Germany Tutorial: Take 2.

[Davy]

Again I have a question :unsure:

what are you starting to produce after the rest of the 6.armee is ready? I have 40 spare IC. My upgrades, reinforcements, production and consumer goods are fully provided with IC.
The date in my game is now 23 march 1940.

Greets an a lot of thanks

 

[misterbean]

my 2 combat fleets:

my production includes 10 parallell radar, 5 garrison divisions (2 gar/1 MP each) and 3 cav (2 cav brigades each). my guess would be that you put the radar on a serial run in stead of a parallell. here's a pic of my production screen:

note that my supplies seem so high because I took a screenshot straight from my last save at 1/4/1940 and the game hasn't had time to recalculate the true values.

 

[Davy]

The difference between your and my game is that my upgrade needs are around 80, I think around the first of april I am going to need the same IC.
The radars that I am building are in paralel like yours. The needs for production are the same.

 

[misterbean]

that's probably it. did your plane techs finish yet? upgrades are a % of the building costs, so having all those bombers equiped with new engines and whatnot might explain the discrepency. you're certain you have the army size I do? play on until the end of the chapter and post back here to see where you are on the 1st of april.

 

[Davy]

I will post it tomorrow

 

[Davy]

Hi Misterbean,


I have looked to my research and all my plane tech's are 1941, L-armor is 1942 an Armor is half 1940 and half 1942.



Here is my production screen. You will see that I have the KMS Dresden and 6. Zerstörergeschwader in the queue. The reason is that I din't found anything back where you started the building of it so I placed in the queue when I saw that it used to finish.

 

[bitwiseDK]

Hi Misterbean,


I have looked to my research and all my plane tech's are 1941, L-armor is 1942 an Armor is half 1940 and half 1942.



Here is my production screen. You will see that I have the KMS Dresden and 6. Zerstörergeschwader in the queue. The reason is that I din't found anything back where you started the building of it so I placed in the queue when I saw that it used to finish.

Maybe you're not running on Normal difficulty?

 

[Davy]

The game is on normal difficulty.

 

[misterbean]

I think I have the discrepency. building a light cruiser and a destroyer takes months and a total of about 10-12 IC per day. not building it when you did allowed you to have more IC in your upgrades, hence the difference.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. as long as your ground forces are about the same as mine, you should be ok. besides, your techs sound about the same as mine, and your upgrades are about 50IC cheaper. so in some ways, you might even be ahead of me.
that's the fun thing about this game. I've been playing it almost non-stop since HOI2 was for sale in Belgium, and I'm still learning new things.

 

[Zphinx]

Hi Misterbean,

I stumbled across this post almost by accident and having some fun reading through it. I got the game and playing HoI for the first time ever.

The only thing I have a problem so far with the guide is that it is very spread out... I will have to compile sooner or later everything and may even start over.


Up to know I have also seen a video on youtube which also helped alot. That was the spot where I found this one... so a great addition.

To the game....

I have named my units a bit different and the progress are a little different... but after all I will try to play it see how far I go.


My next game will be an exact copy of yours, as it seem very interesting to follow up on your success.


Thanks again for all the effort and commitment in doing all this for the community.

 

[Davy]

Hi Misterbean,

I stumbled across this post almost by accident and having some fun reading through it. I got the game and playing HoI for the first time ever.

The only thing I have a problem so far with the guide is that it is very spread out... I will have to compile sooner or later everything and may even start over.


Up to know I have also seen a video on youtube which also helped alot. That was the spot where I found this one... so a great addition.

To the game....

I have named my units a bit different and the progress are a little different... but after all I will try to play it see how far I go.


My next game will be an exact copy of yours, as it seem very interesting to follow up on your success.


Thanks again for all the effort and commitment in doing all this for the community.

Hi Zphinkx,

I would love to know the site where the video is. Can u send me the URL?

Thanks

 

[Zphinx]

again, sorry about that last pic. I spend an hour this morning trying to get it right. This is the best I could do.

Hey Misterbean, why doing you zip those setting files and link the files to the forum? That way if anybody needs them or wants to see what he / she enables they can download that link... would that make sense?

 

[Zphinx]

Hi Zphinkx,

I would love to know the site where the video is. Can u send me the URL?

Thanks

Sure thing....

