Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος

Ikarases · Aug 7, 2012

misterbean · Aug 7, 2012

huh. this is the first time I'm actually subscribing before the first post.

just part of being a LibrAArian, I guess

Avarri · Aug 8, 2012

Subscribed in advance! Always wanted to see a Greek AAR!

PvtPrivate · Aug 8, 2012

Read his sig hes lying :ninja:

TekcoR · Aug 8, 2012

I'm intrigued.

Ikarases · Aug 8, 2012

Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος (Freedom or Death)

Hello guys, I´d like to introduce to my AAR, below are some basic parameters:
start date: 08/08/2012
nation: Greece, 1936
version: FTM 3.05/HPP as on 5th August
difficulty: normal
aim: survive
style: game-play
restrictions: trying to abuse the AI as less as possible, no re-loading if something goes wrong, even on not so game breaking moments (switching laws, doing dumb moves in general)

So let the AAR begin!

Chapter I: Introduction

Greece start in 1936 in deficit of everything, but has quite nice rising amount of money, so this won´t be a big problem... It has quite good techs; especially Education is almost up to date… Army is full of MNT troops, some GAR units and NONE regular INF, so I need to improve this ASAP…

Manpower - this is where is this nation short, so Agriculture is already in queue too, Greek´s MP is not even enough to mobilize its standing reserves (similar to Czechoslovakia)… IE and IP added also, for obvious reasons… But even researching anything, I put my entire LP to Espionage and get my 10 domestic spies ASAP to raise NU (yeah, 90% is nice, but later in the game NU likes to drop), because there is almost no else reason to train them… There is only a little reason to send spies to raise threat somewhere, since all of my neighbors will join Axis (annexed or joined on their own) before I´ll get even close to DW on them…

Like I said, army is way too big to mobilize, but this changes soon after first months of my control… The units aren´t so bad, but the Greeks were doing something like mixing GAR with MNT together and this is just stupid… Later on I´ll reorganize my land army a bit… Navy is rather weak and I really won´t focus on it much (if ever), just to keep my transports from Iraklio to Athina safe (in the worst case I´ll just switch to manual control and keep the goods on my island)…

Air force is none, but I´m gonna change this ASAP, right after upgrading my GAR to INF (I´m not gonna abuse upgrading, just for the start I found this a better way to go, even if I eventually build some GAR to my ports)… Politics are mostly focused on INF or something that seems useful for me, I´m not gonna bother you (me) with this in my AAR unless there will be coups or something serious going on…

But I´d also like to mention one important thing: From the first day I´m aligning to Comintern, because I´m not siding with the enemy (Axis) or getting swept by him (Allies or neutral), but I´ll decide after I see how the war goes, but I´ll most likely join Comintern than any other faction…

I hope this text gave you some info to how I´m going to play and you won´t be totally lost and saying “Dafuq is he doin’?”… If you like to ask me about something, then do, I´m doing this AAR for you, not for myself… I hope you´ll enjoy this, and I also hope I´ll finish this AAR!

Ikarases · Aug 8, 2012

Chapter II: Year 1936

So I´ve started converting my GAR to INF and also building an airfield in Salonica, since the airfield is quite distant from the front of possible battles and as I have said earlier, I´m gonna built my airforce a bit, since it´s very cheap in terms of MP... Also you can see I´ve already invested in some INF equipment, since it´s my backbone of success...

On the next picture you can see how the placement of my units looks like, they are already re-organized to some meaningful divisions...

Do you remember I want to align to Comintern (or eventually join them)? I´ve traded some resources with SU, since Greek resources are all in deficit, but not anymore... I´ve later traded 3 units of Fuel with Hungary (yeah, this is kind of gamey, but they were “Very Likely” to accept my offer!

)

After some time, some event came... Hmm, what is this? Of course I want to save Greece! I´m not gonna fold to some rebels! A little boost to the ruling party helps a bit too...

Shortly after this event I decided to send volunteers to Spain via event... If they want to go to Spain, why not?

I did it mainly because of the neutrality drop, but on the other hand, a boost to the communist parties might help me on the way to the Comintern...

In this year I´ve also started the production of the first air wing, nothing fancy, just to get the Air combat experience doctrine to some higher level than 0...

So this should be all for this year, nothing serious yet, but the war will start with the Greek nation prepared! See you on the next continuation!

Ikarases · Aug 9, 2012

Chapter III: Year 1937

This chapter will be quite boring, just a lot of military built up, to use my spare MP, which cumulated heavily via different events...
I´ve decided to build some GAR units to defend my ports (4xGAR for each of them), so my ports won´t be helpless against probable Italian invasions... I assume that they will most likely attack some big cities with ports, and more likely the west coast than the east (yeah, I do not intend to invest into my navy, but some 6 combat units with 2 transports are still in Athina)...

