HOI 1 1936 - Muddling Through as the UK

[Riel Hamard]

Most likely only moderators will be reading this, especially given the current year (2024) and the game release year, and the newer games available. My goals are actually very simple. I want to be able to get through a game from start to finish, and gain some insight into how the game mechanics work and even exploit them a bit, along with the AI - and modify history a little bit.

As it stands right now, the world needs our help.

Spoiler

The world leadership has been replaced by AI drones and the Allied AI is no longer able to work together and defeat the German AI and in our sample game, we will attempt to restore a mostly normal timeline by playing the UK starting in 1936. Settings are as follows:

Scenario: The Road to War 1936
Nation: The United Kingdom
Difficulty: Normal (Subject to change in later games)
AI Aggression: Normal (I do not know what the other settings do, really.)

1. Objectives
So far, we have played various scenarios up to certain mid-points in the game. So far we got a game up to 1942 and we seem to be doing okay, but we are somewhat of the script. Here we will start from the beginning, then modify as we go along. I will break up the discussion into several components, as follows:

1. Objectives (This discussion here)
2. Know Yourself
3. Know your Allies
4. Know your Enemies
5. Know the Rules
6. Know the Script
7. Know the Plan
8. Roleplay versus Gameplay
9. Sessions
10. Lessons

2. Know Yourself

Spoiler

The UK starts with 301 IC out of a base of 352. The IC is broken down as follows:
158 = 10x10 + 58 for provinces that yield 10 or more
9 = 1x9
24 = 3x8
7 = 1x7
12 = 2x6
30 = 6x5
4 = 1x4
27 = 9x3
24 = 12x2
57 = 57x1

From this, I get a total of 352. This information might come in handy later when we are deciding if we should invest in more industry, and the exact plan.

The resources we have are as follows:
1240 Coal
495 Steel
1081 Rubber
157 Oil
246 Manpower ( I do not know why the tooltip says 22.5 per month, because that amounts to 270.)

We could not determine what counts as domestic IC and what qualifies foreign IC penalties. I think 301 is based on 295 IC x 1.02 for technology bonus.
Counting along the main island, I got 185 IC. That leaves 165 IC that has no land connection to London. My guess is this receives a 1/3 penalty and we are left with 110 IC from overseas. We might gather more evidence later, but will work with this for now.

Cabinet
In our Cabinet we have the following:
An Idea Monger - It looks like we can use Eden to share technology with our allies and we will build some plans around this.
Dirty Capitalist + Crime Fighter Combo - This means for this year we get to use 68% of our IC towards our goals instead of 60%. Theoretically this is a gain of 8% of 301 or 8668.8 over the course of a year. This will likely work out to be a bit less than that if we are engaging in special projects, which we will be.
We have a Logistics Specialist and no idea what the +30% Army Intelligence does.
School of Fire Support should be useful if we are building lots of Artillery Brigades and researching lot of Artillery and Rocketry Technology. However we have no plans to work with the Rocketry chain in the near future and we have several allies who are very likely to research the Artillery chain and will be more than happy to share tech with us.
Static Defense Doctrine - We have no plans to build any land fortifications, because we are mostly on an island and we will not be in a war anytime soon. Our plan is to replace this.
Decisive Battle Doctrine - We get a bonus towards the production of Cruisers and Battleships. We are also a single tech away from building Improved Kent-Class Cruisers. So we might be doing exactly that.
Air Superiority Doctrine - We get a bonus towards building Fighters and AA Brigades. Most likely we will be building Fighter Squadrons, but not this year.

Military
23 Infantry - I locate them by region, 4 on the Home Islands, 2 in Egypt, 12 in India, 5 on Bases.
These include 3 Artillery, 2 Anti-Air, 2 Engineer, and 1 Anti-Tank Brigades.
9 Militia - As above, 3 in Sudan, 2 in Uganda, 2 in Kenya 2 in Tanzania.
These include 2 Engineer and 1 Artillery Brigades.
32 Total

15 Battleships - All Basic, including 3 of the 350mm variety
40 Cruisers - 21 + 11 + 8 (Early + Basic + Improved)
32 Destroyers - 21 + 11
9 Submarines - 4 + 5
6 Carriers - 3 + 3
20 Transports
122 Total

3 Fighters
3 Strategic Bombers
5 Tactical Bombers
3 Torpedo Bombers
14 Total

Generals
We have quite a depth of generals. The information I will present is the number of Field Marshalls, Grand Admirals and Air Marshalls, along with some leaders with notable stats that we are most likely to be working with.

Land
7 Marshalls, 1 with 3 Defensive, 3 with 3 Logistics, 1 with 2 Defensive, and 2 with 2 Defensive Old Guard.
There is a decision to be made on whether to promote another Marshall or to work with what we already have.
We have a couple of minor Commando leaders.
We have to dig a bit to find Tricksters.
There is an Old-Guard Engineer General who might actually be pretty good in spite of being OG.

Navy
3 Grand Admirals to choose from or promote somebody else.
Most likely we will work with what we already have. We have a couple of 5-Skill Tacticians.
We have to dig a bit to find Sea Wolves.
I do not know exactly what Blockade Runner and Spotter do.

Air
4 Air Marshalls to choose from and appear very skilled. We feature a 4-skill Tactical Night Flyer.
It looks like we have 2 Tactician Night Fliers who might be useful in deleting enemy squadrons.
The rest we will look for closer to when the war starts.

3. Know your Allies

Spoiler

Keeping this short.
IC/Capacity (Coal, Steel, Rubber, Oil, Manpower)
Notable Ministers

France 197/221 (453, 370, 218, 56, 177)
Industrialist, Fire Support, Static Defense for defensive bonus
Canada 110/94 (140, 210, 0, 26, 77)
Administrative Genius, Techie, Fire Support
So they are likely to research Artillery tech very fast.
Surprisingly few resources for such a vast country.
Australia 77/81 (245, 355, 0, 17, 25)
Industrialist, Techie
South Africa 38/37 (80, 110, 0, 0, 17)
New Zealand 29/27 (20, 10, 0, 0 10)
Industrialist
It looks like they do not even have resources to support their industry. We will have to watch their storage to see if we can help them.

