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No wonder. I was trying to figure out why I couldn't find these provinces. I'm going to move ahead.
By the way, with the patch applied, I was able to get Romania into the Axis and am continuing to influence the Sweden bringing them way back from the clutches of the Allies.
I've noticed that it seems production doesn't seem to keep up with this walkthrough, though that could be because I'm still somewhat of a novice.
Does the forum or any other place have the Germany map with provinces posted somewhere in image format that I can use to see where the provinces used to be before the patch? I'd like to plow ahead using the beta patch, but need to find comparable provinces.
I had the same problem but I took some screenshots with the 3.05 patch en so I could compare te provinces with the 3.06 beta patch
the main difference in both versions of the maps is that some provinces now have 3 provinces bordering them instead of two. Verviers, for instance, has always had 2 German provinces bordering it. in 3.06, there are 3 German provinces, allowing you to attack from three angles, using 10 divisions, in stead of 2, using 7 divisions. some of them have been renamed. Davy's suggestion is a workable solution.
use f11 to take a screenshot. (you may need 2 shots to get all of Germany with readable province names.
anyway, I popped in the mention that I will be writing the update featuring the rest of 1940 tomorrow. expect it hopefully on monday.
after that will be a chapter dealing with Marita (the invasion of Yugoslavia), an OOB appendix will be the one after that one. and then, we're going crazy in Russia.
use f11 to take a screenshot. (you may need 2 shots to get all of Germany with readable province names.
anyway, I popped in the mention that I will be writing the update featuring the rest of 1940 tomorrow. expect it hopefully on monday.
after that will be a chapter dealing with Marita (the invasion of Yugoslavia), an OOB appendix will be the one after that one. and then, we're going crazy in Russia.
Chapter 27: second half of 1940.
Last time, we conquered 4 countries in one fell swoop. I took the liberty of checking the Allied armies before and after the invasion of France. The results are obvious:
These are their combined brigades before the invasion.
This is at the start of this very chapter. The Belgian Army is gone, wiped off the face of the Earth. The French have only a couple of divisions left in their colonies, as do the Dutch. The UK lost about 10 to 15 divisions, depending on their make-up (by the way, the RL British Expeditionary Force had 11 divisions in France, most of which got out alive). That’s a lot of time, IC and MP to replace.
We are now going to get ready to laste waste to the Soviet Union, but first, we have to secure our new border from the UK who will invade with as many forces as they can muster. If you want to be gamey, you can lure them in by keeping a huge force nearby an unguarded port. They WILL invade in a matter of days/weeks. Take the port back and destroy them when they have nowhere to turn. But, like I said, that is gamey, and we’re not going to do this. Besides, it’s a waste of Manpower.
Keep the game pauzed and strategically redeploy 2 divisions each to every port that is now unguarded. Forget about keeping them in radio range for a moment. Speed is of the essence, right now. I used the 4. and 5. Armee for this, along with some panzers, because they were stationed in the French interior. Several units of the 3. Armee were guarding a port allready and I didn’t want to risk taking the wrong units away.
Wait a day to let the game reset its statistics and go to the intelligence screen. France is no longer a threat to us. Reduce their spy priority to 1 and set them on standby.
Similarly, events will now all but force Romania into the Axis. Reduce their spy priority to 1 as well. Our main target now is the Soviet Union. Increase their priority to 3 and set our spies in Moscow to disrupt National Unity.
Remember to keep adding 2 militia to each port as they come off the queu. Organise them 4 divisions per Sicherungskorps, 5 Sicherungskorps per Reserve Armee. We will need 2 full Reserve Armees and a couple of corps extra)
On the 28th, go to the research screen. Our Officer Ratio is now back into the 120% or so. We can safely reduce the Leadership being pumped into it and we really need to keep up with the research.
Set the Leadership sliders as follows:
research: 25,01
spies: 2,11
diplomacy: 2,05
officers: 10.45
Nothing left now but wait. Make sure to have interceptors over Leipzig and the Ruhr area. The latter ones can be set on “intercept” mission in stead of air superiority to save up on fuel. With our brand spanking new radars, they will shut any British strategic bombing down in no time, leaving them as only a minor nuisance.
Time to put our OOB back into order. Reattach the I. Armeekorps to the 3. Armee.
Add 2 divisions to the 1. Armee, which should have an armeekorps with only 2 divisions, bringing them up to 20. These will be our security forces in the west. Send 1 armeekorps to take the place of the I. Armeekorps in north Holland.
The others will go to the following provinces:
St. Omer (standby security for Calais, Dunkerque and Brugge)
Argentan (the same in the Normandy area)
Carhaix Ploguer (in Brittany) (see the pic above)
Troyes (these will be our anti-partisan forces until we can build some)
On the 4th of August, start building a new leichte Division. (if you’re ahead of me with your militia divisions, you could start doing this sooner; it requires about 14 spare IC each).
On the 8th, add the last 2 Leichte Divisions we will need and 1 infantry division.
On the 18th, start 3 panzers (medium armor) and 1 motorised division.
After being pushed around by all their neighbours, the Romanian government has had enough. They ask to join the Axis. Permit it, of course. You can now start influencing Bulgaria, if you wish, just for historic RP purposes.
On the 2nd of september, add another panzer to the production queu.
I got the last of the militia in the first week of oktober.
There should be 2 militia left with all our ports in France and the Low Countries secured. Base these in Frederikshaven in Denmark, thereby freeing 2 infantry divisions.
Detach those 2 from the OOB, give them offensive generals and use them to flesh out the 3. Armee, which should be 2 divisions short of a full OOB.
CHECK TO MAKE SURE THERE ARE 2 MILITIA IN EVERY PORT!!!
When you’re sure it’s secure, attach the entire Heeresgruppe A to the OKH and send them to Berlin. No need to SR them; we have plenty of time.
With all those militia coming off the line, we now have a ton of IC wasted. Use it to start building 3 more panzers.
On the 5th of November, our MR wing will come off the line. Attach it to Zerstörergruppe 2.
Go to the production screen and set the sliders of manual control. Adjust the sliders manually to ensure full coverage of production, reinforcements and upgrades. As we will not be doing any fighting in the next couple of months, we only need to adjust the reinforcement slider after every British bombing run. Set the supplies slider down to 0 if you have to.
