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I have another question concerning naval battle.
I can’t remember exactly if you adressed this earlier in your take 3 or take 2 tutorial.

At this moment I create squadrons consisting of 2CV 4 CL or of 2BB 6DD.
Is my assumption that these seperate squadrons will operate independently correct, or will they still operate as one big squadron when I send them into the same battle?
In other words: Do the formerly mentioned negative effects of putting BB and CV in one squadron still apply in this case?

Thanks in advance

Yes, if you put them into the same battle, the game will pick one of the commanders to lead the battle as one giant squadron. it is good practice to freely sprinkle vice-admirals and admirals throughout your squadrons for just such an eventuality.
 
I had no absolutely idea that commanders could die. But I tend to just leave the navy to handle itself and I'm pretty conservative with my land forces. Can all types of commanders die? or just Naval?
 
I had no absolutely idea that commanders could die. But I tend to just leave the navy to handle itself and I'm pretty conservative with my land forces. Can all types of commanders die? or just Naval?

Only naval commanders can die when their last ship is sunk. That is why you will never see me give Dönitz a submarine command, for instance. Since Raeder starts as a level-4 with Superior Tactician trait, his death will be a blow to the Kriegsmarine.
 
My compliments on your terrific tutorial MrBean.

All in all I learned a few things in that game:
By preventing the fall of Danmark I almost certainly broke the chain of events leading to fall Gelb and consequently fall Barbarossa. The Soviet Union stayed out of the conflict altogether.
Invading Danmark made all the German provinces French troops conquered in fact Danish provinces. Again because of preventing the fall of that country.
Without Germany tied up in an eastern struggle and a quite passive UK it proved impossible for France’s limited manpower to decively defeat the Germans. Maybe if I’d had put my spies to use in lowering German NU I would have had more succes.
The USA did not intervene in Europe. I can’t remember if they joined the Allies. probably not, because the Fall of France did not happen

A question concerning the pre defined chain of events: Does anybody know if the fall of France is
mandatory for Barbarossa to take place?

Having played UK recently, I had similar experiences though I don't think it is linked to the Fall of France. When Germany attacked Norway, I landed one Corps in Norway in order to defend Norway. Against my naval superiority Germany was not able to supply the troups there and I succeeded. I later removed my troups from there and then Germany could sneak via transit rights from Sweden into Oslo because of another Epic AI failure because German mountaineers entered Norway first near Narvik (through Sweden) and all Norwegian troups were sent there.

Hence, attacks on Belgium and France were delayed. I had dug in another Corps in Paris (as the AI does not seem to know the concept of crucial victory points) and France fell in 1941. Barbarossa never started, because Germany failed to invade Greece later in 1941 because I had dug in 2 corpses in Greece, one in Athens and at the strait that connects Makedonia with the Peloponnes. Germany later decided to invade Republican Spain (but did fail to invade Gibraltar thanks to a Lvl 10 Land fort. War between Germany and Russia strated as late as 1943, I assume that Russia declared war but I am not sure. Germany made progress into Russia nevertheless.
 
@ Misterbean:
Great to read about the UK as I did an extensive UK game myself. I am curious how you will deal with the German and Japanese submarines. My convoy network was for some time under significant constraints. and my Destroyers (and I had built two fresh generations) did not get any of them even if accompanied by an escort carrier. Maybe your high emphasis on Radar helps, improving Radar certainly help my RAF squads against the Luftwaffe. You mentioned that you built NAvs against submarines. I am curious how that will play out as that should require constant micromanaging unless you let the AI deal with it. NAVS were the biggest investment failure in my game.

How did I in the end solve the convoy issues:
- build even more convoys
- manage supply lines myself
- cut all supply lines that go through the channel and reimplement them from Bristol and Liverpool (I had improved infrastructure from London to these ports to Lvl 10);
- abandon unnecessary convoys (supplies to St John ...)
- cover attacked convoys with convoy-escort ration of 3:2 or even 1:1
 
Germany could sneak via transit rights from Sweden into Oslo.

