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unmerged(88697)

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Dec 10, 2007
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  • Crusader Kings II
  • For the Motherland
  • Hearts of Iron III
CAUTION ***Screenshot-Heavy Post *** SCREENSHOT-HEAVY POST *** Screenshot-Heavy Post *** CAUTION

Game Spec:

HOI3 SF patched to v2.04F. Scenerio: Germany; "1944, Gotterdammerung"; Difficulty: Hard. Autosaves are weekly. Run on 2.41Ghz AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 4800+964MHz 3.00GB RAM; XP Pro v2002 SP3.

This is a vanilla game with certain modifications including a programed coup in Germany.

Set-up modifications: Axis,
Allied, and Comentern starting forces provided with leadership upgrades so officers are given their most logical postings (ie: "carpet bombers" in stratgic aircraft, "panzer leaders" in armored formations, no "tank busters" on CAGs, etc.).

United Kingdom: Re-ordered starting fleets and air forces to optimum mix. Reassigned top leadership to key posts across the entire armed forces.

United States: Ditto. Note: Loaded two (2) transport fleets with reserve armor and sent them to land at Caen (so tanks not just SR'd across N. America as the AI is inclined to do).

Soviet Union: Ditto. Note: Due to limitiations of officer pool all Corps HQ's were left unassigned while the best leaders possible were posted to Army Group and Army HQ's. Best "winter specialists" were posted in the artic. Soviet armored forces were also re-organized with mechanized infantry to give them the combined-arms bonus.

Japan: Ditto. Note: Also, a new Army Group (AG) was created in central China to coordinate supply.

Germany: Ditto. Note: Land units were entirely re-organized as defined by starting OOB (see future post). An AG in southern France was re-assigned to AG Italy, while upgrades were turned-off for all starting forces excepting air units. In order to reduce supply interruptions on the eastern front occupied Russia and Poland were changed to "Colaboration Governments," and to help offset loss of IC's; France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburgh were changed to "Total Exploitation."

Restrictions: To simulate conditions leading up to the coup, all Germany armored units on the Western front must remain in starting positions until such time as a second invasion begins around Calias, or there is a change in Government.


Goal:

This AAR will demonstrate a top-down design approach to the construction and deployment of large scale air forces. This is a follow-on to previous AARs on naval and armor OOB planning (see foot notes).

What's Different?

Creating an effective air force is more than just building a few planes and hoping for the best. Building the wrong aircraft, or researching the wrong doctrines will invariably lead to defeat ( which is especially true for Germany in 1944). The difference here is to create short-term goals to meet the immediate needs of the country.

In HOI3 one must prepare a detailed air strategy and coordinate the effort with construction of substantial reserves and ground facilities. Air combat is essentially a zero-sum game, and so one must rely on technological advances to gain the upper hand. This AAR will include a primer on Air Intellegence as well as strategies for intercepting and bombing. Air engagements will be broken-down to identify what went right (or wrong), and as the famous German WW1 ace, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, once said,

"Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel, or to the last beat of the heart."


What's New? -- Air Wing Design Model

Strategically, the air game in HOI3 can be decisive, so air superiority often leads the path to victory. Simply pushing a large stack of airplanes around to meet the threat is not going to work, one must design effective air wings and position them properly so they provide overlapping fields of support.

This AAR will use a custom spreadsheet to design air wings around a task group design model. Emphisis is placed on various factors as speed, guns, RADAR, defenses, etc. Advance air planning will also drive relavent technologies and doctrines, and deployment of the latest "wonder weapons" will also be highlighted.

Preamble:

This AAR is directed at the single player game, although certain aspects of tactics and strategy may carry over to multiplayer. Here it was necessary to return to Semper Fi because the Air AI in For The Motherland is not nearly as effective (i.e. broken).

The Gotterdammerung scenerio was chosen because Germany's path to victory rests with their air forces. Here the Allied and Comentern AI begin the game with almost complete air superiority, while Germany has essentially no time to prepare for the onslaught of enemy strategic bombers.

By 1944, the Axis is nearly exhausted of materials and manpower, so a ground offensive is fairly out of the question. Germany's only the hope is that high tech weapons can turn the balance of power. WWI-style trench warfare and defence-in-depth now return to the land war in an effort to stave-off defeat as Germany races to develop and deploy the latest "wonder weapons."


