How much is too much? A Germany 1936 (VH) AAR

Thanks for advice, its good to know, there is sad to find out after 3 game years of buildup that your stuff doesn't work very well. I have already builded 8 light armor divisions, i will stop building them until medium armor is researched.

1936 is almost over, scheleton army is growing good.

I started to influence USA (i remember was a good thing to do ) and Czech...kia because i don't want them to ally with UK before i can annex them via events.

By mid 1937 Austria should be annexed and i plan to attack Poland immediately after but i dont know if Allies will react and declare war, i want to try an early war to get a feeling on how battles are played these days.

If i can't have a 1vs1 private war with Poland than i will wait for 1939

January - April 1937

Austria is closer and closer so plans are made for an early 1937 war against Poland, after Austria joins with Germany. The goal is to give Luftwaffe as much experience as possible because most of the new planes have 0 experience. This will be a slow war, in which all Polish units will be destroyed, with minimum german losses for maximum german troop experience.

Nationalist Spain won and annexed the rep Spain.

War against Poland is planned for July-August 1937 (depends when Austria joins Germany) and is expected to last max 3 months. Will see how that goes

February 12, 1937 : Nationalist Spain won the spanish civil war

May 26, 1937 : Germany has annexed Austria. Troops are moving in to positions around Poland that, surprisingly, gave Germany transit rights. I hate sea transport load/unload stuff



German army has 232 land brigades while Poland has around 150.



July 6, 1937 : Germany declare war on Poland. Blitzkrieg decision is quite tasty but there is no need for it against Poland so i hope it doesn't expire until 1939, to be used against France.



July 26, 1937 : The war lasted 20 days and Poland has surrendered.




Maybe some people would like to know more about army buildup and tactics used so here it is :

- Minimal training and Volunteer Army were enabled asap. After 1 year of training, at the start of 1937, i had 6-7 panzer divisions (2LArm + 2Mot) and 8 Motorized divisions. Also 8 interceptors, 3 transport planes (no paratroopers though, i used them for supply which looks very dangerous, i had 5-6 divisions always out of supply in a war against Poland !!!), 3 naval bombers (that continuously bombed something - this rule was valid for all planes, every day they bombed something with Ground attacks).

- Land divisions were built as reserves so they basically where an empty scheleton with 0 experience. At the start of 1937 i enabled Specialist training and 3y draft. For the next 5 months all production went to reinforcing/upgrading. In the end the divisions were not that bad, they had 10-15 experience and 75% strength, which seems to be enough for Poland war. 1 month (May 1937) my research was 0 as all leadership was going to training officers.

About the war, nothing awesome, just following few rules

- planes always flying were there are polish troops
- going along the plains, attacking victory objectives from at least 2 neighbour regions, lots of bomb flying on top of the defenders head.

War was quite easy even the very hard settings are kinda harsh : 40% combat eff penalty, 25% IC prod penalty, 100% bonus to enemy IC prod and what seems the biggest issue of them all, this very hard difficulty gives a penalty to supply which seems the biggest problem.

Having units constantly out of supply in core Germany while in the 1st war against Poland seems a little bit extreme.

Will see how it goes next. German plans for rest of 1937 and all 1938 is to build a LOT of infrastructure, troops (with minimal training and volunteer army) and having a good research, aiming for

- size 5 divisions (i dont know if this is such a good idea considering supply problems)
- all supply research 2-3 years ahead of date
- good overall research should be achievable because i will do no navy research except 4 submarines techs (1940 level). Only infantry, armor, fighter, bomber, industry, land and air tactics.

At the start of 1939 i will switch back to specialist training, 3y draft, upgrading and reinforcing the scheleton divisions. Will see then what i can attack and how Did 1 month running after Poland surrender and it seems Allies or USSR will not attack Germany.

Edit : i forgot to add that i kept 10 divisions on France border, to avoid giving easy ideas to the french .

Tesho said:

About your setup: Thanks to the new piercing rules, Medium and Heavy Armour is a lot more important now. Larm is now significantly weaker then medium armor. Also it is important to make sure every Mot/Armor div has good piercing. It is now a waste to use more then one armor brigade per division. I would suggest detaching Larm brigades from your Armor divs and adding them to the motorized divisions.

Click to expand...

I will re-design all LArm divisions in 1LArm + 3Mot and use them as they were Mot exploitation divisions while building Medium armor divisions for breakthrough, thanks for advice.

Considering the amount of IC im seeing at enemies and the supply extreme difficulty i think the no other countries in axis plan will be dropped, theres no need to restrain on options. I need to think though, if conquering Hungary, Romania, Italy, etc its more helpful than having them as allies in axis. No gamey UK invasion in the first day of the war though, that's far to unrealistic, this rule remains.

