Ok, first of all, I've been meaning to do this for a while....and it wasn't meant to be this long....but hell, it's a long story, plus I had to throw in a couple attempts at humour here and there(I'll leave it up to you to figure out what parts aren't actually in the game, but if anyone's not sure, just ask)....and I figured some pics might break it up a bit, but I don't blame anyone for not reading it due to it's length, but for those that are up for a challenge.....
(oh yeah, just to clear the air since I've been reading about some shills lately, I wrote this out earlier in Word, so that's why it's only a couple minutes between this and my last post, plus, if I was a shill, I'd want everyone to read this.....and I would've made it a hell of alot shorter)
It’s been 39 years since I usurped the position of Supreme Commander of German and Italian forces, most of the officers who supported me in my coup have long since passed on, but finally, in 1979 the war has come to a successful conclusion…including subduing all the neutral countries for some reason. To say I’ve lead our nation to become a world power is a gross understatement. All that remains not in our clutches is 3 territories owned by Japan, who (luckily for them) are allied with us. Here’s my auto-biography of my wartime experience….
1940, our armies were at the height of our power at the time, but myself and many senior officers were pessimistic about the final outcome of the war, future plans revealed to us showed that our enemies would not only grow in number exponentially, but also in strength, and how could a country such as Russia ever be subdued in a few short years? After months of going over agonizing details, we came to the conclusion that the current war strategy by the current commander was to doom us all, there was only one way out. In a top-secret plot we eliminated him and in the ensuing chaos I somehow became the new commander in chief.
This however, was only the start of my problems. Intelligence showed Russia building up strength at her borders for a possible attack. The French and British seemed to be doing the same (they had already declared war on us afterall). Returning Poland and the rest of the captured countries wouldn’t go over well with the people, or the staff, especially since some had sons that died to gain that territory….nor would it necessarily appease the Allies. The decision was made for the war to continue…but on a somewhat different course. France was defeated by the end of the year, bombing Britain seemed like it would be a waste of resources, so off to Russia it was……but, a massive army will be built up first, after a couple years of preparations we dove in one giant spearhead towards the north, reached, conquered and fortified Leningrad. A couple more territories were gobbled up closer to Poland as well, but I was careful not to overextend myself as I had a feeling a counterattack would come…..and it did.
That winter, the Russians counterattacked with a ferocious tenacity we did not expect out of them. Our once massive army was now dwindling in size due to the sheer strength of their offensive. A couple territories were lost, but we still held onto Leningrad, denying the Russians a very strategic port. My foresight came in handy just as my generals were beginning to question my wisdom. We were now in a great position to retake our lost territories with not much resistance, and slowly begin towards the capital Moscow. It was around this time when British bombers began raining death upon my armies, and by doing so, threaten an invasion. Losses would become substantial over time, in an attempt to curtail this, I placed several anti-aircraft batteries over the main targets of the bombers….unfortunately, this had little effect and the bombings continued, but the Russian capital was in our sights! Perhaps they could be knocked out of the war by taking the capital and then I could deal with those pesky British bombers before an invasion could ever take place. We trudged forward and were now at the gates of Moscow, Victory was in sight, we were in high spirits….suddenly, seemingly from out of nowhere there was another damned Russian counteroffensive, this one was totally unexpected and sent my armies reeling back to a decades old front line, even the fortified Leningrad fell. I believe this was a result of a port in Arkangel being used as some sort of dastardly Allied lend-lease program….damn those British again!
With the front falling apart, the threat of a western invasion just as strong as ever, time for action was now. Even more anti-aircraft batteries were allotted to the affected regions (again to little affect…but seemed to actual shoot one down once in a while), and first and foremost destroy those convoys! Our airforces sole goal was to eliminate aid to Russia. After a couple successful seasons, this was easily accomplished. During this time, even more ground had to be given to the Russians, things were looking desperate. I thought they would’ve ran out of steam by now…..how much resources did the allies give them?! Either way, the British bombers were still undeterred, but now my airforce was freed up from convoy smashing duties. I had previously balked at the idea of bombing British soil due to the fear of losing precious aircraft due to AA fire…..but if they’re able to bomb us and be successful, perhaps we can do the same to them, besides nothing else seemed to work, with more and more of our ever shrinking territory within the sights of Allied bombers, something had to be done.
Begrudgingly I gave the order to have them attack British airfields…several enemy planes were destroyed to none of my planes being damaged! Success! There was hope yet! This process was repeated when possible (although of course some losses on our side did occur), and the British raids became less powerful due to their falling numbers of aircraft. In the east, the Russians had finally run out of steam and overextended themselves. We only took territories after being damn sure we could hold them…or took them, and left them undefended to be re-claimed….just to damage their infrastructure.
For some reason Japan has attacked USA, and now I have to deal with those Joes in North Africa. To make matters worse, they’ve got a damn aircraft carrier parked right at the mouth near Gibraltor and their planes attack me if I go anywhere near it, successfully sealing off the area from the German/Italian navy. This war will be the death of me…
After a couple years, I finally got them off the continent and placed some Ack-Ack and artillery to create some op-fire to deter any more African excursions. It worked, but the aircraft carrier was still there, and they must’ve researched the hell out of it because my advisors keep telling me that even with the amount of planes I propose to attack it with, my chances of success are only around 10%.
After much research and committing more planes, the ship (now ships) was attacked and the survivors limped over towards England to dissuade an invasion of my own.