So far I left the USA out of this discussion, because in the last play they did not join and they have a ridiculous amount of resources.
The USSR is also left out of the discussion, but we will refer to them as a frienemy.

4. Know your Enemies

Spoiler

Germany 389/332 (1535, 245, 0, 12, 186)
Italy 137/134 (495, 75, 0, 11, 125)
Japan 187/211 (900, 715, 0, 7, 255)

It is interesting at this point that Japan has the biggest manpower pool. Also looking at the numbers it appears that both Germany and Italy have bottlenecks in steel production. I will look for where they obtain this from trade. Germany also expands in the pre-war period and that will give them a lot more resources.

5. Know the Rules
A lot of what actually happens in the game does not seem to match what is written in the game manual. Most likely this is because the game went through several updates after being released in old-school box form.

So far we had quite a few incidents of "I did not know that and it messed up my strategy right from the start."

6. Know the Script
Based on a couple of plays in and one play through with a neutral country, what I have seen is:
1937 Japan starts a war in China
1938 Germany annexes Austria and half of Czechoslovakia and signs the famous "There will be Peace in our Time"
1939 End of Czechoslovakia and later start of WW2
Germany wins more allies after Poland is annexed
Germany skips Denmark and Norway in favor of attacking the Low Countries
Denmark and Norway appear to be after France in this timeline
Vichy France triggers when Paris and much of France are captured
This also triggers Japanese claims to French IndoChina
I do not know if there is a Battle of Britain script
Germany attacks Russia after France is down
The USA is eventually available as an ally and Japan joined the Axis later, not quite historical
Russian AI is no match for German AI and Anglo-American AI is not good enough to counterattack
We did get to see 3 cities nuked in our neutral playthrough!

7. Roleplay versus Gameplay
The HoI2 UK strategy guide suggested winning an alliance with Republican Spain to get involved in a war 3 years early and therefore freeing up a lot of resources. However we have no plans to do this.
The book says the UK was completely unprepared for the war and had no armored divisions. We will be changing this. We will choose an armored workhorse and attempt what the above-mentioned strategy guide called Britskreig.
Poland's independence was guaranteed and in the game the formal alliance starts early. We plan to have a large number of divisions in Poland when the war starts, even if it is very unlikely to have been possible in real life for multiple reasons.
It is very unlikely we will be able to stop them in Poland. However we have seen some success in France. This will be very disruptive to the script above.
Italy tends to join the war way too early.
We will be moving nearly all of our troops home at the start of the game, leaving nothing defending India or Egypt. We will worry about the consequences later.
We will try to delete the German navy very early in the game and maybe even the air force. Most likely this was very unlikely to happen in real life, but we are up against the AI.
We will be shamelessly spying on save files, mostly in an effort to investigate effects of early events on German technology and also to track items like when they are having trouble with resources and manpower.
We will build a chain of Improved Cruisers for RP. If we get the Improved Battleship we might even build the King George V.

8. Know the Plan
A lot of this is discussed above, but it looks like the rest of this will be discussed in a session by session basis.
First session will be 1936 and we will be organizing our economy and our navy. Technology priorities will be:
Industry - set up vehicle, ship, and aircraft production processes
Industry - go down the chain to pickup the production bonuses
Electronics - go down the chain to pickup the computer bonuses
Naval Doctrine - Pickup the supply discount
Air - Pickup Basic Interceptors, Basic Tactical Bombers
Naval - Pickup Improved Cruiser
Armor - Work towards a Basic Medium Tank
Most likely our workhorse will be the 40mm medium tank
Artillery - Obtain the 40mm Tank Gun
I'm not sure if I missed anything technology wise.
Projects - We will try to develop industry in everything that is 7IC or less.
Builds - Upgrade planes when available. Build Infantry / Artillery when available.

9. Sessions
I will try to make the pre-war sessions approximately one year and the war sessions one month. The first month of the first year is very tedious and it gets faster once the first steps are rolling. The first part of the war also seems to be very tedious.

10. Lessons
We will also post these as we go along.

Edit 0 - Original Post

 

[Grandpa Maur]

Now, this is surprising. I mean, why? It's positively ancient game, and while it was good in it's time, HOI 2 was straightforward improvement (except one single thing, perhaps two), similarily to EU 1 vs. 2.

Also, not a moderator

 

[Riel Hamard]

Now, this is surprising. I mean, why? It's positively ancient game, and while it was good in it's time, HOI 2 was straightforward improvement (except one single thing, perhaps two), similarily to EU 1 vs. 2.

Also, not a moderator

Mostly likely you are correct! How were you able to find a thread like this so quickly?

I actually have HoI2 installed and will be playing it sometime later. There are some motivations I can think of:
1. I got into an online version of Axis and Allies about two months ago and wanted something along a similar theme to do while waiting or my opponent to play a turn. I saw that I had both HoI1 nd HoI2 and decided to install HoI1 first.
2. I saw a YouTube video by a GenZ gamer making a tier list of Paradox games and HoI1 was given F-Tier. On one side I can understanding every other Paradox game being better, but HoI1 must have been good enough to spawn an entire dynasty. Ever since then, I have been bent on completing a game. It goes along with what you said that HOI2 was a straightforward improvement and your analogy comparing EU1 and EU2 seems valid, even if I never played EU1.
3. I want to actually finish a game and it seems the only way I can do it is by posting something on a public forum. So far I managed to get to 1942 or so with France still in the game, albeit doing nothing. This is causing havoc to the timeline - I mean - script.
4. There are some game mechanics I want to see in action. The VH difficulty of -20 seems pretty harsh, much harder to overcome than VH in EU2. It also appears there are some stacking penalties. Most likely when transitioning to HoI2, all of this will be better documented.
5. I wanted to see how pretty a forum post looks with a few pictures!

 

[Idhrendur]

Mostly likely you are correct! How were you able to find a thread like this so quickly?

Some of us are mad enough to subscribe to sub forums here and get notifications of all new threads.

Also, welcome!

