A smaller World 2020 game

[catatonic]

July 20th, 2029

Israel is doing well for itself:

[catatonic]

July 20th, 2029

The next U.S. target is tiny Bahrain. Here it is surrounded by huge Saudi Arabia, nesteled snugly like a little ship in a warm Saudi harbor:



surrounded by Israeli attack helicopters.

We give them one last chance to ally with the Imperium, but they refuse.

I wonder if there will be room there for my airborne units?

August 4th

Bahrain Falls.

[catatonic]

August 4th, 2029

OK, it's time for another stand-up battle. No more of this airborned, "slam-bam-thank-you-mam" stuff.

Turkmanistan has two super-bases on the desert:



one of them is a little wasted due to their military action with Uzbekistan last year.

I already have the units in the field at Tehran, not far away. Lets go!

August 15th, 2029

The U.S. has 2300 units currently deployed so it takes a while to get them all sorted out, deployed and driven to Turkmanistan.

U.S. DOWS Turkmanistan:



September 19th, 2029

This is the first time that the U.S. has deployed its SLAV6 and M118A4 units in mobile combat. They work out rather well, intercepting Turk armor before it reaches our tanks.

Looks bad for the poor Turkmen:



As you can see, their Capital is now exposed and defenseless.

September 21st

Turkmanistan Falls.

[catatonic]

September 19th, 2029

With all of the arms that the U.S. has been sending to South Africa, you would think that they would be cleaning up on their enemies there. But this is not the case:



SA is getting shredded. They have lost a phenominal 424,448 square km of territory to third-rate regions like Mozambique, Botswane and Zimbabwe.

Although the SA Capital of Pertoria is in little danger of being over-run, except for the presence of many scattered Russian Ka-50 Werewolf attack helos:



it is difficult to tell that the U.S. has sent SA any units at all. Many of the U.S.-supplied units can be found the the South-East in the coastal SA city of Durban, where the are of no use what-so-ever:



SA's industry has been wrecked due to the capture of its mines and other production facilites.

SA is long over-due for a visit from U.S. Military advisors.

September 21st

U.S. advisors arrive and find things in a shamble. As a first order of business they advise the SAs to organize their aircraft into battle-groups. The killer Russian helos are quickly organized into five strike-groups. Enough Cheetah D fighter jets are located to for another fighter battle-group. And ten Russian TU-160 Blackjack bombers are organized into a powerful bomber battle-group.

A an armored front against further attacks on Pretoria from Botswane is deployed and backed with artillery.

Groups of Engineers supplemented by infantry spread out to re-take the mines surrounding Pretoria and to return the roads to SA control.

Reserves are deployed from Cape Town and are sent North to reclaim lost territory and to prevent further incursions from Namibia.

A large force of Engineers and M113A3 APCs in Durban are deployed North-West along the coast for a strike at the Mozambique Capital of Maputo.

Attack helo groups fly sorties to surpress Botswane raiders making further attacks towards Pertoria.

September 28th

Mozambique Falls to South Africa.

Once Botswana attacks subside, reserve units from Durban are deployed North to Pretoria. An offensive against the nearby Botswane Capital of Gaborone is organized.

October 25th

Botswane Falls to South Africa.

With the recovery of the lost mines the SA economy is beginning to get back on its feet.

A military mystery is solved - the missing donated U.S. units are located - they have been in reserve in Pretoria all of this time.

An offensive against Zimbabwe is quickly organized. SA units advance on and take Gweru on the Zimbabwe Western border. Enemy counter-attacks are surpressed with SA air-strikes by its Blackjack bomber group.

November 28th

Zimbabwe falls to South Africa.

Following their victory over Zimbabwe, SA routinely sends a large contingent of infantry units North to serve as frontier guards against incursions by new neighbor Zambia. The fact that the two are at war was forgotten. This innocent action triggers a massive attack South from the very well armed Zambia.

A fur-ball ensues in which SA units get thrashed and are forced to retreat, leaving many wounded units to die.

December 10th

A full deployment of SA units counter-attacks. One large force takes the Zambian air-strip at Livingstone, while another main body counter-attacks from the former Zimbabwe Capital city of Manyame.

The two SA groups then attack the Zambian capital at Lusaka from two directions. They eventually combine to surround Luska on two sides and lay seige to the capital.

December 21st

Zambia falls to South Africa. SA is now secure:

[catatonic]

September 22nd, 2029

Attacking Yemen could be challanging.

