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Thanks Lordban, I'll give it a go now. In the current save, neither the Axis or the Allies are able to occupy more territory in Denmark, although the Axis got all the stuff they had troops in at the time of surrender. I'm hopeful this will fix the problem.
Uh, I've found my "UK Denmark Fix Edited.hoi3", which I assume is the relevant save to edit, (as opposed to my same title backup), but nothing I have can open a .hoi3. Does it have an associated .lua or something?
You can edit it with Notepad or Notepad++ directly. It's a plain text file with a different extension.
While I'm mucking about here, is there a way to make the GER AI realize Barbarossa is off for the time being? I theorize it assesses threat on a theater-by-theater basis, and if I can figure out a way to give whatever the hapless western front HQ reinforcements from the east, it would be a nice plus. Or are the AI values really hard to mod? (Writing AI is clearly very hard...)
Fix appears to have worked, though I'll play a few days to make sure Denmark doesn't just go DoW Germany again.
geez, i don't even have the game yet, and i'm up all nite with it, and only on page 3.
nice aar comtrav. i'll catch up tomorrow.
nice aar comtrav. i'll catch up tomorrow.
An observation of this thread: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=421003, has led me to believe that you might be right on that.
Seems as soon as you hit an objective that the Eastern Theatre has then you face the full force of Germany, so you may want to take that into consideration.
An easy fix for this behaviour would be to incorporate load balancing across the Theaters, for the AI to transfer forces from one to the other, just like any other human player would do, at a time when one front might be collapsing.
Slugo-I'm glad you've enjoyed it. You can imagine how many late nights I've had .
Warspite-You know, that is exactly what is going to happen to me. It's a matter of improving inter-theater cooperation. Right now it's sort of like fighting a cabal of politically powerful theater commanders, with no central command or general staff to reign them in. I've thought about this, and I wonder if that's why the AI decided to base all those BBs on the channel instead of build up its strength in safer ports in, say, the Baltic--the BBs were to fight me, not the Soviet Union, but they "belonged" to the Paris HQ or whatever, so they had to be based in the area. Also, I think the fewer theaters, the 'smarter' the AI is; I've encountered lots of Slovakian divisions, because they only have one theater, which presumably includes everywhere.
.Warspite-You know, that is exactly what is going to happen to me. It's a matter of improving inter-theater cooperation. Right now it's sort of like fighting a cabal of politically powerful theater commanders, with no central command or general staff to reign them in. I've thought about this, and I wonder if that's why the AI decided to base all those BBs on the channel instead of build up its strength in safer ports in, say, the Baltic--the BBs were to fight me, not the Soviet Union, but they "belonged" to the Paris HQ or whatever, so they had to be based in the area. Also, I think the fewer theaters, the 'smarter' the AI is; I've encountered lots of Slovakian divisions, because they only have one theater, which presumably includes everywhere.
So I apologize because some of my photos from the fighting in France may not necessarily be from my current save, but they give you an idea of what happened. I had a corrupted save around mid August, so I had to play the first part of August a couple of times, and the first time I had taken photos, and having to replay-it I just wanted to get through it.
However, I do want to say that France right now is a more narrow theater then we are used to. Vichy France and the Low Countries are useful, so all I'm really fighting in as that "T-square" type shape.
This is a narrow front, and there's not much room to maneuver. My multiple port landings have given me an edge in flanking and pocketing:
I'm able to pin Germans against the sea, Belgium, and Vichy France. This is a lot different then the D-day scenario, when I would need lots more troops to accomplish the same result. I try to not get cocky, as my strength on the ground--as in the air--is largely local, not global. Only in sea power do I have total dominance--but MUSSOLINI has, as I predicted, used his new Greek airbases to attack repairing ships in the Med. I'm getting more fighters off the line, so I have to send a squadron to Alexandria to defend.
The Germans do beat me to the Maginot line, as they were right on the Dutch border, in case the Dutch ever listen to my pleas and join the Allied cause. (I've decided the Belgians have missed their chance. I do send an invite to Luxembourg, but they refuse and I frankly don't blame them.)