 

[Riel Hamard]

Thank you! Apparently I am mad enough to insist on playing an outdated version of the game when there are clearly better versions out there! I might even be able to plan out and play the year 1936 and post about it tomorrow!

 

[Grandpa Maur]

I was simply browsing latest threads and by sheer chance...

(Hm, missed the whole subscribe to forum feature... Seems useful)

And since i played it, i was pretty amazed someone is starting aar. I even played mp as UK once!

Earlier Pdox games are generally harder. Hoi i mechanics that i mentioned thatccould be thought better is the organic CG demand changes in USA and USSR, and techtree (and research by ic)

 

[Riel Hamard]

Well it's amazing that I posted a thread on such an ancient game and already had two people respond! We played out 1936, but it is too late at night or me to post a detailed AAR. Below is a sneak preview, but it says very little of what we did.

Spoiler

 

[Grandpa Maur]

I doubt there will be more visitors

Remind me, do you have stockpile limit in HoI 1? If not, you are wasting resources in some faraway depots...

Also, surprised at ic number, but matybe i am confusing it with hoi 2? Seems very high.

 

[Riel Hamard]

I doubt there will be more visitors

Remind me, do you have stockpile limit in HoI 1? If not, you are wasting resources in some faraway depots...

Also, surprised at ic number, but matybe i am confusing it with hoi 2? Seems very high.

Stockpile in the capital city is limited to 99999. It appears other stockpiles are limited to 9999. We are still wasting some resources, mostly coal - and there is only so much I can do about it. Eventually I might get more efficient.

In this case, I was moving some resources to make some island stockpiles, especially since we have been investing in extra industry. I think some time around 1940 our industry will slam into our steel and coal limits. More specifically, we will run into this limit when we gain the 15% bonus at the end of the Industry tree and start accumulating 5% bonuses from the Electronics Tree. These stockpiles might keep us going for a little while.

Since we are planning to use oil, that will present some problems as well. We have a large navy and we will be building up air and armor as well. We should have some in the middle east.

IC started at 301. We invested quite a bit this time in improving our industry. I should have taken the screenshot showing all the popups. We limped through the year with something like 240 IC instead of 301, but our investment brought us up to 348. We will be investing again this year, but not quite as much. The magic number I am working with this year is 5. If the territory has 5IC or less, we will invest in it. Last year that magic number was 7.

I think going from HOI1 to HOI2, the IC got scaled a bit differently. The IC numbers are a lot bigger in HOI1, but research is funded by IC instead of conducted by research teams funded by $$$. For scale, a typical Infantry unit costs 6IC x 95 days for a grand total of 570. With our minister who loves big guns, the Infantry-Artillery costs 10IC x 155 days for a grand total of 1550.

That ratio is 2.7 and I am really at a loss whether we are better off with the artillery brigade or larger numbers. I believe one of the answers is some combination. We want large numbers to absorb losses in fights we are losing - and in the early part of the game we will be losing a lot of fights. We also want the artillery brigade for added punch in the fights we are winning. The balance will ultimately come down to how stable our manpower pool is - and right now, I do not remember how much manpower we started with. I am guessing 425. We increased to 560 for a gain of 135 and this appears to be exactly half the 22.5 gain we are expecting. (We built 3 Infantry - Artillery divisions so far and based on all of this have 8 more divisions coming, but I cannot check right now.)

 

[Grandpa Maur]

Yes, i see now, i was getting confused by hoi2 (they are too similar for my defense!).

I mean, both ic and stockpiles.

As for manpower vs ic... Well, yes it depends on your plans. Here, hoi is actually quite nice for historical dilemma.

Of course you can cheese it, go crazy with air research and in 1941 or so just evaporate german land forces (well, picking stragglers not land doomstack) with doomstack of bombers of advanced level tech

 

[Riel Hamard]

Of course you can cheese it, go crazy with air research and in 1941 or so just evaporate german land forces (well, picking stragglers not land doomstack) with doomstack of bombers of advanced level tech

I never thought of this, but I remember getting good results with tactical / dive bombers. There is also an issue I have not worked around with air battles and stacking penalties. I notice a 10% per unit penalty for each unit over 4. (air battles, not bombing) So if we are attacking with 12 units, we are sitting on an 80% penalty and if it is a 12 on 12 battle, then we are getting an 80% penalty and the AI is not. If we are playing on VH level (which we are not) then there is another 20% penalty. So we are receiving a 100% penalty that the AI does not receive.

VH level will do some things to balance out some of these AI exploit issues. I understand it's a 20% penalty in combat, a 20% penalty to production (So our starting 301 IC becomes 241) and research projects cost 20% more. (Our 100 IC worth of initial projects now cost 125 and that is our entire budget.) There is a lot of choosing projects we need as opposed to projects we do not need.

After that, it comes down to role-play versus game play. The advanced bombers will require some research down the doctrine chains. (early war combat testing) One of the RP challenges I did not remember to document was to stay away from early war experience analysis and combat testing until the war actually starts. Other RP challenges I can think of (but will not do) is not fight the Germans in Poland and allow France to fall.

For air power, we are using the Basic Interceptor Spitfire, Basic Tactical Bomber, and Basic Dive Bomber, and Basic Torpedo Bomber.

It was a hard decision between Basic Interceptor Spitfire and Basic Multirole Hurricane and it also comes down to rules I do not know. The book says our attack value is multiplied by strength, organization, and whatever our bonuses and penalties are, and have a minimum of 1. So if we are at 10% organization, that value is 1. That would mean our multirole fighter is always attacking at a 1 and performing the same as our tactical bomber. As a bonus, our leaders would be gaining experience all the time. It is very likely the implementation in the latest HOI1 game will be similar to the HOI2.

 

[Riel Hamard]

UK January 1936 - Opening Moves

No pictures here - just text. Here I will be explaining how I opened my game so that we can repeat it and modify if we need to. In general I have to write myself instructions and then follow them or I am prone to forget some things.

1. Government
Looking through our list of ministers, I noticed we have a School of defense option. This might prove to be useful some time after the war starts.
We did take the opportunity to promote Sir Cyril Deverall to the Chief of Army. He brings the Guns and Butter Doctrine and 15% discount to supply consumption. In peace time this is good and we save a little bit during the year - almost enough or a division!

