A Swedish Tiger (a 2 year study of a growing Swedish Empire)

[Saarud]

Hi all!

I never did an AAR before so this is my debut on the AAR scene. The reason I will do an AAR now is because I think it will add another dimension to my game. Explaining my moves in the AAR will also motivate me to play smarter... though I have to warn you.. I'm no tkobo.

Settings:
Campaign: Global Crisis
Region: Sweden

All other settings as normal except the following:
Scheduled game end: 24 month
Military Difficulty: Very Hard
Economic Difficulty: Very Hard
Diplomatic Difficulty: Very Hard
Enhanced Spotting: Off
Enhanced Ranges: Off
Units Eliminated when region falls: On

Every other setting are unchanged including hot relations which is at medium.

For this game I also chose to use some quite rigid house rules and many of them I use just because I want to give myself an excuse to deal with just the military.

Houserules:
No Garrisons (and I am also inactivating this for my minister)
No Alliances
No tech, design or unit trading
I will not initiate trades at all.
I will not make any new bonds (and I am also inactivating this for my minister)
I will let my minsters handle the economy and resources except I can build and destroy buildings (because it's damn hard to make the AI build buildings for you).

Goal:
Well I chose to play this game for just 2 years and my goal is to have as large population as possible in 2 years time. I really like to have a goal with my games that directs my actions. I also like analyzing which moves will get me closer to the goal (that is: get as large population as possible in 2 years time).

Terminology:
Mechanized Infantry division = 1 stack (as many battalions as possible) of hard target infantry units. These are frontline units.
Armoured division = 1 stack (as many battalions as possible) of tank units. These are frontline units.
Light Infantry divisions = 1 stack (as many battalions as possible) of soft target infantries on wheel. These are frontline units.
Artillery division = up to 6 towed artilleries and 1 support truck.
SP Artillery division = up to 6 SP-artilleries and 1 support truck.
Support groups = These groups contains support battalions which includes everything from AA to AT to trucks. These groups are not used as frontlines troops.
Reserve groups may contain tank, mechanized infantry and/or light infantry battalions that will fill up for any damaged or destroyed frontline division.

I always try to build my divisions from units with the same speed and I always strive to have 7 units for all divisions that involves in fighting. It starts out good but in the middle of the battle the divisions has been reinforced with whatever I could reinforced with. So I usually holds up every now and the to regroup my forces.

I'm well aware that divisions are about double the size IRL as what I am naming divisions. But I do like to say I got 3 divisions ready to invade instead of saying 3 stacks ready to invade.

Ok with that set straight let's start the game.....

[Saarud]

New Leadership and Bold plans...
It's new years day and my first action as Swedens new prime minister are to fire my defence and research ministers (I inactivate everything they can do as I will handle research and the military all by myself). Sweden has 5.5 bn in the treasury. This will go a long way but it's not going to be enough. To increase my population I have to conquer new territory and war costs alot of money.

So how do I increase my population as much as possible in 2 years time? Well it's obvious that conquering populous nations are the best way to accomplish that. While it is tempting to attack weaker nations with higher populations farther away I decide to fight my first wars in the neighbourhood. My first victim will be Norway... not because of their mere 4.6 millions people but for their oil... and the money that comes with oil. They also have the largest land border with Sweden and although I don't fear them at all it would feel nice to have my back clear.

The world this game take place in will be a world full of alliances and few wars. So attacking Norway will probably set off a lavine of DOWs against Sweden and I have to prepare myself for that. Also it is quite possible that the North Sea will become a battlefield after I conquer Norway as I will feriously defend "my" oil.

While I probably could set up and attack Norway in about a week or so from game start that isn't really a good idea. Because when war is declared I will probably never go back to peace again and I will remain in war for the rest of the game. I decide that I will concentrate my finance on short term and try to maximize my treasury for the coming 6-8 month. I will probably attack Norway in August or so, after I conquer Norway the oil will strenghten my economy.

I tell my finance minister to increase the revenues and to decrease the social spendings, this will in short terms increase my treasury but it will in the long term be expensive as the demand will become lower and with that my main income domestic sales will also become lower. On top of that I tell my resource minister to increase the domestic prices. For now I really have to concentrate on increasing my treasury for the upcoming 6-8 month.

Research wise: Sweden has pretty good unit designs already and the designs will have to do for the coming 2 years. I could improve my naval designs but as the game will end in 2 years I won't get that much out of it. Instead of researching in new unit designs I decide to invest my 2 research spots on already existing designs. V-LAP Artillery will give my ballistic artilleries (which is the only kind of artillery Sweden can produce) an increased range of 20%. This will allow my artillery to fire 3 hexes away instead of 2. My second choice is once again to increase the power of the artillery: Artillery Locating Radar which increase both spotting strenght as well as ground attack strenght. Even though I am aware that artillery kills many civilians (and thus goes against my goal) I think they will fasten up my conquest enough so that I in the end will benefit from them.

Looking at the military Sweden has a very modern army and a decent airforce. The land and air designs are good and Sweden starts with 5 land builds, 2 air builds, 1 naval build and 4 missile build. This is quite much for a small nation as Sweden. Most battles in Surpeme Ruler are battles against close combat hexes so infantries are the most economical and at most times the best units to use. And as Sweden can produce the superb SEP-W (wheeled version) or SEP-T (tracked version) units this will be the main force that will make Sweden grow for the coming 2 years.

SEP-W.jpg

At this time Sweden can field 2 mechanized infantry divisions of CV-9040 and 1 armoured division of Leopard 2A3. 4 light infantry battalions will serve as flank protectors to make sure my main forces aren't flanked. Sweden also starts with almost 2 artillery divisions of FH-77 and 1 almost 1 SP artillery division of Archer FH-77.

The plans for the invasion of Norway involves 5 mech infantry divisions, 1 armoured division, 3 artillery divisions and 2 SP artillery divisions. The plans are already drawned and I plan to have got all the material for the invasion by August.

Swedens airforce is pretty good and the main airframe JAS-39 is quite cheap for it's capabilities. Usually I never use aircraft that much but I will try in this AAR to use them and since this will be my first update 7 game I could be in for a surprise.

After all this... I start the clock....

[Rhyus]

Good luck with this cant wait to see how things go

[tkobo]

Thats a pretty small force to invade with.Make sure to kick their backside anyway