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De_Spinoza

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Apr 4, 2010
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Fortress Holland

Sectie%204C.Pag.jpg


General information

Having played Hearts of Iron III only for a week now, I still consider myself a novice player. However, I got most of the basics of the game and having some experience surviving as The Netherlands in HOI2 and AOD I figured I could give this a try.

English is not my native language, but I aim to keep this readable. Therefore Grammar Nazis are more than welcome to spew their advice.

I already played till July 1940(Already at war with Germany) but as soon as my AAR updates get on par with the game I might ask some specific gameplay-wise advice from (potential :p) readers.

Difficulty will be normal and I will control all forces myself until my armies get too big to handle(although I doubt that is possible). The purpose of this AAR is to show a successful(or failing) defence against Germany, so I will not try to join the axis. I hope to make a decisive effect on the war by halting the Germans at fortress Holland, and possibly force a counter-attack once the situation allows it.





Chapter 1: The angry general
Amsterdam, 1936. Dutch Army Headquarters.
General Winkelman cursed. He cursed at the naive and pacifistic market liberals who were leading the country. He cursed at Adolf Hitler, the little man with the scary moustache and even more frightening belligerent speeches.

Winkelman_HG2_s.JPG

General Winkelman behind his desk

General Winkelman had been asking the market-liberal government to allocate some funds to the army for several years now. He wrote letters to politicians, annoyed the prime minister for hours with observations of the terrible state of the nation's armed forces... It all did not seem to help.

So, by 1936 he gave up on talking and switched his strategy of getting more funds: From now on the Dutch Army Intelligence Service would use all its spies and means to lower the Dutch neutrality. Politicians were to be eavesdropped and influenced, and propaganda showing the belligerent dialogue of Hitler was to be fabricated and spread.

1936 - 1939
The only positive thing was that he got permission to build some defensive works near Amersfoort: The only path to Amsterdam not protected by water. Winkelman knew anything east of Amersfoort and south of Gouda would be impossible to defend: He simply would not be able to muster enough men to hold the line effectively.

He also got permission to build 15 artillery brigades to support the triangular infantry divisions. This would greatly help in the defence of the country. Some of these were already added to the most eastern divisions when General Winkelman ordered the defensive works to be manned as part of an exercise in 1937.

netherlands1937.jpg

The exercise of 1937 showing the strategy of Winkelman, counting on a static defence. Note that the three KNIL divisions from the Dutch East Indies also took part in this exercise as part of the 2e legerkorps. They would remain in The Netherlands for a planned 5-year period.

Winkelman ordered the theorists of the army to focus on finding new infantry weapons and artillery for the army. This led to the introduction of several new weapons to the arsenal of the Dutch Army. During 1938 and 1939 Winkelman's military theorists also completed their theories on the Grand Battle Plan doctrine which greatly improved the efficiency of the infantry and artillery operations.

2.png

A Dutch soldier with the new support weapon of the Dutch army, the Schwarzlose m.08. It was as effective as the German mg34.

10veld_003.jpg

The relatively modern '10-veld' artillery piece.


As the German acts of aggression over the years increased with the anschluss of Austria and Czechoslovakia, the Dutch became more prepared to defend their homeland and war seemed like a more realistic possibility. After several mobilisation laws were passed Winkelman was out of manpower reserves, so production on forts increased. The invasion of Poland and the start of the second great war proved a particularly unnerving experience for the Market Liberals in power. They too got afraid peace could not be sustained. As a result in the elections of 1940, general Winkelman got elected as head of state: The Dutch needed a strong leader to guide them through the hard times to come!

verkiezingen1940.jpg

The elections of 1940 saw queen Wilhelmina handing her status as head of state over to general Winkelman. As a fierce nationalist, she too saw the need for a military strongman to lead the country.


March 1940
In march 1940 mobilisation began. Fortress Holland was still being improved, but deemed sufficient to hold for at least a few weeks: Hopefully enough time to get help from the French and British before the Germans could overrun the major Dutch ports. Although the army was now fully mobilized, most reserve divisions were still missing about 140 men each. However, with the new mobilisation laws the Dutch manpower would reach positive numbers again in 1941 at the latest. The Dutch industry was almost fully mobilised and allowed a fast production of fortifications. As a back up, fortifications in Amsterdam were also planned.

waterlinie1940maart.jpg

Fortress Holland in march 1940

The next update will mainly cover the Dutch defence of the mainland. Will I survive the first few months? Or am I doomed to fail against the German aggressor?
 
