Nuke èm by 1943 - a German AAR

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 17
India in 3 months with 30 divisions​

We left the Middle East theatre in May 1940, the invasion of India just in preparation. A few days later I invited Japan into the Axis and they happily agreed. This alliance is not a necessity, Germany can do fine without. But the Japanese usually take care for Singapore, the Solomons and Hongkong (3 far away British victory point places) and keep the Australians and South Africans on the run. As I want to ensure to be ready for Barbarossa in summer 1941, it seems like a justified move. But if you want all or at least some profit from the Netherlands rubber holdings, watch your timing. In my experience you have between 3 and 6 months before the Japanese arrive in Indonesia, thus make sure you invite them at a time when you have a chance to be there earlier.

And the alliance has one huge downside - often enough the Japanese DOW the Philippines sooner or later for no reason (the Malayan and Vietnamese provinces producing enough oil and rubber to ensure Japans ressource problem gets solved). And drag you into a war with the USA on their schedule. There ain´t no such thing as a free lunch ...



In July 1940 the Germans on Indian soil are just preparing another encirclement - 19 British divisions in Hyderabad, a quarter of their remaining 76 ground forces units. This encirclement is especially tricky to pull off. Because it involves dislodging the Brits from the mountains of Quetta, usually wel guarded after you occupy Karachi. Be aware when trying an assault on Quetta that what is empty when your troops start marching may be occupied when you arrive (strat re-deploy by the AI and parts of the retreating forces from Karachi). Remember that as of patch 1.05 the units redeployed by strat re-deploy arrive at half of their initial org, not 0 as in the older versions. BUT - the miserable AI made my day, it moved most of the divisions there after only a few days thus opening the path to the encirclement. I do not point out in detail while Quetta should be assaulted by mountaineers .



Note that the best place in India for amphibious landings is Rajkot. It is a 0 IC province thus no coastal fort builds possible. For rapid progress on Indian soil again make good use of your sea supremacy. More oftne than not the beaches at Calcutta and Madras are free as the AI skripts frantically moves troops around to counter the various threats from German and Japanese forces ... And do NOT forget (I usually do) that this is the time to build transports for convoy purposes. You´ll need a few hundred convoy ships to shuffle all the good things from Alexandria, Madras, Batavia, Medan and Makassar in the near future. Putting some destroyers in for escorts is more a flavour thing for the time being - the naval threat will be absolutely minor once you have finished Great Britain.

The force comparison screenshot illustrates the desperate situation for Great Britain - it has 76 divisions left, from them 47 are militia. The panic build of militia after the homeland is threatened is one of the most advantegeous game flaws for the human player.



Overall I did not commit more than 30 divisions for the Indian and Indonesian campain (I was surprised when I noticed that myself), but half of the armoured. At that state of the game there is nothing that can counter a German improved light with eng. attachment or the main build of medium 70s EXCEPT for Soviet infantry with artillery or AT brigades. But 2 of my air fleets were constantly (9 tac, 6 fighter, 9 dive) busy gaining experience for air leaders as much as possible. A bit of an obsession .

 

[comac]

Sweet. Thanks for the update!

Note that the best place in India for amphibious landings is Rajkot. It is a 0 IC province thus no coastal fort builds possible.

Does Rajkot have enough infrastructure to keep you from suffering attrition?

As an aside, I took India once in TGW and the evil Empire regrouped in Quetta as well. Had a horrible time prying them out of there!

Chris

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 18
Great Britain and the Netherlands are history​

October 27 the Indonesian and Indian campaign are done. Netherlands are already annexed, Great Britain to follow as all victory points are now either German or Japanese. There really is not much to say on the occupation of Indonesia - simply move some corps (3 to 4 of 3 divisions each is more than enough) over, do multiple amphibious assaults and annex as soon as the victory points (Oosthaven, Medan, Batavia, Suarabaya, Makassar) are secured. You might be shy due to a dozen or more Netherlands infantry you spot - don´t. They are first absolutely inferior, second half of them will be militia and third they are undersupplied.

