Most fun game ever? / AAR UK saves the World from Russia

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Most fun game ever? / AAR UK saves the World from Russia

Post by GIJoe597 »

Not an AAR in the sense we use it here, but I believe this is the best section for this.


I believe I may be playing the "funnest" game of 2020 I have ever played solo. I started as the U.S.A. and played for 4 or 5 years, liberated Cuba and Mexico early on. At the start of the 5th year, I noticed Russia was really on the ropes, fighting on all fronts, he was reeling. With the enemy at the gates, the treasury in the red, and no hope of holding out, I tagged into Russia to try and save him.

After some very tense months I was able to get some sort of semblance of an OOB to Russian forces and get their build queue set. I was forced to more or less ignore Siberia and Asia. Even as the red horde and the Indians pushed into my lands, I knew supply would limit them to a slow pace, so I ignored them for now.

Moscow was in danger, our only hope was to martial everything I could West, North and South of Moscow, creating a defensive ring. Our fighters were out classed but they were hard to hit as they were the MIG-25P Foxbat A, a HIGH flying airframe with a very limited range. I used them to clear as much as possible and to run interference for the Foxbat-B's whom I threw into the fray time and time again attempting to slow the hostile forces. Russian MIG-25RB Foxbat-B fighter bombers were not top of the line, but they were numerous, barely. They flew sortie after sortie in defense of the motherland, striving to stem the flow of Ukrainian, Polish, Italian, Finnish, Swedish and other forces. It was a constant orchestra of allowing them to repair as soon as they touched down, but flinging them aloft as required. They never seemed to get fully repaired, many entering combat on a wing and a prayer. At times, even the interceptors, poor as they me be at it, were pressed into ground attacks.. carnage everywhere.
I was micromanaging to the nth degree, even to the point of pulling individual aircraft off the line during an attack.

Eventually, the smoke cleared, the hordes slowed, at least in Western Russia. Finally, I could breathe again and Russian forces started the slow process of modernization they so badly needed. Fast forward to 2030, Russia is the master of Asia having absorbed everything down to Indonesia. Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines still stood, other than the aforementioned Indonesia, nothing else existed. Russian forces were massed along the Indian border in the east and a sturdy defensive line in the west held the Euros at bay, for now.

Proud Mother Russia, #1 in Tech, by a long shot, #1 in population now, richest nation in the world, no longer using petroleum or coal as a power source, our scientists had unlocked COLD FUSION to power our industries, businesses and homes.

But, I was getting that feeling.... we all know it, it is just a matter of time now, there were few left in the world that could stand up to Russia. The U.S.A., certainly, but they had been a peaceful nation for the last 5 years and showed no inclination to change, still at DEFCON 5. Western Europe, Germany, France, BENELUX, Spain, still at peace with Russia, they might pose a combined threat, who knows.

At any rate, Russia was a well oiled machine. I released all restrictions on the ministers and units, saved the game and logged in as the UK. The UK was in a sorry state, I scrambled to set things right, as the Russian AI launched a massive attack along its borders from India to Germany. I knew time was running out, there was no way the UK could withstand a Russian attack as things stood at the moment. The UK was still at peace with Russia, but I knew that would change as nation after nation fell to the Soviet onslaught. I recalled all units from Diego Garcia, The Falklands, The Cayman Islands, and all far flung possessions. And built infrastructure as fast as possible, churning out units which were far inferior to what Russia could field but were the best the UK could manage.
I watched with morbid fascination and trepidation as the beast I had created rolled on through Europe. Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, fell. I was biting my nails, France falls, Spain is on the ropes, Portugal is reeling, Rome is besieged.

BAM, Russia declares war on the UK. I was already making plans to take over the U.S.A or Japan if England falls. If push came to shove I could always hunker down in the Caribbean and try to rebuild.

This is where I am right now, What I missed in all this action was Russian forces have already starting taking over S America and the couple of Caribbean islands they enherited when France and the Netherlands collapsed. Now I am surrounded by hostile forces all over the oceans and I had stupidly recalled all forces from S. America and the Caribbean, gah.