However, perhaps smiting at the humiliating defeats at the hands of South Africans and British forces (who, a few months ago, couldn't even beat some starving troops in East Africa), they eagerly charge forward to engage:
I think you can see where things are going. However, I do have to rush to occupy the line; snatching it is one thing, holding it is another. I actually put some of my troops under AI control, just to keep them moving and to see how it works. It actually does a few good things--the troops that cleaned up the pockets in Belgium and central France (with the help of the South Africans) are moved towards the Franco-German border with strategic redeployment. Also, I keep my divs on the Sound in Scandinavia just in case but I tell my corps command there to move in theater. It does alright extracting the mountain divs from Norway but the div in Stockholm isn't moving anywhere. I tell it to start walking to Norway, because it doesn't look like the sea route into the Baltic is going to be open for either side anytime soon.
Also, for some reason, I decide to invite Brazil to the Allies. They are all crowding near the top of the triangle because of Germany's massive threat, but I decide I wanted a little more Latin flavor for this AAR. Besides, I thought I saw Columbia aligning Axis at one point...who knows? I might actually need that Caribbean HQ before this is out. (It's a little strange that when destroyers-for-bases fires, I actually still have all those islands, and I shouldn't.)
Germany starts doing strategic bombing runs on me. Even with radar covering southern England, they're basically impossible to stop. In Hoi3, the bomber will always get through, at least a couple times. Air combats are rapid affairs with little damage that happen a lot, so it's about doing a little damage each time to force your opponent to ground his planes. (And then bombing his runway to keep him from recovering anything, if you can--I've tried with all three different bomber types, and no "crater runway" mission actually damages planes on the ground.) However, the strategic bombings hurt; you'll see in my pictures that my IC varies in these pictures. You can also see it's not impacting my national unity at all, because they're successfully being intercepted. I start building a few AA stations, and more radar, much farther north in England then I expected. I think Scotland is still safe, at least while Norway is.
In addition to an increasing strategic bomber offensive, the Luftwaffe also begins to try to stop my progress on the ground:
With their stacking penalties, they are not in very effective. Also, i think I might've forced them to rebase. When I'm looking at the map for good operational objectives, air bases are high on the list. Mainly to deny them to the Germans, but also because my CAS stack has proven to be good enough to swing close battles.
A few notes on my air force:
I've been building a ton of planes it feels like, but it's almost all fighters. I have two 3-wing squads of ints in southern England, an int in central England to help with the strats, and a few multi-role fighters with longer range in Malta and Alexandria. Bomber-wise, I'm just beginning to build new planes; I have a three-wing 'legacy' strategic bomber force, which I use for anything I want hit deep in Germany (like whatever airfield I think their bombers are from; my radar coverage isn't that good yet, and the game won't let me build a listening post in Sweden), two three-wings of tactical bombers (one of which started the game as my various colonial/imperial AFs) and one 3-wing stack of CAS. 3-4 wings seems to be the optimal number for aircraft efficiency. I've also profited from the bonanza of air combat experience and I'm researching doctrines like mad.
I round up the troops on the Maginot line. I have two armies: French Vacation Army (which I've delegated mostly to AI control on the Corps level) and 8th Army (which I control myself). They're quite a bit more organized now then they were when I launched this quite improvised invasion.
A thought occurs to me: this is almost more like World War I in some ways. We (now) have a large British army on the continent, there's no Pacific theater to speak of (and Japan is racing towards the allies like everyone else; I have half a mind to invite them in, help conquer China, and help them attain their earlier-century goals of becoming a respectable imperialist power. Great Britain could USE a new golfing partner at the Respectable Imperialist Powers Country Club...)
But France is clear; I have problems liberating it, because I need to control the French capital, which is of course some jungle province in west Africa. That's already controlled by France. I do start lowering my neutrality again to DoW Vichy if I have to; the liberation of France is now a matter of national prestige. (And the French government in exile keeps asking if maybe we couldn't have shown up with an entire army group maybe a year ago instead. Or at least bothered to move the handful of troops I had at the time to stop MUSSOLINI's 8 million bayonets.)
However, I do want to say that France right now is a more narrow theater then we are used to. Vichy France and the Low Countries are useful, so all I'm really fighting in as that "T-square" type shape.
