Seems things in The Uk are looking up, and that the Germans will pushed off the white cliff's of Dover is certain.
Last edited:
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
well you are doing an impressive job holding around London ... that Panzer spearhead to the west of the city could be a chance to extract quite a toll on them (but I forget how the rivers lie in that sector) if you could mount a strong enough attack (damn winning, its time and German losses that you need)
remains both a great AAR clearly based on a rather fun game ... its interesting to see the potential when you have to play the smaller part of a coaltion and your only real tools are expeditionary forces and Allied objectives
remains both a great AAR clearly based on a rather fun game ... its interesting to see the potential when you have to play the smaller part of a coaltion and your only real tools are expeditionary forces and Allied objectives
Ripping stuff, I am loving this.
I wish I could get such production and tech levels when I play as dominions, as Canada I can only ever focus on a single unit type and about 1 army groups through out the entire war due to small IC and tech!
I wish I could get such production and tech levels when I play as dominions, as Canada I can only ever focus on a single unit type and about 1 army groups through out the entire war due to small IC and tech!
No modding involved but it's not as powerful as it should be by all rights. Were it a player in charge I'd have already lost, as it stands I have a shot of winning in Britain depending mostly on where the AI ships more troops or not.
Because of the wildly varying size of actual historic air wings, I've looked at various militaries' aircraft count and compared it to the number of air wings HOI nations generally produce and decided to level out the number of aircraft to around 100 per ingame air wing or 50 for a CAG. From there I pick historic plane types, compare the observed strength % of friendly and enemy air wings before and after battles (I have to estimate this as it's not always possible to be precise) and then distribute casualties accordingly. The main reason I'm doing it all is so that when this is all over, I can tally up counts from the entire war and use it as a practical judge of how Australians performed in battles, regardless of what strategic objectives are met.
That would be nice, but let's not get too optimistic just yet! It isn't over until the guns fall silent.
Well that's the AI's doing, but I maintain it's the fault of the German AI failing at force concentration while simultaneously investing too much in a direct assault across the Thames. I imagine it's grinding down manpower, trying to assault an urban province across the river with numerous defending formations.
If I can keep the momentum of this counterattack going I should have a shot at robbing them of some tanks/men at least, and in the most ideal scenario I could win a victory but it's too early to hope for that, I think. Preparations are already underway to abandon Sicily to draw more troops for the defence of Britain. It'll be tense and I really need the British AI to start doing something with that huge navy.
Are you playing HPP or Vanilla? HPP is advantageous for Dominions because of the condensed tech tree and higher leadership count. I thought that Canada started as a Regional Power just like Australia, but I could be mistaken on that part. My army is somewhat shrunken and I'm barely keeping up with techs across the board (I'm behind in a lot of areas I'd like to have investment in) due to my investment in all four branches of tech instead of just one or two, but I feel it's a more realistic approach than simply ignoring them forever.
For the mother land vanilla, It is rather annoying because while I when playing such games, I have top tier infantry or armour or such, the second I get hit with something that works well against my specialised army, I am more or less useless.
A really gripping scenario!
So far, it's going better than I feared. The Germans haven't (yet) landed overwhelming force and haven't made dramatic progress, but on the other hand I can't see all that many British combat formations aside from the HQs. A lot of (probably mostly useless) Allied forces in exile seem to be helping hold London, but I don't see much indication that the Germans are actually assaulting the capital. It looks like they are trying to flank London. That they still only hold Dover is a big plus, but I'm concerned about what you haven't shown us yet - what's going on in East Anglia? It could be bad if they break out into open country.
In my HPP, I have instructed the German to build a few more transports. I have witnessed three AI sealions. Two essentially succeeded. The third was stopped on the beaches. This is somewhere in between at the moment and I couldn't guess how it's going to turn out!
So far, it's going better than I feared. The Germans haven't (yet) landed overwhelming force and haven't made dramatic progress, but on the other hand I can't see all that many British combat formations aside from the HQs. A lot of (probably mostly useless) Allied forces in exile seem to be helping hold London, but I don't see much indication that the Germans are actually assaulting the capital. It looks like they are trying to flank London. That they still only hold Dover is a big plus, but I'm concerned about what you haven't shown us yet - what's going on in East Anglia? It could be bad if they break out into open country.
