Der Waffeltaktik – a New Germany Strategy for Darkest Hour
Are you finding Darkest Hour boring after 10 years of the same tricks over and over again?
Desperate for a new way to play the game?
Hungry for waffles?
Search no more! In the award-winning* follow-up to Darkest Hour: The Game of High-Explosive Diplomacy, Der Waffeltaktik takes use of a strange quirk of the events governing Belgium and the Rhineland reoccupation to bag some early manpower, IC, and a puppet with tasty divisions for Germany in 1936 – with more tutorial, more gameplay, and more badly-judged puns, come along the ride through Europe, Africa, and Asia!
Part One: Hearts of Waffle-Iron
As with my last AAR, the trick here is that Germany needs paratroopers pronto, and must complete a successful Sealion before '41 in order to prevent the international moustache conspiracy from stabbing us in the back
If only we knew where you were hiding, moustache...
I want paratroopers immediatement – I mean, jetszt – and since this time instead of using submarines, we're going to try and compete the Brits on the high seas with a fleet. Now if only there was a german word for a fleet on the high seas...
We asked him but he just started crying. Probably hurt his noodle arm again.
Once again I'm going for nuclear research, but it's never yet been a factor in my games as the war is usually decided before any nucleons can get demolecularised into their constituent whoosits. Still, it's nice to have it as an option, and at this early stage with so many techs still years ahead of us, there's no point not taking it. In fact, as it happens, you can SKIP the TECH DELAY with this ONE SIMPLE TRICK DOCTORS HATE! More on that later...
Stop messing with time, James. You'll regret it if the AI ever works out how to abuse save-scumming like you do...
Now, one thing I forgot to mention in my last game – for every year ahead of time you try to research a technology, there is a 45% research speed penalty, up to 90%, so there's really very little point rushing for a technology years into the future unless it's one like nuclear power which takes an age to research anyway.
I always start my germany runs with forts on the Rhine and factories, but many of those factories will go unbuilt. Eventually, I will delete those runs, but until I have manpower to build units there's little point in doing anything else with it. Among other things, this IC will eventually be dedicated to planes, tanks, and most importantly, infantry. Infantry is key to a successful Germany in Darkest Hour, as if you fall into the trap of just building tanks or other IC-intensive units, you just won't have the bodies to break the Franco-Belgian defences at the border, or push through the Polish borders.
Fortunately, we have a secret plan to help us around that...
One handy trick is to click on a unit within a stack to reach this menu. From here, you can click the drop-down menu to choose what sort of unit you want them to upgrade to. In this case, I want the cavalry we start with (three divisions, creatively named I., II. And III. Kavallerie-division) to upgrade to tanks as soon as they are available. This will require the armoured division doctrine and the 1936 light tank technology, but once they're in the pipe we can begin to upgrade these guys, which will be faster than outright building new ones. I find cavalry are too weak compared to infantry, die too easily compared to tanks, and have neither the damage dealing capacity nor the hardness to be useful in the field. They're occasionally useful for mopping up partisans, but otherwise they should be got rid of ASAP. You might also consider upgrading them to MOT/MEC units, which will be quicker as the MOT tech comes in '35, but I find Motorised infantry still have that softness problem.
For the benefit of new readers; 'softness' is a percentage figure which indicates what percentage of 'soft attack' a unit will take damage from. The lower this figure, the better, as hard attack is almost always lower than soft attack. At the moment I can't recall if this is a straight percentage reduction, or a dice roll to resist a soft attack, but the point is that harder units are better.
I change ministers, at the cost of 2% dissent per change – Haushofer has a good, solid moustache, and gives a small increase to our IC with the Technical Specialist trait. Rudolf Diels, as a Crime Fighter, reduces consumer goods needs by 10%, which I believe increases the excess consumer goods that go to making money. Saalwachter in the Navy slot gives bonuses to our carriers. I actually made an error here, as a later event (Night of the Long Knives) gives us von Neurath as foreign minister anyway, which means I've gained 2% dissent for nothing.
As I explain in DH: tGoHED, Free Market gives you a chance to get free market events which give permanent boosts to your research speed, free blueprints, a bonus to your industrial efficiency (which acts as a percentage bonus to your IC, for some reason filed under 'minister effect') and all sorts of goodies. Most players seem to have favoured Central Planning historically, which is well and good, for the bonus IC, but I find that the benefits of Free Market are just better. You will get events to put you all the way to 10 in Hawk Lobby before 1939, so consider using a few moves to go Interventionism.
After a few months of events, our market is less free than I'd like, but Hawk Lobby gives a bonus to production efficiency and speed, which is lovely. Hjalmar Schacht gives a +5% IC bonus, and is the best we can get until Speer turns up in '42, so keep him when the event to chuck him arrives. The dissent hit is temporary – Hjalmartime is forever!
Halt! Complex series of fiscal subterfuges to allow rearmament-time!
