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How the hell does Germany have 40 battleships and 19 battlecruisers 
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Jun 11, 2015 18:46
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RZApublican posted:How the hell does Germany have 40 battleships and 19 battlecruisers IIRC Kaiserreich assumes the Hochseeflotte was never sunk/scuttled, so a lot of those are ancient WW1-era vintage ships. They're usually stationed out in the Pacific or Indian oceans. Add that to the AI probably building more modern BB's on top of it and you get a lot of ships. They only have 4 carriers though, which is great news.
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Jun 11, 2015 18:48
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 Glad to see this back.
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Jun 11, 2015 19:32
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Drone posted:IIRC Kaiserreich assumes the Hochseeflotte was never sunk/scuttled, so a lot of those are ancient WW1-era vintage ships. They're usually stationed out in the Pacific or Indian oceans. Add that to the AI probably building more modern BB's on top of it and you get a lot of ships. Which reminds me-- is how the Central Powers won WWI part of the KR backstory? Is there any particular point of divergence from real history? Also, we're back! 
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Jun 11, 2015 19:49
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Rincewind posted:Which reminds me-- is how the Central Powers won WWI part of the KR backstory? Is there any particular point of divergence from real history? If I recall properly, and this is mostly from the flavor text when choosing a country to play as, I think one of the earliest change is that after the sinking of the Lusitania, Germany reversed its stance on unlimited submarine warfare, and mended relations with the US sufficiently to avoid their entry in the war. The rest of the war proceeded without any side making much progress, until 1919 when the Germans achieved a breakthrough in the French lines somewhere in Belgium. The French army more or less collapsed at that point, and Germany was free to start occupying with little opposition, and more importantly, to send reinforcements to northern Italy through France, and eventually all the way to the Middle East to help keep the Ottoman Empire on life support. On the Eastern front, I think Germany also ended up intervening on the White side at that point and the Soviets were defeated.
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Jun 11, 2015 20:03
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Excited to see how this develops. Feels like a long time since we greeted our American comrades in this thread.
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Jun 12, 2015 01:36
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Drone posted:IIRC Kaiserreich assumes the Hochseeflotte was never sunk/scuttled, so a lot of those are ancient WW1-era vintage ships. They're usually stationed out in the Pacific or Indian oceans. Add that to the AI probably building more modern BB's on top of it and you get a lot of ships. Pretty much. The way tech years are set up also means that Germany isn't going to make a lot of new boats when the war usually happens, as well as the whole economic punch in the dick and unrest that's designed to let France try and catch up. ... Which in practice means the only country with an actual navy is Britain and they have an annoyingly strong navy that without fail single handled ousts my own every game and I loving hate it.
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Jun 12, 2015 01:54
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Hi ho, hi ho, to Ger-man-y we go!
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Jun 12, 2015 22:05
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Gamerofthegame posted:Pretty much. The way tech years are set up also means that Germany isn't going to make a lot of new boats when the war usually happens, as well as the whole economic punch in the dick and unrest that's designed to let France try and catch up. Naval bombers and pure CA-Torp-Radar-Seaplane fleets are the way to go.
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Jun 14, 2015 16:57
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Britain just has so many carriers. Canada has a chance at sinking them with some AI luck and if they're busy with Germany, but if the British AI keeps them together no other AI has a chance. None of the AI nations really build carriers either, except Japan which won't get involved anyway. The German AI likes to have one huge stack of ancient battleships and a bunch of one- or two-ship groups running around. All the individual ships are cannon fodder, and the huge stack is kind of dangerous but will lose to one carrier or a stack of modern surface ships. Even without gaming the system. The navy in Kaiserreich is disappointing, there are a lot more ships but it always plays out basically the same way and navies can't accomplish much in Darkest Hour anyway. I think the long shipbuilding times hurt a bit when the war starts in 1938, too.
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Jun 15, 2015 00:19
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Naval combat in the HOI games has always been kind of bad and a hassle, I think. Hopefully the 4 system is better.
