Nuke èm by 1943 - a German AAR

[TheExecuter]

How do you manage to be ressource limited? If you set up the trades as explained your initial steel stockpile will get you to start of 1939. At which time you simply cancel the 1:1 coal for oil trade (oil will be around 40,000 at that time) and set up a temporary 1:1 coal for steel deal. And the annexation of Chechoslovakia in March 1939 solves all the ressource issues, the following annexations up to 1941 solve the intermediate issues and after 1941 you should have reached the 1:0.75 oil to rubber conversion tech AND have some rubber from Netherlands South East Asia/Belgian Africa/Belize whatever?

Regarding the new tricks - I doubt that . But regarding the mech/infantry steamroller - well, a human player trying that against me mid 1940 would have to beat around 40 good armoured, a lot of mountaineers and a bomber fleet of 36 squadrons. Under these conditions the steamroller simply is impossible as against armoured the inf/mechanized would lose badly.

Regards,

Thorsten

Like I said, I'm not all that good at the trading game...thanks for the advice. I usually ended up running low on steel in late 1940...'cause in my game France never seemed to have a large steel reserve, and I always ended up running dry on the massive Czech boon sometime before Barbarossa...but perhaps this may be because I like to use the IC boosting ministers. I usually 'fix' the problem by changing ministers...and that is no where near as bad as the resource situation facing Japan!

Only 40 armored divisions? Ppppttt....I've had around 200 infantry with maybe 15-20 armored/mech. as Russia in 1941. I'd wager with that type of force I could still swamp your heavily armored forces given a few months. Of course, your armored would be unbeatable in its own battles but there is a lot of front to cover and the infantry horde would be wreaking havoc on the armorless provinces albeit with heavy loss of life (Soviet manpower ministers shrug). I find that, with a heavily armored German army, the maneuver advantage ends up getting used to 'fight fires' rather than advance and destroy...this could be due to my incompetence as a tactician though!

Edit: Just realized you said mid 1940...well, that is a bit different! Now that IS a nugget of a thought for me, perhaps I should try attacking the Russians immediately after subduing France...hmmm. Thanks!

TheExecuter

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Edit: Just realized you said mid 1940...well, that is a bit different! Now that IS a nugget of a thought for me, perhaps I should try attacking the Russians immediately after subduing France...hmmm. Thanks!
TheExecuter

That was my usual setup until the AAR. As long as Italy manages to hold its own, preferably even in North Africa, the war string for Germany is always:
Poland/France/Netherlands/Belgium(Balkan/Spain) 1939, Russia April 1940 + 6 months, Mediterrenean/Persia/India/Netherlands South East Asia/Belgian Africa/French South America 1940 to 1941, England/Canada/South Africa/Australia (the latter only if I bother, otherwise I only crush their forces invading the string of Bali islands). I even prefer that setup as I may build my last land divisions by mid 40 and after solely concentrate on research and navy for 2 years. Found the tech gap between Germany and Russia even bigger by 1940 and tend to have relatively more available forces as no coasts beside the Atlantic wall needs occupation forces.

Regards

Thorsten

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR

Chapter 4.2
Force composition and AI behaviour - land​

On land lets start with some general remarks before focussing on the only somewhat difficult enemy Germany has the early years - Russia.

Effective ground forces battle values is - before daytime, weather, leaders and terrain applies - determined by attack and defence values modified by efficiency gained solely in 2 tech trees, from which one heavily depends on another: Artillery, Infantry, communications branch from Infantry depending on the different radio types in Electronics.

Generally the allied land forces will - an appropriate research for Germany granted - be vastly inferior to German troops in 39 or 40. Expect to see +/- 2:6:2:8 (hard:soft:air attack:ground defense) French and English troops against the minimum 3:10:3:14 you should have easily reached at that date. In a nutshell - under equal conditions and in an equal fight 1 infantry division of yours is worth 3 of theirs. Remember that any soft attack point exceeding defence value of opponents is supposed to directly get transferred into a randomly determined damage at the enemy. German infantry exceeds allied infantry by at the very least 1 point while allied attack is much lower than German defence. And we talk infantry only. Let´s not even mention ground combat efficiency, visibilty or the even worse stats of the Balkan states, Netherlands or Belgium and Poland. Brigades do not change much on this picture (as their values highly depend on mostly one tech branch - artillery), only that the AI brigades its divisions roughly on a 1 of 3 basis. You won´t see much allied armour except some low single digit numbers of British and French tanks which have at best (or worst for Germany) reached basic light with 20mm. Especially France fields some Mountaineers too. All allied field low numbers of motorized as well, in even worse shape than the vanilla infantry.

The reason for the inferior allied forces is that the AI has to split its research between all 3 branches (with preferences though) and furthermore to make up with a lot less research IC than Germany (higher consumer goods demand, less base IC, build and research equally split = higher supplies demand) starting from a lower level.

There is one common combat behaviour of all AIs that has some consequences:
The AI deployment script splits forces according to what it can spot in enemy forces adjacent and has no idea of a defence in depth = the first line of defence is the last line of defence, everything after that is an uninspired and often plain dumb improvisation. It does conduct counterattacks if it spots a chance, it does perform outbreaks if encircled (although normally too late), it does even attack if it spots a weak point. For the player the land forces AI seems to be the most capable AI in HOI for a good reason - scripting is more efficient if the number of alternatives is lower.

Only the Russian forces are another enemy. Russian AI is scripted in a way to relentlessly research nothing else than ground forces, (too much) industry tech and some air thrown in. Thus despite the German start advantage + the free additional German techs it is the closest contender you can have. In raw numbers this means for the 2 most likely encounter dates (may 1940 and may 1941) that in 1940 you encounter 3:9:4:13 infantry at org 63+, for 1941 it may well be 5:10:6:16 at org 80+. The Russian vulnerability is extremely bad communications tech - surprise and visibility is on your side more often than not, your efficiency should be MUCH better as well.

