I need help with mighty Germany. Stalemate in Russia!

[Poniatowski1991]

Hi HOI3 fans,

I seriously need help as Germany to deal with the Russians.
I took the major western cities, Leningrad and Moscow. I thought to be able to rush all the way to Stalingrad. Unfortunately I was very much mistaken about the situation! After for the Motherland, USSR declared The Great Patriotic War. Now I sit bogged down on a '1914-1918' theme static Front War (although the opposite happened, namely the Eastern Front).

I seriously need help with my campaign. I have 1.5 mln troops. All the division are placed in the frontier province. Every movement or attack from any side makes my supply production GO HAYWIRE!! Exactly... haywire means using up 11.000 SUPPLIES A DAY!!! Horrific. Bogged down, nothing in motion...

As for the west, Spain wanted to join the Axis because they were content how smooth things were going. In 2 years from 1939 I took:

Occupied/Annexed

- Poland
- Lithuania
- Latvia
- Estonia
- Netherlands
- Luxembourg
- Belgium
- France
- Denmark
- Hungary
- Yugoslavia
- Bulgaria
- Romania

Puppeted:

- Turkey
- Norway
- Sweden

I thought, YES I AM INVINCIBLE!!! Now, on to business. When I had about 1.3 million forces, divided in 3 Heeresgruppen and 9 armies. I placed them at the border of USSR. I declared war and in 10 months things went smooth. I DOW on USSR in June 1942.

As of 1944 this number swell to over a bit 1.5 million.

On the Western Front I thought to bog down the British in Spain, Franco's forces surrounded Gibraltar and I thought things would go smooth. Unfortunately I was a naive donkey!!

The British immediately invaded Spain through Gibraltar as soon as I invited Spain into the war! An outright disaster so to speak!!!

Divisions after divisions swept into Spain and I had to commit a part from my Northwest Benelux occupation forces to the Pyrenees to secure the border with Spain. The remainder of the war production I had to commit to the Franco-Spanish border in the south. The OB West forces under von Rundstedt swell from 380K men to over about 580K men because of this.

The question is if these 200K men would make the difference in the east for me??

I created some Gebirgsjager divison together with some Mountain forts to secure the southern front even more. The British seem to be unable to break through luckily.

Since the invasion of Britain in Spain there was no invasion in Europe anymore of any kind of Allied force.
USSR is the biggest threat. They seem not to be afraid of me and are even invading Turkey and the Middle East. I guess they have the DOUBLE of my forces or so!! What the hell, after I sent spies in I saw a staggering amount of 5.5 MILLION MENPOWER in spare reserver?????? THAT IS MAGNANAMOUS. I only have 1.3 million menpower in reserve and it is still going down because of Russian harrassment and attrition. I seemed to be DOOMED.

(I respectfully admit that I never played as USSR, but I am surely curious about that one for the next round!!!!)

Besides these facts. I made use of Total Exploitation of the occupied countries for a few years. But after the USA joined the war, partisans seemed to spawn like no tomorrow! After the massive buildup I switched back to collaboration gov.

MP's are keeping the Revolts down pretty much, except from some troublesome areas where problems always seem to occur. Just like Poland or Bulgaria.

NOTE: I added some screenshots to portray my situation as of 1944. My Germany is strong and very capable. I even have 2 fleets stationed in Kiel and Hamburg. Together 20 ships, from which 3 are still the great battleships; Bismarck, Friedrich der Große and Tirpitz.

I hope someone of you can guide me to make this campaign a succes. The Russian beast seems to be a menace. How should I deal with it and how should I organise my attacks??

Thanks!

 

[Kovax]

I'm guessing that you pushed back the Soviet divisions in your initial attacks, rather than cutting them off from retreat and destroying them. In essence, the units you defeated keep coming back again, and again, and again. Eventually you will run out of manpower, long before they do. Worse, your extensive Declarations of War on potential allies (Romania, Hungary) mean that you're not getting their troops to assist you. Those same DoWs increased your perceived Threat in the UK and Soviet Union, allowing them to pass the most aggressive production laws and spend a lot less on Consumer Demand. You weakened the Axis and strengthened the Allies by doing that.

You're facing an ahistorically strong opposition because of your early aggression, and didn't actually destroy the Soviet army, which was the main goal of Barbarossa, merely drove it back and took the ground. Now, that massive Soviet industrial advantage has had time to work, while the US is happily sending Lend-Lease to the UK in enormous quantities. Time is against you, and you waited until 1942 to attack the Soviets while they built up at an accelerated pace.

