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K W

Evil Lawyer
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Apr 13, 2008
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Table of Contents

Prelude

Part I: Initial Considerations ("IC Question" and "France First Strategy")
Part II: Initial Setup

First Interbellum Period

Part III: January – February 1936
Part IV: February – April 1936
Part V: June – July 1936

Spanish Civil War Period

Part VI: Overall Strategy
("Operation Gisela")
Part VII: July 1936
Part VIII: July 1936
Part IX: July – August 1936
Part X: August 1936
Part XI: August – September 1936
Part XII: September 1936
Part XIII: September 1936
Part XIV: September – October 1936
Part XV: Change of Strategy
Part XVI: October – November 1936
Part XVII: November 1936
Part XVIII: December 1936
Part XIX: December 1936 – January 1937
Part XX: January 1937
Part XXI: February 1937
Part XXII: February – March 1937
Part XXIII: Review of the Spanish Civil War

Second Interbellum Period

Part XXIV: March 1937
Part XXV: April – June 1937
Part XXVI: July – December 1937
Part XXVII: January – February 1938
Part XXVIII: February 1938
Part XXIX: April – July 1938
Part XXX: Patch Time (Update to Patch 1.01)
Part XXXI: July – December 1938
Part XXXII: January – April 1939

War Preparation Period

Part XXXIII: April 1939
Part XXXIV: April – July 1939

Second World War Period: Case Yellow

Part XXXV: Initial Strategy Update ("General Scheme of Things" and Stage I)
Part XXXVI: July 1939
Part XXXVII: July 1939
Part XXXVIII: Defining Strategy Update (Stage II)
Part XXXIX: July – August 1939
Part XL: August 1939
Part XLI: August 1939 (Stage III)
Part XLII: Italian and Patch Interlude (Update to Patch 1.02 Beta 1)
Part XLIII: August 1939
Part XLIV: August 1939
Part XLV: September 1939
Part XLVI: Review of Case Yellow

Second World War Period: Case White

Opening

I'm not good at writing lengthy introductions, so let's just say: It is time for a Germany '36 AAR.

Version: Darkest Hour Full 1.01 Beta 2 (until Part XXX) / Darkest Hour Full 1.01 (after Part XXX) / Darkest Hour Full 1.01.1 (since Part XXXIII) / Darkest Hour Full 1.02 Beta 1 (since Part XLII)
Difficulty: Normal
AI Aggressiveness: Normal
IC and Techteam Takeover: Off
Country: Germany
Scenario: The Road to Another War (1936)

Now, some general statements for this AAR, in no particular order:
1. No cheating, reloading or save editing. I will make only exceptions for manual bugfixing. If the game crashes, I will reload the latest save and try to repeat my actions, including any mistakes I made.

2. This will be a Gameplay AAR. As English is not my mother tongue, it would be simply too exhausting to include sophisticated and entertaining history book texts in every update. I also write this AAR, because no one else has written a Germany '36 AAR yet, and as far as I can see from the forums, not even one viable Germany strategy has been posted at all. Therefore, I will show and explain all essential gameplay actions, my plans and, of course, my overall strategy. As I do not consider myself a professional expert, I welcome any comments and suggestions on it. In fact, I will be very happy if the swarm intelligence of the forum convinces me to alter my strategy at some point. ;)

3. Usually I count the defeat of the Soviet Union through the Bitter Peace as a total German victory. In a HoI Game, I never saw the point in playing on when you reached a state in the game where you could easily crush all remaining opponents like a bug. However, due to the insane (but historical) amount of IC the United States get in Darkest Hour, I could perhaps change my opinion in this matter.

4. There is no set interval for updates, but I promise to notify you should this AAR be abandoned so that I don't fuel your hopes pointlessly.

5. Pointing out orthographic mistakes is legal and appreciated.

6. You will see that many of my updates are edited after they were posted, but don't be afraid that you miss something -- if I alter the content, I will make this clearly visible and announce it through an additional post. The changes are usually only cosmetical (correction of typing errors, addition of titles, etc.) and it is therefore not necessary to reread an update if it has been edited.​
We will start with some initial considerations before we actually begin the game.
 
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Part I: Initial Considerations

Much Ado About IC

So, one of the first questions that arise when playing Germany is: Should we build IC? In HoI and AoD I almost always build IC as Germany. I investigated this question in detail and played three Germany games just to see how much IC can be built in DH without harming Germany's war conduct. The answer was very clear: None.