Yemen's position at the bottom of the arid Arabian Penesula make attacking it awkward. The level of supply North of Yemen is low and it is a long way from anywhere. Their Capital of 'Adan sits invitingly on the coast, just beggging for an amphibious attack, but there is a slight problem - the super-base sitting four hexes away.

'Adam itself is heavily protected with Mirage and MIG fighter planes and attack helos, which strongly discourages an airborne attack.



The U.S. has pre-positioned heavy naval assets nearby at a Saudi base on the Red Sea, in anticipation of military action against Yemen.

But an audacious plan is formed - what if the naval forces (40 units strong accompanied by a CVA and air-group) could drive off the Captial's air-cover? Wouldn't it then be possible to air-drop an assault-force in and take the city? Without the air assets the city's only remaing defenses consist of 4 BM-21 Grad MRL, two M113A1 APC and four other APCs 32 km away at Zinjbar. And these could possibly also be surpressed by naval gunfire.

But it would need to be accomplished quickly, before the re-enforcements from the Northern super-base could arrive.

The plan is approved.

November 8th, 2029

Warrior and MRF-X units from Khartum are loaded on already waiting C-5A transports. The closest friendly air-field is at Gonder, Ethiopia. Not close, but it will have to do. C-5A have a very long range.

Naval forces arm themselves with land-attack missiles. The ships position themselves, hugging the Yemen sea-frontier off-shore of 'Adan. The transport aircraft land in Ethiopia.

Novenber 9th

Normally the U.S. would break diplomatic relations with a region before DOWing. However, there are no such relations with Yemen. The airborne assault force takes off and war is declared against Yemen.

Two submarines lead the way up to the 'Adan sea-pier. The CVA takes station a safe distance from the shore-fire, protected by its aircraft and and opens fire with its AA. Crusiers, DDG and FFs move in to point-blank range of 'Adan for maximum AA coverage. Barrages of M-40 NTACM missiles fly at Yemeni defenders in the city and Northward into the super-base.

Yemeni aircraft put up a short fight. Surviving ones flee North to Saba for repair.

The plan works perfectly.

Withering naval gunfire and missile salvos combine to neutralize the Yememi infantry defending the city. The on-site commander delays comitting the transport aircraft until all naval units are fully engaged, therefore sacrificing one one of the mission objectives - to land the airborne assault force before a counter-attack was launched from the super-base.

However he cleverly times the air-drop to occur just a few hours before mid-night, therefore minimizing the on-ground combat time of the assault force.

The assault force rewards him by giving 200% and capturing the city before midnight, just one hour after the super-base counter-strike arrives at the city.

Yemen falls.



Eight ships were lost and nine were badly damaged. Two C-17A aircraft were lost. All of the assault-force survived un-injured.

The U.S. receives two whole super-bases worth of Yemeni tanks, infantry and artillery.

[catatonic]

December 2029 began an seven-month period of re-organization as the U.S. planned to switch its active military operations from the Mideast back to Asia.

Up until this time unit production had been continuing almost un-restrained. The U.S. was deliberately fabricating phaser tanks, high tech infantry like the SLAV4-III and super MLRS artillery. These units were being steadily fabricated in massive land fabs in Russia and delivered to Egypt where they were sorted and parked for use in the desert West of Cairo:

Here are 1438 units parked in Egypt:



CONUS unit fabrication had been completely curtailed, except for the production of Boeing 747-400ER transports at Luke AFB.

December marked the closing and scrapping of the massive Russian unit fabs. Large-scale production of modded WS-3 MLRS and M2020B FCS Mk 3 Phaser tanks began in Egypt and South Korea.

Between November 21st, 2029 and June 26th, 2030 the U.S. had reduced its total unit count by 480 units. We also scrapped 81 land fabs, 50 air fabs, 8 naval fabs, 51 barracks, 36 air-fields and 13 sea-piers. In addition there were 58 barracks, 27 air-fields and 13 sea-piers closed.

June 26th, 2030

All Russian barracks, air-fields, land and air fabs had been closed and most scrapped. All unit fabrication has been stopped - we have plenty of units.

All aircraft that was likely to be used in Asia or Africa was either flown or shipped to those threatres.

All combat naval vessels that would assist commanders in these threatres was deployed from CONUS ports to Asia or Africa.

The number of deployed units had been appropriately balanced between Africa and Asia by huge vehicle convoys that moved between the huge unit parking lot in Egypt and the U.S. Asian staging area in Hong Kong:



250 additional units are on their way to Hong Kong from Egypt.

