Episode 6
The Treaty of Munich and early military planning
January 1 - May 28, 1938
Research completed in early 1938:
Mobile Warfare 3 (opens up for Spearhead Doctrine research to reduce frontage of armour units = more firepower along a narrow front)
Armoured Car Gun 2 (added some firepower to the brigade-type before I started a production of two of them for my 7. Panzer-Division ("Ghost Division"))
Light Tank Engine 3
Airborne infantry (oh boy, Fallschirmjäger - here I come!!)
Light Tank Reliability 3
Light Tank Armour 3
Light Tank Gun 3 (opens up the research path to Self-Propelled Artillery, which I have decided to make for my most elite units (Waffen SS, Panzer Lehr-Division and a few others)
Logistical Strike Tactics 3
Installation Strike Tactics 3
TAC Pilot Training 3
Fighter Pilot Training 3 (at this point I started researching the difficulty 10 doctrine "Schwerpunkt")
Tactical Air Command 3
CAS Pilot Training 3
Interception Tactics 3
Fighter Targeting Focus 3
Bomber Targeting Focus 3
Infantry Warfare 3 (nice +15 bonus to organisation)
Ground Attack Tactics 3
Radar (research completed on May 27th. This allows me to construct radars, which also function as intelligence gathering "listening posts" - something I am very keen to experiment with
)
Units produced in early 1938:
7 interceptors (bringing the total up to 20)
6 infantry divisions (3x inf brigades each)
1 guard division (2x gar, 2x art)
2 armoured car brigades
7 motorised infantry divisions (2x mot inf each)
2 police divisions (1x gar, 1x military police each)
1 light armour brigade (completing my 9. Panzer-Division)
Airbases in Stuttgart, Wilhelmshafen and Bitburg reach level 9
1938 - Change comes to Europe
On January 1, I complete my research into Mobile Warfare 3, which opens up the path to Spearhead Doctrine - a 1940 doctrine. I had not really planned to rush much research but at the dawn of this new year I can already sense war on the horizon and I know in my heart that I need to have the doctrines in place to practice "proper armoured warfare" as soon as possible. So, with a sense of destiny guiding my hand I click the screen and begin the spearhead research.
I go through the minister screen but can't find any I'd like to change (I made Werner von Blomberg new Chief of the Army on January 1 1937 to get the -10 % supply consumption, which seemed more valuable than a reduction in practicals that my production was keeping up anyway).
With the coming of the new year, I now have the opportunity to go for the Treaty of Munich event, which will give me the Sudetenland (borderlands of Czechoslovakia becomes German cores and are handed over). It will also give me a +15 threat on everybody, but since my current threat towards e.g. France and Hungary is only 34, and France’s threat towards the rest of Europe is above 65, I feel that I can handle it. What worries me is that it will lower France’s and the United Kingdom’s neutrality by -5 each, and that will help them declare war on me eventually…
1938 brings a lot of new interesting leaders including Model, von Arnim, Student, Schörner and Dietl, so I spend a few minutes replacing some commanders for my favourite units.
The Treaty of Munich
On January 3, 1938, I initiate the event and immediately get the Sudetenland. I also gain 300 manpower, which boosts my "stockpile of men" nicely and will help build more divisions. I do not get any resource stockpiles like I did with Austria but one of the new provinces generate some resources and IC, which will help in the future.
The event gives me a 5 point dissent hit because some of the "doves" are afraid my policies will lead Germany to war, so I start a campaign to win the hearts of the German people with more Volkswagens and candy.
Czechoslovakian forces before they withdraw from the new German territories
The 7. Panzer-Division - the "Ghost Division"
I am a big sucker for "neatness" and generally prefer my OOB to be made up of long lines of identically composed units. I am, however, also a huge Rommel fan (who isn't
) so I could not resist a little flavour when I was creating my nine armoured divisions.
I have always been fascinated by Rommel's rapid and reckless advance during the Battle of France in 1940,
which earned the division its nickname. I therefore could not resist the temptation to create a particularly fast, light armoured division and naming it after its historical counterpart. Experimenting with different compositions, I found out that adding 2 armoured car brigades instead of 1 motorised infantry brigade to my standard set-up in light armoured divisions (2 light armour, 1 mot inf) would give the division almost the same firepower and defence but a speed of 9 KPH instead of the regular 8 KPH (because armoured cars at this level are faster than motorised infantry). Because of this I only researched the Armoured Car Gun tech and not the armour, which would have made it slower.