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Jun 15, 2015 01:39
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YeOldeButchere posted:If I recall properly, and this is mostly from the flavor text when choosing a country to play as, I think one of the earliest change is that after the sinking of the Lusitania, Germany reversed its stance on unlimited submarine warfare, and mended relations with the US sufficiently to avoid their entry in the war. The rest of the war proceeded without any side making much progress, until 1919 when the Germans achieved a breakthrough in the French lines somewhere in Belgium. The French army more or less collapsed at that point, and Germany was free to start occupying with little opposition, and more importantly, to send reinforcements to northern Italy through France, and eventually all the way to the Middle East to help keep the Ottoman Empire on life support. On the Eastern front, I think Germany also ended up intervening on the White side at that point and the Soviets were defeated. Basically yes, this. The US is not dragged into the war, allowing Germany to hold on as Russia falls into increasing anarchy and civil war. France eventually just runs out of men and can't hold the line, and Germany goes around supporting the other Central Powers and kicking the remaining Entente powers out. Britain holds on for awhile longer, but eventually signs "Peace with Honour" where basically Britain acknowledges German victory and continental dominance, but Germany recognizes the British Empire. The Kaiserrech sees that the Soviets could be a huge danger down the road so they devote considerable resources to supporting the White Russians, in return for basically a promise to respect the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Then the French Empire collapses into CoF and National France in Africa, while Germany siezes their Indochinese holdings, and in 1925 the British Revolution occurs, shattering the Empire and giving rise to both indigenous powers (cf. the Indian states) and Germany's acquisition of Central Africa as Mittelafrika. The other major thing is Germany's intervention in China to support the Qing, which ends up with them forming the AoG in southern China, a literal cyberpunk dystopia corporation-state.
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Jun 17, 2015 19:29
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Chapter One: Operation Torch (April 1941) Excerpt from Pied-Rouge: A Memoir by Claude Boulé  I did not sleep the whole night before. I thought I knew what anxiety was, having spent horrid hours wondering if the next attack would cost me my life, or if the police forces were just around the corner. This was a hundred times worse. Now I not only feared for my life and the lives of my comrades, but I feared that an error on my part might mean the failure of Operation Torch.  I found a dark spot overlooking both the city and our prearranged meeting point. I went over the information I had for our contacts so I wouldn't forget to bring anything up that might decide the success of the operation. I kept a look out for Ali, hoping no cruel fate had befallen him.  Ali appeared after an hour or so and sat next to me overlooking the city from our secluded spot. He hadn't slept either and after a half hour of business talk, we finally just settled into recounting old stories to keep each other awake. Ali was a member of the FLN while I was in the BPR. Our organizations had occasionally frosty relations, but our mutual hatred for and persecution by the state united us at the time. When it became clear that the Internationale invasion was eminent, an alliance was forged. In our city, the friendship between Ali and I was the basis of our local cells' integration. In Bona, or Annaba as they call it these days, we had a pretty easy task at first. Tracking the movements of the local garrison wasn't challenging. The Bona garrison was accustomed to being ignored, given the troubles in the south and the importance of Tunis or Algiers. A militia of locals, mostly old men ineligible for conscription, kept the peace in Bona, and they had grown lazy from the inaction. The initial ease should have foretold the responsibilities that were laid on us next. Bona was a perfect target for Operation Torch.  After an hour of idle talk, we saw the first explosions in the distance. The operation was beginning. The sirens sounded, the city became pitch black other than searchlights, and anti-aircraft cannons began to fire. This was part preparation and part decoy. Amidst the bombers was a plane containing two men who we were going to meet shortly. Finally Ali saw the two figures parachuting down from the sky, barely visible when backlit by explosions in the sky. The two of them actually saw us before we saw them and approached us already knowing who we were. There was a Frenchman and a dark-skinned fellow. His complexion suggested a mixed ancestry. An American? After pleasantries were exchanged with our new comrades, who were named Albert and Pierre, I had to inquire to the reason for Albert's presence. I asked him if he was an observer with the Communal Army. This made him laugh. Pierre then remarked that he in fact was the observer of the two. It took a second for me to realize what they meant. This wasn't a French operation. The Americans were coming.  