Help playing Germany 1936

[Agenor]

Hi everyone, this is my first AoD game, and I have a few questions.

1. Where is the best place to put radar stations, and how many do I need in each proivince? Is one enough, or does their effect increase if you build more? I didn't bother with them much in HOI2 except for flavour, they didn't seem to have much effect.

2. Is there any way I can switch off or destroy that wretched synthetic materials factory? It uses a huge amount of oil and metal (both of which are scarce) to produce very few rares, which are actually less scarce than oil or metal. A maddening waste of resources.

3. Should I attache heavy panzers to my light panzers (they are the only kind I am building.) Unfortunately, I started the production run of light tanks just before heavy tanks became available, and didn't realize they were a type of brigade. If I terminate the light tanks line to start it over, I lose all the retooling progress I have made so far, or is there a way to keep it?

It's only 1937, and I noticed the Soviet Union has IC 282\182!

Looks like this might be the first German campaign I actually lose... (I have IC 180).

 

[Pier]

Hi everyone, this is my first AoD game, and I have a few questions.

1. Where is the best place to put radar stations, and how many do I need in each proivince? Is one enough, or does their effect increase if you build more? I didn't bother with them much in HOI2 except for flavour, they didn't seem to have much effect.

In places with AA (each radar level adds 15% to the effectiveness of the AA).
In places where you expect air combat. The radar gives 5% bonus / level and helps to guide your ints/fighters to the hostile planes.
Along the coast to spot hostile ships.

2. Is there any way I can switch off or destroy that wretched synthetic materials factory? It uses a huge amount of oil and metal (both of which are scarce) to produce very few rares, which are actually less scarce than oil or metal. A maddening waste of resources.

In your poduction tab, in the middle of the screen, there are sliders for the oil and rare materials plants. You can slide those to 0.

3. Should I attache heavy panzers to my light panzers (they are the only kind I am building.) Unfortunately, I started the production run of light tanks just before heavy tanks became available, and didn't realize they were a type of brigade. If I terminate the light tanks line to start it over, I lose all the retooling progress I have made so far, or is there a way to keep it?

No way to keep the line. However, light tanks eventually upgrade to medium ones in 1943 or 1945. And you can also build the brigade separately if you want a variation in them.
I don't really like the heavy armor brigade myself. SP-Art, armored cars, engineers, maybe even assault guns I like better.

It's only 1937, and I noticed the Soviet Union has IC 282\182!
Looks like this might be the first German campaign I actually lose... (I have IC 180).

More IC doesn't mean everything. Besides, it's a challenge.

 

[Agenor]

Thanks, Pier. Another question that occurred to me is, what are the best national ideas for Germany? The ones you start out with?

Edit: I've been playing around with national ideas, and "Frustrated Expansionism" seems to be a really good one. It increases resource production by 20%, and makes you pretty much self sufficient in rares and metals if you invest in infrastructure, but reduces IC.

I should probably start this campaign over. I've been playing it like HOI2, and spending lots of money accumulating stockpiles, which I don't think I really need to do. Also, I placed my first radar station in the wrong province, Saarbruecken instead of Cologne or Stuttgart where I have all my industry and AA. Does radar benefit air cover only in the province it is based, or also the surrounding provinces? Is it worth building level 2 radar anywhere?

 

[Happy Tyrant]

Militaristic Focus is a must for Social Policy. The +10% MP alone is worth it. On top of that you get -10% Consumer Goods need, +10% leader XP gain, and -5% to upgrade costs and infra rebuild costs. It's all good stuff.

As for radar, the AI seems to love bombing the Westfalen region. They also hit Bavaria, but once you take France, it'll be out of reach and forgotten.

 

[Agenor]

Thanks for the advice, Happy Tyrant. Much appreciated!

I'm wondering though, does the AI ever change National Ideas to choose the best one? If not, doing it as the human would be a bit of an exploit.

 

[Keterex]

Hi everyone, this is my first AoD game, and I have a few questions.

1. Where is the best place to put radar stations, and how many do I need in each proivince? Is one enough, or does their effect increase if you build more? I didn't bother with them much in HOI2 except for flavour, they didn't seem to have much effect.

2. Is there any way I can switch off or destroy that wretched synthetic materials factory? It uses a huge amount of oil and metal (both of which are scarce) to produce very few rares, which are actually less scarce than oil or metal. A maddening waste of resources.

3. Should I attache heavy panzers to my light panzers (they are the only kind I am building.) Unfortunately, I started the production run of light tanks just before heavy tanks became available, and didn't realize they were a type of brigade. If I terminate the light tanks line to start it over, I lose all the retooling progress I have made so far, or is there a way to keep it?

It's only 1937, and I noticed the Soviet Union has IC 282\182!

Looks like this might be the first German campaign I actually lose... (I have IC 180).

1/ I persoanlly don't bother. Most my air battles will be over the channel for any length of time.
2/ In production( or is trade?) there are sliders for oil/rare conversion. at game start turn them off then chuck some oil/rare factories in queue for when/if you need them.
3/ light panzers should be kept seperate they are very fast units with a lot of bite ( compared to INF). They aren't fighting units, they are fast units that can hold thier own aginst most things. In the invasion of France these are the guys who get to brest first ( and force Vichy).

 

[unmerged(140582)]

Radar is a very hit-or-miss affair. You definitely don't need it in every province - you want to construct it at places where you'll actually need it for air combat. The trick is, of course, to know years in advance how the allied airforces will fare against you - if you invest in a strong Luftwaffe and then intercept everything over the Channel, your radar network on the continent will be entirely useless. The same is true if you just do an early Sealion. The problem is the sunk cost and inflexibility of the installations: They take long to build, yet may turn out to be useless during the entire war - for the IC-cost invested, you could probably have just constructed more fighters instead.
If your air defense is weak, on the other hand, you'll probably wish to have radar in your important IC- and resource-rich provinces (and along the enemy flight route), since it boosts both fixed AA as well as your fighters and greatly increases your fighting chances against an allied air campaign.

Light tanks and heavy tanks shouldn't be mixed, in my opinion. Light tanks are useful for their speed but should be kept out of major battles if possible - better order engineers or something suitable for them and keep the heavy tanks in reserve for your first builds of medium tank divisions. Also, you can interrupt your light tank constructuion queue any time you want without too much of a bad conscience since that division type will be outdated soon anyway - you won't be able to upgrade your production line into a medium tank division (I think?).

 

[Agenor]

Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated. I hadn't realized that light tanks should be kept out of battles.

This game is way harder than Doomsday. I changed my national idea to frustrated expansionism so now I don't have a problem with raw materials, but as a result I lost over 15 IC. I don't even have enough IC to build transport planes (it's late 1937). Great game. I like strategy games that give you hard choices.