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Thanks for the replies, guys. I appreciate it. It is however a great AAR and tutorial! Wow!
I will try and modify my strategy a little bit with the limited knowledge I have and also adjust for the differences in versions. Build a few less factories maybe...
Just got to keep on keeping on!
Oh, and unfortunately Amazon does not deliver in South Africa anymore because of our shortcomings in the postal service...
So I had to use Take2 and they only had the White Label issue of HOI2.
Great day for you guys!
I will try and modify my strategy a little bit with the limited knowledge I have and also adjust for the differences in versions. Build a few less factories maybe...
Just got to keep on keeping on!
Oh, and unfortunately Amazon does not deliver in South Africa anymore because of our shortcomings in the postal service...
So I had to use Take2 and they only had the White Label issue of HOI2.Great day for you guys!
Should I try and build only one extra factory at the beginning in every province or stick with 2?
I suggest you don't short the factories, as those determine how much IC you have, and Ironhead 5 cuts it pretty close during the AAR, in regards to the amount of Supplies. I didn't realize he'd be running negative on Supplies for part of the game, and I didn't have as many stored Supplies as he did, so I had to cut back on the IC I was putting in Upgrades several months earlier than he did. So the one thing I suggest you don't cut back on is factories. Fortunately, you get some breathing room at the end of 1940 to catch up.
BTW, you can see how many factories he built in total by looking at the x/y/z Industrial Capacity number in the upper right. During the early part of the game where all of your provinces are considered national provinces (before the invasion of Poland, basically), the z number is how many factories you have.
Well, you can always get the download version from Gamersgate. You just download the game from their web site.
To those of you that have expressed concern about Ironhead I wouldn’t worry too much. Having been in the army I can tell you that coming back from an extended deployment requires a lot of work. Maintenance has to be done on equipment, inventory has to be done, and numerous other things have to be taken care of. That and the fact that he was probably over seas for over six months and I am sure that he wants to catch up with family and has probably been very busy.
Anyway, several other people have expressed a wish that naval warfare in his AAR was explained more fully. Having followed his instructions fairly well to see how other people play the game I wanted to comment on the naval warfare aspect of the game. Take for example his initial deployment of the German U-boat forces that Ironhead uses. If you are going to send your U-Boats out on day one of the war I would suggest the following changes. One approach that is slightly gamy is to have your U-Boats deployed in the corresponding sea zones BEFORE the war starts. Trying to run the English Chanel with your ships before France falls is suicide. I am playing Arma with the latest beta patch and sub warfare is greatly changed. Despite that sending your subs against the Royal Navy is less than productive. Your goal as Germany should be England’s convoy’s. To this end a great deal of micromanagement is required to be a success. First, instead of trying to run the English Chanel order two of you sub fleets to sail from Wilhelmshaven north to the West Central North Sea province of the Central North Sea region. Make sure you have your message settings set to pause when ever a naval unit reaches its destination.
After the sub fleets reaches its destination order them too the South East Faroes Gap province of the Faroes Gap region. Then order one fleet to the Bay of Biscay region ad order that fleet to conduct Convoy raiding at night. Order the second fleet to do the same thing but send it to the Portuguese Coast region. Now here is the key to strangling the UK with your U-Boats. Once you successfully, sink some convoy’s or escorts move that fleet to an adjacent sea region. Do not keep your subs in the same area. This is why it is not a good idea to overly saturate a region with submarine fleets. The UK will send ASW forces to find you and sink you. If you have fleets in every nearby region it will make the enemy’s job easier to find you. You do not want to let them do that, particularly if the UK has better anti submarine warfare techs than you have submarine warfare techs. It is important to keep your subs healthy at all costs. If you do suffer damage to a sub flotilla remove it from your fleet and place it into a fleet called Sub repair fleet. When the individual flotilla is repaired move it to a sub fleet that is ready to go to war. As the war progresses rebase your sub fleets as needed. When you take Norway order one or two sub fleets to Narvik and base the unit or units from there. Make sure that the first time you send a unit to a new location that you use the rebase command and not the move command.
