As I continue to play the HPP mod to Semper Fi, I find more and more differences from what I think I saw in vanilla SF (I only played one brief game before modding it – not that there was anything wrong with SF, but I wanted to try HPP).
One change is the borders and setup in China. In HOI 3/SF, Shanxi covers a huge portion of northern China, and separates Manchukuo from Nationalist China. In HPP, Shanxi is a little state nowhere near the border of Manchukuo, and snugged up against Communist China (in the below screenshot, both are contained within the red circle).
In my Hammonds 1938 Atlas (a really cool item I picked up – shows Grossdeutschland just after Germany took the Sudetenland, but before the rest of Czechoslovakia fell), “Shensi” is located approximately where the HPP borders are, and is shown as a state within the Republic of China. Of course, these were all warlord districts back then, probably nominally under the RoC. I trust the HPP modders for having a reason for doing this, and it’s probably quite logical.
It seems to me that Guangxi and Xibei San Ma are larger, too. And Japan has a couple of enclaves south of Manchukuo. Interesting. Soon after the game starts, the Republic of China and Communist China enter a civil war.
Also early in the game, we get more choices as to doctrines. I choose Armoured Schwerpunkt as my Tank Doctrine (Japan, for instance, chose Infantry Support), and Blitzkrieg as my Operational Doctrine. Might as well stick with historical choices here – they make sense for an industrialized country which is surrounded by enemies and must strike quickly to prevent being overrun.
These choices – as noted, HPP does this differently – open up new Techs for me to research. Spearhead HQs allow the HQs to follow closely behind the action, and reduces the Attack Delay (which I’ve found to be critical in hotly contested combats!). Armoured Division Breakthrough increases most combat values for Armour and Heavy Armour (whereas in vanilla these values are all improved by different techs in the standard tank research tracks).
Now, looking at the requirements for different events, I notice that in HPP the prereqs for the ReOccupation of the Rhineland are different. If I’m not mistaken, vanilla requires a certain number of “divisions” (which can be “gamed”, as noted in the Strategy Guide), whereas HPP requires a certain number of brigades, instead – more logical.
It also requires fewer divisions to be located along the border with France, in a more localized operation, which again is more logical and more historical.
By the way, I may mention the Strategy Guide quite a bit, partly (obviously!) because I wrote it. I would still recommend new players (at least) review it. The
HOI 3 Strategy Guide is probably still pretty up-to-date and relevant, as it deals mostly with REAL military strategies and tactics that work well within the HOI 3 framework. There’s also the
Strategy Guide Supplement and the
Supplement for v1.3, which again are still useful for most things that aren’t specific to the v1.4 patch, or to Semper Fi. Things in the original Strategy Guide which changed or were incorrect are generally corrected in the 2 later books. It’s true that many things may have changed, based on how later patches modified things. It’s also true that different difficulty levels may invalidate some of the judgments, which were usually based upon Normal play levels.
Partly because of the requirements for the Rhineland, I modify my initial production list, which mostly placed Industry up front, but which also included a Rocket Test Site – might as well get the whole rocket industry up and running as soon as possible. Werner von Braun considered this useful not just for military applications, but also for space exploration, which provides a realistic peacetime justification.
I want artillery brigades built, so I can attach them to some of the border guards facing the Maginot Line. I build these as individual brigades, and I’ll attach them later. These two will put me over the Rhineland requirement, and they’re quick to build. I’m also going to build two infantry divisions with artillery support, and two motorized infantry divisions, also with artillery. Now, some of you may note the artillery brigades attached to a motorized infantry division are pretty silly – they have a speed of 4, while the rest of the unit has a capability to go much faster. In answer, I don’t expect they’ll be called to action anytime soon – I’ll have time to develop and build Self-Propelled Artillery, and will replace them, moving those artillery brigades to infantry units. This will have the dual effect of qualifying (I think) for the Combined Arms Bonus.
As I said, pretty much everything in production you don’t see in the above screenshot is industry. I’m overbuilding Supplies, and intending to increase every stockpile, as I can.
I don’t have a lot of use for my Spies right now. I lower every country to zero priority unless I have some reason to want spies there (basically the countries you see), and even those are all reduced to low priority except for the Soviet Union. Now, if I had a “lower neutrality” mission for other countries (not my own, which I do have) I’d be using that, but I don’t. And the lower neutrality mission for Germany isn’t one I want to pursue, because I don’t want to declare war on anybody, right? What I’m left with is the “Increase Threat” mission for the USSR, which for some reason in my game is particularly inept at finding and imprisoning my spies! By increasing their Threat, I drive my eastern neighbors into my arms.
