Introduction

I’m playing this AAR from the perspective of the United Kingdom (no surprises there, given the title). This is partly because I’m English, and the English perspective of the war is what interests me the most. I’ve also only played as the UK before, so I wouldn’t want to flounder around with a new nation in public! In part, this AAR is also to introduce more people to AoD and CORE, and the UK provides a reasonable viewpoint for that, active as they were across the globe, both at sea and on land. Of course, this is only one experience. Playing as a less industrialised nation especially would give a very different viewpoint (Bhutan, anyone?)

However, the problem with playing as the UK is that being on the winning side is a foregone conclusion, so to spice things up a little, we will have to make some more challenging goals. So:

  1. Our Supreme Leader doesn’t have to be prescient to know that war with Germany is inevitable. We will aim to finish this war within four years. So, assuming hostilities commence in 1939, Germany will be defeated by the end of 1943.
  2. Similarly, it is clear that the Soviet Union under Joe Steel is the real long term enemy. We will aim to keep them from spreading into Europe entirely, especially by making sure that Poland does not become part of the Eastern Bloc.
  3. By the end of hostilities in Europe, we will be prepared for conflict with the Soviet Union.
  4. Italy seems to be siding with Germany. Assuming that war with Italy is also inevitable, we will drive them out of Ethiopia and not allow them to penetrate east of El Amin in North Africa.
  5. We will not permit any of our overseas territories to be captured by the enemy, even for a day. In the event of war with Japan, this includes all our Far Eastern provinces.
  6. We will keep manpower losses to a minimum.

For the sake of fluff (I’m really not a power player), I will also,

  1. Avoid any gamey exploits, especially when it comes to build queues and production. Brigades will only be produced separately to divisions where it makes historical sense, and province improvements will be queued per province (so no general queue of province improvements for later assignments).
  2. I will keep military salaries at 100 per cent. Our boys deserve it! I will also keep all starting units (especially garrisons), although I may not reinforce them all fully.
  3. I will pretend that naval strikes from land-based aircraft are a serious threat (as they should be) and keep naval task forces out of enemy coastal regions unless I have air superiority.
  4. I will not push any technology more than a month beyond its historical year without a very good reason (this will have the additional benefit of keeping our Supreme Leader from researching all the ships at the expense of everything else (tanks? who needs them?), as is his wont).
  5. I will also keep research reasonably historical, in terms of keeping it balanced and roughly in tune with what the UK really did focus on (within some limits). This includes researching areas where I might not really use the fruits.

Leave a comment