What the AI is incapable of is to concentrate its armour and use it as a blocking or counterattack force in crucial spots. Furthermore the tank model the AI builds is more or less random - Ive seen the US AI build basic medium with MG (!) or the Russian build anything between basic medium 30mm and basic medium 70mm (the latter was a nasty surprise).

For your armour the basic rule is simple: All models have the same basic values in ground defence and movement allowance in the same class (like improved light e.g.). In one class they differ in attack values from guns only and the simple rule is "bigger is better". As a consequence you should always make sure your tank model are equipped with the heaviest gun a specific model may be equipped with - 70mm for basic and improved medium and advanced light, 80mm for advanced medium, 100mm+ for heavy armour. That way you not only get the maximal battle capacity, you can as well ensure that your armour is never inferior to any comparable enemy armour.

This was the last introduction article - down to business. Upcoming:

Chapter 5 - Germany March 15, 1939. First screenshots included.​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

A trully interesting introduction, really.

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR

Chapter 5.1
German overview on the day before the Poland campaign​

Germany on March 15, 1939:

Having secured the Austrians early in 1936 (February) I concentrated on nothing else but research for 2 years, than gradually built my forces. An expeditionary force to Nat Spain gained me a level 5 field marshal with offensive AND defensive trait (I sent a level 3 - von Leeb - as speed of experience gain is bound to basic skill, the lower the faster). Do NOT forget to maneuver the force (one corps of 3 infantry divisions - a mistake, should have sent 3 single infantry to gain max. experience for 3 generals) by hand, the AI does all sort of crazy things if left alone.

German economy:
Maxed coal and steel stockpile (result of Czech inheritance), 74,000 oil and 40,000 rubber gives me breathing space for near 200 days before I´ll have to revert to conversions. 465+ IC (Czech provinces just gained not fully contributing yet). 10,000 supplies - good enough, will be increased once war is declared.

140 IC on consumer goods (Man of the people security minister instead of the optimal silent lawyer), 73 still on research, 209 on builds, 33 on 140 supplies (133 needed).

German forces:
Exactly 100 divisions. 12 armoured basic medium 75, 3 Mountaineer, 12 motorized (eng. brigades attached), 73 Infantry. Only 4 armoured and 6 Mountaineers in the build run.

30 aircraft, all basic models. 9 tactical bombers, 9 dive bombers, 6 multirole fighters, 4 interceptors, 2 pre war transports which I only kept in case I changed my mind on paras, none in the build run.

Only 37 naval units yet (2 outdated ships of the line, 2 battleships 150, 3 improved cruisers, 9 light cruisers, 6 medium subs, 6 transports. 4 subs ready for deployment, 8 subs/8 destroyers and 12 transports in the build run.

The build up at this stage is already in preparation of the following 1.5 years where I will fight a lot using transported forces in England and around the Mediterrenean.

In a nutshell - on paper I am outnumbered 3:1 on land, 2:1 in air, 5:1 at sea. But the enemy will neither concentrate its forces against me nor are the forces comparable. All German units are top notch equipped with the best available at that point. Just a few numbers: Infantry is at 3 (HA):10 (SA):4 (AA): 18 (GD), tanks at 14:12:6:12, dive bombers and tacticals have 5 ground attack, multirole and interceptor fighters are at 5 and 7 air attack, light cruisers are at 8 (sea attack):2 (air attack):5 (sea defence), subs already at 8:1:5.

German research:
Infantry - everything researched up to and including improved logistics (and its sub techs) with the only exception of anti tank rifle and special warfare equipment - the Nylon tech as a prerequisite is in the research qeue.
Armoured - gold techs researched up to armoured skirts, sub techs limited to everything boosting battle values of tanks, all else skipped for the moment.
Electronics - gold techs up to frequency modulation, nearly all sub techs included with just 3 exceptions.
Industry - everything up to and including hydroforming with the exception of nylon and rocket assembly. Note that Polyurethane is only researched in advance to use after conquests - to increase the stockpiles pre war I limited the ICs available to 400+ and spent excess on forts and AA.
Nothing done in the rocket and nuclear fields.
Naval - reached improved armarment but only for the improved torpedo, skipped the complete marines tree and left out naval refuel and ammunition vessels yet.
Subs - reached improved submarine construction but left out a lot on the way concentrating on anything that boosted sub values (torpedo data computer, sonar etc.)
Artillery - reached improved equipment and ordnance, but left out anything that solely boosted arty brigades (150 mm field art.) or increased supply (the 70mm anti air and anti tank - not necessary for the following campaign stage)
Bombers - reached improved bomber development but actually only all basic models (without heavies and torpedo bombers) and the dive drop shells and basic radio navigation were researched inside. Just good enough for the following year.
Fighters - strictly restricted to all the basic models except escort fighters. No need for more.
Land doctrines - reached late war experience analysis. Virtually everything researched possible up to that and the first sub doctrine of the gold tech - elastic defence doctrine. Only left out mechanized HQs.
Air doctrines - reached only early war experience analysis and left some out inside. While the home chain doctrine is in the qeue the anti air and paratroopers doctrines will never be researched (oddly enough my allies provide them sooner or later).
Naval - reached only war experience analysis solely for the wolfpack and indirect approach doctrines. Sea lanes is in the qeue, any carrier or naval replenishment doctrines left out yet. The base defence doctrine is a sure delivery by an ally, most likely Vichy France . This approach ensures maximum reasonable power for subs and still good cruiser/destroyer org.