Like I said, building, building, building, that´s my main focus now... Here is a picture how did I place my GAR divisions all around my ports (2 of them in Athina ready to transport to Iraklio and Mytilene)...

After the year passed, I´ve calculated that I´ve like 160 MP still free, so I´m gonna continue the building phase also in the next year...

This chapter was kinda short, but it´s given due that no real war is going on... Stay tuned for the next year!

unmerged(175258) · Aug 9, 2012

I would love to know how your MP jumped up that high while not being at war. Lol! Awesome!

Ikarases · Aug 9, 2012

Chapter IV: Year 1938

Hello again on my 4th continuation of my Greek AAR...

First of all, I´d like to say I´ve broke my trade with SU, since I have an ass-load of Metals and could´ve got some Storing problems, so I´ve decided this way: Trade Energy with SU and Rares with Netherlands... Why Netherlands? I´ve relation with them on 85 and this money difference between 85 and 5 is worth 1 point of diplomatic influence...

As apparent on the previous screen, I´ve already traded all my Fuel and converted all my Crude oil, so I´ve decided to break my trade with Hungary and I´m trading already with Romania (relation 85) well needed Crude oil to my ships, and eventually my one MOT brigade lol...

Later on, Greek politicians proposed the Full Mobilisation law... This bumped my resources a bit up, and also allowed my reserves to reinforce up to 50% of their effective strength... I wish they would´ve such a great ideas more often!

Do you remember how the war ended and the spheres of influence? The SU AI probably couped the Czechoslovakian democracy system and now they are on their way to Comintern? I wish they would make it here in time, but their base neutrality is way too high to join the Comintern now... But it would be a nice thing to have an ally in the Central Europe... I´d definitely be interested in this!

At this point, I ended my build-up phase and checked my free MP count... I´ve kept a reserve for emergency cases, containing about 40 MP (and it´s increases) to the start of the War... Maybe I´ll build some more GAR units after the debate on forum, but I think this should work at least for now...

So another year passed! During this year nothing in Europe really happened, only Czechoslovakia was cut off the Sudetenland and eventually the whole China unified against Japan (Commies are in quite big trouble, since the Ya’nan is part of the front now)... The next year should be far more interesting, maybe some war in Europe breaks out! Thanks for reading!

unmerged(245758) · Aug 9, 2012

Aligning to the Commies, may end up being a double-bad move. While initially it won't change your threat vis a vis Yugoslavia, if you have some political change then you might throw all the remaining Balken states into the Axis just a few months after the political change over via joining them. This could throw you into an unexpected war.

On the pluc side, Turkey could be a swing state to the Commies, or could also go Axis, it depends on the randomness of the game. So their might be an ally at your back, or a very nasty stab.

Greece should stick with mountain troops in my opinion, it is max-min play, but only investing in the three training techs of officers, artillery and special forces cuts some tech needs down, plus with much of the southern Balkens mountains and hills, your loosing nothing by only using specialist troops, and gaining everything. Greece is vunerable from the air, but bombers are better than fighters paradoxically, because what you will find is Italy can end up destroying your trade lines, which are vital unless you control the Balkens, sinking their ships to protect your sealanes is only afordable with some patrol bombers, and if you can sneak a tactical win in at some point, so much the better.

Light bombers are an utter waste of time for most of the Balken nations due to airfields not always being quite plentiful enough, and generally there is a lack of tanks around from the resident nations. Even if Germany or Italy moves in, the terrain will screw tanks over too, thus also reducing the effectiveness of tanks. Hopefully either the Allies or the Soviets will provide fighter aircover to protect you if you place a marker, since the AI does appear to help in this reguard.

I've never aligned to the communists, but with the Allies, I found that the UK and India dumped absolutely tonnes of troops on me after the Germans and Italians had rushed through Yugoslavia, this was somewhat irksome since it ended up that supplies was eatting all my IC, so make note that you may loose all your capacity to build new units later in the war, from simply having to supply the exsiting ones.

Eventually the Soveits will likely wear down the Axis powers, but to insure you can get a tactical breakout, you want to hold the line in Greece with as few frontline divisions as possible, and always conduct your offensives sometime around late-summer to trick the Axis AIs in sending more troops to the Eastern front then they should, late summer campaigns mean that gains made can be consolodated in the winter when it becomes harder to attack. Overrall, you might be able to 'gobble up' Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria on your advance, but don't count on much more than that since your MP will be gone, and Allies only can send so many units you can supply.