2. Diplomacy
We start with 100 Influence and we will gain 24 during the year. We have a Crusader in our Cabinet and we plan to use some of this influence to unload technology and help France and the USA catch up. We started by giving away Basic Electromechanical Computer so they get a discount to their research projects.

3. Army Commanders
It is peacetime, so we found all of our units and assigned logistics experts to them. We are also planning to move all of our units to our home island and started marching our units in India.
Hindsight says we would have done better redeploying them and will try that in the future.

4. Navy - Start moving ships
We have 21 outdated Cruisers and 21 outdated Destroyers. We used formed those into groups of 3 Cruisers and 3 Destroyers in various bases around the empire. Those were Bahamas, Freetown, Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt, Ceylon, and Singapore. The rest of our ships we gathered on the home island.
We moved our transports to pickup our troops from around the world and bring them home.

5. Start setting the Budget
We figured on a combined research / production budget of 130 or the year.

6. Start Research Projects
Cavity Magnetron
Assembly Mass Production
Assault Guns and Tank Destroyers
Naval Underway Replenishment
Improved Cruiser
Basic Interceptor
Basic Tactical Bomber
Basic (Tank) Gear
8 Projects totaling 98.80.

7. Start building Infantry
We had room in our budget for 3 Infantry-Artillery, for 30.
That brings our total budget to 128.80 out of our predicted 130.

8. Industry Projects
We looked up every province we could find where the IC was 7 or less to develop more industry. We figured by the end of 1939 we will be close to profitable. This is tedious work. It would be nice if we had buttons to do this from the information screen instead of seeking out all the provinces from the economy map.

All of this took us about 75 minutes to set up, maybe 90 because I am slow and writing a lot of this down.

I have a RL appointment in 5 minutes and will be back in a little over an hour to type in a summary for 1936, then a plan for 1937.

 

[Riel Hamard]

UK 1936 - Summary

248 was our actual starting IC, out of 301. So we were investing 53 IC to build up industry. From the sneak preview picture, it looks like we gained 47 IC from that investment and so far we are doing okay! It is also helpful if we know exactly what our IC is going down to on the first day if we want to be precise about wastage - and move the low cost projects to the bottom of the priority list to minimize losses. We did not, so we lost about 4.6IC to bad arithmetic.

In contrast to HOI2, we have an option to transfer technology as a diplomatic option as opposed to a blueprint. We did quite a lot of that to try to catch up France and the USA. France is currently our ally and there is a good chance the USA will join us as well. Eventually the USA will leave everybody behind in the production and technology race and we want to be on the receiving end of technology transfers!

Spoiler

To France:
Basic Electromechanical Computer
Fleet Supply Convoy Organization
Pre-War Field Testing (Land)
Motorized HQ

Encirclement-Destruction Doctrine
Army LR Reconnaissance
Naval Aviation Doctrine
Basic dm Radar Warning Sites

Home Chain Doctrine
Sheltered Airfields
Basic Short-Range Fighter Prototype
Army Long-Range Recon Battalion

Basic Electromechanical Encryption
Blitz Bombing Doctrine
Basic Portable Radio Set
Basic Division Signal Command

Basic Vehicle Radio Sets
Basic Corps Signal Command
Naval Underway Replenishment
Basic Long-Range Radio Sets

Basic Army Signal Command
Basic Halftrack Troop Carrier
Basic Interceptor
Amphibious Tanks

Assembly Mass Production
Cavity Magnetron

To USA:
Basic Electromechanical Computer
Motorized HQ
Army LR Reconnaissance
Merchant Raider Doctrine

Welded Armour
Amphibious Tanks
Amphibious Warfare
Basic dm Radar Warning Sites

Home Chain Doctrine
Sheltered Airfields
Basic Short-Range Fighter Prototype
Improved Naval Armament

Basic Electromechanical Encryption
Blitz Bombing Doctrine
Basic ASW and Convoy Escorts
Basic Division Signal Command

Improved Warship Design
Basic Corps Signal Command
Naval Underway Replenishment
Basic Artillery Pieces

Basic Army Signal Command
Army Long-Range Recon Battalion
Basic Interceptor
Basic Light Tank Prototype Test

Cavity Magnetron

To Canada:
Naval Underway Replenishment
Cavity Magnetron

To South Africa:
Naval Underway Replenishment
Assault Guns and Tank Destroyers

To Australia:
Naval Underway Replenishment
Assembly Mass Production

To New Zealand:
Naval Underway Replenishment
Cavity Magnetron

I think that's it. I tried to transfer the major stuff and leave them some openings to research stuff we have not got to. Hopefully this pays off. Diplomatic influence is also kind of limited and valuable and we might need to save it for other issues. We will also be trying to keep everybody up on research and production bonuses. We will also try to get our minor allies to use their diplomatic influence to spread technology around so we do not have to use as much.

Force Gathering:
We grouped our old Destroyers and Cruisers into 7 teams of 3 Destroyers and 3 Cruisers. We placed them on different bases at Bermuda, Freetown, Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt, Ceylon, and Singapore. Ideally they never see action and we might be able to free up the Destroyers for escort duty.
With our builds, we have 5 short-range submarines and 5 long-range submarines. The long-range submarines are also identified by better defense numbers and we kept them on the home island. The other submarines went to bases in Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt, Singapore, and Hong Kong. We do not have a long-term plan for our submarines.
Our updated (Basic) Battleships, Cruisers, Aircraft Carriers, and Destroyers got transferred to the home island.
We also have 20 Transports stationed there, because we brought all the infantry home.
We also gathered up our air force into groups on the home island.