HOUSE RULES:

There is NO HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE to this game--it will simply be played to win. This AAR uses modified victory conditions where the Allies, Axis, and Comentern all have equal opportunities.

No air transports, air drops, or air re-supply. The AI has problems with air drops (dropping paras at sea, or landing them in Leningrad, etc.) that cause the game to crash. So, the AI's air transports were all scrapped at start. Consequently, Germany will not be building air transports either.

For land units, the player uses the same build rules as the AI, which are--no reserve units. Exceptions are given to home guard units that are designed soley for defense of core provinces or anti-partisian duty. Reserve units may not be upgraded or used for any other purposes.


SUBSCRIPTION UPDATES:

The board will be updated twice a week; Sundays, and again during the middle of the week. Due to the rapidly changing nature of the air war reports will occur monthly. The campaign should move along fairly quickly and will likely take about 8-10 weeks to complete. Postings will have a 1-month delay, for example, as the first report of June, 1944 appears the game will have already progressed to August.

Feel free to interrupt and ask questions at any time. The author appreciates your subscription and any comments you may make.

"The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down." — General Chuck Yeager, USAF, describing his first confrontation with a Me262.



NOTE: Prior AARs of the OOB series are: OOB planning for Germany, 1938-45, and Naval OOB planning for Italy, 1938-44.
 
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great Scots, man! redoind the entire OOb for UK, US, SU and Germany? And I thought I had a case of OCD :p
 
great Scots, man! redoind the entire OOb for UK, US, SU and Germany? And I thought I had a case of OCD :p

Yes, it's a trilogy--Army, Navy, and Air OOBs. Am also trying to select the most entertaining scenerios since this stuff is otherwise quite dry.

This new game will also stress that OOB's change with every scenerio. One begins by working with what is available, then create a design and upgrade path. In this game Germany's army corps underwent several changes before a good solution was found. It's not always what is wanted, or expected, but always something new and different.

The cool thing is after the vanilla game come all the mods; common weapons of WW2, ICE mod, &etc. So, the design challenges go on and on . . .
 
ADDENDUM:

Modifications: Soviet Union. Soviet armored forces were also re-organized with mechanized infantry to give them the combined-arms bonus.

HOUSE RULES: No air transports, air drops, or air re-supply. The AI has problems with air drops (dropping paras at sea, or landing them in Leningrad, etc.) that cause the game to crash. So, the AI's air transports were all scrapped at start. Consequently, Germany will not be building air transports either.
 
This will be interesting... Always wanted to see Wunderwaffe-AAR. :) I will be definitely following this one!
 
Delayed start

There will be a slight delay before this AAR starts. Seems the assassination mod wasn't working properly and had to be tweaked. So, the game has to be initialized again, and that requires several days (or nights in my case).
 
June '44: Two-Front War (part 1)


PROLOG:

Welcome. This AAR is the third and last in the OOB series. The first installment outlined the design of panzer and mobile formations used in so-called lightning warfare. The second in the series demonstrated a technique for creating an effective surface navy, and how naval superiority might be achieved even without aircraft carriers. In this, the 3d installment, the focus will be on a air combat and the design of air groups and wings.

In the first two AAR's the emphasis was on creating offensive momentum in the short run-up to war. However, oftentimes a player might suddenly assume a loosing position in a game, and must instead focus on defense. In such cases re-organization must be done in the shortest possible time--switching over to the offensive is all about patience, developing a strategy, and finding the most efficient upgrade path.

Air superiority is always a necessity for the Allies as they have less in the way of manpower than other factions. However, Germany by 1944, finds itself in the same boat as its huge reserve of manpower is all but depleted. So, winning at this stage comes down to the air war, and that's where the Wunderwaffe (wonder-weapons) come into play.

Buying time to implement a strategy requires the art of delay and deception. Defense-in-depth, harassing counter-attacks, etc. are all employed to buy time. Divisions, corps, and armys are all fighting units, and simply making them more efficient cost far fewer IC's than embarking on a mass building program. Restructuring can be very deceptive, masking the build-up gives the enemy a false sense of security so they won't see the hammer blow coming until it's too late.


"The Ruhr will not be subjected to a single bomb. If an enemy bomber reaches the Ruhr, . . . you can call me Meier!" Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring


Untitled00.jpg


(above) Victory Conditions: Victory conditions have been set so that no faction has a built-in advantage. The game is played until one side achieves ten (10) of its goals.


