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I did some testing in with 1944 tech - race to cross Don from same place. Participants - 2xARM+2SPA and 2xARM+SPA.

2xARM+2SPA division has (Min(8.5,9.5) => 8.5 divisional speed. It crosses Don in plains in 17 hours
2xARM+2ENG division has (Min(8.5, 8) => 8 divisional speed. It crosses Don in 16 hours.

So "effective" bonus seems to be ~0,0625, and total effect - 0.088. Given the boost from 1 eng bde is 20% - divisional bonus is 10%, so results seem to confirm this bonus is working and there is probably isn't any magic huge penalty in play as crossing reduction would be massive @ 50-20% ).

You should remove river and see how long it would take to travel to the same province without river.
 
How about you actually try to read and address my points instead of avoiding them by nitpicking? Hint: "Bad terrain"

I am not nitpicking but trying to understand what speeds we are talking about.

My understanding is this. Division's max speed is the slowest brigade's speed. Then the speed is modified by an average modifier. So basically MEC+ENG speed is 8 (assuming ENG is slower) and then terrain penalty is -10% for the division in forest, which is 7.2.
 
You should remove river and see how long it would take to travel to the same province without river.

Not really, 50% is massive penalty and when moving to other provinces around on plains the times are ~same, no big penalties in play IMHO. Quick test with ARM+3ENG seems to confirm that, as arrival is still 16h and one would expect it to be faster if there was penalty reduction in play.
 
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I've re-started my test game to see just how large a force of Mech it's possible to build by "Danzig or War".

I'm rushing the first two levels of the four Infantry Weapons techs, studying the four Light Armor techs to unlock the ARM brigade tech (a pre-requisite for Mech), studying three of the Superior Firepower doctrines (which contribute to the Mech tech's research speed), studying Mobile Unit Theory (ditto), and I've put in the Minister who reduces Mobile Unit Practical decay. I'm also building as many Motorized Divisions (in Divisions of MOTx4, to accumulate Mobile Unit Practical as rapidly as possible) as I can without ignoring Interceptors and losing Air Superiority.

... so this is fairly close to red-lining the Mech Rush. We'll see how fast I can churn out the techs followed by the units.

I will upgrade my mass of MOTs to MECH as soon as I have the required tech.

I don't expect this to be a really practical opening... I'm just trying to see how fast I can build a sizable force of Mech as Germany
 
I've played about 17 months of the second test game, and it looks like the Mech tech will be done around mid-to-late August 1938. That's a major improvement over January 10th 1939, which was the date that I popped it in my first test game.

I should have at least 35-40 Motorized Divisions ready to be upgraded to Mech as soon as the tech is done.

Naturally, I haven't been neglecting the rest of the Germany forces... I will have the usual number of Interceptors ready for the start of the war, plus a modest Transport fleet, a small but adequate Infantry force, enough Garrisons and Militia to guard all of my home ports plus the captured ports in Poland, Holland, Belgium, France, etc.

EDIT:

Looks like I should have about six dozen Mech Regiments (two per Division) ready by "Danzig or War", if I can get them all upgraded in ten months or so.
 
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Can you build faster new MEC division than upgrade MOT? AFAIK upgrade is not affected by practicals so if your practicals are very high maybe building new MEC divisions would be faster.
 
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that could work for USA... I mean they have like world war one tech levels so you might just as well get two birds with one stone. Faster mobile tech, mobile practicals, you also mislead the enemy with the wrong unit names, like all your divs will be named cavalry divisions, but once they hit the enemy in the face they're suddenly mechanized ZOMFG!

I just hate how the paras got nerfed, they need to be buffed back into supermen. Actually I might just re-install and play older patch for the lulz. Or a mod if there's any nice ones. Coz I'm kinda bored :sad:

Is the new Vicky expansion any fun, I might finally play that?
 
EDIT:

Looks like I should have about six dozen Mech Regiments (two per Division) ready by "Danzig or War", if I can get them all upgraded in ten months or so.

