British Empire-The world's true superpower

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way2co0l
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British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by way2co0l »

I've decided to try my hand at my own first ever AAR as the British Empire. Those of you that know me know that I play the game a lot slower and more meticulously than most people, so you can expect that to carry over in this AAR. I don't expect to be covering large periods of time as I personally play on slowest speed with a lot of planning time in between. Also, while I admittedly enjoy talking, I'm not much of a storyteller, so I won't be trying to replicate some of the awesome story based AARs I've seen in the past. Mine will likely be a lot dryer and mostly an effort to explain my reasoning for the decisions I'm making.

My goals early on will be in organizing my fleets into cohesive units and tracking the German fleet to ensure British superiority at sea. A reasonable force in France to aid them defensively with significant forces dispatched to my colonial possessions to fight the war overseas. Also, a major effort at securing British dominance on the world stage economically and militarily. England definitely can't do this alone however, and I will be tapping my colonial possessions to achieve this goal, including a major effort to industrialize India.

I'm thinking of beginning the game after the next update is released, and continuing through it so we'll see how it goes. :)
GIJoe597
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Re: British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by GIJoe597 »

I enjoy reading AARs, (most anything really), and look forward to this.
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Older/retired gamers, who do not tolerate foolishness.
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way2co0l
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Re: British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by way2co0l »

Prelude to war.

War with Germany seems inevitable. This is a fact becoming more and more obvious and it's easy to see why. These last several decades following German reunification have led to growth within central Europe on a scale never before seen and German nationalism is at its peak. Their military has proceeded to surpass the once fearsome French to become the envy of Europe, and their industrial might has even managed to surpass our own. Worse, with a large native German population at their disposal, they have barely tapped into their true potential and they know it. They feel it's time to leverage their position to take a seat at the table for themselves but they realize that none of us already at this table are willing to just give ours up. But this is only half the story of course, because the truth of the matter is that they do not just want a seat, they want ours. And we will not just surrender ours willingly. We are not the French afterall. No, we will fight to defend what we have earned and remind these upstarts who the true masters of Europe are.

But simply deciding to fight to defend what is ours is not enough as it presents us with many challenges that we must address. Germany's industrial might has grown far faster than anyone could have predicted and this complicates things for us a great deal as the gap between us will only grow over time. Clearly this is an unacceptable situation that necessitates that action be taken sooner rather than later. This business in the Balkans just might give us the opportunity we need to set things in motion. It is unfortunate that our complacency has left us wholly unprepared for the conflict we now seek, but there may not be a better opportunity than this so we must seize it and rely on the alliances we have formed to buy us the time we need in order to establish our war footing once again. Because if we are to secure our place at the head of the table, then we need to make it clear now and forever that there are... no... challengers.

We must use every resource at our disposal. Harness our colonial assets. Mobilize our people to secure British authority on the world stage.

And this starts at sea. The pride of our great nation and the source of our empire's strength. Our control of the seas is of paramount importance and must be maintained at all costs. German industrial might has allowed them to close the gap far too quickly but they are not our equals yet. Their new Konig class is especially worrisome, as it is superior to every class of vessel currently in our fleet. Obviously this must not be allowed to stand and the Queen Elizabeth class is our answer. She just might be the finest ship of our times, and will become the backbone of our naval resurgence, a symbol of British power for the world to see. At least half a dozen will need to be commissioned with support ships as well. Unfortunately our current dockyards are insufficient for this at the moment and will need to be expanded.

Our entire military industrial support structure will need to be expanded in fact, which brings us to perhaps our greatest obstacle, for we simply do not have the the population or resources to fuel the expansion necessary. Fortunately for us, the empire we've built can alleviate this weakness. Most specifically, the crown jewel of the empire, the territories of India. With her massive population and abundant resources, we have everything we need to begin a massive industrialization effort which will provide us the resources necessary and free up our soldiers to fight our wars. This effort will begin south of New Delhi by first establishing a new supply hub to fuel the industrial expansion and then 10 new industrial centers where we will be able to build as many as 60 new industrial goods factories under the most ideal supply conditions ensuring that we will have our supply covered for the foreseeable future. We must take note that India's power situation is already lackluster, and will need to construct several new power hubs if we want these new industrial plants to produce to capacity. We must also take care to build these facilities slowly to avoid heating their economy up too quickly. The vast majority of their population survives on a subsistence economy, but if they begin to get a taste for the finer things in life too quickly, it might result in more harm than good as this massive population has the potential to burn through valuable resources that the home islands are going to need.