If you move a sub fleet from Wilhelmshaven to Narvik and then order the sub fleet to conduct convoy raiding orders say in the Irish Sea when the fleet returns to base it will not go back to Narvik but to Wilhelmshaven. This could be bad. Keep your fleets out of the provinces bordering the UK when ever possible to avoid fighting the Royal Navy. Here is the other key to successful naval warfare. Do not let your units run so long that they have used all of their travel distance. You do not want to be forced to send your units through the English Chanel due to range limitations. As you send one fleet back to port order a fleet in port out to sea. This way you keep at least half of your fleet at sea and hopefully sinking British convoys with little loss.
It is a good idea to generally only keep your navy units at sea for a month at a time. Remember that successfully conduct naval warfare it requires a lot of micromanagement. Rarely will the AI pick the best route from your base to the area you want to go to. It will normally pick the shortest route. The two are rarely the same. STAY OUT of the English Chanel before the fall of France and you haven’t bombed the southern English ports driving out the Royal Navy from the South of England. If you do get engaged with a SUPERIOR English ASW fleet retreat as soon as possible. If you have the superior fleet you might get lucky and whittle the Royal Navy down a little.
Some players may not agree with the way I conduct naval warfare but it works for me. It works for me I can usually have the UK spending large amounts of IC on its convoys before the end of 1940.
Anyway, several other people have expressed a wish that naval warfare in his AAR was explained more fully. Having followed his instructions fairly well to see how other people play the game I wanted to comment on the naval warfare aspect of the game. Take for example his initial deployment of the German U-boat forces that Ironhead uses. If you are going to send your U-Boats out on day one of the war I would suggest the following changes. One approach that is slightly gamy is to have your U-Boats deployed in the corresponding sea zones BEFORE the war starts. Trying to run the English Chanel with your ships before France falls is suicide. I am playing Arma with the latest beta patch and sub warfare is greatly changed. Despite that sending your subs against the Royal Navy is less than productive. Your goal as Germany should be England’s convoy’s. To this end a great deal of micromanagement is required to be a success. First, instead of trying to run the English Chanel order two of you sub fleets to sail from Wilhelmshaven north to the West Central North Sea province of the Central North Sea region. Make sure you have your message settings set to pause when ever a naval unit reaches its destination.
After the sub fleets reaches its destination order them too the South East Faroes Gap province of the Faroes Gap region. Then order one fleet to the Bay of Biscay region ad order that fleet to conduct Convoy raiding at night. Order the second fleet to do the same thing but send it to the Portuguese Coast region. Now here is the key to strangling the UK with your U-Boats. Once you successfully, sink some convoy’s or escorts move that fleet to an adjacent sea region. Do not keep your subs in the same area. This is why it is not a good idea to overly saturate a region with submarine fleets. The UK will send ASW forces to find you and sink you. If you have fleets in every nearby region it will make the enemy’s job easier to find you. You do not want to let them do that, particularly if the UK has better anti submarine warfare techs than you have submarine warfare techs. It is important to keep your subs healthy at all costs. If you do suffer damage to a sub flotilla remove it from your fleet and place it into a fleet called Sub repair fleet. When the individual flotilla is repaired move it to a sub fleet that is ready to go to war. As the war progresses rebase your sub fleets as needed. When you take Norway order one or two sub fleets to Narvik and base the unit or units from there. Make sure that the first time you send a unit to a new location that you use the rebase command and not the move command.
If you move a sub fleet from Wilhelmshaven to Narvik and then order the sub fleet to conduct convoy raiding orders say in the Irish Sea when the fleet returns to base it will not go back to Narvik but to Wilhelmshaven. This could be bad. Keep your fleets out of the provinces bordering the UK when ever possible to avoid fighting the Royal Navy. Here is the other key to successful naval warfare. Do not let your units run so long that they have used all of their travel distance. You do not want to be forced to send your units through the English Chanel due to range limitations. As you send one fleet back to port order a fleet in port out to sea. This way you keep at least half of your fleet at sea and hopefully sinking British convoys with little loss.
