I'll try to make this thread a little bit more useful.
I followed misterbean's tutorial, and found it a great way to get into the game, even though it stops so long before the start of war. You'll just need to use your own judgement for decisions after that, and experiment with a few things to see what they do. I've played through it a few times and did a few things differently every time, so here are my thoughts and some questions I now have, hopefully somebody more experienced can help answer some of these!
The way misterbean sets up trades and intelligence in the beginning is great. In fact I found myself at 99999 stockpile for energy, metal and rares,
so I think it's ok to appoint Hjalmar Schacht as minister to get the extra IC. even then you should have enough resources piled up.
Building the airfields in West Germany I think is a great idea, but I'm not sure if it's really necessary to build up all the infrastructure in the provinces in the East.
Many of these will never be in the path of supplies to the front, so I think that IC can be saved. How about infrastructure in Poland after it is taken?
Also, misterbean seems to dump a lot of extra IC into supplies, so I found myself with a huge stockpile. So what I did was to build more land units and planes, rather than pile up som many supplies. And keep the slider at just about 2 IC more than need in supplies. I aim to have about 60-70k of supplies at any time, so when you have more than that, reduce the slider for a bit, or keep the sliders the same but trade some supplies away for a while, until your stockpile starts dropping again.
By May 1939 I had 5 corps defending the Siegfried line, 2 defending the North Sea coast. My invasion force for Poland was as follows: 3. Armee (4 inf corps and 1 panzer corps) together with
1. Panzerarmee (4 Panzer corps) are breaking into the North from Deutsch Krone, 4. Armee (4 inf corps) and 2. Panzerarmee (4 Panzer corps) break into the South. In the Koenigsberg area are 1 inf corps and the panzer corps of 3. Armee, trying to break in from there, being mildly successful. Does that sound about the right size army? It surely sucks a lot of supplies.
So in early summer I decided to go for Danzig - or war!
Poland:
On the simplified terrain map we can see that there are two 'roads' of plains provinces into Poland from Germany. One is in the North form Schneidmuehl towards Warsaw, the other in the South. so what I did was I attacked one Polish province from 2 of my provinces with 2 infantry divisions each. So 4 inf, 2 each from 2 different provinces. Together with bombers doing ground attack, the battle is quickly won, and I sent my entire 1. Panzerarmee in there. This way they all arrive there without the re-organisation waiting time. From there you should find yourself facing more unprotected Polish provinces, and your panzers can continue their march onto Warsaw. Some divisions can branch off to the side and help the advancing infantry encircle units and destroy them. In the north, infantry take Danzig from two sides, giving the Polish corridor effect, so no need to wait around. The 2. Panzerarmee breaks into the South in the same way and surrounds Krakow and moves up towards Warsaw, where the panzer armies meet, encircling a big chunk of the Polish army. Armoured divisions then move onto capture more land in the east and the Poles will surrender soon enough.
As soon as war breaks out, Interceptors need to start flying, because the British will start bombing. I had one squadron (4 Int) in Hannover and, following someone's adivce from the forum, set it to Air intercept, circular area, and range: about 200 km! All the way over to Leipzig. And it seems to work.
You'll actually get a bonus to your National Unity because you've been intercepting bombers. Without this your NU will drop, due to 'fractured government'. What is this and how can I 'un-fracture' my government?
So I guess Air intercept is for protecting your own territories from bombing, while air superiority is for over enemy's territory to clear the way for your own bombers. Right?
One squadron of Int is enough for Poland, so fly air superiority over the whole eastern part, while your bombers and Stukas do ground attack. that leaves the rest of your interceptors for the Western front, where I have one squadron air intercept in the Ruhr, and one over the Sigfried line (the French were bombing a bit there).
France:
I left the 4. Armee in Poland to defend the SU border and sent a couple of corps to Denmark and invaded.