During my first attempt, I built three series of IC in twenty provinces. Well, what was possible in HoI and to some point even in AoD, now failed utterly. Attacking France with almost inferior numbers and 1918 Infantry due to the lack of updates is definitely not fun and creates a costly stalemate in the Low Countries, until the Soviet Union decides to mop Germany up. Even Poland took two months to annex. (Although I must say here for the sake of accuracy, that I did not use the Luftwaffe to the full extent -- because the Interdiction mission was renamed to Ground Support and I, for some reason, believed in desperate shock that I was not able to lower the organization of the Poles, ordering instead other pointless missions.) My second attempt with two IC series didn't work either, although I was slightly better off.

Even building only one IC run jeopardized Germany's success -- and during my third attempt, I even had the luck that the Anschluss fired already in 1937. The outcome was nevertheless suboptimal, I started World War II in summer '40, delaying the historical timeline by roughly one year, only to upgrade my units. I finally attacked the Soviet Union -- without Sea Lion -- in Spring '42, and it proved to be, after the initial offensives, to become very bloody and costly. Also the inability to enact General Mobilisation led to the total depletion of my MP very fast, but as far as I can tell from the event files, this has been fixed now by revised Mobilization decisions.

With the increased buildtime for infantry and the removal of the Professional Army slider that reduced upgrade time and upgrade costs, it is simply not possible to build a serious amount of IC while trying to wage Blitzkrieg campaigns during the historical time schedule. So for this AAR, we won't build any IC but focus exclusively on a modern and at least medium sized military. Perhaps we will spent a small amount of IC on airbases, static anti-air, etc. (Suggestions considering this matter are welcome, as I'm usually reluctant to spent my IC on them, which could be a harmful prejudice.) The rest will go into the production of military units, and at some point in 1938, probably shortly before the 1939 Infantry tech, I will halt my production and upgrade all military units so that they will be up-to-date.

Case White and Case Yellow Reversed

The timeline of every HoI or AoD game is very similar. Everyone who played the games extensively can probably name the order of the most important events by heart:

Rhineland Occupation -- Anschluss of Austria -- Treaty of Munich -- End of Czechoslovakia -- Claiming Memel -- Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact -- Danzig or War -- Case White -- Case Yellow -- (Sea Lion) -- Barbarossa -- (Sea Lion)

Notice that I did not include Weserübung or the Balkans Campaign, as they are, in my opinion, totally optional and not important at all for the general outcome of the game.

Even for human-controlled Germany there was little reason to deviate from the classic timeline. After all, if you would refuse to play along til Danzig or War, which always occured on August 30, 1939 :)D), you would at least forfeit one core province.

DH changed this. Now, your initial core provinces at the game start are not only Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg. Except for the cores on Bohemia-Moravia, that are later added by the Treaty of Munich and the End of Czechoslovakia decision, and the cores on the former German eastern territories, that are added by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany has already a vast amount of cores at the game start.

Additionaly, you can now decide yourself at which point you are ready to take the next step. Especially the Anschluss can occur earlier, thus allowing a World War II already in 1938. This opens opportunities for another strategy: Attacking the Low Countries and France, then attacking Poland, and then finally attacking the Soviet Union, all in very rapid sequence of events, starting in Summer '39.

In case that the Anschluss will occur earlier in this game, or that Poland won't join the Allies, I will try this strategy. The reason for this is simple: Time is always working for Germany's enemies. Germany's Base IC is 150, while the production capabilities of the Allies and the Soviet Union reach up to 1,000 Base IC. Guess who will win if Germany waits too long. The sooner the war starts, the better for Germany. If all my oponents were controlled by humans, I would certainly lose with a World War II beginning on 1 September, 1939.

If the Anschluss occurs earlier than historical, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which gives me my last core provinces, will also be available earlier than historical. Then I can do as I please -- and I think that taking out France as soon as possible would give me a critical advantage over the Allies. French IC is more dangerous than Polish IC, because even if I leave Poland untouched and they double their military, the quality of the Polish divisions is so lacklustre that they wouldn't be a match for me anyway. However, the time between Autumn '39 and Summer '40 would allow the French to build more divisions, and, in contrast to Poland, these divisions are serious opponents. Apart from that, taking out France first and Poland second would spare me one front shift from the east to the west, would deny the Soviets for some additional months the IC, manpower and resources of the eastern Polish provinces and allow me to backstab the Soviets during the Winter War. Due to the fast progress of events I could probably even minimize the number of guard divisions in France, as any kind of Operation Overlord before 1943 would not be a threat at all, and if the War against the Soviets already starts in 1939/1940, Bitter Peace should have fired by 1943. (Sea Lion must be skipped for this.)

