Picked up this game on impulse. WOW, it's fantastic! I worried about the "dumbed down" effect, but I've got to say I'm enjoying the heck out of my first game. Air wings can be a bit finicky and battle plans are harder to set than I'd like, but overall a fantastic sequel! I'm looking forward to the DLC.
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1936: Scoopbeard assumes the Netherlandish Ministership. Colonial garrisons are recalled to continental Holland for reorganization.
1937-1938: Vast reforms modernize the Dutch military, several warships are decommissioned, Amsterdam awards Fokker several lucrative aviation contracts.
1939: Poland falls. The Netherlands join Great Britain and France in the Allies.
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1940 - part 1: France falls
1940 - part 2: Belgium falls.
1940 - part 3: Germany advances as far as the Hollands Diep in the South and Zwolle in the East.
1940 - part 4: Germany invades Denmark. Declares war on Sweden and Finland. Great Britain withdraws the BEF from continental Europe.
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1941 - part 1: The German armed forces are endlessly entangled in the slow-moving war in Scandinavia. The invasion of Sweden begins.
1941 - part 2: With the help of in-transit BEF forces, US Volunteer Light Infantry, and various British colonial forces the Dutch army launches counter offensives over the Hollands Diep and retakes Eindhoven in the South; Advance all the way to their pre-war borders in the East.
1941 - part 3: Great Britain invades Italy, occupies Lombardy--taking the cities of Florence, Milan, and Genoa. Germany intervenes. Germany commences a massive invasion of the Balkans targeting Yugoslavia, Greece, and British Occupied Zones.
1941 - part 4: Intense fighting continues in the Middleburg-Goes region. Several massive German assaults are easily repulsed by, in some cases, better trained and better equipped Dutch elements.
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With 27 infantry brigades, substantial land fortifications, and an air force fielding 1000+ aircraft the Dutch have turned their home country in to a veritable fortress. Well, I have anyways. My only real problem is lack of land forces--and I'm not talkin' sheer competitive number, obviously I'll never be able to compete with the Axis Powers in size, but I don't have enough brigades to play the encirclement game. Aside from defending/counterattacking in Holland I am limited to my response until (hopefully) the US enters the war.
EDIT: Getting through '42, but crashes galore. Not fun.
EDIT2:
1942 - part 1: USA enters the conflict, reinvigorating the Allies.
1942 - part 2: The size of the Dutch Airforce continues to grow, perhaps surpassing that even of Great Britain's. GB invades German-held Dunkirk, expanding the Dutch Beachhead.
1942 - part 3: Belgium is liberated... and with it tens of thousands of Belgian and French volunteer forces. The Dutch command system is overhauled, with almost all dutch forces being placed in the Army of the East, and all the volunteer forces in the Army of The South. The army of the South retakes Belgium and pushes to link up with the expanded Anglo-Francais beachhead.
1942 - part 4: Stretched thin, the German Army cannot hope to cope with the Dutch invasion. Division upon division collapse as veteran Dutch infantry march into Northwest Germany. The Army of the East races across Westphalia and Saxony capturing Dortmund, Munster, and Bremen. They cross the Elbe and capture Hamburg, a symbolic victory.
a942 - part 5: In the South, American forces shore up the precarious British invasion of Italy after they are halted less than a mile from Rome. Great Britain breaks the German wave flooding down into the Balkans just north of the Greek border. In the North, the Germans continue to make agonizing headway against the swedes. With so many experienced elements tied up, the world holds it breath as Dutch and British forces approach the closest to Berlin since the start of the war.