After that I asked myself, like probably many do at this point, 'why wait?' and took the low countries and France straight away. Maastricht is usually undefended, so I DoW the Netherlands,
send the 2 Panzer armies in there, while the 3. Armee is moving into the North. The 3. Armee also has one Panzerkorps which goes for Amsterdam. The other Panzers can then break straight down through Belgium via Rotterdam, encircle Brussels and keep moving on down to Paris. By this time the French have started abandoning the Maginot line and you can start slowly moving all your troops Southwards and close in on them from Paris with your Panzers.
By early 1940 I had also taken Switzerland, Yoguslavia and Bulgaria, while I let the Italians finish off the Greeks.
What I found is that when I take France, the Allies will immediately start annoying you with landings on coastal provinces. I therefore built a few corps of garrisons (4x (3 Gar, 1 AA)) before the war and stationed them along the channel in Holland, Belgium and Normandy. The army which was defending the Siegfried line (I called it Armee Rheinwehr, in misterbean's tutorial 1. Armee I think) took up positions around Cherbourg, Brest and down the Atlantic coast. I figured Garrisons have better stats than militia, but are less mobile. I put 2 divisions of Gar in those provinces with ports, and had mil in provinces between. This is now a huge army, and I think I've drained my manpower a bit with that.
I also keep one inf corps in Denmark. The British tried to invade there, and I'm thinking if they can take jammerbug (whatever's the name of the port in the north?) then they can also move ships
into the Baltic and potentially invade Germany from there! If this is true, that means this province is strategically very important and needs to be well defended.
As for intelligence, I also set level 2 priority for the USA after I did UK, SU and France, and set it to 'support our party'. Within a few years our party (German-American Bund) has
close to 50% popularity and I succesfully staged a coup! I keep influencing the US and hope to get them onto the axis side soon (it's now 1940). It means spending
an extra 2 leadership on diplomacy, which leads me onto...research.
I do find myself struggling to keep up with research. By 1940 I'm at the top of the game in terms of CVs, but there's lots I can't keep up with, like air doctrines for example. What am I doing wrong?
Is it the 2 extra Ls influencing the US? I do think it's worth it, keeping them out of the war for longer, and possibly getting them onto your side, while at the same time working against the British, who are also influencing them.
I also find that my officer ratio steadily drops, now it's 114%. Is that a bad thing? Or is it ok as long as it's over 100%? I have about 8-9 LS dedicated to it.
Maybe could somebody post what's a good way to spend the 40 LS we have after we've taken continental Europe?
I decided not to build the CVE as misterbean suggests, instead waiting for the 1938 teach for CV. Building one BB and a couple of CA or BC should be enough to keep your Capital practicals up until you build CV. I built three CVs with '38 tech (I started building them in '39), and then 2 more with the 1940 teach. So by 1942 I'll have 5 carriers, plus CL and DD to protect them. I stopped research into CA, BC and BB. I'm thinking DD and CL is enough to keep enemy ships away from my carriers, while the CAGs pound on them. Is that a good fleet? I hope to have enough sea power by 1942 to clear the channel a bit and send troops to the UK.
I used the groups of 3 Subs that misterbean suggested building and sent them to do convoy raiding in the area South of Ireland, thinking this would cut the British supply lines. they all got annihilated after a few days! Oh my god. any thoughts on that?
Should they be in bigger groups (maybe 5-6?)? Should they be on a different mission? In a different place? Help!
Anyway the Italians are struggling a bit in Africa (as expected), so I wanted to send 1-2 corps to help them (no, not Rommel, he's in charge of 2. Panzerarmee).
I built 2 transports and deployed them in Yoguslavia. however once the troops arrive in Africa, they're supplied by the Italians, who can't keep up with it, and so my troops can't attack because they have no supplies. Can I supply them myself? any advice? I suppose the best way is to land your own troops to the East of the British, thus claiming the province for Germany which means you can set up your own supplies convoy to go from Greece or Yoguslavia to Egypt, and you won't need to rely on the Italians. This on the other hand means you're relying on the Italian navy to keep the Mediterranean free, else your convoys will get sunk. Anyway I've pulled my troops back to Europe.
