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Ooh, I like that version of Chamberlain - he's got foresight and a mind of steel! And this:
That mental image put a nice smile on my face.
Getting a little nervous, seeing how you're in 1939 and you have about as much groundforce punching power as, say, Bulgaria (taking a wild, unsubstantiated guess here). But I know it's part of the masterplan.
Poor Neville Chamberlain. He gets so much hate, but he might complain that we shouldn't hate the player, just hate the game.
Yeah, not only have I not really built any ground units, but I haven't moved them from their starting positions. If someone invaded me right now, I'd be overrun in a week or so. But threat is mutual, so not even Poland can invade me right now. Deal with that, Churchill!
Don't worry about Bulgaria. As we will see in this game, poor Bulgaria can't even join the Axis despite the AI's best efforts to do so. I'll explain way in 43, but the short answer is that there's not enough threat for Bulgaria to join the Axis, even as the Soviets rampage throughout Eastern Europe and the Germans puppet France and the UK. :wacko:
I don't think so. I did an experiment and built 50 HQs on January 1st of 1936. I ran the game for a week and reinforced them. My threat remained zero. Since HQs do not spawn from the production queue, I guess they are outside the threat mechanic entirely.
Could a human dominate the world with HQs and HQ improving techs to save on brigades? The threat savings probably isn't worth it, but I suppose someone insane enough could build all divisions with HQ brigades to trade threat for really weak SA.
Chapter Three: You Magnificent Bastard
“It’s so good to see you, general. I am finally glad we have a chance to talk.”
“Well, Herr Schacht, I’m not really sure why I am here. Jodl is the Chief of Staff. I’m just the commander of 1st Army, freezing my buttocks off on the Polish border. And by 1st Army, I mean, of course, the five men and mascot that comprise all of the divisions on the eastern front. Your office has not exactly been keen on keeping us equipped and reinforced.”
“You are here, General Guderian, because I read your book. And unlike the Chief of Staff, I think you are a magnificent bastard.”
Guderian arched a bow silently, concealing his confusion. The smile on Schacht’s face was disarming, if a bit unsettling.
“Please, have a seat, General. Alfred, while making a competent Chief of Staff with his policies regarding organization of existing forces, is no visionary of the future. He’s the sort of person to sign off blindly on orders without offering any of his own input into a situation. You, sir, are something else entirely. You see things not as they are, not as politicians want them to be, but as they will be. We have that in common.”
The general took a seat and fumbled with the silver coffee service in the expansive office.
“You will forgive an old soldier if I say that I am unused to flattery and politics. What is this all about? And what does it have to do with my book?”
“General, I read Achtung-Panzer! and, while I confess no expertise on military matters, I have to say I was impressed. You have a vision of war that, at the time you wrote your book, technology could not support. Armored vehicles could be made to do great things, but without the infantry to support them, the operational tempo of modern warfare could not be sustained. While you do not say it directly, the entire fiasco that was the Great War could have been avoided if armored vehicles and infantry could work in tandem and at great speed. The combination of arms and the operational tempo of such forces could dominate enemies even if they were twice your size and dug in along a series of trenches.”
“Well, that is an oversimplification, but yes. Tanks and armored vehicles can do amazing things, but without their comrades in arms, they cannot sustain an advance. Some armchair generals talk about armored warfare like it’s some kind of swarm of steel. It’s not. The leaders need to be able to coordinate with supporting arms and the supporting arms have to be able to keep up with the armor. Tanks, planes, infantry, artillery, engineers, even radios and viewfinders are all a part of panzer warfare. But it’s all academic anyway. The army hasn’t received a single new vehicle in years. Our existing armored forces are modeled after tank designs from the Great War. Our infantry use rifles that were field tested under the Weimar regime. In fact, you, sir, have hobbled the army while puffing up the air force and navy. If the French attacked us today, Goering and his bombers could fly missions all they wanted to, but we will end up defending the Fatherland with knives and sharp sticks.”
Schacht smiled again.
“As of this morning, the Deputy Führer, in the name of the Führer himself, has stripped Goering of his portfolio. He has fallen from grace, as it were. The public has not been told quite yet. But they will be told, and it will be quite the scandal. Dr. Goebbels tells me that poor Goering will be found in the presence of prostitutes, cocaine, and an underage boy who will be rescued just in the nick of time. I don’t think that the poor man will even know what happened until he is sitting in a jail cell.”
“So what does that mean?”
“It means that my desk has become amazingly clear of annoying memos about how such and such bombers should fly. Really, he was quite a putrid man to work with. But there are two things that did not leave my desk, General. Your book and a copy of the specifications for something called the Sd.Kfz. 251/3, better known as the Kommandopanzerwagen.”
“Panzerwagen? You mean the mechanized assault vehicle? I’ve only heard rumors about it. Doesn’t it combine armor and troop carrying or some such thing?”
“I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but the plans call for 14 centimeters of front armor, a top speed of 50 kilometers per hour, capacity for 10 soldiers in addition to the crew, and two heavy machineguns.”
“Not bad.”
“Oh, and every sixth vehicle will replace half the troop capacity with radio, encryption, a place for maps, specialized field glasses with 10x magnification, and extra whip antennas for additional radio range.”
