England, Oh England (your a pain for the USA)

[plasticpanzers]

There needs to be a way to have an overlapping template of Theatre/HQ
control on Allied lands. The fact that you cannot makes it very hard to
stage US Forces in the UK from the US.

You cannot, unless you micromanage them, conduct the air bombing campaign
over Germany from the UK. You cannot give them to larger HQ control or its
gonna send em to the Phillipines (always the Phillpines...). You begin to hope
Japan invades there just to close Clark Field! LOL! If you assign them to a
HQ in the US they will not deploy them to the UK they will twidle their thumbs
in the US (or Phillipines) unless you micromanage them.

You need to be able to build airbases in the UK as the US as the UK does
not have enough for the air war over Germany.

You need to be able to put US radar on your airbases (it was portable, not
the huge towers of the 1930s by then).

All this missing makes the UK a place mostly to avoid as you cannot USE the
territory properly as was done. You end up as an unwanted relative soaking
off the family.....

[Otay]

I think that is the least of your problems. There is virtually no coordination between the two nations. You can set an objective for the UK and then hope they try and take it while on your timetable. You can hope they send you adequate amount of expeditionary forces of all types. I think this is the weakest part of the game. I just assume that I am on my own when playing the US. The Brits get in the way. If they do something that is of use, then that is a bonus.

[plasticpanzers]

Quite true as well! Although if i want Exp Forces i would rather get some from smaller nations
if the UK is tied up heavily in India fighting Japan. It would be nice at least to be able to base
forces in the UK properly rather than currently is possible. I see no reason whatsoever that
Theatre territories of one nation cannot overlap those of others. Also building and improving
in other territory if you can afford it. I too operate alone but have have worked "with" the
UK in one campaign in France tho their armies were on their own. This is one part of WW2
in HOI3 that does not work well at all.

[Big Nev]

Hmm…
I seem to recall that there a Destroyers for Bases deal.
I really don’t see how this could be made to work though.

[plasticpanzers]

Without a province in the UK that the US can mark for a "SHAEF" theatre they will ship in
troops slowly which is not a problem. The major problem is that airforces and naval forces
will not base there and will not conduct raids on Germany. Also since the US theatre cannot
use any province in the UK you find it sending troops off to wander the globe (right now the
1st Inf is off to help garrison Gibraltar and the entire HQ for the 2nd Army Group is on its way
to San Francisco (like the song i suppose, with flowers in their hair! LOL!). You can, if you
have to, micromanage the US forces but its a pain when you have both East and West coast
areas to watch, even with AI help (which does NOT help in the UK).

[the kookaburra]

You have a good point and I would like it to be acted upon.

I am not knowledgeable on the console commands but if I have read others posts correctly......... Could you change Portsmouth via them to be a core USA province?
Forcing the computer to do as you suggest.

[Dzanic]

Hmm I though Great Britain was the leader of the allies not USA? Maybe thats why they dont care about what the USA wants when you play as USA?

[Meglok]

The answer some mods use is to assign one or more port hexs in England to the US. You can do this yourself by using the change province owner command or going into your save file and changing the ownersip to USA of whatever port you want to give them. Console command "tdbg" will allow you to scroll over the provinces you want to alter and tell you the province ID. Just make sure you give them a decent port. Problem solved.

[Praetori]

Without a province in the UK that the US can mark for a "SHAEF" theatre they will ship in
troops slowly which is not a problem. The major problem is that airforces and naval forces
will not base there and will not conduct raids on Germany. Also since the US theatre cannot
use any province in the UK you find it sending troops off to wander the globe (right now the
1st Inf is off to help garrison Gibraltar and the entire HQ for the 2nd Army Group is on its way
to San Francisco (like the song i suppose, with flowers in their hair! LOL!). You can, if you
have to, micromanage the US forces but its a pain when you have both East and West coast
areas to watch, even with AI help (which does NOT help in the UK).

Yeah, assigning Theater AOs regardless of province ownership would be nice (even hostile territory). But it's possible it might break something else instead.
But it would indeed be sweet with combined HQs (HQ Nat owner can control everything beneath it but allies under the same command may also move around their units). It would at least be kickass for MP games.

