Lithuania AAR

Share your stories of conquests and leadership successes.

Moderators: Balthagor, Legend, Moderators

Post Reply
Kristijonas
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 884
Joined: Nov 11 2011
Human: Yes

Lithuania AAR

Post by Kristijonas »

This game is being played in Supreme Ruler 1936 game with the following settings:

No loyalty
no electricity sales
no allied victories
no enhanced spotting or ranges
no weather
no diplomatic merchant marines
funds low
resources dwindling
critical international opinion off
random events very high
hot relations high
military on default (I find it more capable than on very high! Possibly because default is as-designed)
economy default
diplomacy very easy (so that the AI declares more wars against each others and easier diplomacying for me)


During the first year, I tried to establish Lithuania in the world as a friendly and diplomatically active country. I didn't want to adverse myself against Axis, however, so I refused to enter mutual defense treaties with countries that were in Germany's field of interest. So while I all treaties written with countries like Switzerland, the Scandinavian counries, Spain with Portugal, Austria. Some countries, like the Benelux countries, Ireland, Mexico, Yugoslavia, Romania, bulgaria I only have formal alliance and maybe mutual defense, but no free trade or labor movement or missile defense, because I don't want their poor economies to influence mine. I didn't alliance with some other countries because they might be my enemies in the future just because of how powerful they could possibly be (the UK, France).

While building diplomatic ties, I set Lithuanian social spending to higher level than our economy could sustain. Just as I had hoped, because of our good treatment of our citizens and good international ties, Lithuania received foreign aid from the League of Nations as well as other countries. While in this parasitic state, Lithuania flourished and even spent some of this donated money to help them trade technologies through the world. Lithuania currently possesses all technologies they could get without researching "Underwater Petroleum Extraction" and "Improved Plastics" themselves. Time for implementing all the traded knowledge...

Ss Lithuania finished trading techs with the world and started researching themselves, their economy was also at an all time high, thanks to the foreign aid. What came unexpected, however, was an offer from the USA:

Now, Europe in 1937 is a bastion of peace. The only threat to safety of peace in Europe is the Soviet Union. To counter their threat, a strong state of Poland was established with the Versailles treaty. It was hoped that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia would also form a formidable alliance in the interest in of their own defence.

As it turned out, Estonia and Latvia refused to arm themselves at all. In their current state, they are easy pickings for the expanding communist state. Only Lithuania maintained a strong army. They also sold their cheap equipment and bought new for their modernized army. While not a large force, it has mounted infantry, good American and Swiss artillery, elite guards and cavalry.

Seeing the poor readiness level of Latvia and Estonia and current weak state of Soviet Union, USA decided to support Lithuania with TWO BILLION dollars. Lithuania used the money to expand their social programs even more, to even better finance their armies and research and... to launch an attack on Latvia, Estonia and Danzig.

Using intimidation tactics, Lithuania gathered their whole army at the borders with Latvia and sent ultimatum to Latvia, Estonia and Danzig. All three countries, having little to no armies, surrendered immediatelly and Lithuanian army moved to claim the territories without encountering any resistance. Pan-baltic state is now formed. Without firing a shot.


To explain how I received two billion dollars and how I took all three countries without firing a shot: I received money from USA because they were my allies and I had little money... so they just decided to help us out (my good international relations probably helped with that as well) I feel a little bad for taking that money, but then I spent so much on techs that I feel I benefited the whole world as well.

As for taking all three countries without firing a shot... well... that's a fact. Neither country had a single unit, I think. Fact is, none of us had ANY military casualties. I checked. I just walked and took every thing over.

