Germany's NOOB

[Von Lippe]

Hello all, and welcome to Germany's New Order Of Battle
You were thinking perhaps that NOOB meant something else?

Germany 1936 GC
1.4 Patch
Normal Difficulty, No Mods
Almost Exclusively Gameplay, with explanations.

My intent with this AAR (my first, BTW) is to walk through a starting setup for Germany, focusing on those critical first few days, months, and years of gameplay. If there's sufficient interest shown, I will continue, otherwise I will summarize short and long-term goals and end the AAR around January, 1939.

I have played dozen's of HOI3 games, but this will be my first with the 1.4 patch. I will try and point up differences as I notice them in Game.

 

[Von Lippe]

Ground rules

Ok, some ground rules:
1. Never start a land war in... oh, wait. We're eventually gonna do that.
New 1. This is an incredibly complex game, with thousands of choices for almost any aspect. As such, my goal with this AAR is not to tell you the "right" way to do things, build optimal units, or "ultimate" anything.
2. I am going to describe an OoB that makes sense to me, with units that I feel strike a good balance of abilities. Feel free to object or suggest alternatives. Nobody appointed me Fuehrer!
3. My short term (pre-1939) goals are to fire Rhineland and Anschluss as quickly as I can, gobbling up Czech territory by event.
4. Politically, I want to pull Italy, Hungary, Portugal, Japan, and Nat'l Spain (if they win their war) into Axis, and draw the US as close to our "corner" (and as far from the Allies) as possible.
5. Unit Names... I'm going to cause some heartburn here with our german language experts. I can read german. I can even speak it... sort of. But my pronounciation is terrible, and my written grammar is worse. And on top of that, I don't have a keyboard with all those fancy umlaut's and such. So my unit names will be a mix of German, Ami-deutche, and 'Merican. No, not English. Can't understand one word in five from them. "Put the trunk in the boot" Ptah. :rofl:

 

[Von Lippe]

Day 1: Politics

First step, we reorganize our Ministers.

Some new faces are put into the cabinet:
Armaments Minister Schacht (+10% IC)
Security Minister Sack (-.01 Neutrality) - will explain
Intell Minister Frick (+5% Espionage)
Chief of Staff Beyerlein (+10% Supply throughput)

Germany starts at 2-year draft for manpower policy. The requirement for 3-year draft (more manpower and +25% officer recruiting) is <60% Neutrality. Germany starts at... 60% Neutrality. So one day with Herr Sack in charge will allow us to change our draft policy.

The other policy we change (not shown in screeny) is to drop our training to Basic. This reduces our units experience, but also cuts build time (and therefore cost) by 20%. We're going to be building a lot of units. This will add up quickly.

 

[unmerged(58023)]

Sounds like a good plan. I will be reading.

 

[Von Lippe]

Day 1: Intelligence

First, where we start:

Ok, come on... Bhutan?

Max Priority will be to build up home defense, plus Austria, and USA so we can support our party.

Second Priority will be France, and Third England. These will be for Threat increase. Don't bother sending spies to USSR. They are just too good at swatting them.

Nobody else gets any spies at all. The more spies you make, the fewer leaders, diplomats, and techies

Home wil be set to Counter-spy, all others to No Mission until we build up to 10 spies there.

After:

 

[Von Lippe]

Day 1: Diplomacy

Start by Influencing the USA. It's very long term, and it's very expensive, but you want to delay or prevent them from jumping into the Allies. If you can get them into your corner, even better, but it's pretty tough.

Offer to buy 1 Metal and 1 Rare from Austria. It's "Very Likely" to succeed, and boosts your relations with them.

Lastly, make note of the requirements to do the Reoccupation of the Rhineland:

We have 39 of the required 40 divisions, and 1 of the two groups of border provinces occupied already. That's an easy fix!

 

[Von Lippe]

Welcome TimmEmm! Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Lordban]

So far, it's a classical departure. There is another trick to get that 1st day drop of Neutrality: asking your spies to lower Neutrality for one day

 

[Von Lippe]

Day 1: Army OOB

Before I go into Production and Technology, here's an overview of our current military, and where I plan to be:

I will designate land units brigade configuration as #Type#Type#Type, with support brigades last. So 2 Light Armor with 1 Armored car and 1 Motorized Infantry would be 2Larm1Mot1Ac.