On the bright side, with all of that UK manpower in Spain, the British Isles are probably almost completely empty. A naval distraction, followed by a dash across the Channel, could put the UK out of the war and leave you with only one front to worry about (at least until the US shows up). The Eastern Front is going to take a miracle at this stage, but freeing up some of your Western units and concentrating ALL of them on one point, to encircle and destroy a few dozen divisions, could possibly tip things back in your favor. Good luck, because you're going to need it.

 

[Poniatowski1991]

I'm guessing that you pushed back the Soviet divisions in your initial attacks, rather than cutting them off from retreat and destroying them. In essence, the units you defeated keep coming back again, and again, and again. Eventually you will run out of manpower, long before they do. Worse, your extensive Declarations of War on potential allies (Romania, Hungary) mean that you're not getting their troops to assist you. Those same DoWs increased your perceived Threat in the UK and Soviet Union, allowing them to pass the most aggressive production laws and spend a lot less on Consumer Demand. You weakened the Axis and strengthened the Allies by doing that.

You're facing an ahistorically strong opposition because of your early aggression, and didn't actually destroy the Soviet army, which was the main goal of Barbarossa, merely drove it back and took the ground. Now, that massive Soviet industrial advantage has had time to work, while the US is happily sending Lend-Lease to the UK in enormous quantities. Time is against you, and you waited until 1942 to attack the Soviets while they built up at an accelerated pace.

On the bright side, with all of that UK manpower in Spain, the British Isles are probably almost completely empty. A naval distraction, followed by a dash across the Channel, could put the UK out of the war and leave you with only one front to worry about (at least until the US shows up). The Eastern Front is going to take a miracle at this stage, but freeing up some of your Western units and concentrating ALL of them on one point, to encircle and destroy a few dozen divisions, could possibly tip things back in your favor. Good luck, because you're going to need it.

Thanks Kovax.

I guess I have to admit that I had a reason to aggressively take the Romanian, Bulgarian and Yugoslavian lands.
They were destroying my supply lines by aiding on the Eastern front. Their mass movement had frozen my division, I constantly had a lack of supplies due to these allies that swarmed into my occuppied russian lands. So yes, I took them out to take the matter in my own hands. And in some aspect it was rewarding.

Thanks on that advice to invade England. I have landing crafts waiting. Now I will have to dedicate three Armeekorps or so to invade England.

As you see, the USA invaded Japan. Now in March 1944 they forced surrender upon them...

I guess I am next.

 

[Fipse]

Create an opening. Let the Soviets push into a corridor you prepared. Then cut them off with tanks. Repeat. Push for Moskva. Done.

 

[Poniatowski1991]

View attachment 182942

Create an opening. Let the Soviets push into a corridor you prepared. Then cut them off with tanks. Repeat. Push for Moskva. Done.

Hi,

Thanks mate. I already took moscow. Am facing a strong Russian line from north to south.


EDIT:

I succesfully invaded England with three Armeekorps and one fallschirmjager division. The British navy put up a tremendous fight. But I managed to defeat 2 British fleets with enormous losses on their side.

Two problems now, Northern France is unsecured and the second one is the fact that GB is going strong by moving capital to Gibraltar. National Unity is still 100%. GG!

Taking Gibraltar by force is another story, GB well fortified spain during the last 2 years of the campaign. Spain is practically their new home country hahah..

 

[marxianTJ]

It shouldn't matter a ton because Spain isn't giving them much in the way of IC to produce supplies - so their troopies should have a really difficult time recovering their losses if they attack your (or vice versa). The other issue is they *may* not have very much in the way of resources which may limit their production even more (since losing your capital costs you your stockpile).

Since you've still got quite a lot of MP I would just start drawing off any non-essential unit (you basically only need 2-3 divisions per tile to hold it with a fairly good chance of not having a catastrophe unfold - and only one division where a river or bad terrain is involved) and move all your excess forces for a 2 pronged attack on Stalingrad (the goal being to cut off a bunch of the forces blocking you from Stalingrad).

But this does go for demonstrating the horror show that can unfold if you get Spain in the Axis too early lol.

 

[Animum24]

Hi,
I'm by far no expert in this game but in the first screenshot you seem to have neglected your HQs. They need to be in range to give their bonuses and those of their superiors to your divs. That could be a reason for your giant supply consumption because you don't get the bonuses from your army groups. And having those nice, experienced generals in the right positions, should drastically increase your fighting power.

As the others have said, either concentrate on attacking Stalingrad with 2 separate tank pushes, followed up by infantry to finish the encircled troops, or just create an intentional bulge in your line, let the soviets stream through and close the gap. But remember to have enough reserves for those operations, so you can hold the line of your bulge or to stack up on the supply lines for your advancing pincers.

