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Patriotism Will Get Us Victory! - A True Czechoslovakian AAR

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I

Ikarases

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author: Ikarases
start date: 16th August 2013
nation: Czechoslovakia, 1936
version: TFH 4.02/HPP 3.2.8 + LoC
difficulty: normal
aim: survive
style: my own​

Hell yeah, it's another Ikar's AAR, which will bring the counter of my active AARs to 5. This doesn't mean that my other AARs are six feet under, but I still need a break from my two "major" AARs (Germany and Belgelands), one "minority minor" AAR (I just hope for a change of events with '42 Albania now) and our glorious MP AAR, which hasn't really started so far (just like the former AAR mentioned), because we need to play further than June '37.

List of Changes



Modifying 50 Czechoslovakian provinces (actually most of the modding was done the last year around Christmas, when I tried to hold out as fascistic Czechoslovakia), modeling exclusively Czechoslovakian fort situation, removing the simplistic one
Lowering neutrality from 90 to 80 (you can hardly have neutrality of 90, when your borderlands are full of Germans and Hungarians and you're surrounded by not-so-democratic countries on all sides
Raising national unity from 70 to 75 (I could hardly raise it higher, since about 25% of the population back then were not-so-happy or leaning Germans and Hungarians)
Removing the IST '30 tank doctrine technology
Adding Slovakian (German puppet state) leaders to the Czechoslovakian leaders file, only if they aren't already there (beats generic leaders or "no leader" problem)
Setting UK's chance to support Czechoslovakia in Munich (historically, Beneš just got a paper, which said: Sudetenland or war without any Allied support) protest against Hitler and support Czechs to 100%, setting off the WWII early
Fixing OOB, politician and leader naming (which hopefully get implemented into HPP, though the game can't properly display the commas we use)​

Here you can see how my fort modification looks like:

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There are three sectors (four provinces), which can be dented by the Germans even more easily than with vanilla fort system (level 5 fort spam all around the Austro-German border). My plan is to strenghten those weakpoints by either upgrading forts there or additionally reinforcing them with more units (or both).

Note that seven provinces are meant to be overran by the German advance (four in the west and three in the south), since that was how the plan of defense designed; shortening the front as much as possible with preserving the bigger cities inland.

There were also worries about Poland retaking Cieszyn/Těšín area and Hungary claiming southern Slovakia, hence that’s why there were light fortifications built also.

That would be all for my pre-game intervention, so let’s get started with the real game!
 
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Chapter I: Introduction​

Since I’m democratic, it can’t do any harm if I align to the Allies.

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This is how the politics look like. The island of democracy in Europe is hit pretty hard by radical parties, which would be happy to see it cease to exist.

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Czechoslovakia starts out with 37 IC, yet about 14 IC is needed to keep the population somewhat happy. My plans are following:

Build level 5 forts in the four aforementioned provinces. This will keep my production IC busy for more than a year though.

Military production:

- Upgrade 8 cavalry and 1 light armored brigade to armored ones
- Upgrade 13 infantry brigades to motorized ones
- Upgrade 4 horse-towed support brigades to truck-towed support ones
- With 5 motorized and 5 truck-towed support brigades already in place...
- ... we can put together 9 armored divisions! (9x ARM / MOT / MOT / SUP (T))
- Additionally, 5 infantry brigades are being produced to fill the gaps from missing brigades in INF / INF / INF / SUP (H) divisions

If that goes well (and most importantly in time!), I will do my best on upgrading, reinforcing and further strenghtening the Czechoslovakian military.

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Now we can head onto the research, so we know what we’ll be actually producing... like this little beauty! :)

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LT vz. 38 shall be the most extended tank in Czechoslovakian army​

Basically my leadership is large enough to cover all the infantry, (medium) tank and artillery things, together with vital industrial research. Air and sea technologies will be totally neglected, since wars are won on the land for the most part (double that for land-locked nations).

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That should be all for now, fortune will grant us victory!
 
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Okay, again the Czech... Can you send me your modified files? Then I can use them in my mod :)
 
SSmith said:
I have downloaded your file from the HPP forum, but it's outside m remit really.
Click to expand...

No problem, until Paradox decides to support half the letters we use, it's almost better to use the old ones...

SSmith said:
Interesting that you're going for quite a few techs from the theory tab. What's your feeling about how to use the theories?
Click to expand...

I mostly try to get between 5 and 6, since that's where you stop taking negative bonuses. Though now I've checked that I have 6 in ART theory and I'm granted +10%...

I did some research now and found out that it goes 10% for every point from 0.0 to 6.0 (-50% to +10%), yet having 7.0 already gives you just a half of it (+15%). Interesting, I think I'll try to get my theories between 6 and 7 though :)

Now to your question; I research those that are of some real use in combat (INF, ART and ARM) and industry (MER and EER for radios, tabulation machines and, most importantly, for agriculture). On the other hand, researching MOT theory seems like a waste to me, since there are very few techs that require it.

Now I've a question for you: What's the theory points cap in HPP?
 
Another AAR? I'm getting a mental picture of one of those party tricks, where you balance plates on sticks and have to keep them all spinning or else they'll fall off. How's that working for you? ;)

Good luck, will be interesting to see how the Czechs will fare (although, to be honest, if German aggression triggers WWII with the British and the French, then I imagine that you should be able to hold out behind all those forts without too much difficulty - at least until the French/British start spastically invading the Rhineland and/or making amphibious landings in northern Germany).
 
