Also, interesting move in not ally Japan - it could work to your advantage when the Allies + US are at war with Japan whilst only the Allies are at war with you.
I would be surprised if the USA would not join the Allies as soon as the Japanese attack them.
so far so good ^^
So far so murky would better describe my situation. I heavily rely on chance right now, so I can't foretell what I will do and if I will succeed eventually.
I think I am missing something in your use of ministers. You put in the manpower minister +10%. But the Daily Manpower rate of Germany is 0.0004 or 0.144 per year. With the minister it would be 0.00044 or 0.1584 per year. At that rate you would need 10 years to get 1.584 manpower into your pool.
My testing shows that the minister provides no benefit to the mobilization events at all.
Do you really think he is worth giving up a 5% discount to consumer goods? Given your consumer goods are still high (you are at Peace) and will get higher as you gain IC from Austria, Munich and Partition of CZE.
Thank you for pointing this out. Indeed, you're right, and I've made a mistake here. I missed a decimal point and actually thought that Germany's daily manpower growth is around 0.005, and not 0.0005, which makes indeed a difference. I assumed that due to Three Year Conscription, Partial or even General Mobilization I would benefit after ten years from roughly 30 points of manpower, but this is obviously lightyears away from the truth. In fact, around 1 or 2 points of manpower in ten years make Walter Buch virtually worthless -- I will reinstall Gürtner as soon as the Anschluss fires to circumvent yet another dissent hit.
Actually it makes the Man of the People minister personality completely worthless. I checked the Soviet manpower growth, they also have only 0.0016 daily manpower growth under Three Year Conscription. At this rate they would get around 6 points of manpower in ten years, regardless of whether a manpower-boosting minister is appointed or not. It's actually really sad, because I have the impression that this minister personality was intended to be a useful one. It also makes the Chief of Staff ministers with Mass Combat Doctrine (+ 15 percent manpower growth) and all other ministers that provide this bonus less attractive. I think it would be good if someone would suggest a change to this by either proposing a higher manpower growth bonus or the replacement of the manpower growth bonus with another suitable one. If I find the time, I'll do it myself, but as the swarm intelligence of the forum has more resources available ...
Also I did some manpower testing and if you extend service by 3 years in 36 you get 636.5 men. If you do the same after Austria is yours you get 703.0 men. Again if you did it after Partition of CZE you get 788.5 men.
You also get 300 men for Austria and 100 for Munich.
It would seem that you can max your available men by waiting to extend your service. I know your strategy dictates having more units early as you are going after France first (if I read that right), but thought you might want to know what you give up for that.
I'm aware of this, but as you have written, my strategy dictates a tighter time schedule regarding the mobilization of my armed forces. I've already now almost reached the number of divisions a Germany AI would use (around 110, according to some handsoff games) to start World War II. It's June 1937, and I have 97 divisions -- before the Anschluss, that will allow me to inherit the entire Austrian army. I will indeed try to enact Three Year Conscription after the Anschluss, but this won't be possible if the Anschluss doesn't fire in the next three or four months. When my current manpower pool is depleted, I can't just stop my whole production and wait for the next part of Germany's event chain -- although I could probably use the time to upgrade some units, this won't happen. In all my test runs I've managed to beat France with 1936 infantry (or even worse), our land doctrine and our armor is sufficient enough to give us a critical edge about the French, let alone the Polish who are even beatable with 1918 infantry. In order for my France First Strategy to succeed in case of a 1938 Anschluss -- otherwise I would stress class more than mass -- I need dozens of additional divisions, if only to stop the Polish from a trip to Berlin while I fight in the west, and not to speak of the fact that I wish to confront the Soviet Union as soon as Case White is concluded, and thus 105 divisions, even if they would be fully upgraded, aren't sufficient enough to hold a front line from Lake Peipus to the Black Sea.
Also one last thing. The Chief of the Army gives -5% to armour units, but note it is armour not light armour, so you get no benefit to your light armour builds. On the other hand you should switch him with Luttwitz who gives a 3% discount on infantry which you are build allot of.
I agree, of course, your argumentation is plausible. However, the appointment of Lüttwitz will cause three dissent hits. The first, if I would appoint him right now, and the second after the retirement of Werner von Fritsch, which automatically installs Walther von Brauchitsch as chief of staff, even if Fritsch isn't the incumbent Chief of the Army, the third when I would reappoint a minister that boosts armor. Considering the fact that I will -- I think -- as soon as 1939 upgrade my production queue to ordinary armor, it isn't worth the trouble, in my opinion. With his 3 percent bonus he would perhaps give a two IC discount and speed my infantry and engineer production by 27 days at best before I woul be forced to replace him again, but I would rather have the immediate combat modifier and the lowered production time and cost for my armor in 1939 as soon as possible, as armor costs way more IC and time to produce than infantry. If it would be 1936 and I would have noticed it earlier (I indeed thought that the bonus of von Fritsch would also apply on light armor) I would have appointed von Lüttwitz, but now it's too late for a change.
I really like the deep analysis of your play, very informative.
Thank you, especially for pointing out the mistakes I made.
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