Playthrough - Manchukuo

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    • DAY TWELVE

      Axis is now in first place, leading fair-weather ally Spain to ask for entry. I advised Germany against letting them in as they're probably just in it for the victory, but if they do join, we can attack Italy (a member of the rival coalition Pacifics, whose name is presumably linked to the Pacific-domination goal of its founder Australia, because the alternative is rather bizarre).

      The attack on China has led to some very messy borders, but the only cities on our short-term conquering list that we failed to either take or hold (not counting ones our armies simply haven't arrived at yet) are Xuzhou and Shanghai.


      Fig. 38 I've had worse bordergore, but not by a lot.

      In our other war, we now effectively control Honshu, as we've captured every city. All that's left are pockets of resistance.


      Fig. 39 Qing territory.

      Unfortunately we, despite the new subs, do not have naval superiority; we're a land power and likely to remain that way for the foreseeable. Granted, 'the foreseeable' equates to 'however long it takes before I can afford to build the level 4 subs my research for came through'. I'm also upgrading militia to level 3, as I'm using a lot of it.
      Russia has failed to declare war on anyone new.


      Fig. 40 Chengdu intelligence. That's anti-tank, not artillery, and it's stacked with two militia units.

      Our intense distrust of the waters we're being forced to sail in, until we have enough subs to flush it out properly (although we're making decent progress on both parts of that project), means we're shepherding a convoy across from Sakhailin to Hokkaido* with a patrolling naval bomber. I'm all but certain that the channel has been cleared out by Russian submarines, but that's not to say something else hasn't moved in between then and now. Regrettably if I do see something there's not a lot I can do about it (other than finding another way inland).
      *Looking up the name of the former got me trapped on Google Maps for hours. I love Street View. If anyone asks that's why this instalment is so late.

      Huh - my convoy arrived in perfect working order, but something has all but killed its aerial escort. It's fairly useless like this, and I have more of them, so I'm going to let whatever it is kill it so I can find out what it is when I get the death notification.

      Hiroshima is being bombarded by the '2nd Convoy' (yeah, right). The anti-air we built there is nearly dead, because we didn't think to build bunkers (and frankly have so many calls on our treasury at the moment that bunkers are not a priority). We'll send a new Level 3 sub over to kill the offending 'convoy'.
      An actual convoy from Hokkaido is landing in north Honshu. While that's a mild annoyance thanks to Honshu not having the level of defense I want it to have, it is going to make taking Hokkaido much easier if they preemptively send all their armies into my territory.

      ...ah. A fighter squadron in Vostok has been attacking my naval air support. I should have been able to see it. Why couldn't I? The strange thing is that Vostok is Russian territory and thus allied with me, and Japan is at war with Russia and China couldn't have gotten a plane in unless they have right of way through Mongolia (a possibility I'm unwilling to dismiss).

      Russia has requested entry to the Axis coalition. I wish Germany would hurry up and pick a third member, because those four coalition notifications have been driving me up the wall since I joined. It'll be a relief to backstab the lot of them just for the satisfaction of seeing them gone.


      Fig. 41 At last, my increasing abundance in units (cheap militia) pouring into one country has led to the inevitable operational nightmare. I have yet to play a game without this happening at least once.
      Why am I avoiding Chengdu, you might be wondering. What happened to my love of capital offensives?
      ...
      You'll never know.*
      *As of this upload, I've genuinely forgotten.

      Mao Zedong would be proud.
      An IRL COW player I know gave me some tips on guerilla warfare, which so far have worked pretty well (given that I've only recently been taking terrain buffs into account). Given this, why would I be producing anything but militia? Also China has lots of forests to hide in, particularly in the eastern provinces where the war is currently taking place.
      Russia has finally gotten their act together and declared some wars. I was seriously worried they would just be sitting there for ages, but he's actually doing something useful. However, if their next march is on Mongolia, mine will be on them. That's Qing territory there, and I've only paused my attack on it, not given up. And this time I'll have a proper army. Hell, I'll be tossing a coin to see if it or Xinjiang is going to be the next to go once I have China.

      Chongqing has a level four ordnance foundry. It's damaged, what with my anti-tank and his infantry killing each other right on top of it, but I should be able to afford to repair that thing for next to nothing instead of building and upgrading one from scratch at huge prices I can't afford. Nice and close to Chengdu, too. Sweeeet.


      Fig. 42 And another thing I find oddly satisfying: chains of airstrips.

      That's a battleship stack I'm bombing there. It also has a destroyer but no cruisers, I checked, so I should be OK. Further north is a battleship/carrier stack, and I intend to deal with that using a sub.

      A new milestone: Manchukuo is now in sixth place overall. Above it are the five big powers everyone remembers from WWII (Germany, United Kingdom, United States, France and the Soviet Union, in that order), with the Soviets only thirty victory points ahead of me, and three of those powers aren't even active. I weep for the fact that the only reason I could achieve this is crushing inactivity levels.



