Part XXXI: July – December 1938
We need to focus now a little bit more on our production as 1938 comes slowly to an end. During the timeframe of this update we will finish some of the final units we are able to produce before the outbreak of World War II. Twelve additional infantry divisions and three light armor divisions as well as several planes are finished and deployed; I will give you a detailed overview about the strengh of my land, naval and air forces during one of the next updates when I will discuss the placement of my units and the overall strategy. In December 1938 our land forces are comprised of 134 divisions, which is just sufficient to stop the Poles in the east while we will advance in the west -- Eastern Prussia excluded, the question whether we will guard our exclave or not isn't answered yet, as it will entirely depend on the strengh of the Polish forces in Summer 1939. However, I'm not satisfied with the amount of armor I have: In December 1938 I will only have 10 light armor divisions, and we would need two more in oder to deploy a complete second panzer corps consisting of six divisions. Because at least 25 to 30 divisions are reserved for the static Eastern front, I can't just forego the second armor corps. My forces in the west are already thinner than usual, so I would like to have at least two mobile spearheads I can use for breakthroughs and encirclements; in the case of France probably only breakthroughs as I will try to take Paris in a lightning attack from three sides and the two routes that are most promising will receive one armor corps respectively. I'm also a little bit concerned about the size of my air force; I will possess only 17 squadrons in December 1938. Especially the lack of interceptors is worrisome; although not tragic, because another advantage of the France First strategy is, obviously, that the Allies will be unable to threaten my industrial base with intensive strategic bombardments. However, another three interceptor squadrons would be nevertheless very welcome in order to complete the one squadron inteceptor air unit in Essen. Two interceptor air units should be the minimum.
But neither additional tanks nor extra interceptors are going to be produced in 1938, so it's time to make a bargain that will make sure we get the units we desire: We will continue with the production of two PRs of light armor and two PRs of interceptors in 1939, one interceptor PR will be removed from active production as soon as it is finished, thus producing two light armor divisions and three interceptor squadrons. In order to compensate for the lack of IC for our updgrades that is caused by this continuing production we will start the update process earlier; as soon as the research on 1939 infantry is finished and the production of 1938 comes to an end, we will start upgrading our units.
This also sets, in principle, the F-Day, the day we will set Europe and the world on fire and attack France through the Low Countries. When you look at the screenshot you will see that the next light armor divisions will be finished on the 10th of July, 1939. We will therefore strike as soon as the armor divisions are deployed and adequately organized, which means that the F-Day will occur between the 20th and 30th of July 1939.
The other domestic affairs: The United Kingdom again managed to sabotage our production, delaying one PR of infantry by two months. Fortunately our pre-war infantry production has already been concluded. Perhaps I'll raise my intelligence funding again, but considering that I would have to trade again for money and that the counter espionage modifier will now rise in much smaller steps as we would surpass intelligence level ten, this is not a priority.
We also have finished some research, of course:
Konrad Zuse ---> Basic Decryption Devices | Heinz Guderian ---> Combined Arms Offensive
We're Germany, so it's about time that we research one of our key Blitzkrieg land doctrines. The Combined Arms Offensive is a 1938 technology that will provide our land units with numerous bonuses, most notably the astronomic improvements in morale, organization, positive battle events and HQ efficiency. Heinz Guderian is the best teachteam in the game for researching the mobility focus doctrines. He has all components of this technology and has nine skill points, so we will finish this tech certainly before the outbreak of the war.
Arado ---> Naval Bomber 1938 | Opel ---> Rear Area Vehicle Repair Shop
This will make the "repair" (i.e. the reinforcement speed) of all military units twenty percent more efficient, as well as the construction of air bases. The faster our units are reinforced during war, the better, as it not only strengthens our units, but also our industry -- we won't have to waste our IC on reinforcements longer than necessary with this technology.
Hugo Sperrle ---> Logistical Strike Doctrine | Krupp ---> Light Tank 1939
This is probably again one of my self-explanatory decisions, the research of 1939 Light Tanks as Germany should happen better sooner than later, even if we will later receive due to the End of Czechoslovakia decision a free blueprint for this technology.
I.G. Farben ---> Combat Engineer Brigade 1939 | Rheinmetall ---> Early Static Anti-Air Artillery 1938
With the finalized research on 1939 engineers we're one step closer to start the upgrade of our divisions and brigades. Modern AA will compensate for our relative small air force and make enemy raids on our industry more difficult, even if we have only Germany's initial AA at our disposal.