If I'm satisfied with the size of my army, I might even try this strategy if the Anschluss happens historically in 1938. But now, enough lectures, let's start the game.
 
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Part II: Initial Setup

Technology Setup

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We have only five tech teams at our disposal, which means that we have to ignore a big chunk of the tech tree in order to excel in at least a few areas. State-of-the-art equipment for infantry and tanks is imperative, as they will form the bulk of our army -- I even doubt that I will build another land units during the whole game. As we do not build IC, technologies that raise our industrial efficiency are even more important. We therefore use I.G. Farben to research Product standardization which will boost our industrial efficiency by 2 percent. For a country like Germany this is, in fact, already very much, it has the same effect as building three factories if you apply the two percent to our 150 Base IC. And if you bear in mind, that the industrial efficiency bonuses add up, it becomes even more. The Early Decryption Devices are from 1923, which gives Konrad Zuse a huge boost in researching it, and decryption technologies are almost always useful. As you can see in the background, we don't even have the slightest idea about the number of Polish (!) divisions in the border provinces. Artillery is researched because it is a requirement for future tank technologies and, of course, the self-propelled artillery brigades we will built later en masse -- I hope ...

We will not research: Strategic Bombers, the Strategic Bombers Branch of the Air Doctrines, Navy (except for Transports, Submarines and Torpedoes), the Carrier Branch of the Naval Doctrines, Marines, Mountaineers, Cavalry, Paratroopers, Motorized Infantry, Multi-Role Fighters, Sea and Transport Planes, Carrier Air Groups and some useless brigades from the Armor & Artillery category. Radar Warning and Synthetic Oil technologies will only be researched if absolutely necessary, I'm ready to receive an occasional IC hit on Essen due to the lack of some radar warning sites. The exclusion of Motorized Infantry is, I think, debatable, but I don't like them as they are basically something between a genuine tank and an ordinary infantry division, thus they are not the best choice for mass production as well as mass encirclement. I will somewhat alleviate their lack by the mass production of Engineer brigades, which give in DH a nice speed bonus.

Political Setup

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We are a National Socialist dictatorship -- currently the only in the world -- under the guidance of our beloved Führer. In fact, he is so beloved even among the international community, that he decreases our belligerence by 0.4 points per month during peacetime, which is really nice, as DH has drastically increased the amount of belligerence we will accumulate during Germany's historical event chain.

The first thing we do here is to take our country one step towards Central Planning. All other sliders will be moved by events and decisions, so changing any other slider would be a waste of resources, especially as the policy change freeze has increased to two years in DH. Central Planning gives a bonus to industrial efficiency, at our current slider position five percent, which is already a lot.

Two minister changes should be mandatory for any Germany game: The appointment of Hjalmar Schacht as Armaments Minister and Richard Walther Darré (or Karl Ernst Haushofer) as Head of Intelligence. Why? Because of the IC, of course. As Germany, we hunger for any point of IC, as our main opponents, the Soviet Union and the United States, are lightyears ahead in terms of IC. Schacht gives five percent additional IC and Darré/Haushofer two. You will receive immediatly a dissent hit of two percent for the change of ministers, but as the Rhineland Occupation will lower your dissent by 2 percent, the cabinet changes cost us actually nothing.

I also appointed Franz Gürtner as Minister of Security. This is certainly not a compulsory step, but I really hate Wilhelm Frick as he gives a ten percent penalty on consumer goods need, unnecessarily straining our IC. Until Walter Buch, a Man of the People, arrives and starts to boost our manpower, I appoint Franz Gürtner, because he lowers consumer goods need by five percent, which is, after all, an immediate shift in consumer goods need by fifteen percent. I will, however, get one percent dissent for it. Yet, as I intend to do some diplomacy and military upgrading at the beginning, I would either way be forced to over-produce some consumer goods for money, so it actually isn't that tragical.