One of the billion dollars was used to adjust and fix all facilities and industries of the territories taken.
This is a map of Lithuania after the expansion:

Image
Notes:
1. City of Narva. Ideal chokepoint in case of attack by Soviets. Lithuania built a gun emplacement there and is currently building a fortress. After it is finished, we will entrench our artillery and elite guards there. Had to scrap a small coal power plant here. Not a problem because we have more than enough electricity.
2. Another city we decided to build a gun emplacement in. No garrison is planned there for the moment.
3. Taurage. Gun emplacement built here to try and fight Germans in case of invasion.
4. City of Memel. A ship pier is being converted to ship port here so we can finally reserve our ships. Lithuania Latvia Estonia and Danzig - neither of these countries had a ship port or air base! A gun emplacement is also being built in Memel in case of attack by the outraged Germans.
5. Panevežys. Air field scrapped here. We have more than enough. And the city doesn't have any notable industries to justify it!
6. Another city with air field srapped. Tallinn air field is very close.
7.Since I am now surrounded by Germany and Soviet Union, I might decide to build up this island as a huge fortress where we could retreat in case of enemies overruning us in the mainland.

Another small coal power plant has been scrapped somewhere... Air base is being planned to build as well, so we can reserve our planes. But I'd like it to be built in Vilnius/Wilno, which belongs to Poland at the moment... Our strategists are already scheming on how to get it. We are probably going to try and make Poland look like a threat to Soviet Union and/or Germany so they invade Poland and we could take Wilno/Vilnius while they are distracted. We also heard rumors that the Soviet Union considers Wilno/Vilnius as a Lithuania city, so we might be able to receive it with their help.

International happenstances:
Wars:
Italy vs Ethiopia. They are fighting for more than a year now. Ethiopia is holding, but their population now is 11 million. It was 12 million last year.
Japan vs China. Here's a map of their current state. Also, note the number of Lithuanian technologies acquired:
Image

Alliances:
None. For some reason, the AI refuses to make any alliances with anyone.

Notes for BATTLEGOAT made from this playthrough:
1. Free money from allies is great, but I think it's unbalanced. Sure, countries like Israel get loads of moneys from USA in reality, but playing a small country and receiving billions from biggies such as USA can really make it too easy to maintain a good economy and having inflation as the only problem. This is not a big problem for me, as I just take the money and roleplay it :D and I have a choice not to take it, too, so it's not anything major. I would expect in reality more technology sharing than money dropping.
2. Estonia and Latvia had absolutely no units. I just took their lands and the only hit they made to me, was international relations. I think it's unrealistic that any country would have no unit to defend themselves.
3. Relations between Lithuania vs Germany, Italy and Hungary are too low. I think they should be about average.
4. I was told at high hot relations and very low diplomacy I would have wars all over. Not a single unscripted war happened. Didn't want a world chaos, but something more random would be alright.
5. Not a single alliance was made worldwide between AI's. Is something broken there?
6. Scandinavian, Benelux countries and Greece came to help me take Estonia and Latvia! This is really nice to receive some help. Good job on this aspect. Not that I needed any help snowballing the territory without any resistance :D
7. Buying units makes the game too easy. Please make it cost much more to buy/maintain units. There's a reason why all countries don't just have latest, best hardware.
Last edited by Kristijonas on Oct 25 2014, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Xbwalker
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 529
Joined: Jun 28 2008
Location: Las Vegas NV USA
Contact:

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Xbwalker »

Out of curiosity, was both countries surrendering to you without fighting a part of the narrative or did you somehow convince them to join you? If so, how did you do that?
Kristijonas
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 884
Joined: Nov 11 2011
Human: Yes

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Kristijonas »

They literally had no armies. I don't know if they scrapped them or sold them, but yeah. My armies just walked through their territories, taking everything with no resistance. Literally no shot fired. No casualties on any side. Peaceful occupation :D

I have also built a gun emplacement in the city of Tartu. This is to prevent enemies from surrounding Narva (which is my only fortress+gun emplacement position now) by flanking.
User avatar
Xbwalker
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 529
Joined: Jun 28 2008
Location: Las Vegas NV USA
Contact:

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Xbwalker »

Wow man. Lucky you! Haha. Keep up the good work. It will be nice to see the Baltic states stand up to the Soviets.
Kristijonas
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 884
Joined: Nov 11 2011
Human: Yes

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Kristijonas »