July 8th, 2030

Combat resumes in the Asian theartre. In a change of procedure, idle units in Africa were not placed into reserve during the new Asian campaign.

[catatonic]

July 31st, 2030

troop movement towards Laos have begun. In the sat-photo below you can see U.S. tanks and Engineers in the lower left corner headed West toward the Laosian border through Vietnam. They have moved from the U.S. staging area around Hong Hong, shown on the right:



This wider shot shows Laos in blue to the left, Thailand in white, Vietnam in green (center) and Indian-controlled Hong Kong to the right (brown):



August 15th

Here is a pre-attack sat-photo. U.S. units units are lined up from North to South along the Eastern Laosian boorder (right).

Top right are U.S. M5B2 ATs, center right are LFV-1 and LFV-2 infantry and bottom right are modded WS-3 MLRS artillery.



Not shown to the bottom right are U.S. tanks and Engineers poised to attack North-West between the mountains and the Thailand border. The U.S. has no land transit treaty with Thailand.

August 17th

Fooled ya!



U.S. XAV infantry air-drops onto the Laosian Capital of Viang Chang and - Laos Falls.

[catatonic]

OK, I don't think that we will be assaulting Bangkok (a.k.a. Krung Threp) by air:



Not one, not two but three air-fields full of 100 nasty fighter planes. No, make that SIX air-fields. SA-6 Gainful AA around the Capital. Warships and submarines in the bay.

Oh, and it is a super-base. Land Assault! All of the infantry and tanks that we did not use on Laos we can use here:



Thailand has aquired a lot of disconnected real-estate in the area and I have enough units to attack all three simutaniously. Recs will go North and take the barren mountain region. WS-3 MLRS and a few infantry will take Haikou Island and the rest of us will infiltrate Thailand from three directions.




September 20th

War has not yet been declared against Thailand.

Here we have the U.S. three-pronged attack:



Referenced by the "Christmas tree" of Thai units at the bottom, at 12 o'clock (top) we have our M5B2 ATs and LFVs sneaking up on on the Thai barracks at Chang Rai. They have strong AA cover, in case the nasty airplanes catch on to what is happening.

At 1 o'clock we have the U.S. Laosian force moving South to take the Thai barracks/air-field at Udon Thani. They too have heavy AA cover.

By now I am scrapping 95% of captured units because they are too low-tech to keep up with my TL 150 units. However these Laotian units were conviently placed and strong enough to use in place.

Lastly at 3 o'clock we have Engineers and losts of tanks ready to cross the Thai border and take the barracks/air-field at Ubon Ratchathani. They have AA cover as well.

The other two targets off camera are covered by U.S. units too as described above.


September 26th

All three groups have reached and taken their objectives:



At the top my recon units have taken their mountanious objective and have returned South to join the ATs. This group is about to have to deal with the nearby Thai air-field at Chang Mai.

The "Laosian" group at 2 o'clock has been joined by Engineers, SLAV4-IIIs, IFVs and M-11 AT. U.S. Engineers are circulating counter-clockwise to assist all three groups.

I think that you can get the idea - all three groups are moving in to "tighten the noose". Hopefully the Thai airforce will burn itself out by attacking all of the heavy U.S. AA that we brought along.

All three groups will need to be patient and just wear the Thais out.


November 10th

In this sat-photo the Recon group has by-passed the air-field at Chang Mai:



The U.S. has brought up some BAZ-135 missile launchers (top).

The super-base is not so super anymore. The hundreds of Thai fighter aircraft are MIA/KIA. The few remaining ones are actually in the Capital:



The Thais are surrounded and in a bad way, but this could still become a fur-ball, so the U.S. will need to move slowly and deliberately.


November 13th

Thailand Falls.

[catatonic]

November 20th, 2030

SE Asia is rapidly becoming a "blue" state, and "That's the way I like it, uh-hu, un-hu"...



And look:



another super-base for us to kill!

But wait:



The Capital of Phnum Penh is surrounded on three sides with AA. BUT the fourth side is clear! And there is no AA inside the Capital. There is one heavy AA site with three ZPU-AA guns four hexes distant on the N.E. approach.

Guess what we are going to do...

November 20th



November 28th


Cambodia Falls. "That's the way I like it, uh-hu, un-hu"

[Ultimate_Waffle]

Those Thai Fighters are the worst. Always flanking you and shooting at you while you're trying to shoot proton torpedoes into a three meter wide hole on the Death Star.

