Hello dear fans of HOI3,
Last year I started playing the game, hating the highly steep learning curve, but loving this historical reenacting of WWII. After a short and disappointing interlude with HOI4, I returned to HOI3, which is by far a better reflection of the World War. Until now I did play with Germany, Romania, and France (painful defeat with the latter) and learned the land and air combat. My intention is to report live my war experience with different powers at normal difficulty level, without the possibility to go back in time whenever things turn bad. Like in real history, the played country will have to live with its losses and blunders when they happen. My first DAR (instead of AAR) will be Romania, followed by France, and Japan (naval battles are not my specialty, so there will be a tough time ahead).
Now, from my limited game experience minor powers are exaggeratedly nerfed, while a moderately well prepared gamer can win easily with the land Major Powers. In order to make a country like Romania playable, I did modify some of its stats to a limited extent. In terms of manpower, military scientists and resources Romania was the forth Axis Power after Germany, Italy, and Japan. A solid part of the country's officers were competent, graduating in the highest military academies in France and Germany in the interwar period. However the country lacked a powerful heavy industry and no major power of the time wanted to sell licences for modern weaponry and industrial know-how for different reasons. Germany and Italy did not trust Romania, because the country was largely democratic, a long time ally of France and a supporter of the League of Nations. France and Czechoslovakia (the latter inheriting a heavy industrial basis from the former multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire) didn't want industrial competition from Eastern Europe, hoping instead to export their products. Soviet Union was out of question because of the unresolved Bessarabia issue (The Russian Empire annexed through war half of the Romanian principality of Moldova in 1812. In 1859 emerged the state of Romania following the victory of the idea of Nationalism in Europe and claimed ever since the Russian occupied half of Moldova - Bessarabia. In 1918 Bessarabia asked to reunify with Romania, which happened after the Bolshevik revolution and the Russian civil war) and the Communist ideological threat to the liberal and monarchical national order.
Up to 1934 Romania had to recover from the horrific destruction brought by the First World War, to surpass the Great Depression which lasted from 1929 to 1933), and to pay the economic costs of unification with its historical provinces where Romanians where a majority: Transylvania and Bessarabia. Only after 1935 did the country have to its disposal financial resources to invest in modernising its military. After failed negotiations with the European Majors to buy licences, the Romanian Government decided to place huge orders in France, England, Italy, and Czechoslovakia for everything from planes, naval ships, artillery, to tanks and motorised vehicles. Nonetheless, in a heating political climate, with all these countries engaging in a new arms race, many of these orders were cancelled or the deliveries reduced by the sellers, with the weapons already produced for Romania being often called into requisition...
Being left alone by its friends, Romania started a modernization program with its own scientists and limited industrial capacity. (Soon to follow!)
Last year I started playing the game, hating the highly steep learning curve, but loving this historical reenacting of WWII. After a short and disappointing interlude with HOI4, I returned to HOI3, which is by far a better reflection of the World War. Until now I did play with Germany, Romania, and France (painful defeat with the latter) and learned the land and air combat. My intention is to report live my war experience with different powers at normal difficulty level, without the possibility to go back in time whenever things turn bad. Like in real history, the played country will have to live with its losses and blunders when they happen. My first DAR (instead of AAR) will be Romania, followed by France, and Japan (naval battles are not my specialty, so there will be a tough time ahead).
Now, from my limited game experience minor powers are exaggeratedly nerfed, while a moderately well prepared gamer can win easily with the land Major Powers. In order to make a country like Romania playable, I did modify some of its stats to a limited extent. In terms of manpower, military scientists and resources Romania was the forth Axis Power after Germany, Italy, and Japan. A solid part of the country's officers were competent, graduating in the highest military academies in France and Germany in the interwar period. However the country lacked a powerful heavy industry and no major power of the time wanted to sell licences for modern weaponry and industrial know-how for different reasons. Germany and Italy did not trust Romania, because the country was largely democratic, a long time ally of France and a supporter of the League of Nations. France and Czechoslovakia (the latter inheriting a heavy industrial basis from the former multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire) didn't want industrial competition from Eastern Europe, hoping instead to export their products. Soviet Union was out of question because of the unresolved Bessarabia issue (The Russian Empire annexed through war half of the Romanian principality of Moldova in 1812. In 1859 emerged the state of Romania following the victory of the idea of Nationalism in Europe and claimed ever since the Russian occupied half of Moldova - Bessarabia. In 1918 Bessarabia asked to reunify with Romania, which happened after the Bolshevik revolution and the Russian civil war) and the Communist ideological threat to the liberal and monarchical national order.
Up to 1934 Romania had to recover from the horrific destruction brought by the First World War, to surpass the Great Depression which lasted from 1929 to 1933), and to pay the economic costs of unification with its historical provinces where Romanians where a majority: Transylvania and Bessarabia. Only after 1935 did the country have to its disposal financial resources to invest in modernising its military. After failed negotiations with the European Majors to buy licences, the Romanian Government decided to place huge orders in France, England, Italy, and Czechoslovakia for everything from planes, naval ships, artillery, to tanks and motorised vehicles. Nonetheless, in a heating political climate, with all these countries engaging in a new arms race, many of these orders were cancelled or the deliveries reduced by the sellers, with the weapons already produced for Romania being often called into requisition...
Being left alone by its friends, Romania started a modernization program with its own scientists and limited industrial capacity. (Soon to follow!)