Military salaries slider and other game related questions

[Hister]

I am a returning player to AoD and forgot how some game aspects need to be utilized.

How do you use military salaries slider ie. at what percentage do you have it set when you are not at war, and when at war is it preferable to have it set at 100% or it works similar to research slider where it is the most optimal to have it set to around 90% or so?

How do you set up Trade auto control window? Do you have Auto initiative and Auto reply set to on?
Do I for example as Japan block the export of oil and rares and leave the rest available for trading or is best leaving nothing ticked here?

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

I set military salaries to 0% when at peace. The only thing to watch out for is increased attrition. The only major this really applies to is the USSR, but even then IMO the $ saved is worth more then the small amount of manpower lost. I aim to move military salaries to 100% a month before war; but it depends on how quickly your units will re-organise. But two months before is a maximum needed - that's mainly for countries like China or USSR. The main thing to watch out for is air units as they can take a while to fully org.

Research slider, it depends on where your priorities lie. But if it is on being cost-effective, then at 75% research speed it is 50% the $ cost so that is generally considered a good ratio.

I normally set auto trade on as Germany for both initiative and reply, but then I do some more trades manually as it's never enough stockpiling for my liking. However I play a mod that makes resources far more scarce when compared to 'vanilla' AoD. I don't block exports, but ask it to import something like 80-100 oil daily as Germany. Japan likely requires less, say around 40-50.

 

[Pang Bingxun]

I set military salaries to 0% when at peace. The only thing to watch out for is increased attrition.

That attrition can be a benefit as it reduces maintance costs.

0% salaries is mostly a no bainer. The question is when to increase it. When it is increased it should be increased to 100%. Pending details increasing it to 100% 7 days before the war does suffice for the army. For the airforce more time is needed. It takes about 14 days for Interceptors to increase org from zero to maximum. For tactical bombers it takes about 19 days. The navy needs about 9 days. Details can differ a lot.

One thing one should be aware is that at zero org land units need twice the time to move from one province to another. During war that is why overrunning an enemy can occur at some easy. During peace it can be a reason to increase salaries very slightly above zero to increase org slightly above zero.

Research slider, it depends on where your priorities lie. But if it is on being cost-effective, then at 75% research speed it is 50% the $ cost so that is generally considered a good ratio.

Imo that is only a good choice if research costs are really high because of free markets and open society and high skill teams, namely as the USA and other democracies. But as germany funding all 10 tech slots with 100% costs only about 50 ic on consumer goods. Arguably this is worth it. For the lesser and thus cheaper techs of soviet union, Japan, Italy and China 100% is a bit of a no brainer, at least in the later years. In the early years resources need to be economized more harshly, thus less than 100% funding or using less than the maximum amount of tech slots can be reasonable.

 

[Hister]

I set military salaries to 0% when at peace. The only thing to watch out for is increased attrition. The only major this really applies to is the USSR, but even then IMO the $ saved is worth more then the small amount of manpower lost. I aim to move military salaries to 100% a month before war; but it depends on how quickly your units will re-organise. But two months before is a maximum needed - that's mainly for countries like China or USSR. The main thing to watch out for is air units as they can take a while to fully org.

Research slider, it depends on where your priorities lie. But if it is on being cost-effective, then at 75% research speed it is 50% the $ cost so that is generally considered a good ratio.

I normally set auto trade on as Germany for both initiative and reply, but then I do some more trades manually as it's never enough stockpiling for my liking. However I play a mod that makes resources far more scarce when compared to 'vanilla' AoD. I don't block exports, but ask it to import something like 80-100 oil daily as Germany. Japan likely requires less, say around 40-50.

Ah I see. I play CORE mod. OK, will set military salaries to 0% and set them back to 100% prior the war with Chin starts and set the import of oil to 40 (will check if that is ok with the mod in question). Wonder how much rares I need to set for import... 20 maybe?


What about intelligence. I think I never really got the grasp of how you play it properly. What is a sensible espionage budget percentage?

I as Japan, is there a way for me to defend against the spies operating in my borders? Does making the higher spy count in your own country work in defending them against you or not?

I read somewhere stealing blueprints from the US is one way of emloying your own as the Japan. Any other reasonable action with the Japanese?

Thank you.

 

[Hister]

HOI2 Wiki doesn't work at the moment. I wanted to use it to remember the proper land forces composition prior to the attack. AoD manual is a bit meh when it comes to understanding this aspect.

How do I properly set the invading Japanese armies regarding their structural organisation? Should a HQ unit with field marshal be on its own separate from other units or be imbedded in the units (in core mod it has a speed of 1 whereas infantry units have a speed of 2 thus I am not sure if I want to slow down the whole stack by imbedding other units with this HQ unit)?