One trick which I somehow neglected to mention in my last AAR is the great international shopping trip. With all your fancy technologies, you can sell these to the AI for HUGE sums of money! Supplies sell amazingly well, so you can perform the fiendish trick of selling supplies to a country you will later annex, thus stealing back your supplies! Even if you don't take money from a poorer country like Venezula, you can still stock up on oil before the war begins.
When did selling technical expertise and weapons to Afghans ever go wrong before?
By the time this is done, we have a frankly preposterous amount of money, allowing us to fire the 'Invest in Research' and 'Devalue the Currency' decisions. Devaluing our currency trades lots of money and a dissent hit for a small increase in IC efficiency, meaning we take pain now for more IC-days later. The earlier you do this, the better, because A. the longer you have to gain benefit from it, the better, and B. when you have less than 100 effective IC, these events are slightly cheaper!
That's a lot of money.
You can make this shopping trip every three months or so, allowing the AI to stock back up on money. I even sell to eventual enemies like France and the USSR, because giving them our tech today helps us stay ahead of the curve with our improved research speed. Counterintuitive, I know, but it does work – and they will have to dedicate IC to upgrades to see any benefit from it anyway.
When you fire the 'Invest in Research' decision, always go for the 'Comprehensive' option. This will give you a +2% research speed, -2% dissent, and two blueprints. One will be in a tech you are not researching, one will be in one you are researching – meaning that we can game the system by researching a tech ahead of time, firing the event, and then getting the blueprints for the massive increase in tech speed. For example, if we were to gain the paratroopers tech early, we could potentially build paratroops early. Paratroopers aren't fantastic fighters, but they are brilliant for dropping behind the enemy to either cut them off from supplies, or to set up a stack wipe by taking the province an enemy stack is retreating into.
Oh look what blueprints we got! How handy!
While we wait, I will continue my usual Germany play – get the paratroopers and navy ready, increase IC, but this time I won't bother sending diplomats until after 1939? Why? Because I'm about to do something that will make some people a bit upset.
I'm coming for you, you syrupy son of a belgian...
At the start of 1936, the re-occupation of Rhineland event is available, and one of the fun consequences is that Belgium always leaves the Allies.
P.S. Whenever an event pops up like this, go to the diplomacy screen and get as much money as you can, to fire the Currency Devaluation event. That way, you can get the little IC bonus, and instantly make your dissent disappear!
Belgium is now isolated, and is only guaranteed by France. The rule generally is that a guarantee will cause the AI to declare war a few weeks after you declare war on their protected country. If the war is over, though, they won't.
The newly-created Wehrmacht are on the Belgian border. We declare war, hit mobilise to magically zoom thousands of men into position, and begin goose-stepping.
Honk, honk und true die honk, die honk am Rhein...
Are you finding Darkest Hour boring after 10 years of the same tricks over and over again?
Desperate for a new way to play the game?
Hungry for waffles?
Search no more! In the award-winning* follow-up to Darkest Hour: The Game of High-Explosive Diplomacy, Der Waffeltaktik takes use of a strange quirk of the events governing Belgium and the Rhineland reoccupation to bag some early manpower, IC, and a puppet with tasty divisions for Germany in 1936 – with more tutorial, more gameplay, and more badly-judged puns, come along the ride through Europe, Africa, and Asia!
Part One: Hearts of Waffle-Iron
As with my last AAR, the trick here is that Germany needs paratroopers pronto, and must complete a successful Sealion before '41 in order to prevent the international moustache conspiracy from stabbing us in the back
If only we knew where you were hiding, moustache...
I want paratroopers immediatement – I mean, jetszt – and since this time instead of using submarines, we're going to try and compete the Brits on the high seas with a fleet. Now if only there was a german word for a fleet on the high seas...
We asked him but he just started crying. Probably hurt his noodle arm again.
Once again I'm going for nuclear research, but it's never yet been a factor in my games as the war is usually decided before any nucleons can get demolecularised into their constituent whoosits. Still, it's nice to have it as an option, and at this early stage with so many techs still years ahead of us, there's no point not taking it. In fact, as it happens, you can SKIP the TECH DELAY with this ONE SIMPLE TRICK DOCTORS HATE! More on that later...
Stop messing with time, James. You'll regret it if the AI ever works out how to abuse save-scumming like you do...
Now, one thing I forgot to mention in my last game – for every year ahead of time you try to research a technology, there is a 45% research speed penalty, up to 90%, so there's really very little point rushing for a technology years into the future unless it's one like nuclear power which takes an age to research anyway.
I always start my germany runs with forts on the Rhine and factories, but many of those factories will go unbuilt. Eventually, I will delete those runs, but until I have manpower to build units there's little point in doing anything else with it. Among other things, this IC will eventually be dedicated to planes, tanks, and most importantly, infantry. Infantry is key to a successful Germany in Darkest Hour, as if you fall into the trap of just building tanks or other IC-intensive units, you just won't have the bodies to break the Franco-Belgian defences at the border, or push through the Polish borders.
Fortunately, we have a secret plan to help us around that...