This is a narrow front, and there's not much room to maneuver. My multiple port landings have given me an edge in flanking and pocketing:
I'm able to pin Germans against the sea, Belgium, and Vichy France. This is a lot different then the D-day scenario, when I would need lots more troops to accomplish the same result. I try to not get cocky, as my strength on the ground--as in the air--is largely local, not global. Only in sea power do I have total dominance--but MUSSOLINI has, as I predicted, used his new Greek airbases to attack repairing ships in the Med. I'm getting more fighters off the line, so I have to send a squadron to Alexandria to defend.
The Germans do beat me to the Maginot line, as they were right on the Dutch border, in case the Dutch ever listen to my pleas and join the Allied cause. (I've decided the Belgians have missed their chance. I do send an invite to Luxembourg, but they refuse and I frankly don't blame them.)
However, perhaps smiting at the humiliating defeats at the hands of South Africans and British forces (who, a few months ago, couldn't even beat some starving troops in East Africa), they eagerly charge forward to engage:
I think you can see where things are going. However, I do have to rush to occupy the line; snatching it is one thing, holding it is another. I actually put some of my troops under AI control, just to keep them moving and to see how it works. It actually does a few good things--the troops that cleaned up the pockets in Belgium and central France (with the help of the South Africans) are moved towards the Franco-German border with strategic redeployment. Also, I keep my divs on the Sound in Scandinavia just in case but I tell my corps command there to move in theater. It does alright extracting the mountain divs from Norway but the div in Stockholm isn't moving anywhere. I tell it to start walking to Norway, because it doesn't look like the sea route into the Baltic is going to be open for either side anytime soon.
Also, for some reason, I decide to invite Brazil to the Allies. They are all crowding near the top of the triangle because of Germany's massive threat, but I decide I wanted a little more Latin flavor for this AAR. Besides, I thought I saw Columbia aligning Axis at one point...who knows? I might actually need that Caribbean HQ before this is out. (It's a little strange that when destroyers-for-bases fires, I actually still have all those islands, and I shouldn't.)
Germany starts doing strategic bombing runs on me. Even with radar covering southern England, they're basically impossible to stop. In Hoi3, the bomber will always get through, at least a couple times. Air combats are rapid affairs with little damage that happen a lot, so it's about doing a little damage each time to force your opponent to ground his planes. (And then bombing his runway to keep him from recovering anything, if you can--I've tried with all three different bomber types, and no "crater runway" mission actually damages planes on the ground.) However, the strategic bombings hurt; you'll see in my pictures that my IC varies in these pictures. You can also see it's not impacting my national unity at all, because they're successfully being intercepted. I start building a few AA stations, and more radar, much farther north in England then I expected. I think Scotland is still safe, at least while Norway is.
In addition to an increasing strategic bomber offensive, the Luftwaffe also begins to try to stop my progress on the ground:
With their stacking penalties, they are not in very effective. Also, i think I might've forced them to rebase. When I'm looking at the map for good operational objectives, air bases are high on the list. Mainly to deny them to the Germans, but also because my CAS stack has proven to be good enough to swing close battles.
A few notes on my air force:
I've been building a ton of planes it feels like, but it's almost all fighters. I have two 3-wing squads of ints in southern England, an int in central England to help with the strats, and a few multi-role fighters with longer range in Malta and Alexandria. Bomber-wise, I'm just beginning to build new planes; I have a three-wing 'legacy' strategic bomber force, which I use for anything I want hit deep in Germany (like whatever airfield I think their bombers are from; my radar coverage isn't that good yet, and the game won't let me build a listening post in Sweden), two three-wings of tactical bombers (one of which started the game as my various colonial/imperial AFs) and one 3-wing stack of CAS. 3-4 wings seems to be the optimal number for aircraft efficiency. I've also profited from the bonanza of air combat experience and I'm researching doctrines like mad.
I round up the troops on the Maginot line. I have two armies: French Vacation Army (which I've delegated mostly to AI control on the Corps level) and 8th Army (which I control myself). They're quite a bit more organized now then they were when I launched this quite improvised invasion.
A thought occurs to me: this is almost more like World War I in some ways. We (now) have a large British army on the continent, there's no Pacific theater to speak of (and Japan is racing towards the allies like everyone else; I have half a mind to invite them in, help conquer China, and help them attain their earlier-century goals of becoming a respectable imperialist power. Great Britain could USE a new golfing partner at the Respectable Imperialist Powers Country Club...)