If imbedded how many divisions it should have?

If on its own I imagine that that HQ unit could command 3 separate stacks of 3 divisions each which makes it 12 divisions. Correct?

Do traits of the field marshal who is in charge of the HQ affect subordinate units in the separate stacks that are under its influence in the same or neighboring provinces? I have found an awesome skill 5 dude with defensive, offensive, trickster and engineer traits who I put in charge of the HQ and promoted him to field marshal. Or are his traits only applied to divisions who are attached to his stack only?

Anyway, I am a bit lost now on this matter, any help is appreciated.

 

[Pang Bingxun]

For the HQ to apply it does not need to join combat. Whenever a land formation enjoys the bonus of a HQ its ESE is increased, the mouseover on the ESE of the landformation is definitive proof that the HQ applies to it.

Obviously increasing the amount of HQs does not help. It only matters whether a HQ applies, increasing their amount does not help. A sufficient amount is just needed so that any land formation is enjoying a HQ if the front is large. But at the start one HQ in Changde suffices to cover the entire front because there are only 3 provinces, Changde and 2 provinces adjacent to it.

One HQ can apply to an infinite amount of landformations in its provinces every province adjacent to it.

If HQ donnot join battle, than the most incompetent general or field marshall on them will do. Just donnot go below the rank of general.

Skill and traits like offensive doctrine do only apply to the formation under the direct command of a leader. There is however one general who is in change of a battle. That will also be the highest ranking officer, but at same rank it is a bit unclear who will be in charge. The event traits like ambuscher of him apply to the entire battle. Also trickster might be relevant as it increases the chances for battle events.

Letting HQs not join battle increase your total attack because the low attack values of HQs are outweighted by stacking penalty. Unfortunatly HQs suffer no losses during regular combat, thus it is possible to win Barbarossa with HQ only. But that is rather exploitative. HQs not joining battle should be the default.

 

[Hister]

OK, thank you very much.

Ugh, I have promoted my genious commander for noting then. OK, will put him in direct charge of 6 divisions - are there any stacking penalties when you use 6 divisions together?

 

[Pang Bingxun]

Ugh, I have promoted my genious commander for noting then. OK, will put him in direct charge of 6 divisions - are there any stacking penalties when you use 6 divisions together?

There is a stacking penalty whenever you have more than 1 land division in a landbattle. So in that sense your question makes no sense. 6 divisions in a battle suffer -50% on attack. The total attack scales about with sqrt(#). 24 divisions have about twice the firepower of 6 divisions.

 

[Hister]

OK, understood.

Maybe any idea why my amphibious assault unit does not want to occupy a non enemy occupied province with a beach? Transport return back to the port as soon as they reach the proper sea tile and take my amphibious units with them back home.

 

[Pang Bingxun]

Lack of supplies or something similar? Maybe you should try to attack from a different sea tile. Disembark the land unit at sea and order it to attack.

 

[Hister]

Lack of supplies or something similar? Maybe you should try to attack from a different sea tile. Disembark the land unit at sea and order it to attack.

Yeah, that was it. The first attack failed and in the following ones I wasn't paying attention to how many supplies the transport fleet has. Thank you.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

Yeah, that was it. The first attack failed and in the following ones I wasn't paying attention to how many supplies the transport fleet has. Thank you.

Yeah I painfully forgot this one time in an online campaign as China. I had snuck through a lone TP with a militia division & was within hours of landing in undefended Tokyo. Unfortunately the ship ran out of supplies before the unit landed and went all the way back to Shanghai... After supplying second time around it wasn't so lucky and was sunk by the Japanese Imperial Navy

 

[Hister]

I managed to force a surrender from China. That was a first time for me. In my previous tries I got bogged down each time like Japanese historically did. Thanx for your help guys. Wooohooo.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

I managed to force a surrender from China. That was a first time for me. In my previous tries I got bogged down each time like Japanese historically did. Thanx for your help guys. Wooohooo.

Great news! If you ever feel like playing online (albeit using vanilla or the Improved Mod, I've never adapted to CORE) then I'm happy for a game - Japan v. China; USSR v. Germany or even Japan v. USA (with MC over UK & the Allies) are good 1v1s.

 

[Hister]

Great news! If you ever feel like playing online (albeit using vanilla or the Improved Mod, I've never adapted to CORE) then I'm happy for a game - Japan v. China; USSR v. Germany or even Japan v. USA (with MC over UK & the Allies) are good 1v1s.

Thank you for the invite! I will consider it.