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Interesting question for you. Do the allies (small a, as in Japan/Italy/Germany as well as UK/France/USSR/USA) communicate during the game? Do you chat, call, or do this in one big room? Or do you just coordinate stuff in advance? Really like this one, as I have all your AARS!

We use Skype. One channel for Axis, one for Allies and Comintern. There can be some rather intense moments, especially during naval battles.
 
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We use Skype. One channel for Axis, one for Allies and Comintern. There can be som rather intense moments, especially during naval battles.

That makes sense. I bet it can be really intense!
 
The German player unable to take the Danish islands is going to hurt him I guess. Nice decision to keep it.
 
keep the danish islands at all costs and then abandon asia putting all those units on the eastern front?
 
keep the danish islands at all costs and then abandon asia putting all those units on the eastern front?

i Totaly and utterly agree with him :eek: (both because im Danish and because the Isles of Denmark is sort of easy to defend :p)
 
1. Fantastic Job Capt Easy. Have been reading but not posting; keep up the good work.

2. I noticed several comments about escaping from Naval Invasions being too easy. FYI, I'm currently on FTM 3.05 and I am not able to load transports if the enemy has engaged that province. :eek:

(On a side note to PI, I think it would also be reasonable for any amphibious landing to cause a an attack delay penalty on arrival - even if unopposed. It would allow AI and humans alike a chance to react to amphibious landings a little more realistically. And in my mind it sounds like an easy programming solution.)

3. I think you'll find the allies have a better chance once you switch to FTM. Keep the MP AAR's rolling!
 
Allies will win this i think.
Denmark is the key.it will force him maintain large troops around berlin.
And he can't ignore the RN he will have to build aircraft and battleships to try and dislodge it and thus reducing his combat power in land.
If soviet attacks while france is still there they will win.
Surprising is italy,i expect them to support germany,he's prolonging the front wasting more time in the balkans.As soon as germany starts its move in west i expect italy to either push in africa or southern france.
 
A.
Thank you for these nice AAR's I have been "lurkingly" enjoying the last two rounds of your group - so it's about time to come out of the closet and thank you! :D
I'am really looking forward to the further develepments of this campaign.

B.
On the game start with huge allied naval operations and invasions in the baltic - I think it is absolutely gamey!
Gamey as in exploiting shortfalls of the game engine to achieve unrealistic successes.

1.
The gamey part is the ease of which he intends to pull them out. Once the German knew about the invasion they would be bombing those transports hard and those Divisions should and would be trapped and destroyed but because the game lets you just load them up on transports even underfire without massive casualities there is no threat to them. I can't understand how all the Axis gamey tricks are house ruled out and the quick invasion/load on transport next hour has stayed.

Everything on the exagerated ease of "insta-invading" and "insta-pulling out" with naval invasions has allready been said.
(I'm not sure how this could/should be patched wihout hurting the AI's invasion capapabilitys too much. It's got to stay simple for that reason.)
Maybe loadin/invading time could be linked to the units transport weight - making light infantry and marine units the usefull amphib troops and heavy divisions armour/mech penalized respectively.

2.
The game doesn't modell the power of regular land based aircraft vs. ships correctly.
In the confined waters of the baltic - especially the narrow channels - around the Danish-Isles, surface ships would have been easy prey for the Stukas and regular Tac-Bombers - no naval expertise or spotting equipment needed (as the dedicated Nav-Bombers or CAG's).
All the straits are narrow enough to look across to the other shore!

Going into the baltic or even trying an invasion there would have been a suicide mission for all forces involved.
The Luftwaffe would operate directly from homebases with overwhelming numbers at targets within easy spotting range...

This exploit can easily be fixed by raising the initial basic stats for:
CAS: Starting Naval Attack +2 and starting Surface detection +2
Tac: Starting Naval Attack +1 and starting Surface detection +2

(In the long run NAV and CAG will be much more effective through tech gain vs. Naval Targets bit this way regular Air power can't be simply shruged off by a large naval force.)

->As it stands in unmodded 2.04f the German Player can - unrealistically - allmost do nothing against Allied ships directly of his coast. he can't even stop the supply convoys going all around mainland Denmark which he controlls... (These transportships would have been so dead...)
This also applies to further Allied naval operations on the coast - so modding the plane stats would go a long way to more realism.