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR

Chapter 5.2
Diplomatic relations and infrastructure ​

Germany on March 15, 1939:

Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, National Spain, Yugoslavia, Japan and Italy are firmly in the fascist camp, first alliance partner is Hungary. The first 4 were fascist since 1937, Japan was a lucky shot in influencing 1938. They will all join the Axis alliance sooner or later,

All fascist partners have received excessive tech transfers, with the exception of Yugoslavia. There is an event that fires the week after they joined the Axis, make them disband the alliance and ally with the Allies. I usually start transfer tech once a nation is firmly fascist, way before alliances kick in. Target is to have them field infantry that on average has a 2/3rd of German battlefield efficiency.

To understand diplomacy one has to bear in mind that
- diplomatic success seems to be bound to the amount of diplomatic influence stockpiled, the higher the better, and to military strength
- alliances are not easily acheived and seem to be bound to time progress and German success to a certain extent (e.g. alliance offers to any fascist nation in 1936 will much more likely fail than those made in 1939 or 1940
- successful influences DO have a multiplier. Influenced nations excert influence themselves, thus often help in influencing a third nation
- diplomatic influence can and will fail under all circumstances even with best prerequisites as there is a huge random factor associated
- all diplomatic moves cost diplomatic influence, cost lowered by certain minister types for specific subsets. For influence the most useful minister type is the ideological crusader - he transfers tech for free and influences for only 2 instead of 3 diplo influence points
- diplomatic influence increases at a hardcoded value (+2.5 points/month for Germany initially, after some war success raised to 3)
- Alliance partners if sufficiently served with tech are more useful than occupied territories - they can use the full IC of their countries, don´t need garrisons, provide expeditionary forces you can use to guard e.g. the French coast and you can assume military control if you like making their forces yours
- Some nations AI scripts make the AI behave passive (the National Spain AI after Gibraltar has been secured and the Vichy AI at all times) thus limiting usefulness as allies

Germany starts with 25 points in the bank (Great Britain starts with 100 ...). From these you need a random amount to force the Austrian Anschluss early (demand territory). And the first year you can´t change the foreign minister as there is no replacement. Thus you better do not do ANYTHING after Austria has been inherited, wait for the first of January 1937 to replace the great compromiser with the ideological crusader and start influencing. Usually Hungary is already some way into the fascist camp so best start there. You will have about 40 DI to start with which helps chances.

A short word on infrastructure builds (forts and AI):
Germany can do completely without. But in order to stockpile ressources Germany does not have (oil and rubber) and to run out of steel and coal exactly when you can afford to (March 1939) you better keep IC usage at around 400 to 410. Infrastructure builds lower available IC but the builds do not cost ressources - only IC gained from thin air. Thus I normally build:
- coastal forts in Hamburg and Rostock
- land forts in Saarbruecken, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Koenigsberg (all level 1, Saarbruecken and Freiburg level 2)
- Anti air in all border provinces to the northwest including a second line from Frankfurt to Hannover up to level 3 to 5

The AA builds actually serve a purpose. As soon as war breaks out the British strategic bombers will conduct some raids. Combined with fighters in Frankfurt and Hannover the AA will most likely ensure the complete destruction of the initial strategic bomber fleet and limit actual IC/ressources damage down to 0. After just 2 raids the initial 4 British strat bombers are gone this way.

The fort in Freiburg may come handy too - if allowed a sufficient time without being threatened the AI usually attacks there, using 25+ divisions. A corps of 3 mountaineers combined with a reserve corps (3 inf. in Mannheim) is enough to maul that attack (the attacker crosses a river, attacks in hill terrain, attacks against a fort) and to enforce huge strength damage.

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 6
Action, Poland in 3 weeks​

One word on minister choice:
Pretty straightforward and easy - on ministers pre war anything is advantegeous that
- boosts IC
- lowers supplies demand
- boosts research
- lowers the diplo points requirement for your preferred actions

Up until first of January 1937 Germany only has a choice in security ministers - Himmler or Frick. The first lowers monthly manpower gain, the latter raises dissent, their specialtiy (IC boost of foreign occupations) being irrelevant. Thus you have the choice between lower manpower or lower available IC for research (because of higher IC demand for consumer goods). A matter of taste and preferences - I chose the loss of IC and kept Frick. For armarment you already have the best minister the game provides, for navy a decisive battle = battleship proponent (you only can change Raeder late in the war against a sub proponent), for airforce Goering with his preference for tactical and dive bombers is exactly what you would choose yourself.

This picture changes by 1937. You can have (and should immediately install) a chief of staff that boosts artilery research (Hoepner), the ideological crusader as foreign minister. For the security minister 2 new people offer service - Sack as a silent lawyer (-1% dissent = lower consumer goods demand) and Wirmer as a man of the people that raises home and foreign manpower growth. I stick to my preferences and install Wirmer.

And now into the action - Germany on march 16, 1939, just having declared war on Poland. A side note - although the British guarantee of Poland has a variation on date after Germany dishonours the Munich agreement, it is going to fire either before or in the war against Poland so simply take it - you are at war with the complete allies.

Eastern theatre:



Red line marking advancement, blue follow up advancement, blue squares planned and later executed encirclements.
I do not need many divisions to overwhelm Poland - infantry can take a fight on a 1:3 basis safely, armour even on a 1:4 or worse. Thus supported by two 12 wings air fleets I commited 48 divisions in 21 corps, from which 6 corps only serve as deterrence forces to prevent temporary occupation of German lands. The main attack force in fact are 10 armoured divisions in 5 corps led by the best tank commanders available. Check the necessary provinces for annexation before a war and plan your attack in a way to reach them as fast as possible. The armour will lead the attacks, cut through whatever Polish resistance and conquer all victory points provinces, infantry will follow for occupation and mop up operation. Target is to have this war exercise ended in 3 weeks - if you are in a hurry you can make it in 10 days (I waited a bit for Danzig to gain some experience on air leaders constantly bombarding Danzig after their initial help for the first breakthroughs).

