Hearts Of Iron: Take Three.

[misterbean]

What you could do is to send the Afrika Korps before the war starts. That way, you start from their provinces. every province conquered goes to Italy, giving them more incentive to support you.
Paradropping on Malta works if you cheat to give the island to Italy afterwards. That way, they should have more control over who reaches the eastern part of the Med. The cheat codes, by the way, are in the wiki: first one to get the province id of Malta, then another cheat to give that province to Italy.

The reason why they turned around is probably because the AI saw that you took the objective of Alexandria. There is a reason why I don't usually call on Italy in spring of 1940.

 

[Nicegil]

Didn't the Soviets change the set-up of their tankdid divisions after '41 because the early divisions didn't have a tail that was long enough, or something? I seem to recall something like that being mentioned in Soviet Storm.

Actually, it had more to do with the lack of profiency and the inability of their superior officers to lead huge amount of tanks as it was in their initial armoured divisions.
Therefore they choosed units of smaller size, the tank brigades ('42), basically a strong regiment.
Later in the war ('43+), gaining experience, the Soviets again swapped to a greater unit, the Tank corps, regrouping different brigades and very comparable in size to their german counterpart, the Panzer-Division.

 

[misterbean]

Actually, it had more to do with the lack of profiency and the inability of their superior officers to lead huge amount of tanks as it was in their initial armoured divisions.
Therefore they choosed units of smaller size, the tank brigades ('42), basically a strong regiment.
Later in the war ('43+), gaining experience, the Soviets again swapped to a greater unit, the Tank corps, regrouping different brigades and very comparable in size to their german counterpart, the Panzer-Division.

Ah, that's what it was. Thank you.

 

[JGD14]

Just got caught up! I really love playing the US and appreciated your Pacific Campaign. Unfortunately, my current rig won't run TFH so I'm just waiting for the new computer to arrive to scratch the itch.

Are you planning on playing anyone else after Germany?

Great job by the way, your explanations are fantastic.

 

[misterbean]

Just got caught up! I really love playing the US and appreciated your Pacific Campaign. Unfortunately, my current rig won't run TFH so I'm just waiting for the new computer to arrive to scratch the itch.

Are you planning on playing anyone else after Germany?

Great job by the way, your explanations are fantastic.

Thank you for the compliment. UK would be next.

 

[WSnova]

Why Uk though? What will be the focus of that tutorial?

I mean, with Romania you focused more on diplomacy, neutrality and diplomatic stuff.
With the US it was IC production and Navy.
With Germany it was managing big land wars.

 

[misterbean]

With UK it will be fighting on multiple fronts. Historically, UK was fighting an air war at home, a naval war in the Atlantic, and they had additional theaters in North Africa, the Levant, India/Birma/Indonesia.
Even with foresight, preparing for that can be more than a little daunting for new players.
Plus it will allow me to show that a nation like UK doesn't need the US Navy or the USAAF to win the war for them. If some people can conquer the world with Finland or Luxemburg, then anyone can win a war with UK.

 

[WSnova]

Hmm, yeah multifront wars can be pretty daunting when you are starting out. Especially with someone as GB. Will you do a chapter on defending effectively in HOI3? We have covered offense but not defense!

 

[misterbean]

I suppose I could try a France one for that. In FTM, I did stop the German advance as France, but never managed to do more than that. Never tried it in TFH, so it would take a test run or two.

Hmmm. Let me think about it. Either that, or I'll weave it into the UK one.

 

[misterbean]

Chapter 31: Onwards to Victory.​

At this point, even the AI couldn’t lose the war against the Soviet Union anymore, but I’m still going to stay on manual control because it is the most efficient way of doing things. I don't trust the AI as far as I can throw it.

Odessa is cut off. With the help of our Romanian friends, we are going to take it, and then we’ll move some troops to the Crimea. Sevastopol is a VP province, after all.

On the 8th of August, all resistance in the Pietrykau pocket has ended, and the Soviet Union loses another 75,000 men, while further east the battle of Homel continues to rage. The Soviets are pouring in several divisions to strengthen the defense, and my single motorised division will be defeated before any other German divisions can get close enough to help.

We continue to hunt Soviet submarines, sinking quite a lot of them before the end of the war.

Meanwhile, in the North, everything is going according to plan. We have reached the westbank of Lake Ladoga and are now in a good position to help our much-beleaguered Finnish allies, who have been on a fighting retreat since day one.