Builds:
New Cruisers:
12. HMS Newcastle
13. HMS Southampton
14. HMS Glasgow
15. HMS Sheffield
16. HMS Aurora
17. HMS Birmingham


Destroyers:
12. 79th Destroyer Flotilla
13. 80th

27th Submarine
3 x Infantry - Artillery bringing our total to 6
3/3 Spitfires updated
5/5 Blenheim Tactical Bombers updated
3/3 Albacore Torpedo Bombers updated

Technology will be listed in approximate order it was obtained. We will list it by a sequential number, followed by two letters indicating the source:
1FR - Basic Light Bomber Prototype Tests
2UK - Basic (Tank) Gear
3UK - Basic Tactical Bomber
4AU - Blitz Bombing Doctrine
5UK - Basic Interceptors
6UK - Basic (Tank) Suspension
7SA - 40mm Tank Gun
8UK - Naval Underway Replenishment
9UK - Improved Cruiser
10UK - Basic (Tank) Engine
11UK - Basic Torpedo Bomber
12UK - Assault Guns and Tank Destroyers
13UK - Assembly Mass Production
14UK - Cavity Magnetron
15NZ - 30mm AA Gun
16UK - Basic Dive Bomber
17CA - Self-Propelled Artillery

So it looks like we got a tech from each one of our 5 biggest allies! Not only that, but all of our gambles paid off and saved us from investing in artillery technology and we saved a bunch of research leading up to the Basic Dive Bomber. It looks like we completed 12 projects ourselves and we stuck to projects that will either pay off quickly or get us producing units that will serve as our early war workhorse. Hopefully this will be a little more 20th Century than Cavalry.

Spoiler

This tech is kind of expensive and leads to dive bombers.

Improved Cruiser - I think at 14 Attack and 12 Defense it is a low cost alternative to a Battleship and we will use these to reduce our enemy fleets.
Basic Tactical Bomber - We plan to work with 5 of these for now.
Basic Dive Bomber - These are the cheap and durable alternative to Tactical Bombers.
Basic Interceptor - This is what we will use to reduce our enemy air force.
So far we are skipping Strategic Bombers and have not even researched the technology.
Basic Torpedo Bomber - If the enemy is not controlling the nearby airspace, then these should help us win naval battles.
Artillery Infantry - We will build some of these while we have a discount
Regular Infantry - We should have these to..... soak losses when we have to - provide numbers is a better way to express it
Artillery Motor - We will build some while we have an artillery discount
Engineer Motor - We will build when we have a spearhead discount
Regular Motor - This will be similar to the regular infantry above
40mm Medium Tank - Still in progress

World Events and Wars:
March 8, 1936 - The Germans remilitarized the Rhineland.
July 19, 1936 - Start of the Spanish Civil War
Check - Italian Intervention
Check - Soviet Intervention
Check - German Intervention
XXX - French Intervention
Check - British Intervention
It appears this decision slows down US entry into the war.

August 29, 1936 - End of the Spanish Civil War - Nationalist Spain won
Nearly as quickly as it began, it ended. This is the fastest war I have seen in my memory of the game. Maybe the French were correct to invest nothing in it.

September 19, 1936 - Italy annexed Ethiopia

Spoiler

 

[Riel Hamard]

We muddled through 1937 and that took a good bit of time and I need to get some sleep. So I will post a quick preview and then type up an AAR in the morning. I thought all the messages saying that our industry construction is complete looked really cool.

For 1938 our magic number is 3 and we should still have quite a few provinces with 3 production.

Last year we forgot to post up some military comparison to show what we are up against, but here it is:

Germany
117 Land = 114 Infantry + 3 Armour
34 Navy = 4BB + 10CR + 8DD + 6SS + 6TT
13 Air = 3 Fighter + 7 Tac + 1 Dive + 2 Transport

Italy
76 Land = 52 Infantry + 4 Cavalry + 5 Motor + 2 Armour + 6 Mountain + 7 Militia
98 Navy = 6BB + 30CR + 29DD + 16SS + 17TT
16 Air = 8 Fighter + 3 Tac + 1 Dive + 3 Naval + 1 Transport

Japan
65 Land = 48 Infantry + 9 Cavalry + 5 Motor + 3 Militia
123 Navy = 10BB + 40CR + 20DD + 5AC + 10SS + 38TT
16 Air = 4 Fighter + 5 Tac + 5 Dive + 1 Naval + 1 Torpedo

France
84 Land = 70 Infantry + 4 Cavalry + 4 Motor + 2 Armor + 4 Mountain
72 Navy = 9BB + 23CR + 12DD + 1AC + 15SS + 12TT
8 Air = 3 Fighter + 5 Tac (I might check if this is backwards.)

UK
51 Land = 32 Infantry + 9 Motor + 1 Armour + 9 Militia
133 Navy = 15BB + 47CR + 34DD + 7AC + 10SS + 20TT
25 Air = 7 Fighter + 3 Bomber + 5 Tac + 3 Dive + 7 Torpedo

Next we should check for what new cabinet ministers showed up. We might install Armoured Spearhead Doctrine and build out Armoured Engineer divisions at a discount.

Spoiler

 

[Riel Hamard]

UK 1937 Summary

1937 is an election year and we have a bigger variety of cabinet ministers available. We installed Sir John Simon as our Armaments Minister and Lord Cecil of Chelwood as our Minister of Intelligence. Together this gives us a 20% boost to our IC, but we have to spend 37% on consumer instead of 32%. We also gain 2% of dissent but overall we are ahead.

We continued with our massive industry project as can be seen in the picture above. At 494 we are already slamming into our steel limitation, but we will continue to build. We might have to do better finding a price for steel and building our stockpile.

Our oil stockpile looks good. We will next cut down on the oil convoys to build up stockpiles in different places. With our motor, armour, navy and air we will need oil.

Builds:
6 Infantry Artillery bringing our total to 12.
12 Motor Artillery
1 Churchill 40mm

1 Aircraft Carrier bringing our total to 7.
1 Kent Class Cruiser bringing our total to 9,

4 Spitfires bringing our total to 7.
4 Albacores bringing our total to 7.
3 Vengeance Dive Bombers

For technology transfers, we made sure our allies were getting the same industry and computer bonuses. We also made sure the US had the same level of theory we did. They have not yet left us behind.