But France is clear; I have problems liberating it, because I need to control the French capital, which is of course some jungle province in west Africa. That's already controlled by France. I do start lowering my neutrality again to DoW Vichy if I have to; the liberation of France is now a matter of national prestige. (And the French government in exile keeps asking if maybe we couldn't have shown up with an entire army group maybe a year ago instead. Or at least bothered to move the handful of troops I had at the time to stop MUSSOLINI's 8 million bayonets.)
What are the exact requirements for you to go out of supply... Er... for the territory that you are liberating to become blue?
As I advance into an empty Germany I have a couple of thoughts. The foremost is, "it can't possibly be this easy!"
Nope. It turns out I've outrun my supply line:
And my first response when I see that is that THAT'S AWESOME!
When I first read about the supply mechanics, I basically expected it to only really matter if you break one if Monty's two rules of war and invade China or Russia.
However, even fighting in France--with very high infrastructure--with an army chock full of Logistics Wizards, and mostly leg infantry units with a light logistical footprint and little need of fuel, it's possible for me to outrun my supply lines. As well it should be; I have only the French channel ports, when historically the Allies needed Antwerp and launched Dragoon at least partly for Marseilles. And besides, since the forces in France I had very little German resistance anyway. And this photo is the first serious German resistance I've encountered since France; I'm beginning to feel that I've not only outrun my supply lines, I've potentially overreached.
Also, the commando raid on Wilhelmshaven seems almost obligatory at this point. This is their only port outside the Baltic, so if they want to do any naval things or even any trading they need it; I also sort of need it to alleviate my supply woes. The AI is running a Mountain Corps assigned to grab the alps to try to cut off any reinforcements from Italy and it actually tries to route its overseas reinforcements through Wilhelmshaven. For a little while the AI does nothing, and I do have an armored div in East Africa that's finally at a port, and so I think about it. My transports, I notice, are somewhat damaged by the time they get out to the Atlantic; I think the Axis naval bombers are pressing me hard.
However, in western Germany, I try to hold on to what I have with another pinning attack by my advance armor:
In Hoi2 you could this a lot; if that were a strong stack in a Hoi2 game, I could easily keep all three of those units locked down. However, with the new cooldown on attack orders, it's much harder, even after a few levels of operational level control research . My reinforcements are moving up, but some of them can't advance into enemy terrain because of my continuing supply difficulties.
You can see my advance in the south has gone very well. Since I've advanced so far in the south, and I need to move troops North to meet Germany's counterattack, my center is becoming very weak. This might be coincidental, but it seems like they're trying to wheel by my northern forces. They're motorized brigades so they are faster, or they're using strategic redeployment. Instead of the set-piece battle of France I am now in a much more mobile and fluid situation on a very large front, and although I have more troops now that might change. And, despite their investments in a big battlefleet, a bunch of Marines, and a huge Luftwaffe with strategic bombers, I'd be really surprised if the Germans didn't have at least a couple of Panzers.
I should point out that I'm not a total nub and I KNOW tanks/armor units are good in this game, but I wanted to try a strategy other then building huge mechanized forces (which I did one night with Germany, and both of us I think might like to forget it.) and try more Monty/Alexander-esque tactics on a large scale (although I dunno if they would've used forward armor pinning attacks quite so much). Also, I didn't expect to be fighting Germany on such a wide-open front so soon, and I was hoping to have air superiority. My one INT stack I rebased from the UK seems to be working overtime. My CAS stack is good, but I'd like more, and it's slowly getting shot up anyway. My Tac stacks are not as well-upgraded, but they do their part. I try assigning them to AI controlled-corps but they don't seem to do much with them.
But anyway, my center is quite weak and I'm wondering where I could rustle up another corps or so of mans. They don't necessarily need to be very good, but right now I have almost nothing there. Where could I find some of these guys?
That's also about 12 inf bdes on the border. What gets me is South Africa shuttles all those Militia up after the initial invasion to reinforce this. Clearly, they've heard about my Allied MVP award, and decided to rest on their laurels. The Irish division has thoughtfully grabbed all those unoccupied German provinces.
However, some of my allies recognize an opportunity when they see it:
Sweden, making the case for Allies MVP. As much as I made fun of the AI for putting all those troops in Denmark, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.