One handy trick is to click on a unit within a stack to reach this menu. From here, you can click the drop-down menu to choose what sort of unit you want them to upgrade to. In this case, I want the cavalry we start with (three divisions, creatively named I., II. And III. Kavallerie-division) to upgrade to tanks as soon as they are available. This will require the armoured division doctrine and the 1936 light tank technology, but once they're in the pipe we can begin to upgrade these guys, which will be faster than outright building new ones. I find cavalry are too weak compared to infantry, die too easily compared to tanks, and have neither the damage dealing capacity nor the hardness to be useful in the field. They're occasionally useful for mopping up partisans, but otherwise they should be got rid of ASAP. You might also consider upgrading them to MOT/MEC units, which will be quicker as the MOT tech comes in '35, but I find Motorised infantry still have that softness problem.
For the benefit of new readers; 'softness' is a percentage figure which indicates what percentage of 'soft attack' a unit will take damage from. The lower this figure, the better, as hard attack is almost always lower than soft attack. At the moment I can't recall if this is a straight percentage reduction, or a dice roll to resist a soft attack, but the point is that harder units are better.
I change ministers, at the cost of 2% dissent per change – Haushofer has a good, solid moustache, and gives a small increase to our IC with the Technical Specialist trait. Rudolf Diels, as a Crime Fighter, reduces consumer goods needs by 10%, which I believe increases the excess consumer goods that go to making money. Saalwachter in the Navy slot gives bonuses to our carriers. I actually made an error here, as a later event (Night of the Long Knives) gives us von Neurath as foreign minister anyway, which means I've gained 2% dissent for nothing.
As I explain in DH: tGoHED, Free Market gives you a chance to get free market events which give permanent boosts to your research speed, free blueprints, a bonus to your industrial efficiency (which acts as a percentage bonus to your IC, for some reason filed under 'minister effect') and all sorts of goodies. Most players seem to have favoured Central Planning historically, which is well and good, for the bonus IC, but I find that the benefits of Free Market are just better. You will get events to put you all the way to 10 in Hawk Lobby before 1939, so consider using a few moves to go Interventionism.
After a few months of events, our market is less free than I'd like, but Hawk Lobby gives a bonus to production efficiency and speed, which is lovely. Hjalmar Schacht gives a +5% IC bonus, and is the best we can get until Speer turns up in '42, so keep him when the event to chuck him arrives. The dissent hit is temporary – Hjalmartime is forever!
Halt! Complex series of fiscal subterfuges to allow rearmament-time!
One trick which I somehow neglected to mention in my last AAR is the great international shopping trip. With all your fancy technologies, you can sell these to the AI for HUGE sums of money! Supplies sell amazingly well, so you can perform the fiendish trick of selling supplies to a country you will later annex, thus stealing back your supplies! Even if you don't take money from a poorer country like Venezula, you can still stock up on oil before the war begins.
When did selling technical expertise and weapons to Afghans ever go wrong before?
By the time this is done, we have a frankly preposterous amount of money, allowing us to fire the 'Invest in Research' and 'Devalue the Currency' decisions. Devaluing our currency trades lots of money and a dissent hit for a small increase in IC efficiency, meaning we take pain now for more IC-days later. The earlier you do this, the better, because A. the longer you have to gain benefit from it, the better, and B. when you have less than 100 effective IC, these events are slightly cheaper!
That's a lot of money.
You can make this shopping trip every three months or so, allowing the AI to stock back up on money. I even sell to eventual enemies like France and the USSR, because giving them our tech today helps us stay ahead of the curve with our improved research speed. Counterintuitive, I know, but it does work – and they will have to dedicate IC to upgrades to see any benefit from it anyway.
When you fire the 'Invest in Research' decision, always go for the 'Comprehensive' option. This will give you a +2% research speed, -2% dissent, and two blueprints. One will be in a tech you are not researching, one will be in one you are researching – meaning that we can game the system by researching a tech ahead of time, firing the event, and then getting the blueprints for the massive increase in tech speed. For example, if we were to gain the paratroopers tech early, we could potentially build paratroops early. Paratroopers aren't fantastic fighters, but they are brilliant for dropping behind the enemy to either cut them off from supplies, or to set up a stack wipe by taking the province an enemy stack is retreating into.
Oh look what blueprints we got! How handy!
While we wait, I will continue my usual Germany play – get the paratroopers and navy ready, increase IC, but this time I won't bother sending diplomats until after 1939? Why? Because I'm about to do something that will make some people a bit upset.
I'm coming for you, you syrupy son of a belgian...
At the start of 1936, the re-occupation of Rhineland event is available, and one of the fun consequences is that Belgium always leaves the Allies.
P.S. Whenever an event pops up like this, go to the diplomacy screen and get as much money as you can, to fire the Currency Devaluation event. That way, you can get the little IC bonus, and instantly make your dissent disappear!
Belgium is now isolated, and is only guaranteed by France. The rule generally is that a guarantee will cause the AI to declare war a few weeks after you declare war on their protected country. If the war is over, though, they won't.
The newly-created Wehrmacht are on the Belgian border. We declare war, hit mobilise to magically zoom thousands of men into position, and begin goose-stepping.
Honk, honk und true die honk, die honk am Rhein...
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