GERMANY DIPLOMACY--1944

A two-front war? No, not again! Poor management led to a stalemate on the Eastern front in 1941, while further efforts in 1942 and 1943 proved disastrous for Germany as it lost over half of its panzer corps. Italy fared worse. Having failed to secure naval supremacy in the Meditrreanan, they lost all of North Africa, Sicily, and southern Italy itself.

The Red Army is moving agressively towards their 1941 start lines, while the Allies, having achieved total air supremacy in Western Europe, have finally launched the long-awaited invasion of Western France.

Still, the German navy commands hoards of submarines, and the German army is strong and numerous. In the hands of a capaable leader it seems the country could hold out, perhaps forcing an armistice once again as in 1918.

However, Germany's air force has been decimated, and enemy fighters and strategic bombers have free reign over the heartland. This is a crucial moment beause if the industrial base is lost all production stops. So, to quickly turn things around the nation must rely on its significant technological assets to leap-frog the opposition. Planners must immediately decide what to research, and production must shift to a shortened schedule. There's no second-guessing now--one false move and the war is over.

Germany Strategy:

Untitled01.jpg


(above) Eastern Front: The German army must to hold the most defendable positions (white arrows) using trench warfare and defense-in-depth. Should the lines be threatened at any point, remaining panzer division must counter-attack. The loss of Romania would cause the immediate collapse of the southern front, so it is imperative not to give any ground in the south.

Strategic missiles will be deployed to attack Soviet factories (blue lines). The USSR has few IC's to spare, so the impact of these losses will help slow their advance.


Untitled02.jpg


(above) Western Front: The army must counter-attack (red arrows) to halt the invasion of France. The build-up along the coast must continue as the Allies cannot be allowed to make any further landings. Surface fleets (red-brown arrows) operating off the coast of Norway will oppose any potential amphibious landings in that region.

Strategically, submarines (green arrows) will surround the British Isles to intercept convoys. Deep sea and long-range submarines will operate from ports in Norway and the south of France (blue arrows) and harass the shipping lanes around Iceland, Greenland, and the mid-Atlantic.


Untitled03.jpg


Mediterranean Front: The army will hold the line in the mountains of central Italy (white arrows). The intention here is to fight a war of attrition and slowly bleed the Allies out of the war. If all goes well, a general offensive to clear the peninsula might be possible by the spring of 1945.

The Allies logistics in this region is vulnerable, so submarines and naval bombers operating out of the south of France and from Athens (cyan arrows) will be sent to harass enemy convoys. Meanwhile, tactical missiles stationed in Albania and in northern Italy will attack (purple arrows) key shipping ports in southern Italy and Sicily to further knock out the supply chain.


Untitled04.jpg


Air Defenses: Constant attacks by Allied and Soviet air forces have taken their toll on the Lufwaffe. Therefore, all aircraft are immediately recalled from all fronts to defend Germany's core provinces. For the time being, the army and navy must operate without air cover or air support of any kind.

Air defense of Germany will be organized into a 2-tier system consisting of one (1) air superiority wing and eight (8) air intercept wings. Fighters in an air superiority role will patrol (blue circle) a 400km radius centering on the airfield in Stuttgart. Interceptors organzed into local air defense zones (green circles) will be on standby intercept and attack any bombers that threaten their region(s).

Air defense zones will be established at airfields in Bittbourg, Kassel, Frankfort, Hannover, Berlin, Dresden, Breslau, Praha, and Innsbrook. If no airfield is available at present, aircraft will operate from the nearest base while new air fields are constructed.

The eventual plan is to divide combat air patrols into two adjoining and overlapping circles, expanding thier reach from west to east. Within this region new air defense zones will be established to protect strategic provinces further out (and so on). Once air superiority over Germany is achieved, sufficient aircraft will then be released to support the needs of the army and navy.


to be continued . . .
 
Thanks ALL for the kind words!

Now, stand-by for action.

You should concentrate on destroying the Allied beachheads ASAP. THREE-front war is more than you can handle!

Unfortunately, the Government is demanding that panzer units on the western front remain in place for the time being, that is, until the impending invasion of Calais. It's like fighting with both hands tied behind the back, no wonder Rommel was so frustrated.
 
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