Need help playing Germany!!!

[Dr.Pwnage]

One thing I only just started to understand the real importance was is the weather in DH. Playing as Germany on hard difficulty I had only just managed to get 50 relations with the USSR in late October and I thought what the hell, who cares if I invade one month late, I have 11 divisions on every border with them and also a mega armored unit with more than 9 tank divisions and also some very nice planes. When I invaded I outnumbered them roughly 5-1 even up to 15-1 on some occasions except I couldn't win?! Battles would just go on for ages and nothing would happen despite outnumbering them in units and technology and also massive air supremacy. I had been fighting for a month and had only gained one province, I started to think something was up and checked the actual battles and it seemed winter conditions had been affecting me. How big are they? They seem to be massive if it is snowing, what dates would people advise on when to attack Poland for a quick and easy win and also when I should attack France after and then the USSR, please tell me some dates so I can avoid the winter!!

[Sakkura]

Weather effects can have a huge impact.
So timing offensives to start in spring can be crucial.

You could attack Poland in the spring or summer 1939, attack France in spring 1940, and the USSR in spring 1941 (ideally having taken care of any other diversions like Yugoslavia during 1939 or 1940). Check the weather map mode and look for frozen ground.

[D Inqu]

Producing winter equipment is critical too.

[Pityubaa]

And spam inf+art and panzers constantly.

[GeneralNuisance]

Attack Ideally in May or June, that gives you the whole summer to neuter the Soviets as much as possible because you cannot compete with the Soviets when it comes to manpower and battles of attrition and the huge combined IC of the USSR, USA and the UK. Also it depends on where you attack, do not attack into what was formerly eastern Poland, it is swamps and forests which are slower to move through for your Panzers, I would advise getting Romania on your side, then attack in your southern border with the Soviets from ah Chelm I believe the province is called, concentrate your tanks there, keep infantry along the northern border to hold the provinces. A strategy for invasion I find useful is to drive my tanks to towards Odessa but instead of going straight to Odessa I travel along the usually undefended provinces that are east of the river of Odessa, thus putting a river between me and the Soviets should they try a break out with infantry pushing down from the north and the Romanians to the west of this southern pocket. For the second part of the strategy, I have my tanks drive north towards Kiev, avoiding actually fighting in Kiev because that would be an urban battle and quite a bit ahead of your infantry, avoid battles as they slow you down having to fight the actual battle and then the reorganisation time after that where they can't move, time is precious in the summer months. I then push along the eastern side of the river running north and south by Kiev, thus putting another river on my side should the Soviets in the pocket I am creating attempt to break out, then driving north to Smolensk and from there they turn west towards Riga, spreading out my armoured forces along the provinces I have created a large pocket trapping a good size force of the Soviet army. Once you declare war on the Soviets what I find helpful is to logistical bomb the provinces of Eastern Poland where the Soviets have quite a few big stacks of units, this will slow down their movement through the swamps etc. and stop them from rushing to break out of pocket. Also Divisions pushing north into the Baltic states from Klapeida to link up with my tanks at Riga to speed up the encirclement. Don't try and take too much at once with the Soviets, they are magicians are producing divisions from thin air, i.e. redeploying their far eastern divisions to suddenly threaten your front line unguarded provinces. Then your infantry along the centre border now attacks across the river into the swamps pushing the Soviet units one province at a time.

[markslawson]

Weather can have a major effect. Playing as Germany on average difficulty I trapped about seven divisions in a two province pocket in the Baltic states, as winter started. Could I reduce them? Nope. Would they go out of supply? Again, nope despite having all my surface navy plus U boats diverted from the Atlantic looking for convoys in that area. I eventually gave up and left them encircled until spring, waiting until the snow and then the mud had finally gone, and got rid of them easily.

[StarscreamSWE]

Weather can have a major effect. Playing as Germany on average difficulty I trapped about seven divisions in a two province pocket in the Baltic states, as winter started. Could I reduce them? Nope. Would they go out of supply? Again, nope despite having all my surface navy plus U boats diverted from the Atlantic looking for convoys in that area. I eventually gave up and left them encircled until spring, waiting until the snow and then the mud had finally gone, and got rid of them easily.

You have to do logistic bombing raids as well to starve them out. Together with convoy raiding it's a lethal combination. I often used this when US planted a stack of doom on a random pacific islands in HoI2 vanillia.

[markslawson]

good point on logistics raids. Unfortunately in that game I'd managed to lose both my stacks of bombers purely through leaving the airfields ungarded at crucial moments. I had to rely on Hungarian bombers..

[GeneralNuisance]

I know how you feel, is a hateful feeling to lose planes through our own stupidity. Though I have to applaud the AI for being smart enough to target provinces with airfields with enemy (player) aeroplanes in it, I had the soviet AI launch a paratrooper attack just to capture an airfield and destroy the planes there.

[markslawson]

wow! the AI launched paratroopers.. never had it happen to me.. intersting..

[trikky]

After losing years of production in planes to partisan uprisings over the ages, I never base planes on airfields without troops. I have never seen and had never even considered the AI might use paratroops against airfields!

[GeneralNuisance]

It is also a good way to destroy a lot of the Soviet air force by overrunning their airfields while they are based close to the border.