So how is an actual breakthrough/encirclement conducted best? Simple:
- Armour leads, supported by constant (set to repeat) air atacks starting the day before
- Armour either crushes resistance or weakens it while follow up infantry finally breaks it
- Armour immediately after victory advances to next province(s)
- Follow up infantry deals with breakouts or reinforcements arriving after tanks already left for next mission
- Encircled enemy armies lose supply, resulting in org loss (first) and strength loss (after org hits 0). But already at org 0 the encircled army can no longer inflict losses on attacker. And encircled armies are at a heavy penalty when attacked anyway
- Only spend one dime on daylight/night (attacker at a higher penalty) at the first breakthrough against resistance of considerable amount at full org, which only should happen at the first breakthroughs. After that simply forget it.
- Try to attack in good weather for major breakthroughs, again forget about it after you have set the fronts into fluid stage except for harsh winter (which puts the attacker ojn such a high penalty that this exceeds your tech lead by a wide margin and puts you on a disadvantage)
Conclusion? You may safely attack even a 50 divisions stack that started at full org after only one month encirclement with just a single corps in the best terrain a defender can have (mountains) - the attacked army will cease existence the moment you enter the province. For Poland this exercise would be a waste of time - simply encircle and attack directly the minute the encirclement is closed.

If you want to prevent the reinforcement of allied fleets by 2 Polish units (a sub and a destroyer) do NOT forget to blockade the Polish coastal provinces at sea and best the surrounding sea zones as well ...

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 8
A lesson on ground warfare​

On March 25 it was game over for the Poles (sorry, was mistaken for the 3 weeks I mentioned before). Oh - and I nearly forgot to mention the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov deal event that fires the moment you attack Poland before the historical date. On that one you have 2 good and one bad choice:
- Historical agreement. Means the Soviets will wipe out the baltic states and get the Polish Eastern provinces as well as the westernmost Romanian. By taking that you provide a few additional IC to the Soviets and lengthen your advance path to Moscow. Nevertheless a good choice as it multiplies your chances for encirclement especially in the north by widening the frontline.
- Only agree to Polish partition. Means the Soviets will get the Eastern Polish provinces. A BAD choice as it means you later WILL have to attack cross rivers and provide the complete huge swamp area around Byalistok to the Soviets which is an extremely well defensible area.
- No deal with the Bolsheviks. A good choice, although you risk a preemptive Soviet declaration of war (never experienced that in my games, though). But you advance your frontier and avoid the river crossing penalties for the initial attacks in the north when you go for the invasion of SU. Was my actual choice this game.

But before we celebrate the victory, follow me in a short exercise in battle mathematics:

2 armoured and 2 motorized (with Eng. brigades) attacked a mixed Polish force (6 infantry, 1 cavalry) in Radom coming from Torun at night. The battle screen shows us the two leaders - Field Marshal Leeb on one side, a Polish General Sosnkowski on the other side. And now lets go through the modifiers one by one:



- Germans attacked over a river - penalty attacker
- Germans attacked by night - penalty attacker
- Poles defend entrenched - advantage defender
- Germans are led by a field marshal - advantage attacker
- Poles have a political dissent - penalty defender
- Flat terrain gives no bonusses and no penalties to defender and attacker alike

And that all is conveniently displayed in the screen just below the two leaders, only thing missing is a sign telling which advantage/disadvantage belongs to whom . And before I forget - the numbers besides the leaders are not some crazy foreign telephone numbers but tell us instead that the German leader leads 4 divisions out of a leadership maximum of 24 while the Polish commander commands 7 out of 9 maximum. Which in retunr tell us that no division on both sides will exceed leadership ability and thus not fight at a vastly reduced efficiency.

In the end all these modifiers are calculated together with your actual basic troop modifiers to give a total modifier. Which for the German motorized is 81% efficiency, the armoured are on ten % less. Wait a second. Why should they? Well, remember the Eng. brigades? They reduce the river penalty for the motorized. Now the Germans are on quite a disadvantage given the defence behind a river, the attack at night (at good weather though, otherwise another penalty would set in) and the defender dug in. But the basic high ground efficiency of Germans and the good leadership lets the Germans fight against an enemy that only comes up with 66% efficiency. And now lets take the (pretty safe assumption) the Poles are at 1 (hard attack):4(soft attack):2(air attack):7(ground defence) at best, the German motorized are at 3:10:5:24, the tanks at 14:12:6:12. Let´s apply the modifier. Which puts the German mot. (80%) at 2:8:4:19, the German tanks (70%) at 9:8:5:8 (all rounded down). The Poles fight at 0:2:1:4. I do not have to be a math genius to predict a German victory at minimal losses and considerable losses for the Polish forces when they retreat. Although I have to admit that I TOOK notice of the fact that some Polish forces are already fighting at 0 org which means they will not inflict any losses at all. But the decisive factor is that all German (modified) soft attack exceeds Polish (modified) defence by some points, thus the Germans per round of fire will inflict losses on polish org and strength. Thus after 11 hours of fight the Polish forces retreat with on average 36% losses, the German forces are nearly unscratched (97 and 98 from 100 for the mot., 98 and 99 from 100 for the armoured).

This btw is a perfect result to demonstrate why you should never mindlessly strive through the land doctrine tree without keeping infantry and armour tech in balance - would the Poles have had much higher org (everything else unchanged) they would have retreated later and thus have taken much more damage on manpower (successful attack points are - randomly - distribuited on org and strength of the enemy). At least they retreat before being annihilated and might try to fight another day.

 

[TheExecuter]

Lookin' good. Beginning players take note. This is an excellent guide to defeating the allies in the early stages of the war, while maintaining enough of a long-term focus so that you can continue to project your power throughout the game.

Morgon, are you going to invade Scandinavia? Before or after Sealion? I am assuming you will do it later, if at all.

Keep up the good work!
TheExecuter

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Morgon, are you going to invade Scandinavia? Before or after Sealion? I am assuming you will do it later, if at all.

