A Turtledove World War; Hearts of Iron 2 Doomsday AAR

No one would have believed in the forty-first year of the twentieth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences equal to man’s own; intelligences that had tens of thousands of years to advance far beyond where man had yet tread. With infinite complacency men battled over the fate of the Earth, pitting the strength of nations and ideologies against one another. Each confident that whoever triumphed, whether German or Russian, Japanese or American, whether Fascist, Communist or Democratic, that faction would come to dominate the world. Yet across the gulf of space, minds as mortal and petty as our own looked on Earth with greed and envy, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And in the forty-second year of the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.

June 23, 1941
With the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany and it's Axis lackeys and with Japan on the verge of bringing China to it's knees it was time to do more then aid the beleaguered nations of the earth. It was time to prepare for war.

Four South Dakota class battleships, a Yorktown class Aircraft Carrier, two destroyer flotillas, two submarine flotillas, three infantry divisions, five motorized infantry divisions, and three Hellcat interceptor squadrons were being constructed.
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Being at the forefront of Naval Warfare technology, it was decided to redirect R&D towards the need of the Army and the Air Force.

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Thande

Donor
No one would have believed in the forty-first year of the twentieth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences equal to man’s own; intelligences that had tens of thousands of years to advance far beyond where man had yet tread. With infinite complacency men battled over the fate of the Earth, pitting the strength of nations and ideologies against one another. Each confident that whoever triumphed, whether German or Russian, Japanese or American, whether Fascist, Communist or Democratic, that faction would come to dominate the world. Yet across the gulf of space, minds as mortal and petty as our own looked on Earth with greed and envy, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And in the forty-second year of the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.
That's really good :D
 
That's really good :D

Thanks, I obviously had some good source material for that. :D

October 29th, 1941
The Soviet Union and China were reeling under the sledgehammer blows of Germany and Japan. Kiev has fallen and Minsk is on the brink, while Japan has cut off China from the coast. (For some reason the Chinese AI in the '41 scenario that this mod was based on is significantly weaker that that of the '36 scenario)

easternfrontoct291941tm1.png

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Seeing the success on land of our foes, we've redoubled our efforts and building an army that can match. Two armored divisions, two marine divisions, 4 motorized divisions, 3 tactical bomber squadrons, and a nuclear reactor have begun constructor.

In order to safeguard it from possible German or Japanese attack the reactor is being built in Chicago, were it could not possibly be threatened.
productionoct291941bs3.png


Meanwhile, research and development proceeds well, especially among the nuclear sciences.
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December 16th, 1941 a day that will live in Infamy! Japanese carriers struck Pearl Harbor at 11:00 in the evening and war is now upon us!
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The Allies were quickly joined and a Germany first strategy decided upon. Transports were to be built to facilitate the quick transferal of troops to England in anticipation of a mass cross channel invasion in the Spring of 1943. Construction of two Independence, an Essex Class carrier and two squadrons of P-51 Mustangs commenced as well.
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OSS estimate of Japanese strength
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A fleet was quickly assembled to disrupt the expected invasion of the Philippines. Unfortunately, it was a dismal failure. The Lexington and West Virginia was sunk, the Saratoga badly damaged, with other ships in the fleet receiving some damage. All it accomplished was the sinking of the Yamato, a light cruiser and some destroyers. The Phillipines HQ division was quickly evacuated to Hawaii and submarines sent convoy hunting near the Japanese home isles. Several more Essex class carriers were ordered, as were heavy cruisers, light cruiser, and destroyers.

Kimmel's ill fated mission.
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Axis naval presence in the Atlantic was low so I transfered the Carriers and Battleships of the Atlantic Fleet to the Pacific and sent them on Combat Patrol of the Central Pacific. A sustained offensive would have to wait until the summer of '42 by which time several new capital ships and marine divisions would have been completed. I sent the rest of the Atlantic fleet on ASW duty and began transferring troops to Britain, who was doing well in North Africa. Unfortunately the situation on the Eastern Front deteriorated and China completely collapsed.

