Another excellent update
Interesting thoughts Berlichingen. Your points about Denmark are well taken. The biggest advantage I see is closer access to the heart of Germany (versus a landing in say Normandy). In the end, my choice is going to come down to availability of Level 10 ports (note the plural) and access to areas supported with good infrastructure. In my next update you'll see how much supply I anticipate being required for the forces I'm assembling for Overlord. It's daunting to say the least.Excellent update, love the detail! Oh, and a nice little picture of Mr. Manhattan from the Watchman, haha.
I would recommend hammering Japan first, probably easier of the two and Pacific more to American strengths (navy and air), get your combat practical up, easier to get teched up on mechanized warfare doctrines then can fight the german hordes one on one better by say 1944-5. Perhaps instead of Finland or Caucasus, talk about overstretching supply lines and hard to defend, go for Denmark.
Some bonuses to such a move:
- Easy to enter, easy to withdraw from.
- easy to supply
- Narrow peninsula means a narrow front to funnel germans into a killing zone, every battle you can have naval support, and with english, norwegian air bases, achieve air superiority and bomb the Germans on the move.
- Chance to build practicals and test the german army strength without major commitment or major risk.
- denmark provides excellent airbases to bomb german heartland and if it falls, plans can easily retreat to norway to be safe.
Thanks PvtPrivate, the last update was a rather belated response to your earlier questions about Research. I hope that did the trick.Another excellent update
what you're seeing is a man geeking out on Hearts of Iron...lol But I'm glad my obsessive/compulsive disorder results in something interesting. Very happy to see you returning once again AP.Quite agree. I really feel like I'm reading a professionally done strategy guide. This is just beautiful.
I envision a future atomic bomb chapter....oh man, the graphic potential of that subject is just epic....lol We'll see. I'm not sure if I'll use the bomb or not, but I'm definitely going to build one (or 5..or 10 ). I can't claim to have mastered the mechanics of Research in HOI3. More than anything, I'm floating stuff like this out there to illicit responses from others that may know more. I suspect the mechanics were designed to be intentionally obscure which is really a good thing...perhaps it would not be not as long-legged of a game if you can dissect every detail and gain advantage by gaming those details. Thanks Saithis, your support means a lot to me.There's a lot of nice statistical stuff that I'm betting a lot of viewers don't actually know, and it's great that you can combine the mechanical and story into one beautifully presented package. This update really shows how even on the harder difficulty settings, America is a real beast industrially and especially research-wise. I've almost never seen the bomb actually get developed and used, so I'm looking forward to your continued development of one! I myself have never gotten around to finishing development of it (since I accidentally beat both Germany and the USSR in my USA game by mid 1943, about 3 months before finishing the nuclear bomb tech finished and I rarely rush it as heavily with other countries), so I totally share your curiosity on that front.
I'm tempted to do both tommylotto...both soft-underbelly and hard-shelled top. I'm feeling my way through playing the USA and don't feel the same super-confidence I feel playing other countries which I've played many times and with which I am much more comfortable. Expect mistakes...and I kind of think it'll make the AAR more interesting.It is interesting that you seem to be doing a northern Europe strategy. When you started this AAR, I was inspired to play a similar scenario, build up a mighty Germany then switch to USA. I went with a southern Europe strategy and found that the soft underbelly was very soft indeed, until it wasn't. Great job and good luck.
Thank you Charles Reeps! I'm glad you're picking up on some of the "lesson" stuff. Be aware though, I can't claim that every detail or fact is entirely accurate. I do my best to test, and check and read and learn each fact...but it's a very dense game and I'm sure I miss (or misunderstand) some things. Feel free to chime in if you discover such things.@robw963:A great AAR! Your graphical presentation is awesome and I have already learned a number of things. I will follow this AAR to the end.
I have the same questions Wraith11B. I'm working on a formula but I don't feel like it's close (or right) yet. The complication, of course, is that since your practical level is factored into the equation, and practical levels are literally constantly being changed (by builds, by completed research projects, by the turn of the month, etc.) you're trying to hit a moving target. I suspect the designers have intentionally made the mechanics here elusive. Gone are the days where we could use handy research calculators in HOI2. And maybe that's a good thing. I will work up something though and share it when I feel like it's polished enough to roll out.A few questions. Could you get a complete formula for research, to include how the practicals and experience affect the time? I get the basic formula, but am not entirely clear on how either the penalties (for researching ahead) or bonus/malus (for praticals and doctrine) work into it.
haha....I know right? Must I do EVERYTHING?Britain cannot hold their own, can they? ._.
Strange seeing a rocket sight in India, well maybe not I've never played Britian.