Actually - no. I have never experienced them to go allies and I have never noticed a steel shortage after the conquests of Poland and France. Thus - what purpose should it serve to just put an additional stress on German forces ? I´ll only take Denmark to close the Baltics, that´s it.

Regards

thorsten

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

I was beginning to think the same about Fall Weserübung... no need to conquer them. Why bother about them if you can close the Baltic sea with some Stukas?

 

[unmerged(81995)]

I was beginning to think the same about Fall Weserübung... no need to conquer them. Why bother about them if you can close the Baltic sea with some Stukas?

Well, the closing only costs some allies infantry for beach garrison, the StuKas may on occasion be better used elsewhere. And no matter how you gurad the baltics by sea and air - you can never be really sure to spot the enemy fleet entering. Thus I prefer to be better safe than sorry .

Regards

Thorsten

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 9
Belgium, Netherlands and France in 3 weeks​

I´ve made one of the most stupid mistakes an AAR writer can make - no screenshots for the hotphase of the war in the West. Thus the following screenshot, taken March 28, 1939, will be used to explain the basic principles to follow:



The dark blue arrows are phase I of the attack, the light blue phase II, the red phase III, the yellow phase IV. The atack already starts with a lot of troops still on the march from Poland (I do no strategic redeployments. For three reasons. It first is only slightly faster than "marching" through the high infrastructure German lands. It second forces me to rearrange units and leaders. It third causes the troops to lose half of their org, while the relatively short travel only costs a few points). The air fleets however are already in place and reinforced, just regaining org.

Phase I:
Declare war on Netherlands. Invade Groningen from Wilhelmshafen, Eindhoven from Cologne and Essen. Eindhoven will be the gathering point for your attack on France through Belgium and therefore have the bulk of your armoured forces gathered there.

Phase II:
Follow up the attack on Groningen advancing to Amsterdam, at the same time attack Arnheim from Muenster. Split an infantry division from one army corps to secure the Groningen beaches just in case. Repeat after having secured Amsterdam. If you time the attack sequence correctly, no Netherlands troops will escape.
Declare war on Belgium. Attack Antwerpen in full strength from Eindhoven (at least 8 of your armoured divisions here, plus 20+ infantry), Arlon from Cologne (with the rest of the armour and again 20+ infantry). Arlon is fortified, but only level 2. The advantage this gives to the defender is minor, but this is the first time you might want supporting ground attack from your air force. Target is to break the resistance in both provinces in hours. Do NOT forget to leave a corps in Cologne against a bold counterattack or you´ll find yourself chasing Belgian infantry in Germany . After Antwerpen and Arlon are won, you may already move your reserve at Mannheim direction Arlon - a French attack now is nigh impossible.

For phase I and II spare your airforce! You´ll eventually need it as strong as possible for the crucial phase III.

Phase IV:
Crucial, everything depends on this one to be executed properly. Speed counts! Now your armoured will have to move way ahead of the infantry. You have to rush south behind the Maginot line to cut off the French infantry there, I normaly go through Metz if it is only secured by not more than 2 French divisions. Expect the heaviest fights here, Metz has a level 10 fort AND the AI after your attack on France will begin to move armies west out of the Maginot forts at Colmar and Strasbourg. Thus more defenders will pour in while the attack battle in Metz is already raging. Commit - if necessary - both air fleets exclusively to this battle! As soon as the Metz encounter is won, head armoured further south without reinforcing as long as their strength (66%+) and org (50%+) still suffices.
The other moves will meet much less resistance, yet speed is essential nevertheless. Move troops into Sedan and Chaumont to encircle the Belgian army in Brussels.

Phase IV:
Head armoured full speed via Amiens to Rouen and Paris (which can be taken by 2 to 4 armoured easily in my experience always), encircling allied armies in Lille. You might be able to close another encirclement in Troyes to catch some troops in Reims. Don´t be shy to leave provinces completely empty if infantry can´t catch up in time as long as you remember to always follow up. And remind yourself on the motorized with Eng. brigades - they move the same speed as armoured in flat terrain and make great defenders against counterattacks. After or before the fall of Paris you may move armoured full speed along French channel coats to eliminate the various French air wings showing up here and there for no obvious purpose. In between squeeze in an attack on Brussels via Eindhoven and Cologne (coordinate armies to attack on the same time). No matter how many Belgian troops are there, the attack by 6 infantry should be sufficient as the encirclement penalty and low org is your troops advantage.

After you have captured Paris, the Vichy event will fire in just days. Be prepared for it as it will be a kind of a blur - all French troops will suddenly vanish except those already in place and staying Free French. It is absolutely likely that after some days a´suddenly free French troops show up in the Maginot line, so do not head for these provinces mindlessly and keep some troops in the provinces west of it. It may as well be that amphibious landings by allied troops in southern France or/and some Free French troops there (on Vichy terrain) need your attention.

Vichy leads to a random split of French troops, ships and aircraft between Vichy France and Free France. And your armoured in Vichy terrain might be out of fuel before - again a few days later - the second Vichy event fires making Vichy your ally and puppet. Don´t worry, they will be in full supply short after.

You will during this time watch some weird aircraft moves by allied aircraft - by some miracle e.g. Australian pre war naval bombers are quite capable of moving between North Africa and Southern England in that period.

Time estimations for the four attack phases before Vichy fires:
Phase I - 3 days
Phase II - 5 days (Amsterdam is represented by swamp, thus slowing advance)
Phase III - below 2 days for the breakthrough. You may actually be forced to wait before execution of phase III to give armoured from Poland time to properly deploy
Phase IV - depends on the resistance in Metz. The longer Metz holds, the longer and more intense the fights in Dijon and Nancy will be as the French troops from Maginot are heading west. I would say 7 days on average until your troops secure Dijon and Paris
Complete time between the DOW on the Netherlands and the Vichy event on average - less than 21 days.