Spoiler

To France:
Frequency Modulation, Improved Plastics, Drum Data Storage, Improved Synthetic Materials
Polyurethane, Improved Electromechanical Computer, Basic Medium Tank Prototype

To USA:
Frequency Modulation, Assault Guns and Tank Destroyers, Drum Data Storage, Basic Medium Tank Prototype
Polyurethane, Improved Electromechanical Computer, Improved Infantry Weapons

To Canada:
Frequency Modulation, Improved Plastics, Improved Synthetic Materials, Magnetic Drum Data Storage
Polyurethane, Improved Electromechanical Computer, Hydroforming

To South Africa:
Improved Plastics, FM, Magnetic Drum Data Storage, Improved Synthetic Materials
Polyurethane, Improved Electromechanical Computer

To Australia:
Vehicle Assembly Process, FM, Improved Synthetic Materials, Drum Data Storage
Polyurethane, Improved Electromechanical Computer, Resonance Magnetron

To New Zealand:
Aircraft Assembly Process, Drum Data Storage, Improved Synthetic Materials
Polyurethane, Improved Electromechanical Computer

Technology as follows:
1NZ - 30mm Infantry Gun
2UK - Ship Assembly Construction Process
3UK - Vehicle Assembly Construction Process
4UK - Aircraft Assembly Construction Process
5UK - Basic Medium Tank Prototype
6NZ - 40mm AT Gun
7SA - 90mm Howitzer
8UK - Improved Plastics
9UK - Frequency Modulation
10NZ - Penicillin, DDT, and Mepacrine
11UK - Basic Medium Tank Churchill 40mm
12AU - 100mm Field Artillery
13UK - Magnetic Drum Data Storage
14UK - Improved Synthetic Materials
15NZ - Improved Infantry Weapons
16UK - Hydroforming
17UK - Polyurethane
18UK - Improved Electromechanical Computer
19UK - Resonance Magnetron
20SA - Blood Transfusions

World Events:
The USSR went 4/4 on their Great Officer Purge.

March 13, 1937 we had our election. We already made our choices at the beginning of the year, so we decided to keep our current government.

Spoiler

June 6, 1937 - Japan DoW Communist China
They seem to have no border with Communist China but that is no problem.
June 14, 1937 - Japan DoW Nationalist China
It did not seem to take them very long until
July 24, 1937 - The Nanking Massacre

Spoiler

 

[Riel Hamard]

UK 1938 Summary - There Shall be Peace in our Time

Going through our cabinet we made only one change. We installed Lord John Gort as Chief of Army. He brings to us the Armoured Spearhead Doctrine. I am at a loss as to whether we profit or not from this change. We lose 5IC worth of production every day to supplies, assuming a base of 100 and those 5IC would be producing 16.5. So that is about 1800 in the course of a year. In exchange for that, we get discounts on Armour and Engineer Brigades.

We seem to be conserving our diplomatic influence points, but are using some of them to send technology to our allies.

Technology:
1AU - Basic Tank Gun Ammunition
2UK - Marines
3UK - Nylon (also sent to our allies)
4UK - Basic Electromechanical Decryption Devices
5UK - Landing Ship Personnel and Tanks
6UK - Carrier Group Doctrine
7UK - Tactical Defensive Regimen (This is a decision we had to make)
8SA - Front Line Medical Station
9UK - Catalytic Polymerization
10UK - Centimetric Radar
11AU - Improved Battlefield C3I
12NZ - Rocket Assembly Construction Process
13UK - Frogmen
14UK - Amphibious Assault Training
15UK - Improved Electromechanical Encryption Devices
16UK - Basic Decimeter Airborne Interceptor Radar
17UK - Arctic Warfare Equipment
18UK - Desert Operations Equipment
19UK - Unlimited Submarine Warfare Doctrine
20CA - Improved Equipment and Ordinance
21UK - Desert Warfare Equipment
22UK - Basic Wading Equipment
23UK - Improved Long-Range Radio Sets
24UK - Improved Vehicle Radio Sets
25UK - Improved Man Portable Radio Sets
26UK - 40mm AA Gun
27UK - Bulldozer

Builds:
4 more Spitfires, bringing our total to 11
3 more Vengeance Dive Bombers, bringing our total to 6
3 more Albacore Torpedo Bombers, bringing our total to 10
9 more Motorized Divisions, bringing our total to 18
4 more Armour, bringing our total to 5
6 more Cruisers, bringing our total to 53

World Events:
March 23, 1938 - Germany annexed Austria, making it much bigger and more powerful
September 30, 1938 - The Treat of Munich. There shall be peace in our time.
December 28, 1938 - There was a proposal to ban Fascist parties, which we rejected.

Comparisons are as follows:
Germany:
164 Land - 158 Infantry 1 Cavalry 1 Motor 3 Armour 1 Mountain
35 Naval - 4BB 10CR 9DD 6SS 6TT
15 Air - 5 Fighter 7 Tac 1 Dive 2 Transport

Italy:
80 Land - 56 Infantry 4 Cavalry 5 Motor 2 Armour 6 Mountain 7 Militia
100 Navy - 6BB 30CR 29DD 16SS 19TT
18 Air - 10 Fighter 3 Tac 1 Dive 3 Naval 1 Transport

Japan:
73 Land - 60 Infantry 8 Cavalry 3 Motor 2 Militia
148 Navy - 10BB 41CR 20DD 5AC 10SS 62TT
24 Air - 7 Fighter 5 Tac 10 Dive 1 Naval 1 Torpedo

France:
105 Land - 91 Infantry 4 Cavalry 4 Motor 2 Armour 4 Mountain
72 Navy - 9BB 23CR 12DD 1AC 15SS 12TT
8 Air - 3 Fighter 5 Tac

UK:
64 Land - 32 Infantry 18 Motor 5 Armour 9 Militia
139 Navy - 15BB 53CR 34DD 7AC 10SS 20TT
35 Air - 11 Fighter 3 Bomber 5 Tac 6 Dive 10 Torpedo

Here is what our island looks like:

Spoiler

So for 1939 we will be making our final preparations. For land forces, if we can build it before the war starts, then we will build it. We have a March 30 event coming up and some resulting dissent to deal with that will be a bump. For Air, we are building one more dive bomber and what we see is what we have for the war in Poland. For Navy, we will continue to build a chain of Cruisers.

