Chapter 1: The Communard Military & Doctrine
Part 1 - The Land Forces
The Commune of France arguably possesses the strongest starting army disposition in the game other than Germany, but whereas Germany has to worry about its imperial and Eastern interests, France has less immediate ground to cover and is thus better able to concentrate its forces. With 43 infantry divisions, the Commune is not too far off Germany's 69, especially when considering its 3 division mountain and marine corps (each). That said, of these 43 infantry divisions, only 13 are your most modern 1931 variants whereas the rest are either up to 1926/21 standards (the German infantry is more modern by comparison.) This tech problem is a consistent issue to consider when playing DH in that upgrading units is IC and time consuming making it often better to build units as research progresses rather than build them and upgrade them later. The Commune certainly does not have the IC to spare on upgrades in its early build-up phase making it a real concern.
While the infantry is a bit obsolete, the extensive mobile core you start the game with is quite up to date, consisting of six motorized divisions and ten cavalry divisions; double the starting German mobile force in comparison. Both motorized and cavalry divisions have light and medium tank brigades attached to them starting at the best possible tech available with 35 motorized, 32 cavalry, and 34 light/medium armour respectively (the brigade level medium tank tree starts in the light tank tree, not the medium one.) As stated previously, at least the early light/medium tanks seem to slow down motorized divisions.
While this is not as much of a concern should you opt towards using the motorized divisions for a future basis for your armoured corps via the mobility or manpower trees, at least for the early part of the game I find that the faster the motorized division are, the better they function as a rapid reserve or encirclement force. Armoured Cars by comparison don't slow down the divisions and bring enough to the table to make them a valid replacement. They offer more defensive bonuses to your motorized divisions, a valuable edge should they find themselves at the head of your early-game spearhead (especially in an early war) and aren't that far off light tanks in hitting power. In addition, they offer a decent Partisan suppression value giving them a later game value for garrison forces and do not cost much in additional supplies or IC to construct, though you will need to build them separately for your existing motorized divisions.
You don't have to build them, and as a rule, brigades are considered to be less efficient than simply building more divisions with the same resources, but as KR uses a different manpower system to vanilla and other mods, I find that brigades are an efficient means of increasing the qualitative edge of French units for a relatively small manpower cost relative to the greater investment of building more divisions. When fighting Germany, France is naturally disadvantaged in manpower, and while France can build a large army (even larger than Germany's) by 1939/40, its manpower reserves risk becoming dangerously low in case of attritional confrontations meaning that your effective ability to maintain a large army during combat is limited (and the Commune AI often loses due to attrition) That is why I recommend aiming for quality over quantity when it comes to France regardless of doctrine which we will come to at the end of this chapter.
There is also a distinct lack of artillery brigades compared to the German army totalling 2 brigades of heavy artillery (which are very useful against fortifications) and 9 brigades of expanded field artillery. That said, all infantry divisions possess both to some degree, and the brigades merely expand their existing capacity at the cost of reduced speed. Artillery and its heavy counterpart are most noteworthy as a means to destroy fortifications and suppress the defender's advantage, particularly when playing with a more static army, though even in a mobile play it can pay to concentrate the artillery and even expand it. The latter is easily done via one long-duration serial run that can fully benefit from gearing bonuses at a relatively low IC cost though heavier artillery is much more expensive to build. The latter is primarily useful if you intend to break through Nancy rather than Belgium, a topic that will be covered more extensively in the doctrinal part of the chapter.
On a final note, one drawback to artillery construction is that you will go through at least three models during the game; the 36, 38, and 40. This is a problem because serial runs restart every time you get a new model if you set them to auto-update reducing the value of the gearing bonus. I, therefore, recommend building runs to end whenever you expect to get the next models along with one-off runs with infantry if you aim for an artillery strong army, or simply building selective runs for as many divisions you intend to equip (such as those on the fortified border with Germany) Heavy Artillery in comparison is locked to its 1918 model until 1940 making it a better candidate for a continuous serial run until that date, though the IC cost for even one unit at a time is equivalent to a divisional cost.