Speaking of those home islands. With access to our industrial goods secured, we can turn our attention to the production of military goods, because we are going to need a lot of them before all is said and done. We will begin by constructing 1 new hub of 6 in order to sustain our initial war efforts, with more to follow once our first industrial goods begin to arrive from India. The 5 naval dockyards as has been mentioned before are entirely insufficient and we will need to double this as soon as we can ensure we have our necessary industrial and military goods situation resolved. We will also need more production ability for both land and air forces, but our navy comes first. Finding the men to fight is going to be an obstacle all its own, made even more difficult by our need to raise garrisons to protect against German aggression. While we have every confidence in the strength of our navy, the Germans clearly recognize that we are the true power that stands in the way of what they want, and will make every effort to defeat us if given the opportunity. We must not give them one. Even still, men do not grow on trees and must be lured into joining so salaries and military spending in general will be increased with that goal in mind. Our minister of war will be instructed to make every effort to encourage our young lads to enlist as well. Hopefully these efforts will prove sufficient so that we will have enough men under arms when it comes time to fight.

Our other colonies will be made to contribute to the war efforts as well. It will not only be up to India to contribute. New facilities will be constructed in Malaya, Nepal, Ceylon, South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan, and Egypt in order to help meet the raw resource needs of our population and industry, most notably when it comes to timber and oil. Other colonies may yet be called on to contribute further but the larger populations of these initial colonies ensure they are able to contribute on a scale that is useful to our efforts. More importantly, it will take some time for the industrial expansion in India to begin producing enough goods to subsidize constructions everywhere else.

Our people will have to make sacrifices of their own as well, resulting in higher costs for the goods they've become so accustomed to. New taxes will need to be levied in order to pay for all of these efforts, and social spending will have to more or less suffice where it currently is. Notable exceptions will be to infrastructure as well as potentially minor bumps to health care and family subsidies as we're going to need plenty of new young men and women to help us achieve our goals.

Operationally we will be creating 8 naval task forces, each consisting of 3 battleships/battlecruisers and 5 cruisers with an equal number of destroyer escorts. Patrol boats will be tasked with locating German ships so that my fleets can be positioned as necessary. All remaining capital ships will be held as a mobile reserve near Scapa Flow to ensure that additional task forces can be created if necessary and losses for existing forces replaced. Submarines will be tasked with locating and tracking Germany's submarines, as they are the only forces we currently have which can deal with them. I will be willing to split these up more than my normal fleets, because I am not looking for kills. I will be satisfied with simply putting their subs out of action until my Flower class destroyers can finish researching and hit the production line.

I will be leaving 1 army on the home islands which, combined with my navy and local garrisons, will be tasked with keeping the islands safe. Another army will be sent to Africa to support the army I currently have in South Africa in order to ensure that German colonies are subdued quickly. I will be sending 2 more armies into the middle east. One of which will be sent into Egypt and the other into Kuwait in the event that the Ottoman Empire decides to enter the war and my Mediterranean fleet will be mobilized to respond to either Italian or Ottoman forces. All remaining forces will be dispatched to France in order to keep her standing long enough for my empire to fully mobilize.

Settings for those that are curious: I will be playing on very hard military difficulty, normal diplomacy, and normal economy with diplomatic merchant marine turned off but the battle of the atlantic turned on. I will also be using abundant resources and high starting funds as I find it helps the AI. Spheres of influence and loyalty penalties will be turned off, spotting and ranges left on, and limiting military approval effects on which will be the first time I'll be trying this settings. I'm not entirely positive what it will do, but I'm hopeful it'll make countries less willing to surrender too easily so I'm going to give it a shot.
HawkHogan
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Re: British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by HawkHogan »

Where can I get more information?
way2co0l
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Re: British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by way2co0l »

I've been waiting for the next big update to jump into this properly. :)
way2co0l
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Re: British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by way2co0l »