In my HPP, I have instructed the German to build a few more transports. I have witnessed three AI sealions. Two essentially succeeded. The third was stopped on the beaches. This is somewhere in between at the moment and I couldn't guess how it's going to turn out!
The German advances in England definitely look understrength. I figure that with enough time and determination you can push the Huns back into the Channel. Then Australia can focus totally on the Pacific.
Consider trying HPP if you want to play a smaller country, it's much easier to actually make a contribution with tech and IC because of how they've set up the system.
A really gripping scenario!
So far, it's going better than I feared. The Germans haven't (yet) landed overwhelming force and haven't made dramatic progress, but on the other hand I can't see all that many British combat formations aside from the HQs. A lot of (probably mostly useless) Allied forces in exile seem to be helping hold London, but I don't see much indication that the Germans are actually assaulting the capital. It looks like they are trying to flank London. That they still only hold Dover is a big plus, but I'm concerned about what you haven't shown us yet - what's going on in East Anglia? It could be bad if they break out into open country.
In my HPP, I have instructed the German to build a few more transports. I have witnessed three AI sealions. Two essentially succeeded. The third was stopped on the beaches. This is somewhere in between at the moment and I couldn't guess how it's going to turn out!
More transports does wonders and while I haven't instructed them to, I think they made some extras on their own. What's really weird is that they're attacking Britain like this but haven't touched Norway yet!
Germany is acting very strangely with London. It's blatantly attempting to encircle it from the south with those overextended panzers (better served taking Portsmouth and doubling their supply throughput, IMO) and I think it's doing the same in East Anglia, which I oddly haven't got a screenshot of. I think there are three German divisions there that I've failed to include for some reason, but rather than breakthrough towards Hull/Liverpool/Newcastle/Manchester/Sheffield/Leeds/Etc. they're attempting to push southwest towards London. I've seen multiple attacks by the Germans across the river and seen allied divisions get knocked back out of the city, but they always get called off and don't result in the city being taken. I'm quite confident if I was running the German AI that I could crush this British defence but the AI is making a right mess of it, which only makes the story more interesting I suppose!
If things stay as they are, I believe Australia will be able to cut off German armour, save London and eventually take the Channel to starve Germany of her reinforcements. Unfortunately I can't count on anything to stay the same in wartime, even with the AI's caution to transport new troops. More German divisions could finish at any time and get allocated to the Britain fighting fund, especially now that I've landed (I believe the AI will recognize the increased divisions on my part and recognize the need for more forces in Britain.)
I guess you could just explain it as Hitler's determination to crush London, but the real reason is probably that London is so high in VP value, which I assume is one of the ways AI judges where to attack, that the AI is forced into making suicidal attacks.
The AI is good at reinforcing beachheads... as long as it has enough spare troops and TPs. In fact, it sometimes sends too many units to Norway and puts a big burden on the local supply network.
However, I don't think that the AI has many divs it can send to GB in this case. Remember that it's still engaged in Yugoslavia and I'm sure that the AI has many troops on the SOV-GER border.
However, I don't think that the AI has many divs it can send to GB in this case. Remember that it's still engaged in Yugoslavia and I'm sure that the AI has many troops on the SOV-GER border.
Well, at least the Germans are understrength and the Sealion is contained to the beaches.
Meanwhile those air losses in Asia are staggering. 9:1?
Meanwhile those air losses in Asia are staggering. 9:1?
I am describing it that way, but I believe you're probably right in game terms. Still, if they don't end up taking Portsmouth I don't think they'll have the Supply Throughput to actually finish off London. I suspect a lot of those formations are suffering from low supply.
I'm quite sure it still has TPs so I suspect it doesn't have spare divisions. Whether that will change is another question...depends how fast Yugoslavia falls and how many troops they have in the production queue.
Germany is contained for now, but this is also the time I need to be pushing back. If I can't cut off that spearhead and deal some serious losses to the Germans then that task may be difficult.