[catatonic]

December 1st

OK, we will skip Malaysia for the time being. They have two super-bases with nearly as many units as we have. Pretty scary.

Let's pick on New Guinea instead...

Its Capital at Port Moresby is defended by 14 units - TOTAL:



Apparently this is what happens when the game designer fail to provide you with a land fab. Or a research facility. Or an Intelligence agency.

December 14th

Papa New Guinea Falls

[catatonic]

December 16th, 2030

What better way to ring in the New Year than to conquer a new region?

OK, here is big, scary Malaysia:



But what is wrong with this picture:



Isn't Singapore a City-State? Not in this modded game. Singapore was deliberately modded into Malaysia.

And Singapore has heavy AA - two SA-13 Gopher and one SA-8 Gecko radar-guided gun AA. But wait one - Only Gecko has Mid-Air capability and neither one is long range.

In order to avoid engaging about 1000 Malaysian land units, the U.S. could at least attempt an airborne assault on Singapore. After all, it is on the coast with no protection to the South. And there are no AA naval vessels in the harbor.

It could also feign an attack at Northern Malaysia to lure some enemy units away from their Capital.

Or, since this is our last target in Asia and we have about 1200 units there...


December 30, 2030

I could also just plow into Malaysia and create a huge fur-ball like this:



Notice how U.S. units skirt the super-base at Lumut by taking the coastal road along the Gulf of Thailand. This does not however discourage Malay units from Lumut from attempting suicide at the hands of the passing U.S. phaser tanks.

January 3rd, 2031

Maylasia Falls:



Hey, it worked! But, Oh Dear, I only have 5,800,000 military personnel and 4200 units left. What will I do?

Malaysia lost 857 units, including garrisons. The U.S. lost 310 units and suffered 72,090 casualties, the most of the entire 11 year campaign.

[catatonic]

Before we leave Asia I want to show you the WEIRDEST thing that happened in this game. This is not BG's fault - I have been modding and generally screwing around with this particular game.

April 6th, 2028

Here is the island of Taiwan:



Here is its Capial of Taipei:



March 26th, 2028

Here is Taiwan after a visit from the U.S. State Department. They were informed that there was no more China and that they could put away all of their units:



Here is the same island one week later:



The goverment of Taiwan as been totally replaced by Mali - too weird.

June 1st, 2028

Two months later:



Mali Falls - March 23rd, 2031

Here is the same island after the U.S. takes Mali:

[catatonic]

January 6th, 2031

Following the fall of Malaysia I scrapped all of the obsolete Malaysian units and the placed all of the remainig units in reserve in Malaysia. This left me with 200 airborne units in Hong Kong, Bejing and Korea, 28 aircraft, 70 ships along the China coast and 720 other land units in reserve in Malaysia.

We unknowingly also had aquired 120 land units and 34 aircraft, captured in March of '31 from Mali's strange bastion in Taiwan.

[catatonic]

March, 2031

I have to say that the most difficult aspect of conquering Africa South of Egypt is just getting all of my little guys there.

They are all very tired and frankly, I am exhausted from documenting the previous exploits of the U.S. Imperium.

None of these remaining regions represents a challange to the U.S. Imperium that is worth documenting, except those that are detailed below. The U.S. has such an over-whelming advantage of land, sea and air assests at this point victory of the U.S. and another Supreme Ruler crown for their commander-in-chief is inevitable.

Here is a screen-shot of just two of four of the U.S. super-groups in Africa:



Most of the remaining conquests involve airborne assaults. Repeating the same old story eleven times would just bore the reader.

Here is a sat-photo of two of the average remaining African capital cities:



If any of my fellow players were to request further details on any of the following conflicts then I would be glad to provide them here.

The remaining campaign spans the rest of the year and ends in January 0f 2032. Here are the dates that the remainder of Africa fell to the U.S. Imperium:

Chad Falls - April 9th

Somalia Falls - May 4th

Guinea Falls - May 18th

Sierra Leone Falls - May 21st

Central Africa Falls - June 12th

Uganda Falls - June 25th

Liberia Falls - July 2nd

Tarzania Falls - July 6th

Malawai Falls - September 14th

Nigeria Falls - September 18th

Cote d'Ivory Falls - September 24th

Niger Falls - October 7th

[CONTINUED BELOW]