“That’s… that’s really impressive, Herr Schacht. I wish someone had told us poor grunts about that before. I and the other generals sitting near Poland have felt that the Reich has forgotten about us.”
“Forgotten? Hardly. The diplomatic situation has been, shall we say, sensitive. But now that both France and the Soviets are arming themselves, the diplomatic fallout from a renovation of the existing army will not be a problem. Do you think this vehicle would help infantry forces work in tandem with armored forces?”
“If we had any decent armored forces, then yes, it might make a huge difference.”
Schacht shuffled a paper over to the general.
“What about this? My office calls it the Sturmgeschütz three. It’s got a 75 millimeter main gun, 80 centimeters of front armor, and a top speed of 40 kilometers per hour.”
“It seems to be missing a turret, Herr Schacht.”
“Does it need one?”
“Well, most tanks have a turret so they can fire at targets in all directions.”
“What if I told you that this vehicle was practically invisible at 200 meters with proper camouflage because it sits low to the ground? And what if I told you that the removal of the turret makes it easier to maintain than any tank the army has ever had.”
“You have my attention, but if you really read my book, you would know that we need heavier ordnance as well. Really, everything has to move faster. We have always made wonderful artillery in Germany. It’s a shame that we have so little.”
“What do you mean?”
“If everything could move faster, and I mean everything, then our army would be unbeatable. But artillery has always been so slow.”
“You tell me what you need, and we’ll make it.”
“Well, how much ordnance are we talking about? How many divisions can we expect? That might change the kind of specifications I ask for.”
“All of them.”
“What? No, I mean how many divisions.”
“All of them, general. Yes, the special forces will remain in their proper roles, and existing light armored formations with their engineers will stay the same. I probably could never convince Dr. Goebbels to stop his press conferences about how German marines do amazing things with their time. But it is the intention of the government to retrofit the entire standing army with mechanized equipment just like we took existing infantry brigades and retrained and retrofitted them with amphibious and airborne equipment. When that is done, Chamberlain can cry all he wants to in the press, but we will not have technically violated the manpower restrictions on the Versailles treaty. And when he is done blubbering about it, we will add supporting arms to the existing divisions. The problem is that I only know how to make stuff and how to finance it. You, general, know how to organize it and how to lead it. Arming a nation seems easy, but it’s like making a stew. It seems confusing and haphazard, but proper ratios of ingredients must be maintained, or it tastes awful. Tell me, general, what is the recipe for success?”
He thought for a moment.
“Did you say that every sixth vehicle would have radio and encryption, along with good optics for surveying the battlefield?”
The head of finances for the Reich smiled at him patiently.
“Of course. How else can the leadership maintain contact with supporting arms, general?”
For the first time during the meeting, the general smiled.
“Call me Heinz, please. The answer to your question is to found in my second book, which has not been published because I thought no one would give a damn. The recipe is two parts mechanized infantry, two parts fast moving artillery, and one part fast tank guns.”
“Then, Heinz, that is what we will build. It will take years, but the Heer will have it. By the way, what is your second book going to be called?”
“Oh, I haven’t really settled on anything yet. It’s sitting on my shelf at home with Achtung!- Superior Firepower scrawled on the cover, but that sounds banal, don’t you think?”
“It’s so good to see you, general. I am finally glad we have a chance to talk.”
“Well, Herr Schacht, I’m not really sure why I am here. Jodl is the Chief of Staff. I’m just the commander of 1st Army, freezing my buttocks off on the Polish border. And by 1st Army, I mean, of course, the five men and mascot that comprise all of the divisions on the eastern front. Your office has not exactly been keen on keeping us equipped and reinforced.”
“You are here, General Guderian, because I read your book. And unlike the Chief of Staff, I think you are a magnificent bastard.”
Guderian arched a bow silently, concealing his confusion. The smile on Schacht’s face was disarming, if a bit unsettling.
“Please, have a seat, General. Alfred, while making a competent Chief of Staff with his policies regarding organization of existing forces, is no visionary of the future. He’s the sort of person to sign off blindly on orders without offering any of his own input into a situation. You, sir, are something else entirely. You see things not as they are, not as politicians want them to be, but as they will be. We have that in common.”
The general took a seat and fumbled with the silver coffee service in the expansive office.
“You will forgive an old soldier if I say that I am unused to flattery and politics. What is this all about? And what does it have to do with my book?”
“General, I read Achtung-Panzer! and, while I confess no expertise on military matters, I have to say I was impressed. You have a vision of war that, at the time you wrote your book, technology could not support. Armored vehicles could be made to do great things, but without the infantry to support them, the operational tempo of modern warfare could not be sustained. While you do not say it directly, the entire fiasco that was the Great War could have been avoided if armored vehicles and infantry could work in tandem and at great speed. The combination of arms and the operational tempo of such forces could dominate enemies even if they were twice your size and dug in along a series of trenches.”