Germany penetrates deep into the Ukraine and a salient approaches Moscow.
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China becomes a puppet of the Japanese. (They have like 100~ IC, this screenshot was taking immediately after the fall)
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Despite the success of the Japanese in China, as long as the Soviets held out another year, victory was assured. Until the world was turned upside down on the 2nd of May, 1942. Strange Reptilian invaders landed in southern Illinois and near Nuevo Laredo on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.

We later learned that the invaders had landed on the banks of the Rio Parana to the east of Uruguay in Argentina and north of Paraguay in Brazil, on the banks of the same river.

In Europe they landed in western Spain, central France, eastern Italy (just north of the heel), south of Warsaw, and just east of Kiev in the Ukraine.

In Africa they landed in Egypt, just south of Cairo, on the coast of West Africa, and in South Africa.

In Asia they landed in north central India, in central Asia south of Tashkent, in western China just west of Chengdu, they also landed just west of Nanjing in the eastern part of the country. A fifth landing touched down in eastern Mongolia.

The mysterious invaders threaten Chicago
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Forces available to counter the threat. (only 63 of those divisions are American, five are Canadian and 4 are Mexican. 23 of those divisions are out of the country, in England, Hawaii, etc.)
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Thande

Donor
Nice, but if you play from 1941 or 1936 or whatever, doesn't that mean the situation when the Race land is different to OTL? :confused:

Also does the Race appear in the game as a 'country' or is it some other force? Can you play as the Race?
 
Nice, but if you play from 1941 or 1936 or whatever, doesn't that mean the situation when the Race land is different to OTL? :confused:

Also does the Race appear in the game as a 'country' or is it some other force? Can you play as the Race?

Well it is a game, replay would be a bit limited if everything was the same on startup.

You play from June 22 1941, so yes the situation is different. It was the closest scenario to the actual invasion date from which to base the mod on. This creates some problems since for some reason the Chinese AI in '41 just isn't as good as in the '36 and '38 scenarios which I have played frequently. Japan always crushes them in '41. Also because Vichy France is a member of the Axis, Germany unloads occupied French provinces on it to reduce the strain on it's transportation and supply network. The Chinese problem can likely be fixed, the Vichy one, I'm doubtful. You can play as the Race and the invasion date is randomized. They can invade at the beginning of any month during 1942, with the likelihood becoming greater with each passing month. If you play as the Race you can pick what month to attack.

If you go to the link I posted in the big HOI2DD thread, the creator of the mod has spent alot of time on stability and the Lizard AI, and hasn't polished the graphics and stuff, so the mod looks rough but plays smooth. It is a beta after all. The Lizards are called "user defined" in their flags, but all the officers are named as are their scientists. I loaded up as them and found their research on Tosev's oceans, weather and human psychology amusing.

Several important events remain to be written. The invasion of Britain, invasion and atomic pacification Australia, the Race's leadership struggle, Straha's defection if he loses said struggle, ginger addiction, nuclear events, etc. Still even without this it has been quite difficult and entertaining to play.
 
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would you please post a link to the mod?

Here's the thread on the mod at Paradox
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=272295&page=24&pp=20


A motorized corp based in Kansas City was immediately dispatched and directed to destroy the Reptilian interlopers. However it soon become clear that the invaders were immensely powerful. Sherman tanks were brushed aside like flies.

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The invaders quickly moved on from southern Illinois and occupied western Kentucky and southern Indiana, where they were greatly reinforced. They then began to expand their pocket to both the north and east. It quickly became clear that these invaders were a far more deadly threat to America than Japan and Germany combined. We quickly made peace, as did all belligerents, even the Nazis and the Bolsheviks! The sole exception has been the Maoists who have revealed themselves as the scum of the earth. However with more then one third of the Army over seas, among them some or most powerful armored corps, we were in deadly peril of being overrun.

President Roosevelt therefore called for volunteers, especially veterans of The Great War. Millions answered the call and 43 divisions were raised and armed with weapons mothballed in warehouses at the end of the Great War. One 1936 HQ division in New York, two 1936 Infantry divisions and ten 1918 Infantry divisions each in Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Chicago, and six 1918 Infantry divisions in Denver.

Defend the Homeland! (There's a similar Defend the Fatherland! event for Germany)
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In addition to planning further research in nuclear weapons, we are focusing on weapons that will better allow us to battle these dastardly lizards.