Yes, this will send our supplies spiraling down, but if we do this now, we can recover in time for the invasion of the SU.
The automated sliders are good enough under most circumstances, but I don’t want to risk it taking IC away from production.
As upgrades get done, we can put the wasted IC back into supplies to reduce the damage as much as possible.
On the 26th of November, we get the research done for Operational level Organisation. We now have 1944 tech in 1940. Check the new end date for the next level (1948 tech). This is 1943. By this time, we should already be on our way to the US. You can now end the research.
While we’re waiting, we might as well reorganise the Luftwaffe as well.
Send 1 Fliegerkorps each to Memel, Suwalki and Wien (the latter to support the upcoming invasion of Yugoslavia).
Rebase Zerstörergruppe 1 to Warsaw and Zerstörergruppe 2 to Krakow.
1 Stuka wing goes to Memel, the other one to Bychawa.
Three luftflotte will support the invasion of the SU. One from Köningsberg, the second from Lodz and the last one from Krakow.
Keep Luftflotte IV in western Europe, just in case the UK decides to come out to play after all.
My researchers have decided to give me a Christmas present.
On the 25th, we get our first free slot in research. Time to queu up next year’s research:
(bomber) air-launched torpedo, twin-engine armament, medium fuel tank, twin-engine airframe, light bomb and medium bomb.
(fighter) aero-engine, small fuel tank, single engine airframe, singe engine armament.
(industry) education, electronic computing machine.
(naval) light cruiser escort role, carrier group doctrine, light cruiser crew training, carrier crew training, radar training, fire control system training, commander decision making, spotting and basing.
(infantry) amphibious warfare equipment, airborne warfare equipment, mechanised infantry.
(land) mechanised offensive.
This should add up to 48 projects total.
I will end the chapter here. It might seem a little short, but there’s plenty left to do in 1941, including an invasion. Adding it all here would make the update too long, I think.
Don’t worry, though, we will be masters of Europe soon enough!
Last time, we conquered 4 countries in one fell swoop. I took the liberty of checking the Allied armies before and after the invasion of France. The results are obvious:
These are their combined brigades before the invasion.
This is at the start of this very chapter. The Belgian Army is gone, wiped off the face of the Earth. The French have only a couple of divisions left in their colonies, as do the Dutch. The UK lost about 10 to 15 divisions, depending on their make-up (by the way, the RL British Expeditionary Force had 11 divisions in France, most of which got out alive). That’s a lot of time, IC and MP to replace.
We are now going to get ready to laste waste to the Soviet Union, but first, we have to secure our new border from the UK who will invade with as many forces as they can muster. If you want to be gamey, you can lure them in by keeping a huge force nearby an unguarded port. They WILL invade in a matter of days/weeks. Take the port back and destroy them when they have nowhere to turn. But, like I said, that is gamey, and we’re not going to do this. Besides, it’s a waste of Manpower.
Keep the game pauzed and strategically redeploy 2 divisions each to every port that is now unguarded. Forget about keeping them in radio range for a moment. Speed is of the essence, right now. I used the 4. and 5. Armee for this, along with some panzers, because they were stationed in the French interior. Several units of the 3. Armee were guarding a port allready and I didn’t want to risk taking the wrong units away.
Wait a day to let the game reset its statistics and go to the intelligence screen. France is no longer a threat to us. Reduce their spy priority to 1 and set them on standby.
Similarly, events will now all but force Romania into the Axis. Reduce their spy priority to 1 as well. Our main target now is the Soviet Union. Increase their priority to 3 and set our spies in Moscow to disrupt National Unity.
Remember to keep adding 2 militia to each port as they come off the queu. Organise them 4 divisions per Sicherungskorps, 5 Sicherungskorps per Reserve Armee. We will need 2 full Reserve Armees and a couple of corps extra)
On the 28th, go to the research screen. Our Officer Ratio is now back into the 120% or so. We can safely reduce the Leadership being pumped into it and we really need to keep up with the research.
Set the Leadership sliders as follows:
research: 25,01
spies: 2,11
diplomacy: 2,05
officers: 10.45
Nothing left now but wait. Make sure to have interceptors over Leipzig and the Ruhr area. The latter ones can be set on “intercept” mission in stead of air superiority to save up on fuel. With our brand spanking new radars, they will shut any British strategic bombing down in no time, leaving them as only a minor nuisance.
Time to put our OOB back into order. Reattach the I. Armeekorps to the 3. Armee.
Add 2 divisions to the 1. Armee, which should have an armeekorps with only 2 divisions, bringing them up to 20. These will be our security forces in the west. Send 1 armeekorps to take the place of the I. Armeekorps in north Holland.
The others will go to the following provinces:
St. Omer (standby security for Calais, Dunkerque and Brugge)
Argentan (the same in the Normandy area)
Carhaix Ploguer (in Brittany) (see the pic above)
Troyes (these will be our anti-partisan forces until we can build some)
On the 4th of August, start building a new leichte Division. (if you’re ahead of me with your militia divisions, you could start doing this sooner; it requires about 14 spare IC each).
On the 8th, add the last 2 Leichte Divisions we will need and 1 infantry division.
On the 18th, start 3 panzers (medium armor) and 1 motorised division.
After being pushed around by all their neighbours, the Romanian government has had enough. They ask to join the Axis. Permit it, of course. You can now start influencing Bulgaria, if you wish, just for historic RP purposes.
On the 2nd of september, add another panzer to the production queu.
I got the last of the militia in the first week of oktober.
There should be 2 militia left with all our ports in France and the Low Countries secured. Base these in Frederikshaven in Denmark, thereby freeing 2 infantry divisions.
Detach those 2 from the OOB, give them offensive generals and use them to flesh out the 3. Armee, which should be 2 divisions short of a full OOB.
CHECK TO MAKE SURE THERE ARE 2 MILITIA IN EVERY PORT!!!
When you’re sure it’s secure, attach the entire Heeresgruppe A to the OKH and send them to Berlin. No need to SR them; we have plenty of time.
With all those militia coming off the line, we now have a ton of IC wasted. Use it to start building 3 more panzers.