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?599501-WIP-Hearts-of-Iron-3-FTM-Video-Tutorials

 

[misterbean]

Hey Misterbean, why doing you zip those setting files and link the files to the forum? That way if anybody needs them or wants to see what he / she enables they can download that link... would that make sense?

no, that one was just a case of lousy photoshopping on my part

 

[Zphinx]

I played ahead to mid-July without taking notes, just to give you an exact figure.
What we should end up with is (total forces):
62 inf (3inf/1art)
4 Larm (2Larm/1mot/1eng)
8 arm (2arm/1mot) 8 Spart still in the queu, scheduled to finish in november 1939 (before you ask: these are meant to win battles, not to exploit breakthroughs, so they require more firepower and less mobility than the Larm)
8 mot (2mot/2TD) (this set-up will give them CA bonus)
8 mil (3mil/1AA)
28 int
10 tac
9 cas
mainland Germany all infra at lvl-10
starting KM+ 2 BC, 1BB, 1 CVL, 1 CL
10 SS
lvl-10 airbases at Bitburg and Wuppertal
coastal forts at Wilhelmshaven, Kiel, Hamburg, Emden
Siegfriedline (lvl-1 forts) to the Swiss border

edited: forgot to mention 4 transport wings and 2 transport ships

Hi Misterbean,

when you talk about 8 Spart .... what are those? Did I missed the meaning of them in some of your posts somewhere?

Thanks in advance

 

[misterbean]

Spart means Self-Propelled Artillery: artillery mounted on Tank chassis, meant to support mobile forces.

 

[misterbean]

Chapter 25: Denmark and the plans for taking down France.

This will be a busy year for the Wehrmacht. We are going to start with an invasion of Denmark, during which I will give you a primer on how to conduct amphibious invasions, and end the chapter with the planning for the fall of France.

Before you do anything else, make sure to have both Weserflotte AND Erkungdungsflotte based in Kiel. If not, do so now.

If you’re starting from a loaded save, like me, let the game run for a day to get the sliders working correctly.

Take quick look at Denmark using the VP mapmode.

Denmark has 3 VPs: Arhus, Odense and Copenhagen. Arhus poses no problem since it has a land connection with Germany. The other 2, however, are across a straight, which is controlled by the nation that controls Copenhagen. We could try to take them fully by land, but Denmark could easily close the straight for us and slow us down, increasing the chances for an Allied intervention.
A much better solution is using an amphibious invasion of Odense and Copenhagen. Due to how the engine works, we have to send out our fleets before DoWing Denmark or they will be unable to leave Kiel.

Select the infantry divisions in Kiel. As noted on the pic above, having a transport fleet of sufficient size in port allows us to board those ships. Click the golden icon at the top. Our divisions are now onboard and the view switches to the Weserflotte.

Remember that I told you how sinking a transport ship will also drown whatever units are onboard? The best way to safeguard against it during an amphibious assault is by sending combat fleets to the adjoining sea zones to intercept any enemy ships trying to stop us.
In this case, there are sea zones bordering Öresund (the straight where we will stage our invasion): Kattegat and Pomeranian Coast.
Here’s how you do it:

Give the Erkundungsflotte a “move” order to Kattegat and the Baltische Flotte a “move” order to the Pomeranian Coast, while moving Weserflotte (with the units onboard) to Öresund. The screenshot below shows Erkundungsflotte in position in Kattegat.

As soon as they are in position, PAUZE THE GAME.
Any delay will give the Allies more time to launch an intervention fleet.

Once the game is pauzed, go to the diplomacy screen and find Denmark. Select “limited war” to keep our Axis partners out of the war for now.

Go back to the main screen.
If you select Weserflotte, there are large icons at the bottom, just above the units it carries. One if for the CAG onboard KMS Weser, in case you want to give it different orders other than the automatic CAG duty, the other (sporting a tank image) is for selecting the divisions onboard.
Click this icon. You can now give normal orders to the divisions. Attack Odense (the VP province in the middle) with 2 divisions and Slagelse (an empty province bordering the defended Copenhagen) with the other 2.

If at all possible, you should always try to land troops in unguarded provinces. Otherwise they will find themselves locked in battle, leaving our fleets out in the open longer than necessary.

Keep the game pauzed.
The divisions in Leck will head straight for Frederikshaven (Denmark’s northernmost port province) to secure it ASAP. The divisions in Flensburg will set a course for Arhus.
If you meet a Danish division somewhere along the line, you can always divert one of the advancing divisions to engage it, making sure it never plays a role of significance.
Let the game run at very slow speed until our amphibious divisions have landed. Pause the game when they do.