3.
The game doesn't modell naval-minewarfare and other blocking methods (nets, chains etc.) and fast Torpedoboats (very deadly in these confined waters) at all.
All of these have made the Baltic Sea inacessible for Allied naval action IRL. It is absolutely feasible to blockade the entry to the baltic with minefields etc.
(Even in the cold war era till the 1990s the German fleet in the Baltic was built all around mine-warfare and fast missile attack boats. Pretty much every ship had a secondary mine-laying capabiltiy installed even the subs could deploy mines with devices attached to the hull.)

This can only be fixed via house rule I believe:
Something like: "No allied surface operations in the baltics unless the allies control Kiel and Lübeck." (Or something along that line)

C.
It will really be interesting how things develop and I cross my thumps that the German player can find a solution to deal with the constant threat that the Allies in Denmark and the possibility of cheap "Insta-invasions" all along the baltic cost pose!
 
@ Thelamon: In fact, the mining operations were conducted through WWI already, which made naval operations in both, the North and the Baltic Sea quite dangerous and forced both sides to invest quite a lot in mine laying and mine clearing vessels. The dangers of running into a minefield were demonstrated at Gallipoli, when the Entente tried to force the straits.
 
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I think that this escapade to the Siegfried Line and beyond is pointless. How is it supposed to improve the Allied strategic situation?

It is not pointless if Germany have to pull a lot of forces there, as it is equally pointless for Germany to have a lot of forces there - but you are quite right. I only did it because I knew that Zid had a lot of other things on his mind and I hoped to perhaps be able to surround some units or manage to push deeper into Germany.

1. Fantastic Job Capt Easy. Have been reading but not posting; keep up the good work.

I noticed several comments about escaping from Naval Invasions being too easy. FYI, I'm currently on FTM 3.05 and I am not able to load transports if the enemy has engaged that province. :eek:!

Nice to have you on board. You are right - you can't retreat to sea if you are locked in battle but you will auto-retreat to awaiting transports when your org has reached zero, without any further penelty, and that is pretty unrealistic - as discussed prevously.

I think you'll find the allies have a better chance once you switch to FTM. Keep the MP AAR's rolling!

Sounds nice. In what way?

Is there any special rules the USSR must follow since they signed the Molotov pact?

No, not any House Rule. Just regular HoI rules :) Well, and as usual in our game, USSR can't DoW minors if they have highest threat on US (to avoid gamey Russian play - or even worse - that Russian aggressions leads to US joining Allies against Axis)

On the game start with huge allied naval operations and invasions in the baltic - I think it is absolutely gamey!
Gamey as in exploiting shortfalls of the game engine to achieve unrealistic successes.

The game doesn't modell the power of regular land based aircraft vs. ships correctly.
In the confined waters of the baltic - especially the narrow channels - around the Danish-Isles, surface ships would have been easy prey for the Stukas and regular Tac-Bombers - no naval expertise or spotting equipment needed (as the dedicated Nav-Bombers or CAG's).

The game doesn't modell naval-minewarfare and other blocking methods (nets, chains etc.) and fast Torpedoboats (very deadly in these confined waters) at all.


All of these have made the Baltic Sea inacessible for Allied naval action IRL.This can only be fixed via house rule I believe:
Something like: "No allied surface operations in the baltics unless the allies control Kiel and Lübeck." (Or something along that line)

Hey Thelamon. Thanks for you comments and thoughts. I have cut down your post a little.

Largely, I agree with you when it comes to Operation Trebuchet being unrealistic with its various componants. As allways, everytime we play a new set of multiplayer HoI, sombody thinks out a new strategy which not seldomly is somewhat gamey/unrealistic. Its both the curse and the charm with playing muliplayer HoI. In a way, it symbolizes the surprise-effect of real war as that is not concisting of a set of fixed rules that all general know of.

Then to the question of if it is unrealistic or gamey - there's a differense. Lot of things in HoI are unrealisc but not all concidered gamey. I'll guess we'll have to talk about it when the game is over. But as mentioned earlier - as the Allies have had their butts Royally kicked so far, we havn't been inclined to restrict them too much.