Our army starts with 36 Infantry Divisions (35 3Inf and 1 3Inf1Art)
and 3 Light Panzer Divisions (2Larm1Mot)

The Army starts out with a disaster of a.. no, I can't even call it an OOB. It's just a pile of units attached in some way some where. And with ludicrous leader assignments. Guderian and Von Manstein in charge of single divisions in East Prussia?? :wacko:

For the most part, I will not specify what leaders I put where. As a general rule (heh, pun) I put my Skill 5's in Army Group or Theater commands, 4's in Army, and 3 and below in Korps and divisions. Germany has enough talented leaders to be able to afford this.

My Organizational goal for pre-war (Early 1939) is:
Every infantry korps will be 5 divisions: 2x3Inf1Art, 2x3Inf1AT, 1x3Inf1Eng
Every jaeger korps will be 5 divisions: 2x3Mtn1Art, 2x3Mtn1AT, 1x3Mtn1Eng
Every armored korps will be 5 divisions: 1x2Larm2Ac, 2x2Marm1SP1TD, 2x3Mot1Eng.

Note that my Light armor is designed so in the mid-late war phase I can split them into 2x1Larm1Ac for use in anti-revolt mode.

I plan to have 18 Infantry korps, 10 Panzer korps, and 6 Jaeger korps. I don't research Marines, so my Jaegers are my "Special Forces".

2 Theatre Commands named OKW and OKO. I know IRL OKW was Wehrmacht. In my organization, they're OberKommando West and Ost (East)

OKO:
Heeresgruppe A in charge of the Polish Border
1. Armee (Northern Poland)
I. Armeekorps, II. Armeekorps (East Prussia)
III. Armeekorps (just west of Danzig corridor)
I. Panzerkorps
I. Jaegerkorps
2. Armee (Southern Poland)
IV.-VI. Armeekorps
II. Panzerkorps
II. Jaegerkorps
VII. Panzerkorps - attached directly to Heeresgruppe A

Heeresgruppe B in charge of the Austrian (later Yugoslav) Border
3. Armee
VII-IX. Armeekorps
III. Panzerkorps
III. Jaegerkorps
VIII. Panzerkorps - attached directly to Heeresgruppe B

OKW:
Heeresgruppe C in charge of the Denmark / Netherlands Border
4. Armee (aka Armee Skandia)
X-XII. Armeekorps
IV. Panzerkorps
IV. Jaegerkorps
IX. Panzerkorps - attached directly to Heeresgruppe C

Heeresgruppe D in charge of the Belgian / French Border
5. Armee (Belgium and Northern portion of Maginot line)
XIII.-XV. Armeekorps
V. Panzerkorps
V. Jaegerkorps
6. Armee (Southern France)
XVI.-XVIII. Armeekorps
VI. Panzerkorps
VI. Jaegerkorps
X. Panzerkorps - attached directly to Heeresgruppe D


Whew... Lots o' text. More pic's in the next posts

 

[Von Lippe]

Hi Lordban! Yes, I know about that alternative, but I just get all itchy when I think about enemy spies. So I tend to default to Counter-ops. Lol

 

[unmerged(58023)]

Welcome TimmEmm! Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks, I'm sure I will.

I don't see the point in putting spies in France. If you are increasing the threat of the UK, what additional benefit would be the point of increasing the threat of France?

If you can get the US to stay neutral until after France is defeated, why put spies in France? Knowing what France is doing militarily will not change the invasion plans much, would it? The only benefit I see is helping keep the US out of the Allies. However, influencing the US and increasing the UK's threat will do that. After Vichy, France is not a player until Europe is liberated by the Allies, and Germany is defeated (game over). You can use the leadership saved on France for another research project or officers.

 

[Von Lippe]

Day 1: Navy and AF OOB

Ok, after that massive post for the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe are a cinch.