[smith161]

I agree with you Plasticpanzers. They always send their army air forces to the Phillipines and it irks the living heck out of me. It seems that I always have to micromanage my air force and navy at the beginning as the USA. I just wish it would do as I say and stop sending its forces elsewhere. To be honest, I have had to use the tag command to make the Japanese invade the Phillipines just so they could take Clark field and get it out of my hair. I can't let the game run either when i do that because the AI will mess up my entire chain of command as the USA. So, I am constantly switching back and forth with the tag command just to make sure it happens and that is a pain in the butt. This is if though I start from scenarios starting before the December 11 scenario.

[plasticpanzers]

I brought this up in another thread months back ('A little piece of England'). Folks were having
fits about taking UK property. The fact is that the UK shared its lands with the US so they could
build huge airfields to fly B17/24s and fighters from, not English airfields. Also there are hundreds
of pics of stockpiles of US goods and weapons stored in England. Right now its like renting a $2
room on skid row. I would be worried about screwing up the game by changing something like
provinces. I would hope PI will address the issue of a mostly useless UK for the US (about 95%
opposite of real life and NOT a minor issue) or some of the modders will tweak this in.

In an alliance like the US and UK had sharing was power. The US shared with Canada and others
as needed as did the UK. Unfortunatly gamewise each nations is alone with only a ghostly feeling
for its allies....

[Meglok]

I brought this up in another thread months back ('A little piece of England'). Folks were having
fits about taking UK property. The fact is that the UK shared its lands with the US so they could
build huge airfields to fly B17/24s and fighters from, not English airfields. Also there are hundreds
of pics of stockpiles of US goods and weapons stored in England. Right now its like renting a $2
room on skid row. I would be worried about screwing up the game by changing something like
provinces. I would hope PI will address the issue of a mostly useless UK for the US (about 95%
opposite of real life and NOT a minor issue) or some of the modders will tweak this in.

In an alliance like the US and UK had sharing was power. The US shared with Canada and others
as needed as did the UK. Unfortunatly gamewise each nations is alone with only a ghostly feeling
for its allies....

The way the theater system is designed, assigning English provinces to the US when the US joins the war is the only workaround I have seen that fixes the issue. 2-3 provinces should be enough, you just need one decent port and they can't be provinces with VP or IC. Lowestoft, Exeter, and Hull are perfect for this. The first 2 are within excellent range of Occupied Europe and Hull is an level 8 port. The US would have to supply the airbases, but that would historically represent the massive construction done in England. Having 3 "prefab" airbases ready to plop down as a US player should be easy.

Writing an event for this should be easy for any modder, could even add an airbase in each province if the US is AI. And transferring control of these provinces would not change anything for the UK, other than allowing the US to garrison the UK with enough troops to make the 3 complaints of G.I.s true, overpaid, over-sexed, and over here.

[Wraith11B]

That doesn't solve the issue of the UK forces being under SHAEF: Under-paid, under-sexed and under Ike....

[plasticpanzers]

I think so too, just a few provinces (perhaps Plymouth to help with invasion of Europe?).
US Forces now under AI will stage to the UK (slowly) but the AI will not base ships nor aircraft
there nor use them against mainland Europe unless you take control and micromanage. An
event in 1943 "ceding" bases to the US (ie provinces) would work.

On the UK forces having to be "under" SHAEF they have one great and
mighty equalizer against the US....Monty.

[Meglok]

I think so too, just a few provinces (perhaps Plymouth to help with invasion of Europe?).

Can't use Plymouth, has IC. that is why I suggested Hull.

On the UK forces having to be "under" SHAEF they have one great and
mighty equalizer against the US....Monty.

What was it Rommel said about Kasserine? American troops under British officers, worst of both worlds?

[plasticpanzers]

Ah! Forgot about the IC! Wow that comment by Rommel is a zinger against both the UK and US!

[the kookaburra]

What was it Rommel said about Kasserine? American troops under British officers, worst of both worlds?

1. It is from the movie 'Patton'.
2. Rommel does not say it.
3. Rommel replies to the comment "May I remind you that Montgomery is British?"