As you can see from the above, the German Artillery component is somewhat larger than France's. It should be noted that the differences are actually greater and are only narrow at the game's start due to the French artillery divisions starting the game being fully reinforced whereas the German ones are not. In real terms, the Germans have a lot of artillery reinforced divisions and about the same starting number of heavy artillery making them more potent against fortresses.
Your mountain troops are quite useful as either an offensive force against the mountainous terrain of Nancy or as a defence/offensive force against Italy, though they will require a much larger commitment to be truly effective to which they return only a limited utility in their chosen terrain. That said, as a qualitative edge, they are a useful maximization of your returns from limited French manpower, particularly if you are using a more static doctrine or expect to invade Switzerland. Your starting small 3 division core is best used, in my view, in a defensive role covering the mountainous territory of Grenoble in the event of an early war with the Italian Federation. Your marines, however, do not have much utility during the early game (though they could come in useful against National France) and are, in my view, best used to secure your coastal provinces of Marseilles and Montpelier against National France as well as your border province of Toulon against Italy.
I recommend giving over your units to logistical wizards (which the AI generally does anyway) at least in the early stage of the game to offset supply cost. You might want to consider ministerial changes to either give you tech bonuses, construction bonuses, IC, or supply bonuses (though it is best to wait until after the Communard elections and make alterations around the 1st of May 1936 just before the big dissent reduction of the Internationale Congress.) In terms of deployment, my recommendation is to concentrate your motorized units in Lille and your cavalry on the other provinces of the Belgian Border. This will let you quickly grab Belgium in the event of early war or make a rapid dash to Liege in a later war if you build an enlarged mobile force to encircle the Germans in Alsace.
I would not recommend reinforcing your infantry immediately as it will increase your IC supply cost, but rather to station understrength infantry divisions in your fortified positions in Verdun, Charmont, and Belfort relative to the number of provinces they face (six for each province for a total of six in Charmont, 12 in Belfort, and 12 in Verdun) Assuming I go for a mobile army, I like to place my reinforced modern divisions and their artillery in Sedan where they can assist the armoured thrust, but if you opt for a more static doctrine, these would be better placed in the provinces around Nancy which offers the most attack vectors. As stated previously, I think your marines are best used covering the coast while the mountain divisions cover the Italian border. It doesn't hurt to keep a few divisions in Paris, perhaps an infantry and cavalry division as well as your HQ until you need it to assume command of a large concentration of troops somewhere.
The French air force starts on a strong footing roughly equivalent to its army. With 7 up-to-date 1930 interceptors, you are roughly equivalent to the starting German fighting force, though the latter outweighs you in bombers by about 2-1 (though thanks to an oversight, all your bombers are 38 models which is well ahead of your starting 32 technology). That said, Germany also benefits from a not insignificant number of fighters from its puppet states and potential allies that are likely to severely challenge your ability to maintain air superiority (though your Italian allies also tend to build a few interceptors squadrons eventually while the British and Post-Civil War CNT Spanish seem to prefer bombers and are unlikely to be much help on that front. If the CSA wins its civil war it provides more fighter cover.)
The above means that you are unlikely to outweigh the Germans in the air, especially if the Austrians join them, though this isn't an insurmountable difference. In order to safety bomb your targets, you have to establish at least local air superiority over the target area. The best immediate way to do this is to concentrate your forces into one large fighter formation and one large tactical bomber formation in order to avoid getting picked off and to try and time their operations together. Without fighter cover, your bombers can easily get shredded and rendered ineffective for weeks at a time. I recommend prioritizing your fighters and bombers for reinforcement and upgrades to mitigate this effect, though the only sure means of addressing this problem is by expanding your airforce.
There are several directions open to you on that latter point. The most basic direction is to focus entirely on interceptors and tactical bombers with the aim of simply outweighing the Germans in fighters and alternating between tactical bomber groups whenever one gets shredded. That said, I would not count on outweighing the Germans by numbers alone; quality is also important, both in terms of technology and in doctrine. In that sense, I think investing in fighters rather than in interceptors is a more effective means of maintaining a qualitative edge with the latter focusing on defending your forces from enemy bombers while the former focus on establishing air superiority over enemy territory. Escort fighters can offset damage to your tactical bombers at the cost of reduced range (which is negligible in the airbase rich Western European area) and it might be worth a single serial run of those to offset IC cost as well as equipping future bombers with them.