I would like to emphasize, however, that Kriegsmarine in the last AAR successfully attacked and won battles against the Royal Navy in the Norwegian Trench by working togeather with Kriegsmarine and land-based planes like Stukas and multiroles - so it's not impossible. In this game, Germany did not try that.

Mines is a completely different chapter. As far as I have understood, Paradox have chosen to not use mines at all for a reason. In land combat, I like to think that some of the "dig in" bonus is due to the use of mines around defensive positions - and the "fort bonus" is likely due to mines as well, to some extent. I naval warfare, it's lacking. But honestly - I don't miss them. Even though quite efficient in their own random way, it makes for boring gameplay to stuff the Baltic with mines ;) --- And the Baltic Sea is still littered with WW2 mines. They are nasty buggers to get rid off.

Yes, perhaps bombers naval attacks should be better. Or perhaps it should not be so costly to attack large formations of ships as it is now. Still, I think making amphibious landings (and retreats) a lot more difficult would do the trick nicely.


Loki - you being a demi-mod an all ;) are you sort of forwarding those parts of the ideas you consider clever to some higher hierarchy of Paradox or do we common players have to do that ourselves :) Hmm... I actually pass the Paradox office more or less every day so maybe I'll just have to kick my own lazy arse and go and knock on the front door and tell 'em a thing or two... :)
 
Hey Thelamon. Thanks for you comments and thoughts. I have cut down your post a little.

Largely, I agree with you when it comes to Operation Trebuchet being unrealistic with its various componants. As allways, everytime we play a new set of multiplayer HoI, sombody thinks out a new strategy which not seldomly is somewhat gamey/unrealistic. Its both the curse and the charm with playing muliplayer HoI. In a way, it symbolizes the surprise-effect of real war as that is not concisting of a set of fixed rules that all general know of.

I totally agree - beeing an MP vet and an Attorney IRL - that not everythinng can or should be covered and restricted by house rules!
The house rules of my DD/Armagddonn Group became so intricate in the end that the ensuing legal debates started to become really technical (like work:rolleyes: ) and took away much of the charm of "playing a game".

I would like to emphasize, however, that Kriegsmarine in the last AAR successfully attacked and won battles against the Royal Navy in the Norwegian Trench by working togeather with Kriegsmarine and land-based planes like Stukas and multiroles - so it's not impossible. In this game, Germany did not try that.
...
Yes, perhaps bombers naval attacks should be better. Or perhaps it should not be so costly to attack large formations of ships as it is now.

That is exactly my point and it could easyly be fixed for this session by raising the CAS Naval initial stats (and the Tac stats slightly) as with vanilla 2.04f they
1.
take way to much damage against larger naval stacks and
2.
lack surface detection (to engage without a naval combat going on) and
3.
punch (Naval attack) . Land base air will never do significant damage before running out of org and hurting really bad.

The good thing about this little fix would be, that all factions benefit from it equally, it adds realism and doesn't need any house rule. + Modding this unit is easy.
CAS would still not be overpowered due to its short range and bad air attack value etc.
(Btw. FTM brought back the Ueber-NAVbomber with extremely improved stats across the board apparently for this same reason - I actually believe this stat increase by P'dox actually overshot the mark)


Mines is a completely different chapter. As far as I have understood, Paradox have chosen to not use mines at all for a reason. In land combat, I like to think that some of the "dig in" bonus is due to the use of mines around defensive positions - and the "fort bonus" is likely due to mines as well, to some extent. I naval warfare, it's lacking. But honestly - I don't miss them. Even though quite efficient in their own random way, it makes for boring gameplay to stuff the Baltic with mines ;) --- And the Baltic Sea is still littered with WW2 mines. They are nasty buggers to get rid off.

You got me wrong here - I'm not advocating the introduction of mines at any level! Their use can only be included as an anstraction (like with the fortification levels etc.)

To cover the nature of the basicly (for the Allies) impassable straits into the Baltic sea it would be more elegant to include more requirents (possesion of the two key German provinces Kiel and Lübeck) to be allowed to pass through the sound.
I'm not into map modding so this would have to be covered by house rules.