With the poor performance of the Royal Navy in my Russian AAR, and the tears I've shed watching it, I've decided to jump into this one now as well and do both concurrently. My original prelude to war continues to reflect my plans so my next post will be a more thorough look into the state of things just prior to the outbreak of war including colonial construction, army positioning, as well as important fleet movements. The initial outbreak of the war will likely entail a large number of fleet engagements. So for those of you that enjoy that, there'll be that to look forward to! This Royal Navy will not be THAT Royal Navy. :D
way2co0l
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Re: British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by way2co0l »

(8-3-1914)

Our war is finally here. The Germans have begun bombarding France and there are reports of troops amassing along the border with Belgium so we have our justification. Our declaration will be delivered tomorrow and our guns shall be let loose. The Germans do not yet seem to comprehend the gravity of their situation for the easy victory they expect shall not be the one that they find waiting for them. In anticipation of this moment, the British empire has been mobilizing itself for war. The logistics and expense of this effort cannot be understated. 634 British vessels have been put to sea and the logistical issues of this fact alone have been tremendous. 50 battleships, including 11 that we have designated super-dreadnoughts form the foundation for the fleet that will be responsible for clearing the seas of all German ships. These will be backed up by over 100 cruisers and several hundred smaller vessels. The Iron Duke, the pride of our fleet, will carry our flag in this effort leading the first of 8 battle squadrons. A more thorough detailing of our battle plans and capabilities will follow.

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A bird's eye view of our deployments. Not all of our squadrons have yet made it to their assigned stations but most have. The units assigned to the far North and West are our armed merchant ships with a fairly robust roaming range. It is doubtful that any German vessels will manage to make it as far as any of their positions, but if they do they will be detected and tracked so that reinforcing battleships can be deployed. Further in from these are our older destroyer squadrons, and only a few of these squadrons are actually in position, but they should be within a week's time. The next line inward are patrols of our gunboats that don't quite have the range of our destroyers but they do pack a significant punch for their size and are quite expendable. These are the units I expect to see the most action from any German ships that happen to make it out of the North Sea or through the Channel. The Northern Approaches around the Isles are guarded on the West by one of our battle squadrons, and also has the distinction of having the majority of our naval reserves nearby. The Eastern end of this route are assigned to destroyer squadrons which have net arrived.

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The Channel itself is guarded to the east by another battle squadron, with 10 coastal submarines along its mouth. Further in are several squadrons of torpedo boats with our reserve of destroyers further west and capable of reaching the area in very short order. The mouth of the Thames towards London has another battle squadron blocking the way, with 3 Humber class Gunboats guarding further down the Thames to block anything that might slip through.

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The North Sea is dotted with submarines both for reconnaissance and to disturb German shipping. Our 14 E class submarines are tasked with the deeper waters while our 6 D class submarines guard the mouth of the Channel specifically to disrupt any ships before they make contact with our battle squadron there. The 37 C class submarines we possess with their limited range are mostly responsible for action just off the Eastern coast of the Isles. The Germans in their arrogance, or perhaps simple stupidity have not surrendered control over the North Sea to us and in fact have their ships in position to challenge us, surrendering the strength that their fleet in being doctrine gave them. This is a grave mistake on their part and will allow us an opportunity to destroy the greater part of their entire fleet in swift order.

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A closer look at the mouth of the Channel, the submarines positioned the battle squadrons along the Eastern coast. Several German ships appear to be scouting our deployments and our ships have already moved into position to ensure they are the first engaged once our guns are let loose. They undoubtedly know this, and have called in local reinforcements for their more important ships but it only demonstrates their arrogance in believing that they could present such enticing targets for us and expect them to make it away safely.

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Further North along our Eastern coast, and even more battle squadrons reacting to German movements. Several of the C class submarines previously mentioned have taken up position to ensure that these ships reach their end swiftly.

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Even further North, and another battle squadron facing off against German vessels that dare get this close.

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Another battle squadron, this time protecting Scapa Flow and the path around the Isles into the Atlantic. Multiple submarines are actively searching for German ships trying to take this path.

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There are undoubtedly German ships already beyond our pickets such as the cruiser observed here. 5 reserve battleships and 7 cruisers are near Cardiff to respond to any such vessels discovered.