Thanks BG, I think :P
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Re: Most fun game ever?

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:)
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Re: Most fun game ever?

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Russia owns all of the Eastern Hemisphere, to include Africa. There are a few island hold outs, The UK being one, the only thing holding back the horde is the Royal Navy. If I dare to deploy any aircraft I am swarmed by hundreds of Soviet Air units, simply overwhelming me and destroying every aircraft I have in the air. Still, there are the subs of the RN, holding the line from marauding hostile ships bombarding my shores. Until now. The darn Russian AI is actively hunting my subs, I have never seen this before but I am flabbergasted..

Once a soviet ship is destroyed and they have an idea where my "flotilla" is, they do 2 things that are frustrating me like I have never been frustrated before in this game..

I always thought the capturing of coastal area was random...but now, perhaps just this one game, this is what I see. The AI is bracketing the area the subs are in, placing naval units between the subs and the ports. I never really thought much about it at first, but then they massed forces into the subs, and despite the flotilla being in home waters, they are forced out of reloads,(supply). Since the darn AI has captured sea zones between me and the subs, they cannot get resupplied. I have lost 2 (two) 7 sub flotilla's to this oddly great AI behavior in 2 separate locations on either side of the home islands.

I am raging at the AI and saluting it at the same time, fluke or not, I am now in a terrible spot. The UK only has 5 Naval build slots and I am manufacturing nothing but subs to protect the coasts.. now I am down 14 subs... math alone will tell you that's not good.


Russian build slots

LAND 426 !
AIR 290 !
Naval 63
Missile 165


UK build slots (and this is really stressing the economy with such a small population base)
Land 14
Air 25
Naval 5
Missile 6

With so much territory, resources and population under its control, I fear the Soviets will try an amphibious assault. And for the first time in my 5 years of playing SR, I am not certain I can hold. Really enjoying this game session so far.

****

Anyone else ever notice this seemingly random capturing of sea zones may indeed have a purpose?
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Re: Most fun game ever?

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It is now Dec 2032, England has managed to keep the Red Bear from our shores for a few months now, I was wondering what they were up to. Then my game grinds to a halt, stutters and starts creeping along, slower than I have ever seen it before. Suddenly, I finally understand what all the forum posts about the game being so slow are about... but as a long term player I also know to fear that sudden stutter...

My guess, Russia just ordered all of its forces somewhere to do something...the game is calculating all those paths. I have no idea how many units they have but remember they had 426 land fabs and at this point they have 436. Where will they go, what will they do.

I can hear ship bombardment and planes in combat, but cannot locate it, I scroll the map... Japan! The Soviets have launched a massive fleet at Northern Japan. But Japan has been building its air force for 12 years and waves of planes engage the Russian navy. They sink the transports and several other ships, but hundreds of Russian planes converge on Japan. (I missed the previous action, did not have fraps running. I paused the game and loaded it to take these shots)

This is after the Russian transports are gone and Russian ships move to the coast of Japan. Hard to make out in the picture, but there are 4 Russians left bombarding the coast of Japan, the Japanese Navy has been destroyed, with the exception of the far pickets to the east. Russian air force units are free ranging over Japan, only hindered by ground forces. I fear the Japanese Air Force has suffered the same fate as the RAF and succumbed to the hundreds of Tera Sahab fighters.

Image



NOTE: After a certain amount of time with the game creeping along, I saved and loaded as Russia, they had 18,000 land units moving to the east of Russia. I decided to wait it out, quit and reloaded as the UK. Eventually, presumably after they all reached their destination the stutter cleared and game proceeded at normal speed.
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Re: Most fun game ever?

Post by Ruges »

I like the idea of hoping on as different nations to help them along. Might make it my next AAR. especially since one of the main issues I find my mod has is they run out of units. Or like in my current game I have been waiting for the US to send its massive amounts of units into another theatre.
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Re: Most fun game ever?