Would be a good idea to use axis countries divisions as port defence for example? Would be a waste to put 20 good german divisions on border control while hungarian divisions can do it perfectly fine

After checking USSR and France in August 1937 a seeing 1000 russian brigades and 450 french brigades with 2x times the armor i have (they even have 10 medium armor brigades in August 1937 while i have none) i decided to drop any rules.

Tbh if i play France in August 1937 i think i can conquer Germany in about 2-3 months. If AI countries build so much so easily than Italy should be a good powerhorse i think

I just hope they don't have infinite manpower...

So the plan is for 1939 war is

- Main goal : Surprise sea invasion in day 1 of the war, conquer all UK main island except London which will be Luftwaffe training polygon for 2+ years.
- Get Italy and Nat Spain in axis to force France to put troops on all their borders.
- Spies will lower nat unity in France, Holland, Belgium while attempting tech espionage on UK, USA.

BarrosRodrigues thanks a lot for all the advice, as for restarting i will apply all info in the next game, i usually go till end with my games Also, i want to play TfH and see what has changed, i need game years played to see whats new and how the game plays.

December 1938 - Final preparations begun

Nat. Spain is close to join the Axis, probably around June 1939, but the war will start when all my units are upgraded and reinforced.

On December 14, 1938 last units finished, specialist training and 3y drafts were enabled and all IC (except infrastructure projects, a lot of infr. upgrading is going especially in Poland) is starting to go in to upgrade/reinforce.

A huge task lies ahead, to organize my army according to the wargoals which are :

- i decided not to invade UK in day 1, i dont think it has chances. In previous HoI3 games it was possible to secure a bridgehead only with marines vs local infantry, with no air support, under RN attacks. Considering supply problems and better AI (theoretically), i wont even try. UK is planned for 1940, after English Channel will be controlled by Luftwaffe and submarines, operating from french/dutch airports.

Because of that i have plenty of room, to make a lot of simultaneous attacks :

- France via NL is the main thrust. Italians will attack Marseille. If Nat. Spain joins in time they will attack to on the mountain line gaps. But war will start when im ready not when Nat. Spain joins.
- Switzerland is a target for initial attack
- 5-10 divisions will take the Baltic States
- 5 divisions in Denmark

For later 1939 after my (human) focus is free from France

- a mini Sealion against Sweden to see how invasions are played in TFH. 15 divisions should be enough
- 3 paratroopers divisions will attempt to annex/puppet Romania fast

By the end of 1939 whole continental Europe except maybe Yugoslavia and Greece should be Axis land. I have almost no doubt that this is possible, my biggest concerns are if i can do Sealion 1940 (can the airforce win against GB fighters and navy?) and ofc, the USSR gigantic effort.

This is the diplomatic screen, nothing special (USA influenced, Nat. Spain very close, also spent some 12 months influencing Romania, probably wasted leadership but i thought is necessary, at some point).



An overview of the army. This are the brigades that i will organize to be ready for attack around May-June 1, 1939



Land brigades



Air squadrons



Navy



And something funny, Poland reappeared with 1 province, even i annexed them in 1937.




Now the huge task of organizing divisions/corps/armies ... this will be extremely hard

And a couple of questions, posted separated to be spotted, thanks

- its normal the France keeps 70% of his divisions (around 200-250 brigades) on the border with Holland?
- it's normal that France has 5 brigades in some divisions even it doesn't have the necessary tech for 5 brigades/div ?

I decided to replay 1936 to 1939 after some thoughts:

- early war against Poland has no big benefits except maybe i catch them not mobilized but i lose 5 months of doing reinforcements/upgrades/office push/mobilization because i have to do that anyway again in 1939.
- i have to many transport planes, paratroopers and marines and after some tests , this special forces are not what they used to be.

So i replayed 1936 to 1939 and im ready to start the war on historical date September 1, 1939 (or around that date ). Right now preparing screens of the new battle front few months before September 1939.

This time Poland is waiting, i played the straight historic path with no early wars.

...

Building Forces Situation

- only 3 transport planes built, 1 paratrooper, 3 marine divisions
- same minimal training/volunteer army till October 1938. From October 1938 to Sept 1939 all IC is going to reinf/upgrades/mobilization
- this time i got 600+ brigades, 20%+ improvement from 1st game, also having more med armors.




Army Structure





A more balanced Luftwaffe, there is really no need for 7 transport planes




Kriegsmarine has a few more submarines

The espionage war was won very clear. I also think there is some sort of setup that defeats AI espionage very easy.