That said, the more aircraft variants you want to maintain, the tougher it is to keep all of them up-to-date. Not to mention whatever you build in 38 may not match new enemy aircraft coming out in 1940 if you don't have enough IC to dedicate towards upgrading your equipment. Again, it is worth timing construction with new technology, but this can be tough to do with competing build orders making it easy to end up with a rather insignificant fighter force not really worth the investment. This is why it may be best to choose between interceptors and fighters at least in build orders, though I'd still say that some investment in interceptors is worthwhile, both in anti-bomber duty, but also in air-scramble over your Mediterranean ports, though you could delegate the latter role to the Italians. In that context, I recommend building some radar stations at least in Marseilles as well as AA as the Entente can get pretty darn brutal with NAVs from time to time.
In my opinion, the Commune simply lacks the IC and tech to invest in CAS or NAVs effectively without compromising your fighter component. Without air superiority, your bombers will get shredded anyway, which is why I tend to keep only to TACs. This question is, however, very dependent on your doctrine and its prescribed IC investments to the land forces and navy described in the final part of this chapter. If you are building a large tank force, for example, you won't have much spare IC. In terms of development, as stated, I recommend concentrating your fighter and bomber forces with your fighters stationed in Lille and your bombers in Paris. Later bomber can take point in Auxerre while your fighters operate from the additional Airbase I recommend in the previous post (Verdun or Charmont)
Edit - I also recommend building half a dozen occupation divisions, perhaps light infantry with police, to secure enemy airfields and protect them from partisans. These operating in tandem with 1-3 cavalry divisions armed with Armoured Cars should be able to stay on top of any insurgency.
The Communard Navy isn't exactly your pride and glory, but it isn't altogether insignificant either. Most of your Battleships are relatively modern (certainly when compared with the rather large number of obsolete battleships in the German navy) though as the game does not favour battleships at this stage, certainly not in the rather limited confines of the Mediterranean, they are mostly relegated to shore bombardment duties that are only likely to become necessary once you invade National France. On that count, the National French navy is roughly equivalent to yours (or even slightly superior) and is likely to receive entente help in the event of war not to mention possible German naval resources in the theatre. For these reasons, it is best to keep the battleships in Marsiles (preferably in one large battleship formation, if you have an admiral with a high enough rank/level to command it, a question which will be addressed in your election choices.)
For an offensive naval arm, you have to turn elsewhere, though it is an open question if it is wise to invest in one at all this early. You already possess five submarine flotillas, which I recommend stationing in Brest to raid German convoys supplying its colonial empire in the event of war. Your transport force should probably remain in the same port as your battleships. You also start with one obsolete escort carrier though I tend to convert it to escorts along with spare old destroyers which do not fit in the 30 unit battleship fleet. Frankly, even your transports could be readily converted into convoys for more modern transports.
Your choices for further expansion should always aim to be as cheap as possible as your main investment will go to your land and air forces. In that regard, you have four choices - a submarine fleet, a war-ready light carrier fleet, a post-European war fleet carrier fleet, or not investing in your navy at all.
The submarine option is probably your cheapest effective offensive choice, though it will require some naval doctrine adaptation away from fleet-in-being to the indirect approach. You can either use a gamey 30 submarine formation to destroy practically anything that comes your way, or smaller more realistic formations to hit enemy convoy and transport formations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. I generally prefer the latter, as I find 30 submarines too expensive for France's IC limitations, though you could serial run submarines fairly effectively on account of their short construction time (less than one year per unit)
The Light Carrier Option gives you a pretty solid force to hold the Mediterranean during the war as well as attack the National French navy in port all the while you develop Carrier tech for a later Fleet Carrier navy. Light carriers don't cost much more than submarines and offer more bang to your buck, though they do require quite a few tech slots from the carriers to the destroyer escort, ASW, to the carrier aircraft group. There are only five names in the Commune's database for light carriers, so you will have to get creative for at least one if not more of them if you intend to build additional light carriers. Light carriers also double as effective transport escorts giving them a late-game utility should you move to fleet carriers as your main offensive arm by then.