Yeah, the hard part is it is probable I have no chance, and yet I have to try and defend from both Soviets AND Germans. Too much to cover with such a small nation.
User avatar
Xbwalker
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 529
Joined: Jun 28 2008
Location: Las Vegas NV USA
Contact:

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Xbwalker »

The key is artillery and infantry. I have found that during small nation games, artillery is a major force multiplier. The problem is, building them takes quite a bit in the way of military goods so once the world runs out, you will have to use what you already have made.
way2co0l
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 687
Joined: Nov 29 2010
Human: Yes

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by way2co0l »

Nice to see you putting gun emplacements to use. I'm looking forward to seeing how effective they are. Good luck!
Kristijonas
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 884
Joined: Nov 11 2011
Human: Yes

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Kristijonas »

A lot had happened since last update. Italy and Germany steamrolled through Europe, everything between Poland-Lithuania and Spain is now controlled by Axis.
As Germany single-handedly fought Poland, Lithuania decided to "help" Germany and also invaded Poland (to huge disatisfaction of most of the world, but to the satisfaction of germany). Lithuania was given some eastern lands of Poland to do with them as they please. Lithuania decided to install a loyal government there and help Poland on their feet. in long term plans, we will push Poland to build research facilities and barracks.

Image
Here you can see the extent of Italian and German conquests. The 4 notes are:
1. The only military installation of Poland, near Gdynia - a naval base - has been completely dismantled and scrapped.
2. Vilnius, together with surrounding Lithuanian loyalty lands have been given back to Lithuania. A small coal power plant was scrapped here. Air base is finally being built here. First air base of Lithuania.
3. Air field scrapped in Kaunas.
4. Kardla town on a small island. Two research facilities are almost built here. This is a huge strain on our financial situation, but foreign aid with high taxes keeps us in the white
The six green squares in Lithuanian map represent six fully garrisoned gun emplacements (and one fortress in Narva). Each square means there are about 10 artillery units, 1 or 2 AA units and several tank or infantry units, depending on location. Danzig is the latest of our fortress, its mission is to give Lithuania more time to organize defenses of the mainland in case Germany attacks.

What's fun in this game is that after the "death" of Netherlands and Denmark, 21 colony attained independence.

Here is a picture of Asia and Africa:
Image
China is on its way to annex Japan. This war is so far away that I'm not sure if I should try and help out Japan or not. Is it in Lithuanian interest to maintain a balance between China and Japan in Asia or is not a problem for us if China will be so strong, with the Koreas and Japan in their holdings?

Image

Funny thing happened with the Soviet Union a year ago. They sent us an ultimatum. They demanded we allow their full army into our borders. After a short moment of thought, Lithuania decided to counter their ultimatum: we would only allow a small portion of their army to PASS through our territory. Not a large enough force to conclude an invasion. Their initial ultimatum would mean their army could just march through our fortresses - that would mean the end of Lithuania. as it is now, Lithuania and Soviets are at a mutual cooperation, albeit a hateful one. There is no formal alliance, but we cooperate, for now. If Germany and Soviets declare war on each other, we will suddenly kick any Soviet presence from our lands and leave them to ruin each other.

With recovery of city of Vilnius we now consider Lithuanian lands restored. Sure, we could still take a few pieces of lands there and there, but nothing to overexert ourselves over. It is now time to recover ourselves financially, diplomatically and technologically. We will also support Poland in its recovery so that in the long term we can release them as a free country that is capable of taking care of themselves and being our able ally.
Kristijonas
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 884
Joined: Nov 11 2011
Human: Yes

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Kristijonas »

1941, Jun 25. Germany declares war on USSR. As you can see from the previous maps I provided, my now colony Poland and Lithuania provide a wall between these countries. Probably because we prevent Germany from invading USSR, Romania, Finland, Albania, Italy and Hungary soon follow Germany by declaring war on USSR. Lithuania formally still has mutual defense and transition treaties with USSR, but not even USSR believes Lithuania will help them in the war. Lithuania will now observe this war, which, it seems, will happen through the balkans and then choose sides. Our missions is status quo in Europe, so it is possible that Lithuania will choose to attack the stronger side.