Time to focus on another piece of game mechanics alongside an example:



The tooltips states that units in low infra provinces (in fact lower than 33) will starve. That is true and untrue at the same time. If a supply line can be drawn to the capital, the unit will NOT starve even in infra 10 provinces. Unfortunately without a land connection the situation is different - the unit will starve, slowly but steadily losing strength (manpower) and org. This applies to overseas forces even in good supply as well as to units in allied territory (note the latter - we will come back to it in the Soviet campaign 1941). Oddly enough oil gets supplied in both cases. Which means you should
1) try to avoid such provinces
2) if you can´t (like having to annex Nepal) use the fastest moving unit for the terrain and move it out as fast as the job is done
3) if you have to annihilate enemy units in such terrain you might want to solely use airpower for destruction
4) if you can force enemy units into such terrain and cut off their supply line to the capital, they will vanish on their own when strength hits 0

Unfortunately the example shows I missed point 2 (should have used mountaineers. In mountans light tanks with engineer brigades move fastest, closely followed by all kind of mountaineers, motorized being not better than plain infantry). And stupidly enough I lost a complete corps for the same reason when preparing the assault into the Soviet Union in Rasht (a Persian Caucasian infra 10 province) .

The next screenshot shows the Indonesian provinces. And my transport fleets already leaving for the Medeterrenean to shuffle troops back from India.



I was faster than I ever expected. But that is partly due to Japan being as useful as hoped - the screenie shows it gently took care of the Solomons, Singapore, Rangoon and Hongkong and will take on Australia and New Zealand a bit later.



Even if you could eventually be faster than the Japanese, hold your troops. Japan desperately needs the rubber and oil they receive by British Malaya, French Indonesia and some of the islands in the Indonesian region they occupy before you annex Netherlands. Make that a reule for your gameplay - IF having allies that are strong enough to do something and provide troops, take care to make them stronger. The AI skripts are just good enough to keep less important enemies busy on their own, which eases micromanagement. And I often enough found allies to exactly occupy the last victory points you need for a specific annexation .

The build qeue is already geared for the Soviet campaign (armoured, armoured ad again armoured with just some destroyers and a lot of transports in between).



It might look hard to exactly adapt the build qeue for your needs, but in fact it is quite easy following 2 simple rules:
- Have more in the build queue than you actually can build with the IC assigned. For rich countries there should always be units in the queue which you might need somewhere in the future but can easily hold if other forces need priority. For Germany the IC heavy but manpower low interceptors or heavy cruisers are perfect examples
- Remember build times, put in new units just in time and prioritize these. E.g. a German basic medium 70 needs (vehicle assembly researched) 155 days. Thus when I want to start the Soviet campaign on June 1, 1941, and I want the new unit at full org ready for invasion, the last days to start this build would be mid December 1940

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Does Rajkot have enough infrastructure to keep you from suffering attrition?
Chris

Yep. Infra 34 but 0 IC. The obviously built the streets and the railways with manpower alone out there.

Regards

Thorsten

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 19
Battle plan for the invasion of the Soviet Union​

November 1940 until 1st of June 1941 will be a pretty boring time AAR wise - nothing happened than research and build up for the Soviet campaign. Thus let´s use the time to develop a battleplan against the Soviets.

You should always have a battle plan to follow. It determines force strength, engagement of air forces, force composition and tells you where the first strikes have to be conducted. However - do not make yourself a slave to the plan. No battle plan ever survived the first hours of battle. If opportunities show up, use them, IF they still contribute to your target. Which means besides a battle plan for the initial stages of a war setting targets to reach is mandatory too. These are easy to set here:

I will - as announced in the first posts - trigger "Bitter Peace" myself after having secured Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad (these are the mandatory prerequisites for the "Bitter Peace" event), additionally Baku, Magnitogorsk and Astrakhan (these should speed up the BP event) AND the Soviet force strength dropped below a quarter or the combined armies strength of its invaders. Voila - targets are clear. Because the aforementioned not only necessities to reach and occupy the provinces but as well to eliminate a lot of Soviet divisions on the way.

Okay, a look on the map. Let´s start with the northern sector. Red arrows indicate the first attack, blue the follow up advance. Blue squares indicate expected encirclements, orange squares targeted encirclements in the course of the campaign.