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what level are your forts?
In march 1940 the fort in Amersfoort was level 6, the forts in Utrecht en Gouda were level 3, and the fort in Leiden was level 2. However, Utrecht, Gouda, and Leiden would all get their next level of fortresses in late may. The coastal fort in Den Helder is level 2.

this is going to be fun to follow :D, dont worry about grammar nazis, i dont think they exist on this forum
Thanks for following! But still, I would welcome their input :)

All your divisions are 3 inf and 1 art?
Of my 10 divisions 8 have an artillery brigade attached. I had to cancel the latter of the artillery brigades(part of a build serial of 10 and a serial build of 5) to free some manpower.
 
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I think your preparations are very good. Amersfoort has not only 6 lvl fort but swamp province too :)

I would defend Den Haag and some other cities too for a while with some odd units and then retreat behind Waterlinie.
 
the line with Den haag and rottrdam would cost one more province to defend but include rotterdam with some IC , ressources , leadership
but this is a little late for this one , and we'll see the show! :D
 
I think your preparations are very good. Amersfoort has not only 6 lvl fort but swamp province too :)

I would defend Den Haag and some other cities too for a while with some odd units and then retreat behind Waterlinie.
I figured I could do this but I then decided it was not worth the possible manpower loss. With only 10 divisions and zero manpower left I did not want to take the risk of one of my divisions getting overrun or bombed while on retreat.

the line with Den haag and rottrdam would cost one more province to defend but include rotterdam with some IC , ressources , leadership
but this is a little late for this one , and we'll see the show!
Yes, I think this would be an option if I would have built fortifications there from the start. However, the river penalty is huge on armoured attacks and again I tried to play it really safe. Rotterdam would give Germany another land province to attack trough.

Tommorow Ill get a big update up :)
 
Nice. Under-dog AARs are always interesting.
 
Chapter 2: The angry German
Adolf_Hitler-1933.jpg

July, 1940
Fedor von Bock, responsible for the units invading the Netherlands, was nervous. Although the armies invading Belgium had rapidly progressed, his army group was behind schedule. The initial advance went without any trouble, with only local police forces resisting. No Dutch divisions were encountered until the front units reached Festung Holland. The probing attacks showed that the Dutch had set up a very capable defence, and the French were already streaming into Holland from Den Haag. All attacks on Gouda and Amersfoort failed. The Führer would not be happy with this 2-month delay.

While biting his nails out of anxiety he received a call. He hesitated to pick up the phone because he expected Göring or Himller informing him he was being put on trial for high treason.

Eventually he picked up the phone with his sweaty hand. "Von Bock... I'm with the Führer now. He orders an immediate breakthrough by surprising the Dutch units in the north at Den Helder! They will not expect this brilliant act of deception!" with a shaking voice von Bock tried to explain the situation: "I can not force a breakthrough trough the afsluitdijk! It will end in a slaughter!" Angrily Göring replied, "This is your last chance von Bock. Don't disappoint the Führer!". Just when von Bock was about to drop the phone on the floor out of anger and disbelief he heard Hitler shouting to Göring "Verdammt! I will have no disobedience! Nein! If he does not attack I will order him to personally take a rifle and invade Amsterdam by himself! The coward!".

Von Bock ordered his men into battle.
denhelderbattle.jpg

In the months of June and July the Germans desperately attacked Den Helder by the shallow body of water between Northern Holland and Western Friesland. Needless to say the Germans lost enormous amounts of men, while the Dutch held sustaining little losses. Eventually the New Zealand expeditionary force would relief some of the defenders to enable the Dutch troops to reinforce and reorganize.

Dutch Army HQ, Winkelman's quarters - July 1940
Winkelman was proud. His troops had held the line against the numerically superior Germans. The battles fought were battles won for the Dutch. In the meantime, expeditionary forces from Canada, France, and Great Britain were helping.