If the allies get their own troops in, then you might push futher, but I can't say for certain.

Ikarases · Aug 9, 2012

Aligning to the Commies, may end up being a double-bad move. While initially it won't change your threat vis a vis Yugoslavia, if you have some political change then you might throw all the remaining Balken states into the Axis just a few months after the political change over via joining them. This could throw you into an unexpected war.

The reason why I´m aligning Comintern is simple: If I´m not going to be Axis (which I don´t), then I don´t want to be Allies (which got streamrolled in Europe)...

Yes, Comintern might be the less probable option, but still there was a lot of people voting Comunist parties before the war... I probably won´t be able to join Comintern before the war with Italy, but I´ll be closely aligned to them, so the Italian threat will eventually bump me into Comintern (and if not, whatever, it´s just a game

)

On the pluc side, Turkey could be a swing state to the Commies, or could also go Axis, it depends on the randomness of the game. So their might be an ally at your back, or a very nasty stab.

I´m prepared for the worst, look at my borders...

Greece should stick with mountain troops in my opinion, it is max-min play, but only investing in the three training techs of officers, artillery and special forces cuts some tech needs down, plus with much of the southern Balkens mountains and hills, your loosing nothing by only using specialist troops, and gaining everything. Greece is vunerable from the air, but bombers are better than fighters paradoxically, because what you will find is Italy can end up destroying your trade lines, which are vital unless you control the Balkens, sinking their ships to protect your sealanes is only afordable with some patrol bombers, and if you can sneak a tactical win in at some point, so much the better.

In my game, MNT costs 3,5 MP and INF 3 MP... I don´t think that the bonuses are enough to compensate this MP difference, since I also want to expand a bit, the regular INF seems to be as a better option to me, but ok, I understand your concern...

I´ve chosen LFRT since the Greeks didn´t have researched the bombers and since Bulgarians have a LFTR too, the bomber is helpless against figters, so I´ve chosen the safest way to build my air-force, but also I got a handicap of lower Soft Attack then...

I've never aligned to the communists, but with the Allies, I found that the UK and India dumped absolutely tonnes of troops on me after the Germans and Italians had rushed through Yugoslavia, this was somewhat irksome since it ended up that supplies was eatting all my IC, so make note that you may loose all your capacity to build new units later in the war, from simply having to supply the exsiting ones.

Hehe, maybe that´s the reason why I´m not aligning Allies, but seriously; I was planning a Communist Greece, and you may like it or not, but I found the Commintern as a bigger challenge than Allies or Axis, so this might be a reason...

Eventually the Soveits will likely wear down the Axis powers, but to insure you can get a tactical breakout, you want to hold the line in Greece with as few frontline divisions as possible, and always conduct your offensives sometime around late-summer to trick the Axis AIs in sending more troops to the Eastern front then they should, late summer campaigns mean that gains made can be consolodated in the winter when it becomes harder to attack. Overrall, you might be able to 'gobble up' Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria on your advance, but don't count on much more than that since your MP will be gone, and Allies only can send so many units you can supply.

Unfortunatelly, the weather plays only a little role in this game and I just don´t care about it too much... I´d like to implement the weather in this game way more...

Anyway, I´m planning to take over Albania as the Italians take it and eventually DW me...

Read the IV chapter, I´m going to leave a bit of MP left to reinforcement...

Ikarases · Aug 9, 2012

daawgees said:
I would love to know how your MP jumped up that high while not being at war. Lol! Awesome!

Hehe, HPP does miracles...

Well, I´m keeping the Agriculture tech on the top of the queue, and many event´s come with it... Mobilize for War event kicked up my MP for first few months by a huge margin too and Agricultural Advancements also made a huge impact on this... Currently I´ve like 2.2 MP/month, so it has dropped down already...

unmerged(175258) · Aug 9, 2012

Ikarases said:
Hehe, HPP does miracles...

Well, I´m keeping the Agriculture tech on the top of the queue, and many event´s come with it... Mobilize for War event kicked up my MP for first few months by a huge margin too and Agricultural Advancements also made a huge impact on this... Currently I´ve like 2.2 MP/month, so it has dropped down already...

That's right, I forgot that you were using HPP. I'm currently using vanilla FTM, have not dabbled into the mods yet. I may at some point, but not in the near future. Still loving the small country AARs, highly entertaining and informative. Keep it coming!