Production Setup

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For the time being, our production list remains relatively empty. I aborted all ships that were not about to be finished in January '36. We do not want to repeat the mistakes of World War I, after all. :p I will upgrade at least my 1918 infantry divisions by allocating IC for upgrades til March '36 before we will begin with the production of units -- in case that a Case Green should be necessary, I don't want to see any 1918 infantry hopping around. Notice also that I forbade the allocation of IC to reinforcements. Due to the mobilization system of Darkest Hour, the units will instantly receive reinforcements through an event as soon as I mobilize, making manual reinforcements at this point a waste of our IC.

Diplomacy Setup

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As you can see, we have a lot of cores on foreign territory, and even more claims on former German colonies in Africa and Oceania. Our goal will be to peacefully seize as much valuable land in Europe as possible before the outbreak of the war. We will also attempt to improve our relations with other Fascist nations, but I will try to avoid allying myself with Italy. I don't have the time for their preposterous ambitions in Yugoslavia, Greece or even North Africa. An alliance with Japan, however, would be beneficial if they make good progress in China, as the United States will declare war on me anyway. I only hope that I can invite them at some point into the Axis, as they slowly build their own Asian alliance up, making it impossible for me to send them an invitation. Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria are other possible candidates for an alliance; in HoI or AoD I certainly wouldn't bother about them, as long as I get my oil from Ploesti and Bacau, but as allies in DH now start to do useful things, I will make it somewhat of a priority to ally myself with them.

Military Setup

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I order all land units, except for the seven divisions in Königsberg, to assemble in Leipzig so that I can rearrange them according to my wishes more easily. All naval fleets are also ordered to gather in Königsberg and all planes will rebase to Essen; the former to form a unified Kriegsmarine that will protect our transport ships, the latter to enable us the enactment of the Re-Occupation of the Rhineland decision, as planes do count as units when checking if a unit is in a province (ships do not). As soon as all ships in Königsberg arrive, we will start to ferry the seven divisions from Königsberg to Stolp, so that they can also meet with the other divisions in Leipzig.

Intelligence Setup

Intelligence is, at least for Germany, in my opinion totally dismissable. I don't know, but I tried the auto-spy system on UK, USA, SU, FR and POL during my first test games, and I think only once a mission succeeded in two years on average. It will be probably enough to raise our intelligence level a bit in order to improve our counter-espionage, but apart from that, I will not use intelligence extensively during this game.

--------------------------------------------------​

Finally, I press the start button. At 0200 January 1, 1936 the first planes arrive in Essen and I immediatly order the Re-Occupation of the Rhineland.
 
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Part III: January – February 1936

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At 0700 January 1 1936 the last planes arrive in Essen. I regrouped them into pure Close Air Support, Tactical Bombers and Interceptor air units. The tactical bombers will at some point receive escort fighters, and all wings will be, of course, reinforced to the maximum possible amount of four air divisions.

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The Kriegsmarine is next. All ships have been merged into one fleet, I will use this fleet for transport and they will receive the two ships from the production queue and some additional transport ships up to the maximum of 30 sea divisions per fleet under a Grand Admiral. Otherwise I will only build submarines, the surface fleet in Königsberg must suffice for any operations until the submarines are ready which I will start to build in 1937 when the next SUB technology is researched.

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We only have three outdated transport ships, so we are forced to split the seven divisions into three corps each with three-three-one division(s) to allow the passage to Stolp. When we will bring some divisions back to Eastern Prussia, there will probably be more transport ships available.

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At the end of January, my units have taken up their positions. The most modern divisions from 1931 have been ordered to the French and Polish border, the older divisions from 1918 and 1921 guard Austria and Czechoslovakia. I abstained from appointing Logistical Wizards as leaders for the peacetime. Although it would decrease my supply consumption, I find it more important to have good and promoted leaders in place in case of an unexpected attack and not a bunch of Old Guards. I also disbanded some brigades to free some MP up, especially the Anti-Air brigades have in my opinion no real purpose -- because as soon as I use my units for an offensive, my own air force will make sure that I have air superiority, thus no enemy planes will be troubling my divisions. The engineer brigades are retained, as I plan to build even more of them. I would not recommend the dissolution of the artillery brigades in an ordinary game; as they are essentially -- except for the speed penalty -- good brigades, but as I do not plan a Phoney War with France for the time being, but a direct offensive against them that requires speed and movement, I also disbanded some artillery brigades.