The battle plan in the north is easy and straightforward at first glance - close the nothern encirclement of the Pripjet marshes and use the plains "highway" to Moscow full speed. Leningrad and everything north of the Daugava and Upper Don river will have to wait until later - for a good reason: Most likely Finland (which lost the Finish winter war in late 39 and had to cede land to the SU) will join the Axis and as a consequence a lot (!) of Soviet troops will be busy in the hostile terrain, a welcome distraction. Back to the "highway" - its usage may be tricky. As soon as you reach Kaluga the AI scripts will realize that Moscow is threatened and pour in troops there. Moscow is a level 5 fort, thus to dislodge sizeable troops by a frontal assault would be bloody. But AI scripts are unable to "think ahead". If you (temporarily) halt your attack at Smolensk and proceed a few days later and than move full speed towards Moscow, you will often find it unguarded. Sweet!



In the south the plan is as straightforward - the initial attack secures Zitomir, of which troops are spread to close the southern encirclement of the Pripjet marshes and running south alongside the Dnjepr to catcj troops between them and the Romanian border. Stalino/Sevastopol are opportunity occupations, it pays off to wait until it is sure that there are either no or low org just retreated troops. Attacks from allied forces over the Romanian border or amphibious assaults in Odessa may be thrown in, but are more or less a flavour/opportunity thingie as well. The amphibious assault at Odessa may be much more imprtant attacking the USSR without having a Caucasian border already, but not in the given game situation.



In the Caucasus region the plan itself is a no brainer as well - first attack into Kirovabad, encircling Baku, spreding noth of the mountaineous region from there. Long term goal is an encirclement of Soviet troops in the Caucasian mountains with the help from troops of the southern attack forces. Be aware (and prepared for) two developments - the Soviets might have gained military access into Turkey and may retreat there AND they might use this access to suddenly threaten your Iraq holding. No idea why but this always catches me by surprise . On the contrary a possible Soviet attack on the provinces north of Teheran will be welcome distraction - everything low infra there and if Teheran is held by a good (allied) infantry the BP event is likely to trigger before the Soviets may acheive substantial gains.

Allied to Japan you should be aware of one thing: Not having military control over Japan (way too much micromanagement) your attack on the SU will take the Japanes by surprise. Expect to see the Soviets gain some land before Japanese forces may react, especially so as the Japanes will have near to 0 mobile forces (and no armour). But this is no concern - eventually the BP will cure anything anyway AND I found the Japanese AI scripts to gain ground after a few months already.

Forces composition and strength will be adjusted according to this plan. I expect to have 42 armoured ready to lead the 3 initial main thrusts, otherwise the ground forces will be distributed to the 3 attack groups roughly on a 4:5:1 ratio. One surprise is a result of the early succes against Great Britain and its IC gains - the overall strength of the German army (let alone the airforce) will be HIGHER than the Soviet one, not counting allies in.

I will provide an update on research situation and available forces in the next installment using a date just prior to invasion execution. The following installments than will handle forces movement and battles in detail for the first weeks of the invasion to show how, when and why troops are doing what.

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 120
Research and forces prior to the Soviet campaign​

As promised a short overview on research and a force comparison on May 28, 1941, as well as a brief summary on the forces used for the upcoming Soviet campaign.

Research is all about balancing your forces needs with the research needs and looking ahead as when you will need what for which purpose. For the Soviet campaign this means I have done all I could to ensure my infantry and armour will have the best battle abilities reachable without sacrificing long term goals. I decided early that the basic medium 70 will do for the campaign, but that did not mean I could not boost its lethality to the maximum by researching far ahead in the armour tree just to receive results like advanced halftrack, armour skirts, advanced optical sights etc. thus the raw battle stats of plain infantry are now hard attack 6, soft attack 13, air attack 6, ground defence 21. I only missed one tech that I might have reached in time - AT recoilless rocket launcher for just another point in GD. Infantry with artillery brigades (I built 9 of these for flavour) have a deadly 9/20/6/20, thus soft attack exceeding the estimated Soviet infantry ground defence of 16 by a good margin. Armoured basic medium 70 are at 19/18/8/15 and nigh invulnerable to the estimated Soviet infantry hard attack of 5 or 6. An interesting piece of information prioritizing land tech is the comparison with the attack/ground defence values of dives and tacs - even at improved models (which I did not reach or buiild yet) the ground attack/air defence relation is worse than when comparing the initial German infantry 1936 with pre war bombers. Reason is you reach all relevant air attack techs for mobile troops pretty soon and do not advance from there, while the relevant ground attack abilities of bombers (the higher models base values reinforced by airburst shrapnels etc.) grow late in the tech tree but ensure the distance at the end is even more in favour of air units than the initial one in 1936. As for Soviet forces my estimation is to see the infantry at 5-6/10-11/5-6/16, the armour (taken the basic medium 40 as an average from the possible opponents) at 11-12/11-12/7/12. As a Soviet human player you would be in the vicinity of my battle stats meanwhile, presumably still behind in electronics though.