We had always assumed the mainland French would come. Why wouldn't they? But it really made perfect sense. If the French had their elite troops deployed in Algeria, the Germans might smell blood on the mainland. The German intelligence services were focused on the French army's troop movements. The Americans assuming responsibility for the operation avoided the problem of compromising the defense of the mainland and also avoided raising eyebrows if American divisions moved onto the border to fill in the holes left. Nobody expected the Americans to launch an invasion of North Africa so soon after the Great North American War had ended. It was brilliant. After we briefed the pair, they set up their equipment and began to transmit information to the fleet offshore. The distant rumble of naval cannons pierced the early dawn. I had spent so long studying the positions of army positions across the city that I could tell which ones were being hit.  The poor bastards down there really stood no chance. They were a pretty green force all told, they hadn't been deployed against the Tuareg rebellion and were low on the priority list for heavy weapons. They were old men playing at soldiering, whether to fulfill their patriotic duty or to feel like a big man with the authority to harass the local population. On the other hand, the swarm of small craft I could see in the bay contained the best the American Red Army had to offer: the Revolutionary Marines.  The militia was equipped with the castoffs of the main army, which didn't have the most modern equipment to begin with. They were outgunned, outmanned and outclassed as they were bombarded by sea, air and land.  They abandoned their posts in droves and evacuated towards Constantine to await the arrival of more experienced reinforcements. The Marines didn't have to fight very hard for the city. After the initial spectacle had passed, Ali and I made our way down from the hills to the city, to reconnect with our brethren. The Arab population was in a revolt of its own, the FLN having been preparing for this for months.  The white population was in a state of chaos. Many fled, afraid they would be killed by either vengeful locals or the boogeymen they believed to be landing on the beaches to the east. There was a sizable minority of whites who were either members of or sympathetic to the BPR and many of them were already taking control of the city center when I arrived there. There was only token resistance by a few hardcore police who refused to stand down.  The Americans rolled into the city a few hours later. I had already begun to clear some of the more overzealous comrades out of the police headquarters in order to make it available for use as a Red Army HQ. When a few cars rolled up to the police headquarters waving the red and black of the Combined Syndicates, the crowd erupted into cheers. A few hours after that, a number of celebrating Arabs began to pour into the square and mingle with the BPR in a scene of joy. It was the last day that Bona would be a segregated city. Albert and Pierre were in one of the cars. I recognized the man sitting behind them. It was George Marshall, a man whose legend had grown throughout the free world, 'The Man Who Gave Us North America' as one of my smuggled issues of L'Humanité called him. Albert pointed us out, and Marshall introduced himself and motioned for us to enter the police headquarters with him.  Ali and I stood at attention, waiting for orders, until Marshall said something in perfect French that took us both off guard. "Gentlemen, Ali and Claude, is it? On behalf of the American Red Army, I would like to thank you both for your assistance today. I'm honored to join this war on your behalf and I would be further grateful if the both of you would advise me. The FLN and BPR know far more of this nation than we ever could." I was flabbergasted and couldn't say anything until Ali finally walked over to a map of Algeria and Tunisia that one of Marshall's aides had sprawled across the departed commandant's desk. "The FLN has begun a revolt everywhere we could get enough people on board to stand a chance. Our hopes are that this will hinder the Imperial army's ability to respond to the operation. However, we don't have the ammunition to fight for a long period of time and so it'd be best if the Red Army could act quickly. The local garrison was retreating towards Constantine last we saw of them. If we do not capture Constantine, then we can expect that city to be used as a staging ground for reinforcements from both Tunisia and Algeria. If we do, then we'll be close to separating Tunis and Algiers, and then the Imperial Army will not be able to unite their forces." Marshall considered his words and nodded before speaking to an aide. "Tell Law to move out to Constantine as soon as possible." He turned to us again. "Do you know of any gasoline stockpiles around here?" This time I opened my mouth. "I'm afraid the only ones I'm aware of were likely destroyed in the bombardment, sir." He nodded. "Yes, I didn't think they would abandon everything the way they did. We'll just have to work harder to establish supply lines with the Marx Corps then."  He asked us many more questions about everything from enemy presence in Tunisia to relations between the white and Arab populations. I expected to get told what I had to do, but instead I ended up telling him what to do.  The both of us moved out with him when the storied Benjamin Franklin Corps left the city the next morning.  The motorized Karl Marx Corps was moving south towards the Kasserine Pass as we moved west along the coastline.    