On the 5th of November, our MR wing will come off the line. Attach it to Zerstörergruppe 2.
Go to the production screen and set the sliders of manual control. Adjust the sliders manually to ensure full coverage of production, reinforcements and upgrades. As we will not be doing any fighting in the next couple of months, we only need to adjust the reinforcement slider after every British bombing run. Set the supplies slider down to 0 if you have to.
Yes, this will send our supplies spiraling down, but if we do this now, we can recover in time for the invasion of the SU.
The automated sliders are good enough under most circumstances, but I don’t want to risk it taking IC away from production.
As upgrades get done, we can put the wasted IC back into supplies to reduce the damage as much as possible.
On the 26th of November, we get the research done for Operational level Organisation. We now have 1944 tech in 1940. Check the new end date for the next level (1948 tech). This is 1943. By this time, we should already be on our way to the US. You can now end the research.
While we’re waiting, we might as well reorganise the Luftwaffe as well.
Send 1 Fliegerkorps each to Memel, Suwalki and Wien (the latter to support the upcoming invasion of Yugoslavia).
Rebase Zerstörergruppe 1 to Warsaw and Zerstörergruppe 2 to Krakow.
1 Stuka wing goes to Memel, the other one to Bychawa.
Three luftflotte will support the invasion of the SU. One from Köningsberg, the second from Lodz and the last one from Krakow.
Keep Luftflotte IV in western Europe, just in case the UK decides to come out to play after all.
My researchers have decided to give me a Christmas present.
On the 25th, we get our first free slot in research. Time to queu up next year’s research:
(bomber) air-launched torpedo, twin-engine armament, medium fuel tank, twin-engine airframe, light bomb and medium bomb.
(fighter) aero-engine, small fuel tank, single engine airframe, singe engine armament.
(industry) education, electronic computing machine.
(naval) light cruiser escort role, carrier group doctrine, light cruiser crew training, carrier crew training, radar training, fire control system training, commander decision making, spotting and basing.
(infantry) amphibious warfare equipment, airborne warfare equipment, mechanised infantry.
(land) mechanised offensive.
This should add up to 48 projects total.
I will end the chapter here. It might seem a little short, but there’s plenty left to do in 1941, including an invasion. Adding it all here would make the update too long, I think.
Don’t worry, though, we will be masters of Europe soon enough!
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Only a master of ... eh wrong game ...
I think you underestimate the UK losses, they had 202 brigades before, and 145 after which suggest they lost 57 brigades or 15-19 divisions, a major defeat.
good point. 57/4 max brigades per division equals (rounded up) 15. so they lost at least 15 divisions. And they lost them getting caught between an anvil and a hammer of our making. doesn't that make a person proud?
Hi misterbean,
in your last update you wrote that i have to build at the 8th of august the last 2 and a infantrie division. What do you mean with the last 2(witch units)?
in your last update you wrote that i have to build at the 8th of august the last 2 and a infantrie division. What do you mean with the last 2(witch units)?
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I meant the last 2 Leichte Divisions for a total of 8 Licht Armor Divisions.
I've edited the sentence to make more sense.
I've edited the sentence to make more sense.
Would it be possible to update the index in the first post, please?
Keep up the great work.
Keep up the great work.
index now up-to-date again. (at last)
edit: suffering from serious writer's block. I hope to get back up to my usual posting standard by the weekend at the latest.
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Patch oops
I'm really discovering what a boo-boo it was to start the walkthrough with the beta patch.
I'm not sure if I want to go back to 3.05 or just bump up to the latest beta and try my own game. Its really amazing how much impact the beta updates have on the game compared with the walkthrough.
It might be fun to start all over and compare results along the way with the final 3.06 (or whatever) but I don't know when that will be ready.
I'm really discovering what a boo-boo it was to start the walkthrough with the beta patch.
I'm not sure if I want to go back to 3.05 or just bump up to the latest beta and try my own game. Its really amazing how much impact the beta updates have on the game compared with the walkthrough.
It might be fun to start all over and compare results along the way with the final 3.06 (or whatever) but I don't know when that will be ready.
I think dat it just doesn't matter with wich patch there is played. This AAR is mean to learn the game and the basic's of an invasion. You can use this AAR on the beta patch also. I did it and it plays a little bit different but it's always fun
Playing this tutorial with the 3.06 beta patch makes a big difference. For example, Bitburg gets split into two provinces. Now you will need 20 or 22 divisions in 1. Armee. It doesn't sound major, but it can throw off your scheduling, force makeup, and production. Also, most of the provinces along the Sigfried Line have been reduced to 80% infrastructure. You'll need to account for that, too. Diplomacy is a bit screwy... actually it's wonky as hell right now, so that will also throw a monkey wrench into things. Best to just stick to 3.05 until 3.06 is ready.
actually, there are still only 9 provinces actually bordering France, so the 1. Armee can still use just 18 divisions. the "extra" province is actually one that was there before, only now it has been given enough "Bitburg" ground to reach Verviers and Luxemburg.
as for the tutorial, I agree with Davy up to a point: the basics on how to encircle an enemy, how to research and build up your forces, the foresight needed to be ready on time, those are still the same whether you're playing HOI2, HOI3 SF or either of the FtM patches (3.05 or 3.06). the main difference lies in the details. are tactical bombers as powerful as before? will nation X respond the same way as they did before? those preconceptions can get you in awfully deep water with some very hungry sharks.
I never envisioned this as "THE way" to play Germany. I envisioned this as a basics tutorial for people who were a little unsure about how to tackle the game. everything else is practice. paly. play.play.
and above all, listen to the advice of the veteran forumites, all of whom were at one point or other in the same boat you are in. when we're done here, you will be able to attack China as Japan, or plan the invasion of northern africa as the USA, and know how to look for defensive terrain, how to exploit a weakness in the enemy's OOB. stuff like that. and, yes, you may bite the dust the first time in China (infrastructure is even worse than the Soviets', and Japan requires a different military strategy than Germany, being more infantry-oriented.), but the second or third time around, you will get them.