Mauser Werke ---> 1939 Infantry | Hugo Sperrle ---> First Strike Doctrine
On the 20th of November, 1939 we finish the research of 1939 Infantry which will have the aforementioned repercussions, I will elaborate on this after the next screenshot. Hugo Sperrle will continue with the research of the First Strike Doctrine that will improve night attacks, morale and organisation of our interceptors. There are so many 1939 air doctrine techs, especially a flood of new technologies for our interceptors, that we have to start the research of these technologies now if we wish to remain competitive.
After the 1939 infantry tech is completed I immediatly check my production queue, and indeed: No other units are about to be finished in 1938, so it's time to start upgrading. According to my explanations before I move, respectively, two PRs of light armor and interceptors to the top of my production queue. Unfortunately DH doesn't have AoDs advanced sliders, so it will be necessary to control the production sliders manually for the rest of the interbellum period: Production is set and fixed (right-click on the slider) to exactly 50 IC, because the first four PRs I wish to produce cost exactly 50 IC, while all other PRs in the production queue won't be produced on purpose due to the lack of any additional IC. Reinforcements will be still on zero -- the mobilization event will reinforce our units almost completely -- and consumer goods and supplies are set to 43.14 for the former and 21.48 IC to the latter which is 0.01 IC more than these sliders would need; but to counter any microscopic fluctuations a small buffer is always handy. The other 112.39 IC points are allocated to the upgrade slider. With this slider setting our updates run at roughly 20 percent efficiency -- which sounds lacklustre, but it would be due to DH's long build and upgrade times anyway utopical to hope for the upgrade of every single division. The IC we will spend on upgrades will also increase through the upcoming annexations that are part of Germany's historical event chain and the removal of one interceptor PR in March 1939.
This manual production setup will require constant supervision, especially after the End of Czechoslovakia and the Memel Ultimatum a complete readjustment will be necessary. I really miss AoD's advanced sliders here that would allow the use of the production AI while at the same time sliders can become the subject of limitations set by the player, e.g. only allowing 50 IC for the production slider.
On the 15th of December 1938 the End of Czechoslovakia decision becomes available. I immediatly enact the decision and go for a partition of Czechoslovakia. Creating a puppeted Slovakia is in my opinion not wise in DH, as the Slovaks get -- without German guard divisions -- easily annexed by the Poles as soon as war breaks out. The Hungarians are not much better at resisting the Poles because their land forces are puny and they tend to station them at the wrong border, but due to the additional VP provinces they are at least not immediatly annexed by Poland, and I could always take military control over Hungary. Besides, I'm an outspoken adversary of patchwork rugs and wish to have a free alliance with Hungary. This is somewhat risky, because the chance that the Czechs will resist is fifty percent, but I'm actually not
that afraid of a fight as it would eliminate my peacetime IC penalty. At least in AoD the chance was 60 percent that the Czechs would resist, so I think that it's not as risky as it sounds ...
Everything went better than expected; Case Green is not necessary. We annex the rest of Czechia while the Hungarians annex Slovakia.
We gain blueprints for the 1939 Improved Light Tank we already started to research, 1939 Motorized Infantry Divisions blueprints which are useless as we don't research or build motorized infantry, one hawk slider move which is also useless as our hawk lobby slider is already maxed out, and yet another useless five percent dissent reduction as I still won't enact partial mobilisation and I don't have any 1939 ministers I could appoint. In case of a puppeted Slovakia we would have received a ten percent dissent reduction which would have changed perhaps our strategy regarding the moment of our partial mobilisation, but this is only hypothetical as I almost always go for the partition. Germany's and Hungary's belligerence also increased by two points.
Our new core provinces in Czechia boost our Base IC to 199 and our Effective IC to 259 on the next day. Considering that the Soviets almost have the German Effective IC as their Base IC it's about time. An early Anschluss would have been indeed extremely advantageous, but if we make good progress with our strategy, the Soviets won't have enough time to utilise their industrial base against us.
On the same day Romania had a sudden change in government, which changed their social liberal government to a paternal autocrat regime; I'm pleased by this development, as they're now in theory available for an alliance, and the alliance with the Romanians should be concluded at the beginning of 1940 at the latest to allow us the proper execution of Barbarossa. I also order my new fellow allies, the Hungarians, to stop sending me any expeditionary forces; I will do this with every country in my alliance as I don't like being spammed with them, even when in Hungary's case due to their puny army (six infantry divisions) it doesn't seem to be probable that I will become the victim of expeditionary forces.