As a side note - I meanwhile have reasons to doubt the common forum wisdom that ground defence is more important than soft attack, but don´t have the time and patience to investigate further. Suffice it to say I will place much more effort on soft attacks in the next games and I DO beleive that artillery brigades are justified builds meanwhile. IF they ensure the soft attack to be better than the estimated ground defence of enemies that is.

So I am ahead in infantry, armour and electronics tech on everyone in the world by a margin, albeit in the first 2 the closest follower is the USSR. Infantry and armour are displayed below, in electronics I reached advanced computers (5% better IC) but skipped some of the advanced radio models.





I reached modular assembly in industry and stopped there. Higher industry tech means 3 things up to the end now - either better IC/supply conversion, faster destroyer/transport build or better coal/oil and oil/rubber conversion techs and I do need none of those. Rocket research is just at the gold tech Flying Rockets. Note that the rocket tree actually is longer than the nuclear one, thus if you plan on having ICBMs the time you have nuclear bombs, you should be even farther than I am. Nuclear is displayed below, I will reach the atomic bomb by end 1942 as forecasted. In naval I am busy with the Improved warship, having anything in between except the marines tree (no need) and the prerequisites for improved battleships as I am not going to build BBs period. Sub again is displayed below. Note that I left out the long range submarine and that was a MISTAKE for an experienced player. I wanted to head for electro subs directly and did not take notice that inorder to build these you NEED having researched the long range before. Was a nasty surprise early 1942 when I wanted to start the research on the electro subs and could not.





On Arty I did reach Heavy Artillery Pieces, busy with some techs thereunder but left out the higher calibre anti air (80 and above) and anti tank techs. These would be a waste of time as the higher anti air calibres only serve dedicated AA brigades and stationary AA thus no profit for a Germany on the advance, the better anti tank (more than 80 actually) even less useful as long as no dedicated anti tank brigades are built. The anti tank might get useful when I start building mechanized, as the tank destroyer tree allows for better battle stats for mechanized and motorized than. But left out application techs are easy and fast to research. Bomber tech displayed below (reached improved tacs but not in time to upgrade or build new ones - just according planning). In fighter tech I am a bit behind and just busy with the improved gold techs (an oversight from my side, but not a critical one).



The doctrine techs are displayed below, no surprise that I only left out very few land doctrines which would just boost org further - I do not need those really, 90 for infantry and 102 for armoured is already overkill. The not displayed naval is a bit behind, but the wolfpack, indirect approach and sea llanes doctrines just good enough for the past middle east campaign, the decisive battle an additional gift.





One sidenote on research: Allies may provide very useful tech, but actually you have to help them get there. Aside some Japanese naval doctrines (e.g. I received Decisive Battle from them) Italy as Japan have a priority on air tech. Thus if you provide the gold techs up to a certain level, they will continue research. It was a pleasant surprise to receive 2 improved fighter gold techs from Italy in this game, albeit I already was near completion of these techs myself.

The good battle abilities of Germany´s forces are further compounded by the sheer size of its army, the force comparison displays that clearly. Note that some of the units actually are allied expeditionary forces. I got unusually lucky with Italy in this game, they provided a full (3 divisions) motorized corps and a small (2 divisions) improved light tank corps - thanks. Unfortunately you can´t count on this, though - expeditionary forces are purely random (although you may decline a gift and hope to receive something better in the next offer).