So far, I've only dabbled in 3.06 a bit, because a tutorial AAR requires indepth knowledge of how things work. the new beta patch changes too much and I don't want to give out faulty information.
as for the tutorial, I agree with Davy up to a point: the basics on how to encircle an enemy, how to research and build up your forces, the foresight needed to be ready on time, those are still the same whether you're playing HOI2, HOI3 SF or either of the FtM patches (3.05 or 3.06). the main difference lies in the details. are tactical bombers as powerful as before? will nation X respond the same way as they did before? those preconceptions can get you in awfully deep water with some very hungry sharks.
I never envisioned this as "THE way" to play Germany. I envisioned this as a basics tutorial for people who were a little unsure about how to tackle the game. everything else is practice. paly. play.play.
and above all, listen to the advice of the veteran forumites, all of whom were at one point or other in the same boat you are in. when we're done here, you will be able to attack China as Japan, or plan the invasion of northern africa as the USA, and know how to look for defensive terrain, how to exploit a weakness in the enemy's OOB. stuff like that. and, yes, you may bite the dust the first time in China (infrastructure is even worse than the Soviets', and Japan requires a different military strategy than Germany, being more infantry-oriented.), but the second or third time around, you will get them.
So far, I've only dabbled in 3.06 a bit, because a tutorial AAR requires indepth knowledge of how things work. the new beta patch changes too much and I don't want to give out faulty information.
In the OOB post you mention that Dönitz should command the Reserve Flotte, but I have unable to find the post where such a fleet is created. Could you check which ships should be in the Reserve Flotte and the Kriegsmarine respectively?
yeah, in having to start my game again after my absence, I renamed it Erkundugsflotte; there's a post about the same issue some pages back.
edit: it's at the top of page 29, second post on that page.
Chapter 28: Unternehmen Marita.
I’m going to start this chapter with a massive reorganisation of the armed forces we will be using for our invasion of the Soviet Union.
First, rename Heeresgruppe A into “Heeresgruppe Nord”.
Detach 4. Armee, 5. Armee and 1. Panzerarmee.
Detach I. Gebirgsjägerkorps from 4. Armee and 1 Armeekorps from 5. Armee.
Attach the mountaineers to the 5. Armee and the armeekorps to the 4. Armee.
The reason for this is simply because the 5. Armee will be moving south, towards the Caucasus mountains.
Rename Heeresgruppe C into “Heeresgruppe Mitte”.
Attach 4. Armee to Heeresgruppe Mitte.
Find List, who is probably commanding an armeekorps. Promote him to general and give him command of 6. Armee. Don’t forget to replace him with another officer (either a logistics wizard or an offensive general).
Give 5. Armee an new army group. Name this “Heeresgruppe Süd” and attach it to the OKH.
Guderian, who is currently commanding 1. Panzerarmee, will be promoted to Field marshall and given command of Heeresgrupp Mitte.
Find Model and also promote him to field marshall. Give him command of Heeresgruppe Süd.
You may have noticed that we get a whole bunch of new high-skill panzer leaders. So we are going to remove all the leaders from the 1. Panzerarmee.
Detach III. Panzerkorps and IV. Panzerkorps. Combine these two into 2. Panzerarmee.
Remove 1 motorised division each from III. Panzerkorps and IV. Panzerkorps. Give them both a corps, V. Panzerkorps and VI. Panzerkorps. Combine these two new panzerkorps into 3. Panzerarmee.
Promote Rommel, Hausser and Von Kleist to generals.
Give Rommel command of 1. Panzerarmee, Hausser command of 2. Panzerarmee and Von Kleist command of 3. Panzerarmee.
Also promote Geyr Von Schweppenburg to general. He will command 4. Panzerarmee which we ar’e building as we speak.
Now assign panzerleaders to each and every panzerarmee. (those of you interested in following me as closely as possible will be happy to know that I will be posting my OOB as an appendix to this chapter). I would suggest placing panzerleaders who have a second trait as logistics wizards at the corps level to have the entire corps benefit from reduced supply needs.
Place 1. Panzerarmee under Heeresgruppe Süd and the other 2 panzer armies to Heeresgruppe Mitte.
Send Heeresgruppe Nord to Köningsberg and Heeresgruppe Mitte to Warsaw.
Heeresgruppe Süd will move to Wien, where they will be used to subjugate Yugoslavia.
Go to the diplomacy screen. If you are still influencing another nation, end it now. We will need the Leadership elsewhere.
Go to the technology screen. Reduce the slider for diplomacy to 0.05, increase research to 26.01 and officer training to 11.46.
There almost done. There is only one more thing we need to do.
Go to the politics screen. Replace the armaments minister with Franz Seldte, who will offer us +20% supply production, and the army Chief of Staff with Fritz Bayerlein, who will increase supply throughput with 10%.
Unpauze the game.
On the 4th of January, we get a new motorised division. Deploy it to Köningsberg and give it a new corps, VII. Panzerkorps. Give this corps an army, 4. Panzerarmee. Assign Von Schweppenburg to command the 4. Panzerarmee. Assign panzerleaders and attach it to Heeresgruppe Nord.
Put the IC to work in upgrades, reinforcements and supplies.
On the 7th, we get a new Larm division. Deploy it in Warsaw and rename it 5. Leichte Division. Attach it to 5. Panzerkorps.
Start producing 2 new infantry divisions and place the rest of the wasted IC into supplies.
One day later, 4 divisions come off the line.
The two medium armour divisions will be placed in Warsaw and placed in III. panzerkorps and IV. Panzerkorps.
1 Larm division will also be placed in Warsaw and attached to VI. Panzerkorps. As always, rename it into 6. Leichte Division.
The other one will go to Köningsberg to join VIII. Panzerkorps as 7. Leichte Division.
Use the extra IC to start building 3 new infantry divisions and place the rest of the IC in supplies.
The next panzer will also go to Warsaw to join V. panzerkorps.
Our final Larm division (“8. Leichte Division”) will go to Köningsberg. Give it a new corps (“VIII. Panzerkorps) and attach this panzerkorps to the 4. Panzerarmee.
The wasted IC will go to supplies.
On the 27th, Italy declares war on Greece in my game. The timing may vary, but it will happen, which is why we send an entire army group to Wien in support of their operations.
While we wait for the chips to fall into place, let’s rebase the Luftwaffe as well, shall we?