I think you're failing to note the Luftwaffe's losses. Technically I'm 3-0 in Asia as I haven't sent any aircraft to fight the Japanese or Thai planes, but I have shot down roughly 3 Thai bombers just on infantry AA. The Luftwaffe is giving me a slow but steady mauling though, but the skirmishes were all so brief I didn't bother to include shots of them as there were too many to count.
-----
I've played through another update's worth of material, I should have a post ready in two days or so.
On an unrelated note, I love how everyone seems to be reading different things out of the situation in Britain and has different ideas of how well its actually going. Hopefully that gives you an idea of how nail-bitingly close it actually is right now!
Last edited:
Well IMHO the situation in England is still critical, but the German AI saw the error of the Brit AI and upped it with a mindless focus on grabbing London ASAP and both errors are somewhat cancelling out I think that if the German AI decides to smart up, atleast London is lost ( barring a intervention by the Aussie player, that is ). But that is IF
I think that if the German AI decides to smart up, atleast London is lost ( barring a intervention by the Aussie player, that is ). But that is IF 
I've never really seen a good naval invasion in HOI3 ever. Having said that I only play the base game sans any expansions so things may have changed quite a bit. Still, its very exciting.
Do you actually have any anti-tank capabilities at all or is it just infantry you are fielding in Britain right now?
Do you actually have any anti-tank capabilities at all or is it just infantry you are fielding in Britain right now?
Good point about AT capabilities. How is your infantry faring against the German armour?
I am also wondering if the Germans are really trying to take London and losing or whether they might be attempting to pin the defenders in place? With the forces they have, the AI might consider London to difficult to take but also too dangerous to by-pass?
I am also wondering if the Germans are really trying to take London and losing or whether they might be attempting to pin the defenders in place? With the forces they have, the AI might consider London to difficult to take but also too dangerous to by-pass?
Well IMHO the situation in England is still critical, but the German AI saw the error of the Brit AI and upped it with a mindless focus on grabbing London ASAP and both errors are somewhat cancelling out
I'm not particularly expecting the AI to change its ways and at this rate if they win I think it'll be a fluke of dice rolls and AI decisions than any intelligent gesture on its part.
I've seen a few by Britain and the USA, and once by Italy, but this is the first Seelöwe I've seen in HPP which is quite exciting. Usually they take Norway for me and that's the end of it, while this time they've still not taken Norway but have instead gone straight for London. It's quite the gambit but if it works...
I do not have any AT brigades or Tank Destroyers as I was not expecting to have to engage the Germans on open ground so soon. That said, my troops aren't exactly defenceless...
Quite well, so far. My infantry have well-upgraded anti-tank weaponry (I think I'm getting +1 hard attack per infantry brigade from it for a total of 1.5 per brigade or 4.5 hard attack per infantry div) and while it doesn't compare to their soft attack value, it's worth remembering that armour is not completely hard but still has a softness value. Numbers count for a lot too. From what I've seen it looks like the standard German armoured div is 2 ARM, 1 MOT, 1 TD. Very tough, but it doesn't have an exceptionally high soft attack and is rather just quick and good at killing enemy armour. Had they invested in SP ART for the attack on France, I suspect they'd have performed a lot better (and probably already have rolled us here in Britain). As it stands, I think I'll still lose a 1 vs 1 against a German armoured division, so I'll have to use good maneuvering and troop concentration to pile on the pressure.
I'm not sure what the German AI is trying to do, but it's sort of failing whatever its cunning plan is.
Divs below 50% softness gain a big bonus against divs above 50% softness, so I wouldn't underestimate the German armoured divs if they have low softness levels.
I'm aware and not underestimating them, like I said I'm sure they'll beat me 1 on 1, but my point was that a percentage of my much higher Soft Attack will still play against their divisions even if I don't have dedicated Anti-Tank. When my Artillery-laden Australian divisions arrive from Italy, that should count even more.
Sure. Most divs are soft targets, anyway, so investing in SA is almost always the best option. Even in case of armoured divs SA is not useless and the more balanced the division, the better. It's one of the reasons why I never built any ATs in HOI games - the softness system make them much less useful than ARTs. That may change in the latest HPP version, where support brigades are consolidated and you only have to research techs to get ATs/ARTs/whatever, so you are not "wasting" a brigade slot by using ATs.