Counting exped. forces in I have 136 divisions ready to attack in Europe (34 armoured), reinforced by 37 Hungarian/Romanian infantry and cavalry. And I made sure e.g. the Romanian inf. is able to fight, they have battle stats of 3/10/4/16 and should meet Soviet infantry on near equal terms.





In the Caucasus region 17 infantry and 6 armoured are preparing the assault. Another mistake shows I am a lazy bastard - I forgot the much longer marching times there and sent the divisions to Tabriz too late to take part in the initial attack series. Nevertheless - note that I sent out the divisions in Eurpe on the last possible moment for an attack on June 1. Remember what I said about AI behaviour? It would adjust force setup to threats it spots - and up to May 30 it will just see 2 dozen divisions at its western border ... The whole force setup IS overkill btw - I did it with just 130 own and no allied (AND no Japanese) already, although the number of armoured was similar.

The assault is supported by 3 full air forces (one in the Caucasus. Make sure its tacs there - the dives will have problems due to partly vast distances) and an interceptor division. A German fleet waits before Leningrad (12 ships), a reinforcement fleet just one seazoné west.

Actually I on purpose removed all battleships from both fleets and made sure they were destroyer heavy. While the naval warships of the USSR are no threat at all, the subs despite their low attack value are (due to attack/defence relations). And depending on where the AI sets its naval focus you may meet up to 15 coastal subs, which tend to target the German BBs (as the "weakest" target against subs?) more than the cruisers or destroyers if BBs are participating.

 

[TheExecuter]

Soft attack vs. Ground Defence:
Yep, it is the ratios between these that are important. So, in theory soft attack is just as important as the G.D. However, in practice for small, tech and manpower limited countries, a G.D. priority offers the potential to reduce manpower losses to combat. Obviously if you are the Soviet Union, you don't care about losses too much...but Italy or Belgium will. It is a subtle point though.

TheExecuter

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 21
Soviet campaign - initial stages​

June 1, 1941, the Soviet Union received the declaration of war. An hour later Finland joined the Axis as expected. Scrrenshots below show the initial movements in the northern and the southern sector of the European border. All armies are synchronized to attack the same hour, although the armoured and motorized will arrive at the first targets earlier. The corps at Byalistok will no longer have an enemy border once Minsk is secured, thus it was ordered into Pinsk to reinforce the lone corps holding the line there. Oddly enough the interceptor division at Pinsk already had to repel 3 Soviet air attacks.





June 4 the initial breakthroughs at Minsk and Zitomir had been acheived, minimal losses on German side. I even held the air force so far - the resistance expectzed did not justify its usage and I might need it soon in best shape. Armies north leave an occupation force at Minsk and moves full speed to Mogiljev, armies south split into Chernigov and Kirovograd.





June 7 found Kaluga empty of ground forces in the north. I had the feeling Moscow might be empty thus changed initial plan and headed into Kaluga with mobile forces. This spreads my lines thin, but blitz warfare includes taking risks ... In the south Chernigov is already secured, cutting off the marshes. The battle for Kirovograd rages but with no doubt on the result. Plan call for an encirclement of the Vynnitsa/Kotovsk pocket and viewing the map I will pull off another encirclement at Kiev.





June 12 I made it into Moscow just in time. A Soviet mechanized division made it into Moscow just an hour before, but at near 0 org I think it came just out of the build queue. But further east the only real dangerous battle of the game is approaching. Note the Soviet divisions in Bobrujsk marching for an outbreak? I saw that but estimated the divisions in Minsk to be good enough to hold this one. What I did NOT take notice of was the movement of Soviet troops in Vitebsk. The movement direction indicated troops heading for Kalinin, but a bit later this was proven to be a misperception ...

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Soft attack vs. Ground Defence ...

I actually was more referring to conventional wisdom hinting to give ground defence a higher priority than soft attack. I was for a long time instinctively following this rule anyway, as a former officer I tend to preserve troops even in games .

But meanwhile I am under the impression I actually could do better focus more on soft attack even at the expense of ground defence as long as my ground defence is ensured to be just higher as the ground attack of plain enemy infantry. I´ll will fiddle with different setups a bit and come back - hopefully in the course of this AAR - with conclusions.