Keep the ones in Odense where they are for now. The ones in Slagelse will find themselves under immediate attack from the Copenhagen defenders, but the attack will lead nowhere.

Normally, what you want to do is rebase your fleets to a safe port (in this case Kiel) as soon as possible. In this case, however, I took a chance and left the Erkundungsflotte out in the open longer than desired to show you what to do if you meet any carriers.


DON’T FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE. I’m doing this solely for demonstration purposes and naval combat is much too unpredictable to take stupid risks like the one I’m taking right now. Rebase all 3 of our fleets right after the troops have landed (unless, of course, you’re playing a major naval power, such as the US or Japan, in which case they can support the invasion with coastal bombardments).

As soon as the attack against our divisions in Slagelse is repulsed, order both divisions to attack Copenhagen.

In my demonstration of naval combat, I get lucky twice.

First, it’s a French fleet that tries to intervene. It might as well have been a Royal Navy Carrier Task Force with as many as 3 to 5 carriers and much better commanders instead!
Whenever you engage a squadron with a carrier, you should send land-based interceptors on an “air superiority” mission over that particular province. Under normal circumstances, interceptors chew up CAGs.
I divert the closest interceptor wing to Kattegat before noticing I get lucky a second time.

There is a stormfront north of my position and the downpour makes any aerial mission useless. The same applies to my planes, of course, but I’m only defending my fleet, not trying to sink enemy vessels.
This is why it pays to keep a look out for the weather whenever trying to pull a naval stunt. 15% penalty in naval combat will kill you!
The French squadron soon makes a hasty withdrawal, but is intercepted by the kriegsmarine on their way out.
End result: scratch one French heavy cruiser and one French battlecruiser. Most of my ships will spend some time in drydock under repairs, which, under the circumstances, is a testament to the power of carriers.
Of course, I beat a hasty retreat myself, before running into the Home Fleet’s capitals.

If you ever run into a carrier task force without any carriers of your own or without having land-based wings nearby to protect your own ships, there is only one other option: RUN! Even battleships and battlecruisers are no match for the power and speed of carriers, who can stay out of your gunnery range easily enough.

After this little sideshow of mine, which, I must stress again, you SHOULD NOT FOLLOW, we’re getting back to the game.

Denmark has only one major strategic value. Controlling Copenhagen allows us to seal off the Baltic from enemy ships. Any French or British subs still there when we take control of Denmark’s capital will be closed in.

The same thing goes for the Mediteranean, by the way. Control of both Suez and Gibraltar makes it impossible for any enemies to send additional ships there. If you ever play Italy, this should be a major objective before trying to engage the UK’s Mediteranean Fleet.

Right, getting back to the game.

As soon as you have 7 free IC, build a militia division. Keep building them (we need 38 more of these guys to cover all ports on the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean), but make sure to leave the AI with something between 2 and 5 IC to work with, since we still have our sliders on autocontrol, with production prioritised. Feed the extra leadership to training officers for now.

Around the 7th, we successfully research Mechanised Offensive. Go to the Research Screen and start researching Combined Arms Warfare in the Land tab. This will give us an extra 10% CA bonus by the time we hit the Soviet Union.

Let the game run until all 3 VPs are taken and Denmark surrenders. A nice, short campaign and an easy victory.

When Denmark surrenders, keep the game pauzed for a bit. We need to secure our new holdings ASAP to guard ourselves against British invasions.

Strategically Redeploy 2 infantry to Frederikshaven if they haven’t gotten there yet and keep 1 division centrally located on the large peninsula, like the province of Herning and keep 2 infantry divsions in Arhus. The guys in Herning will be our troubleshooters in case of a revolt or anything like that, so we don’t have to take men off guarding the ports. Send the 2. Armee HQ to Flensburg and move 1 Armeekorps to Copenhagen and the other to Silkeborg.

All we have to do now is wait until may comes rolling around. Technically, we could launch the assault on the Low Countries right now, but I like to wait to get as many upgrades done as possible.

Remember, whenever you get wasted IC, build more militia, but leave the slider AI a couple of IC to play with.
If you get a new research project finished, while you have enough free IC, wait 1 day to let the game reassign enough IC to cover the added upgrades.