(This was from before I fixed it so Denmark is at war with the Allies and not the Axis, and actually what convinced me to do it--after this battle is over, because I was worried if I modded it while it was ongoing, the German AI might pull out its troops, and trying a crossing of the Sound against a general like Model...well, that's pretty cool.)
We have more numbers, but the frontage is limited. I'm a little glad that I have a strong reinforce chance, but that doesn't matter as long as the Swedish troops fill up the front.
A breakout into northern Germany--particularly Wilhelmshaven--would be helpful. (I totally ditched my early plan to build on the commando beach head). Further, if the Allies controlled the Sound, a Baltic landing is a possibility. (Brazil has already begun to shuffle its units around towards a part like it's thinking of doing something like that somewhere because it has enough units to do it.) Locking the Kriegsmarine completely into the Baltic would be a tremendous advantage; in addition, Sweden's strong navy could help maintain sea presence. (They built a third battlecruiser. I think they saw Brazil had two BBs, and decided that they wanted to keep the title of second biggest navy in the Allies.)
I try to think what I can do--this is a tough battle. I send my CAS stack up and it gets shot up really bad; the Germans have almost complete air superiority in the Baltic. I try a commando operation to attack them from the rear but there's no handy port; I land them without a port (they have 30 days built in supply, right?)
Let's face it, we all knew one of these was going to go horribly wrong eventually. He did beat a Slovakian division first, though. Slovakia's troops are quite wide ranging and I've fought them in several theaters now.
And Lordban's helpfully provided fix also lets the Danes get their own shot at defending the Sound:
I have a high reinforce chance because of Grand Battleplan Doctrine, and soon the swedes pour in reinforcements, but I get my divs into battle. The battle's still going on; I kept waiting to see what was going to happen ("a few more turns" syndrome, even if this isn't a turn-based game).
Is my Thin Red Line in Germany. You can see how much I've managed to grab, that I've managed to pocket a couple units against the Netherlands, but also how much OPEN FRONT there is. My gains have been impressive--particularly in the South but also vulnerable.
I don't recall Germany in Hoi2 feeling so big; the operational art level of the game has really a lot of depth. Plus, in Hoi2, if you were following the script, when you invaded Germany itself its main forces had been smashed somewhere or other anyway.
Also, I switched to Heavy Industry Emphasis for improved supply throughput, and turns out I was massively overrating how many consumer goods I was saving being on Mixed Industry. (I played my whole start with the CG bug, so that probably impacted my thinking.) It frees up a huge amount of IC, so I go ahead and give my single largest production order of the war for eight infantry dives. (24 infantry bdes, 6 arty, 2 engineers, to be formed into two corps.) I have to think if I had done this earlier I would have a lot more of everything I need--then again, a lot of the fun was not having enough of anything, and having to carefully agonize over each build order. IMO that's how UK should play--no resource problems (provided you protect the Empire), and fairly large production overwhelmed by large demand. After I popped the order for all that infantry, though, I noticed my manpower went down. Oh manpower problems, how I've missed you...
I really want France back into the war in earnest, so I'm lowering my neutrality. (It's funny, for as much as I've played this game I haven't DoW'd anyone.) I need an ally capable of providing a lot more ground troops.
Also, I reorganize my army a bit because it bothers me to have Skill 1 Old Guards leading whole armies while all these 'signature' British Army officers languish in low-level commands. I promote Alanbrooke to French Vacation Army, and Montgomery to (where else?) 8th Army. Slim is slated for my next army command when it comes open, but I want him to build some xp at div-level first. (It occurs to me that if you want to build someone up, you don't have them go through the logical route of slowly progressing ranks, but have him be a div commander until you want him to run a theatre.) I put Ironside, who was the old auto-assigned 8th Army commander, as Army Group Jolly Good Fun commander. (I need to reshuffle air commanders, too...Bomber Harris? In charge of a fighter wing?)
Nope. It turns out I've outrun my supply line:
And my first response when I see that is that THAT'S AWESOME!
When I first read about the supply mechanics, I basically expected it to only really matter if you break one if Monty's two rules of war and invade China or Russia.