Discussion is m,oot for the later stages of the game. When research has reached (near) the end of the armour, artillery and infantry tree the infantry ground defence can only be exceeded by soft attack of heavy armoured and mechanized with artillery brigades with some margin (mechanized much better here).

Regards

Thorsten

 

[unmerged(81995)]

A short rant on historical flavour

An intermediate short rant on historical flavour

Does HOI feel historical? No! Is this due to the historical sacrifices on troops, tech or province setup for gameplay purposes? Of course not, these are nothing else but minor irritations and only for the historical interested. Thus WHY in heanevn´s name does the game feel that much a-historical no matter of the actual course of the game?

BECAUSE all nations more or less play the same for a human player as for the AI. Everything a matter of available IC, ressources, force build and forces engagement. And that´s just it.

But looking back in history, were there distinctive national differences on how nations handled tech, industrial capacity, forces build? And could that be implemented in the game using existing gamer mechanics? A shouting YES to both. Let´s just examine two examples - Germany and the Soviet Union. Let´s look on the unique and distinctive differences how these countries handled research, forces, industry in history.

Where were Germany´s unique strengthes and weaknesses on a stategic scale? Easily the following (not being exhaustive):
- Excellent tactical leadership on each level from platoons up to army groups (Str.)
- Extremely poor political/strategic leadership(Wea.)
- Technological advanced equipment due to good ingenieurship (Str.)
- Insufficient equipment production due to late gearing for war (actually not before 1942) and a behaviour to implement improvements into running serial production leading to in facct small consecutive series (Wea.)
- Inadequate naval war preparation based on assumptions which were already wrong when made (the German Z-plan from 1939) (Wea.)
- Research cuts (especially aircraft) on anything exceeding a years development based on the assumption of a short war in 1940 (Wea.)

Where were the Soviet Unions unique strengthes and weaknesses on a strategic scale. Again easily the following (not being exhaustive):
- Very poor tactical leadership in the first year of the war due to various reasons, most important being the officers purge (Wea.)
- Poor strategic leadership in the first year of the war due to the wrong generals being in the STAVKA and Stalins personal interference (Wea.)
- Strong ability to handle poor weather conditions and fight effectively in these conditions (Str.)
- Strong industrial output of equipment of sufficient quality very early in the war (Str.)
- Inadequate air force build up pre war based on popular strategic bombing doctrines proven to be of very little use in the Spanish civil war (Wea.)

Is anything of that modeled in HOI (or even in HOI2)? NO! Could it be modeled? Yes. Easily. By ingame events and initial setup. Poor Soviet tactical leadership first war year? Hold any Soviet commander at skill 1 max. in that time frame and fire an event (e.g. after 9 months of war) bringing them to their target levels. Intervention of Hitler or Stalin into gerneral staffs work? Fire random events revoking or changing every tenth force movement or force deployment. German temporary research stop in 1940? An event that holds progress on anything over e.g. 100 days for some momths. And so on and so forth.

Right now the game feels extremely a-historical because there is avsolutely NO flavour associated with any country in the world. Every country aside its initial forces and tech levels at start feels the same for gameplay reasons, not withstanding the different IC and ressource levels I have to deal with.

Regards

Thorsten

 

[Dr Rare]

Right now the game feels extremely a-historical because there is avsolutely NO flavour associated with any country in the world.

Personally i always prefer the CORE mod for historical accuracy and differences although a lot of it is just historical detail.
I never ever play 1.06c it is just to bland.But the higher org elite(cavalry,infantry,mechanised)troops of CORE do add some fanatical differences to the troops when deployed,also CORE has a better tech tree and unique country techs.

Having said that though i am enjoying you AAR and all your gaming tips and strategies very much.
I am sure you have tried CORE already? but if you havnt give it a go,its far more realistic and in the middle east its better with Egypt, Syria,Lebanon and Iraq in the game also.
Dr

 

[unmerged(81995)]

...
Having said that though i am enjoying you AAR and all your gaming tips and strategies very much.
I am sure you have tried CORE already? but if you havnt give it a go,its far more realistic and in the middle east its better with Egypt, Syria,Lebanon and Iraq in the game also.
Dr

Another reader . Although I suspect I can´t tell an hold hare something new - and did actually not intend to.