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Nothing as rewarding as being able to save an underdog from the beast you created, lately I do it a lot. As long time readers know I tend to play 40, 60 years into a game. This one was almost more than I could handle and I had made a pledge NOT to destroy the Chunnel. Unfortunately, I was not aware that French forces had already destroyed it. I was/am disappointed, but at the same time, I know England would have fell had the Bear been able to just drive across.

I am still not sure how I am going to tackle this, with Russia having 16K(ish) land units alone and England only has 1200 total units, all forces combined. When, if and how I launch an invasion of "Fortress Europe" I am sure it will be a blast.
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Re: Most fun game ever?

Post by GIJoe597 »

July 2035

I am still not able to do anything significant against Russia. I have been able to capture a few scattered islands, but that is it. Anytime I make a move close to Russian air power I am instantly trashed. I have tried to capture some cities on the island where Pontianak is located and the Russians move so much aircraft to counter, the game pauses for 30 secs when they are pathing. Despite this, twice I have landed 3 x 7 stack SF II's and each time they have been pulverized before they can capture the city.

This is turning out to be the toughest game I have ever played of SR. I do not see anything changing for at least 3 years.. The Uk just has such a low resource/population base compared to what the Russians have become.


Russia

Population: 6,030,834,000 (yes 6 Billion)
Land fabs 451
Air fabs 329
Navy fabs 63 (with all the nations Russia has conquered, they have naval assets world wide. They even had a blockade of the Panama Canal!)
missile fabs 165
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Re: Most fun game ever?

Post by tkobo »

Taking over an underdog ,is one of the ways to thoroughly enjoy this game.

As for where you are now, you have to remove the terra's (and any other long range aircraft with a good ground attack,that russia has)....You know how to do it.
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Re: Most fun game ever?

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I agree, underdog = fun. Sure I know what I need to do, but for now I have to do what I can do, which sadly, is not much. England was at Tech level 111 when I took over, Russia was at 168. Planes, Naval and ground forces not even in the same league.

I had 2 locations in the Med where my air forces were trapped, Malta and Cyprus. With the area being solidly Russian, there was no where they could go to. Nearest friendly base was my own home islands. With mainland Europe locked up, I was effectively closed off in the Med. I figured at least they were islands and should be ok, more or less. Then the huge Russian navy started its antics. They shelled Malta into submission in 2 weeks. Gone. The 20 or so planes that were there tried to make it to Cyprus and they were decimated by Russian air. The lone UK base on Cyprus repeatedly comes under bombardment but I have managed to hold them off with judicious use of one Multi Role and air to sea missiles. I have tried several times to sneak some subs into the Med and they get hunted and killed each time. I have more or less written the whole area off. :(


As reported earlier Japan was under heavy naval bombardment, their Air Force had been decimated and their navy sent to Davey Jones' locker. I was frothing at the mouth with my inability to get anything accomplished and decided to help Japan out, if I could. I would need their friendly bases in the future if I hoped to gain a foothold in Siberia. I was able to send 1 flotilla of 7 ea SSN Astute subs to the littoral waters of Japan. Working very carefully and sending damaged subs for repairs as needed (all the way to the Cayman Islands) the Russian navy was pushed away from Japan. The RN was able to hold them off long enough for Japan to deploy some of its own subs and naval assets. Currently there are no areas where the Russian navy has encroached into Japanese waters.

Taiwan, sadly, is a mess. The Voyenno-Morskoy Flot, (VMF) has battered it relentlessly for months. The island is almost denuded of all units and the Military Complex at Toulin is essentially a smoking crater. Taiwans' MAR is 58 and DAR is 25 and falling. I fear they will capitulate soon.

U.K. licensed the designs for the CVN-78 from the USA and built 2. I am using these paired with the F-35C CV, along with some SSN-20 Astute subs to cautiously move around the oceans and assault far flung islands of Russia.


