Generals skill and traits

[scroggin]

Nominate One General that you think should have a higher skill level than in HOI3. Also name one General that you think should have an additional trait in HOI4. In order to try and keep bias out of this you aren't allowed to nominate a leader from your own country.

For a higher skill level Im going to nominate General Morshead from Australia for his defense of tobruk. I will choose Rommel to recieve the mountaineer trait because of his WWI experience.

 

[Denkt]

I think most minor powers should have starting general in the same league as the major nations, like skill 5 + a few traits.

 

[Admiral Fisker]

Christian Peder Kryssing, a Danish officer who went into German service after the invasion of Denmark. He was kicked out of the Free Corps because he wasn't national socialist enough, but he would nevertheless go on to become the highest-ranking foreigner in German service - SS-Brigadeführer. He was one of the finest artillery officers that the war produced.

 

[scroggin]

If you nominate a less well known General please give a brief explanation of why. Im sure the folks on this forum can come up with some very worthy nominations mine are just two examples, you may very well have better ones.

 

[Denkt]

It is hard to say if one general should be better then somebody else because there is so many situations to take acount for.

Like you can just as well say: There are people that can lead armies and people that can't. But between two people that can lead armies there is not much difference.

 

[scroggin]

It is hard to say if one general should be better then somebody else because there is so many situations to take acount for.

Like you can just as well say: There are people that can lead armies and people that can't. But between two people that can lead armies there is not much difference.

Yes thats true and when you have something very subjective like this its easy to be biased or to make a wrong judgement. This is really just about opinions. but everyone should be able to think of one leader they think should be lifted in skill or given an extra trait. Im hopeing this thread will be about tributes to great leaders rather than " mine is better than yours".

 

[Axe99]

Percy Hobart, Richard O'Connor and Morshead are my three 'favourite' obscure commanders, but I can't recall their various skill levels and traits, so I can't say whether they're under-rated or appreciated in-game (I think Hobart had Panzer Leader, which is appropriate - maybe he could have had 'trickster' as well, and I'd give him 'naval invader' in HoI4 for the funnies, but then it starts to look like we're trying to turn Hobart into the best leader of the war ). O'Connor maybe logistics expert? Although in HoI4 I'd make him a general, not a Field Marshal, so it'd have to be something different.

 

[scroggin]

Percy Hobart, Richard O'Connor and Morshead are my three 'favourite' obscure commanders, but I can't recall their various skill levels and traits, so I can't say whether they're under-rated or appreciated in-game (I think Hobart had Panzer Leader, which is appropriate - maybe he could have had 'trickster' as well, and I'd give him 'naval invader' in HoI4 for the funnies, but then it starts to look like we're trying to turn Hobart into the best leader of the war ). O'Connor maybe logistics expert? Although in HoI4 I'd make him a general, not a Field Marshal, so it'd have to be something different.

Hobart has an opening skill level of 2 and a maximum skill of 7. I'm not sure why he has such a low start in relation to his max. What was his early war history?

 

[The Albatross]

Hobart has an opening skill level of 2 and a maximum skill of 7. I'm not sure why he has such a low start in relation to his max. What was his early war history?

Great question --- this reference explains it;

"Winston Churchill threw down the Sunday Pictorial on the morning of August 11, 1940, with an angry scowl on his face. "We Have Wasted Brains!" blazed the headline to a slashingly critical article by Britain's top military analyst, Captain B. H. Liddell Hart. Dominating the page was a photograph of a hawk-faced officer in the black beret of the Royal Tank Corps, former Major-General Percy Hobart. He was Liddell Hart's classic example of Britain's "wasted brains."


Practical pioneer and developer of the now-dreaded Blitzkrieg technique and former commander of the world's first permanent tank brigade, Hobart's revolutionary innovations in armored warfare had won him international military fame -- and special attention in Germany. Dire peril now threatened Britain, but General Hobart was not commanding British tanks. He wasn't even in the Army. He had been found serving as a corporal in the Home Guard [overage men and other civilians otherwise unfit for regular military service, meagerly armed, whose "uniform" was an arm band] -- the highest responsibility Britain's military mandarins were willing to give to the progenitor of the Blitzkrieg."

Meanwhile in Germany, another commander, MAJGEN Heinz Guderian was developing a new style of military OPS - schwerepunkt or armoured spearhead doctrine.

MAJGEN Leslie Morshead was the commander of the Tobruk garrison - the first to effectively develop a method to withstand these tactics. We used to have Fortress Buster as a trait - do we have Fortress Defender as well?

 

[Axe99]

Hobart has an opening skill level of 2 and a maximum skill of 7. I'm not sure why he has such a low start in relation to his max. What was his early war history?

As the Albatross said, Hobart was out of favour at the start of the war, but I wouldn't think that was a good reflection of his skill (indeed, he was ahead of his time). Maybe an event in HoI4 where someone could use PP to bring him back as a general? He trained the 7th, 11th and 79th armoured divisions, but he probably wouldn't rate on the HoI4 leadership scale (although he comfortably rates on HoI3s) unless he was given greater prominence.

 

[Jakobus]

I would nominate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_de_Guingand. He is not even in Hoi 3, but seems to be one of the finest staff officers in UK during the war. Also saved Monty's bacon a few times the field marshall's diplomatic screw-ups.
In Hoi4, I imagine he would add something to battle plan bonuses, either through faster planning or higher max bonus.

 

[Wulf145]

Meanwhile in Germany, another commander, MAJGEN Heinz Guderian was developing a new style of military OPS - schwerepunkt or armoured spearhead doctrine.

The use of the Schwerpunktprinzip goes back to WW1, I always find it funny that I have to research it as Germany in HOI.

 

[Tjolme]

The use of the Schwerpunktprinzip goes back to WW1, I always find it funny that I have to research it as Germany in HOI.

I assume it's due the difficulties of having to coordinate numerous types of armoured vehicles, motorised infantry, artillery and air forces into a strategy that in WW1 was done by foot infantry and artillery. Usually with little regard for what the objective was beyond breaking through the line and then the infantry waiting around to be counter attacked. It was certainly much improved, far more effective and most importantly the success was exploited by the time the Panzer armies moved into action.