The weirdest thing is the Finns. They are at war against Germany, but still they declared war on USSR as well... Not sure I follow their logic... This can't end well for them..?
Kristijonas
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 884
Joined: Nov 11 2011
Human: Yes

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Kristijonas »

What a mess. The World is at War. The situation is too complex to convey at the moment, but Lithuania declared war on Germany, because they saw that they will soon conquer USSR. United States, United Kingdom and Australia also joined arms and attacked Germany, however did little more than sink a few ships.
Right now almost a year of war passed and it is slow. There are little military or industrial goods left in the world. Units are beginning to dwindle for all countries as well. Germany is struggling with annexed Russian lands because they re-appeared in a huge rebellion, there are also Finns and Lithuanians to deal with, along with Norway, US and UK in the seas. China has the same problem with Japan as Germany has with Russia: huge rebellions. Formosa formed its own state.

Here's how the world map looks right now:
Image

Finland controlled Leniningrad (Saint Peterburg's), but Germany pushed into Finland. Finland successfully defended from the attack and I think they might be slowly pushing back right now.

USSR rebels are fighting from city to city, but mostly they have taken the frozen lands of Siberia where Germans don't want to enter. Overall USSR rebels is a good distraction for Finland and Lithuania, who do most of the fighting against Germany in Europe.

Lithuania is trying to take Ostpreussen German lands for themselves and also to return more lands for their Polish colony. Lithuania also launched a successful amphibious attack on Copenhagen, giving the conquered lands to the newly instated Denmark. It cost us many units, but we also managed to conquer some lands near Berlin by doing an amphibious assault. We chose this area because it had plenty of military goods factories. It is not a huge hit for Germany but it is a big victory for us. Generally we are the only ones left in continental Europe who do the fighting. We are hoping our enemy is getting weaker. Our mainland is not in any danger, though, the fighting takes place in their lands. Despite everything, Germany seems to be controlling their waters pretty nicely. Recently they sank 10 submarines of mine without taking any losses. Although that could be because I had 0 military goods...

Italy is unsucessfully trying to take the United Kingdom and Africa.

And ow ****, as I was writing this, I noticed Germany controls Narva, our biggest fortress! If the AI was smarter, they'd attack our mainland with all they got in their eastern front right now. But since it is not smart, I think I can regain the fortress easily before they go any further.
The Narva fortress was taken so easily because we moved our grand garrison from there to the western front where we have to to hold Konigsberg, danzig and some other Ostpreussen cities from German advancement and also push further ourselves. So Narva was left with 1 garrison unit and seemingly did not manage to defend itself with only 1 fortress and 1 gun emplacement installments. We did not plan to attack towards Leningrad because we thought we should focus on Western front and leave the East to USSR and Finland. I still thing the same, except now I'll leave a small garrison in Narva. After we take it back.

By the way, that blue/gray country east from Lithuania and Poland is Romania. They are allies with Lithuania AND Germany. Quite smart. And now they control Russia up to Moscow suburbs. They have a population of 43 million. They are still poor as they were poor and they got poor USSR lands.

Interestingly, Sweden remains neutral, even after all this action around them.
Kristijonas
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 884
Joined: Nov 11 2011
Human: Yes

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Kristijonas »

Sadly, this war is not going well. We are out of military goods and our treasury -800M... We can't even buy petroleum and rubber for our bullet factories. Up to this point we may have managed to push, step by step, but our enemy remains strong and we are forced to hold our positions for now. We'll be happy if we won't have to retreat... Trying to balance budget, will try and sell technologies and units we don't use. Foreign aid would help, but we can't depend on that anymore. Things didn't go well for Finland, either. While they still hold Archangelsk, Germans have managed to conquer Leniningrad and up to Helsinki. Finns still hold, but I'm afraid a stronger push by Germans would destroy them. I have no idea how the Germans managed to hold in their eastern front... USSR rebels everywhere and Finns had a good, organized army... I pushed them in the west... Will see how this goes. War attrition is really strong in Lithuania. Even if the mainland remains almost untouched. So many lessons learnt that are too late to apply.