It is a good idea to generally only keep your navy units at sea for a month at a time. Remember that successfully conduct naval warfare it requires a lot of micromanagement. Rarely will the AI pick the best route from your base to the area you want to go to. It will normally pick the shortest route. The two are rarely the same. STAY OUT of the English Chanel before the fall of France and you haven’t bombed the southern English ports driving out the Royal Navy from the South of England. If you do get engaged with a SUPERIOR English ASW fleet retreat as soon as possible. If you have the superior fleet you might get lucky and whittle the Royal Navy down a little.
Some players may not agree with the way I conduct naval warfare but it works for me. It works for me I can usually have the UK spending large amounts of IC on its convoys before the end of 1940.
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Ah! Thanks for the explanation. That does reduce my worry some
I still wish he'd pop in just to say hi, and let us know he's ok.Wow, thanks for the information. I was moving my sub fleets to different areas after they were attacked, but moving them once they are successful and before being attacked makes much more sense
While I don't mind my subs picking off groups of two DDs, running into a fleet of 22 ships is painful.Is it ok to alternate between two adjacent areas (e.g. Cape Finisterre <--> Portugese Coast) after a successful raid, or is three better?
What is the purpose of rebasing in Narvik? If it's due to position, why not rebase all sub fleets there? If it's due to dividing up repair work, well, Narvik's naval base is only a size 3. Do you recommend increasing that?
Is it worth going after the USA convoys once we're at war with them?
I might be misunderstanding this, but it seems like you suggest keeping half the fleets in port, and half out raiding. Why not have all healthy sub fleets out raiding? Does this have to do with not saturating the areas?
Also, why do you suggest only raiding a month at a time? And how do you "use" travel distance? Is that an Arma 1.3beta thing? Or is it possible to actually send your sub fleets out too far? I haven't gone further than the Grand Banks, so I really don't know.
BTW, can I assume the Bay of Biscay area is no longer good pickings for convoys once France has fallen?
Thanks for the advice
Any adjancent region should be fine. Note there is a difference between a region and a province. The game AI will patrol a region not a single province.
However, it is a good idea to start in a region close to England and then move away. If you start further away and then move closer you might run into an ASW force the AI sends out to look for you.
Repair isn't taken into account I don't think. But I could be wrong. The reason that it is a good idea to spread your fleets around is that the AI will heavily patrol sea lanes that you travel through all the time. If you spread out where they are comming from it makes it harder for the AI to find. Most importantly however is the range of your ships. It takes more range for your subs to travel from Wilhelmshaven than it does from Narvik. After France falls rebase all but one or two fleets to the west coast of France. This allows you to raid further down the coast of Africa and makes the English have to send their ASW fleets even further out to find you thus spreading their fleets even further. You can from time to time raid say in the Irish Sea to further confuse your enemy. They key is to not leave your fleet in the same region for to long.
Absolutely. You won't strangle them reasource wise but if you sink enough ships it makes it difficult for the US to supply their invasion forces. This will force them to build more. Every IC they have to spend building convoys is lee they can spend on units that will kill you.
Oversaturation is a part of the reason yes. The other is keeping up steady pressure on the enemy. If you keep sinking enemy convoys at an even level it makes it difficult for the enemy to rest his ASW ships and either he has to leave areas ungaurded or sends them out with an organization at less than maximum. Both of wich are good for you. If you bum rush you get quick results for two months and then have to wait for your orginaztion level to raise. The AI will rest it's ships while you rest yours.