Sounds really good. I'm not sure you can get them all upgraded by the opening of the war (the interaction of practicals and unit upgrades is not something I understand), but that will be a fine force for rolling up the cheese-eating French and their tea drinking lackeys, the Brits. :)
 
September 10th, 1938:

Mechs.jpg


... not bad for a 1941 tech. I have the ICs to upgrade 20 of them at a time, in 104 days... so I should have the majority of them upgraded in time for "Danzig or War", and all of them ready for France.
 
Attacked Poland in mid-May 1939 with twenty Mechanized Divisions (each MECx2/TDx2) plus the usual Infantry, Artillery, Bombers, etc. The campaign went very quickly, as you might expect. Ten more identical Mechanized Divisions will finish upgrading by June 30th... well in time for the Battle of France. Another ten Heavy Mechanized Divisions (LtArm/MEC/TD/SPArt) will be ready a couple of months later. After that, I'll probably just build up my Infantry Corps for Barbarossa.

I can confirm that Practicals DO INDEED affect the speed and cost of upgrades, and vice-versa (upgrades give Practical). Tested.
 
Nicely done! A bit off-topic, but I'm wondering what you do with MIL as Germany? You've mentioned port defense: anything else?
 
Nicely done! A bit off-topic, but I'm wondering what you do with MIL as Germany? You've mentioned port defense: anything else?

I've found that two Divisions in each port will usually prevent the UK from attempting one of its disasterous premature 1940 "Overlord" invasions, and always prevents them from succeeding in getting ashore. I use one GARx2/ARTx2 and one MILx2. The AI just seems to count Divisions, without assessing how combat-worthy they are... so one "real" Division and one "fake" seems to be enough to dissuade it.

In this role, the Militia serves as a force-multiplier for the GAR/ART Division... by distracting 50% of the incoming fire away from it, the Militia (in effect) doubles the BWA of the Garrison. Battle-Winning Ability is calculated as the total offensive potential times the total defensive potential, so reducing the incoming fire on the Garrison by half will double its BWA. This would be true even if the Militia had zero Firepower and ORG stats... and in fact, its low defensive stats play little role in a situation where the attacker is handicapped by the Amphibious Assault penalty.

In effect, the Militia goes "nyah-nyah!" and ducks, while the Garrison shoots them up.

It's worth noting that Manpower spent on Militia is never wasted... the Manpower is, after all, still there on the map in front of me. Any time I wish, I can upgrade them to Infantry (or Motorized, or Mech, or whatever); or simply disband them to recycle the Manpower back into my pool to use as reinforcements. The only thing that might be wasted is the minimal IC investment. In effect, I am paying a small IC-cost to store the Manpower on the map (in the form of Militia Divisions) where it actually plays a role in the game, instead of storing it in my pool where it accomplishes nothing useful.
 
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Interesting points. To ensure minimal IC investment, do you avoid tech upgrades for Militia?
 
Interesting points. To ensure minimal IC investment, do you avoid tech upgrades for Militia?

For Militia and Garrisons, I study only Soft Attack and Defensiveness (not Hard Attack or Toughness). I could, of course, turn off upgrades for the Militia... but so far I haven't bothered. The upgrades are a set fraction of the unit's IC-cost and build-time, both of which are very cheap for Militia.

EDIT: Update on my test game.

I SR-ed the force of Mechs to the Dutch border, and as soon as the SR-induced attack delay wore off, declared war and invaded. This turned out to be a miscalculation. Two-thirds of my force immediately went OOS due to fuel shortages. In retrospect, this foolishness could have been avoided by just delaying my DoW for a week or so while adequate fuel stocks built up in my assembly area.

Lesson learned.

Even with most of my attacking force immobilized, the Mechs proved very useful... with one of them making an end-run around an open flank, hooking around behind the enemy line and then dashing into an undefended Rotterdam, thus collapsing the entire Dutch line. Most of the enemy forces were in full retreat before enough fuel arrived for the bulk of my attacking forces to even cross their start-lines.

I wonder if I should play on a bit... to Barbarossa, anyway... and then restart another "Nazi Mech Rush" game, writing it up in the AAR section. Perhaps as... "MECH my day, Punk!"
 
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