UPDATE: We are now retreating from our positions in Hamburg. The massive offensive from Germany is reinforced even more here because of help from Italy. This is probably the first time Italy actively helps Germany against us. Our troops held the position long enough for us to destroy their military industries in the surrounding cities, as can be seen here, Hamburg is stripped:

Image

We are hoping we will not have to retreat from other positions we hold.


UPDATE:

Situation looks extremely grim. Finland is continually losing ground, Poland lost its capital, Lublin and Warsaw, which I had conquered for them. We almost lost Danzig once and had to send troops we did not have to support that gun emplacement there. Here is the map of our current situation:
Image

1. This area here is a front of our doom. We were never prepared to defend here. We always thought a free, allied, Polish state would be here. However now Germans are pushing through Poland and will soon expose our underbelly...
2. These are our two gun emplacements
3. This is a large stack of our units. I still don't know what to do with them. They are currently guarding six military goods facilities just north of them. I guess I could destroy/scrap the military goods facilities and let this stack of units retreat by ships or attack towards Berlin? Hmm.

Out of desperation we began searching for even more alliances. We allied ourselves to the United Kingdom, the remains of Japan and strengthened our alliances with Greece, Brazil and Canada. It made very little difference. Initially we did not plan any alliances with the United Kingdom or Japan, because of their imperialistic ways, but we are too desperate to choose friends. I guess the ultimate proof of desperation is that we started buying cheap units here and there and just giving them to Finland and USSR. I guess it shows we no longer believe we can do this ourselves...
User avatar
Xbwalker
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 529
Joined: Jun 28 2008
Location: Las Vegas NV USA
Contact:

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Xbwalker »

Great job so far! I love to see AARs with a desperate struggle. It makes it more exciting.

Might I suggest a few things?

1. Use hit and run tactics. Attack a town, scrap all its facilities, and then pull out. This is especially useful with military facilities.
2. Try selling anything you can afford to lose to the UK. They will usually pay a very high price due to their great relations with you. There were in a few times in my Guatemala AAR game that I was about to go into the red and sold some Mil Goods for top dollar.
3. Minimize arty usage. Arty is AWESOME but it eats goods like crazy. Only use a few stacks in strategic locations.
4. No garrisons (last resort). I have only ever done this once when I was desperate for military goods. I removed all garrisons and placed only my active units in cities on my borders. This means much easier chance of losing a city if the enemy goes around your lines, however, it also means that your garrisons won't pop up and suck up military goods every time a threat approaches.

I'd save #4 for emergencies :)

Keep it up. I am really enjoying this AAR.
Kristijonas
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 884
Joined: Nov 11 2011
Human: Yes

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Kristijonas »

Thanks! I've been using your #1 and #3 strategies. I lowered artillery because I relied on them mostly, so I often had only artillery stacks who then died quickly and as you've mentioned, they eat up military goods fast. At the moment, military goods are in good condition after I've made hundreds of deals with countries around the world.

As for #1 - I've managed to use the army in Germany that you can see in my map provided in previous post to... attack Berlin! I actually managed to do that and it immediately solved my money problem :-) I got about 2.4 billions for taking their capital, as well as some other goods. I have also managed to destroy four of their unit producing facilities there. They still have about 50 of all kinds of unit facilities though... I have actually managed to destroy ALL facilities in Berlin and surrounding suburbs. I only spared research facility because 1. I <3 science 2. let them spend money there :D

The new capital of the Nazi Germany is......... MOSCOW !! :D

It may seem like I'm doing good, by taking their capital and all... but in reality I'm not doing ANY progress. They are probably making more units than I kill and my country is soooo tired.
Kristijonas
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 884
Joined: Nov 11 2011
Human: Yes

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by Kristijonas »