All ships have a maximum range. If you hit there maximum range they will have to take the shortest route to their home port. That could force you to send them say through the English Chanel or some other heavily guarded area. Again, the key to sucess is to keep your subs healthy. Damaged subs are almost worse than ones that ar sunk because you have to pay IC to fix them. So damaged subs are a) unavailable for use (if you plan on repairing them) and b) eat up needed IC to repair them and c) are not out sinking convoys and d) replacing losses lowers a units experience level. So damaging subs is a win as far as the English are concerned.
No, you can rebase your level I and II subs to western France and send them into the Bay of Biscay from time to time with results. The AI routes convoys based on the shortest route between point a and point b unless it starts taking losses in a certain region and then it reroutes the convoy route to the next shortest route avoiding the region in question. This is another reason why it is important to move your fleets around.
Hehehehe! I love this game!
I now have a different situation since starting the tutorial over. Research is great and production okay, although I can't get all those INF ready before Poland and I had to sacrifice upgrades for consumer goods, supplies and production... One other thing (and remember I am playing HOI2 1.3a) Romania never wants to ally... Relationship at +200 but still 0% chance of accepting alliance... Any ideas guys?
I now have a different situation since starting the tutorial over. Research is great and production okay, although I can't get all those INF ready before Poland and I had to sacrifice upgrades for consumer goods, supplies and production... One other thing (and remember I am playing HOI2 1.3a) Romania never wants to ally... Relationship at +200 but still 0% chance of accepting alliance... Any ideas guys?
Yes. Read this thread: Bring to alliance chance = 0, why?
Short answer: There is only a short frame of time where Romania will join you before 1940, and this is when you see a couple messages about Romania having a "Sudden change of government." The chance is not high, either. However, you'll have another chance to invite them in the summer of 1940, when the Soviet Union uses an event to take Bessarabia away from Romania. This happened on June 27, 1940 in my game, and the chance was 63-64%.
Ironhead had asked that people who were playing Arma to post any differences in their games over doomsday. So here are a few of the differnces that I have noticed.
First, I got Japan to enter my Alliance during the invasion of France and within ten days Japan declares war on the US. I reloaded 10 times and within ten days Japan declares war on the US, every single time so I wouldn't try an alliance with Japan until after the Soviet Union suffers Bitter Peace.
Second, during my invasion of Norway, I used the entire Kreigsmarine to transport three mountain divisions to capture Narvik and the Royal Navy did not attack. However, this could be because a week before one stack of 12 subs under Donitz was engaged by a large Carrier task force. I tried desperately to retreat but for some reason was unable to do so. During the fight I was also attacked by land based air. When the dust settled the RN lost 2 CV's, 6 BB's, 2 BC's, 1 CA, and two DD's. I lost 7 sub flotilla's and the other five were all heavily damaged before the RN retreated. I don't know what the RN's navy tech was at but my I had just finished researching the Wolfpack doctrine.
Also in Arma you can not bring Finland into your alliance because Democractic countries can not enter into alliances with non deomcratic ones unless their intervention is high enough and Finland's apparently isn't. Other than that the games are pretty close.
Also, when you invade Denmark you don't get an option about annexation, you take one province and the country surrenders giving Iceland and Greenland to the UK.
First, I got Japan to enter my Alliance during the invasion of France and within ten days Japan declares war on the US. I reloaded 10 times and within ten days Japan declares war on the US, every single time so I wouldn't try an alliance with Japan until after the Soviet Union suffers Bitter Peace.
Second, during my invasion of Norway, I used the entire Kreigsmarine to transport three mountain divisions to capture Narvik and the Royal Navy did not attack. However, this could be because a week before one stack of 12 subs under Donitz was engaged by a large Carrier task force. I tried desperately to retreat but for some reason was unable to do so. During the fight I was also attacked by land based air. When the dust settled the RN lost 2 CV's, 6 BB's, 2 BC's, 1 CA, and two DD's. I lost 7 sub flotilla's and the other five were all heavily damaged before the RN retreated. I don't know what the RN's navy tech was at but my I had just finished researching the Wolfpack doctrine.