Keep one thing in mind - troops moving into a province that are defeated there are forced to retreat into the province they came from. Thus if you reach Nancy and Dijon before the marching French, you keep them nicely enclosed in the Maginot line.

And last - what will be the resistance level you meet? Well, on average the French troops will have just 2 outdated armour, some motorized and its mainly infantry forces will have to fight at 2:7:2:9, their efficiency even lower than their raw battle stats as they will lack the proper communication techs from the infantry tech tree. Which translates in something between a 2:1 and 3:1 advantage in an even fight between German and French infantry, armoured (if not penalized too heavy for attack into unfavourable terrain and over rivers) may safely take odds at 4:1 or even 5:1.

Why not DOWing Luxemburg and go through there instead of Arlon? Well, I might be wrong here - but every DOW raises US war entry by some points, lowering consumer goods demands and freeing IC for build and research. Thus I prefer to encircle Luxemburg with a lot of troops after Vichy and take the land by "Demand territory" peacefully.

Garrison forces in Poland:
At your discretion. I never encountered a Soviet surprise attack thus tend to garrsion on the low side - 2 armoured, 2 motorized and 12 infantry on average, 6 corps German divisions + Hungarian forces eventually, but normally I need those (and the ones from other allies if I already have some at this date) for garrison duties.

 

[TheExecuter]

Why not DOWing Luxemburg and go through there instead of Arlon? Well, I might be wrong here - but every DOW raises US war entry by some points, lowering consumer goods demands and freeing IC for build and research. Thus I prefer to encircle Luxemburg with a lot of troops after Vichy and take the land by "Demand territory" peacefully.

Yes, exactly. I exploited this during my Hakko Ichiu AAR and the US did not enter the war at all (abandoned during 1943) despite my complete subjugation of China, Australia, New Zealand, India, Northern Siberia....etc.

TheExecuter

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 10
Considerations on the invasion of Great Britain​

Anyone noticed I did not invite Italy into the alliance - yet? For a good rason - as of patch 1.05c the Italian AI gets its ass handed by the British in a matter of month - be it at sea or in North Africa. As I am not ready yet to intervene myself and hate the micromanagement involved leading the Italian forces myself ... This strategy has a disadvantage however. Notice the Vichy AI slowly losing org on its troops, making them completely unable to even defend properly? Well, the oil, steel and rubber the AI would need for its economy gets gathered at Gabes - and belongs to YOU. Advantages of a puppet, which you can´t use. You could - but not with British forces striving through the Mediterrenean. I always found that you may run a convoy safely from Gabes to Toulon (to help Vichy out) IF and as long as the British fleet is busy fighting Italy.

I did however invite Romania and Bulgaria into the alliance - they accepted first try, as they most likely do at this stage of the game.

But down to more serious business - the invasion of the British isles. Its purpose is to cut British IC by 60%, get hands on the huge British stockpiles in London, get an unsinkable aircraft carrier in case of war against the US and serve as the first step to the annexation of Great Britain scheduled for 1942. With a short look on the fleet and army comparison the question is - how? To understand this one has to understand the AI behaviour. First of all, the British navy will be split between different war theatres, the best I ever encountered in British fleet strength was 40% of its fleet in Channel and North Sea waters. Second the AI is completely unable to handle org losses at sea - the ships simply move around until they reach org 0 and stay with org 0. Only some small detachments in ports will have high org but these are outnumbered even by the pathetic German fleet. Third the AI does NOT garrison its beaches with the usual exception of Portsmouth and Coventry - Edinburgh or Scapa Flow are often just empty beaches . Fourth at least 3 quarters of British ground strength will be in North Africa and India, serving no purpose but crippling Britains ability to defend its home.

And on top of that all you may simply nearly neglect air threats - there are none against ground forces despite numerous British aircraft. The only one posed by air strikes against naval forces can easily be countered by the 4 interceptors I have ready and idle after the two costly first (and last) British strategic bombing attempts in the first days of the war. Just move them to coastal provinces and set them to intercept ... AND rely on the strength of your subs. One sub given sufficiently researched attack boosts is as good as 3 basic destroyers, even better against capital ships with their weakness in sub detection and attack. With the German 18 medium subs available at the invasion I could wipe out any fleet resistance without any additional help. The main purpose of the capital ships and their destroyer screen is shore bombardment.

So what do I need for a successful invasion? Some cruisers and battleships (provided by keeping the initial build queue at game start), some destroyers (otherwise MY ships would be helpless encountering subs, 18 medium subs, 18 transports, around 30 divisions with some mountain troops in it. The transports should however have some destroyer screens serving a triple purpose - integrated if weak shore bombardment, protection against 0 org or otherwise weak opposing forces, giveaway forces for serious encounters providing just the time to flee the encounter with the transports and save the divisions carried. Note that naval battles tend to be extremely short and you can´t break away before some initial skirmishes. Conclusion - when into serious naval action slow down the game speed and set the messages to at least pop up windows for any naval encounter. And - btw - do NOT forget to upgrade your cruisers and battleships pre war after having researched the basic radar and ASDIC techs (if improved torpedos even better) as this boosts their stats quite heavily (the British AI never bothers doing that thus even your light cruisers of the Koenigsberg class actually are better than its heavy cruisers of the Town class. Which is rubbish in RL, but game mechanics ...). And do NOT forget to build some destroyers more than you´ll actually need - you want them for escort services for the quite heavy convoy supplying your invasion forces, set up the hour your troops reach British soil.

And if things get really ugly don´t forget a little piece of information - your dive bombers actually have better stats against naval than anything else except naval and torpedo bombers. Keep them at Antwerpen or Lille provided you choose Coventry or Portsmouth for invasion what I always do. These are the landing sites exposing your fleet for the shortest period possible to enemy threats and allow for air coverage by the interceptors with their short range.