The Carrier option is frankly too expensive to build IC wise before 1940, but a credible direction to gradually develop towards tech-wise as you won't need much more tech compared to the above-fleet carrier, carrier group, destroyer, ASW, and possibly ship-mounted radar. When I take this direction, I like to start building the carriers around 1940 once I research the 1940 carrier tech (carrier groups do get upgraded so they are not as urgent as other air units) Ships built according to this plan should be ready by 1942-43, which while it will delay operations against national France compared to light carriers isn't too long to wait.
Not investing in the navy at all is actually a pretty credible option as you don't really need a navy to dominate the Mediterranean. Once you are done with Europe, you will get events to declare war on the Ottoman Empire and other neutral states which you can then expand to a general campaign across the Middle East and North Africa using the land route to capture Colonial Africa without even one amphibious landing (though Suez may be a problem) If you go via that route, you may want to consider selling off or decommissioning your navy entirely, though I personally find that prospect rather gamey.
Before I go into the topic of the Communard elections in full detail in the next post, I would like to cover in brief the question of military doctrine raised in the first choice of the elections separately in the context of doctrine choice rather than its political implications. The Commune technically gets four choices, but I frankly find the Jacobian Defensive Focus to be such a poor choice to be scarcely worth mentioning. France is doomed to lose an attritional confrontation so it makes no sense to prolonge the war via defensive measures. It only makes some measure of sense in the event of early war when the Commune isn't ready for offensive operations. Unless you purposely intend to start the war immediately in 1936, I do not think it's worth your time, and even then, it is a rather dubious choice.
Your effective choices are the Travilleur mobility doctrine, the Anarchist manpower doctrine, and the Sorelian firepower doctrine. Each one of them represents a distinctly different construction policy, with the mobility doctrine focused on creating armoured divisions (the more the better), the firepower doctrine focused on infantry and mountaineer divisions (preferably with a generous allocation of field and heavy artillery) while the Manpower doctrine combines both into a mixed infantry - armoured doctrine (since the latter can be unlocked prior to going to war) Choose according to what type of campaign you want.
In terms of which one is best, mobility represents the smallest demand on your limited manpower for the best returns (though at a considerable IC cost) and can fairly easily encircle the Germans at Alsace and push forwards soon after. The only real shortcomings of this doctrine is, firstly, in how the IC cost is liable to limit the overall size of your army compared to the German in the event they manage to stabilize the front into an attritional confrontation. Secondly, while the doctrine unlocks armoured divisions early, your tech is liable to lag behind, making many of your armoured divisions obsolete by the time the war starts. In that context, the mobile doctrine would probably be best served via an early war in 39 the moment the decision Alsace or War is available rather than waiting for 1940.
Multiple encirclements achieved via Liege breakout with armoured corps
Firepower isn't ideal as it is draws heavily upon your manpower and is liable to pit you in attritional confrontations the Commune may find hard to win. That said, if you build the motorized divisions I suggested along with some more cavalry, you will still possess a mobile core capable of limited encirclements. An artillery cannonade around Nancy along with attacking mountaineer troops should be able to breach the German defences and let your mobile core break through and achieve at least local encirclements. The reduced IC cost compared to mobility will give you more resources for naval and air force construction. Such an army may be ready by 1939 or 1940 depending on how it is built, but remember that Germany will gain access to its full industrial potential by 39 if not earlier.
Encirclement was achieved by a breakthrough via Nancy, though admittedly with the help of Dutch allies and an Imperialist second front against Japan
My favourite doctrine, however, is the manpower doctrine for several reasons. Firstly, it offers a 15% bonus to manpower growth via the People's War tech which is quite significant for the Commune's manpower shortcomings, especially when used in tandem with other manpower altering event decisions, ministers, and techs. It is also generally the stronger doctrine overall (at least by the late game) and unlocks armoured divisions not much later than mobile warfare around the time your tank tech should be fairly advanced allowing for a more optimized construction policy. That said, the latter point does make for a slower build plan that would benefit the most from a delayed war around 1940 (I personally like the 10th of May 1940 both for the weather and the humour as a good date to start it)
In the next chapter, I will cover the political implications of the Communard elections and how to optimize and/or role-play them effectively. I will also cover technology choices using a manpower doctrine build as a general example, probably using the Anarchist political route to showcase both.
Until then, Vive la Commune!