The industrial might of the Combined Syndicates was evident to us as the reports rolled in of captured towns along the road to Gabes, far faster than we thought an army could move. They got all the way to the outskirts of Gabes before encountering any resistance. That resistance didn't last long either.  The closest thing the Imperial Army had to the Karl Marx Corps was an elite cavalry division that moved to Bougie from Algiers before the Revolutionary Marines could secure the city.  This gave the Imperial Army time to put the bodies of the beleaguered Bona garrison onto the front lines and to move up an infantry division containing some of the enemy's few armored brigades.  With further reinforcements moving east from Algiers, it was clear the Revolutionary Marines wouldn't be able to cut it on their own against what could be up to seven divisions.   The joy of the capture of Bona had subsided by the time we captured Beja. The Corps had barely had time to establish themselves before departing for Beja, and now there would be no time for the marching men to catch their breath in Beja before moving on to Tunis. The minarets in the skyline of the Empire's second city loomed in the distance, as our heavy artillery began to soften up the enemy.  The hope was for the Karl Marx Corps to flank from the south, but first the Marx Corps had to wipe out the enemy in southern Tunisia. The enemy was trapped in the southern tip of Tunisia, captured between unwelcoming Arab towns flying FLN colors and the Sahara desert.  Tunis was a much larger city than Bona, and there was actually resistance. As we advanced deeper into the city, the enemy abandoned trenches and instead fired on us from building windows. General Marshall would remark to me that this was true urban fighting, something unlike anything that had happened in America. Our situation was helped by the presence of the American fleet. The distant explosion of two French cruisers in the harbor gave our men a morale boost and shook the enemy to the core. The elimination of that resistance meant that soon enemy positions were being bombarded much like they were in Bona.  The order to truly press the attack came when we received reports that the Karl Marx Corps had accomplished its objectives and was on the move north.  We were bypassing Bizerte while advancing on Tunis and thus there was some urgency to capture the city before those divisions could escape.  One of those divisions did make it out, but the Karl Marx Corps arrived shortly thereafter to finish the deal.  The enemy gave a general evacuation order covering Tunisia. Tunis was ours, but the true prize was the five divisions that were now doing their best to make it back to Algeria. It had only been a few weeks since the invasion had begun, but for those of us lucky enough to be in the liberated areas at the time, the occupation of the Imperial army felt like a distant memory. That century old reality melted away towards what felt like a glorious new age. We should have known it wouldn't be as simple as that.
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Jun 18, 2015 17:33
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Magnificent. If only we had lived in a world like that.
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Jun 18, 2015 22:40
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I wonder if you're going to have to fight the Empire at Tataouine?  Did the Spanish not give you any trouble passing through Gibraltar?
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Jun 18, 2015 22:58
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The Carlists have been at the gates of Madrid for a while now so the Kingdom of Spain couldn't do anything if they wanted to. They're neutral towards us so the strait is open, only the Bosphorus is closed to everybody except allies.
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Jun 18, 2015 23:29
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Magnificent. i have socialized my living room next is my computer, and after that my local soup kitchen one day, africa
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Jun 19, 2015 00:25
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Chief Savage Man posted:The Carlists have been at the gates of Madrid for a while now so the Kingdom of Spain couldn't do anything if they wanted to. They're neutral towards us so the strait is open, only the Bosphorus is closed to everybody except allies. You might want to check out the Spanish states, in my experience they all run out of manpower before one of them can win the war.
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Jun 19, 2015 01:19
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Great to see this return. I keep sorta hoping for something to come along that the CSA can't handle, though. I hate it when games become steamrolls.
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Jun 27, 2015 21:26
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Erwin the German posted:Great to see this return. I keep sorta hoping for something to come along that the CSA can't handle, though. I hate it when games become steamrolls. That's the problem with the United States in HoI: without the whole world united against you, it's quite easy to curbstomp the whole of Europe or Asia yourself, if it calls for it.
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Jun 27, 2015 21:31
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Assuming the eventual goal is world revolution, I'm holding out hope that Russia and China either get involved before the big war is over or have built up enough to be challenging on their won.