Another thing that could be helpful would be a diversionary attack in the north to possibly draw some troops there and if it goes better than expected, try to eliviate the pressure on the fins, because if they fall you have comrade Ivan on the northern doorstep of Leningrad in a month or so.

This looks like a very interesting campaign and I hope you can pull it around to secure Europe.

 

[markkur]

I logged on to emphasize the same thing Animum pointed out. Your current HQ-line make all bonuses worthless. Those red lines are telling you that. You must keep all of your OOB in range and depended on which type it will be different. I always keep my Corps HQs just behind their units and work at not overlapping units from different Corps. Also remember to not attack with the HQ all the time because it is a faster unit (empty) and will arrive first.

 

[Poniatowski1991]

I logged on to emphasize the same thing Animum pointed out. Your current HQ-line make all bonuses worthless. Those red lines are telling you that. You must keep all of your OOB in range and depended on which type it will be different. I always keep my Corps HQs just behind their units and work at not overlapping units from different Corps. Also remember to not attack with the HQ all the time because it is a faster unit (empty) and will arrive first.

Hi markkur & co,

I know about the HQ's. I moved them forward during the next offensive.
Stalingrad has fallen. I even conquered Britain for a year. But an American invasion had put a quick end to it!

I have a nasty next problem. Those pesky Russians do NOT surrender!! I mean TWO capitals have fallen. Now they moved to Arkhangelsk, Nice.
I am not sending ground forces over there. I will just send an amphibious assault. Let us hope they do not move their capital to Omsk or Novosibirsk. Because if that happens this rotten campaign is pretty much concluded. USSR must surrender. Otherwise I will die in 1945.

The invasion fleet of Spruance made me shiver.

Let's see what happens.


EDIT:

YES DRANG NACH OSTEN IS HAPPENED. USSR surrendered! Finally. After taking Vologda and its airfield. Final push made it.

 

[Animum24]

Congrats!!!
How did you manage to conquer Stalingrad?
I'm quite interested in your tactics how you broke the stalemate

 

[Poniatowski1991]

Congrats!!!
How did you manage to conquer Stalingrad?
I'm quite interested in your tactics how you broke the stalemate

Hi Animum24.

I used armor/mechanized divisions as spear heads during the final push, backed up with infantry.
I concentrated my airforce on Stalingrad as well. I surrounded the city first and then attacked from the new created salient outside in. They were surrounded and died!

As for the further part of the campaign:

Bitter peace. Does it just sound only that bad or is it really bad and should I be worried for a Russian retaliation????

In May 1945 the Non-Aggressionpact no.2 may be broken by either side. Should I be worried? I am rearranging Heeresgruppen Nord and Mitte to go back to Europe. I only wanted to leave Heersgruppe Süd to deal with the Russian partisans. I guess this is a short armistice then? Or can I be safe in the knowledge the USSR will not strike me first??

Your opinion on this please.

EDIT: Russians already double crossed me. They attacked Finland from inside.

 

[Poniatowski1991]

All goes well now. 1946 and still holding it out.

 

[markkur]

Good job!

 

[KaiserNoncehelmIII]

At this point, there are some techs that give huge advantages to aircraft (in the secret category and the normal aircraft ones). If you have lots of strategic bombers, you can completely destroy divisions with air power alone. I would use this to clear allied troops out of England to prep for a second sealion.

 

[Poniatowski1991]

At this point, there are some techs that give huge advantages to aircraft (in the secret category and the normal aircraft ones). If you have lots of strategic bombers, you can completely destroy divisions with air power alone. I would use this to clear allied troops out of England to prep for a second sealion.

Hi ARandomUsername,

I will check that out with the bombers!

P.S. a bit of topic though...

I also started one test run as Germany not attacking Poland in 1939. I wanted to make USA join the Axis by not making Japan join an by raising the threat of the Allies.
As a sidenote: I also rose threat of Poland and Russia.
USSR DOW on Poland in 1942 and I let USSR grab the land. The advantage here is that the Allies are now at war with the Comintern!! Poland joined the Allies before USSR started the war!

This gave me the opportunity by taking ALL of the minor nations in the remainder of Europe. I annexed; Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Still, the Allies did not DOW on me. Guess they are too busy with the Comintern.

Now, as for the U.S to make join the Axis. I made German-America Bund the leading party. Now in 1944 their Neutrality hits 30~ish and is dropping further. I aligned them to my faction. Neutrality is a pain in the arse.