“Well, that is an oversimplification, but yes. Tanks and armored vehicles can do amazing things, but without their comrades in arms, they cannot sustain an advance. Some armchair generals talk about armored warfare like it’s some kind of swarm of steel. It’s not. The leaders need to be able to coordinate with supporting arms and the supporting arms have to be able to keep up with the armor. Tanks, planes, infantry, artillery, engineers, even radios and viewfinders are all a part of panzer warfare. But it’s all academic anyway. The army hasn’t received a single new vehicle in years. Our existing armored forces are modeled after tank designs from the Great War. Our infantry use rifles that were field tested under the Weimar regime. In fact, you, sir, have hobbled the army while puffing up the air force and navy. If the French attacked us today, Goering and his bombers could fly missions all they wanted to, but we will end up defending the Fatherland with knives and sharp sticks.”
Schacht smiled again.
“As of this morning, the Deputy Führer, in the name of the Führer himself, has stripped Goering of his portfolio. He has fallen from grace, as it were. The public has not been told quite yet. But they will be told, and it will be quite the scandal. Dr. Goebbels tells me that poor Goering will be found in the presence of prostitutes, cocaine, and an underage boy who will be rescued just in the nick of time. I don’t think that the poor man will even know what happened until he is sitting in a jail cell.”
“So what does that mean?”
“It means that my desk has become amazingly clear of annoying memos about how such and such bombers should fly. Really, he was quite a putrid man to work with. But there are two things that did not leave my desk, General. Your book and a copy of the specifications for something called the Sd.Kfz. 251/3, better known as the Kommandopanzerwagen.”
“Panzerwagen? You mean the mechanized assault vehicle? I’ve only heard rumors about it. Doesn’t it combine armor and troop carrying or some such thing?”
“I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but the plans call for 14 centimeters of front armor, a top speed of 50 kilometers per hour, capacity for 10 soldiers in addition to the crew, and two heavy machineguns.”
“Not bad.”
“Oh, and every sixth vehicle will replace half the troop capacity with radio, encryption, a place for maps, specialized field glasses with 10x magnification, and extra whip antennas for additional radio range.”
“That’s… that’s really impressive, Herr Schacht. I wish someone had told us poor grunts about that before. I and the other generals sitting near Poland have felt that the Reich has forgotten about us.”
“Forgotten? Hardly. The diplomatic situation has been, shall we say, sensitive. But now that both France and the Soviets are arming themselves, the diplomatic fallout from a renovation of the existing army will not be a problem. Do you think this vehicle would help infantry forces work in tandem with armored forces?”
“If we had any decent armored forces, then yes, it might make a huge difference.”
Schacht shuffled a paper over to the general.
“What about this? My office calls it the Sturmgeschütz three. It’s got a 75 millimeter main gun, 80 centimeters of front armor, and a top speed of 40 kilometers per hour.”
“It seems to be missing a turret, Herr Schacht.”
“Does it need one?”
“Well, most tanks have a turret so they can fire at targets in all directions.”
“What if I told you that this vehicle was practically invisible at 200 meters with proper camouflage because it sits low to the ground? And what if I told you that the removal of the turret makes it easier to maintain than any tank the army has ever had.”
“You have my attention, but if you really read my book, you would know that we need heavier ordnance as well. Really, everything has to move faster. We have always made wonderful artillery in Germany. It’s a shame that we have so little.”
“What do you mean?”
“If everything could move faster, and I mean everything, then our army would be unbeatable. But artillery has always been so slow.”
“You tell me what you need, and we’ll make it.”
“Well, how much ordnance are we talking about? How many divisions can we expect? That might change the kind of specifications I ask for.”
“All of them.”
“What? No, I mean how many divisions.”
“All of them, general. Yes, the special forces will remain in their proper roles, and existing light armored formations with their engineers will stay the same. I probably could never convince Dr. Goebbels to stop his press conferences about how German marines do amazing things with their time. But it is the intention of the government to retrofit the entire standing army with mechanized equipment just like we took existing infantry brigades and retrained and retrofitted them with amphibious and airborne equipment. When that is done, Chamberlain can cry all he wants to in the press, but we will not have technically violated the manpower restrictions on the Versailles treaty. And when he is done blubbering about it, we will add supporting arms to the existing divisions. The problem is that I only know how to make stuff and how to finance it. You, general, know how to organize it and how to lead it. Arming a nation seems easy, but it’s like making a stew. It seems confusing and haphazard, but proper ratios of ingredients must be maintained, or it tastes awful. Tell me, general, what is the recipe for success?”
He thought for a moment.
“Did you say that every sixth vehicle would have radio and encryption, along with good optics for surveying the battlefield?”
The head of finances for the Reich smiled at him patiently.
“Of course. How else can the leadership maintain contact with supporting arms, general?”
For the first time during the meeting, the general smiled.
“Call me Heinz, please. The answer to your question is to found in my second book, which has not been published because I thought no one would give a damn. The recipe is two parts mechanized infantry, two parts fast moving artillery, and one part fast tank guns.”
“Then, Heinz, that is what we will build. It will take years, but the Heer will have it. By the way, what is your second book going to be called?”
“Oh, I haven’t really settled on anything yet. It’s sitting on my shelf at home with Achtung!- Superior Firepower scrawled on the cover, but that sounds banal, don’t you think?”
