Episode 1
EPISODE 1
My first priority on January 1st 1936 is to set up a stable economy for Germany for the years to come. That means trading for sufficient resources for my industry. I will also have to handle diplomacy, espionage, production and tech research, none of which I will let the AI handle for me.
My strategy is to increase the threat of France and the UK to prevent them from gaining as many new allies in Europe as possible and to get Italy into the Axis as soon as I can. I would also like to increase the threat of Hungary to scare Romania into the Axis, but I don't know if it is doable. In any event, I hope to dow Hungary before 1939, have them annex Slovakia and then annex Hungary - thereby ridding me of Slovakia, a puppet that usually annoys me to no end.
I won't be rushing techs except concerning IC and Leadership, and I expect to build a little of everything - but the Kriegsmarine will have to make due with submarines until I have flattened the UK with flying bombs - a strategy I never got to try out in Hoi2.
But I am getting ahead of myself here
January 1st, 1936:
Intelligence:
All priorities are set to zero. Germany, UK, France, Austria and Hungary all get max priority for now – the rest none. In Germany I lower neutrality, in Austria I Support Our Party and in the UK, France and Hungary I increase threat.
Politics:
Hjalmar Schacht takes over as Armaments Minister: +10% IC
Jospeh Goebbels takes over as Minister of Security: +5% leadership
Werner von Fritsch stays as Chief of Army because of the reduction of Armour Practical Decay
Fritz Bayerlein takes over as Chief of Staff to get the +10% Supply Throughput. It may not be much but it is practical here and now.
I can’t create new laws right now but that will change in a couple of days with the lowered neutrality and more money in my pocket.
Technology:
To get all my trades up and running and to rid Germany of foreign spies quickly, I devote all my 27.81 points of Leadership to spies and diplomats the first couple of days.
Production:
In the production line I kill off the old destroyers and subs I for some reason were making. I won’t need a surface fleet in the first 5 years, because I don’t plan on Sealion until after Barbarosa, and I know that by October 1936 I can get the Type IX submarine, so why construct a single unit of the Type VII?
I order the construction of a level 3 Rocket Test Site and level 10 Anti-Air guns in the province Rostock on the Baltic Coast. I don’t bother with a coastal fort there, because I intend to take Denmark and close the straits before the Allies might get in a position to land troops there.
In Wilhelmshafen, however, I order a level 3 coastal fort, level 10 AA guns and an upgrade of the airbase to level 10 as well, because this will be my main port for the Battle of the Atlantic and my main airbase for the air defence of Germany from Britain’s strategic bombers to begin with.
To assist in the air war I order a carpet of AA guns, so to speak, covering the four regions of Norden, Bremen, Hamburg and Holstein in the North West (17 guns in all) as well as the three regions of Saarland, Lorraine and Baden on the French border (15 guns in all). This is because in Hoi2 I fought most air battles in 1939-1940 over these provinces and I know how much help AA guns used to be to my interceptors going up against the French and British.
I also order 4 AA guns for the city of Hannover, because that city was continuously hit by strategic bombers in my first and only test game.
The air bases in Bitburg and Stuttgart are also upgraded to level 10 bases.
So far my Production line now costs me 129.12 IC.
I then order a division of 2 militia brigades – the 1. Luftwaffe Feld-division – to meet the brigade requirements for the Rhineland event. I also order a wing of Stukas, a wing of air transports, an infantry division and a motorised division, as well as a fleet transport flotilla and finally a guard division composed of 2 garrison brigades and 2 artillery brigades to max out as many practicals as possible right from the start.
This brings my Production que cost up to 176.54 IC.
Diplomacy:
I immediately start influencing the United States towards me. Later I may have to influence Japan away from the Comintern, but that is a worry for later in the game.
When it comes to trade, my main concern is to get Rare Materials from the Netherlands and USSR and to sell as much of my surplus energy on the world market, while there is still a demand for it. I therefore use my 31 diplomats on January 1st to buy and sell just that. Later I can worry about getting more metal and crude oil.
It pays off well. Italy, Sweden, Hungary, Republican Spain, Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia all agree to buy energy from me and the USSR to sell me Rare Materials. Unfortunately, Finland refuses to sell me a meagre 2 Rares a day… Switzerland declines to buy Supplies from me.
January 2:
Politics:
My change of ministers means that I now have 211 effective IC
New Laws:
I can now enact the 3 year draft period law because I lowered my neutrality below 60, but I cannot yet afford it.
Diplomacy:
I have 8 new diplomats, so now I go for trade with Netherlands. I manage to buy 10 rares/day from Netherlands and earn more than enough money to cover it by selling supplies to my old enemy France.
At the same time, USSR begins to influence Japan towards the Comintern. I have read about the AI doing this and making Japan actually join the Red block, so I am weary but unwilling to spend Leadership to counter it already.