That's the plan! I'm trying to plan this thing to death so that when it comes down to the actual fight it's pretty much a foregone conclusion. That's a reflection of how I like playing this game....plan, plan, plan, plan....and then oh yeah fight. I'm glad you're hanging with me. I realize it's not for everyone.Another jaw-dropping detailed post sir, nicely done! Now, onto the war take the fight to dem Nazis and a dem Japs and show them whos boss! :laugh:
I agree about the Sherman. It's not a pretty machine...it wasn't even all that great (truthfully it was a mediocre combat tank) but it achieved the goal. The genius of the design laid in it's clever re-use of components from the M3 Lee which dramatically streamlined its development and deployment while at the same time introducing some advanced concepts like a gyroscopic gun leveler. It was also really well designed from the perspective of transporting it overseas. Shermans could basically fit into a crate and therefore could be more easily packed and transported on Liberty ships.That's a big deal when you're trying to deliver 50,000 tanks overseas (remember, neither the Russians or the Germans had to worry about shipping their tanks overseas). They were specifically designed to fit well onto railroad cars, drive over regular bridges and considering that the design was made in 1940, it had reasonable performance characteristics. All that said, they were still death traps. I know the Brits hated them and the Germans laughed at them.Interesting facts about the Sherman, a highly under rated tank in retrospect. The big guns and heavy armor of the later panzerkampfwagons are all scary and all, but the reliability, ease of repair, maintenance , and production that makes the Sherman the superior system. A panther or tiger might win a skirmish or even a battle but the Sherman won campaigns and the war. Whats the point of having all these scary tanks if yo can only have a few dozen in a division and half of them break down before they can even get to the fight?
Strange seeing a rocket sight in India, well maybe not I've never played Britian. Do you have any test sites yourself, it would be cool to see american rockets/missiles, but that probably stretches your IC and research too far.
haha...i dunno about that (but thank you). I think the manual is actually pretty darn good but I'll admit it doesn't answer every question. I'm not sure it could and remain reasonably brief (if you consider 89 pages brief) or coherant. There's just so much detail to cover. I have a huge advantage here in that I'm describing my analysis and and planning related to the specifics of the situation in which I find myself. It would all be different if I were starting from scratch in 1936...or if I were playing the UK or Poland...or whatever other infinite variation you can come up with. If anything, I hope to show how to adapt a play-style to the circumstances at hand and have some fun at the same time.Paradox needs to hire this guy to make a proper manual. Each chapter amazes.
I think you might be right...I hammed it up a little bit to add some drama. However, if I take this whole Saving the World role-play seriously, I should be jumping to the rescue of everyone on the allied side. If I don't help the UK...but help Norway, wouldn't that be a little inconsistent? We'll see...I kinda hate the idea of just letting the Japanese waltz unmolested into India.As for the lackluster UK performance, I think you need to ignore the problem in India. It won't cause the fall of the UK and will only serve to sidetrack you; plus, the more JAP forces there equals less forces against your main thrust. Just my opinion. Keep 'em coming!
Every time I mess with LUAs I find myself getting in more trouble than its worth and creating really weird results...I kind of gave up on it.Not really, seen it a couple of times...not sure why it happens...What did confuse me once was the Germans building on on the west wall once, completly making me wonder. However I had been playing with the .lua files at the time...although not to that end.
But I'm very glad to know there are guys out there like you that know more about LUAs than me.I guess basically there are two options for scripting the AI: it either builds in fixed places (which is a very bad idea) or it uses some randomization, which will have some unexpected results. The UK building Rocket Test Sites in India could be avoided by including a condition for building on the same continent as your capital but I can't really think of anything that could prohibit building it one province behind the West Wall. (Front provinces can be excluded, but that's pretty much it.)
Normally, I'd do just that. But this time I'm going to avoid a lot of support brigades because of their disproportionate supply and officer consumption. Artillery brigades are supply hogs, slow down the units they're attached to and are vulnerable to air attack. Instead I'm biasing towards being able to deploy more infantry. Germany has a huge army. To fight them I'll need to deliver a huge army as well. (I hope I made my reasoning clear...if not poke me again and I'll try and explain better).I think it would be well worth your time/budget to build some more support brigades, mostly arty imo. Maybe 1 corp per army could be a specialized with 3-5 engineer brigades to spear head any river assaults. Although it may not be possible, its seems with every update your "to do" list gets bigger and bigger. But it would be cool to have a nice mix,arty and at for your inf. Maybe AAA for you defensive division in the pacific, and a mix of sp art and tank destroyers for your armor. SP rockets would be cool but they might eat up too many supplies.