KEEP 1 INTERCEPTOR OVER THE RUHR AREA (DUSSELDORFF AND SUCH) AND 1 OVER LEIPZIG.
Rebase 1 interceptor each to Memel (Heeresgruppe Nord), Suwalki (Heeresgruppe Mitte) and Wien (Heeresgruppe Süd).
Rebase Luftflotte I to Köningsberg (Heeresgruppe Nord), Luftflotte II to Warsaw (Heeresgruppe Mitte), Luftflotte III to Wien (Heeresgruppe Süd) and Luftflotte IV to Lodz (Heeresgruppe Mitte).
Rebase Stuka 1 to Köningsberg (Heeresgruppe Nord) and Stuka 2 to Krakow (Heeresgruppe Süd)
Zerstörergruppe 1, which should be in Warsaw, will be attached to Heeresgruppe Mitte.
Rebase Zerstörergruppe 2 to Wien and attach it to Heeresgruppe Süd.
At the same time, rebase the Kriegsmarine into our Baltic ports:
Kriegsmarine will go to Köningsberg,
Baltische Flotte will go to Danzig,
Erkundungsflotte will go to Stettin.
Attach all 3 fleets to Heeresgruppe Nord.
Let the game run until the 5th of February, when we receive 3 new panzers. One will go to V. Panzerkorps, the other 2 to VI. Panzerkorps.
Start producing 2 new MR wings and 1 new tactical bomber. Put the rest of the IC in supplies.
By now Heeresgruppe Süd should have arrived in Wien. Time to deploy the troops.
Send the 5. Armee to Judenberg.
Send I. Gebirgsjägerkorps to Villach.
Put 1 armeekorps each in Klagenfurt, Leibnitz, Fürstenfeld and Murau (between Klagenfurt and Leibnitz).
Check the placement of the Yugoslavian army on our mutual border. Typically, they have 1 of the central provinces unguarded, either Klagenfurt or Leibnitz. This is where we will send the 1. Panzerarmee. In my case, Leibnitz is unguarded, so I send them there.
On the 9th, we get a new motorised division. Deploy it in Köningsberg and attach it to VIII. Panzerkorps. Put the IC in supplies.
On the 18th, we get a new Panzer division. This one will go to the VII. Panzerkorps. Again, place the IC in supplies.
This is as good a time as any to begin placing troops on the Soviet border.
In Heeresgruppe Nord, place 1 Armeekorps each in Mel, Tilsit, Ragnit, Goldap and Suwalki. Send 4. Panzerarmee to Insterburg.
Heeresgruppe Mitte has two infantry armies. Start with 6. Armee. Place 1 armeekorps each in Suwalki, Lyck, Johannisburg, Przasnysz and Pultusk, while sending the 6. Armee HQ itself to Sensburg.
The 4. Armee will send 1 armeekorps each to Lochow, Siedlce, Biala Podlaska, Wlodawa and chelm.
Send 2. Panzerarmee to Allenstein before right-clicking Lötzen as it’s final destination, thereby hiding our troops movement from the enemy. Send 3. Panzerarmee to Lukow.
Save the game on the 2nd of March. Even though winter is not over yet, we have to start the invasion of Yugoslavia now if we want to be fully prepared for Barbarossa by early May.
I’m not going to hold your hand every step of the way anymore. By now, you know what to do and how to fight a succesful campaign. Instead, I’m going to give you the general battleplan and let you get to work on your own.
Consider it a general rehearsal for Barbarossa, where the sheer size of the front will make such things impossible anyway.
So here’s the plan:
The 1. Panzerarmee will send 2 divisions each to Beograd, Sarajevo, Split and Skopje (4 VP provinces). Give them direct orders to move to those provinces so help speed things up.
The I. Gebirgsjägerkorps will form one flank or our advance into Yugoslavia. It will secure the port as Rijeka with the mountaineers while the infantry (slower in the mountains) will help in securing Lubljana.
On the other flank, along the Hungarian border, we will have an armeekorps that will constantly use 2 divisions to conquer a province before sending the other 2 to take the next province along the Hungarian border.
The rest of the infantry will spread out over a broad front and move south as fast as possible.
A few suggestions:
If the panzers get cut off (unlikely but not impossible), stop their advance and reestablish a supply link with the rest of Heeresgruppe Süd first before sending them back on their original mission.
You might want to devote 2 or 3 divisions to follow in the panzer’s footsteps just for this purpose.
Use the interceptor wing in Wien to fight off enemy bombers in northern Yugoslavia, while the longer-range MR wing can be used as far south as Beograd. Don’t forget to use your own bombers to help speed up the process.
The whole thing should be done by the end of March.
So declare war on Yugoslavia and move out! Good luck.
While the fighting continues, one interesting piece of technology is researched: a new level of radar. This gives access to (bomber) medium air search radar
And (fighter) small air search radar.
Note that it also gives access to heavy air search radar for use in strategic bombers (like the US B-17) and transports, but for Germany, there’s no need to research that one.
In my game, Yugoslavia surrenders on the 28th. When they do, our next actions depend completely on the progress of Italian forces in Greece. Just to be safe, send the panzers to the border with Greece, ready to help out if needed. wait about two weeks to see what happens.
Even more importantly, SR infantry to Dubrovnik and Split as port guards.
In my game, Italy, having no enemy right now other than Greece, has no problem taking Greece for a ride, which saves me time and Manpower.
If they get stuck in your game, however, here’s what you need to do: DoW greece. Send 1 Panzerkorps to Athens and the other one to Salonika, again with infantry in a back-up role.
The defeat of Yugoslavia also gives us the option of a new diplomatic decision.
We can now create an independent Croatia, which will be a German puppet, like Slovakia. Whether you take this decision in your own games or not depends on your chosen strategy in the mediteranean.
Creating Croatia means there will be far less provinces and ports to guard. We also don’t have to worry about partisans in Croatia. The bad side, however, is that it means we loose a direct land connection with any ports we may have now in the Mediteranean.
If you don’t create Croatia, you will need a far larger guard in Yugoslavia than what I’ll be creating here, both because of the added risk of UK invasion and the added partisan risk. On the other hand, it would mean that you can now base ships in the mediteranean.