Poland’s neutrality is higher than the Soviet threat against them, by a degree of 28 points, but that will reduce as time goes on. I also need to get them into the Axis “range” – within 50 points of Germany on the Axis alignment. This seems to be more difficult in HPP than in regular HOI/SF, though you don’t see that quite yet – in this screenshot they’re coming along quickly enough, thanks to my Influence.
I contract with the USA to provide massive amounts of Oil, so I can increase my stockpiles before tensions get too high. I’m trading with everybody – Belgium, France, UK, Romania, Italy, Japan, Soviet Union, etc., because my priority is not to “punish” anybody, but rather to befriend everybody and also to improve my stockpiles quickly. Extra cash comes from the Supplies, and our (temporary, as it happens) overabundance of Energy.
In May, 1936, we re-occupy the Rhineland. Our two artillery brigades are ready, we deploy them near the border, and allow infantry units to advance to position to join up with them. We lose 15 Diplomatic Relation points with France, but other consequences are minimal. We lose 3 Neutrality, which is incidental, and France and UK also lose the same amount, which is concerning, but unavoidable – I was unwilling to allow the Rhineland to remain outside our control. That’s a matter of direct national soveteignty, not regaining cores outside our current boundaries.
Fortunately, that’s all we have – 3 Threat against France. I’ll gain more if I deploy more units, and so my intent, frankly, is not to do so.
All the normal things happen during this period, also – Edward VIII abdicates, Ethiopia capitulates, etc. In June, the Spanish Civil War starts, after a short period of flavor-purposed “unrest” (an HPP addition, I think) where rebels start rampaging across the countryside in a couple places. Both Italy and Germany intervene on behalf of the Nationalists, while the USSR intervenes on the other side. The British and French maintain their counsel and stay away.
Losing (temporarily) the Manpower is not a big deal, nor the Supplies or even the Money (I take a loan, apparently). In HPP your participation in the SCW is rewarded by the awarding of research points in certain likely technologies, and perhaps some other ways too.
By July, 1936, I was successfully adding to my stockpiles in every category. I usually try to accumulate in a 4:2:1 ratio between Energy, Metal and Rares, with a generalized steady increase also of Oil. I’m approaching this, seemingly, and I’m quite happy with how things are going.
Production-wise, things are looking up. I start producing an Interceptor wing, and even a couple of escorts for use if/when war is declared. I switch to only trying to produce a couple – one of each infantry and motorized – of the four infantry units I’d started producing, the other units going into reserve holding pattern. The Rocket Site is almost done, which is great. And in December I should start getting results from my construction of Industry.
I loosen up my government restrictions upon the society by backing away to Limited Restrictions (only a Free Society is more free). I increase our Education investment (remember, this was default in unmodded HOI/SF, but I have to pay for it in HPP). The benefit HPP allows for this investment has less impact upon Leadership/Research, though.
Umm… That’s one problem with trying to stockpile massive resource reserves in HPP – they have artificial penalties that kick in around 50,000 units to make accumulation of large reserves difficult. You must find storage for all that stuff – warehousing shortages may cause the loss of some materials, and I’m getting that for Coal, now. It’s a pretty serious penalty, but I determine that it can be gotten around, with some expense/costs, and so I keep stockpiling.
Sometime in summer or early fall I finish researching the Light Tank levels to 2nd rank, which gives me some improvements to light tank techs, but also unlocks the Medium Tank units for research, which I immediately undertake. I have little interest in light tank units. Yes, they might fit well in a “peaceful” country which is expecting to avoid war if it can be avoided, but at the same time even the addition of light tank units add to my Threat to the Allies. I’ll avoid building those, in favor of more useful Medium Tank units when I can.
In the last update, I explained at some length why switching to a Consumer Product Orientation makes sense during peacetime in HPP, whereas it didn’t hold much value in early versions of HOI 3 (i.e. when the Strategy Guide was developed). I switch in the Fall, when I have some money to expend for this purpose (HPP has higher costs for doing so). This reduces my peacetime CG needs, and slightly reduces my production efficiency.
I later discover that this has caused a penalty I didn’t anticipate. The SMS Graf Spee, which had been days from completion at the start of the game, was now a couple months from being launchable! The efficiency loss was retroactive (which, I suppose, is not unrealistic), and so I had to refocus on building it if I wished to deploy the ship. Graf Spee, along with the destroyers and subs in the production queue at the start of the game, had been moved to back-burner status because I didn’t want to launch anything to increase Threat.
As you can see, the Nationalists are doing quite well in this version of the Spanish Civil War. In my previous two games – one in v1.4 and the other in SF 2.03 – the Republicans had won, so this is an interesting twist.