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So, is that 2xMECH+2xSPArt+1xTD? Will you use armor at all or just spam those mechanized divisions? Since timing is critical for your plan to work, when does this massive mechanized army start getting built?
EDIT: You should consider adding an index to your first post, so people can quickly jump around. Not a big deal right now, but when your AAR gets to 6 pages of posts then it's helpful for readers to have a way to jump to your AAR chapters and skip the in-between if they want.
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Chapter three: Fascism spreads via democracy, and StuGs look way cool (Gameplay)
Germany has a Great Airforce by 1940, but as you all know, the army is bad shape. By sometime in 1940, the special forces are done and we have plenty of MAR and PARA. TRA have been built so that PARA actually can be dropped on targets, and the navy does have transport ships. We’ve also finished most of the CVs and CLs so that, by 41, Germany will have a 6xCV/6xCL fleet ready to go, complete with up to date CAGs. Those better at managing practicals could do a better job, but I opted to go all in on IC as soon as possible so that the increased IC would be in full force for more days. The starting CV practicals are so bad that losing more isn’t a big deal if you just want to take out the RN, but those looking to challenge the USN really should probably cook practicals with CVLs as soon as possible to get more CVs in the water by the time the US joins the war. You’ll need them.
How, then, to build the right army? The problem facing late-war Germany is that all army brigades, regardless of type, generate the same threat. MECH, MIL, GAR, MP, and even CAV will all generate the same threat upon completion in the queue. I can abuse Volunteer Army and reserves only so far before my threat pushes the UK into a war. How best to budget threat, assuming that I have more time to “research” my way out of any dilemmas I might find myself in? The answer is obvious: mechanized forces. MECH is horribly expensive both to produce and to upgrade, but it packs quite a punch for a combat brigade. TDs reduce softness further and add hard attack. SPARTY will provide a ton of soft attack and not increase softness to the point that you lose the CA bonus.
The recipe for 95% of the German army will be 2xMECH, 2xSPARTY, 1xTD. This build puts softness at 62% at 1938-40 tech levels. This goes down a bit as you research light tank armor for the MECH, but it doesn’t cross the threshold to hard-on-soft before the war will be over. This might be seen as a flaw in the design, as hard-on-soft is really nice. But, as I discovered, slapping 2 SPARTY into the build loses the 20% additional ORG damage from hard-on-soft while gaining far more than 20% total soft attack. A single TD is enough to deter French or Soviet armor, so adding even more soft attack makes this formation absurdly strong against soft units when terrain is open. In bad terrain, it perform at a disadvantage. But MECH attacks into bad terrain slightly better than ARM except for rivers, so it can anticipate slightly better performance in bad terrain compared to ARM/SPARTY.
But the real equalizer on bad terrain will be the horde of TACs I have already produced. Once air superiority is achieved, the Luftwaffe’s job will be to bomb everything, everywhere, all the time. MECH won’t be attacking full strength units in bad terrain; it will be attacking fleeing units or bombed units with damaged ORG. This strategy will prove effective as we will see.
I also forget to build CAS during this particular game. While I don’t miss it too much, you might not want to emulate that. Pay attention to the build queue. : )
By budgeting for minimum threat, the army is automatically budgeted for burning tons of IC but minimal officers. This is nice, but there is one really bad side effect. Fuel. We’ll see just how bad the fuel situation gets later, but right now bear in mind that I will be practically at the max for fuel stockpiles and I will be able to refine a ton (oil refineries from Romania and the Netherlands plus massive IC), but I can expect to run out before the war is over.
1940-1941 is also a good time to talk about diplomacy. Since the war isn’t going to start until 1943, electing fascists in relevant democracies has a greater impact. They have at least 3 years to naturally drift towards the Axis before hostilities break out. No coups are necessary. In this game, I run spies to elect fascists in the following countries.
I don’t quite get them elected in the Netherlands, but I snag fascist victories in the USA, Yugoslavia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland (not pictured), and Finland (not pictured). I restrained my budget on spies because I didn’t want to spend more than a certain amount of leadership on spoofing elections in democracies, so, as you can tell, attrition has killed off most of my spies in these countries. Those more inclined to meddle in elections could do even more. I ignore Romania because they will join by event later, anyway. I also ignore manipulating elections in France and the UK because they are already in the Allies. Putting fascists into power in either country will NOT alter the AI’s behavior AND makes the game easier for them because they can enact a laws normally reserved for Germany and the Soviets. Imagine the UK with a totalitarian system and propaganda press. You could coup France out of the Allies, but I chose not to do so this time. The UK, as far as I know, would still pursue a policy of war with you. I also think that regular France (not Vichy) will never, ever join the Axis, so couping them serves only a defensive purpose.
A fascist USA has the capacity to rearm themselves for war much faster if their neutrality has been reduced to allow better laws. So don't elect fascists in the USA if you are enacting decisions that reduce the neutrality of the USA because you just wake the beast up earlier.
