France since the experience in the east has shown that the combat capabilities of those lower tech units are not high enough to be useful in engagements vs. the Germans, due to this some units were dissolved and integrated with other units into larger units in order to somewhat compensate for this weakness.

During the German attacks on June, 1st 1881 it becomes obvious that the coalition will not be able to stop the German onslaught. Despite using all available forces in the west they are losing ground. On June, 21st training of another US ARM unit is completed and it is shipped to Europe, but since the blockade is still in effect it will have to be unloaded Istanbul and will take about 1 month to arrive at the front. And despite France and its allies being able to put 3 replacement battalions at the frontline every 15 days in contrast to 1 for Germany the coalition casualties are more than six times as high than for the German side.

By July, 1st Germany enjoys a 3:1 advantage in combat power and the final German assault is started. The 8. Brigade (consisting of 2 Assault and 2 Mobile Infantry) lead by Brigadegeneral Karsten Schulenburg (Ground Combat Bonus 39%, Training 50) uses an all-out attack by the other units of II. Infantrie Division to punch through the coalition lines. His orders are to reach Paris as soon as possible to use this powerful symbol as a means to force (or offer) France (a means) to capitulate.


When news of this breakthrough reaches the coalition High Command everybody implores General Martine Girard, the overall commander of the French army, to deploy the reserves in order to stop the Germans, but General Girard has to reply that there are none. On July, 7th at 10 p.m. 8. Brigade reaches Paris. On the morning of July, 8th a ceasefire is declared and on July 12th France and Russia sign their capitulations with the remaining nations signing on July 17th.

In the end less than 70 coalition units were still operational, many of them badly mauled – out of an initial 140 (already taking into account the lower number of units due to making up for the superior quality of the French troops), with Germany not having lost a single unit.

Despite the fairly quick campaign (just 5 month in total) France suffered 5 million casualties and lost 70% of its industry (including 1 research lab). Germany and Russia did not suffer any serious damages and the other nations are unscathed.


The time has come to heal the wounds torn by two wars, but if the quick and smooth integration of Britain into the German Kaiserreich is any indication, there will be good times ahead for a united Earth. Unless it ends before it really begins…


I was very surprised by the large advantage to be had from good officers in combination with Divisional and Brigade HQs. France had Brigades as well, but due to their much poor officers they hardly had any impact. This lead to a victory that was way faster than expected. But the main goal of this overture was to give the 2 NPRs time to grow naturally. And with the needed integration of the conquered nations, industrial build-up, looming resource shortages and only geo-sensors research at the moment there will still be a lot of time for them to expand further.

That’s it for today…
 
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Offline Garfunkel

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Re: Poor Earth AAR
« Reply #14 on: July 24, 2019, 11:27:43 AM »
It's pretty rare to get to see a conventional ground war on Earth, especially without any space element to it. It's a shame that it is impossible to model the naval war in Aurora and that there isn't a SM-mode for Rule the Waves. I know someone used Hearts of Iron to model the pre-TN discovery history of Earth - their divergence point was in WW2 if I remember correctly - and then followed that up with a conventional start Earth but with 6 powers.

EDIT: it was Kurt and his 6 Powers Campaign: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=1213.0 It's a great read!

And yeah, the HQs, combined with good officers, can make a big difference, but much of the discrepancy is caused by the crazy power gap between low tech INF/ARM and even the basic TN units.  C# actually fixes this to a degree, since ground units and formations become so much more flexible, the combat model slightly more complex and Steve introduced intermediary armour levels before Duranium armour.

I'll definitely keep following this AAR, to see how you fare, plus it's nice to get to read daily updates!
« Last Edit: July 24, 2019, 11:29:59 AM by Garfunkel »
 
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