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We will start now the aforementioned diplomatic offensives. Our first objective is the return of Eupen into the Reich. Eupen is a 1-IC-province owned by Belgium -- and I can not repeat myself enough, but as Germany, we are IC junkies and in dire need of a quick fix. The sooner we get more IC, the sooner we can use it for unit production. The chance for the return of our core are 17 percent, but we can increase this value to 19 percent by revoking our useless claims on two Belgian colonial provinces in Central Africa; Kigali and Usumbura, which also decreases our belligerence a bit. The two provinces in Africa would be seized by the United Kingdom during the war anyway, and as they are actually two unreachable inland provinces, we won't even get the resources they produce.

So we try and demand Eupen from Belgium. Unfortunately, Belgium refuses. But we will try during the next weeks again and again, until they finally surrender Eupen to us. 19 percent are not as bad as it sounds, sooner or later they will cave in to our demands. Eupen is not only interesting because of its IC; it is also one province less to seize during the campaign in the Low Countries, so getting it should be a priority in every Germany game.
 
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Part IV: February – April 1936

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We are lucky and Eupen is already ceded after the second attempt.

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During February, I allocate a small amount of IC to production in order to get rid of the two ships in the production queue -- and I notice that one ship, the Scharnhorst, was not about to be finished on January 8, 1936 but on January 8, 1939. Well, that's tricky, of course. Fortunately I have not spent any IC on it yet, I immediatly abort the Scharnhorst. The other ship is finished in eight days or so and joins the unified Kriegsmarine in Königsberg.

On March 1, 1936 I start with the actual military production. The upgrades in January and February were very useful, a lot of Infantry was updated to newer models, but now we have to focus on a bigger army. I order:

(PR = Parallel Run; SR = Serial Run)

1 PR | 3 SR | HQ | Engineer Brigade -- I think that five HQs are totally sufficient. We already have one HQ, and will get another one with the Anschluss. If we will need at some point more, I can just extend the SR without losing the gearing bonus.

12 PR | 12 SR | Infantry | Engineer Brigade -- We need a lot of them. If we indeed succeed in building 144 infantry divisions, our Army will be at least medium-sized, although due to the number of other divisions we will build, 'medium-sized' is probably an understatement.

6 PR | 12 SR | (Light) Armor | Engineer Brigade -- 72 armor divisions are perhaps a little bit too much; if we run out of oil at some point, I will shorten the SR. And of course it is somewhat decadent to spend 60 IC on tanks, but if we want to attack France first, we need more than a single Light Armor corps consisting of six divisions. The good old times, in which you could do Case White by simply capturing Warsaw before Poland ceded the Eastern Provinces without war to the Soviets, are over. My IC at this point only allows me the production of the first three PRs, but this is not so unwelcome, as I am forced to fill my current armor corps in Potsdam with three additional tanks anyway. The light armor will -- I think -- at some point update to medium armor, as the final light armor technology enables light armor brigades and thus makes the divisions obsolete.

2 PR | 17 / 20 SR | Interceptors -- We start with only three interceptor units, so I think that two parallel runs are absolutely necessary. However, I doubt that I will order more of them - it would be very nice, of course, but as I do not plan to engage in a Battle of Britain, and my IC is already at this point not able to produce the interceptors, I have to slash some usual luxury Germany gets. Eventually the Luftwaffe's main purpose are Ground Support missions, and obviously you don't use Interceptors for it.

1 PR | 20 SR | Close Air Support -- This will be expanded as soon as our IC allows it. I will focus mainly on CAS and probably forfeit the mass production of tactical bombers, as tactical bombers are like motorized divisions -- they are something between a strategic bomber and CAS, making them only average in all areas. However, I need planes that excel in at least one area. I think that we will also not build any Naval Bombers, as Sea Lion will be skipped.

2 PR | 16 SR | Engineer Brigades -- These are for my starting units. I will probably produce other brigades, too, but only worthwile brigades, like Self-Propelled Artillery, that are not available until 1940. So we have to reconcile with the idea that engineers will be our primary brigade for the time being. Artillery would be nice too, of course -- but I need every point of speed I can get if I wish to succeed.