However, even fighting in France--with very high infrastructure--with an army chock full of Logistics Wizards, and mostly leg infantry units with a light logistical footprint and little need of fuel, it's possible for me to outrun my supply lines. As well it should be; I have only the French channel ports, when historically the Allies needed Antwerp and launched Dragoon at least partly for Marseilles. And besides, since the forces in France I had very little German resistance anyway. And this photo is the first serious German resistance I've encountered since France; I'm beginning to feel that I've not only outrun my supply lines, I've potentially overreached.
Also, the commando raid on Wilhelmshaven seems almost obligatory at this point. This is their only port outside the Baltic, so if they want to do any naval things or even any trading they need it; I also sort of need it to alleviate my supply woes. The AI is running a Mountain Corps assigned to grab the alps to try to cut off any reinforcements from Italy and it actually tries to route its overseas reinforcements through Wilhelmshaven. For a little while the AI does nothing, and I do have an armored div in East Africa that's finally at a port, and so I think about it. My transports, I notice, are somewhat damaged by the time they get out to the Atlantic; I think the Axis naval bombers are pressing me hard.
However, in western Germany, I try to hold on to what I have with another pinning attack by my advance armor:
In Hoi2 you could this a lot; if that were a strong stack in a Hoi2 game, I could easily keep all three of those units locked down. However, with the new cooldown on attack orders, it's much harder, even after a few levels of operational level control research . My reinforcements are moving up, but some of them can't advance into enemy terrain because of my continuing supply difficulties.
You can see my advance in the south has gone very well. Since I've advanced so far in the south, and I need to move troops North to meet Germany's counterattack, my center is becoming very weak. This might be coincidental, but it seems like they're trying to wheel by my northern forces. They're motorized brigades so they are faster, or they're using strategic redeployment. Instead of the set-piece battle of France I am now in a much more mobile and fluid situation on a very large front, and although I have more troops now that might change. And, despite their investments in a big battlefleet, a bunch of Marines, and a huge Luftwaffe with strategic bombers, I'd be really surprised if the Germans didn't have at least a couple of Panzers.
I should point out that I'm not a total nub and I KNOW tanks/armor units are good in this game, but I wanted to try a strategy other then building huge mechanized forces (which I did one night with Germany, and both of us I think might like to forget it.) and try more Monty/Alexander-esque tactics on a large scale (although I dunno if they would've used forward armor pinning attacks quite so much). Also, I didn't expect to be fighting Germany on such a wide-open front so soon, and I was hoping to have air superiority. My one INT stack I rebased from the UK seems to be working overtime. My CAS stack is good, but I'd like more, and it's slowly getting shot up anyway. My Tac stacks are not as well-upgraded, but they do their part. I try assigning them to AI controlled-corps but they don't seem to do much with them.
But anyway, my center is quite weak and I'm wondering where I could rustle up another corps or so of mans. They don't necessarily need to be very good, but right now I have almost nothing there. Where could I find some of these guys?
That's also about 12 inf bdes on the border. What gets me is South Africa shuttles all those Militia up after the initial invasion to reinforce this. Clearly, they've heard about my Allied MVP award, and decided to rest on their laurels. The Irish division has thoughtfully grabbed all those unoccupied German provinces.
However, some of my allies recognize an opportunity when they see it:
Sweden, making the case for Allies MVP. As much as I made fun of the AI for putting all those troops in Denmark, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.
(This was from before I fixed it so Denmark is at war with the Allies and not the Axis, and actually what convinced me to do it--after this battle is over, because I was worried if I modded it while it was ongoing, the German AI might pull out its troops, and trying a crossing of the Sound against a general like Model...well, that's pretty cool.)
We have more numbers, but the frontage is limited. I'm a little glad that I have a strong reinforce chance, but that doesn't matter as long as the Swedish troops fill up the front.
A breakout into northern Germany--particularly Wilhelmshaven--would be helpful. (I totally ditched my early plan to build on the commando beach head). Further, if the Allies controlled the Sound, a Baltic landing is a possibility. (Brazil has already begun to shuffle its units around towards a part like it's thinking of doing something like that somewhere because it has enough units to do it.) Locking the Kriegsmarine completely into the Baltic would be a tremendous advantage; in addition, Sweden's strong navy could help maintain sea presence. (They built a third battlecruiser. I think they saw Brazil had two BBs, and decided that they wanted to keep the title of second biggest navy in the Allies.)
