quote:

Originally posted by D M:
I'm not sure aiding the Kuomintang too much will help with respect to Russia - the USSR also supports them against Japan.

i just assumed the russians would be supporting the communists. foolishness.

Stalin is duplicitous and is playing a more complex game. He doesn't see communism as having much of a grip on China (it is, after all, a peasant, not a worker, society) and the Nationalists are at present the best positioned balwark against Japan, were things ever to go south over there.

That's actually another good reason to keep the Kuomintang in our sights - we don't ant them to fall completely under Stalin's influence. If we can keep them just strong enough to be a regional power in far eastern Asia with no expansion thoughts directed against our colonies, they will be useful.

I think if we are wary of the Russian threat at our northern Indian borders, one or two mountain divisions would be a great asset there. As for Burma - if we deploy a division there, original placement will be crucial, otherwise they could easily be passed by.

Yes on fortifying HK and Singapore, maybe adding some garrisons.

Malta needs to stay firmly in our hands as well.

I can work on a plan for an Italian campaign, but more intel will be needed.

How useful would it be to befriend Portugal? They have sizeable possessions in Western Africa, as well as a few in Asia (Macao, for example) and presumably a reasonable fleet.

Diplomacy!



At request I can provide the current diplomatic position of any country, and the diplomatic missions we can undertake.

Espionage!



Currently I have turned it to look at Italy, but we can operate in any number of countries. Let me know which countries you want Intel on.

We can look at information on their army, navy or airforce.

We would need information on the Japanese naval forces otherwise we can't be sure if we could contain them. We are a a bit underrepresented in the Pacific at the moment.

How is the situation in Spain? Gibraltar might feel a bit lonely if Spain were hostile.

What about Germany's Navy?

Don't know if I need Marines. The British Army has to be shipped anyway. Landing material might come in handy though. Malta would be better used as an Airforce station rather then a Naval base.

are we able to move our troops through our allies' territories?

if we need to strike at Italy, even if France does not actively help, we might be able to use Nice, Tunisia and Corsica as additional entry points into Italian territory.

I seem to have seen the Portuguese flag dangerously close to the Axis corner of the triangle - am I correct?
I was thinking we could attempt to befriend them, but maybe we need to keep an eye on them for different reasons...

Diplomatically, I'm interested in North and South America, but Portugal and Greece have top priority - Portugal as they're heading a little to far to the Axis, and Greece because they seem to be relatively friendly already.

In terms of spies, I think my position's been made clear - heavy, heavy concentration on Italy, but with secondary concentration on the rest of the Middle East.

Greece's friendliness reinforces its position as a good ally/foothold for us in the Balkans. They're also better off than Albania, who frankly have nothing to offer, except maybe some goats.

Also: is Italy at this point in a military alliance with anybody? I see them in the Axis corner - if we need to strike at Italy, will we have to worry about German retaliation?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Count St.Pierre,

I will provide data on Portugal, Spain, Germany and the USSR when I get back home. I'm not home tonight I'm afraid but tomorrow night!

Allies give us right of throughfare through their territory, so we can station ourselves on French soil if we so wish.

Italy is currently not in an alliance, but have ideological sympathies with Germany - they could join them soon. I strongly favour counterinfluencing.

If we struck at Italy without them having allies, hopefully that will not draw other countries to their aid. However it'll be difficult for Britain's population to swallow an unwarranted attack unless we bring our neutrality down.

Jim - what do you reckon we should do with our domestic spies?

What are our options? I'm strongly inclined to concentrate them on bolstering India in some capacity.

We can't focus our spies on any particular region, only our territory as a whole.

As you can see from the screenshot, we can conduct counterespionage (which finds and kills enemy spies which could hamper our production, research or other things), support the ruling party (which determines the efficiency of our ministers), lower neutrality (making it easier for us to declare war) or raise national unity (making our country more robust in the face of repeated military defeats).

Our Unity is high, so I don't think we need concern ourselves with that, and the Conservative Party is also moderately popular at present. I favour lowering our ridiculously high neutrality.

Of course, killing enemy spies sounds appealing too!

We only do one task at a time though, eh? I'd recommend clearing house first - kill enemy spies - then we can lower neutrality.

quote:

Originally posted by Pierre.:
How useful would it be to befriend Portugal? They have sizeable possessions in Western Africa, as well as a few in Asia (Macao, for example) and presumably a reasonable fleet.

Don't you have your own forces in West Africa already? There was a colonial force there, mostly British officers and mostly Nigerian, Ghanaian, Sierra Leonean and Gambian soldiers (although they wouldn't have been called by those nation-state names then) since the end of the 19th century.

I don't think Portugal is much to be reckoned with - they're weak and small in my regard. They could be useful as a counterweight to Spain, though.

Let's not bother with Portugal too much if you don't think they can threaten us, but I'd still keep an eye on them.

Would Australia be helpful in the Pacific?

I'm of the lowering neutrality persuasion, obviously.

if we want to provoke a fight, can we just ally ourselves with the poor, persecuted underdog ethiopians?

Unleiky Murphy - our neutrality is currently far too high for that. Public opinion seems to swallow the Italian line that they were provoked. After all, isn't it just old-fashioned colonialism?

In any case, even if we could, we are completely unprepared for a war against Italy right now. We'd likely lose half of Africa before we could put up decent resistance.

quote:

Originally posted by Hive:

quote:

Originally posted by Pierre.:
How useful would it be to befriend Portugal? They have sizeable possessions in Western Africa, as well as a few in Asia (Macao, for example) and presumably a reasonable fleet.

Don't you have your own forces in West Africa already? There was a colonial force there, mostly British officers and mostly Nigerian, Ghanaian, Sierra Leonean and Gambian soldiers (although they wouldn't have been called by those nation-state names then) since the end of the 19th century.

Unfortunately they aren't present in my reports on page 2, beyond a scratch force in Uganda/Kenya.