Wow this has been (and still is) a very interesting game... I managed to "control" Germany, but I can't muster enough army to control huge areas, so I invaded the Balkans and released 7 countries (but not with all of their lands. Just some, enough to cause problems for German lands). Then released Poland from being a colony and gave them my ****** units so they can continue they act like a buffer state between me and Lithuania. I did so because I got tired of all that military micromanagement and my country was in ~stagnation during war. Now I'm going for prosperity again, while Poland sucessfully fights Germans away.
I also found that that it is possible to open my savegames in multiplayer mode and play as other countries and I'm thinking about actually making peace and some minor treaties with Germany. It's only right, because I'm giving them lots of lands back (all except Ostpreussen lands). I don't want to continue beating them, because at this point it would be too easy. Half the world is against them. Even USA found its way into German balkans where they also annexed Albania. USA can't go any further in Balkans because they can't pass through all the Balkan countries I released. I really have no idea why USA did not act sooner. Only when I decided I will stop fighting Germany and started to win did they show up. Historical :lol:



So I made "peace" "embassy" and "criminal extradition" treaties between Lithuania and Germany. Exchanged some techs between Italy and Germany (very little and because I did exchange many techs myself as Lithuania) and then made Japan accept ALL treaties will Germany and exchanged units and just a little techs between them. Since japan gets defeated in all SR1936 games, they never get to make an alliance with Germany. This time, however, after being defeated, Japan ressurected (!) and fought back almost half of Japan. I really think they will make it alive, because somehow they have lots of units and China had already lost 2500+ units. So I'm fixing this mistake of japan and Germany not being allied by forcing an alliance and a minor tech exchange between them. I don't want an all-blue sphered world, so I don't really want Germany to fall. All I wanted is to defend Lithuanian interests when Germany steamrolled USSR, by taking them down a little bit. I think I achieved that and now I'm not interested in Poland or USA taking all over Germany. They can all brew in their own war while I'm enjoying peace. If Germany recovers well, I won't be surprised if they declare war on me again. Although with them being at war with almost all the world, I doubt they'll recover well.
Sorry about writing this AAR so shitily, I guess it's more of a gameplay fact resume :D But it IS a really interesting game. I don't feel bad about the intervetions I made because I think I only fixed what SHOULD be in game: a realistic peace after I fought Germans so successfully (against all odds) and alliance between Japan and Germany. Oh, and I'm also thinking about fixing another thing... Germany's capital was... Tashkent *facepalm*. Now that they have recovered Berlin from me (even though Poland is closeby) I think it'd be realistic for them to rellocate back there... Also considered making Hamburg or Dusseldorf capital. Probably not Hamburg because I once took it and deleted all facilities there...

I'm really not in the mood to cover all those 15-20 hours(RL) war, but here's a current map of the world:
Image
You can see how Japan's recovering, the Balkan states, USA in the Balkans, Polish expansion (thanks to me), a little Ukraine state and the persistent USSR (they were defeated and ressurected for like three times during this time...), Greenland belongs to the USA, because when I defeated the Slovak Republic, it just went for them.. hoped to release a free Greenland country (like I did with the Slovaks themselves).

It is now kinda like hot "cold war" between allies and axis. Not much action, but much fighting all around the world. By the way, Turkey and Syria have the same color in this map, easy to mistake it for one country.

I'm still planning to make this a long game. Building a third research center right now.

Image

I lost 600+ units. Practically all of them were SUT. Very cheap to buy huge armies. Only military goods and dollars were in deficiency. I have also acculumated 1.5 million tonns of industrial goods, worth ~6 billions by scrapping Soviet and German facilities :D I can now just lie back and enjoy the peace I created for my country.
medic911
Major
Posts: 165
Joined: Dec 03 2008
Location: Avondale, AZ, USA
Contact:

Re: Lithuania AAR

Post by medic911 »

Got a lot bigger a lot faster than i had thought sandwiched between USSR and germany. turned out pretty good so far, lots of casualties though, must have been tough going. I don't think ive ever seen russia with 3K troops before, lol thats hilarious!
Post Reply

Return to “After Action Reports”