I try to think what I can do--this is a tough battle. I send my CAS stack up and it gets shot up really bad; the Germans have almost complete air superiority in the Baltic. I try a commando operation to attack them from the rear but there's no handy port; I land them without a port (they have 30 days built in supply, right?)
Let's face it, we all knew one of these was going to go horribly wrong eventually. He did beat a Slovakian division first, though. Slovakia's troops are quite wide ranging and I've fought them in several theaters now.
And Lordban's helpfully provided fix also lets the Danes get their own shot at defending the Sound:
I have a high reinforce chance because of Grand Battleplan Doctrine, and soon the swedes pour in reinforcements, but I get my divs into battle. The battle's still going on; I kept waiting to see what was going to happen ("a few more turns" syndrome, even if this isn't a turn-based game).
Is my Thin Red Line in Germany. You can see how much I've managed to grab, that I've managed to pocket a couple units against the Netherlands, but also how much OPEN FRONT there is. My gains have been impressive--particularly in the South but also vulnerable.
I don't recall Germany in Hoi2 feeling so big; the operational art level of the game has really a lot of depth. Plus, in Hoi2, if you were following the script, when you invaded Germany itself its main forces had been smashed somewhere or other anyway.
Also, I switched to Heavy Industry Emphasis for improved supply throughput, and turns out I was massively overrating how many consumer goods I was saving being on Mixed Industry. (I played my whole start with the CG bug, so that probably impacted my thinking.) It frees up a huge amount of IC, so I go ahead and give my single largest production order of the war for eight infantry dives. (24 infantry bdes, 6 arty, 2 engineers, to be formed into two corps.) I have to think if I had done this earlier I would have a lot more of everything I need--then again, a lot of the fun was not having enough of anything, and having to carefully agonize over each build order. IMO that's how UK should play--no resource problems (provided you protect the Empire), and fairly large production overwhelmed by large demand. After I popped the order for all that infantry, though, I noticed my manpower went down. Oh manpower problems, how I've missed you...
I really want France back into the war in earnest, so I'm lowering my neutrality. (It's funny, for as much as I've played this game I haven't DoW'd anyone.) I need an ally capable of providing a lot more ground troops.
Also, I reorganize my army a bit because it bothers me to have Skill 1 Old Guards leading whole armies while all these 'signature' British Army officers languish in low-level commands. I promote Alanbrooke to French Vacation Army, and Montgomery to (where else?) 8th Army. Slim is slated for my next army command when it comes open, but I want him to build some xp at div-level first. (It occurs to me that if you want to build someone up, you don't have them go through the logical route of slowly progressing ranks, but have him be a div commander until you want him to run a theatre.) I put Ironside, who was the old auto-assigned 8th Army commander, as Army Group Jolly Good Fun commander. (I need to reshuffle air commanders, too...Bomber Harris? In charge of a fighter wing?)
Leader auto-assignment seems to follow a very simple unit: first unit in the OOB gets highest skill-rank possible leader, second unit in the OOB gets second highest skill-rank possible leader, and so on... It works at all levels with all units.
Prepare for war with the French, if you just waltz into Berlin in 1941, you could certainly have saved them from the Teutons in 1940
Prepare for war with the French, if you just waltz into Berlin in 1941, you could certainly have saved them from the Teutons in 1940
This AAR is rather hilarious, although I feel sorry for the AI of the other nations.
Well, over-extension looks a serious concern if the eastern units ever decide to come west to play.
Lordban--Yeah, it seems actually possible to end the war right away with a decisive UK commitment to the continent, or at least stall the Italian drive. It's a big mistake I made early, especially since most of my units at the time were Mountain Divs. In retrospect, the extra land combat xp alone would have been worth it. I was worried that my lowish leadership at the time would cause them to shatter, but if I would've thought about it, I would've realized shattered units re-form in London anyway, which is where I would want them if things were going that badly. (It seems shatter mechanics don't work properly, but I feel like for true learning AAR purposes, I should keep my leadership at least decently high. I haven't had problems since my initial expansion surge, but I just started some big orders of divs that will make a dent in it. The leadership tooltip doesn't make it clear if leadership is required for ships or planes at all, so it's possible that it will dip quickly as I keep only token runs of naval stuff open (to keep up practical, "just in case") and switch more and more to ground and air units. (The Luftwaffe is much, much stronger then I thought; I really didn't anticipate strats, and though at this point they're an inconvenience, they do tie down fighters that I want elsewhere, and eventually could do some real damage to my IC.)