Rommel with his staff during the campaign in May/June 1940
The result is a light, highly mobile division with combined arms bonus. And, as a bonus, if I need to I can split the unit at a moment's notice into two even lighter divisions of 1 light armour + 1 armoured car brigade each if I need to cover more ground, race to VP provinces or things like that. The unit won't have the power to punch through tough, prepared defences but it isn't meant to either.
Growing ambitions
On January 30, the dissent hit from annexing the Sudetenland is finally gone. By this time I have done some thinking on how I want the game to progress. If I wait for the Vienna Conference (I think it is called) event, I will get the Czech half of Czechoslovakia as cores and Slovakia as a puppet. But that event probably won't fire for another 8-10 months. Besides, I am not sure that even if I at that time declared war on Hungary (and got Italy to stay with me in the Axis) that Hungary would be aggressive enough to invade and annex Slovakia, allowing me to swallow and annex both Hungary and Slovakia afterwards. In fact, I am not even sure that Slovakia and Hungary would end up in a war just because I DoW Hungary.
So, if I really want to avoid getting Slovakia as a puppet (because I fear they will be as useless in Hoi3 as they were in Hoi2
) I see few alternatives to commencing with Fall Grün - the invasion of Czechoslovakia. I have never seen the AI refuse Germany's demands at the Vienna Conference (though I did mod that myself once in Hoi2) so I have little faith that I will be able to orchestrate a refusal in Hoi3. Thus, I decided that I may as well just get things going and begin making plans for invading Czechoslovakia as soon as possible. Afterwards I will have to estimate if I think I can get away with invading Hungary as well or whether that will ruin too much with either the Allies or Romania.
Weakening the foe
I launch a campaign of espionage and subversion against the Czechoslovakians and Hungarians. I make both countries my top intelligence priority and I place my agents on missions to Disrupt their national unity, which should help me make them surrender faster. At this moment, Hungary has a national unity (according to my spies) of just 66.2 percent. Czechoslovakia’s unity is at 63.9 percent but since I only have two active spies there right now, I am not so sure I trust that number.
Intelligence missions in Germany, UK and France are all temporarily put on step 2 importance. I can see that a handful of nations in Europe now sees me as the greater threat (due to the annexation of the Sudetenland I suppose) but these nations were the ones who before feared the USSR – before I stopped increasing the threat of the Soviets (in late 1937 I think it was). So perhaps I will need to start doing that again also.
When I examine a VP province map of Czechoslovakia, I see they have got 4 victory provinces; Louny, Praha, Bratislava and Kosice. The first three are close to my borders and vulnerable to a forceful thrust by my forces. Kosice, however, is far away and I would hate to have to slug my way across Slovakia to grab it. That is why I am counting on that Louny, Praha and Bratislava will get me 11 out of 13 victory points and that that – combined with the lowered national unity – will be enough to win a swift victory.
Once I feel that I have the situation in Czechoslovakia under control, I will have to once again make sure that neither Italy nor the Allies will intervene when I proceed to invade Hungary. If the coast looks clear, then I plan to do a sweeping motion from the north into Hungary. Hopefully (most likely) they will not have had time to redeploy a lot of their forces away from the German border and so I hope I can thrust past their western forests and come in from the north right into the heartland of Hungary, grab Budapest and then split my forces in two spearheads towards Pecs and Debrecen.
A week into February, I discover that the Danes, Poles and Hungarians are all active in supporting Bolsjeviks and worse in Germany, so I switch back to Counterintelligence missions in Germany. My neutrality is so far lowered to 34 anyway.
Two days later, on the 9th, I finally complete the research into Airborne Infantry and thus get the ability to produce paratrooper divisions - one of my favourites in the game! I immediately order 3 such divisions (3 brigades each) even though I know that they sadly won't be ready in time for Fall Grün.
"Damaged Forts at the Sudeten Line of Defence"
On February 21 I get the event, which give me the option to either keep the forts or dismantle them. But either the tooltip is broken or the event is broken, because both options say the same: a lot of forts will loose 4 levels. I don't need the forts anyway, so I just go with the option “No need for repairs, they are useless now”.
