Really enjoyed reading this - it's an interesting approach meticulously applied and well-told.
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Glad to be pointed to this. Trying Nicey Germany as alternate history is intriguing, but I play HPP and imagine the neutrality diplomacy game changes the picture considerably.
I don't remember off the top of my head, but what does HPP do to neutrality and threat?
Just read the whole aar. You definitely provide an interesting alternative to the normal German war plan. I am curious why you were unable to obtain fuel supplies or crude oil form other non--belligerents.
Well, the problem was that even after stockpiling thousands of units, and stealing France and the UK's fuel stocks, and having 80k+ crude oil, there's simply not enough fuel that I can afford to transport through the Soviet Union to supply the army. Refining capacity is limited, and even if I bought 50 units of fuel a day, it wouldn't make any difference.
I consumed over 80k fuel in a year. That's over 219 fuel a day. A good portion of that was just my mechanized forces, but you also have to consider the problems with the supply network, air forces being rebased (causing fuel to run through the net work willy-nilly) and the navy operating at sea.
Even if the US would sell to me (I think they had me under an embargo), it wouldn't be enough, assuming I could afford it at the prices they would ask. Keep in mind that even taking the Soviet stockpile in Moscow did not relieve the fuel shortage.
While HOI's infrastructure system is probably the easiest way to model the problems in Russia, I still wish it had the ability to change the rail system separate from the remaining infrastructure system. You can build railroads where there is no infrastructure, similar to when the US started building railroads in the west. At leas that would alleviate some of the supply problems. I guess that is wishful thinking.
Nope, but I had played this out a couple of other times, so I knew what plan I needed. . . . It's like a WWII version of the Defense of Duffer's Drift, only with aircraft carriers and Hitler.
A nostalgic reference for me. More recenlty, "Defense of Hill 781" follows in those footsteps but with mech inf commander Lt. Col. A. Tack Always as the protagonist with much to learn and unlearn.
Hard to contrast point-by-point since I've been playing HPP, but, to begin with a key example, I can't use USSR threat to attack Bulgaria. Event decisions can change neutrality but otherwise it can seem painfully slow, the tanking-IC-below-30 trick is out, and the various (reasonable) conditions to Prepare for War and then get War Economy take time, sometimes a long time. There's always the noneutrality console command if tired of waiting. For a nice guy game, however, I imagine the differences can provide a deeper game of restraining adversaries from becoming belligerents.