And you are right about leader auto-assignment, which is why my recent higher formations have default poo leaders. And in fall of '39, the Teutons weren't who the French needed saving from; even if I'm in Berlin by 41, the true master of the Axis awaits in Rome.
Bafflegab--The liberation of France is a big mystery; I've actually asked here before, and in the general forum. My other liberations are pretty straightforward: control the capital. However, France's capital is not Paris, but Brazzaville, a province in Africa that's owned by France. I suspect that means there's an event chain involved the defeat of Vichy. (I will DoW Vichy anyway once my neutrality is low enough. It will get the South Africans back to the war, and Vichy appears to be defended by its theatre HQ brigade and nothing else.) When the South Africans finish, they'll be on the Italian border, which hopefully they can hold.
Enewald-I'm glad you're enjoying the AAR. Sometimes the AI of the other countries does stupid things, but when the armies close to contact en masse, it will immediately launch attacks everywhere it can win, whereas I have to scramble just to make sure all my DIVs are doing stuff at all if I use no automation. Ironically, the smaller Germany becomes the better the AI will do, because it has fewer theater demands to coordinate.
stynlyn-My big concern is that the Baltic breakout, if it happens, will cause a mass stampede of the Ostfront to go west. The supply situation works partly as a balance mechanic because its given the AI time to recover and get troops into position to stop me. Then it needs to build a lot more troops then me, and I'm potentially in big trouble. I had planned to have a much larger army, or at the very least air superiority, before engaging in these types of operations. Let's just say the AA, AT, and TD brigades are looking pretty good right now. I would love to hold Wilhelmshaven-Munich, but without Dutch help that line is far too shallow, so I think I might shoot for the edge of the low countries to Munich. The salient in the mountains seems defensible, but if troops from the Balkans show up to the party I might just need to retreat to the old Maginot/Siegfried lines, which is well fortified, relatively narrow, and exactly where I did NOT want my troops to be back in '39.
And you are right about leader auto-assignment, which is why my recent higher formations have default poo leaders. And in fall of '39, the Teutons weren't who the French needed saving from; even if I'm in Berlin by 41, the true master of the Axis awaits in Rome
.Bafflegab--The liberation of France is a big mystery; I've actually asked here before, and in the general forum. My other liberations are pretty straightforward: control the capital. However, France's capital is not Paris, but Brazzaville, a province in Africa that's owned by France. I suspect that means there's an event chain involved the defeat of Vichy. (I will DoW Vichy anyway once my neutrality is low enough. It will get the South Africans back to the war, and Vichy appears to be defended by its theatre HQ brigade and nothing else.) When the South Africans finish, they'll be on the Italian border, which hopefully they can hold.
Enewald-I'm glad you're enjoying the AAR. Sometimes the AI of the other countries does stupid things, but when the armies close to contact en masse, it will immediately launch attacks everywhere it can win, whereas I have to scramble just to make sure all my DIVs are doing stuff at all if I use no automation. Ironically, the smaller Germany becomes the better the AI will do, because it has fewer theater demands to coordinate.
stynlyn-My big concern is that the Baltic breakout, if it happens, will cause a mass stampede of the Ostfront to go west. The supply situation works partly as a balance mechanic because its given the AI time to recover and get troops into position to stop me. Then it needs to build a lot more troops then me, and I'm potentially in big trouble. I had planned to have a much larger army, or at the very least air superiority, before engaging in these types of operations. Let's just say the AA, AT, and TD brigades are looking pretty good right now. I would love to hold Wilhelmshaven-Munich, but without Dutch help that line is far too shallow, so I think I might shoot for the edge of the low countries to Munich. The salient in the mountains seems defensible, but if troops from the Balkans show up to the party I might just need to retreat to the old Maginot/Siegfried lines, which is well fortified, relatively narrow, and exactly where I did NOT want my troops to be back in '39.
Leadership isn't required for ships or planes, no
Even if it isn't an actual update, that was a very thoughtful post with a lot of interesting lessons.
Even if it isn't an actual update, that was a very thoughtful post with a lot of interesting lessons.