We will play to about August and by then we will have gathered our forces into some working groups. We can discuss more of the war plan at that time.

We are reserving Early War doctrines for when the war breaks out for RP purposes. This will put us at a disadvantage for a while, until we catch up on technology. I said I was going to shamelessly spy on my save files to see how Germany was doing technology-wise, but we have not done that yet.

 

[Riel Hamard]

UK August 1939 - Final Preparations

World Events:
Germany is throwing its weight around.
March 15, 1939 - The End of Czechoslovakia. Germany annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia and sent a piece to Hungary to secure an alliance.
March 24, 1939 - Germany claimed Memel
Italy attempted to do the same thing to Albania, but
March 26, 1939 - Albania refused Italy's demands and Italy backed down.
With Italy biding it's time and letting Germany do its dirty work, the crisis grows.
March 30, 1939 - The UK guaranteed independence to Poland and joins the alliance.

Spoiler

For escalating the crisis, we had about 5 dissent to deal with and it took us nearly 3 months.

Technology:
1UK - Improved Electromechanical Decryption Devices
2UK - Telemetric Guidance
3UK - Modular Assembly Construction
4UK - Basic Amphibious Tank
5UK - 70mm AT Gun
6UK - Improved Decimetric Radar
7UK - 150mm Field Artillery
8UK - 50mm Tank Gun
9UK - 100mm Infantry Gun
10UK - Variable Tank Fuse
11UK - Improved Tank Gun Ammunition
12UK - Multi-Barreled AA Guns
13SA - Early War Experience Analysis - Land
14CA - Basic Multirole Fighters
15UK - Improved Army Signal Command System
16UK - Improved Corps Signal Command System
17UK - Improved Corps Signal Command System
18UK - 100mm Rocket Artillery
19UK - Submersible Tank
20UK - 80mm AT Gun
21UK - 80mm AA Gun
22UK - Advanced Welding Techniques
23IR - Mountain Warfare Equipment
24UK - Advanced Electromechanical Computers
25UK - Advanced Electromechanical Encryption Devices

Eventually I realized after so many years, most of us would have no idea what all these technologies mean. A lot of them are stepping stones to a bigger tech project. Some of them are names to tech levels. Some of them are micro-improvements. I have been making a list and making no explanation of my understanding of how it works.

Encryption and Decryption Devices - Basic, Improved, Advanced, Electromechanical - It looks like these open up some kind of spy game and helps detect the movement of enemy troops, but I know none of the details. We need the Decryption devices to eventually advance to Electronic Computers and claim more research and production bonuses.

Radar gets used in several other devices. The warning sites are supposed to affect our surprise odds.

Signal Command System helps us detect the exact number of enemy troops. So we will see a picture showing nearby German troops with an exact number as opposed to a guess. The manual says the number of undetected divisions adds 10% to the surprise chance each. So if we are being approached by 42? divisions, then we are almost certainly being surprised by their stack of doom.

So this is one indication that we are on some kind of parity with the Germans on electronic warfare. We will see later what their organization levels are like and that will give some idea just how far ahead they are in doctrine and how much of an advantage we have to overcome.

August 1939 Pre-War Comparisons
Germany:
170 Land - 167 Infantry 1 Cavalry 1 Motor.... 1 Mountain? Their Armor is in the process of getting upgraded.
37 Navy - 4BB 12CR 9DD 6SS 6TT
35 Air - 14 Fighter 7 Tac 12 Dive 2 Transport - They are really building up their air leading up to the war.

Italy:
83 Land - 58 Infantry 4 Cavalry 5 Motor 2 Armor 7 Mountain 7 Militia
101 Navy - 6BB 30CR 29DD 16SS 20TT
19 Air - 11 Fighter 3 Tac 1 Dive 3 Naval 1 Transport

Japan:
83 Land - 69 Infantry 8 Cavalry 3 Motor 1 Marine 2 Militia
148 Navy - 10BB 41CR 20DD 5AC 10SS 62TT
37 Air - 12 Fighter 5 Tac 10 Dive 9 Naval 1 Torpedo

France:
113 Land - 99 Infantry 4 Cavalry 4 Motor 2 Armor 4 Mountain
73 Navy - 10BB 23CR 12DD 1AC 15SS 12TT
9 Air - 4 Fighter 5 Tac

Poland:
65 Land - 51 Infantry 4 Cavalry 8 Motor 2 Mountain
2 Navy - 1DD 1SS
9 Air - 7 Fighter 1 Tac

UK:
81 Land - 42 Infantry 21 Motor 9 Armor 9 Militia
140 Navy - 15BB 54CR 34DD 7AC 10SS 20TT
36 Air - 11 Fighter 3 Bomber 5 Tac 6 Dive 11 Torpedo

Based on this count, we should have 72 Division smuggled into Poland to go against Germany's 170. Here is our situation:

Spoiler

 

[Riel Hamard]

We are one month into the war and I am calling it a night. There was some pretty fierce fighting. Here is a sneak peek at the political situation. Poland still exists.

I will type in some more detail tomorrow.

Spoiler

 

[Riel Hamard]

UK Campaign - August and September, 1939 - The Start of WWII

While organizing our forces for the upcoming war, the historical shocks continue.

World Events:
August 24, 1939 - No deals with Enemies of the Workers!
I do not know what percentage of the time this happens, but the USSR decided not to work with Germany. This did not stop them.

August 30, 1939 - Danzig or war. Then it is war. Germany DoW on Poland and the Allies. Start of WWII.

Technology:
26IR Deep Area Defense Doctrine
This was a huge gift. It is a much needed +5 to Org and +2 to Defense. Needless to say it also went straight to Poland.
27UK 70mm Tank Gun
28UK 90mm AT Gun
29UK 120mm AA Gun
30UK 170mm Field Artillery Gun
31UK Advanced Tank Gun Ammo
We chose this time to grab stuff on the Artillery Tree
32NZ Paratrooper Warfare Equipment
33UK Cavity Magnetron Device
34AU Improved Logistics
35UK Basic Air Transport
36UK Fluid Catalytic Cracking
37UK Infrared Technology

Going as true as we can to our RP, at the start of the war we started our Early War Doctrines, as many as we could start, along with several other projects. We put Sir Edmund Ironside in charge of the Army. He brings that 10% modifier to defensive combat. We left Montgomery Mockingbird as Chief of Staff because we still believe the boost in Artillery is useful. From here we waited for the first moves made by the Germans, which happened after just one day on September 1.