There is another side to diplomacy in a late-war situation, though. Germany’s threat is absolutely crucial to diplomacy in HOI3. You can’t even begin to understand that in 3.06 until you’ve experienced it. By enacting no decisions and by keeping my threat really low, I’ve more or less “broken” what you could normally expect in a HOI3 game. Italy will not join the Axis until British threat from their DOW against me in 43 allows them to. Prior to that, there is not enough threat on Italy for them to join any faction. Ditto this for most of Europe. In fact, thanks to Germany’s absurdly low threat, Lithuania and Bulgaria never get enough threat on anybody to join a faction, even after we win the war. The Soviet DOW on Poland is insufficient for either country to break their neutrality. (“What’s that you say? The Soviets invaded our next door neighbor Poland? That doesn’t concern us here in Lithuania. Too far away to make a difference.”) Japan’s threat lets them join a faction, but they don’t generate enough threat themselves to frighten anyone else. Because my threat is so low, and because Japan doesn’t generate enough, the Commonwealth countries, even though they are sympathetic to the Allies, can’t join a faction. In fact, no one joins the Allies at all because there’s just not enough threat to go around.
This wouldn’t work in MP because the UK will raise threat on some minor for better laws and to get diplomacy working, but in SP it really changes things. This low threat also makes it harder for France and the UK to rearm. Remember that the UK’s neutrality slowly declines over time no matter what anyone else does. The constantly reducing neutrality seems to enable passage of laws for the UK over time, but consider that Germany will spend from 36-43 operating at the best laws while the UK has to work towards it. By 1942 (examining the save game file), the UK still is only at Full Mobilization and Two Year draft. By not firing any events or decisions that reduce the neutrality of the other major powers, I can’t get the Pact of Steel (no Italy), but the Allies can’t rearm worth a damn. A fair trade, given the IC imbalance.
One thing to keep in your mind, though, is that the Soviets are at best peace time laws and are rearming furiously. While I did not check it while playing, save games reveal that by 1942 the Soviets are sitting at over 1000 brigades and around 70 aircraft. Thus, in game terms, the real threat doesn’t even come from Neville “Guilty of starting a war for no damn reason” Chamberlain.
Germany has a Great Airforce by 1940, but as you all know, the army is bad shape. By sometime in 1940, the special forces are done and we have plenty of MAR and PARA. TRA have been built so that PARA actually can be dropped on targets, and the navy does have transport ships. We’ve also finished most of the CVs and CLs so that, by 41, Germany will have a 6xCV/6xCL fleet ready to go, complete with up to date CAGs. Those better at managing practicals could do a better job, but I opted to go all in on IC as soon as possible so that the increased IC would be in full force for more days. The starting CV practicals are so bad that losing more isn’t a big deal if you just want to take out the RN, but those looking to challenge the USN really should probably cook practicals with CVLs as soon as possible to get more CVs in the water by the time the US joins the war. You’ll need them.
How, then, to build the right army? The problem facing late-war Germany is that all army brigades, regardless of type, generate the same threat. MECH, MIL, GAR, MP, and even CAV will all generate the same threat upon completion in the queue. I can abuse Volunteer Army and reserves only so far before my threat pushes the UK into a war. How best to budget threat, assuming that I have more time to “research” my way out of any dilemmas I might find myself in? The answer is obvious: mechanized forces. MECH is horribly expensive both to produce and to upgrade, but it packs quite a punch for a combat brigade. TDs reduce softness further and add hard attack. SPARTY will provide a ton of soft attack and not increase softness to the point that you lose the CA bonus.
The recipe for 95% of the German army will be 2xMECH, 2xSPARTY, 1xTD. This build puts softness at 62% at 1938-40 tech levels. This goes down a bit as you research light tank armor for the MECH, but it doesn’t cross the threshold to hard-on-soft before the war will be over. This might be seen as a flaw in the design, as hard-on-soft is really nice. But, as I discovered, slapping 2 SPARTY into the build loses the 20% additional ORG damage from hard-on-soft while gaining far more than 20% total soft attack. A single TD is enough to deter French or Soviet armor, so adding even more soft attack makes this formation absurdly strong against soft units when terrain is open. In bad terrain, it perform at a disadvantage. But MECH attacks into bad terrain slightly better than ARM except for rivers, so it can anticipate slightly better performance in bad terrain compared to ARM/SPARTY.
But the real equalizer on bad terrain will be the horde of TACs I have already produced. Once air superiority is achieved, the Luftwaffe’s job will be to bomb everything, everywhere, all the time. MECH won’t be attacking full strength units in bad terrain; it will be attacking fleeing units or bombed units with damaged ORG. This strategy will prove effective as we will see.
I also forget to build CAS during this particular game. While I don’t miss it too much, you might not want to emulate that. Pay attention to the build queue. : )
By budgeting for minimum threat, the army is automatically budgeted for burning tons of IC but minimal officers. This is nice, but there is one really bad side effect. Fuel. We’ll see just how bad the fuel situation gets later, but right now bear in mind that I will be practically at the max for fuel stockpiles and I will be able to refine a ton (oil refineries from Romania and the Netherlands plus massive IC), but I can expect to run out before the war is over.
1940-1941 is also a good time to talk about diplomacy. Since the war isn’t going to start until 1943, electing fascists in relevant democracies has a greater impact. They have at least 3 years to naturally drift towards the Axis before hostilities break out. No coups are necessary. In this game, I run spies to elect fascists in the following countries.