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Jun 27, 2015 22:01
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PBJ posted:That's the problem with the United States in HoI: without the whole world united against you, it's quite easy to curbstomp the whole of Europe or Asia yourself, if it calls for it. Historically accurate 
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Jun 27, 2015 22:01
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the csa is a veritable amerohotbed of socialism
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Jun 29, 2015 11:22
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Chapter Two: Two Fish Fight for Dry Land (May 1941) These surviving notes from Benjamin Gitlow's pen are apparently from the early days of the West African War. Some were meant as reminders to himself, while others were messages for others in the administration. Chairman Gitlow was unfairly regarded as an ungifted writer and public speaker, perhaps because he was continuously compared to Chairman Reed by his contemporaries. However, as you can see, his private writing style was certainly brusque and to the point. The letters are originals. No flash photography please.  quote:Norman:  quote:Helen:  quote:Carlo:   quote:Helen:  quote:Two notes from Law and Marshall. Marshall complaining about Law overstepping his objectives, Law complaining about lack of support. Did Lincoln ever have to deal with this kind of crap? If it gets out, the anti-militarization types will use it as ammo against us.  quote:William:  quote:Go to Miami or don't? I don't think its a secret that we'll be sending reinforcements, because apparently Comrade Marshall can't fart without the papers printing it. Some kind of speech could improve morale and foster the unity in our armed forces we're looking for. I just can't imagine that public opinion wouldn't look positively on us giving our military the support they need.  quote:Norman:   quote:They made it. I'll have a drink and sleep soundly for once to celebrate.  quote:Carlo:   quote:Another report in the Proletarian about shortages in the Ben Franklin Corps. This might be too far, they're practically inviting the Imperials to attack them. This muckraking bullshit has to at least wait until its not of operational significance anymore. Can't overstep though. Certainly can't jail, just have to make them look like idiots who aren't concerned with the safety of our troops.  quote:"I find it disgraceful that our troops aren't more prepared for the conditions in the Sahara" he says  quote:If irritating Chamber deputies are the sickness, then news of monarchist rats being intercepted outside Algiers is the antidote.  quote:Message from Law that hes running into Tuareg raiders. Can't wait for the mess this will turn into in the Chamber. Half of them will call me an imperialist for trying to occupy the area and the other half will wonder why we can't magically turn nomadic tribes into an enlightened socialist society overnight.  quote:Kasserine Pass has finally been pacified, Tunisia can be handed over to the FLN as soon as next week I'm told. One set of problems ends, another begins though. The French are complaining that the BPR don't get more influence, the Muslim Brotherhood is gathering strength in the vacuum left by the Empire and even the FLN don't trust the mainland French and by extension us. North Africa makes the Deep South seem uncomplicated in comparison. At least then, we knew that we absolutely had to be there and the oppressed populations were glad to see us. I'm still not sure that this was even the right decision. Only the BPR are completely supportive of us here, everybody else has some kind of major complaint. We're committed now though, so I suppose there is not much use in vacillating over decisions that have been made. There's plenty more decisions to come.
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Jun 29, 2015 17:20
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How many divisions is that destroyed by encirclement? I counted quite a few.
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Jun 29, 2015 18:34
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Woah, surprised I missed this. It's going to be interesting seeing how those guys manage in crossing the Sahara.
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Jul 5, 2015 09:53
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Gamerofthegame posted:Pretty much. The way tech years are set up also means that Germany isn't going to make a lot of new boats when the war usually happens, as well as the whole economic punch in the dick and unrest that's designed to let France try and catch up. Yeah. For the German Empire in Kaiserreich, pretty much everything in the first three years of the game comes down to luck. How fast will the economy recover? Which parts of Mitteleuropa will take the opportunity to kick you in the junk? How many massive chunks of dissent are you going to eat because poo poo is going down on some godforsaken rock that your average Bavarian probably can't find on a map? Then the problem is that once you either get facerolled by French or take advantage of the fact that you have double their population to bleed them white, the war is basically over since Russia and America are probably out of the contest. I love Kaiserreich to death, but mechanically I don't think it works quite as well as the actual second world war because too many countries are viable options and because there are so many possible outcomes. E: now on the other hand, if I played the Internationale more often, I'd probably have a better time.
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Jul 5, 2015 19:09
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ThatBasqueGuy posted:Historically accurate Eh, I'd say the United States is actually neutered in the HoI games, because it's simply impossible to build 30 carriers in the span of two years in this game. Meanwhile, the United States had the industrial capacity to not only do that, but also build enough strategic bombers, tanks, small arms, and other various goodies to drown all of Eurasia in a ocean of lend-lease. It simply boggles the mind just how massive the US industrial edge was compared to everyone else.
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Jul 5, 2015 19:58
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The USA had half the world's industrial capacity in 1940. In game terms, RL USA is massively overpowered compared to any of its potential opponents.