My Carrier group is just now leaving the Azores, having captured the three small island cities there. I knew I was taking a risk, as they are close enough to Spain for Russian fighters to reach. Planning ahead I only loaded each helo with one Special Forces brigade. I sent all three helo's at the same time. Since the islands were not garrisoned, my plan was to unload, add garrisons, load and get outta dodge before the Russians showed up. Lost one Helo and the SF brig before we could get out of visible range :( First assault by the carrier group and already down 1/7th of my forces. Does not bode well.

We massaged our pride and headed the fleet to the Panama Canal. Destination; Reunion Island, just off Madagascar. Our plan is to assault it as well as Mayotte near Comoros. It is a long haul and much can happen but that is the plan.

Indeed, an entertaining and challenging game.
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Re: Most fun game ever?

Post by tkobo »

Subs (though one can do it,4 to 7 works best),anti-base missiles (preferably high air),and take out their airfields and bases.

Keep the subs in deep ocean,as far from the target and enemy units as you can manage when you can.And start off by targeting a large land mass with as few fields and bases as possible,and work your way out.South America is a nice choice,if russia owns it now,and falklands makes a nice place to start out from,as long as you dont stay there too long.

Subs are the one place you can still dominate easily,and missiles will allow you to reach out and dominate the ground and air spheres.
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Re: Most fun game ever?

Post by GIJoe597 »

Yeppers, I can control the oceans, as long as it is not too near the Russian coasts. But the world is big and we can only produce 5 subs every 6 months and only 6 missiles at a time :)

I will eventually start systematically dismantling the bases of Russia near the areas I wish to operate in, but that is years in the future. I am also knocking out as many of their planes as I can, hoping to stress Russia's economy. The coast of England nearest Europe is one mass of AA and I probe the Russian airspace frequently with a single Multi Role and high tail it back to base as the AA/Radar sites start their work. Even after doing this nonstop for about 5 months, there is no noticeable effect on the Russian Air Force. I am fairly close to being able to upgrade my Air Defense sites to Laser Air Defense structures and will continue to whittle at them.

Economy is slowly but surely collapsing we have gone from slightly over 2,000,000 to less than 580,000 in treasury. Granted, I could have more, but I do not want to start selling tech or designs around. I am always loathe to do that on any mass scale. When push comes to shove I will balance the UK budget with good old fashioned common sense, "stop spending more than you make". But for now I need the bonuses from DEFCON 1 and max Military salaries and Training/Repair.

Luckily the "Americas" have been cleared of Russian influence, with England now owning the 2 small islands in the Caribbean Sea and French Guiana on S. America.

At any rate, this is one of the toughest SR games I have ever played, even more so than starting as Malawi in Africa and ruling the world. In short, great fun.


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Re: Most fun game ever?

Post by Ruges »

GIJoe597 wrote: I will balance the UK budget with good old fashioned common sense, "stop spending more than you make". But for now I need the bonuses from DEFCON 1 and max Military salaries and Training/Repair.
I love this part. We are going to stop spending money, but not the military. What's left to stop spending money on? RnD, cut social services, lower resource production? You can cut Rnd, but you really need those advanced units if you are going to break threw Russia with smaller numbers. Cutting social services will just send your country into a recession. Lowering your resource production will just take more of your income away.

I think the game does a poor job modeling the economy during these times. It does not model the fight for survival where the populous makes personal sacrifices in order to keep the war machine going. Where mom brings in her pots and pans so they can get melted down to make more airplanes. Where food gets rationed so the men on the front lines have something to eat.
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Re: Most fun game ever?

Post by GIJoe597 »

In Dec of 2036, Military forces of Great Britain began the great campaign of liberation with a tenuous foothold in Eastern Russia.

When asked to comment, the Leader of the U.K. responded thusly, "I can not say it better than the grand old British Bulldog himself";


"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill

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Re: Most fun game ever?

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7 weeks into the Great Campaign and things are starting to turn for the worse. There was a steady stream of Russian units coming in. We were barely able to hold them using a first line of ground units with a second line of Arty. The ground units were supported by CAS in the form of 2 wings (14 squadrons) of IDS Tornado FB's which had taken huge punishment and spent more time in repair than not. Fresh off the production lines, 1 wing (7 squadrons), of AB-1 Swansea (Stealth Bombers) were tasked to assist. Once they arrived, the Tornados were sent to reserve to make room for the bombers and the 1 wing (7 squadrons) of CA-1 Peregrine Multi Roles defending the skies.