That should be impossible. Transit Rights do not allow a nation to attack another nation in this fashion. If you're absolutely sure that is what happened and not a German naval landing, then I think you might have a bit of a bug there.

@ Misterbean:
Great to read about the UK as I did an extensive UK game myself. I am curious how you will deal with the German and Japanese submarines. My convoy network was for some time under significant constraints. and my Destroyers (and I had built two fresh generations) did not get any of them even if accompanied by an escort carrier. Maybe your high emphasis on Radar helps, improving Radar certainly help my RAF squads against the Luftwaffe. You mentioned that you built NAvs against submarines. I am curious how that will play out as that should require constant micromanaging unless you let the AI deal with it. NAVS were the biggest investment failure in my game.

How did I in the end solve the convoy issues:
- build even more convoys
- manage supply lines myself
- cut all supply lines that go through the channel and reimplement them from Bristol and Liverpool (I had improved infrastructure from London to these ports to Lvl 10);
- abandon unnecessary convoys (supplies to St John ...)
- cover attacked convoys with convoy-escort ration of 3:2 or even 1:1

The ships sunk by planes do not get a message, but they do show up in the ledger. I have a screenshot later in the war that shows the effects of my Navs.

Your solutions to the convoy troubles all work, but I'd rather sink the subs instead, since that hurts Germany more, but that's just my personal preference.
 
The ships sunk by planes do not get a message, but they do show up in the ledger. I have a screenshot later in the war that shows the effects of my Navs.

Your solutions to the convoy troubles all work, but I'd rather sink the subs instead, since that hurts Germany more, but that's just my personal preference.

I would have preferred to as well! But how do you use the Navs against Subs? Do you use AI or are you sitting there looking at the screen and when a submarine shows up you press the bar and order the Nav?
 
No, they have an order to continually naval bomb the Channel. Any enemy vessel trying to slip through, that is picked up, will be bombed. Any German sub that survives an encounter with one of my destroyer squadrons, will take the shortest route home...through the channel. Since they are probably already damaged by this time, my bombers won't need a lot of bombs to sink them.
The alternative is to retake Norway and base tactical bombers in Oslo. This will give them enough range to reach Wilhelmshaven and Kiel, where most of their damaged subs will rebase.
It's a one-two punch. Early on, my destroyers don't have the firepower to sink them all, but after the destroyers, they have to deal with the bombers. Any that survives both of those attacks will be in drydock for several weeks at least.
You can do the same thing with Tactical Bombers or CAS, but NAV are build for this kind of mission. The others might not have the firepower against naval targets to sink them.

edited to add: third option is to use Strategic Bombers to reduce Wilhelmshaven's port to 0. If a naval or air base is completely damaged, they can't repair ships until the port or base itself is repaired.

edit 2: Just beware of German fighters if you send your bombers to Germany.
 
OK I must have missed this order because I was looking for exactly that. What's the name of the order?

German Luftwaffe is a constant issue. Their naval bombers did more damage to my Navy than their Navy (well, what Navy?). At some point they could reach Liverpool and bombed my fleets there. I always have Interceptors on intercept mission but problem with them is they get lured over the Channel and then decimated on the Flemish bank or whatsoever. Same happens to me the other way round when I play Germany. Unfortunately there is no intercept-this-region-but-do-not-charge mission.
 
The mission is "Naval Strike".

If you use "Air Intercept" instead of "Air Superiority" for your fighters and define the area as a single province, you'll find that they land after the enemy is chased away. Radar helps in this regard.
 
The mission is "Naval Strike".

If you use "Air Intercept" instead of "Air Superiority" for your fighters and define the area as a single province, you'll find that they land after the enemy is chased away. Radar helps in this regard.