No, never came across CORE - abandoned HOI a year after ir was sold first and came back to it just recently. Have another mod on higher priority though (AAR planned of course) - the TGW mod. But thanks for hinting, will give it a try sooner or later as I just do not feel like playing HOI 2 in ANY of its versions - for me it sounds like just a similar horrible AI, more micromanagement actually, less control over airpower and an oversimplified tech tree. That Paradox did not get the brigade thingie to work in the sequel despite well described and known flaws is. Well, all people make failures. The smart ones only once ...

Regards

Thorsten

 

[Dr Rare]

Have another mod on higher priority though (AAR planned of course) - the TGW mod.
Thorsten

Cool ,i look forward to it!!Its my favorite Hoi1 mod .Make sure you check out the TGW mini-mod(New v.3 version soon)it just adds extra detail to the original mod.(I have sent you a pm)

Dr Rare

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 21
Soviet campaign - initial stages - continued​

June 12 in the South saw remarkable progress and no threat visible. Combined German/Hungarian forces were just moving into Vinnytsa to further reduce the Soviet pocket at the Romanian border. The encirclement around Kiev had been closed, some 9 armoured/motorized just moved in to destroy the 4 disorganized and understrength divisions there:



And a 6 armoured divisions force was just dislodging a lone Soviet infantry from Stalino and seize Sevastopol shortly after.

In the far East Manchuko and Japanese forces lost ground to the Soviets, but not in an alarming or unforeseen speed. he Soviets simply had more troops and armour support when the German attack on the USSR began.



And far north the Fins had a hard time just being attacked from multiple directions but tieing up some 35 Soviet divisions which was just fine with me - as expected and welcome, the Soviet divisions Far East as North were enemies less in the main theatre.

 

[TheExecuter]

Mmm...TGW mod...

I'm currently playing a game as AH...just finished one as France. I've downloaded the mini-mod but have not yet loaded it onto my scenario. It is definitely good stuff.

I'm surprised you haven't played C.O.R.E. morgon. You ought to at least check it out. The A.I. isn't much better, but the extra events and the improved tech. tree make for a more 'customizeable' game, I think.

Oh, and as an aside...the 'elite' units in C.O.R.E. only add org. And personally, as Germany or Japan...my org is already sky high! I don't need any more...I never end up building them.

Good luck with the russian 'hordes'...I'm getting record orders for my white 'surrender cloths'!

TheExecuter

 

[comac]

Thanks for the update.

You are certainly handing Ivan his head but given your meticulous preperation that comes as no real surprise. Getting help from AI controlled allies doesn't hurt either, you don't see that much in any of the HOI series.

TGW is a great mod and if you can still find CORE 9.1 or the Stony Road mods they address, through events and greatly modified tech trees, a number of the flavour issues that you mention.

Looking forward to reading an account of cracking a nice cold pilsner inside the walls of the Kremlin...

 

[unmerged(81995)]

You are certainly handing Ivan his head but given your meticulous preperation that comes as no real surprise.

Looking forward to reading an account of cracking a nice cold pilsner inside the walls of the Kremlin...

Unbfortunately this kind of preparation can make some times quite boring - e.g. in game I waited for September 1943 before invading (and nuking ) the USA while I probably could have gone after it right early 1942 already.

The Pilsner will be due October 1941 when I fired BP after having reduced the Soviets to 50 divisions and no further fighting chance.

Regards

thorsten

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 22
Swift advances on Soviet soil​

June 20 the temporary crisis from the Soviet counterattack at Minsk has just been solved. As the 19 Soviet divisons were originally up against only 9 German infantry, the losses for the defender were heavy. This is displayed in the low org of some German divisions after reinforcement - they were down to strength 60 and below. Reinforcements from the neighbour provinces and one air fleet at barely the minimum org for attacking (between 7 and 10) saved the day.



In the south the situation is as forecasted, the pockets at the Romanian border just cleared and the troops on the march to reinforce the armoured spearheads which already reached Majkop and Millerovo. In hindsight the force distribution was a mistake - I was a bit too strong on the South (counting allies in that is) and would have been better off with some corps more north. But the mistake had the only consequence that I needed a bit more time to reinforce the pincers as a lot of troops were far behind the front lines.



