Crazy method, but this glorious endeavour made me want to buy the expansion ASAP (well after exams, really), really enjoyed beating back the stupidly overpowered nazi war machine.
You're a genius. Kanitatlan. And Hitler paid for daring to start the war one week earlier, before i was fully mobilised (25 Aug) :rofl:. Also, this campaign made me review my definition of "understrength" divisions.
Done it on normal mode, no retries (including a couple of nasty and unavoidable dissent events). Couldn't finish the build, had around 60% of my INF brigaded with Arty at start of war, and around 70 MP after mobilising. Those 70MP didn't last till winter though, and the interceptors with 39 armament can scare german bombers away (although they can't really ground them, and the messer's still own them). Managed to have 8 wings upgraded when war started, and they lasted around 6 months before being kinda grounded by german Messers. AI still sometimes fails to avoid the INT megastack with -30% attack efficiency, though.
A suggestion, related to SF. You should try to commit troops to defend Danzig, due to the strategic effect. Plus, it's now urban territory, which is a pain to crack through with armor. Doing so allows you to cover your stacks heading towards Konigsberg while keeping a defensive line at the river side.
Cleared East Prussia in the first month (except Memel, which i left alone with 6 or 7 divs stuck there - no point in forcing a river with "Territorial Pride Modifier", for a non-VP and useless province). Started pushing in the middle near Warsaw by November, may not seem wise, but you can't afford to wait or you'll have a war of attrition, that you can't win.In January i had breached the Western Fatherland (no AAR references intended here, surely
).
In Feb i went for Berlin, with 6 or 7 60% STR divs with arty, but Hitler's new damn tanks kicked me back beyond Stettin before i regrouped. Meanwhile, German troops were redeployed to help protect the capital, and i advanced in the South, managing to send Slovakia into GiE. In March/April i pushed to Berlin from Dresden, and managed to take it.
As for the allied AI, it made me swear foul and loud (like it had in my previous Romanian attempt to save Poland), but in the end i was pleasantly surprised.
In May, allies start landing near Berlin (graciously giving the troops as Exp. Forces , in time to stop a German counter attack and helped me regain the iniciative. War was mostly fought in the North, and in September netherlands joined the Allies, pushed a bit, was pushed back by german reinforcements (seriously, where do they find the troops, having lost 2/3 of their territory). Of course. they had to abandon hope of defending along the Maginot line and retreated to the Ruhr, leaving their Armee out in the Netherlands. Game over, Hitler, please pull that trigger and save our Polish bullets.
Done on Normal/normal, no mods, everything of note went historical, no USA in allies at '39, Sov still declared and won the Winter War (although the Finns held till June 1940!). Italy didn't join Axis (thank you Musso), although that can be viewed as historical because they wouldn't join a losing Germany. Hungary didn't join aswell, but think i could have handled their outdated army, but would had cost me a lot of time and strategic iniciative. In the end i took advantage of the insanely large southern front (from near Berlin all the way to Yugoslavia), and rushed a few Mountaineers for Austrian VP's and Munich, because i was losing around 2000 men per day, mostly due to bombing (try interdicting a front larger than the initial Barbarossa one with only 3 ""operational"" INT's...)
Sorry for kinda hijacking your AAR, btw, but you must do better than me, 'tis a too high price that Poland paid for this war.
PS - Why the hell do axis units get a positive modifier while fighting for their cores, while other nations like Nat China, SOV, etc don't? Like Poland wasn't screwed enough, they even felt the need to buff the ubermenschen even more...