In 1945 I should be able to make U.S join Axis. Then I have 3 years to defeat Comintern and ALL of the Allies.

 

[Poniatowski1991]

Ok guys,

I did it the good way! A new campaign
Made some bunch of good ole marines and airborne troops and attacked England backed up with all I had as a fleet.

The result is staggering. Great Britain is no more by may 1940. I held 500K troops at the Russian border though to prevent them from attacking me.
Stalin got some sweetners from me. I honored every pact. 190+ relations, it was a nice deal.

 

[KaiserNoncehelmIII]

Ok guys,

I did it the good way! A new campaign
Made some bunch of good ole marines and airborne troops and attacked England backed up with all I had as a fleet.

The result is staggering. Great Britain is no more by may 1940. I held 500K troops at the Russian border though to prevent them from attacking me.
Stalin got some sweetners from me. I honored every pact. 190+ relations, it was a nice deal.
View attachment 183906

Congratulations!

 

[Nick U]

1. You don't need any navy to control a strait, just hold the relevant land province and the enemy navies can't even enter the sea province to pass through the strait.

2. The easiest way to stop invasions is to build airfields on every port province and then use Paratroopers. Don't para-drop them, just fly them into the province and deplane. Use the Reserve move order for your transport planes! Note that Reserve moves have limited range, but you can chain Reserve moves and the transport doesn't stop at intermediate airfields and even takes the most direct route between the first and last airfield. The end result is that you can move the transport like a rebase move but it completes the move without losing organisation. Meanwhile your Paratroopers immediately dig in and don't get the Para-drop penalty.

If supply is an issue move the transport to a second (nearby) port/airfield province and use it to run supply drops. At the same time set up a convoy from a third port province to the second port. Come midnight your air transport is in supply and 24 hours later your Paratroopers are getting all the supply they need.

One Paratrooper division is usually enough to halt most invasions, but if the invasion force proves to be too strong, fly in one or two more Paratroopers. As soon as they land, create a Corp HQ, attach the Paratrooper divisions to it and make sure a level 3+ General is in charge of the HQ. That way the newly arrived Paratroopers will join the front line rather than staying on the reserve line. After creation, retreat the HQ out of the province, as it starts with no org and low strength and may shatter.

I usually build 4 Paratrooper divisions (3xPARA) as soon as possible, then gradually add to them until I've got 20 divisions by mid 1941. At which point I combine them into 15 (4xPARA) divisions, once Airborne Equipment and Cargo Hold (1) is researched, then continue building new (4xPARA) divisions. I try to keep the ratio of Air transports to Paratroopers at about 4:5, but you can get away with less if you are primarily moving Paratroopers in air portable rather than airdrop mode.

Paratroopers are so flexible, I use them for anti-partisan whack-a-mole operations, emergency reinforcements, anti-invasion response forces and the occasional offensive operation to speed the linking up of two mobile line breaching groups and trap enemy divisions.

3. I always start Barbarossa with an ambush in southern Poland. Just to the south of the large marshes there is a triangular area of 8 or 9 plains provines, bordered by a river to the south and west. I put a line of Infantry divisions to the south and west of the river and then stack 4 Panzerkorps along the north side, each consisting of 2 Panzer divisions and 2 Motorised divisions. Two more Panzerkorp stacks actually guard the real border. When I'm ready, I move the border korps to the north and south, opening the door. The Soviet AI pushes in 20-30 Divisions. I close the door and then my stacked Panzerkorps push south and destroy the trapped Soviet divisions. I repeat this every 6-8 weeks and do it for a year. This significantly thins out the Russian forces while waiting for the Soviet "For the Motherland" effect to wear off and meanwhile tidy up the rest of Europe and the Med. Plus build up the infastructure in Poland and the baltic states ready for when I do get moving.

4. Your supply problem is simply because you have built too many units. The supply pipelines are already creaking and cannot cope when you put pressure on them. If you examine your units before you start the attack, you will no doubt see red covering most of the supply and fuel bars, indicating 1 or 2 days available supply/fuel rather than 15/30 days. Note that the Logistics Wizards trait only affects stationary units and I believe fuel is only used when moving too. Experiment with using less units. Instead of a broad front, concentrate your mobile units in two places, break through, link up and then destroy the trapped enemy units, rince and repeat. Use single Infantry Divisions to hold the static parts of the line - you rarely need more than one well formed division (3xINF,ART(+AT later)), if it is dug in and part of a well structured OOB. Only Infantry in plains provinces are vulnerable and even then if you can get a river between them and the enemy they are good. Don't be frightened of pulling back to a better defensive position.

 

[Poniatowski1991]

Ok.