So it's now 1940, and the Molotov-Ribbentrop is not allowing me to attack the SU. I need 200% of their troops along our border, and I have about 120%.
That also means I can't move too many forces away, because otherwise the SU might have 200% of my troops and they can attack. Plus the required ratio drops to 100% in September, which is not a great time for me to attack the SU (it coming up to winter).
I didn't take Norway cos it seems a bit tricky to defend once it's yours. A lot of ports along the coast, and the British with their naval supremacy would have an easier time than me fighting over it. I figured the only place I could still attack now is Sweden, the Allies having no way to send troops there, and I not having much need to defend the coast once it's taken. Apart from that, what to do now? I guess wait until spring '41 and then attack the SU.
One question I haven't been able to find an answer to: How come countries that surrender to me always become governments-in-exile? I've seen the AI annex Poland and Denmark and it becomes completely theirs, but for me that doesn't happen.
I also think Mountain infantry is only mildly useful for Germany. While they are GREAT in mountains and hills, the places we can use them are limited. I built two divisions of 3 Mount
and they form the 1. Gebirgsjaegerkorps together with 2 Inf divisions. They helped a bit in Switzerland, Yoguslavia and Bulgaria, but for the SU will not be of much use.
Instead I've started building some Marine divisions in preparation for Sealion. I've completely skipped Paratroopers and Transport planes, mainly to save on the research.
Please comment on all of the above!
If someone finds this useful, I'd be happy to go into more detail with screenshots - please let me know. I by no means claim to be an expert, and while there are still many parts of the game I haven't fully figured out, I have played this tutorial through a few times, and am posting this mainly to help out other players who still need more info after following the tutorial thus far. So please ask more questions, and I'll post however much I know about the topic. Additionally, maybe we can expand this tutorial a bit with some constructive comments and critique from more knowledgeable players!
I followed misterbean's tutorial, and found it a great way to get into the game, even though it stops so long before the start of war. You'll just need to use your own judgement for decisions after that, and experiment with a few things to see what they do. I've played through it a few times and did a few things differently every time, so here are my thoughts and some questions I now have, hopefully somebody more experienced can help answer some of these!
The way misterbean sets up trades and intelligence in the beginning is great. In fact I found myself at 99999 stockpile for energy, metal and rares,
so I think it's ok to appoint Hjalmar Schacht as minister to get the extra IC. even then you should have enough resources piled up.
Building the airfields in West Germany I think is a great idea, but I'm not sure if it's really necessary to build up all the infrastructure in the provinces in the East.
Many of these will never be in the path of supplies to the front, so I think that IC can be saved. How about infrastructure in Poland after it is taken?
Also, misterbean seems to dump a lot of extra IC into supplies, so I found myself with a huge stockpile. So what I did was to build more land units and planes, rather than pile up som many supplies. And keep the slider at just about 2 IC more than need in supplies. I aim to have about 60-70k of supplies at any time, so when you have more than that, reduce the slider for a bit, or keep the sliders the same but trade some supplies away for a while, until your stockpile starts dropping again.
By May 1939 I had 5 corps defending the Siegfried line, 2 defending the North Sea coast. My invasion force for Poland was as follows: 3. Armee (4 inf corps and 1 panzer corps) together with
1. Panzerarmee (4 Panzer corps) are breaking into the North from Deutsch Krone, 4. Armee (4 inf corps) and 2. Panzerarmee (4 Panzer corps) break into the South. In the Koenigsberg area are 1 inf corps and the panzer corps of 3. Armee, trying to break in from there, being mildly successful. Does that sound about the right size army? It surely sucks a lot of supplies.
So in early summer I decided to go for Danzig - or war!