This was very helpful, as Winkelman's manpower reserves were still inadequate. If the Germans would launch an all-out attritional assault he would surely run out of men within months. However, the front was mostly quiet except for skirmishes between allied troops and a German spearhead in Den Haag and Middelburg. No Dutch soldiers were committed to these battles because of the precarious manpower situation. In the meantime Dutch generals were getting used to warfare, with major general van Voorst tot Voorst proofing himself to be a very capable defender against the many German attacks, sustaining little casualties and holding the defences.

duitsershoudenstandbijl.jpg

The front in June 1940

After several probing attacks the only serious German attack was at Gouda. We lost 300 men while the Germans suffered 700 casualties.
battleofgouda.jpg

The first glorious defence of Gouda

General Winkelman went to sleep after a good look at the map showing the situation. He was pleased, especially now that the British put two elite divisions of Gurkhas under his command while the New Zealanders provided a helpful light tank division. He would use these units to try to maintain a stable front southwards to make sure the Netherlands would not get cut off from the narrow strip of allied territory connecting Belgium with Holland and France.
expforcesjune1940.jpg


The only thing that haunted Winkelman in his sleep was the lack of air power: All Dutch manpower and industrial capacity in the pre-war years were put into defences, artillery, and the mobilisation. There was enough industrial capacity to build an air force, armour, or better navy, but he wanted to have his army fully reinforced again first. Until manpower would reach good numbers again he would order the construction at defences in the Dutch East Indies, to enable a succesfull defence there too.
 
Nice. Under-dog AARs are always interesting.
They are fun to play too! The Netherlands is not only one of my favourite regional powers because of its relatively high IC(after all without building any extra IC the fully mobilised Dutch economy gives you 52 IC to use. Too bad I cant use it because of manpower issues :p), and its big colonial possessions in the East Indies and the abundance of resources gives you a lot of options.

I hope that you didn't overspent your MP...
I did, actually. I don't think the Dutch even have enough MP to fully mobilise their starting army, even if I didn't build those 8 artillery brigades... However, I'm now gaining 1.3MP a month and I still need 12MP to fully reinforce my units. If the front stays quiet for a while Ill be able to build some nice high-quality licensed stuff soon, or upgrade my infantry divisions to something better.

I'll be following this with great interest. Didn't General Reynders feel a bit upset at being made to resign so soon? :cool:
Oh yes, he's furious! But I wanted to make Winkelman my main character, so I'll base the story entirely around him :)
 
Will be interesting to see where this goes. I've been trying something similar with Belgium for the past few weeks, but I fear it is impossible. If this goes similarly, I fear that that Europe will fall, with you being "last man standing". However, Even with high level forts and only 4-5 provinces you need to defend, Germany can just throw so much manpower at you that defeat seems inevitable. They can afford 10 lost battles against a single province, while you just bleed away organisation. And how much defense against air to ground strikes do you have?

Netherlands' situation is slightly better than Belgium's though. You only have two angles to defend, while Belgium has three. It is also much more feasible to create a "fort" where every province has max 2-3 angles of attack, which is almost impossible in Belgium if you want to keep Antwerp and Brussels (which you do).

So your prospects are slightly better than my many, many, many failed experiments, but I still think it will buy you maybe a month or so more time before the inevitable defeat, though I hope I'm wrong :)
 
You have certainly set yourself a challenging task! :)

I also played the Netherlands in HoI2 and successfully defended that corner of the country. The terrain is certainly very favourable and with the fortifications you should have a good chance as long as you keep your front as short as possible.

I have to say I think your manpower situation is very bad. I am amazed that you've only been able to muster 10 divisions (I think I had about 20) and that seems very unbalanced. It's good that you have got some Allied divisions, though. That is going to help a lot!

In my case I held out for the duration but couldn't stop Belgium and France falling. I was finally able to break out (and liberate Belgium and Denmark :)) when the Soviets started pushing into Germany.

Oh, and a nice story-line, putting the Netherlands under military jurisdiction - just in time!
 
Will be interesting to see where this goes. I've been trying something similar with Belgium for the past few weeks, but I fear it is impossible. If this goes similarly, I fear that that Europe will fall, with you being "last man standing". However, Even with high level forts and only 4-5 provinces you need to defend, Germany can just throw so much manpower at you that defeat seems inevitable. They can afford 10 lost battles against a single province, while you just bleed away organisation. And how much defense against air to ground strikes do you have?

Netherlands' situation is slightly better than Belgium's though. You only have two angles to defend, while Belgium has three. It is also much more feasible to create a "fort" where every province has max 2-3 angles of attack, which is almost impossible in Belgium if you want to keep Antwerp and Brussels (which you do).

So your prospects are slightly better than my many, many, many failed experiments, but I still think it will buy you maybe a month or so more time before the inevitable defeat, though I hope I'm wrong :)
I think I'll be able to hold out until the end of 1941 at least. And indeed the defence against air attacks has been hard. The New Zealanders send some divs consisting of 2 INF and 2 AA, which helped defend Den Helder. Ive now played until January 1941 and the Germans have been throwing troops there like madmen, which made me retreat my troops out of that province and instead leave that to my brave allies(also, those air attacks hurt your manpower a lot too). I still have an MP deficit of 7, but it was 18 in '39 so I hope I can reach a positive number of 10 manpower by 1942 or something.

