Air Force OOB Planning for Germany, The Wunderwaffe 1944-49

Nicely written AAR. I was also hoping for a capture of Moscow....but reality sets in when there is no manpower or supplies or fuel.

Reminded me of my early war gaming days with the old board game "War in the East". Great pre-computer days war game with a HUGE map of eastern Europe and Russia (size of a billard table). I played it for 3 years with my high school friend...only to make it to Jan 1945 with a "Tactical Victory" win due to the fact I still occupied Poland, the Baltic Countries, bits of Beullorusia, Rumania and Hungary.

Looking forward to your next AAR.......

are you planning another Val? I really do like your AARs. I used your ground forces one to help out in my first few germany games

Thanks for this -- it's been compelling reading. I hope you do another -- maybe the SU, 1940? Give yourself a year to get straightened out?

I've been remiss on leaving comments recently, but just to say that was an awesome AAR and I agree, with your triology of AARs, you've created a really valuable resource for any player of HOi3

Very sad to hear that, Valentinan. I greatly enjoyed reading your AAR's, especially this one, and was really looking forward to another one.

I will have to say that if this were real life he would have been considered a big winner. The preace conferece woulde have given germany and japan very favorable terms considering their starting positions and the coup potters would probably go down in history as the greatest germans in history by both eliminating hitler and wining the war in much the same way Fredrick the great won the 7 years war.

Still a relevant AAR?

I often go back to the oob trilogy to be inspired and reflect on development of forces. But since I started playing For the Motherland, the air aspect of the game seems to have changed dramatically.

Having gone through the numbers I see that the airunits have been nerfed. A unit that would cause around 300 casualties in SF would average around a third to a quarter of that in FtM. With the weaker stats it is impossible to recapture the magnificient concentration of force that Airpower had in SF.

The airgroups now have strong surface defence meaning the need for AA brigades are gone. You simply waste too much leadership and IC developng them. The only units capable of generating concentration of force in FtM is the Interceptors. The interceptors will defeat most enemy air units. Even with heavy investment in air doctrines it is far more efficient to build more combined arms units, marines and mountain units and protect them with Interceptors than trying to build a big airforce.

I am sure that the developers have done their tweaking to balance the game or to make it fair. But I am an officer brought up with manouvre warfare. We cheat and fight unfair. The manouvres deemed as gamey is our bread and butter. Old Sun Tzu would see paradrops on VP as the best strategy deviced. Winning without fighting is the aim, if you have to fight, fight on your terms.

A balanced game has one mission. The player(s) need to invest in hardware. The one with the most and best has the best chance of winning. The players skill is just effective on the tactical level, such as choosing to attack on the plains with the armour.

As for my post title. Yes the trilogy of oob development are still relevant. The division design is still gold, one only need to adjust the stats a bit. Air power in FtM works wonders with strategic warfare, but it is nerfed in the air to ground field.

I find myself reverting to SF. It is more challenging. It allow me to fight in three dimensions.

I only hope that Their finest hour really is that.

The air force is still pretty strong in FTM, just not necessarily in 1939-41. On the other hand, an air force with 1944-46 doctrines and 1945 techs can do significant damage to the enemy. Tactical bombers with radar guided missiles & bombs are pretty nasty. Sometimes delaying WW2 works to Germany's advantage, as in Secret Master's AAR. I've seen 3 TACs kill ~1500 enemy soldiers in a province with several units. As for logistical bombing missions, TACs aren't that good anymore, but STRATs and V1s & V2s do the job very well.

Just stumbled upon this and while I did not understand everything, I'm especially surprised that you put so much emphasis on percentages. I would think that a fighter jet on 20 % would still be a world better than a strat bomber at peak efficiency in a dogfight.

I also believe that there is a minimum cap for stats because I'm sometimes seeing small wings (or fleets) with good modifiers suffer a severe beating by some deathstar with negative values.