This is when we discovered we forgot to move our Armor! It was still in Danzig. We put Alexander in charge of an attack on Elbing, along with a few others. The Germans started their air raids. Our Spitfire 2 group based in Danzig only had a couple of Transports to deal with, but Spitfire 1 got mauled by some group of 18 Tac and Dive Bombers. In the air, the AI is not subject to stacking penalties and we were outnumbered 3 to 1.

September 2 - That northeast corner of Germany we are trying to attack, Elbing and Konigsberg is covered by a storm. Of course we forgot to check the weather before running an air raid. This effectively ends any idea of attacking these provinces, because those storms will be there for a while. Fronts move very slow, like glaciers. No. Like Red Army. The fronts are stalled.

By September 6 this was reduced to raid and we were able to resume air raids to some effect again. The next day it was storming again. September 9 the weather finally cleared in those areas.

Elsewhere nearby, the French found the main German fleet! They were moving to blockade Elbing and Konigsberg and our Battleships were pretty far away and could only help at the end of the battle. In the end, the French lost 4 Cruisers and 4 Destroyers. The Germans lost 1 Battleship, 3 Cruisers, and 3 Destroyers.

September 11 and 12 the Germans started to attack our position in Bydgoszcz and our armor reached Konigsberg. The Germans in Konigsberg were already broken and retreated to Elbing. The German offensive in Bydgo was not very big and we were able to drive it off.

September 14 we were able to trap 12 German divisions in Elbing.

Spoiler

The German fleet was forced out of port with this attack, but we decided to leave the battle after the minimum 4 hours in an effort to save the HMS Revenge. There will be plenty of time later to hunt the Germans in the water. The HMS Revenge limped (sans escort) to port for repairs.

September 16 marked the start of a huge battle to save Lodz. We moved our Motor Infantry in to help the Polish Infantry. We found we were slowly winning and eventually drove them off, but at quite a cost. We went through about 1000 supplies and about 60 manpower. So far I am guessing a manpower is about 1000 people, but I might be exaggerating on numbers a bit. That would imply we lost 60k in that battle and the UK had access to about 250k per year. We did not do a very good job choosing our battle and terrain, but we took the battle because we thought we could win.

Our Spitfires got butchered several times. The Germans are running some doomstacks. The bombers we have some chance. The stack of 15 fighters, we can do little. We just try our best not to get busted and the last time it cost us about 3 manpower and 800 supplies. It looks like keeping supplies up is important.

September 28 marked another brutal victory in Bydgoszcz. It started we were outnumbered about 2 to 1, but the numbers seemed to be indicating that we were not losing, so we sent in some reinforcements to kick them out. The same day we were able to take out a few German holdouts in Memel.

Spoiler

So in the first month we had some pretty brutal fighting, but we are intact. Here is a comparison report.

Germany
154 Land - 151 Infantry 1 Motor 1 Armor 1 Mountain
18 Navy - 7 Cruisers 5 Submarines 6 Transports
43 Air - 18 Fighters 7 Tac 16 Dive Bombers 2 Transports
They appear to be missing 16 Infantry Divisions and their Cavalry, but upgraded 1 Armor division.
Their main fleet got butchered. All of their Battleships and Destroyers are gone and they are down 5 Cruisers and 1 Submarine.
They are building up their air force very quickly!

France
116 Land - 103 Infantry 4 Cavalry 3 Motor 2 Armor 4 Mountain
65 Navy - 11 Battleships 18 Cruisers 8 Destroyers 1 Carrier 15 Submarines 12 Transports
9 Air - 4 Fighters 5 Tac
They have built some Infantry, but they are down 5 Cruisers and 4 Destroyers.

Poland
66 Land - 51 Infantry 4 Cavalry 9 Motor 2 Mountain
2 Navy - 1 Destroyer 1 Submarine
6 Air - 5 Fighter 1 Tac
It looks like they lost a couple of Fighter squadrons, most likely to one of those doomstacks.

UK
81 Land - 42 Infantry 21 Motor 9 Armor 9 Militia
140 Navy - 15BB 54CR 34DD 7AC 10SS 20TT
36 Air - 11 Fighter 3 Bomber 5 Tac 6 Dive 11 Torpedo
We are fully intact!

If the Germans have 0 Destroyers, then we should send out our Submarines to try to find their Cruisers and Transports. We should try to find them before their Cruiser Fleet finds our Destroyers who are trying to find their Submarines. I am going to guess it is all taking place in the Baltic sea. One way to find them might be to set up a convoy to Poland.

On land, we went through two brutal battles and we are recovering. There appears to be a race to Danig. We might get some troops there that are in some condition to fight. In the air we are at a disadvantage and maybe we should pray for storms. Here is the political situation:

Spoiler

 

[Grandpa Maur]

Oh a lot of updates.

Army intelligence was bonus to, well, army intelligence in hoi2. Uh, that means you had advantage in the tooltip level concerning enemy troops (as in instead of >3 divs, you get 6-12 divs tooltip or so)

Iirc overseas manpower income was cut off at war. Just so you know.

I think hoi had stacking problen, at least on the margins. I remember two instances, one was optimal and strong naval air attack on 50+ fleet - aa obliterated it, basically. Another was 300+ attack by Soviets on my Spanish lv 10 for 24 div defenders - the forts evaporated in few hours and defenders a while later. Otoh, lone division attacked by advanced air, say 6 bombers is eliminated in a day, completely.

Plenty of interesting alternate event outcones. No MR?

What is IR in tech raport? Do you mean you got tech not only from New Zealand, but also Iraq?


And quite nice fighting in Poland. Though air is concerning.