You have certainly set yourself a challenging task! :)

I also played the Netherlands in HoI2 and successfully defended that corner of the country. The terrain is certainly very favourable and with the fortifications you should have a good chance as long as you keep your front as short as possible.

I have to say I think your manpower situation is very bad. I am amazed that you've only been able to muster 10 divisions (I think I had about 20) and that seems very unbalanced. It's good that you have got some Allied divisions, though. That is going to help a lot!

In my case I held out for the duration but couldn't stop Belgium and France falling. I was finally able to break out (and liberate Belgium and Denmark :)) when the Soviets started pushing into Germany.

Oh, and a nice story-line, putting the Netherlands under military jurisdiction - just in time!
The Netherlands did not get that much love in vanilla indeed. They should have more manpower, I think, since in reality they did actually manage to mobilize their entire 'starting army' up to full strength and equip a motorized division. I spend about 15 manpower on those artillery pieces I think, and apart from that all my manpower trickled away with every mobilisation law and finally the full mobilization. Also, the Dutch had quite advanced submarines(which is reflected with the level III sub in the Dutch fleet) but they don't have the level III techs, quite annoying. Just like the leadership being not enough to match the advanced Fokker planes that were used in 1940(although not many were built). I'll try to keep my grand battle plan, INF, and agriculture techs up to date for now.

By the way, a major problem I have run into is the vile Germans sinking all of my convoys. My little navy does not have any doctrines and just 3 destroyers + 2 light cruisers. Would it make any sense to go for the sealane defence doctrine and then churn out a fleet of 6 destroyers once I reach positive manpower? I can't hold the East Indies(and thus lose all my rares needed for my quite modest IC) if I lose all of my convoys.
 
Well, I think attrition to your manpower from constant attacks could prevent you building a surplus, so I would certainly not recommend building more brigades unless the situation improves. You could perhaps build some air cover (licence-built units maybe?) which would not require much manpower.

The convoys will be a problem. With manual control you could concentrate on the most important routes. If your resource stockpiles are healthy you could suspend convoys until you really need them. You could also cancel any unnecessary trade imports.

Otherwise, build more convoys and possibly escorts - I recently did some tests (admittedly with the HPP mod, not vanilla) which indicated that escorts did significantly reduce convoy losses. I am not sure about destroyers. In my observations of the Royal Navy under AI control, destroyers did not manage to intercept subs but naval bombers sometimes did. But, again, this was with HPP and the British had up-to-date techs...
 
Well, I think attrition to your manpower from constant attacks could prevent you building a surplus, so I would certainly not recommend building more brigades unless the situation improves. You could perhaps build some air cover (licence-built units maybe?) which would not require much manpower.

The convoys will be a problem. With manual control you could concentrate on the most important routes. If your resource stockpiles are healthy you could suspend convoys until you really need them. You could also cancel any unnecessary trade imports.

Otherwise, build more convoys and possibly escorts - I recently did some tests (admittedly with the HPP mod, not vanilla) which indicated that escorts did significantly reduce convoy losses. I am not sure about destroyers. In my observations of the Royal Navy under AI control, destroyers did not manage to intercept subs but naval bombers sometimes did. But, again, this was with HPP and the British had up-to-date techs...

The naval bomber route sounds quite reasonable. The Dutch start with all of the 1936 techs so I <might> consider just doing the torpedo research thing and then focus on doctrines. Then I don't have to worry about researching all of the 4 destroyer techs until they are up to date. I'd then build some multirole fighters trough a license from the UK or US to repel kraut bombers and for ground attack duty.

And yes, I don't plan on building any brigades in the near future. The only thing I might do is upgrade my excisting infantry to motorized infantry once I get the tech.
 
A very interesting concept and a very good read. I always favour underdog battles (I spent many happy hours on "Combat Mission" trying to defend a town with a single Infantry company against a whole battalion) and the buzz from marshalling a defence against overwhelming numbers is a good one.

Well written too, and I look forward to the next up date.
 
And yes, I don't plan on building any brigades in the near future. The only thing I might do is upgrade my excisting infantry to motorized infantry once I get the tech.

Careful with that. Motorised infantry hold up worse against air attack than regular infantry. Once you have a degree of air superiority they should serve you well though.

Looking forward to the next update!