For now, this is all. I will later add some transport ships, so that I mustn't split my armies into small chunks, perhaps some submarines and, by all means, more CAS. As my IC is already now not able to produce 3 PR of armor, the planes and the additional engineers, I dismiss the idea of building static anti-air or airports.

Before I continue the game, I notice that my MP pool is already depleted. I therefore introduce Two Year Conscription, and my dissent skyrockets to over 3.5 percent. I will not turbo-burn this dissent by a massive over-production of consumer goods, as this would essentially delay my production for a whole month. As long as I do not become the victim of smear campaigns, I hope that this will be the highest dissent I have during the whole game -- the majority of other necessary dissent hits should be absorbed by the dissent reduction of Germany's historical event chain.

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On 1 April, 1936 the first two techs, Early Decryption Devies and Improved Interwar Artillery, are finished. 1936 is really a poor year in terms of techs, no groundbreaking and very important technologies, so Erich von Manstein researches Basic Hospital System for lowered attrition and increased trickleback modifier, which will help to relax or manpower pool, and the Kriegsmarinewerft researches Improved Torpedoes from 1935, the attachments we will later add to submarines. I would not recommend to research technologies that are still more than four months away from their historical date, as it is just a waste of resources. (Exceptions should be made, however, for very important technologies like the infantry and land doctrine technologies.)

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Just to show something: We can't demand Abenra from Denmark because we guaranteed their independence. We have to wait for the end of our guarantee before we can demand territories from the Danes. Abenra is, however, only just for flavor, as the province has neither IC, nor MP, or even resources. I will therefore deny myself the pleasure to get Abenra into the Reich back, as it would be a waste of money.

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Instead, on the diplomatic front, I start influencing Bulgaria. Hungary and Romania have usually high chances to join the Axis even with only mediocre relationsships, while the Bulgarians need a little bit more attention before they agree to become our allies.
 
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Part V: June – July 1936

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The next three techs are finished in June 1936. We use two tech slots for a naval doctrine that benefits all of our ships, and for troopships -- from 1925 ... I only hope that DH portrays this historical, because it is somewhat of a veiled humiliation to be forced as Germany to research 1925 transports in 1936. :D I could probably abandon the research of troopships at all, but as we are just in June 1936 it is too early to research 1937 technologies, and the rest of the 1936 technologies we could research are either excluded or even more pointless. After finishing the Industrial standardization (2 percent more IC - yay! :)) I.G. Farben starts with the research of the Logistics 1936 tech, which will improve our TC and strategic redeployments.

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On July 17, 1936 the Spanish Civil War begins. I am, of course, overjoyed that I get spammed by messages about a million victories in Bilbao und Pamplona -- I'm forced to cheat with nofog and fullcontrol to get some rest from the tranquilizing wav.-sound that is always played when a pop-up opens. :rolleyes:

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Of course, Italy was too incompetent to annex Abyssinia til July, so I can sign the Anti-Comintern Pact only due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. For two free slider moves I give my two national provinces in Bolzano and Trento up.

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Before I decide to side with Nationalist Spain, I chek my intelligence on the Republicans. Apart from the -1717986912 escorts Republican Spain possesses (there will be numbers, after all!), I notice the number of infantry divisions -- 22 -- and the number of armored divisions -- 0. Hmm ...

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I decide to take direct control of the Nationalist army. I would normally not do such a thing, as it is combined with an unnecessary belligerence hit and will also throw us into red numbers (we have 300 currency units, while the direct interventions costs 400). On the other side, the perspective of a Republican Spain that sits at my south-west flank would be horrible; as from my experience the Republicans sometimes join the Allies. I already try to create a stable framework for my strategy by avoiding an alliance with Italy, thus abstaining from any adventures in the Balkans, and to complete this framework a Nationalist Spain is a necessity.

And I think that some action would be enjoyable, too. When you come to think of it, perpetual technology screenshots could become boring after some time. ;)
 
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As long as they will leave me alone, I will not turn on them. Yugoslavia sometimes joins the Allies, even if Italy is not in the Axis, but in this case I will station a small border guard in Graz that will prevent any Yugoslavian sightseeing trips to Vienna. Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria will be able to deal with the Yugoslavians after some time on their own -- in sharp contrast to the Italians, who would, without my protection, probably get annexed by Greece and Yugoslavia. :p So I think it is better to not align myself with the Italians and leave the Balkans alone. To cite a popular, well-known English internet lexicon: "Some historians regard the German campaign in Greece as decisive in determining the course of World War II, maintaining that it fatally delayed the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union." With Barbarossa scheduled for summer 1940 at the latest, there is simply no room for adventures in the Balkans, and probably not even for Weserübung.
 