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And then there's the status for the British Expeditionary Force. The standing and highly professional army at 2 army corps and 62 thousand men at arms are prepared to cross the channel to support France and Belgium in resisting the Germans. Another corps of regulars numbering 36 thousand are the reserve. This gives us a full army of 98 thousand men well trained, armed, and supplied. Care must be taken in their deployment however as we do not have much manpower available to replace losses. With 741 thousand men in our combined forces, we have only 91 thousand currently left available to us.

In other theaters, the South African division of 10 thousand men will be tasked with German South West Africa. Another 8 thousand men with a light artillery compliment have been dispatched to Nigeria and will be responsible for suppressing the German colonies of Togoland and Kamerun. We only have 3 thousand men currently tasked with dealing with German East Africa and this is not expected to be sufficient, but will be reinforced from the other areas as they have been dealt with. Another division of 12 thousand men have been dispatched to Egypt with a strong artillery complement to secure the Suez and operations in the middle east should it become necessary.

The RAF currently boasts 6 squadrons of patrol craft and 2 of interceptors. These will be dispatched to assist in operations along the Western front. We have additionally laid down 5 hulls for new Queen Elizabeth class battleships as we will spare no expense in securing our control of the seas and they are widely expected to be the most capable ships of our time.

Efforts are ongoing to mobilize the economies of our Isles and our colonies as well, but it will take more time for the results to become apparent. It was determined that for these projects to be successful, that new supply hubs would need to be constructed first, and this process is underway in 8 colonies. We have begun further expanding their capabilities in anticipation of the completion of this project with numerous oil wells being constructed within our African colonies, rubber plantations in our Southeast Asian ones, Timber in Nepal, and the industrial expansion in India with additional plants being constructed in order to power them. None of these have yet been completed.

All of our efforts have caused our economy to heat up, currently rising to 3.7% inflation for a gain of 2.5% over the last month. It is beginning to come under control however and should stabilize shy of 5% and was simply unavoidable when deploying so many forces and spending what we are in enticing more men into service while also ensuring that our force continues to be the most professional in Europe. This definitely comes with a hefty pricetag as we are paying upwards of 28m daily on maintenance and preparedness. This should pay off however when it is time for them to prove themselves on the battlefield and with the limited numbers of men available to us, make every single one of them count.

And so tomorrow we join the conflict, and our future will be determined in its course. Due to the massive number of ships involved, I will not be making an effort to record every one, though I will try to list the ones involved in any significant engagements. I do not expect to come out of this entirely unscathed, and expect to lose quite a few smaller ships, but I should be able to clear the sea of German units without losing any capital ships. That's my goal. I'm going to need to use my submarines primarily to locate and engage German subs as I have nothing else capable of engaging them. I am researching the Flower class destroyer which will effectively correct this, but until then I have no other recourse beyond my own subs. This is true for the Germans as well, so it's not entirely bad. But seriously though... The logistics for micromanaging over 600 naval units is serious. lol. Anyway, to war!

Edit to include additional notes. The French refuse to deploy their fleet, leaving the Brits to shoulder the entire conflict. The Russian fleet attempts to do the same but are forced out of port by German ships approaching, and summarily destroyed in their disorganized efforts to react. Additionally, it appears that the Russian army has yet to mobilize at all with only current border forces being used and the rest of Russia's armies remaining dormant and useless.
bowtie
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Re: British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by bowtie »

3.7% inflation isn't heating up that much! :D

I'm more interested to see how your navy does vs... Italy's! As england I've had the most trouble fighting the italian navy, moreso than England. Penetrating the mediterrannian is hard... Italy has massive fleets in there whenever I look.
way2co0l
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Re: British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by way2co0l »

Unfortunately I've never had the Italians stick to the alliance with Germany. Not sure if they can actually. More importantly, their fleet at this time really isn't anything special as they only very recently united at all. Their WW2 fleet is an entirely different beast. :)

And yeah, I'm very picky with my inflation. haha. With war arriving, new war taxes will definitely help me control it. :D
bowtie
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Re: British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by bowtie »

sorry, just realizing now this is WW1 not WW2. I apologize.
way2co0l
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Re: British Empire-The world's true superpower

Post by way2co0l »

I suspected that might be the case so no worries. :D
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