--------------------------------

Considering the game-situation of this AAR now, I'm a bit worried,
that the whole "baltic-damokles" situation will require Zid to deviate too many forces, resources and too many research points to deal with this threat in order to stand a chance for a quick France campaign and a sucessfull Barbarossa later on.

One solution would probably be spamming CAG's (without carriers) as they are the most efficient ship killers. The only problem is, that they take "forever" to build and forever to upgrade).

Right now my bet's are on the Captain and Maxiboy...
 
Royal Carnage

Chapter IV, The War-Mashine is turning westwards - Part II











Human Players: Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, France, Soviet










Recap: Poland is defeated and now Germany is attacking Denmark and the Netherlands. The Brits have forces in both places. Italy annexed Yugoslavia and Soviet annexed Finland. Now, Soviet are waging was against Romania as well.












1-1.jpg

July 28th, 1939

So far, there have been quite few naval battles and Germany has lost the most, without hesitation. Add to this the two German u-boats, Lohs and Weddingen, which were sunk by British naval bombers. With 5 u-boats already sunk, Germany’s ability to wage war on British convoy tonnage has decreased significantly.

Authors note: I had not recorded the loss of a DD. To see it sunk by a sub seems weird, especially as my DD strangely lacks a name. Anybody have an explanation on this?

Authors note II: Looking at the statistics about a year later in the game, this nameless British destroyer is gone as a “sunk ship”. I gather it is some kind of error. Therefore, I trust my own observation before this statistic and claim that no British ship (except convoys and escorts) has been sunk.












2-1.jpg

August 10th, 1939

Motorized units from the British army corps who defeated the German paratroopers a few weeks earlier re-conquered substantial parts of Denmark before shipping back to the British Isles. With this, all provinces with any industry and resources belonged to UK. As they had no hope of holding main-land Denmark, it was mainly done to annoy Jerry. For some reason, Germany did not re-take that land. They probably suspected to be cut off by British landings. As the British leadership had other plans for their ground troops, no such trap actually existed.

The bombers up north made some port strikes on the British transport fleet evacuating the ground troops. A few ships took smaller hits but none was sunk.












3-1.jpg

August 2nd, 1939

The Western European Theatre. Joint French-Anglo forces are giving Jerry problems outside the Maginot wall. Well dug-in units, mostly consisting of motorized infantry, held their ground against the Wehrmacht. They made good use of the old German bunker systems and minefields which the West Wall consisted of.

The battle of Donaueschingen was the next biggest battle the Brits had taken part in, next to the Siege of Königsberg. It was a fierce battle with similar losses on both sides. A French infantry division supported the British Army Corps in the battle.

With the Netherlands under attack, and losing, the British leadership wanted to focus on the northern French front instead of eastern – but as quite substantial German forces were tied down here, they held firm. A single army corps of motorized was, however, pulled away from the east to prepare in the north (which is visible in the top of the picture).












4-1.jpg

August 6th, 1939

The Germans were pressing hard around Amsterdam and the Dutch-Anglo forces were losing ground. Still, they held firm in Amsterdam and Wehrmacht had not managed to bring enough forces to the Dutch capital to pose a serious threat. Intel showed very clearly, however, that major enemy forces were inbound. The British leadership secretly had no hope to really hold the Dutch capital, but did not tell the Dutch that. A British division was sent to Alkmaar only to keep a safe retreat route open.

The highest Dutch leaders were not stupid. They knew the end was coming. In Amsterdam, the soldiers and average citizens prepared to fight. Those with more knowledge and wealth fled when there was still time, either with boat over the canal to England or to neighboring Belgium from where they could travel to France, Britain or even America. Those who had to stay behind, but still was clever enough not to hope for victory, prepared for occupation by hamstring food and hiding valuables.

French forces, having transit rights through Belgium, had taken up defensive lines around Den Haag. They had orders to not venture further into the country but to make it difficult for Wehrmacht to surround Amsterdam and to overall make their movements difficult. They knew, however, that they had little to do if the Germans sent their medium panzer divisions their way – but at least then, those panzers would not be used against the Dutch and thus getting some of the pressure off from them somewhat.