"Before I continue the game, I notice that my MP pool is already depleted. I therefore introduce Two Year Conscription, and my dissent skyrockets to over 3.5 percent."

How did you do this? I don't see this option anywhere?
 
Part VI: Overall Strategy

So, the OKW has now total control about the Nationalist forces in Spain. Let's take a closer look at the situation, our objectives and our strategy first.
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Military Situation

On July 20, 1936, the land forces of Nationalist Spain consist of 27 divisions organized in 16 corps. 24 divisions are stationed in Continental Spain, while three infantry divisions are stationed in our colonies and on the Balearic Islands. Our forces are mainly 1921 infantry, which is not so bad, considering that the Republican enemies have nothing better to present. We also have a tiny amount of more modern militia and infantry divisions and even one anti-air and artillery brigade. Furthermore, on account of the boundless generosity of the German government, the Nationalists can call themselves proud owners of a single tank division, a HQ and even a tactical bomber wing, the Legion Condor. We also have a medium-sized navy that is able, as a matter of fact, to transport up to five land divisions. Our land forces will be soon reinforced by the intervention of the Italians, that will benefit us with one CAS, an additional tactical bomber, two interceptors, more 1926 infantry and even a motorized infantry division, as well as some additional supplements for our navy. According to intelligence, we have the advantage of numbers as well as technology about the Republicans, and the direct provinces that border us appear to be unguarded.

Our forces are split in two seperate pockets: The northern pocket, which contains our temporary capital of Burgos, and the southern pocket in Cadiz and Sevilla, where General Franco is in charge of two divisions. We also have some smaller pockets, with provinces like Caceres and Jean, that are cut-off and have at this point no strategical value to us, and Corunna, which is a coastal province and therefore not cut-off, and has even a strategical value to us, as the majority of our navy and our whole air force are stationed here. The Republicans, however, possess a coherent landmass with the exception of a small pocket in Bilbao and Pamplona.

Objectives

The Spanish Civil War can only end by one side totally destroying the other side. There can be no peace and no end of hostilities except for the annexation of our enemies. During the Spanish Civil War, all continental provinces in Spain, except for the lonely province of Almeria, have one victory point, which means that we have to control every province in continental Spain except for Almeria to annex the Republicans and to win the Spanish Civil War.

Strategy

To defeat the Republicans, the OKW has created an ambitious plan, dubbed Operation Gisela (no laughter -- it is historical! :D), consisting of four stages:

Stage I

  • Encirclement and destruction of the Bilbao-Pamplona pocket as soon as possible.
  • Relocation of all non-continental divisions by means of sea transport to Cadiz. There, formation of a unified Southern Action Forces corps under the command of General Franco that will pose a serious threat to the Republicans and will force our enemies to divert some of their forces to the south. The capture of Granada would be beneficial, as the province has fortifications, but otherwise Franco has only an explicit order of trolling and harassment.
  • Rebasement of all air forces to the Balearic Islands, until a safe continental airport is secured.
  • Rebasement of all navy forces to Cadiz to allow the sea transport of colonial infantry, and in case that Franco fails, to allow a swift evacuation of a collapsing southern pocket.
  • Seizure of as much land as possible before any enemies can show up. Avoidance of any major battles; it is in general during the whole operation preferable to avoid high casualties by maintaining an economical form of warfare. The Nationalists are not the Soviet Union or Germany.
  • Probing attack on Madrid. Perhaps we can seize the city without much bloodshed, but otherwise the fourth point applies.
  • Reorganization of all armed forces. The navy will operate for most of the time as one unit, the Air Force needs also to be reorganized in an interceptor and a bomber wing, and our land forces will mainly operate in corps consisting of three divisions. Appointment of suitable and competent military leaders.
Stage II

  • Capture of Tarragona to seize a continental airport and an additional naval base.
  • Unification of the northern pocket with the Corunna pocket. A short front line is imperative, we can grab in the north west three provinces but due to neutral Portugal must only guard one, which is Leon.
  • Beginning of harassment operations in the south.
  • If necessary and possible, additional supplies and oil from Germany will be send to the Nationalists.
Stage III