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 11
Sealion​

After the defeat of France in April 1939 I surrounded Luxembourg with 30+ divisions and demanded territory. They folded the first attempt, it might take up to three until they do, though. June saw the attack on Denmark to close the Baltics, a few armoured and an air fleet are all you need. The airfleet would be completely unnecessary but is used for a neat trick that works 50% of the time: Bomb the infantry holding Copenhagen into nonexistance, than move troops in. You´ll often find some Danish naval vessels captured, most of the time the 2 light cruisers which are a welcome addition to Germanys navy. Do NOT forget that you have to have sea supremacy in the waters around the Danish isles, otherwise your troops will not be allowed to cross the Sund waters and be stuck.

Thus on July 1st everything is ready for the invasion of Great Britain. Initially I concentrate all German naval power (2 battleships 150, 3 improved heavy cruisers, 6 light cruisers, the 2 outdated ships of the line and 11 destroyers in 2 strike fleets, 18 medium subs in 3 sub fleets) in the English Eastern channel. Air coverage was prpared by Kesselrings air fleet and 4 interceptor wings at Lille and Antwerpen. Naval British resistance were 8 battleships, some cruisers, 1 carrier and a few destroyers heading into the battle at low org, crushed in the minimum time the game forces battles to be commenced. No losses, near to 0 damage. The 18 transports accompanied by 6 destroyers in 2 fleets carried 17 divisions (6 armour) for the initial beachhead. Recon in advance (by subs and aircraft) proved that Portsmouth was lightly defended (1 infantry), Coventry none at all. Thus I split forces and landed in equal packages at both, Coventry took a bit more time than Portsmouth. Immediately at landing a supply convoy was set up, the transport fleets returned into German coastal waters to carry the folow up forces and the troops at Coventry and Portsmouth started a nigh undisturbed encirclement of London, where 5 British infantry was spotted.

And here I took a risk. Not being harrassed by major British naval forces I estimated them to be too far away to pose a threat and split naval forces. The smaller strike force together with one transport fleet (8 divisions, of them 3 mountain and 2 armour) and one sub fleet headed towards Firth of Forth, another transport fleet (6 infantry) towards Orkney protected by another sub fleet. Surprise: Beaches at Edinburgh and Scapa Flow empty!!!! The following screenshot provides the situation on July6, 1939:



There are 1 British infantry at Perth, 5 in London, 9 in Sheffield (the 15 displayed count 6 aircraft in). The battle plan thus was extremely easy: Land at Edinburgh and head armoured south, move armoured at Birmingham to Manchester, move 1 infantry corps from Coventry to Birmingham, move 1 infantry corps from Scapa Flow to Inverness. E voila - 3 encirclements trapping some 15 British infantry. Executed as planned, beating some small British naval fleets (1 carrier, some cruisers and destroyers) apparently heading from Aberdeen and Newcastle into Firth of Forth, stormed pockets after encirclements were closed, catched some minor British vessels (1 cruiser, 1 destroyer, 4 transports) during execution in ports. Operation successfully ended on July 14, 1939 eliminating the last retreating British infantry in Aberdeen.

This is an extraordinary easy outcome, but even if you meet stiff British resistatnce in the initial attempt (I once encountered 40+ British vessels - at low org though - in the English Eastern Channel, lost all destroyer screens and a lot of strength in all capital ships) you WILL make it, only concern might be not losing transports. In the encounter mentioned I was really flad having safeguarded the ransports by "giveaway" destroyers. In another encounter the only thing I had to do was to eliminate some 15+ British aircraft - the isle was virtually empty from ground forces.

As a sidenote - you randomly (it helps to chase away Britih aircraft from the gathering zone in the channel thus having a chance of not being detected) may actually catch anything between 0 and 20+ British warships, I once in a lucky shot catched no less than 9 battleships in Portsmouth. Don´t count on it though .

Be aware that the exact battle plan of any game as Germany depends on British forces density and deployment. I experienced everything between 0 and 30 divisions, between all beaches guarded heavily and no beach guards at all. Thus be prepared to change plans as necessary and above all - scout ahead with subs and aircraft to get an idea as where and how to strike. In worst case simply storm a beach with 18 divisions, supported by air attacks and shore bombardment. Despite the heavy penalty non Marine divisions take in amphibious landings, you´ll be there because of the HUGE advantage your ground forces have over British. Thus note if you ever take Great Britain (fun!) as a player - your first, most important and never neglected line of defence is your navy!

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 12.1
Interlude​

Time for some general remarks on gameplay and game mechanics.

Leadership issues?
Let´s start with a short remark on a favourite topic in the forum - leaders. There is an exhaustive FAQ covering anything you need to know on this issue. But for practical reasons it is enough to stick to 3 rules for Germany:
1. Make sure your units are led by skill 3 leaders, no need to use less capable except for garrison reasons
2. Make sure major attacks (e.g. first breakthroughs) are led by Field Marshals as anything else will set you on huge penalties for overstacking (exceeding leader command abilities)
3. Don´t go overboard promoting field marshals. The penalty for fighting without them is just -15% efficiency (if not exceeding command limit), but each skill point combined with an appropriate trait (for Germany this would be offensive or armoured most of the time) nets +10% to efficiency if the trait is applicable (offensdive for attacks, obviously ). Thus promoting a Lt. General like Meyer (armoured leader, skill 4) to Field Marshal and losing 2 skillpoints on the way is not a decent decision

If you play blitzkrieg my style you will actually never see any general gain the necessary 100 experience for the next skill point, except for the lone division in the one French coastal province where a Canadian division shows up on a regular monthly schedule to get slaughtered. You may, being in air power as I am however, see some air leaders reach skill level 8 or 9, which for a tank buster (+10% efficiency on ground attacks) translates into +80% efficiency. Not necessary, but nice.