This, though, is the real price of the campaign. The rich resources of the Ukraine will be mine. There are not only Rares and Metal to be found, but also Heavy Water (+20% Nuclear research) and Black Soil (substantial MP bonus).

August, 13th. A new strategic effect gives a massive bonus to LS and resources. This particular one requires control of several provinces to be controlled by the Axis, not just Germany.

By this point, Soviet surrender progress is 63.60%.

I have a clear line all the way to Moscow. Time to get gamey. I am sending the easternmost Panzer-division on a mad dash towards the Soviet capital, hoping to get control before they can fortify the city. Several other divisions will follow once they have their hands free.

Two days later, the second battle of Homel ends in our favour. This time, I had 4 divisions in the assault from 3 provinces and that proved too much for them.

A single garrison is protecting Moscow and the 14. Panzer-Division starts the attack on the 19th. The cavalry division you see there is moving back and forth, but never once tries to intervene, while it would be ridiculously easy to cut off my supply line and starve the panzer-division into submission. See why I don't trust the AI?

In the south, the jewel in the Ukraine, as far as I’m concerned, is about to fall. Resources, VPs, Heavy Water, airbase. A very nice catch, indeed.

We take Moscow on the 22nd. Soviet surrender progress is now 92.7%. The SU only has a National Unity of 65%, thanks to the tireless work of my spies. Without them, I would have to move as far as Stalingrad, like I did in Take Two. Not this time, however. There are several VPs to be had close by, and I send my armies in the center and the south on a beeline towards them. Let this end!

The 14. Panzer-Division can’t move from Moscow, but there are more friends on the way. Note the Heavy Armour Division, which has been pinned down by the 86. Infanterie-Division and which is being hammered by Stuka’s. They are slow and very hard, making them ideal targets for the CAS. They are moving towards Kaluga, but that is not a good idea for them. Kaluga is, after all, a VP province.

The fighters there have to be taught a lesson in aviation first. Then I can send in the bombers. Throughout the campaign, I only lose control of the skies when I have recently rebased my planes closer to the front. You also have to realise that my taking Moscow means that I have taken all their resources, including fuel and supplies. With so few forces left, it is certain doom for the Soviets and most of their divisions hardly put up any kind of resistance anymore. The new capital is Stalingrad and it will take a couple of weeks before the supply network adapts to the change.

Most of the Vps are in the south: Karkov, Stalino, Rostov, Kursk are just a handful of examples.

Sevastopol falls on the 30th. Soviet surrender progress is 99.60%? Oh, come on, now you’re just being a sore loser, Joe.

​

The next morning, Orel falls into my lap. Surrender progress 100%. Game over!

The Soviets surrender on September, 1st, after a humiliation that lasted for 2 months and a half. Finland, Germany, Romania and Japan each take a bite out of their turf.

Japan is rewarded for the hard work in the far east.

In the Soviet Union, Stalin and Molotov go underground, six foot deep. Beria and Litvinov take over.

The Soviets still have plenty of IC left, and remain as one of the world’s Major Powers, technically speaking, as you need 100 IC to be considered a Major Power. It will be a long time, however, before they are ready to face anyone again. The biggest damage is done to their resource situation. They have lost everything and are forced to start building their pools from scratch. Note that this and the subsequent shots are taken after a waiting a day, and represent peacetime levels.

With 13.38, their LS is almost cut in half.

Disregarding their 116 HQs (yes, 116 - long live the AI!) they had 834 actual brigades on the 13th of June. The next day, they got 24 extra brigades, for a total of 858.

Now, they only have 273 left. That means that they lost 585 brigades in the war, or an average of 167 divisions, again not counting HQs. I freely admit that I have never had this level of success before. On average, the Soviets lost 1 division for every division I fielded against them. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside


I am going to end my Germany run here. When we come back, we will be residing in 10 Downing Street. See you there!

 

[ThatStrategyGuy]

Very nice victory there, now tag switch over to the SU and take back all that land.

 

[misterbean]

Very nice victory there, now tag switch over to the SU and take back all that land.

That was fast. Were you wishing really hard for a new update?