  • Capture of Madrid to seize the Republican's main supply depot and some IC.
  • Unification of the southern and northern pockets into a coherent land mass, thus splitting now the Republicans into two pockets.
  • Destruction of the smaller pocket or the pocket without connection to the Republican's capital, in the latter case supported by the navy that will raid any Republican supply convoys.
Stage IV

  • Destruction of the remaining pocket and annexation of Republican Spain.
Let's hope that the theory becomes praxis. :)
 
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"Before I continue the game, I notice that my MP pool is already depleted. I therefore introduce Two Year Conscription, and my dissent skyrockets to over 3.5 percent."

How did you do this? I don't see this option anywhere?

What version are you playing? If you play DH Full 1.00 or 1.01 Beta 1, you can enact a decision called "Reform military service", in 1.01 Beta 2 this has changed to "Prolong terms of service".
 
[*]Unification of the northern pocket with the Corunna pocket. A short front line is imperative, we can grab in the north west three provinces but due to neutral Portugal must only guard one, which is Leon.

IMO, I would capture Segorvia, Salamanca and Plasencia as well. Not only keeping with your objective of having a short frontline, it also borders you to Madrid, allowing for minor raids.
 
I'm playing DH Full 1.00 as Germany, cannot figure out how to trigger "Reform military service" (all those "ANDs"/"ORs"). For example, how do you "espouse Democracy"???? Even when I was at war with Rep Spain, manpower less than 70 and more than 100 supplies, I could not trigger it.

I'm downloading 1.01 Beta 2. Maybe that will make it simpler.
 
Part VII: July 1936

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We try to help our lone fleet in Cape Bolador that is threatened by a small Republican fleet by ordering some ships from the Coast of Morocco there. However, the Republicans do not start an attack, so later we just merge the ships and order them to Cadiz.

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We retreat Franco to Cadiz to merge him with the Tropas de África. He will receive the three colonial infantries very soon and can then start to bully the Republicans.

On the diplomatic side a short preview of the future: The Italians will finally intervene, and we will get the abovementioned military units. The UK and France will react to the Spanish Civil War with historical apathy. The Soviet Union will intervene historically, too. We will use the Corpo Truppe Volontaire and merge them with another of our infantry divisions, so that they will form a Northern Action Forces corps, similar to that in the south, to allow us more flexibility offside the normal three-division corps we will use en masse.

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Here comes the execution of Stage I. Our Air Force and Navy in Corunna will leave for safer destinations on the Balearic Islands and Cadiz, respectively. In the east we will capture Barcelona and merge the three divisions there into an ordinary corps, while in the center we immediatly attack Bilbao to destroy the pocket. Two corps are ordered to Soria and Zaragoza to guard the borders and will later support the destruction of the pocket, while our fast HQ and tank corps will try to seize Madrid quickly, supported by our militia corps that will be stationed in Segovia and one additional infantry corps that will attack Madrid, too. Another two-division corps is ordered to Santander for merging, there one of our modern infantry units with an artillery brigade is already supporting the destruction of the pocket.

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Our units start the attack on Bilbao. The Republicans have only a 1924 unbrigaded cavalry division there, which is no match for our units, especially as soon as the Northern Action Forces will be deployed by the Italians during the next hours.
 
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IMO, I would capture Segorvia, Salamanca and Plasencia as well. Not only keeping with your objective of having a short frontline, it also borders you to Madrid, allowing for minor raids.

I have thought of that, too. Unfortunately the Republicans dissented ...

I'm playing DH Full 1.00 as Germany, cannot figure out how to trigger "Reform military service" (all those "ANDs"/"ORs"). For example, how do you "espouse Democracy"???? Even when I was at war with Rep Spain, manpower less than 70 and more than 100 supplies, I could not trigger it.

I'm downloading 1.01 Beta 2. Maybe that will make it simpler.

The ANDs and ORs are indeed somewhat confusing if you are not used to event scripting. If I had to guess, I would say that you had too much dissent or that your manpower was not low enough. However, the second Beta has fixed this. It is now even possible, as far as I can see, to finally call a General Mobilization as a dictatorship. :)
 
I have thought of that, too. Unfortunately the Republicans dissented ...

Well that sucks, but it seems as if your plan is going along very well! Also, are you using a 20+ inch screen?