Thanks, I did not know that this mission was a kind of naval intercept. I thought it was an equivalent to ground attack.

I never use Air Superiority. I use intercept on 5 to 7 land provinces (such as Dover, Portsmouth). Nevertheless, they charge to Flemish Bank, or German interceptors with coverage for Antwerpen and Brugge charge as far as Dover.
 
Yes, I have seen that happen on occasion, when they get too caught up in the fight or something. Just rebase, that's all you can do, but I rarely see it if I set the mission on a single province.
 
Misterbean, could you perhaps from now on put pictures in spoilers. I'm asking since every time I load the page, when all the pictures load, the page will suddenly decide that it is in fact 3-5 times longer, and so I just end up jumping all around the page. I personally like where I have scrolled down to when I go to last read to be at last read, then halfway back up to the top from there.

It isn't something that is your fault, but more just a factor of the fact a picture must load.
 
Misterbean, could you perhaps from now on put pictures in spoilers. I'm asking since every time I load the page, when all the pictures load, the page will suddenly decide that it is in fact 3-5 times longer, and so I just end up jumping all around the page. I personally like where I have scrolled down to when I go to last read to be at last read, then halfway back up to the top from there.

It isn't something that is your fault, but more just a factor of the fact a picture must load.

Strange. I don't have that problem. I resize the big ones to 1000 pixels wide maximum. If anyone else has that problem, now is the moment to chime in. Let me know if you all have that problem, and I will fix it.
 
It's nothing to do with size.


I'm talking about how when you first load the page, all the pictures are not rendered yet. On Xenforo, non-rendered pictures effectively have a resolution of 0*0.


However, then the pictures render. This brings up to their actual resolution...which causes xenforo to resize the page to fit everything. As It's primarlly not enough space in the vertical directions, though it wouldn't matter because Xenforo resizes any pic down to a certain max size for what it renders(you can open the picture in another tab to see it as real size), it extends the page downwards.

Normally, the fact the pictures actually rendering pushing the bottom of the page is not a issue, because your above the point where they extend...if there has only been a single update.


Multiple updates on a page is where it gets annoying. Those update's pictures render first, as they are in earlier posts. So it extends the page...but the thing is how far down you scroll is not pushed down. Meaning the first unread post is pushed downwards on the page, but your still at that spame percentage of the page scrolled down. Which is now quite some distance above that post.
 
I see your problem. I will keep it in mind.
 
Daedwartin: I have kept the pictures as small as possible. Does that help?
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Chapter 40: The War Heats Up.


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It takes Germany only 19 days to take out Poland, which is pretty fast for the AI, so it seems we have our work cut out for us. That also includes at sea, where we sink 3 German transports and 3 escorts in 2 days time. Unfortunately, in that same time frame, we lose 3 transports ourselves.


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The good thing is that we can do something about that, while Germany can’t. In addition to these ships, I also sank the Leipzig, a light cruiser out on its own, earlier. Like I said before, I really hope that they do something about the AI’s inability to come up with a naval strategy that actually makes sense.


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This is the third German submarine I engaged in the past week. Getting the submarine menace under control will take time and effort, but Germany is in no position to engage in this kind of attrition war against the Royal Navy.


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I have started building a transport plane. Most of our upgrades are done now, but with research constantly being done, you will have at least some IC in this slider at all times. Speaking of upgrades, remember that ships can only upgrade in port. So whenever you finish an important tech in this regard, like onboard radar or ASW, you can rebase them in batches, so that some are being upgraded while others keep working.


Germany conquers Denmark on 19 October. Denmark is an interesting strategic location. Control of the strait means control of the Baltic, and a strong play can be made here as the UK. With control of the strait, you could send a strong landing party into the Baltic, where they can land only a handful of provinces away from Berlin. Or you could break out of Denmark and take the German ports of Wilhelmshaven, Kiel, Hamburg and Emden, thereby forcing the German navy out, where they could be met with devestating naval superiority. Just because I prefer to play defensively with the UK, that doesn’t mean that it’s the only viable strategy. Keep in mind, though, that Germany will fight you tooth and nail, and they do have their Territorial Pride, which will give them a 10% bonus in battles to defend their home turf. In other words, if you do plan on an invasion of Germany, stay where your transport ships can pull your troops out at a moment’s notice.