After the first of April, when the war against Yugoslavia is over 1 month old, there is an additional possibility.
You could add as additional wargoal against Yugoslavia to puppet them. This would mean that they would become another German puppet AFTER WE WIN THE WAR AGAINST THE ALLIES, a few years from now.
Since wargoals still don’t really work as designed in FtM3.05, I hardly ever use them.
I set out along historic paths, so I will be following this course. Take the option to create an “independent” Croatia.
Go to the production screen and start building 6 garrisons, 2 cavalry divisions and 2 infantry divisions, who will become our occupation force in the occupied remainder of Yugoslavia.
Detach the 2 infantry in Split and keep them there as port guards for now.
SR Heeresgruppe Süd to Krakow, 5. Armee to Sandomierz, and each of this army’s corps to the final 5 provinces bordering the SU. Take care to place the corps that now only has 2 divisions left in Jaroslaw.
SR the entire 1. Panzerarmee to Bilgoray.
On the 15th of April, we get a new panzer for the VII. Panzerkorps and 2 infantry. The infantry will be attached to the corps in 6. Armee that only has 2 divisions.
Go to the production screen and start a parallell build of 6 transport ships in preperation of our invasion of the UK (hopefully about a year from now). Make sure to divert enough IC from supplies to cover the added production needs.
On the 16th, we get 3 infantry. There is an armeekorps in 4. Armee with only 1 division. Place them there to fill this one out as well.
Go to the production screen and start building 1 carrier and 1 light cruiser. Again make sure to divert IC from supplies as needed.
One day later we get a new panzer. This one will go to the VIII. Panzerkorps in the north.
Start building another carrier. Adjust the sliders to max out upgrades, reinforcements and production.
That same day, we get an opening in our research queu. Time to start next year’s batch of research projects:
First, adjust the LS sliders:
Research: 28.01
Espionaga: 2.11
Diplomacy: 0.05
Officer training: 11.55
The projects I want you to start are:
(infantry) small arms, infantry support weapons, light artillery, infantry anti-tank weapons.
(armour) artillery barrel and ammo, artillery carriage and sights, all 4 Light Armour techs and all 4 Armour techs.
(escorts) all 4 light cruiser techs.
(capital) all 4 carrier techs.
(industry) combat medicine, first aid, agriculture, industrial efficiency, supply production and radar.
(theory) supply transportation, supply organisation, civil defense.
(land) mobile warfare, operational level command structure, schwerpunkt, elastic defense, blitzkrieg, infantry warfare, special forces, assault concentration.
(air) fighter pilot training, fighter ground crew training, interception tactics, fighter ground control,
CAS pilot training, CAS ground crew training, ground attack tactics,
tac pilot training, tac ground crew training, interdiction tactics, tactical air command,
NAV pilot training, NAV ground crew training, port strike tactics, naval strike tactics, naval air targeting, nav tactics.
(total: 83 projects).
On the 20th, we get our very last panzer division. Deploy it as part of VIII. Panzerkorps. Check to make sure that every panzerkorps has the following units:
1 Leichte Division
1 motorised division
2 Panzer divisions.
When the attack delay from strategically redeploying Heeresgruppe Süd is completely gone, we can send the panzers to their final launching points:
1. panzerarmee: Jaroslaw
2. panzerarmee: Suwalki
3. Panzerarmee: Biala Podlaska
4. Panzerarmee: Ragnit
On the 3rd of may, we finish our nuclear research. Go to the technology screen and start:
(industry) isotope seperation.
All we have to do now is wait until everyone is in place.
By the 5th of May, this is done and our supplies have maxed out. This may seem as overkill, but it’s not. We will need every drop of it we can get for the rest of the year.
We are ready for the largest invasion ever known in human history.
Our armies have fought long and hard to get here and we have the most experienced army in Europe, if not the world.
We know how to use how armed forces to achieve complete victory over Germany’s most hated foe.
Save the game. When we return, we are going to give the universe another Big Bang!!
I’m going to start this chapter with a massive reorganisation of the armed forces we will be using for our invasion of the Soviet Union.
First, rename Heeresgruppe A into “Heeresgruppe Nord”.
Detach 4. Armee, 5. Armee and 1. Panzerarmee.
Detach I. Gebirgsjägerkorps from 4. Armee and 1 Armeekorps from 5. Armee.
Attach the mountaineers to the 5. Armee and the armeekorps to the 4. Armee.
The reason for this is simply because the 5. Armee will be moving south, towards the Caucasus mountains.
Rename Heeresgruppe C into “Heeresgruppe Mitte”.
Attach 4. Armee to Heeresgruppe Mitte.
Find List, who is probably commanding an armeekorps. Promote him to general and give him command of 6. Armee. Don’t forget to replace him with another officer (either a logistics wizard or an offensive general).
Give 5. Armee an new army group. Name this “Heeresgruppe Süd” and attach it to the OKH.
Guderian, who is currently commanding 1. Panzerarmee, will be promoted to Field marshall and given command of Heeresgrupp Mitte.
Find Model and also promote him to field marshall. Give him command of Heeresgruppe Süd.
You may have noticed that we get a whole bunch of new high-skill panzer leaders. So we are going to remove all the leaders from the 1. Panzerarmee.
Detach III. Panzerkorps and IV. Panzerkorps. Combine these two into 2. Panzerarmee.
Remove 1 motorised division each from III. Panzerkorps and IV. Panzerkorps. Give them both a corps, V. Panzerkorps and VI. Panzerkorps. Combine these two new panzerkorps into 3. Panzerarmee.
Promote Rommel, Hausser and Von Kleist to generals.
Give Rommel command of 1. Panzerarmee, Hausser command of 2. Panzerarmee and Von Kleist command of 3. Panzerarmee.
Also promote Geyr Von Schweppenburg to general. He will command 4. Panzerarmee which we ar’e building as we speak.
Now assign panzerleaders to each and every panzerarmee. (those of you interested in following me as closely as possible will be happy to know that I will be posting my OOB as an appendix to this chapter). I would suggest placing panzerleaders who have a second trait as logistics wizards at the corps level to have the entire corps benefit from reduced supply needs.
Place 1. Panzerarmee under Heeresgruppe Süd and the other 2 panzer armies to Heeresgruppe Mitte.