January 3:
Politics:
I enact the Three-year draft, which means I get a +25% manpower and officer recruitment. It sets me back my entire cash reserve though…
Diplomacy:
I have a very positive cash flow now, but I spend most of it getting Romania to sell me 8 crude oil a day. Portugal helps out a little but deciding to buy German energy – 18 units a day!
January 6:
The warship KMS Graf Spee is added to the Kriegsmarine.
Diplomacy:
Those rats in the British Foreign Office also begin influencing the United States. A war of diplomacy to sway the giant begins…
January 7:
Diplomacy:
I convince another arch-enemy, the UK, to sell me enough Rare Materials to get a small daily surplus.
After a game week, I reduce Leadership expenditure on Diplomats and Spies and turn to Research:
I start out with:
Education 2 (to get more Leadership)
Industrial Production 5 (to get more IC)
Industrial Efficiency 5 (to get more IC efficiency)
Operational Level Organisation 2 (to reduce attack delay)
Operational Level Command Structure 2
Tactical Command Structure 1 (to increase Mot inf morale and get 5 brigade divisions later)
Supply Production 5
Submarine Engine 3
Submarine Hull 3
Submarine Torpedoes 3
Light Tank Gun 2
Light Tank Armour 2
Light Tank Engine 2
Light Tank Reliability 2
Small Arms 2
Light Artillery 2
Infantry Support Weapons 2
Infantry Anti-Tank Weapons 2
Artillery Barrel and Ammunition 4
Artillery Carriage and Sights 4
A total of 20 research projects for the 19.69 Leadership I have available.
January 8:
I am running low on cash, but I convince Denmark, Sweden, Hungary and Ireland to buy more Energy from me and Austria to sell me a tiny bit of metals.
January 11:
To my surprise, Sweden finds me threatening, so I check the Intelligence interface and discover that I am still lowering my neutrality instead of doing counter espionage and Germany is apparently filled with hostile spies. I change that at once.
January 17:
Italy asks to buy more energy and I agree.
I also buy more metal from USSR, Sweden and Switzerland
January 22:
USSR asks to buy more supplies and they will pay handsomely for them. This is a situation I was hoping for, because it gives me cash to buy more rares, crude oil and metals.
January 23:
With Soviet cash I finally secure a nice daily surplus of Rare Materials from the Netherlands. I also have enough left to get some metal from Luxembourg.
The United Kingdom starts diplomatically influencing South Africa – I presume to get them in the Allies. I like this because for some reason the UK AI only influences one nation at a time, so now they won’t be influencing the United States for a while.
By the way, my scare tactics seem to be working beautifully in the UK and France, whose threat is increasing nicely. Not so in Hungary, but I see I only have 3 agents alive there. Perhaps they are killing off mine faster than I can send them? I switch their mission in Hungary to Counterespionage for a while.
I have caught 22 spies this month in Germany and the number of hostiles is gradually falling.
January 31:
The Spanish Civil War kicks off! This is not the earliest I have ever seen it happen (that was January 8th) but still pretty early. I support my fascists brothers in Spain, but secretly I hope for a Republican victory, so I can conquer Spain later…
That same day the Soviets intervene on behalf of the Republicans. Good.
And just before midnight the Italians also intervene on behalf of the Nationalists.
February 2:
Sweden sells me more metals but Austria refuses. All the more reason to Anschluss them quickly.
February 10:
The Czechs and the Hungarians both try to sell me more metal. I agree to the Czech offer but turn down the Hungarian one to avoid a daily cash deficit.
However, immediately afterwards I succeed in getting the USSR to buy more supplies from me, once again securing a flow of cash to das Reich.
February 13:
Word gets around that I have money it seems. Now Yugoslavia and Peru both want to sell me metal and Nationalist Spain wants to buy energy. I agree to all.
February 14:
The UK renews their diplomatic influence towards South Africa
The situation in Spain looks fairly even…
February 17:
20 AA guns are finished
A metal deal with Sweden finally ensures that I have a tiny daily surplus of that resource also…
February 18:
1 AA gun finished
King George V dies in the UK.
February 21:
Czechs cancel metal deal – bastards!
February 22:
1 AA gun finished
The Canadians, Irish and Cubans all offer me more metal than I lost on the deal with the bastard Czechs, love it! (the next day Lithuania does the same)
February 25:
I finally have a small but important surplus on my trades and finances. +5 metal, +10 rare materials and +0.76 $ a day. My fuel is rising by +111 a day simply because of conversion.
February 27:
Cuba cancels metal deal, but it was tiny anyway. Italy once again asks to buy a lot of energy!
February 28:
Ethiopia surrenders to Italy, who makes them a puppet state.
March 1:
1 AA gun finished.
Status: After 2 months the economy is looking good, production is underway and I am about 2 weeks from the Rhineland event. After that I will focus on restructuring the Heer, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe more properly.
I find it strange that the tooltip at the top of the screen say I am only getting 0.2 spies a day, while my Leadership consumption says 0.3, but apart from that everything looks peachy.
Up next: restructuring the Wehrmacht!