Here is my situation. I thought I could prevent Pearl Harbour by defeating Great Britain. I guess I was wrong. I face now what I thought to be the last allied power. Canada.

Unfortunately I face USA and Canada now.
I took Washington D.C, Boston, New York and Philly.

Unfortunately I have just a few Korps on the East Coast. I have Marines and Fallschirmjäger, though they cannot make the difference. A major sea battle between 15 of my Capital ships and U.S. Navy I lost all my transport. Waiting till August '42 to build new ones. Once USA and Canada are down I go for SU.

That will be 1943 I guess.

Perhaps for the better...


P.S.

War goal Canada: Puppet
War goal USA: Take East Coast cities + Puppet.

 

[Poniatowski1991]

View attachment 184394 View attachment 184394

1. You don't need any navy to control a strait, just hold the relevant land province and the enemy navies can't even enter the sea province to pass through the strait.

2. The easiest way to stop invasions is to build airfields on every port province and then use Paratroopers. Don't para-drop them, just fly them into the province and deplane. Use the Reserve move order for your transport planes! Note that Reserve moves have limited range, but you can chain Reserve moves and the transport doesn't stop at intermediate airfields and even takes the most direct route between the first and last airfield. The end result is that you can move the transport like a rebase move but it completes the move without losing organisation. Meanwhile your Paratroopers immediately dig in and don't get the Para-drop penalty.

If supply is an issue move the transport to a second (nearby) port/airfield province and use it to run supply drops. At the same time set up a convoy from a third port province to the second port. Come midnight your air transport is in supply and 24 hours later your Paratroopers are getting all the supply they need.

One Paratrooper division is usually enough to halt most invasions, but if the invasion force proves to be too strong, fly in one or two more Paratroopers. As soon as they land, create a Corp HQ, attach the Paratrooper divisions to it and make sure a level 3+ General is in charge of the HQ. That way the newly arrived Paratroopers will join the front line rather than staying on the reserve line. After creation, retreat the HQ out of the province, as it starts with no org and low strength and may shatter.

I usually build 4 Paratrooper divisions (3xPARA) as soon as possible, then gradually add to them until I've got 20 divisions by mid 1941. At which point I combine them into 15 (4xPARA) divisions, once Airborne Equipment and Cargo Hold (1) is researched, then continue building new (4xPARA) divisions. I try to keep the ratio of Air transports to Paratroopers at about 4:5, but you can get away with less if you are primarily moving Paratroopers in air portable rather than airdrop mode.

Paratroopers are so flexible, I use them for anti-partisan whack-a-mole operations, emergency reinforcements, anti-invasion response forces and the occasional offensive operation to speed the linking up of two mobile line breaching groups and trap enemy divisions.

3. I always start Barbarossa with an ambush in southern Poland. Just to the south of the large marshes there is a triangular area of 8 or 9 plains provines, bordered by a river to the south and west. I put a line of Infantry divisions to the south and west of the river and then stack 4 Panzerkorps along the north side, each consisting of 2 Panzer divisions and 2 Motorised divisions. Two more Panzerkorp stacks actually guard the real border. When I'm ready, I move the border korps to the north and south, opening the door. The Soviet AI pushes in 20-30 Divisions. I close the door and then my stacked Panzerkorps push south and destroy the trapped Soviet divisions. I repeat this every 6-8 weeks and do it for a year. This significantly thins out the Russian forces while waiting for the Soviet "For the Motherland" effect to wear off and meanwhile tidy up the rest of Europe and the Med. Plus build up the infastructure in Poland and the baltic states ready for when I do get moving.

4. Your supply problem is simply because you have built too many units. The supply pipelines are already creaking and cannot cope when you put pressure on them. If you examine your units before you start the attack, you will no doubt see red covering most of the supply and fuel bars, indicating 1 or 2 days available supply/fuel rather than 15/30 days. Note that the Logistics Wizards trait only affects stationary units and I believe fuel is only used when moving too. Experiment with using less units. Instead of a broad front, concentrate your mobile units in two places, break through, link up and then destroy the trapped enemy units, rince and repeat. Use single Infantry Divisions to hold the static parts of the line - you rarely need more than one well formed division (3xINF,ART(+AT later)), if it is dug in and part of a well structured OOB. Only Infantry in plains provinces are vulnerable and even then if you can get a river between them and the enemy they are good. Don't be frightened of pulling back to a better defensive position.

Thank you for the nice advices. I will use them.


EDIT:

I manage to defend this position until new forces arrive. USA here I come.
I have 7 panzerkorps waiting in my German EUView attachment 184394