Send Heeresgruppe Nord to Köningsberg and Heeresgruppe Mitte to Warsaw.
Heeresgruppe Süd will move to Wien, where they will be used to subjugate Yugoslavia.
Go to the diplomacy screen. If you are still influencing another nation, end it now. We will need the Leadership elsewhere.
Go to the technology screen. Reduce the slider for diplomacy to 0.05, increase research to 26.01 and officer training to 11.46.
There almost done. There is only one more thing we need to do.
Go to the politics screen. Replace the armaments minister with Franz Seldte, who will offer us +20% supply production, and the army Chief of Staff with Fritz Bayerlein, who will increase supply throughput with 10%.
Unpauze the game.
On the 4th of January, we get a new motorised division. Deploy it to Köningsberg and give it a new corps, VII. Panzerkorps. Give this corps an army, 4. Panzerarmee. Assign Von Schweppenburg to command the 4. Panzerarmee. Assign panzerleaders and attach it to Heeresgruppe Nord.
Put the IC to work in upgrades, reinforcements and supplies.
On the 7th, we get a new Larm division. Deploy it in Warsaw and rename it 5. Leichte Division. Attach it to 5. Panzerkorps.
Start producing 2 new infantry divisions and place the rest of the wasted IC into supplies.
One day later, 4 divisions come off the line.
The two medium armour divisions will be placed in Warsaw and placed in III. panzerkorps and IV. Panzerkorps.
1 Larm division will also be placed in Warsaw and attached to VI. Panzerkorps. As always, rename it into 6. Leichte Division.
The other one will go to Köningsberg to join VIII. Panzerkorps as 7. Leichte Division.
Use the extra IC to start building 3 new infantry divisions and place the rest of the IC in supplies.
The next panzer will also go to Warsaw to join V. panzerkorps.
Our final Larm division (“8. Leichte Division”) will go to Köningsberg. Give it a new corps (“VIII. Panzerkorps) and attach this panzerkorps to the 4. Panzerarmee.
The wasted IC will go to supplies.
On the 27th, Italy declares war on Greece in my game. The timing may vary, but it will happen, which is why we send an entire army group to Wien in support of their operations.
While we wait for the chips to fall into place, let’s rebase the Luftwaffe as well, shall we?
KEEP 1 INTERCEPTOR OVER THE RUHR AREA (DUSSELDORFF AND SUCH) AND 1 OVER LEIPZIG.
Rebase 1 interceptor each to Memel (Heeresgruppe Nord), Suwalki (Heeresgruppe Mitte) and Wien (Heeresgruppe Süd).
Rebase Luftflotte I to Köningsberg (Heeresgruppe Nord), Luftflotte II to Warsaw (Heeresgruppe Mitte), Luftflotte III to Wien (Heeresgruppe Süd) and Luftflotte IV to Lodz (Heeresgruppe Mitte).
Rebase Stuka 1 to Köningsberg (Heeresgruppe Nord) and Stuka 2 to Krakow (Heeresgruppe Süd)
Zerstörergruppe 1, which should be in Warsaw, will be attached to Heeresgruppe Mitte.
Rebase Zerstörergruppe 2 to Wien and attach it to Heeresgruppe Süd.
At the same time, rebase the Kriegsmarine into our Baltic ports:
Kriegsmarine will go to Köningsberg,
Baltische Flotte will go to Danzig,
Erkundungsflotte will go to Stettin.
Attach all 3 fleets to Heeresgruppe Nord.
Let the game run until the 5th of February, when we receive 3 new panzers. One will go to V. Panzerkorps, the other 2 to VI. Panzerkorps.
Start producing 2 new MR wings and 1 new tactical bomber. Put the rest of the IC in supplies.
By now Heeresgruppe Süd should have arrived in Wien. Time to deploy the troops.
Send the 5. Armee to Judenberg.
Send I. Gebirgsjägerkorps to Villach.
Put 1 armeekorps each in Klagenfurt, Leibnitz, Fürstenfeld and Murau (between Klagenfurt and Leibnitz).
Check the placement of the Yugoslavian army on our mutual border. Typically, they have 1 of the central provinces unguarded, either Klagenfurt or Leibnitz. This is where we will send the 1. Panzerarmee. In my case, Leibnitz is unguarded, so I send them there.
On the 9th, we get a new motorised division. Deploy it in Köningsberg and attach it to VIII. Panzerkorps. Put the IC in supplies.
On the 18th, we get a new Panzer division. This one will go to the VII. Panzerkorps. Again, place the IC in supplies.
This is as good a time as any to begin placing troops on the Soviet border.
In Heeresgruppe Nord, place 1 Armeekorps each in Mel, Tilsit, Ragnit, Goldap and Suwalki. Send 4. Panzerarmee to Insterburg.
Heeresgruppe Mitte has two infantry armies. Start with 6. Armee. Place 1 armeekorps each in Suwalki, Lyck, Johannisburg, Przasnysz and Pultusk, while sending the 6. Armee HQ itself to Sensburg.
The 4. Armee will send 1 armeekorps each to Lochow, Siedlce, Biala Podlaska, Wlodawa and chelm.
Send 2. Panzerarmee to Allenstein before right-clicking Lötzen as it’s final destination, thereby hiding our troops movement from the enemy. Send 3. Panzerarmee to Lukow.
Save the game on the 2nd of March. Even though winter is not over yet, we have to start the invasion of Yugoslavia now if we want to be fully prepared for Barbarossa by early May.
I’m not going to hold your hand every step of the way anymore. By now, you know what to do and how to fight a succesful campaign. Instead, I’m going to give you the general battleplan and let you get to work on your own.
Consider it a general rehearsal for Barbarossa, where the sheer size of the front will make such things impossible anyway.
So here’s the plan:
The 1. Panzerarmee will send 2 divisions each to Beograd, Sarajevo, Split and Skopje (4 VP provinces). Give them direct orders to move to those provinces so help speed things up.
The I. Gebirgsjägerkorps will form one flank or our advance into Yugoslavia. It will secure the port as Rijeka with the mountaineers while the infantry (slower in the mountains) will help in securing Lubljana.