In the Caucasian area everything is going according plan, the encirclement around Baku closed and some trops just on the way to clear the small pocket.



On July 9 let´s look on the wider Northern picture. Finlands situation is desperate, having lost the capital and facing a lot of Soviet troops moving further, led by the just introduced mechanized. Yet this shows the AI skripts flaws - to still commit some dozen of its divisions and among them the strongest ones for an attack while the heart of its country is threatened or already overrun is not that smart. But help for the Fins is underway - 18 German divisions (later reinforced) will slowly close a pocket around Velikije Luki en route Bezjetsk-Borovotji-Novgorod. The final target here is to cut off all Russian divisions at the Finnish border from the capital (and hence supply).



In the south the encirclement around Stalingrad has been closed and 15 full strength German divisions from different provinces just moved in to annihilate the defenders. Note that Moscow, Lenenigrad and Stalingrad are set up as level 5 forts (= -45% troop efficiency for the attacker) thus even the encirclement penalty do not bring your troops on par if not accompanied by the additional modifier of troops attacking from different angles.Thus the attacker efficiency is now between 65 and 80% (65% for the troops which crossed the Don) against the defenders average of 90. Attacker being mainly armour and 3 times as strong will make the attack a sure thing despite this small disadvantage, further compunded by the crappy Soviet defence leader (Budjennyi was used by the AI multiple times in this and other games to lead hopeless defensive battles).



The effect on the Soviet troop strength is not overwhelming, but noticeable. They started with 197 divisions end of May and are now down to 150, while I estimate that around a dozen came out of the build queue in the interim time. Means German troops destroyed about 60 already. In fact the campaign is already won at this stage, although fighting will continue for 2 months until my objectives for manually triggering Bitter Peace are met.



Overall the result in destroyed Soviet army strength is quite unusual compared to my ususal 1939/1940 attack, may be due to broader AI force distribution for the additional Caucasus front. But having advanced this far in 1940 I normally reckon on no less than a 100 eliminated Soviet divisions. While I created a lot of small pockets this time there was no chance so far for a big one this game, but this is going to change when I finally arrive at the Finish borders.

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Oh, and as an aside...the 'elite' units in C.O.R.E. only add org. And personally, as Germany or Japan...my org is already sky high! I don't need any more...I never end up building them.

Yep. One of the consequences of the irreal marching speeds in HOI I is that higher org after having hit 80 is not doing anything. While in theory it would allow to maintain marches and fights before having to rest in practice the high speed of troops renders this feature useless.

On the contrary, if you´re just a bit lazy high org may have dire consequences. After org 90 you may often see strength going down faster than org when outnumbered and voila - you have just lost a unit that would have retreated if only at org 70 when fight strated. I had that several times in Russia advancing into non or low defended provinces, forgot about the attacker and ended with lost units as the defender reinforced before the actual attack began.

Regards

Thorsten

 

[unmerged(81995)]

Nuke `em by 43 - a German AAR
Chapter 23
Southern wing reaches Magnitogorsk​

July 25 the German southern wing has reached its final target - Magnitogorsk. In the Caucasus the last real bloody battle took place - with mountaineers busy in Kars an 8 division force of infantry and motorized attacked 7 partly understrength divisions in Tbilisi. Note the efficiency of the motorized being at 46% only (infantry 76, defender 100-110%). This is solely due to attacking in mountains, as neither weather nor daylight nor river crossing penalizes the attacker.



Best time for an attack on average is to follow a just beaten opponent force into its retreat province (by guessing from marching direction) in a fashion ensuring it could just retreive reinforcements. Why? Taking reinforcements lowers org. If a force has just been beaten and is retreating, org will already be low before reinforcements, most likely 0 after. And in normal attacks we want to ensure retreats as a means of preparation for encirclements, not destruction. If the mass of the attacked units has low org, the defender will break, your troops suffer minimal damage and the province is yours. Destruction of enemy units is best left to either air force (if strength relation of air to ground is about 4:1 repeated air attacks will eliminate the defender) or to the pocket attack after an encirclement is closed.

What´s now left to do is the far northern part of the campaign and the next installment will deal with this part in detail.