Kriegsmarine:
Immediately go to Wilhelmshaven and scrap your Type I U-boat. Talk about an iron coffin! It's completely useless.
Move the Baltische Flotte to Stettin from Konigsberg. No need to ship oil. I usually replace Bohm with Saalwachter
I usually break the Type II destroyer and the Emden off from the Kriegsmarine and send them to join with the Baltische Flotte in Stettin. They are the shortest ranged units that start attached to your primary fleet. And they fit in with the rest of the obsolete junk in the Flotte. But those ships are adequate for the Baltic... so long as you take Denmark quickly and lock the Royal Navy out

Luftwaffe:
You start with 8 Tac and 2 Int. Goal will be 4 Luftflotte's of 3Tac and as many Fliegerkorps of 2Int as you can afford (my goal is about 20).

Reorganize the air units in Berlin. You've got an interceptor wing attached to Luftflotte II (3 Tacs). Move him to I. Fliegerkorps. While you're at it, replace Kesselring with Milch as leader of the interceptors. Put Kesselring in charge of Luftflotte II.
Promote Sperrle to 2star (Luftflotte III). I generally like my 2-squadron units (the interceptors) to have MjGen's, but my 3-squadron units (the Tac's) to have LtGens to help with stacking penalties.
Split the air unit in Kassel. Assign a decent Air Superiority general to the Int's, and a Ground Attack guy to Luftflotte IV. Go down to Munich and fire Fat Herman. Put another Ground Attack guy here.

And we're done!

 

[Von Lippe]

Thanks, I'm sure I will.

I don't see the point in putting spies in France. If you are increasing the threat of the UK, what additional benefit would be the point of increasing the threat of France?

If you can get the US to stay neutral until after France is defeated, why put spies in France? Knowing what France is doing militarily will not change the invasion plans much, would it? The only benefit I see is helping keep the US out of the Allies. However, influencing the US and increasing the UK's threat will do that. After Vichy, France is not a player until Europe is liberated by the Allies, and Germany is defeated (game over). You can use the leadership saved on France for another research project or officers.

All that is true, but I find that 1) It's much easier to get spies into France than England and 2) Raising France's threat slows Switzerland and Belgium from moving Allied (adjoining territories). So it's sort of a "supplement" to my UK threatmongering.

"But don't you plan on squashing Belgium anyway?" you say. Well, yes. But the fewer countries in the Allies early, the fewer countries are influencing yet more countries into the Allies. It's almost an exponential function if you think of it that way. Same reason I invite Italy, Japan, Hungary, Portugal, and anyone else I can get into the Axis ASAP. Once they join, they start influencing other countries toward me (Bulgaria, etc) at no cost to me.

I really appreciate the comments. Like I said earlier, I'm far from being an expert on the game. The more viewpoints, the better for everyone. That's kind of my goal with this AAR, is just to present another viewpoint.

 

[Von Lippe]

Day 1: Production

Ok, now the fun stuff starts.

I will show serial / parallel builds as (parallel||serial). So (3||5) means 3 runs of 5 of something.

Since my goal is to have all 18 infantry korps fully brigaded, and Germany starts with 36 infantry divs, 1 with an arty brigade...

Build 35 more arty brigades (5||7)
I want my Light Armor to be 2Larm2Ac, and I currently have 6Larm Brigades in 3 divs...

Build 6 Ac brigades (serial)

We have 3 Motorized brigades currently attached to 3 Light Panzer divs. We'll combine them and add an engineer to form our first Motorized Div

Build 1 Eng brigade

In order to fill 18 infantry korps, I'm going to need 36x3Inf1AT and 18x3Inf1Eng

Build (4||9) 3Inf1At
Build (2||9) 3Inf1Eng

Going to need to move some stuff to East Prussia:

Build 3 Transport Flotillas (Serial)

Now comes the really expensive stuff:
We need 7 more Light Armored divisions:

Build 7 2Larm2Ac (serial)

And 19 more Motorized. Start with just one. It makes it easy to do a 3||6, and lowers the cost of the rest:

Build 3Mot1Eng.