On the 25th, I stopped building any more new militia. This gives me two weeks to save plenty of IC to use for reinforcements in the fight to come.

And while we wait, let me fill you in on how we’re going to do it. I typically use the standard RL battleplan, since it works best for me.

Alternatives would be to hit Switzerland instead and come at them from the south, but if you look closely, those are forts on the border provinces. That’s right. Forts on top of the Alps, guarded, most likely, by at least 1 mountain brigade. It would slow us down and allow the french plenty of time to redeploy a bunch of troops to hit those western forts before we could reach them.

I once saw an AAR where the player hit France through Italy, but that would involve calling them to war, and I like them nice and neutral for now. On top of that, Italian logistics is not exactly the best in the world.

Attacking through the Maginot Line would be suicidal in terms of Manpower.

That leaves us with an attack through the Low Countries. Two options present themselves.

The first is the Von Schliefen-plan used by Germany in the Great War: attack Belgium, advance through the plains in the western half of the country (Flanders) and make a right hook towards Paris. The AI is pumped for that option. I know some experienced players swear by it (correctly using better logistics and plains terrain as main arguments), but I can never get it to work. I get bogged down and it turns into a serious bloodletting that we cannot afford with uncle Joe Stalin as our next-door neighbour.

So that leaves me with only one viable option. The Von Manstein-plan.

The 3. Armee’s task will be to subdue netherlands, occupy their ports and cut off any retreat from belgium at the provinces of Middelburg and Roosendaal.
From north to south, the general plan is this:
I. Armeekorps will hit the northern half of the country and converge on the eastern side of the Afsluitdijk.
II. Armeekorps will aim for Amersfoort, getting rid of all opposition along the way.
VIII. Armeekorps will go towards utrecht.
XIII. Armeekorps will head for ’s hertogenbosch.
Once those three are all into plance, II. Armeekorps will attack Amsterdam with support of 2 divisions from Utrecht, while the other 2 divisions there will support XIII. Armeekorps in its bid to take over the port of Rotterd
With both ports secured, II. Armeekorps will swing north and attack Den Helder, while XIII. Armeekorps will move south to Middelburg.

One corps will move steadily westward, acting as liaison between 3. Armee and 4. Armee.
XIV. Armeekorps will move through Maastricht towards Hasselt and attack Liège with airborne support, where the fort of Eben Emael stands in our way.
Two Armeekorps will combine their forces to attack Verviers in a two-pronged attack, after which they will all spread out and steadily move towards Antwerpen and Brussels and, ultimately, Brugge.

All of the above is, as you all probably know, quite possibly the single largest feint in military hirstory.

The real danger, will come from the 5. Armee and the 1. Panzerarmee.

The 5. Armee will take the inital lead, hitting Luxemburg from two directions. When Luxemburg falls, their divisions will spread out across the southeastern provinces of Belgium, otherwise known as the Ardennes and try to get into France just west of the Maginot Line, at a province called Longuyon.

The 1. Panzerarmee will follow in their wake. Only when the French border is hit, will they take the lead. They will head first for Reims, denying the French an airbase there, before swinging west towards Boulogne, Calais and Dunkerque.

The 5. Armee will be playing guard duty in their wake, both to protect the rear of Guderian’s panzers, and to relieve them from having to keep a lot of divisions behind for the duty.
When this is done, all infantry from 3. Armee and 4. Armee will use as much force as possible to take Brugge and end all resistance in the Low Countries, thereby ending Fall gelb.
This is what it looks like on paper:

This wil start the second part of the offensive, Fall Rot.

3. Armee and 4. Armee will take up position on the western half of the frontline in France, allowing us to reassign the panzers to a more central location, where they can surround Paris and send it burning, while 5. Armee will try to cut off the French stationed in the Maginot Line.
If necessary, we can then send the panzers on a VP killing spree in the French provence.

Pauze the game and save at midnight on the 9th of May. That way, if something goes horribly wrong, you don’t have to start completely over.

I have played through the actual battle, but I think I’m going to let you off here. When I return, it’s showtime as we start the campaign that could determine the rest of the war.

 

[Davy]

Can't wait

 

[misterbean]

Can't wait

I'm writing the chapter as we speak, so it should be sometime tonight or tomorrow night. I still have over 30 screenshots to shift through :blink:

 

[Davy]

A whole lot of work obviously!!! Hoed af zou ik zeggen