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Jul 6, 2015 15:24
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Chapter Three: Free Algeria(June-July 1941) National Public Radio StoryCorps "The Wars" Project: Recording #726 <START RECORDING> I'm here with Thomas Leggett in Toledo, Ohio and we're here to talk about his experience during the wars. Mr. Leggett, would you like to introduce yourself? Sure, sure, I was part of the Foreign Affairs Bureau from 1951 to 1985 and before that, I was a commissar with the Red Army. I was twenty four in Cleveland when the civil war broke out, and would have liked to fight with the infantry but I had horrid vision and with all that was going on, I couldn't get myself any kind of glasses that would help me shoot accurately at range. The commander of the Cleveland militia was a family friend though, so he told me I could be his assistant and keep tabs on the different shops that made up the unit. What do you remember from the civil war? Honestly, I can't say I have many interesting stories from the civil war, I was basically a message runner and occasionally a spy for the commander. After professionalization and during Mexico, I was made an official commissar but still basically acted as a gopher for my superiors. I did well enough during the North American War to get my own responsibilities. When Algeria rolled around, I was really in a position to make my mark.  What was Algeria like? I worked under General Marshall there. Marshall was a dream to work for. His vision for the commissars was for us to be ambassadors and scouts, rather than the ideological enforcers that they were in the Communal Army. We were to simply collect information, learn as much as we could about the units we were assigned to, figure out what was affecting morale and try to improve the relationship between the locals and our troops. Once we had a good understanding, we would report back to headquarters then cycle to another unit and learn even more. It was rewarding stuff. We showed up in Algeria about three weeks after the first landings and spread out to all the different units. I was assigned to part of the Revolutionary Marines first, just as they were beginning to push the attack west for the first time.  What was that like? When I arrived, they were cleaning up Bougie or Bejara or whatever the hell its called these days. The Imperial forces were in a pretty sad state by this point so the most difficult task was managing the newly liberated local population.  How do you mean? Well, the colonial regime had been in power for just about a century at this point, so the sudden and violent removal of that regime left a huge power vacuum.  Each town and city that we occupied had different issues and a different history to tackle. Some towns had large settler populations and some had barely any. Some towns were practically running themselves, others were having trouble keeping the peace.  Any examples in particular come to mind? Well, I remember that the FLN and the Red Foots.. Feet? Well, they were doing a pretty good job in Bougie, for whatever reason. But then I remember in Djelfa, the Brotherhood more or less ran the place. The Muslim Brotherhood? Yes, the one and only. Everybody seems to think that they just appeared out of nowhere in the sixties and started shooting up Baghdad and Cairo but they were laying the groundwork for their eventual influence starting in the twenties and thirties. Smart operators, they were.   How so? They were ready to take over in the interior pretty much the minute we cleared out the enemy. They were setting up everything in that Islamist way but were cooperative with us. They knew that our principles were incompatible with theirs, but they didn't initiate the confrontation. They waited for us or the FLN to try and impose what we had in mind, then they painted us as merely the new colonial regime. Whatever you want to say about Islamic rule, its certainly more native than a bunch of Westerners showing up to tell you that your ways are no good.   How much did they interfere with the Red Army? Like I said, hardly at all, at least in the short term. They were playing the long game, and as we know, it paid dividends well into the eighties. We were pretty much free to move onto Algiers, which is where things got really interesting.   What do you remember from the Battle of Algiers? I remember seeing the first fractures in Algerian society, excepting the obvious fear among the conservative settler population. The FLN had been fighting in the capital ever since the landings and when we showed up with the BPR in tow, there was obvious friction there. Did you side, at least in your heart of hearts, with one or the other? No, honestly, I didn't. The BPR were our comrades, through and through. We could speak with them in the same way we spoke with others from the Internationale, and I personally never lost faith that socialism was the way for Algeria, just as it was for us. I felt for the FLN too, even though they didn't particularly trust us. They were the locals, they weren't the settlers, and Marshall always said that they were the key to lasting peace in Algeria. Replacing one white regime with another wasn't going to help anything. I felt like they could work together effectively, though I can't say I'm surprised that the BPR got sidelined the way they eventually did. They had a certain... smugness to them. As if ideological correctness entitles you to power.  Any lasting images in your mind from the Battle? A lot has been made of the looting of Napoleon's ludicrous palace, but I would say the flight of the Imperial Navy from the port of Algiers. A pretty glorious moment as I remember it. The insurrection had forced the Imperial Army into just a few heavily garrisoned sections of the city. Once we brought our heavy guns into range of the city center, they had to surrender and their Navy steamed out of port as rapidly as I'd ever seen ships move, to Dakar, I think they went.  