Fill out our Tac bomber wings:

Build 4 Tac

Need some cargo lift and escorts. NOTE: Huge jump in cost and build time in 1.4 patch for these. I will have to see how that changes things down the road....

Build 10 Convoy and 10 Escort (serials)

And start churning out INT groups To meet our goal of 20 korps (40 Int), we need 37 more.

Build 1 Int
Build 3||12 Int

Astonishingly enough, if you build the land units as Reservists, all of this fits in the budget! Allocate 10 IC to upgrades, 20 to Supplies, just over minimum to Goods, a fraction to reenforcements, and you have 130+ for production.

Note: The Kriegsmarine would really, really like some battleships and stuff, but there's just no budget in R&D or production for it. Not to mention it's almost useless to try and compete head-on with the RN. Mid to late game, I'll build a Navy to start going after the US, India, etc. But pre-Barbarossa, nothing.

 

[unmerged(149861)]

Not even a sub? This shall be good!

 

[JDMS]

Looks good. I'll follow.

 

[Aelendil]

Sounds interesting, I'll follow =)

 

[Von Lippe]

Day 1: Technology pt. 1

Hi all, and welcome!

Ok, first some of my "ground rules" for tech research (and sliders):
1) With rare exceptions (Education), try not to research more than 1 year ahead.
2) Industry techs are your friend...

First thing I do is lock some sliders:

For now, 0 officers. We're going to need huge numbers here, but we also happen to know we're going to get a 25% boost in production very soon

Lock diplomats at .10 over what's needed to support our influencing of the USA. This gives a slow trickle to replace those used in trading.

Lock Tech at 16... this will go up, but right now it's a good balance as we'll see...

Everything else goes to making spies. Once we get our full compliment of spies at home and in our chosen victims... err, I mean tourists abroad in chosen locations, we will lower this to a "maintenance" value of around 2-2.5. Just enough to replace losses. I keep an eye on my numbers... if I'm building a surplus, I'll reduce this, if I'm falling behind, I'll raise it. The freed up numbers will go to producing officers and boosting tech to 18.

Another thing to note on this screenie: Some of Germany's starting techs have been changed with the 1.4 patch. We know how to build Engineers now, but lost all 4 of the 1936 infantry techs... meaning we can't research Artic or Mountain warfare equipment, either. We'll fix that in Part 2.....

 

[Von Lippe]

Day 1: Technology pt. 2

Alrighty then...

Keeping in mind the "no pushing ahead" rule, let's look at what Germany can research under 1.4.

Infantry.. all 4 1936 techs
Armor.. all 4 1936 light armor techs, and arty & AT guns. I don't research AA, because I never build any. That's what the interceptors are for
Escort and Capital ship screen.. skip. We don' need no stinkin' Navy, remember?
Bombers we get Basic Medium Fuel Tank and Basic Bomb
Fighters nothing 'till '38
Industry nothing 'till '38 (change for 1.4).. I will be researching some of this stuff slightly ahead (Education, Manpower esp.), but not right away.
Secret nothing
Theory nothing 'till '38
Land.. Eventually, I want EVERYTHING on this screen. But for now, sticking to the 1936 or earlier rule still nets a whole bunch of stuff:

Naval... see above
Air: Since all we're building are Int & Tac, that's what we'll research. These have also changed for 1.4. So we only have 1 Int and 2 Tac techs to add

All told, we now have 28 techs que'd up. Which is fine. I like to "stack" my tech research, so items that are completed fall to the bottom of the list and don't get ahead of schedule. If something is high priority, I can always jump it back up to the top.

 

[Von Lippe]

Replies

Not even a sub? This shall be good!

Hi MajorMayhem. Well, technically they do get 1 CA, 1 DD, and 1 sub. Those are in the build que at the start, and since they're almost completed, I let them stay. The CA (Graf Spee) goes to the Kriegsmarine, DD to the Balitche Flotte, and the Type II sub joins the other two in Germany's only U-boat pack.

JDMS, Aelendil, welcome! Hope you enjoy it.