These include a tank with an 88mm gun
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Turbojet engines in order to build planes that can compete with the Jets of the Lizards. Within the first ten days two entire squadrons were annihilated, and the rest took fearful losses
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American production was quickly geared completely towards the Army and the Airforce and providing modern weapons to the volunteers. As soon as the Rocket testing pad is finished and placed in Denver away from hostilities, another nuclear plant will be built in case Chicago falls.
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Italy was quickly bisected and Rome occupied.
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Though America's factories were quickly retooled to produce modern infantry weapons with which to arm the volunteers the Lizards quickly spread southward. There were simply to few military units in position to stop them.

An assault on Lizard positions in eastern Kentucky looked promising, but in the end failed.
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It soon became apparent that the Lizards ignored any ship that didn't shot back, so transports were dispatched to England to bring back the troops. The first shipment arrived in the nick of time to save Georgia and Florida. The rest will be home in 20 days.

11 divisions land in Savannah, the Lizards link up their two North American pockets.
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Looks like it's running on the doomsday addon as well? Also so your saying the lizards are tending to ignore your navy?

Wouldn't mind seeing what africa looks like as well. As the lizards basically walked over it in the book.
 
would you please post a link to the mod?

June 20th, 1942 Operation Tecumseh

General Eisenhower coordinates 21 divisions in a three pronged pincer movement that would lead to the liberation of northern Indiana. However the Lizards managed to retreat in relatively good order to the south.
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Further assaults by Army Group North would push the front line to the Ohio river, liberating all of Indiana and Illinois. However as expected the South fell completely under their sway and the Lizards are poised to make great gains in the west, threatening Denver and perhaps even southern California.
americanfrontjuly5th194hr0.png


Meanwhile the Raj has fallen to their scaly might and China is being carved up.
therajfallstothelizardsct4.png
 
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Thande

Donor
Excellent work.

It occurs to me that this might be a good way of representing the actual history in the WW books through map form.

I would have put more Race landing sites in the southern hemisphere, I think - remember how the whole area under the Brandt line is under Race control after the first three months of invasion. Turtledove doesn't mention them directly but I think that's just because he didn't have any viewpoint characters there.

I see the placeholder Race symbol is the generic grey alien symbol - I'm not sure what the final one should be, given that Turtledove makes it explicit that the Race don't use any symbols* (because until Tosev they simply do not recognise that any other state has the right to survive and thus they do not need to identify themselves). Perhaps the 'flag' should have a representation of Race ranking body paint?

*Which was faithfully ignored by every British cover artist for the WW books :rolleyes:
 
Excellent work.

It occurs to me that this might be a good way of representing the actual history in the WW books through map form.

I would have put more Race landing sites in the southern hemisphere, I think - remember how the whole area under the Brandt line is under Race control after the first three months of invasion. Turtledove doesn't mention them directly but I think that's just because he didn't have any viewpoint characters there.

I see the placeholder Race symbol is the generic grey alien symbol - I'm not sure what the final one should be, given that Turtledove makes it explicit that the Race don't use any symbols* (because until Tosev they simply do not recognise that any other state has the right to survive and thus they do not need to identify themselves). Perhaps the 'flag' should have a representation of Race ranking body paint?

*Which was faithfully ignored by every British cover artist for the WW books :rolleyes:

I do think that splitting up the West African and South African landings into several smaller landing zones and scattering them around would be better. I don't think thee AI was ever designed to cope with so many widely separated pockets. Pockets that are close together or attacked in force seem to be much more likely to go on the attack. Because of this the Race has expanded much more in the northern hemisphere then the south, despite the much heavier resistance.
 
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Thande

Donor
I do think that splitting up the West African and South African landings into several smaller landing zones and scattering them around would be better. I don't think thee AI was ever designed to cope with so many widely separated pockets. Pockets that are close together or attacked in force seem to be much more likely to go on the attack. Because of this the Race has expanded much more in the northern hemisphere then the south, despite the much heavier resistance.

Which does not tally with the books, so yes, I would concur with splitting and scattering the southern landings.
 
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