It was around this time when we ran into the first Russian supersoldiers. I was sure my advisors were off their rockers when they told me a couple tank divisions of mine and a squadron of tactical bombers only had a 0.02% chance of defeating a couple Russian army batallions….., I knew better than them! How could a couple soldiers take out several tanks and avoid being torn apart by my planes? In we went with little reservation about this poorly equipped army………and we paid for it. I’m not sure what those Russian soldiers were eating, but they were tough as nails, several panzers damaged, many more destroyed…..and not a single Russian battled injured. I never doubted my advisors again.
Russia was on her knees number-wise, but it would be a tough battle to wipe out her remaining soldiers. At the same time, Japan was in a similar position, America was beating the hell out of her. Daily bombings against her industry left her quiet barren. An invasion was imminent …and it wouldn’t take much either. The convoys were lining up across the pacific and my planes were ridiculously out of range, as it stood, Japan would fall before Russia would…..which meant the Americans would be able to aid Russia…I don’t have to tell you what that would spell.
3 submarines. That’s all I had. 3 brave crews accepted the mission to slip into the heavily fortified Pacific and attack the convoys. This was accepted as a necessary suicide mission, but it might slow down the invasion a season or two if all was successful, which would buy us precious time to hopefully get some aircraft within striking range. The brave sub crews headed off for their last voyage and quickly found their targets. 3, 6, then 8 convoys were sunk! This was beyond our wildest hopes, the invasion was surely delayed for at least while now! For some reason the subs weren’t attacked very aggressively, and when one did get sunk, I already had another heading out to take it’s place. This gamble proved to be the turning point of the war. America still continued to bomb Japan rendering her otherwise useless, but without convoys, Japan cannot be taken out of the game.
In the meantime the United States had built up an absolutely behemoth of force around the land of the rising sun. Something like 20 aircraft carriers and an absurd amount of aircraft on deck to go with it.
Everyone needs time away from war (or so my boss from work told me rather rudely), but that didn’t mean I couldn’t think about the war while I was at work. For the first time in my military (or entire video game “career”), I used my war diary (.i.e., the section at the back of instruction books that are blank aside from the word ‘Notes’ at the top of the page). I studied the small map near the back of the book and I could see in my mind roughly where the troops were (probably from the screen burning holes in my retinas for playing it for so long) and made a series of recommendations/goals/ideas.
During this time we were fighting our way through SouthEast Asia and actually linked up with Japan. This did wonders for her morale (well, I assume it did anyway). Japan had only a couple territories and was virtually impotent militarily. The Chinese were harassing them daily, but now they had us to deal with.
There seemed to be a lack of intelligence gathering on my part in two areas. 1) We’ve successfully linked up with Japan, yet can’t resource share. 2) Amphibious (and sometimes even airborne) landings don’t work. Most of Africa was still waiting to be plundered (by me)to thus deny the resource points to the Allies which they were gaining from it at every turn. It was now the 1960’s, one of my new aides suggested I try gaining assistance from a new device called a computer. Skeptical, I entered a room with a massive machine that flickered and hummed something fierce, typed in some questions and it spat out the answers. Impressive, too bad there will never be a market for it though.
Apparently two convoys are needed to carry one assault force of soldiers. Anyway, with this knowledge, I soon struck a much preferred balance of power.
The Chinese don’t get enough credit, I assumed they’d be a walk in the park with my great army, but they put up one hell of a fight again and again. It was during this time I began to question why the Americans wouldn’t break apart their armada and bomb us to aid they’re allies since we were in range of their attacks. Maybe it had something to do with us making a deal with the Hippies. You see, it was in the 1960’s, and we struck a deal with the hippies that if they held anti-war demonstrations to lower the will of the American people to fight, we give them a “Wood Stock”. Little did they know that this would be the Wood(en) Stock of a german rifle upsides their heads upon our arrival!
In anycase, Russia and China finally fell shortly after. The amount of militiamen needed to quell the partisans was incredible. But, still there was work to do. The UK had long since been stripped of her airpower, and was not gaining any resource points, but had a massive army sitting on England. To make matters worse, their soldiers were now equal to the Russian supermen we had a hell of a time fighting not too long ago.
A titanic battle ensued, we actually lost more troops and equipment than they did…but thankfully we had a larger army and won the day.
It was around this time enough of my tactical bombers were formed up in China…….and struck a mighty blow into a wandering American aircraft carrier armada (which had at this point split into two since the glut of it in one probably wouldn’t fit on the screen if you selected it). In any case, the myth of American naval superiority in the Pacific was dealt a heavy blow. After researching the range of my bombers, we soon were able to hit the other armada equally as hard and Japan finally had some breathing space.
After all this, I think Japan still bore some kind of grudge against us for not resource-sharing. Not a single attack was made by her the rest of the game. It was up to us to finish off the rest of the world. Although, I’d be happy with it ending if I took the U.S. capitol, but I suppose I might’ve made some weird declaration back at Geneva (i.e. the game options) disallowing such a thing.
My attack first struck in central America (to block off the Panama canal), and then we drove through Mexico and hit the eastern United States. The sheer numbers that soon ended up on Western United states to protect the capital was staggering. It was such a draining fight, never in my military career had I faced so many well trained troops, the battle raged on for longer than I care to remember. Bruised, battered…but not broken, my army came out on top……and later made good on our hippie bashing claim! Heheh
I spent the next couple years just basically taking over the small parts of the world that have not been seized yet in order to get a ‘game over’ screen or something. I had come this far, I refused to stop until I saw it! Much to the chagrin of the neutrals countries, I followed through and got my ‘Total Victory’ screen.
Next up, spreading communism abroad with the Russian Campaign!