      Fig. 43 Bonus image: Rejected newspaper article. I ended up scrapping it because a) it was blatant propaganda, b) telling the entire world about my imperialist motives while naming specific countries, one of whom is my allies, is not smart, even if hiding behind a language barrier that, even if the general thrust isn't already obvious, can easily be broken down using a machine translator, c) it was a thinly veiled excuse to show off my bilinguism, and d) writing an article about the return of the Qing Empire in Dutch is just bizarre.
      Her Ladyship Aragosta
      A.K.A. "The Backstab Person"

      Pan-Asian is a better doctrine than Axis when played correctly and you cannot change my mind.

      You just lost The Game.

      Join the Madness here:
      CoW Forum Players! Unite!
    • They absolutely do have food. I know because I keep spending nine-tenths of my treasury, and then selling off the rare materials I rarely use, to supply them them with it.
      Her Ladyship Aragosta
      A.K.A. "The Backstab Person"

      Pan-Asian is a better doctrine than Axis when played correctly and you cannot change my mind.

      You just lost The Game.

      Join the Madness here:
      CoW Forum Players! Unite!
    • One could argue that people in southern Honshu include my guerilla army. If one wanted to be contrary and persistently misunderstand.
      Her Ladyship Aragosta
      A.K.A. "The Backstab Person"

      Pan-Asian is a better doctrine than Axis when played correctly and you cannot change my mind.

      You just lost The Game.

      Join the Madness here:
      CoW Forum Players! Unite!
    • Lady Aragosta wrote:

      One could argue that people in southern Honshu include my guerilla army. If one wanted to be contrary and persistently misunderstand.
      Oh the contrarian you are, oh the contrarian.





      How do you hold on to so many knives to backstab with at the right time? I’m just saying the Russians are gonna need a lot of those to die…

      CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
    • Actually the next few days, while Russia's busy fighting other people, would be the perfect time to backstab them.

      Not saying I actually do, of course.

      Ahem. All will be revealed in the next few posts. Or not, as the case may be.
      Her Ladyship Aragosta
      A.K.A. "The Backstab Person"

      Pan-Asian is a better doctrine than Axis when played correctly and you cannot change my mind.

      You just lost The Game.

      Join the Madness here:
      CoW Forum Players! Unite!
    • A Particularly Dull Instalment
      Two of them, because I saw no reason to post this on two separate days when I have a three-post buffer anyway


      DAY THIRTEEN
      I did almost nothing today due to real life commitments; mostly I recaptured revolted provinces, squashed pockets of resistance in China and Japan, built up my industry, mass-produced militia, and tried not to look at all my front reports about revolts I missed earlier in the day. The usual, then.
      Spain's in the coalition now. Germany has yet to dismiss all the other would-be members.

      DAY FOURTEEN
      Today was even more unproductive; I didn't log on at all. Probably I've lost half my provinces to either revolts or unforeseen counterinvasions. Ah well.
      Some weekends I'm so insanely active I only leave my laptop for meals. Others I sacrifice all online time to actually get stuff done in real life. This was one of the latter. I promise tomorrow's post will be more interesting.
      Her Ladyship Aragosta
      A.K.A. "The Backstab Person"

      Pan-Asian is a better doctrine than Axis when played correctly and you cannot change my mind.

      You just lost The Game.

      Join the Madness here:
      CoW Forum Players! Unite!
    • Lady Aragosta wrote:

      A Particularly Dull Instalment
      Two of them, because I saw no reason to post this on two separate days when I have a three-post buffer anyway


      DAY THIRTEEN
      I did almost nothing today due to real life commitments; mostly I recaptured revolted provinces, squashed pockets of resistance in China and Japan, built up my industry, mass-produced militia, and tried not to look at all my front reports about revolts I missed earlier in the day. The usual, then.
      Spain's in the coalition now. Germany has yet to dismiss all the other would-be members.

      DAY FOURTEEN
      Today was even more unproductive; I didn't log on at all. Probably I've lost half my provinces to either revolts or unforeseen counterinvasions. Ah well.
      Some weekends I'm so insanely active I only leave my laptop for meals. Others I sacrifice all online time to actually get stuff done in real life. This was one of the latter. I promise tomorrow's post will be more interesting.
      Makes sense, I mean, why leave the Baseshed when it has everything you need?

      CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
    • That polish guy wrote:

      how bad are the borders
      As of the game in real time, an absolute mess but I've made a net gain of provinces. My inactivity didn't come at too high a cost (although hardly at no cost, either).
      Her Ladyship Aragosta
      A.K.A. "The Backstab Person"

      Pan-Asian is a better doctrine than Axis when played correctly and you cannot change my mind.

      You just lost The Game.

      Join the Madness here:
      CoW Forum Players! Unite!
    • Lady Aragosta wrote:

      That polish guy wrote:

      how bad are the borders
      As of the game in real time, an absolute mess but I've made a net gain of provinces. My inactivity didn't come at too high a cost (although hardly at no cost, either).
      I don’t know if I want to see an image or not…

      CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
    • Carking the 6th wrote:

      I don’t know if I want to see an image or not…
      You'll get to see a few in the next few posts. I forgot to screenshot them yesterday when they were at their absolute worst, so you're spared of that.
      Her Ladyship Aragosta
      A.K.A. "The Backstab Person"

      Pan-Asian is a better doctrine than Axis when played correctly and you cannot change my mind.

      You just lost The Game.

      Join the Madness here:
      CoW Forum Players! Unite!