On that same day, South Africa joins the Allies, uniting the Commonwealth against fascism.


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More importantly, though, is this. Underground resistance cells are deployed in provinces occupied by your enemy, and they can be very handy under the right circumstances. I will explain in full detail when we deploy these in Poland later.


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France has not read the script very well. Germany has managed to break through the Maginot Line without needing to invade Belgium or Luxemburg. As you can see, they have a lot of troops in the area. If you see this happen, it means that France is lost. I have never known them to regain possession of the Line on their own, because Germany is now sitting inside level-10 bunkers, has better generals and more men. If you have troops to spare, you might make a difference, but that is only a temporary fix.


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Does this mean that you’re completely helpless to intervene? Not really. My Strategic Bombers can reach this far inland to wreck the local infrastructure, provided you can back them up with plenty of fighters. As you can see, Germany has a 2 province corridor through which to send troops and supplies. If you can reduce the infra in these 2 provinces to 0, the ones sitting on the wrong side of the Maginot Line can be destroyed by the French troops.


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I give it my best shot, but my interceptors have had to be rebased to French airports and that reduces Organisation to the point where the Luftwaffe can beat me back with ease.


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After that, my Strats are a fast snack for them, and I have to call it off. It’s unfortunate, but France will fall a lot sooner in my game than they were supposed to. I did reduce the infrastructure to 4 and 5 in these 2 provinces, but it’s not enough to stop the German tidal wave. France is a goner, and I decide not to intervene any further, since my tanks and motorised troops are still months away.


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November. I send a squadron to Gibraltar. From here, they will be able to guard against Italian adventures regarding the Rock, and they will be in a good position to patrol the coastline of Portugal against German subs.


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The RAF is eager for a rematch against the Luftwaffe. This squadron has been trying to bomb my destroyer squadrons in the past couple of days, so I send Fighter Command out in force. Time to remind them why it is called the “English” Channel.


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In the past month, I have lost a dozen or more transports, and my own squadrons have been unable to find the culprits. This might mean that Germany has researched better Submarine Hulls, which allows them to hide better. Or I might just have been unlucky. This will sometimes be frustrating, but if you stick with it, eventually you will find them, fight them and send them into the mouth of your bombers.


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I have started building a paratroop division consisting of 3 para brigades. Now I add a marine division to the queu.


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However it all works out, in the end the war will be won or lost on the ground. As the UK, I can hold off any attempted invasion of Britain indefinitely, but unless I can win battles in Europe, I will not be able to win the war. So it is important to keep those land doctrines up-to-date. It is November, and we are researching 1940 techs, so we are still on course.


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Here is why I value Multiroles as the UK, while I hardly ever use them as Germany. They can offer some aireal artillery to the destroyers hunting subs, or ward off German bombers where the Interceptors would be able to reach them.


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This is all the same battle. Note that the loss mentioned in the message only refers to losses suffered in the naval battle. For ships sunk by the bombers, you have to visit the Ledger. Or, in other words, hopefully bye bye mister Dönitz.


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On the 8th of December, the world goes crazy. Germany is halfway done with France, the Soviets annex the Baltic States and Italy joins the war.


Next time: Battle in the Med. Battle in Africa. See you then!
 
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Cracking update, but one question;

Did I miss where you said you were playing to/or have you not decided?
I'm playing to operation Overlord. D-Day.
 
Its always terrible when France manages to lose in the Maginot line.

You had 1 job France, 1 freaking job.

But then again its not as terrible as when Germany gets all its army stuck in Norway *sigh*