 

[Nicegil]

You're lucky it's a tutorial. People playing gamey like this should be crucified, then beheaded, then hanged (Mhmmm... let's say hanged before beheaded, it's gonna be easier).
And btw, my count was 193 soviet divisions destroyed on August the 31st. "na-na na-na na-na"

Ok, stop being childish now.
That was really a great demonstration of "how-to-kill-the-Bear" and, in the same time, "Why-you-never-trust-the-AI". I thought it has been improved in TFH but when I look at some soviet moves, I can just shake my head. May be it's just an impression but I think the AI with the ICE mod is much more vicious. You played both, what do you think ?

Anyway, winning against the SU in 71 days, that's something I've never seen before. Once again, hat off !
On a tutorial point of view, may be it could have been useful to show your readers how to deal with the supply issues in southern Russia. If, for one reason or another, they failed to drop the SU unity or to beat the soviet army on the borders, they'll have to go deeper in Russia with all that includes.

I never paid attention before to the effects of poor national unity on surrender progress. I must say the idea is brilliant and I'll keep that in my mind as well.
Needless to say, I'll follow your UK part with a close attention !

 

[misterbean]

You're lucky it's a tutorial. People playing gamey like this should be crucified, then beheaded, then hanged (Mhmmm... let's say hanged before beheaded, it's gonna be easier).
And btw, my count was 193 soviet divisions destroyed on August the 31st. "na-na na-na na-na"

Ok, stop behind childish now.
That was really a great demonstration of "how-to-kill-the-Bear" and, in the same time, "Why-you-never-trust-the-AI". I thought it has been improved in TFH but when I look at some soviet moves, I can just shake my head. May be it's just an impression but I think the AI with the ICE mod is much more vicious. You played both, what do you think ?

Anyway, winning against the SU in 71 days, that's something I've never seen before. Once again, hat off !
On a tutorial point of view, may be it could have been useful to show your readers how to deal with the supply issues in southern Russia. If, for one reason or another, they failed to drop the SU unity or to beat the soviet army on the borders, they'll have to go deeper in Russia with all that includes.

I never paid attention before to the effects of poor national unity on surrender progress. I must say the idea is brilliant and I'll keep that in my mind as well.
Needless to say, I'll follow your UK part with a close attention !

You get the body count, I get the faster takedown. Even split

The improvements in the AI mostly deal with less suicidal amphibious invasions and more responsive allies (in terms of objectives). The main issue the AI has are the following.

1) If I disconnect an enemy division from the OOB, the AI seems to become unaware of the division. This may be just my wrong impression, so take it with a bit of salt.
2) If you tag-switch, you can see how the AI sets its own goals. The theater AI sets all enemy VPs as objectives. When a human goes to war, he will say: "first I want this city, and then I want to move to this mountain range, and then..."
The AI has no idea what it's doing. All it knows is, to get it's own objectives. By setting all enemy VPs as objectives, it is slower to react under certain circumstances, where a human does not. The fact that the AI has no idea what it's doing, also shows when it is clearly incapable of reading terrain. It sees a mountain division with high defensiveness and send it to guard a port in the planes. It will happily send Harm across the Alps because on the other side of the Alps is a unit that is weak against heavy tanks.

I can't help but feel like you do where ICE is concerned. I have seen the French in ICE pull back and stop the moment they are on the other side of the Marne river, for instance. The Nation-specific units are a lot more dangerous than the ones in TFH, as well. ICE's Waffen-SS are true elites. A single standard (brigade in game terms) is as dangerous as an everyday infantry division with artillery attached.

Point taken on the supply issues. There's not much you can do, except assign Log Wizards, improve infra and pull out supply/fuel-heavy divisions and planes. Sometimes, you just have to wait until your spearhead can move again.

 

[Magnus Imperator Rex]

loving it!

 

[son of liberty]

Once again, nicely done Mr Bean. I look forward to the UK update.

 

[misterbean]

Thank you both.

 

[KLorberau]

Hey Misterbean...I have been off the forums and AAR's for a while and am pleasantly surprised to find another excellent AAR from you. I really enjoyed your last Tutorial which taught me so much, even tho I had been playing HOI3 for a while. I have only read up to your June 13th post so far but will try to catch up as soon as possible. Plus, I just recently got the TFH version a while back, but have not been playing for a while (work, kids, other games, etc). Thanks for all you do for this game.

 

[misterbean]

KLorberau, welcome back! Glad you're enjoying this AAR.

 

[misterbean]

By popular request, I am going to delay my UK for a while. First, I'm going to show you how to set up and use a defense in depth as France. I have only played until august 1940, because the object of the excercise is, as mentioned, defense.