Ikarases · Aug 9, 2012

daawgees said:
That's right, I forgot that you were using HPP. I'm currently using vanilla FTM, have not dabbled into the mods yet. I may at some point, but not in the near future. Still loving the small country AARs, highly entertaining and informative. Keep it coming!

Thanks for support!

I would compare the Greece´s position to the Czechoslovakian... But it has not such "inevitable" decisions... There is a way how to win as Allied Czechoslovakia on your own, but that is most likely by some exploit (attacking Germany when it´s not prepared), or the simpliest way: Join Axis... I mean, only that you´re already playing differently than AI is an exploit, but that´s how the game is made, right? (Proving that when I was playing CHC - unified the whole China)...

The best thing about small-medium countries is that you can handle everything on your own, which you should, and it´s not so overwhelming as playing f.e. UK or US...

Definetely try the HPP out, I´m quite content with it...

unmerged(175258) · Aug 9, 2012

Ikarases said:
Definetely try the HPP out, I´m quite content with it...

Forgive the ignorance, as of two weeks ago I only recently started to replay HOI3 and came back on here so I'm behind. What is the HPP and, briefly, what does it do?

Edit: Answered my own question when a lightbulb went off: Historical Plausibility and I'm well aware of what it does. I may give it a whirl, as I said, not yet though. I wanna relearn the game since I took such a long break from it before I go putzing around with the mods.

PvtPrivate · Aug 9, 2012

Greeks don't fight like heroes, heroes fight like greeks

Ikarases · Aug 9, 2012

PvtPrivate said:
Greeks don't fight like heroes, heroes fight like greeks

Unfortunatelly for you, I´m not Greek, so I can´t apreciate this... :trollface:

I´ll find this out soon, maybe tomorrow...

I´m trying to play year and make a chapter about it, but this may change, since there is no war going on and you can´t fight war in the same pace as building army...

Ikarases · Aug 9, 2012

daawgees said:
Forgive the ignorance, as of two weeks ago I only recently started to replay HOI3 and came back on here so I'm behind. What is the HPP and, briefly, what does it do?

Edit: Answered my own question when a lightbulb went off: Historical Plausibility and I'm well aware of what it does. I may give it a whirl, as I said, not yet though. I wanna relearn the game since I took such a long break from it before I go putzing around with the mods.

Be aware, some things might be a bit different between SF and FTM...

HPP adds some events, decisions overall... I guess I need to play the game without it, because the last time I was playing without it was vanilla 1.3., so I really don´t know what it does (only the main issues)...

Try to download it and open the folders in it; it should give you can overview what it´s doing etc...

Ikarases · Aug 10, 2012

Chapter V: Year 1939

Can you feel it? The war is almost on your grasp! There is only a little time left for Allied Europe...
I´ve already built up my forces, only thing I don´t have are officers, which I´m going to focus all my LP after the best training law available - Specialist Training... The army as you can see it on the picture contains: 19 divs of INF, 10 divs of MNT and 7 divs of GAR...

I wanted to give you some feedback how my politicians and laws look like, so here it is... I´ve used spies mostly to raise NU, but then I switched for a while to Support Our Party... It had already quite good popularity, but whatever... The worst thing is, I haven´t realized there is a minister that cancels Infantry Theory decay, he always hide from my attention until now... As I said I want no reloads caused by my fault, but if it´s caused due to a bug, I´m going to reload the game and try to avoid it...

Also here is some feedback how my research looks like, focusing on techs for Infantry (in HPP INF, GAR, MIL and other units have the same techs), and Education, Agriculture - this is still researched... The heavy officer investment is visible, I´m not waiting to the start of the war, then it would be all over for me without high officer ratio...

Here it is! Germans have (unfortunately) already annexed Czechoslovakia and after a short time the Italians annexed Albania! Every-one of my neighbors are paranoid, the war is close and inevitable!

I think that even the war in Asia should be important, nevertheless is quite distant from Greece... The Soviet Union is paranoid, still mobilizing and demobilizing, that´s crazy, now they have to be really vigilant about Emperor Hirohito stabbing their back!

Poland is already split between the two giants, and the Baltic states are also about to fall... I´m still working hard to improve
my OR, war can come any minute by now!

I hope you enjoyed this episode, stay tuned for the next one!

P.S. Look at the province Pogegen... When the SU will annex Lithuania, there will be a territorial claim by Germans on it!

P.S.S. I´m currently upgrading some INF brigs to MNT brigs, I haven´t done this earlier since it´s better be safe than sorry, I mean better have 6 INF brigs than 4 MNT brigs, right?
I hope you enjoyed this episode, let me know what your thoughts are and stay tuned for the next one!

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