It's a question of trust
The next day a thought strikes me for the first time: I have absolutely no troops to lessen partisans once I conquer Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Knowing from Hoi2 how important stuff like that is - particularly now that I wont be getting cores in the Czech half of Czechoslovakia, I look into division combinations that will give me mobility and suppression.
I decide to build a combination of 1 garrison brigade and 1 Military Police (MP) brigade, which, when I research the Improved Security Units tech, will have a suppression value of 7. I considered putting MP brigades on HQs but that will slow the HQs down and I need them fast. I then considered combining MP with cavalry but that seems like a waste to combine the suppression of one with the mobility of the other and end up getting too little of both. I also considered MPs combined with militia, because those divisions are more mobile and require fewer officers than garrisons but the suppression value of such a unit is too low to be worth it. So I go with the production of 10 new police divisions with a combination of 1x gar + 1x MP even though I am aware that this combination has such poor mobility in case of uprisings that I will need a mobile force as well to deal with such situations. However, I decide that I can wait a while and estimate the size of the problem before I start doing anything rash - like making cavalry!
Setting up a new Army
On February 28 I complete the production of six infantry divisions. Since I am worried that General von Kluge cannot stretch the command range of his 3. Armee from Hungary to the Baltic Coast, I decide it is time to create a 5. Armee and place von Kluge in charge of it somewhere along the Hungarian / Czech border, while another general takes over the 3. Armee and the responsibility for the Polish border and Baltic Coast.
These six new infantry divisions, together with the XIV. Armeekorps from the 3. Armee, will get the honour of forming the first three corps of the brand new 5. Armee. I choose Lieutenant General von Brauchitsch to be promoted to full general and take over the 3. Armee. The other generals available were simply too old school and too low skill.
The transfer of a corps from the 3. Armee to the 5. Armee means that von Witzleben’s XIV. Armeekorps becomes the new XXI. Armeekorps, renaming his three divisions the 101.-103. Infanterie-Division respectively. It is a weakening of the Polish border but I hope I can get away with this gamble. All in all, the new 5. Armee gets 3 infantry corps under von Witzleben, von Küchler and von Weichs and the Gebirgsjäger corps under Böhme – a total of more than 86,000 men. In addition to this, the 4. Panzerarmee under von Rundstedt, which now consists of 3 armoured corps and a motorised corps, will of course also take part in Fall Grün.
Thoughts that give you pause
A rather disturbing message reaches me on March 16. Ireland has given up her neutrality and joined the Allies!!
This is most upsetting and Hitler almost chokes on his würst when he reads the Abwehr report. Ireland, you see, has never been influenced by the Allies and where moving away from them towards the Axis corner. If the Allies can get the neutrality-loving Irish (I have never seen them fight in Hoi2) into their evil alliance even before the shooting starts I may have to rethink a thing or two...
But then Göring argues that the Irish are so drunk most of the time that they wouldn't know which way to point a riffle and Hitler is calmed and decides that the planning of Fall Grün will continue.
Final steps
Two more months follow. I produce more units and go over the plan for Fall Grün again and again trying to apply what I have learned about Hoi3 warfare so far. My espionage against Hungary and Czechoslovakia seems to have the opposite effect - their national unity is going up instead of down! Perhaps they are doing domestic spy missions to raise their own national unity? I can't really tell.
On May 27, I complete my research into Radar technology, which allows me to construct radar sites. I need those (I suspect) for the air war against Britain, but I also want to build a few major sites because
I have read that in Hoi3 they act as listening posts gathering intelligence across borders in enemy territory, which is wicked cool.
I order a production line of 15 parallel radar stations that will be complete by December 1938. I can then use some spread out and some concentrated together in a single province somewhere on the border with Belgium/Luxemburg.
In the past 2 months I have been positioning my forces 2 provinces away from the border with Czechoslovakia, counting on their Intelligence level only being sufficient (like mine) to spy into the first province across the border. But my forces are marshalled, ready for the assault, and just after midnight on May 28 1938 I start moving 23 divisions into position for the attack.
Fall Grün is underway!
Up next: Fall Grün OOB, maps and strategy