[plasticpanzers]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRAAAGGGHHH!!!!!
I am the US. It is March 1943. My attack by my US 1st Army Group up the Italian boot was
wildly successful in drawing off troops and killing MP of Germany. I had landed the US 12th
Army Group and SHEAF from the UK into France. I have been very successful in France....
I knew it was too good to last....I had 2200 aircraft from fighters to strategic bombers assigned
to Corps/Armies/Army Groups/Theatre for the US. I even (finally) got a few UK divisions and 8
very odd 2 brigade armored divisions from S. Africa (using 1930s tanks). Now when i liberated
Paris and a few cities France stopped being GIE. Now all my US air bases are French again, even
the ones i built on the invasion beaches. There is now just 400 fighters assigned by SHAEF and
all its subunits in France and now 2100 AIRCRAFT AT CLARK FIELD IN THE PHILLIPINES!!!!!!!!!
oh yeah, it sent another 700 aircraft i assigned later back to Boston...
PI you gotta do something about this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[plasticpanzers]

There is something seriously sick with the diplomatic manner in which captured territory seems
to be parceled out. In Italy when i capture a province (as the USA) i can built port/airbases and
any of my AI run forces will use any there already.

Now the problems that occur when you liberate nations in Europe seem to bugger the imagination.
Not only cannot my AI run forces use airbases virtually at all, territory i capture in Germany next
to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands now belongs to them not my capturing US Forces.
This I imagine because I do not have a province that is "theatre owned" anymore in France or any
of the forementioned provinces which are liberated. I was vainly hopeful to use captured German
provinces to at least give to my SHAEF but it appears that since each nation is fighting the war
almost alone they don't want to share! LOL! if this goes on Luxembourg will be credited for capturing
Berlin and defeating Germany! LOL! I have to say this is, I hate to say, just dumb and makes no
sense. Not wanting to give Exp forces is PIs choice but this type of absurdity really kills the game
for the US.

Now I would have to go sandbox and ahistorical and simply load some divisions on some transports
and land further into Germany to give the US some theatre owned territory to properly use the airforces that were so prominent in WW2. I don't know if PI reads this thread but I would hope they do something rather than leave it like this in total choas rather than a true alliance of nations.

For what reason would you have AI controlled HQs in the game if they cannot
perform like PI says they should or against all logic? Maybe i should just
Exp force away SHAEF and all its forces to Luxembourg and go read a book....

[Meglok]

1. It is from the movie 'Patton'.
2. Rommel does not say it.
3. Rommel replies to the comment "May I remind you that Montgomery is British?"

Knew I had heard or read it somewhere but I couldn't recall where, hence no quotes. Must be my old age creeping up on me.

There is something seriously sick with the diplomatic manner in which captured territory seems
to be parceled out. In Italy when i capture a province (as the USA) i can built port/airbases and
any of my AI run forces will use any there already.

Now the problems that occur when you liberate nations in Europe seem to bugger the imagination.
Not only cannot my AI run forces use airbases virtually at all, territory i capture in Germany next
to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands now belongs to them not my capturing US Forces.
This I imagine because I do not have a province that is "theatre owned" anymore in France or any
of the forementioned provinces which are liberated. ....

This is why I avoid liberating Europe as long as I can as the US and avoid using the war goals except for conquer, puppet, or the 2 exceptions of Vichy and Drang. Liberating Europe completely breaks the theater system for the US unless you have captured territory without attacking from liberated countries, and creates too many "issues" with supply. The war goals system causes too many conflicts and weird outcomes when you start picking territories or other things IMO. Hopefully it will be improved in TFH.
Plus I figure the last thing I need is the French army helping me, their track record hasn't been good since Borodino.

For what reason would you have AI controlled HQs in the game if they cannot
perform like PI says they should or against all logic? Maybe i should just
Exp force away SHAEF and all its forces to Luxembourg and go read a book....

The AI is only following the logic of it's coding. It doesn't have a theater anymore in Europe, so it sends everything to where it thinks they are needed, Clark Field. Which is just another reason I don't let the AI control active fronts, I wouldn't trust it to guide sailors on a weekend pass to a bar. I am just to old school and used to moving all my counters. If there is going to be a monumental fubar, I prefer to make them myself.