Also in Arma you can not bring Finland into your alliance because Democractic countries can not enter into alliances with non deomcratic ones unless their intervention is high enough and Finland's apparently isn't. Other than that the games are pretty close.
Also, when you invade Denmark you don't get an option about annexation, you take one province and the country surrenders giving Iceland and Greenland to the UK.
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It's my understanding that you'll be at war with the USA when you invade the Netherlands, anyway.
I'm play Arma 1.2 and I didn't have any problem getting Finland into the Axis after their Winter War with Russia, which is what this AAR says to do. Maybe you didn't get the Winter War event in your game?
What I like to do when it comes to naval warfare is to keep my ships close to the port they are stationed in. I rarely send them out too far from their bases. The reason is simple: I am afraid of losing too many ships by sending them out on patrols and have them run into big fleets. By keeping my ships close to ports, I can remove them from combat for repairs much easier than if they are out in the middle of nowhere. Of course, this simply applies to non-submarine forces. As for submarines, I don't use them because I don't like them.
No, the USA does not join the war then.
I can confirm this; I did not have a problem either. Playing Arma 1.3b.
I can also confirm that the subs can easily beat a big uk fleet. In fact, I was able to cripple the UK using only subs, and invade and conquer their mainland with 3x3 MTN corps in July 1940. I used sub fleets of size 20-25 with sea wolf commanders.
I have the same issue with Finland. I cannot invite them into the axis even after their Winterwar. Also, inviting Japan into the Axis in September 1940 (after the conquest of the Balkans) was not a good idea, as they DoWed the US almost the very next day.
Well, Ironhead 5 pretty much says Germany will be at war with the USA after they ally with Japan. However, the nice thing about allying with Japan is you're able to trade for all their blueprints. I was able to trade for the following blueprints with Japan in May of 1940: Basic Fighter, Early Air Carrier, Early Marine Division, Improved Infantry Division, Basic Static Anti-Air Artillery, Subsidiary Carrier Role Doctrine, Super Heavy Battleship.
The USA hasn't really caused me any problems, except for a couple of their bombers I shot down
BTW, what is your relationship value with Finland? Maybe it's too low for inviting them into the Axis?
Wow, this seems like a great AAR to learn the game. I'll have to actually load the game up tomorrow and play through (bought the game ages ago, but couldn't get into it), but it makes a great read, even without the game running.
Would also like to add my heartfelt thanks to Ironhead and all those others that serve in armed forces around the world. You make the world a much better place to live in, and personally speaking that's about the highest praise I could give. You have my utmost respect and thanks.
And also my best wishes that the silence is nothing more than you being caught up with real life.
Would also like to add my heartfelt thanks to Ironhead and all those others that serve in armed forces around the world. You make the world a much better place to live in, and personally speaking that's about the highest praise I could give. You have my utmost respect and thanks.
And also my best wishes that the silence is nothing more than you being caught up with real life.
Well, Ironhead 5 pretty much says Germany will be at war with the USA after they ally with Japan. However, the nice thing about allying with Japan is you're able to trade for all their blueprints. I was able to trade for the following blueprints with Japan in May of 1940: Basic Fighter, Early Air Carrier, Early Marine Division, Improved Infantry Division, Basic Static Anti-Air Artillery, Subsidiary Carrier Role Doctrine, Super Heavy Battleship.
The USA hasn't really caused me any problems, except for a couple of their bombers I shot down
BTW, what is your relationship value with Finland? Maybe it's too low for inviting them into the Axis?
Germany's inablity to ally with Finnland (in my game at least) is because Finnland's intervention is not high enough to ally with a non democracy. Also what is worse for me is that Finnland has a peace treaty with the Soviets that lasts until September of 41 so I can not even invade the Soviets from Finnland. Yes, I used the accept all cheat to force the Finns to give me military access.