Here is how happened, I put 10 spies fast in 7-8 countries (you will see them below). I put 3 bars on counter spy and 3 bars on a 2nd action i wanted (like lower unity).

with 1 leadership in espionage i could keep 10 spies in 7-8 countries for 3 years, killing all their spies. France now has 30% or something unity .... Got unlucky though, i didn't managed to steal even 1 single tech from USA in 3 years but France, UK, Poland, USSR, Belgium and Netherlands have a very low nat unity.

I think AI espionage needs improvement, got to big results in to many countries with very little leadership upkeep.



Next the tech situation ....

After building 600+ brigades here is how practicals look like, i dont know if its good or bad because i have no comparison terms.



The technology rule was one : never research ahead except few key techs (industry techs, 4 inf techs 1942 and radar). Because of that i have the feeling i did much better than 1st time

Between October 1938 and September 1939 very few techs were researched because i need a lot of officers. The math says i will have 100% officer cover for 620 brigades on September 1, 1939



Infantry 1940 tech researched. Here i tried to have an edge, a big one.




Armor research was balanced, i skipped armored cars and AA guns, i will never build them




Escort Tech : Only researched the 5 submarine techs at 1940 level

Capital Tech : only 1 tech, Escort carrier, was researched by mistake

Fighter tech looks pretty good



Air Tactics : i researched quite a lot here



Bomber Tech : i skipped STR and TR research completely, all other techs are at 1941 level

Naval Tactics : a couple of submarine techs researched.

Land tactics : here i researched a lot of techs



Industry tech is pretty decent





Tomorrow is organizing army structure day

Now i'm gonna organize the army on paper and follow the plan fast in game. The hardest part , once it's done the fun starts

Army

- 100 line divisions (2Inf 1AT 1Art or small variations cause there are only 90 art brigades)
- 3 marines divisions (Mar x 3)
- 2 Mnt Divisions (mnt x 3)
- 14 medium armor divisions (28 Arm brigades + 28 Mot brigades)
- 19 Motorised divisions (19x3 Mot + 19 Light armor) this ones need to go fast >8mph
- 8 SoftMot divisions = 24 Motorised brigades left that can be split 8 x 3xMot or 12 x 2xMot. Ill put 3 brigades because i dont want surprise 1st month of war and anyway i have a lot of brigades

Army 1 (Konigsberg zone N of Poland, Baltic States, Sweden,Finland)
- 15 divisions : 10 Line ; 1 MedArm ; 2 Mot ; 2 SoftMot (Left : 90 Line, 13MedArm, 17Motorised, 6 SoftMot)
Army 2 (W of Poland, Hungary, Romania)
- 25 divisions : 15 Line ; 3 MedArm ; 4 Mot ; 3 SoftMot (Left : 75 Line, 10MedArm, 13Motorised, 3 SoftMot)

Army 3 (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland)
- 12 divisions : 5 Line ; 2 Mot ; 3 marines ; 2 mountain (Left : 70 Line, 10MedArm, 11Motorised, 3 SoftMot)

Army 4 (NL, France)
- 25 divisions : 15 Line ; 4 MedArm ; 4 Mot ; 2 SoftMot (Left : 55 Line, 6MedArm, 7Motorised, 1 SoftMot)

Army 5 (Switzerland, France)
- 25 divisions : 15 Line ; 4 MedArm ; 5 Mot ; 1 SoftMot (Left : 40 Line, 2MedArm, 2Motorised)

Army 6 (France keeps def line)
- 25 divisions : 25 Line (put 3 divs per province) (Left : 15 Line, 2MedArm, 2Motorised)

France unity is at 30% so taking Paris alone means victory. (Left : 15 Line, 2MedArm, 2Motorised) probably should be split between Holland and Switzerland armies or kept reserve because i see France is quite confident and attacks over rivers.


Air

- 2 CAG groups (3xCAG) - France
- 27 fighters = 9 INT groups. x3 In Poland ; x3+x3 air sup vs France airports ; x3+x3 vs French bombers; x3 In Belgium/NL just in case ; 3 groups of 3xINT each hunting those RAF strategic bombers, maybe split 2x 2x 2x 3x
- 2 NAV groups (3xNAV) - France
- 9 TAC bombers - 2x in Poland ; 2x + 2x + 3x in France
- 3 transport planes near France

Leaders

Army Group : the big 5skills ones
Army : if there are skill5 left should go to Holland and Switzerland armies. Otherwise 4skill with good traits
Corp : skill2 or skill1, without old guard, but with traits. Def trait for maginot line divs, Off for armor/mot corps. Logistic trait the rest
Division : skill4 whats left on MedArmor divisions. skill3 with off/def traits for the rest. skill2 for Poland divisions

Any plan is better than no plan, staring at the vast amount of stuff to manage, without starting because i don't know how to start