I don’t quite get them elected in the Netherlands, but I snag fascist victories in the USA, Yugoslavia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland (not pictured), and Finland (not pictured). I restrained my budget on spies because I didn’t want to spend more than a certain amount of leadership on spoofing elections in democracies, so, as you can tell, attrition has killed off most of my spies in these countries. Those more inclined to meddle in elections could do even more. I ignore Romania because they will join by event later, anyway. I also ignore manipulating elections in France and the UK because they are already in the Allies. Putting fascists into power in either country will NOT alter the AI’s behavior AND makes the game easier for them because they can enact a laws normally reserved for Germany and the Soviets. Imagine the UK with a totalitarian system and propaganda press. You could coup France out of the Allies, but I chose not to do so this time. The UK, as far as I know, would still pursue a policy of war with you. I also think that regular France (not Vichy) will never, ever join the Axis, so couping them serves only a defensive purpose.
A fascist USA has the capacity to rearm themselves for war much faster if their neutrality has been reduced to allow better laws. So don't elect fascists in the USA if you are enacting decisions that reduce the neutrality of the USA because you just wake the beast up earlier.
There is another side to diplomacy in a late-war situation, though. Germany’s threat is absolutely crucial to diplomacy in HOI3. You can’t even begin to understand that in 3.06 until you’ve experienced it. By enacting no decisions and by keeping my threat really low, I’ve more or less “broken” what you could normally expect in a HOI3 game. Italy will not join the Axis until British threat from their DOW against me in 43 allows them to. Prior to that, there is not enough threat on Italy for them to join any faction. Ditto this for most of Europe. In fact, thanks to Germany’s absurdly low threat, Lithuania and Bulgaria never get enough threat on anybody to join a faction, even after we win the war. The Soviet DOW on Poland is insufficient for either country to break their neutrality. (“What’s that you say? The Soviets invaded our next door neighbor Poland? That doesn’t concern us here in Lithuania. Too far away to make a difference.”) Japan’s threat lets them join a faction, but they don’t generate enough threat themselves to frighten anyone else. Because my threat is so low, and because Japan doesn’t generate enough, the Commonwealth countries, even though they are sympathetic to the Allies, can’t join a faction. In fact, no one joins the Allies at all because there’s just not enough threat to go around.
This wouldn’t work in MP because the UK will raise threat on some minor for better laws and to get diplomacy working, but in SP it really changes things. This low threat also makes it harder for France and the UK to rearm. Remember that the UK’s neutrality slowly declines over time no matter what anyone else does. The constantly reducing neutrality seems to enable passage of laws for the UK over time, but consider that Germany will spend from 36-43 operating at the best laws while the UK has to work towards it. By 1942 (examining the save game file), the UK still is only at Full Mobilization and Two Year draft. By not firing any events or decisions that reduce the neutrality of the other major powers, I can’t get the Pact of Steel (no Italy), but the Allies can’t rearm worth a damn. A fair trade, given the IC imbalance.
One thing to keep in your mind, though, is that the Soviets are at best peace time laws and are rearming furiously. While I did not check it while playing, save games reveal that by 1942 the Soviets are sitting at over 1000 brigades and around 70 aircraft. Thus, in game terms, the real threat doesn’t even come from Neville “Guilty of starting a war for no damn reason” Chamberlain.
slight typo here
other than that, I must say, you've succeeded allready. it's january 1940 and no UK DoW.
So you're going to make Guderian Head of the Army? wonderful.
with those heavy transports build, I could imagine a strat strategy (there's an appropriate man available to head the Luftwaffe by 1939 or 1940).
Yep, you have the correct build.
Th build starts a bit sometime 40 as I finish up some other stuff, but it doesn't get serious until 41. I didn't research MECH as efficiently as I could have, so I couldn't get started as early as I wanted. Blue emu has a thread somewhere in the main forum that details the fastest way to get MECH into the field. Since I'm not really up against a time constraint, I wasn't paying attention like I should have. Since I was so focused on efficiently using threat, I got sloppy in other ways. Having 4 extra years of build up makes you lazy.
The initial build starts with throwing the INF brigades into the queue and then adding a single TD and SPARTY to each division. Once I've built up both mobile and artillery practical, and once superior firepower is in place, I round out the divisions with their additional SPARTY. Only once I've got all of the original INF converted to MECH and I've added all requisite support brigades do I start new divisions. By then practical is high enough that all that IC really can churn them out in reasonable amount of time.
In case it isn't obvious, I am trying to recycle as much of the great starting XP the German army has into nice expensive MECH. Germany starts with two ARTY brigades somewhere in the OOB, and I upgrade them to SPARTY, too. The support brigades tend to drag down the experience of the whole division, but it's still better than building them from scratch. And I already got my special forces done, and they are pure upgraded INF and are really awesome.
slight typo here
Thanks for the heads up. I corrected it.
Successful? With Neville "Bankrupt the British Empire pursuing an insane foreign policy" Chamberlain breathing down my neck? Not quite. Real success will be beating the UK in a war they start.
As for STR, I've built only 8 wings of them. But I have a special plan in mind for them, so you'll have to wait until the war starts to see why only 8 wings were built and what they end up doing.