They were able to break through our blockade, but at the cost of three battleships. Still though, drat near the whole population of the city crowded the shoreline and cheered as they left. Those ships had always been there, a hulking symbol of the colonialists' power. And then suddenly they were gone. It was the day that the population and nation really felt like they were free, I think. Its something I won't ever forget.   What was the aftermath of that moment like? There was that honeymoon I think, every time a magical moment like that happens. Like the day after we won the World Cup, there's that time where a good mood permeates everything. Then reality sets back in.  The Brotherhood was growing in influence, and we still had to cut off the enemy and liberate all of Algeria. It was amazing, but it was short lived. The mistrust, the competition between secularism, socialism, Islamism, so on and so forth. That came back in no time.  Anything else to say about Algeria? Beautiful country. I went back about ten years ago to Oran. In the winter, thank God. Remember, this whole operation was done during the summer of '41, I drat near died of heat exposure once we got away from the coast. Did you visit any place of significance there? Something from the war? Yes. I visited a memorial that stands at the site where General Rose officially accepted the surrender of what had to be over seventy thousand men. I was there for that. The Imperials were crushed, and I almost felt bad for them. Why? I don't know. I guess it depended. Some of them were exiles from the mainland, I didn't feel for them, they picked the wrong side and paid for it. But some of them were born there. It's hard to say that Algeria was any less their homeland than the Arabs. The Red Foots and FLN were so ready to execute the lot of them, but Marshall was able to work out some kind of deal with the mainland French. A lot of them ended up resettled in France. I mean, a whole lot ended up hanged for things done to the locals, or even atrocities from the French Revolution. But I felt good that some of the good ones caught up in a bad situation weren't condemned for it.  What was that like, visiting the memorial? Poignant. There was a hotel at the site during the war, until the Brotherhood blew it up in that big spree in... '73? Now its a park, with some statues. Mainly Arab resistance heroes from the insurrections, but Marshall and Rose got their own too. Hell of a spot to see the General.  I did a hell of a lot of work in North Africa during the sixties, almost got clipped by the Brotherhood a couple times, didn't always know if what I was trying to do was appreciated or even the right thing to do. But seeing that Arabic script underneath the image of two American heroes, it drove home the point that we played such a big part in freeing those people from that awful Imperial regime. We broke those sons of bitches, and it feels good to know that the American blood spilled in the Maghreb is remembered in Algeria, whatever sins we may have committed in later years. <silence> Mr. Leggett? That's all I have to say about Algeria, at least today. I don't know if I can take any more memories today. Good luck with your project, son. Thank you, sir.
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Jul 8, 2015 07:30
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Wow, the Entente is pretty much doomed at this point, huh? What provinces do you have to take in West Africa?
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Jul 8, 2015 07:58
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paragon1 posted:Wow, the Entente is pretty much doomed at this point, huh? Dakar, something on the Niger River, Accra and Conakry, I think is it. I'm not sure exactly how the ships thing works out but the Imperial French fleet is decent sized and if they get inherited somehow by the Australians then that is something that could cause issues.
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Jul 8, 2015 08:02
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I hope you do a timeline of what happens after the game is over. It's looking like a very interesting world.
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Jul 8, 2015 08:25
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I suppose once the Entente is gone, Iberia and northern Italy are next, to get them out of the way before the big wars with Germany and Russia?
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Jul 8, 2015 15:08
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Another great update, your writing skills is what really makes this LP 
ThaumPenguin fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Jul 8, 2015 |
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Jul 8, 2015 16:04
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There's a Kaiserreich forum game being run with the participation of a few other goons. The idea came to the GM after reading this LP. A glorious effort, Chief Savage Man. May your further LPing inspire other creative endeavors from your readers. Enver Zogha fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Jul 11, 2015 |
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Jul 11, 2015 03:46
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That looks fun, I'd be interested to see how it turns out with input from numerous people.
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Jul 11, 2015 05:01
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Can't wait to see what happens in the CSA later in the timeline. Wonder what's happening in the present day. Happy to see one of these folks come out of Ohio.
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Jul 14, 2015 17:48
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I love all of the hints and allusions to things that happen in the future in these updates.
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Jul 14, 2015 18:40
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| # ? May 2, 2024 01:42 |
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what's going on in the rest of africa?
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Jul 21, 2015 09:40
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