ONE specific trait most often not looked at is trickster. This guy boosts chances to acheive surprise tremendeously, which if acheived translates into a 20% penalty on ground efficiency for the opponent. Which is e.g. more than the penalty for infantry attacking into hill terrain. I would choose a level 2 trickster over a level 3 offensive general any time of the day .

With that let´s leave the leader issue and pursue more serious matters. The first one would be

Application of bonus or penalty percentages in game?
The percentage information actually is a bit misleading. If it really would be percentages, a calculation would show e.g. (starting at 100 for showcase purposes) -15% for something = 85% and than adding 15% for something which would than give 85% + (15% x 85% = 12.75%) = 97,75%. But that is not how it is done. The percentages are always relative to 100, thus +15% means +15% even if the actual (applicable) base in a current situation is e.g. 40% and the normaly expected result (by multiplying with 1.15) would only be 46% but really is 40% + 15% = 55%

The second issue worth a short discussion is

How to make AI allies useful allies?
The AI is the AI - some scripts of questionable quality, no change for your specific allies. Thus what can you do if not going for world conquest but instead playing with allies a lot (as it eases micomanagement tremendeously - at least for me). Leaving things like beating South Africa or Australia to them and care for more interesting matters?
1. Make allied units able to fight. Which translates into - give them tech, and preferably tech for units you want them to build (like interceptors instead of pre war medium bombers). For Germany this means give them infantry and doctrine techs first, armoured second and fighter third. A round of tech gifts once or twice a month from let´s say January 1938 to January 1941 provides YOU with Axis forces that easily outmatch any allied infantry and put them in the vicinity of Soviet infantry.
2. Channel allies. Which simply means if they head and attack in directions you don´t want them, be there first or cut off further advance paths by being adjacent first. Do NOT forget to do that either from your territory or by sea - coming from their territory gives them the occupied province and acheives the opposite of what you wanted. There are some oddities when you attack into land already bordering an ally though ...
3. Make them able to produce units. Which translates in - either provide ressources they lack (most likely oil and rubber) OR give them the industry techs that provide better conversion rates. Hungary without much land gain besides the one in the partition of Czechoslovakia can easily provide some 3 dozen useful infantry/motorized until early 1941.
4. Enable them to acheive targets. Which e.g. for Spain or Italy as allies means bomb the crap out of Gibraltar or/and Malta garrisons. Or garrison important points (like Gibraltar or Suez) yourself after the AI most likely leaves these points undefended chasing some lone South African infantry in the middle of nowhere deep in Africa getting cut off from supply by a lone New Zealand infantry amphibious assault into a key point.

 

[Miihkali]

Hmmm. I've never played HoI 1 but this AAR looks very interesting. Good luck!

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 12.2
Into the Medeterrenean​

July 15, sealion finished. And now? According to plan proceed with the Mediterrenean area. So let´s examine which options we have there:

As long as Italy is not in the war the Mediterrenean is a British sea. And as long as Great Britain holds Gibraltar, it is a closed sea. And as long as it is closed Germany will not be able to send ground forces to Medeterrenean coasts. Thus I need two things:
1) Make Italy ally with Germany, as it posesses the only navy that can chellenge the British in the war theatre
2) Alternatively either
- conquer Yugoslavia to receive a medeterrenean coast or
- get rid of the British Gibraltar by invason or by letting the Spanish as allies do this

A closer look on No. 2:
Gibraltar is a tough nut - mountains with coastal and land forts. Nigh impossible to starve if not having naval forces on the Western as the Eastern side of it. Thus an invasion and even more an invasion without air support is out of question. With air support and naval superiority it can be done - by an assault led by a fortress buster leading mountain troops. I had to do it several times when Germans progress path was West Europe by 1939, Soviet Union by 1940, everything else after. Odd thing is that Gibraltar often is left defenceless after you conquer Great Britain - seems the AI values it low and need the troops elesewhere.

Alliance offers went out to Yugoslavia, Italy and Nationalist Spain the 17th of July, all accepted on the first try. Why that may seem an extraordinary good result it is more or less a usual one - Italy would always accept after some German progress in France, Yugoslavia most of the time if fascist like in this game, Spain often needs more than one try though. The alliance offer to Yugoslavia is tricky as I do not want them as an ally, I want them as an enemy without having to declare war. There is a 50% chance that an event fires in between the first week of them going Axis that makes them leave the Axis and join the allies. It fired, otherwise I would have been forced to move troops into the Medeterrenean via the entrance at Gibraltar.



Have troops at standby at the Yugoslavian border before and if you want a specific ally to grow stronger, assume military control and make sure it gains the most of the Yugoslavian conquest without compromising your target - at least one coastal province in the Med. Game mechanics allow to teleport ships there (aka inserting them out of the build queue as if built there). I did not do this game, thus Romania gained a corridor up to Dubrovnik.

National Spain will do nothing else than head for Gibraltar and get passive afterwards, thus the only thing they might need is help by a German ir fleet, which is deployed at Almeria. It would move to Sicily to help Italy occupy Malta afterwards, but this time the Italians later managed to do that on their own.



Don´t forget to set the ressources convoy from Gabes to Toulon, otherwise the Vichy troops will stay at 0 org forever and even be useless when defending home.



I have numerous infantry, heavy cruisers, subs, destroyers and transports in the build queue, the heavy cruisers actually coming too late for the upcoming campaign as I decided I could do without them initially.



And btw - I switched to Frick as security minister, boosting German IC to 750. Ressources are plentiful after all the conquests - as predicted - and will never be an issue in the course of the game. In the Eastern Polish provinces already a complete infrastructure upgrade program has been started. It is most likely a waste of ressources but I found the slight speed enhancement for the advance to the Soviet border useful enough to start it back in April and will renew it April 1940 thus having the provinces at infra 54 instead of 34.

 

[Dr Rare]

I am enjoying following this,thought i would post to show some support.Its great to see a new Hoi1 AAR especially with screenshots.
Dr