Guderian is not quite head of the army. I couldn't make him Chief of Staff at a time that was convenient (I'm not sure when he activates, but I would have loved to have a Chief of Staff that gave a bonus to combat movement!). But he, Rommel, and a couple of other bright sparks end up in key army commands during the war. I ration leader traits differently since 95% of the army has the CA bonus. I also felt the ORG bonus from army level was worth posting guys like Rommel and Guderian at the army level rather than getting them XP at the division level first. Basically, since so much of the army has the CA bonus, putting leaders with panzer leader, offensive doctrine, and trickster at the army level meant that the entire army was sitting at +7.25% to combat efficiency because corps and army panzer leader traits stack and pass down to everybody under them. Putting crappy panzer leaders at group and theater, coupled with the right doctrine, means that most of the army operated with a CA bonus of +39% (49% if the division commander had the trait, but this was rare because they were used up in higher command positions). Adding offensive doctrine on top of that made invading the Soviets a little easier when the time came to push them out of Poland. Besides, the image of Rommel and Guderian desperately fighting the Soviets together in the east while the rest of the army attacked France was an image worthy of a historically inaccurate Hollywood blockbuster.
When I was thinking about the politics tab before this game, I was originally interested in only appointing cabinet ministers that were considered part of the German Resistance for RP purposes (you can see Canaris in earlier shots and Schacht kind of fits the bill), but there aren't enough of these people on the list to appoint someone to every position; had I been more successful at researching relevant politicians and military leaders, I would have modded the game to fire Hitler and Hess so I could really have some fun with German leadership. But, I'm not looking to mod in tons of cabinet ministers, so I abandoned that idea. Maybe some other time.
Getting Goering fired in a parliamentary scandal was satisfying, though.
So you didn't increase the threat of France? I normally do that to get Italy join the Axis. I like the strat effect, what can I say?
Goering lost to a parliamentary scandal sounds good!
Did you trade for oil at all? Or just concentrate on the raw materials for the IC?
Goering lost to a parliamentary scandal sounds good!
Did you trade for oil at all? Or just concentrate on the raw materials for the IC?
this is a fascinating premise and insight into the options. Its clearly a strategy that once you start with, you daren't suddenly revert to type and risk threat levels going up. It 'breaks' HOI, given as how that is essentially premised on a Germany looking for war around 38-39, but to me it seems realistic. The Western Allies had no real problems with the Third Reich as such, certainly not enough to overcome mass aversion to any repeat of the Great War, so it seems valid (certainly less gamey than taking a medium power on a global rampage simply as the system doesn't register their actions in terms of threat and response)
I cannot raise threat on France. That would be very, very bad. Here's why.
The UK can DOW whenever threat exceeds neutrality. It doesn't have to be MY threat, though. Raising France's threat so that Italy will join the Axis does two unpleasant things. One, it will let the UK and France rearm faster because they can enact better laws. Two, there is a point where French threat would let the UK DOW me.
Now, if I were planning it from the beginning, I could raise threat on France just enough to nudge Italy into the Axis and then stop. The UK couldn't DOW me, but I would still be enabling better laws for both the UK and France. In this game, I traded the Pact of Steel for 4 years of France and the UK sitting at sucky laws.
Note that Japan can hypothetically push the UK to war with Germany, but the UK just doesn't get enough threat from Japan. They conquered China in this game and it didn't generate more than 43 threat. Even funnier, the largest threat against the United States wasn't Japan in 1944; it was the Soviet Union with a whopping threat of 23.5. (Which tells me that regional threat needs some work.
)Yeah, when I was still hammering out the strategy, I had a couple of games where the UK DOWed me before I was really ready because I didn't really follow the course all the way. One game, I hadn't recruited enough officers so Germany was surprised by a DOW in 42 with 43% officer ratio. :shudder: Another game, I thought I would be clever and build stacks of MIL to act as port guards, but it pushed the war sooner because MIL brigades generated the same threat as units I really wanted to build and I was surprised by a DOW 6 months before I was ready, so every plane in the Luftwaffe was still running at 1939 techs in 1942.
Those mechanised divisions are beasts. I used a varient of them which traded some of the TD for HARM I appear to recall as France one time and utter steamrolled the Germans and the Russians until I ran out of fuel. That was the only thing stopping me in the end, but that was the game ender since I don't do 'redo's. Athough I suppose one could have tested it out and seen if I could have got to Moscow.
An interesting point, I've never been able playing 'spy master' to get the Low Countries anything like that Facist! How on Earth did that happen? In FTM what's the static modifier on the 'support our party' mission?
That's one of the things that has always fair irked me, along with Swedish Neutrality that they always appear to take till the end of the game to get them going that way. (Oddly Switzerland you can, but I guess that's down to the common borders...
An interesting point, I've never been able playing 'spy master' to get the Low Countries anything like that Facist! How on Earth did that happen? In FTM what's the static modifier on the 'support our party' mission?
That's one of the things that has always fair irked me, along with Swedish Neutrality that they always appear to take till the end of the game to get them going that way. (Oddly Switzerland you can, but I guess that's down to the common borders...
Looking great so far I am looking forward to seeing how this all pans out.