Poland:
On the simplified terrain map we can see that there are two 'roads' of plains provinces into Poland from Germany. One is in the North form Schneidmuehl towards Warsaw, the other in the South. so what I did was I attacked one Polish province from 2 of my provinces with 2 infantry divisions each. So 4 inf, 2 each from 2 different provinces. Together with bombers doing ground attack, the battle is quickly won, and I sent my entire 1. Panzerarmee in there. This way they all arrive there without the re-organisation waiting time. From there you should find yourself facing more unprotected Polish provinces, and your panzers can continue their march onto Warsaw. Some divisions can branch off to the side and help the advancing infantry encircle units and destroy them. In the north, infantry take Danzig from two sides, giving the Polish corridor effect, so no need to wait around. The 2. Panzerarmee breaks into the South in the same way and surrounds Krakow and moves up towards Warsaw, where the panzer armies meet, encircling a big chunk of the Polish army. Armoured divisions then move onto capture more land in the east and the Poles will surrender soon enough.
As soon as war breaks out, Interceptors need to start flying, because the British will start bombing. I had one squadron (4 Int) in Hannover and, following someone's adivce from the forum, set it to Air intercept, circular area, and range: about 200 km! All the way over to Leipzig. And it seems to work.
You'll actually get a bonus to your National Unity because you've been intercepting bombers. Without this your NU will drop, due to 'fractured government'. What is this and how can I 'un-fracture' my government?
So I guess Air intercept is for protecting your own territories from bombing, while air superiority is for over enemy's territory to clear the way for your own bombers. Right?
One squadron of Int is enough for Poland, so fly air superiority over the whole eastern part, while your bombers and Stukas do ground attack. that leaves the rest of your interceptors for the Western front, where I have one squadron air intercept in the Ruhr, and one over the Sigfried line (the French were bombing a bit there).
France:
I left the 4. Armee in Poland to defend the SU border and sent a couple of corps to Denmark and invaded.
After that I asked myself, like probably many do at this point, 'why wait?' and took the low countries and France straight away. Maastricht is usually undefended, so I DoW the Netherlands,
send the 2 Panzer armies in there, while the 3. Armee is moving into the North. The 3. Armee also has one Panzerkorps which goes for Amsterdam. The other Panzers can then break straight down through Belgium via Rotterdam, encircle Brussels and keep moving on down to Paris. By this time the French have started abandoning the Maginot line and you can start slowly moving all your troops Southwards and close in on them from Paris with your Panzers.
By early 1940 I had also taken Switzerland, Yoguslavia and Bulgaria, while I let the Italians finish off the Greeks.
What I found is that when I take France, the Allies will immediately start annoying you with landings on coastal provinces. I therefore built a few corps of garrisons (4x (3 Gar, 1 AA)) before the war and stationed them along the channel in Holland, Belgium and Normandy. The army which was defending the Siegfried line (I called it Armee Rheinwehr, in misterbean's tutorial 1. Armee I think) took up positions around Cherbourg, Brest and down the Atlantic coast. I figured Garrisons have better stats than militia, but are less mobile. I put 2 divisions of Gar in those provinces with ports, and had mil in provinces between. This is now a huge army, and I think I've drained my manpower a bit with that.
I also keep one inf corps in Denmark. The British tried to invade there, and I'm thinking if they can take jammerbug (whatever's the name of the port in the north?) then they can also move ships
into the Baltic and potentially invade Germany from there! If this is true, that means this province is strategically very important and needs to be well defended.
As for intelligence, I also set level 2 priority for the USA after I did UK, SU and France, and set it to 'support our party'. Within a few years our party (German-American Bund) has
close to 50% popularity and I succesfully staged a coup! I keep influencing the US and hope to get them onto the axis side soon (it's now 1940). It means spending
an extra 2 leadership on diplomacy, which leads me onto...research.
I do find myself struggling to keep up with research. By 1940 I'm at the top of the game in terms of CVs, but there's lots I can't keep up with, like air doctrines for example. What am I doing wrong?