I was wondering if they would ever stop and sent the Peregrines on a reconnaissance mission. Hmm, only reason we have lasted this long is the poor infrastructure is severely hampering the Russians. Still, if they can mass they may just brute force through.

Image


Getting ground units here is tedious, the largest capacity airframe we have is the 747-ER Boeing with 1404 tons. Holding the ground we have 15 Special Forces II, 7 XAV's and 4 AT units. That is it, 26 ground units supported by 27 Arty and supply trucks. In that one recon run we counted over 200 Russian units before we stopped counting.

We only have four 747's to move units from England to the Russian front. This process entails loading the units at Glasgow, flying to Gander, Canada. Refuel, and head to Everett Military Base, North of Seattle, Washington. Once again, refuel, head to western island of Adak, Alaska. Then, start the final leg to Anadyr' where it starts all over again in reverse. Each plane can only hold 1ea XAV at a time and I have lost a few here and there to random Russian naval units which move around the oceans and are unpredictable. When a wide body like the 747 flies over, it is easy pickings.

I am not sure we can hold indefinitely and we are just at the max range of Russian fighter coverage. Once they arrive they almost instantly have to turn around and head back. I am researching a naval unit, the D187 Atlantic Sea which has great ground attack of 210 Soft and 160 Hard with a range of 110kms. The design will complete research in 2 days and I will use all naval fabs to start production. We only have 5 fabs, but it is a start. If we can get 5 of these sitting along the coast hammering away, it may just tip the scales and/or allow the Tornados to repair and work in tandem with the Bombers.

Stemming the Red Tide is priority number one which will give us the time we need to flesh out our defenses. Offensive operations are still quite away off.
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Re: Most fun game ever?

Post by GIJoe597 »

April 22, 2037


I believe I am going to have to abandon my Siberia holdings for now. I simply do not have the tech, quantity, quality or money to keep defending the base. The Russians now have about 1500 units being thrown against my lone base. Granted they are coming in slow for the most part due to lack of supply, but the numbers are just overwhelming, which is appropriate for Russia I feel.

Image


My FB's are shot and I had to pull them all out of Siberia, I am down to only 2 Stealth Bombers and 2 Interceptors. Tera Sahabs must have been redeployed as they are now able to reach me and loiter. In addition, MIG-41's out of Petropavlovsk are on constant CAP south of my base/area and any attempt to recon or force them away draws more air units. The quality of their land forces is just astounding. None of my units, not even the XAVs, are a match for them, not even close.

I am fairly certain, this would be the first time I have ever had to give up land we had fought and bled for in any SR game. My only hope is the Tera Lamp Multi Role, but it still has 84 days of research and then 140 days to build. I have dragged England, kicking and screaming, from Tech level 111 to 137 and yet, it is still not enough. We only have 7 research facilities but are at the stage where each tech we research costs around 10,000m each, this is adding up very fast and has already taken a heavy toll on the economy. As Ruges pointed out earlier, I need the tech to win, but chasing the tech is killing us. Catch-22.

I am trashing the GDP/c, doing my best to drive it down, down, down so the work force will have a lower standard of living and not demand such high wages. This is meeting with some small success at the moment but has a long way to go.

I confess to playing much less now as it is becoming tedious to micro manage each and every single unit in Siberia to the extent of running the game on slow speed so that I can ensure I pull a "squadron" out of combat before it is destroyed. Each and every time their units make it to our line, I have to send at least half of the 7 stack back for repairs.

In the unlikely event we can hold, (and morale does not plummet), I have made it a priority to take Petropavlovsk and then Magadan. We feel this would eliminate any source of supply to this area for the Russians. Their nearest supply source would then be 1500 kms from us and would hamper them much more than currently.

I would really hate to cut and run, but the point is rapidly approaching where we may have no choice...
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