I am surprised by how complicated this; Who would have thought keeping the peace would be so difficult:sad:
-Subscribed-
I am surprised by how complicated this; Who would have thought keeping the peace would be so difficult:sad:
-Subscribed-
No CA's, BC's or BB's then? And this is the first AAR I've seen where an Axis country builds STR bombers. Original.
I used them in ICE once on AI control. worked like a charm, except the AI kept sending the bloody things all the way across England to Newcastle.
Just wait. There are consequences to my particular build strategy. I think you will be pleased with the final outcome.
I don't know the static modifier on it, but you basically have to put your spies on support our party from day 1 to be successful. And even then, I wasn't successful in all cases.
Bear in mind that the elections in 1940 are the target time to get a majority for party support. That means that in a standard game, the effort isn't worth it for some countries. You may have already invaded Belgium and the Netherlands by the time the elections fire. The USA enters the war late enough for getting fascists elected to dampen influence from the UK, but if you really want the USA out of the war, you'll be spending influence anyway AND not inviting Japan.
Basically, you only elect fascists in countries you don't want to invade and where you don't want to spend influence AND the AI isn't spending influence in a normal game. If you intend to go for a late war like I am in this game, electing fascists in other countries has more utility.
Well, that's what you get when the UK AI is programmed to be a bloodthirsty warmonger starting on January 1st, 1940.
No CA's, BC's or BB's then? And this is the first AAR I've seen where an Axis country builds STR bombers. Original.
The STR don't get as much use as I thought they would, but we'll discuss that decision in more detail later.
The AI can have my STR when it pries them from my cold, dead fingers.
Will fascist governments actually not declare war on you? My impression was that the AI did just that, no matter what government was in place. Likewise, it doesn't seem to matter what kind of government is in charge when you try to get them into your faction, as there are some hardcoded restrictions.
I am actually concerned that your envisioned mainstay of the army should be 2x Mec, 2x SParty, 1x TD. This will be very, very costly in terms of supply and if you field lots of these, I got a feeling that they'll outrun their supplies in Russia quickly.
I am actually concerned that your envisioned mainstay of the army should be 2x Mec, 2x SParty, 1x TD. This will be very, very costly in terms of supply and if you field lots of these, I got a feeling that they'll outrun their supplies in Russia quickly.
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This is really interesting; subscribed.
Quick question: Can you keep threat low by building divisions up until 99% and then moving them down the production line? As the unit itself is then not actually produced. This way you could literally drop hundreds of units at one swoop without generating threat prior. (At least if threat is calculated at completion and not during production). Though the downside might be the lack of practicals.
Quick question: Can you keep threat low by building divisions up until 99% and then moving them down the production line? As the unit itself is then not actually produced. This way you could literally drop hundreds of units at one swoop without generating threat prior. (At least if threat is calculated at completion and not during production). Though the downside might be the lack of practicals.
Dont forget the fact that dropping hundreds of units like that will cause your officer ratio to reach levels way below anything you'd like to have.
I know how it works, and all. Just I've never been able to do it in Semper Fi Vanilla or HPP with the Low Countries (apart from Luxemborg on an occasion). Even from day 1. I've changed the later election in the Neatherlands I seam to recall. But never so much as you so early. If you go into the game files and under /common and then the 'static moddifers' .txt file I think, and search for 'esponaige' it should tell you the base values of the spy missions. It would be interesting to see if there is a value difference.
You could do this, but you lose out on practicals.
There is another problem with this approach, but my objection won't make sense until the next gameplay update. It has to do with gaming Conscription Laws.
There are only 2 AI countries that will DOW Germany that I know of. The UK (after January 1st, 1940 if it is legal to do so) and the Soviets (multiple conditions). Their government form doesn't matter, as the AI doesn't change LUA scripts. So, if you made the mistake of electing British fascists in the UK for the 1940 election, and then meet the conditions of a DOW, they still go for you. The Soviets have no elections, and they are a faction leader, so you can't change their ruling party or government with a war anyway. (And the AI never DOWs a puppet or the puppet master as far as I know). No one else will DOW Germany directly as far as I know.
But I'm not putting Fascists into power throughout Europe to prevent DOWs.
I am doing it to cause 3 years worth of ideological drift towards the Axis. Since my threat is so low, these Fascist European countries will drift towards the Axis without any effort on my part. The British AI now has to either burn 3 years of diplomatic influence on 6 countries to keep them from falling towards the Axis, or just accept that they will all eventually join the Axis and ignore the Allies when the time comes.
Normally, German misbehavior in the 36-39 years puts most of western Europe on the road to Allies without much effort. Combined with the eagerness of both human and AI players to DOW Belgium and the Netherlands the moment the invasion of France commences, and you can expect that the Low Countries will always be hostile and that you either lose Norway to the Allies or have to invade them. But this time, with no invasion from Germany, and ideological similarity, means that in 43, these countries are all sympathetic to the Axis cause. They won't all join right away, but by 44, many of them will. By 45, basically all of Scandinavia, western Europe, and Eastern Europe (excluding Lithuania and Bulgaria) join the Axis willingly. Lithuania and Bulgaria would haven joined, but threat/neutrality prevented it.