I wanted to find out what AI can do if it is guided to act more rational by disbaning all military at the start etc.. On the way there i encountered many difficulties, one of them being that rares donnot suffice and all the problems that evolve around that. So what i present here is still way below optimum.
For the sake of simplicity i trigger the events for Rhineland, Anti-Comintern-Agreement, Anschluss, Munich and the Partition of CZE right at the start and also make ROM and BUL join axis right at the start. Italy is invited into axis as well, but only after ETH is annexed via event. I cannot have war interfere with my preparations for war, right? In July 1939 Zog accepts that ALB is being annexed by Italy. I mainly did that for the sake of simplicity, but there are some objective advantages as well, but also for france and the UK as that way they start at full ic right from the start.
I edited the building queues. There i took the liberty add use models before they are researched, but only those, that will be researched before Danzig.
For each change of ideas 6% dissent is added, but all changes of ministers and ideas take effect without delay. Again simplicity is the focus.
For GER, ITA, HUN, ROM and BUL i disband all military and steer their economic build up and later on their military build up. In 1936 there is of course only marginal military build up and till early 1938 this changes little, although the build up of the navy is increasing. In July 1938 it is when the time has come to scale up the military build up by a large margin, now it includes the build up of the army that will be needed at Danzig. Keeping the resources flow steady enough is a challange, because the rares on the world market would not suffice to supply all effective ic possible, soi have to gradually reduce effecive ic / base ic as the later is still climbing.
At Danzig the military is still in build up, but the 49 Mech1940-SpArt1940 Germany has then are not really weak either. Shortly after Poland is annexed Fall Gelb commences to relieve pressure from Italy. A few weeks later Vichy triggers. At this point rares start to become even more of a problem because suppliers such as HOL are no longer available for trade. I suppose that is what war does.
A few weeks after Vichy the Balkan campaign starts at the brink of winter. Germany annexes GRE before YUG, which is a bit unusual. But so far things went really smoothly, although i should have added some CVs
to the building queue if Italy earlier. After all both Germany and Italy have adopted the Base Strike doctrine.
Now comes the question of Sealion. I decide to start Weserübung in mid of December to get this item
out of the way. As one would expect this takes long, in fact it takes till march till Norway is gone.
Now Germany has about one year to attempt Sealion. Italy had 6 SHBB1938 at Danzig as did Germany,
but Germany also had 6 CV1938-CAG1938 at Danzig and those numbers are still growing. So the strenght
of the navy should not be what prevents the success of Sealion. Germany looses many transports in many
attempted invasion, but none succeed. The resistance is way to strong. Maybe marines would have helped,
but i doubt that. The german AI will probably never be able to pull of a successful Sealion against any
UK that is not weak at home. Usually the UK has about 3 divisions per beach and as apart from at least
1 GAR per beach the remaining forces are usually motorized or even armoured divisions it is quite hard
to make a dent. A human player can of course still succeed.
Germany lost many men in attempting Sealion and sank many ships of the Royal navy. In spring 1941 i
decide to make AI abondon Sealion and concentrate at Russia. Barbarossa starts early at 1941/05/22,
in fact i missed to anticipate this choice by the AI and thus saved only 1 hour later.
Barbarossa is when a severe resource collaps starts to occurs. I try to steer against it with more synthetic plants
but as those cost their icd in supplies practically all ic goes into supplies alone till Moscow falls.
At 1941/09/12 bitter peace triggers, soviet union is down to 43 divisions. Once the day is over i save and finish this attempt. A set of savegames compatible with AoD 1.11 set 16 or set 17 or the correspending versions at Steam is attached. A few pictures for illustration will follow in the next few posts.
For the sake of simplicity i trigger the events for Rhineland, Anti-Comintern-Agreement, Anschluss, Munich and the Partition of CZE right at the start and also make ROM and BUL join axis right at the start. Italy is invited into axis as well, but only after ETH is annexed via event. I cannot have war interfere with my preparations for war, right? In July 1939 Zog accepts that ALB is being annexed by Italy. I mainly did that for the sake of simplicity, but there are some objective advantages as well, but also for france and the UK as that way they start at full ic right from the start.
I edited the building queues. There i took the liberty add use models before they are researched, but only those, that will be researched before Danzig.
For each change of ideas 6% dissent is added, but all changes of ministers and ideas take effect without delay. Again simplicity is the focus.
For GER, ITA, HUN, ROM and BUL i disband all military and steer their economic build up and later on their military build up. In 1936 there is of course only marginal military build up and till early 1938 this changes little, although the build up of the navy is increasing. In July 1938 it is when the time has come to scale up the military build up by a large margin, now it includes the build up of the army that will be needed at Danzig. Keeping the resources flow steady enough is a challange, because the rares on the world market would not suffice to supply all effective ic possible, soi have to gradually reduce effecive ic / base ic as the later is still climbing.
At Danzig the military is still in build up, but the 49 Mech1940-SpArt1940 Germany has then are not really weak either. Shortly after Poland is annexed Fall Gelb commences to relieve pressure from Italy. A few weeks later Vichy triggers. At this point rares start to become even more of a problem because suppliers such as HOL are no longer available for trade. I suppose that is what war does.
A few weeks after Vichy the Balkan campaign starts at the brink of winter. Germany annexes GRE before YUG, which is a bit unusual. But so far things went really smoothly, although i should have added some CVs
to the building queue if Italy earlier. After all both Germany and Italy have adopted the Base Strike doctrine.
Now comes the question of Sealion. I decide to start Weserübung in mid of December to get this item
out of the way. As one would expect this takes long, in fact it takes till march till Norway is gone.
Now Germany has about one year to attempt Sealion. Italy had 6 SHBB1938 at Danzig as did Germany,
but Germany also had 6 CV1938-CAG1938 at Danzig and those numbers are still growing. So the strenght
of the navy should not be what prevents the success of Sealion. Germany looses many transports in many
attempted invasion, but none succeed. The resistance is way to strong. Maybe marines would have helped,
but i doubt that. The german AI will probably never be able to pull of a successful Sealion against any
UK that is not weak at home. Usually the UK has about 3 divisions per beach and as apart from at least
1 GAR per beach the remaining forces are usually motorized or even armoured divisions it is quite hard
to make a dent. A human player can of course still succeed.
Germany lost many men in attempting Sealion and sank many ships of the Royal navy. In spring 1941 i
decide to make AI abondon Sealion and concentrate at Russia. Barbarossa starts early at 1941/05/22,
in fact i missed to anticipate this choice by the AI and thus saved only 1 hour later.
Barbarossa is when a severe resource collaps starts to occurs. I try to steer against it with more synthetic plants
but as those cost their icd in supplies practically all ic goes into supplies alone till Moscow falls.
At 1941/09/12 bitter peace triggers, soviet union is down to 43 divisions. Once the day is over i save and finish this attempt. A set of savegames compatible with AoD 1.11 set 16 or set 17 or the correspending versions at Steam is attached. A few pictures for illustration will follow in the next few posts.