6-1.jpg

August 17th, 1939

11 days later and Amsterdam has fallen after about a week of hard street fights. It was not an easy win for Wehrmacht and more than an Army Corps took part in the battle. Some Dutch forces were over-run in the process but about a third of their forces, and a majority of their HQs, retreated in good order together with all partaking British units.

They would all reach the Dutch islands which were protected by the Royal Navy. Here, they were safe from the German forces and the Brits could soon embark on transports and ship back to the British Islands for some R&R and reinforcements. The going had been quite tough for the troopers.

The objective, to stall the Germans as much as possible, had been reached as well as anyone could hope. It would take yet a few days before Wehrmacht could reorganize before hitting Belgium – which nobody except possibly the Belgians doubted would be the next step. The French had seen some fighting in the south of Netherlands and fast German maneuvers had managed to outsmart and blitz through an Infantry Division which surrendered. This was the second French Infantry Division to be lost to the Germans. Still, the Germans had already lost four divisions.












7-1.jpg

August 28th, 1939

It took a little more than a week before the Germans attacked Belgium. The Allies were prepared and quickly moved in to support the Belgians and after winning two easy victories, Wehrmacht ran into serious resistance. The land is very defensible and even a few allied units caused the Germans significant problems. Also, United Kingdom had deployed substantial forces in northern France and Belgium. It would be difficult for Wehrmacht to blitz through this.

Authors note: Our strategy with France was to try and utilize their manpower pool as much as possible, so a lot of garrisons were produced. We had quite high hope to get quite a lot of them out on the map before the end. True – they won’t kill too many enemies but they are good for stalling and give the opportunity to free a lot of the regular infantry from “guard duty” to a more flexible warfare.



.................

Next - the war on Belgium, Italy goes to war again and Bomber Command's celebrated naval bombers flies out on new missions.
 
The nameless destroyer is actually an escort. You will also see nameless transports in the sunk ships list, both in the ledger and in your ships kills lists. They represent sunk convoys. I am not sure when this was introduced, but I believe it was in one of the 2.04 versions.

You can verify by checking your ships which have been on convoy hunting duty. You will seek sunk transports without names, which bear the flags of the countries whose convoys you have sunk.
 
It seems your aggressive support of the French et. al. is paying some major dividends!
 
Those forests, rivers and cities should at least slow down the German advance. The aggressive RN is probably confusing the German player so he is trying to take the war to the Allied territory.

Where is the Luftwaffe?
 
Looking good, even with an 8 division strong attack on one province, they are not "winning" it at an overwhelming rate, this even when you have an extremely formidable defence in depth. Must be realistic though (as I'm sure you are), the river line won't hold forever as the luftwaffe is sure to play a more aggressive role. Still, the longer you can hold him in the low countries the better, as it gives France more time to pump out troops, and a greater chance to slow the advance down, thus helping Russia when the time comes.
 
The nameless destroyer is actually an escort. You will also see nameless transports in the sunk ships list, both in the ledger and in your ships kills lists. They represent sunk convoys. I am not sure when this was introduced, but I believe it was in one of the 2.04 versions.

You can verify by checking your ships which have been on convoy hunting duty. You will seek sunk transports without names, which bear the flags of the countries whose convoys you have sunk.

Thanks a lot anweRU. I suspected as much but it was good to have it spelled out :)

It seems your aggressive support of the French et. al. is paying some major dividends!

I do hope so. With Denmark in Allied hands, the British Isles is not really threatened, making it easier to focus on France.

Where is the Luftwaffe?

Oh, they'r there. My pics don't describe everything. Luftwaffe was stronger than the Allies, but not strong enough to rule the sky completely. But surely, more German bombs fell than Allied. I'm also sure the Allied manpower losses were higher than Germany's.

Looking good, even with an 8 division strong attack on one province, they are not "winning" it at an overwhelming rate, this even when you have an extremely formidable defence in depth. Must be realistic though (as I'm sure you are), the river line won't hold forever as the luftwaffe is sure to play a more aggressive role. Still, the longer you can hold him in the low countries the better, as it gives France more time to pump out troops, and a greater chance to slow the advance down, thus helping Russia when the time comes.

Exactly. With France having a lot of garrisons in the pipe we did not need to stall the Germans too much before a considerable amount of reinforcements, however lousy, would arrive.