Is it the 2 extra Ls influencing the US? I do think it's worth it, keeping them out of the war for longer, and possibly getting them onto your side, while at the same time working against the British, who are also influencing them.
I also find that my officer ratio steadily drops, now it's 114%. Is that a bad thing? Or is it ok as long as it's over 100%? I have about 8-9 LS dedicated to it.
Maybe could somebody post what's a good way to spend the 40 LS we have after we've taken continental Europe?
I decided not to build the CVE as misterbean suggests, instead waiting for the 1938 teach for CV. Building one BB and a couple of CA or BC should be enough to keep your Capital practicals up until you build CV. I built three CVs with '38 tech (I started building them in '39), and then 2 more with the 1940 teach. So by 1942 I'll have 5 carriers, plus CL and DD to protect them. I stopped research into CA, BC and BB. I'm thinking DD and CL is enough to keep enemy ships away from my carriers, while the CAGs pound on them. Is that a good fleet? I hope to have enough sea power by 1942 to clear the channel a bit and send troops to the UK.
I used the groups of 3 Subs that misterbean suggested building and sent them to do convoy raiding in the area South of Ireland, thinking this would cut the British supply lines. they all got annihilated after a few days! Oh my god. any thoughts on that?
Should they be in bigger groups (maybe 5-6?)? Should they be on a different mission? In a different place? Help!
Anyway the Italians are struggling a bit in Africa (as expected), so I wanted to send 1-2 corps to help them (no, not Rommel, he's in charge of 2. Panzerarmee).
I built 2 transports and deployed them in Yoguslavia. however once the troops arrive in Africa, they're supplied by the Italians, who can't keep up with it, and so my troops can't attack because they have no supplies. Can I supply them myself? any advice? I suppose the best way is to land your own troops to the East of the British, thus claiming the province for Germany which means you can set up your own supplies convoy to go from Greece or Yoguslavia to Egypt, and you won't need to rely on the Italians. This on the other hand means you're relying on the Italian navy to keep the Mediterranean free, else your convoys will get sunk. Anyway I've pulled my troops back to Europe.
So it's now 1940, and the Molotov-Ribbentrop is not allowing me to attack the SU. I need 200% of their troops along our border, and I have about 120%.
That also means I can't move too many forces away, because otherwise the SU might have 200% of my troops and they can attack. Plus the required ratio drops to 100% in September, which is not a great time for me to attack the SU (it coming up to winter).
I didn't take Norway cos it seems a bit tricky to defend once it's yours. A lot of ports along the coast, and the British with their naval supremacy would have an easier time than me fighting over it. I figured the only place I could still attack now is Sweden, the Allies having no way to send troops there, and I not having much need to defend the coast once it's taken. Apart from that, what to do now? I guess wait until spring '41 and then attack the SU.
One question I haven't been able to find an answer to: How come countries that surrender to me always become governments-in-exile? I've seen the AI annex Poland and Denmark and it becomes completely theirs, but for me that doesn't happen.
I also think Mountain infantry is only mildly useful for Germany. While they are GREAT in mountains and hills, the places we can use them are limited. I built two divisions of 3 Mount
and they form the 1. Gebirgsjaegerkorps together with 2 Inf divisions. They helped a bit in Switzerland, Yoguslavia and Bulgaria, but for the SU will not be of much use.
Instead I've started building some Marine divisions in preparation for Sealion. I've completely skipped Paratroopers and Transport planes, mainly to save on the research.
Please comment on all of the above!
If someone finds this useful, I'd be happy to go into more detail with screenshots - please let me know. I by no means claim to be an expert, and while there are still many parts of the game I haven't fully figured out, I have played this tutorial through a few times, and am posting this mainly to help out other players who still need more info after following the tutorial thus far. So please ask more questions, and I'll post however much I know about the topic. Additionally, maybe we can expand this tutorial a bit with some constructive comments and critique from more knowledgeable players!