On the other flank, along the Hungarian border, we will have an armeekorps that will constantly use 2 divisions to conquer a province before sending the other 2 to take the next province along the Hungarian border.
The rest of the infantry will spread out over a broad front and move south as fast as possible.
A few suggestions:
If the panzers get cut off (unlikely but not impossible), stop their advance and reestablish a supply link with the rest of Heeresgruppe Süd first before sending them back on their original mission.
You might want to devote 2 or 3 divisions to follow in the panzer’s footsteps just for this purpose.
Use the interceptor wing in Wien to fight off enemy bombers in northern Yugoslavia, while the longer-range MR wing can be used as far south as Beograd. Don’t forget to use your own bombers to help speed up the process.
The whole thing should be done by the end of March.
So declare war on Yugoslavia and move out! Good luck.
While the fighting continues, one interesting piece of technology is researched: a new level of radar. This gives access to (bomber) medium air search radar
And (fighter) small air search radar.
Note that it also gives access to heavy air search radar for use in strategic bombers (like the US B-17) and transports, but for Germany, there’s no need to research that one.
In my game, Yugoslavia surrenders on the 28th. When they do, our next actions depend completely on the progress of Italian forces in Greece. Just to be safe, send the panzers to the border with Greece, ready to help out if needed. wait about two weeks to see what happens.
Even more importantly, SR infantry to Dubrovnik and Split as port guards.
In my game, Italy, having no enemy right now other than Greece, has no problem taking Greece for a ride, which saves me time and Manpower.
If they get stuck in your game, however, here’s what you need to do: DoW greece. Send 1 Panzerkorps to Athens and the other one to Salonika, again with infantry in a back-up role.
The defeat of Yugoslavia also gives us the option of a new diplomatic decision.
We can now create an independent Croatia, which will be a German puppet, like Slovakia. Whether you take this decision in your own games or not depends on your chosen strategy in the mediteranean.
Creating Croatia means there will be far less provinces and ports to guard. We also don’t have to worry about partisans in Croatia. The bad side, however, is that it means we loose a direct land connection with any ports we may have now in the Mediteranean.
If you don’t create Croatia, you will need a far larger guard in Yugoslavia than what I’ll be creating here, both because of the added risk of UK invasion and the added partisan risk. On the other hand, it would mean that you can now base ships in the mediteranean.
After the first of April, when the war against Yugoslavia is over 1 month old, there is an additional possibility.
You could add as additional wargoal against Yugoslavia to puppet them. This would mean that they would become another German puppet AFTER WE WIN THE WAR AGAINST THE ALLIES, a few years from now.
Since wargoals still don’t really work as designed in FtM3.05, I hardly ever use them.
I set out along historic paths, so I will be following this course. Take the option to create an “independent” Croatia.
Go to the production screen and start building 6 garrisons, 2 cavalry divisions and 2 infantry divisions, who will become our occupation force in the occupied remainder of Yugoslavia.
Detach the 2 infantry in Split and keep them there as port guards for now.
SR Heeresgruppe Süd to Krakow, 5. Armee to Sandomierz, and each of this army’s corps to the final 5 provinces bordering the SU. Take care to place the corps that now only has 2 divisions left in Jaroslaw.
SR the entire 1. Panzerarmee to Bilgoray.
On the 15th of April, we get a new panzer for the VII. Panzerkorps and 2 infantry. The infantry will be attached to the corps in 6. Armee that only has 2 divisions.
Go to the production screen and start a parallell build of 6 transport ships in preperation of our invasion of the UK (hopefully about a year from now). Make sure to divert enough IC from supplies to cover the added production needs.
On the 16th, we get 3 infantry. There is an armeekorps in 4. Armee with only 1 division. Place them there to fill this one out as well.
Go to the production screen and start building 1 carrier and 1 light cruiser. Again make sure to divert IC from supplies as needed.
One day later we get a new panzer. This one will go to the VIII. Panzerkorps in the north.
Start building another carrier. Adjust the sliders to max out upgrades, reinforcements and production.
That same day, we get an opening in our research queu. Time to start next year’s batch of research projects:
First, adjust the LS sliders:
Research: 28.01
Espionaga: 2.11
Diplomacy: 0.05
Officer training: 11.55
The projects I want you to start are:
(infantry) small arms, infantry support weapons, light artillery, infantry anti-tank weapons.
(armour) artillery barrel and ammo, artillery carriage and sights, all 4 Light Armour techs and all 4 Armour techs.
(escorts) all 4 light cruiser techs.
(capital) all 4 carrier techs.
(industry) combat medicine, first aid, agriculture, industrial efficiency, supply production and radar.
(theory) supply transportation, supply organisation, civil defense.
(land) mobile warfare, operational level command structure, schwerpunkt, elastic defense, blitzkrieg, infantry warfare, special forces, assault concentration.
(air) fighter pilot training, fighter ground crew training, interception tactics, fighter ground control,
CAS pilot training, CAS ground crew training, ground attack tactics,
tac pilot training, tac ground crew training, interdiction tactics, tactical air command,
NAV pilot training, NAV ground crew training, port strike tactics, naval strike tactics, naval air targeting, nav tactics.
(total: 83 projects).
On the 20th, we get our very last panzer division. Deploy it as part of VIII. Panzerkorps. Check to make sure that every panzerkorps has the following units:
1 Leichte Division
1 motorised division
2 Panzer divisions.
When the attack delay from strategically redeploying Heeresgruppe Süd is completely gone, we can send the panzers to their final launching points:
1. panzerarmee: Jaroslaw
2. panzerarmee: Suwalki
3. Panzerarmee: Biala Podlaska
4. Panzerarmee: Ragnit
On the 3rd of may, we finish our nuclear research. Go to the technology screen and start:
(industry) isotope seperation.
All we have to do now is wait until everyone is in place.
By the 5th of May, this is done and our supplies have maxed out. This may seem as overkill, but it’s not. We will need every drop of it we can get for the rest of the year.
We are ready for the largest invasion ever known in human history.
Our armies have fought long and hard to get here and we have the most experienced army in Europe, if not the world.
We know how to use how armed forces to achieve complete victory over Germany’s most hated foe.
Save the game. When we return, we are going to give the universe another Big Bang!!