FinnishFury said:
Couldn't you find HISTORICAL picture of that LT-35 aka Panzer 35 (t). Or is it 38?
I nearly thought that the picture was from some excersise during the 30's.
Click to expand...

All of them were already repainted in German colors or rather blurry. But I'm glad I fooled you just by throwing the picture into black&white mode :D

Stuyvesant said:
Another AAR? I'm getting a mental picture of one of those party tricks, where you balance plates on sticks and have to keep them all spinning or else they'll fall off. How's that working for you? ;)
Click to expand...

Fairly well, thanks ^^

Stuyvesant said:
Good luck, will be interesting to see how the Czechs will fare (although, to be honest, if German aggression triggers WWII with the British and the French, then I imagine that you should be able to hold out behind all those forts without too much difficulty - at least until the French/British start spastically invading the Rhineland and/or making amphibious landings in northern Germany).
Click to expand...

It's no Maginot line and improving it just a little will take me over an IC/year...

I want to try this again since so many things have changed: getting into Allies, not going into fully armored army, piercing mechanics, better gaming skills etc.

I guess I'll just hope for the best as I always do :D
 
SSmith said:
I can see a factor for practicals in the defines.lua...

MAX_TECH_ABILITY = 10, -- how much practical you can have at most. Was 50

It could also apply to theory but I'm not sure about that.
Click to expand...

OK, I believe it goes both for practicals and theories.

Anyway, I guess I'll get the game started tomorrow. I have to be aware while playing HoI, and that's not a word to describe me at 10:40 p.m.
 
Chapter II: The Road to War​

I’ve decided to explain here the HPP doctrine system, because with TFH in place, it differentiated from vanilla system even further. While vanilla tells you „mix all colors together for the biggest success“, HPP tells you to make a choice. Right on 2nd January 1936. And that’s why I decided to remove the 1930 IST (GPB) doctrine.

Grand Battle Plan doctrine system basically improves the specialization on terrain types for infantry (including its specialized branches like MTN, PAR and MAR), favors bolstering IST in the early years and LARM in the later years and gives some bonuses for SUP (T) and SUP (H) brigades, all that with slight bonus for every researched doctrine in all types of units. One would say you cannot go wrong with this doctrine at all times...

Yet I’ve decided otherwise and chose the Combined Arms doctrine system. Look at this picture:

ch7.gif

It gives a fair amount of extra CA bonus for both armored and artillery types of units, giving a big boost to armored divisions (like my ARM / MOT / MOT / SUP (T)), but doesn’t completely neglect the regular infantry setup (I’m going with INF / INF / INF / SUP (H)). Later on I’ll have 10 armored and 15 infantry divisions (I really don’t want to risk being out of fuel).

Spearhead and Human Wave doctrines are the far extremes; HW relies on tons of infantry available with minimal number of support brigades and Spearhead gives the biggest CA bonuses, but requires HARM to work, otherwise standard CA works better in my opinion.

If you really want to know how it works in practice, there is no better way than to download the HPP mod and see what it brings to the table.

With the doctrine thing explained, now I can go to the real game.

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The politics in late July look rather grim; the ruling party got hammered to dust and the rest of the democratic parties have to save the day.

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On 3rd November, Advanced Training is enacted, giving me the sign I can now use my leadership efficiently for recruiting officers.

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After a year of work, it finally seems that plugging the weak points in Czech fortifications have come to an end. Soon I’ll actually start strengthening the military…

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The research is well underway and I’m already giving some leadership to officers; I don’t want to research ahead of time too much.

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In early May ’37, first medium armored brigades have rolled out of factories.

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Later in May, a new MT chassis has been researched, which will allow to upgrade these tanks further.

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Early June promises a batch of infantry and tanks to be completed later that month.

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In early July, I can start to put 5th brigade into my divisions. Too bad I have to worry about actually manning my borders as they are…

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In September, most of the planned works for production are done and now I can start to upgrade its products.

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In late October, I begin to pump leadership into officers in tons. Almost everything needed is up-to-date in the technology branch.

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On 22nd December I start to upgrade one of my infantry divisions to armored one, to get 10 armored and 15 infantry divisions (fills the OOB with perfection). At roughly the same time, I notice that the NS party is the strongest one in Czechoslovakia…

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On 10th January, Germany executes Anschluss.

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I don’t waste any time and I start producing 5 SUP (H) brigades to fill in the 5th spot in some divisions.

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This is how my OOB looks like on 2nd February.

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On the 1st July, Germany demands Sudetenland. There is no surprise that we ask the UK for intervention…

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UK decides to support the only democracy in Central Europe and says NO to Germany. Germany has decided to set off the Second World War earlier it seems…



That’s it, peacetime is done for. Third chapter is coming right up!
 
Wait, only 1 division in each province? This is going to be hard without cheating. Good luck! :p
 
Latvian said:
Wait, only 1 division in each province? This is going to be hard without cheating. Good luck! :p
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He's defending in fairly rough terrain and Germany usually isn't ready by 1938. I think it will be easier than the Poland one, but still hard nonetheless. :p
 
JustThatGuy said:
He's defending in fairly rough terrain and Germany usually isn't ready by 1938. I think it will be easier than the Poland one, but still hard nonetheless. :p
Click to expand...

I don't have to worry about Soviets knocking on my door, but having only 25 divisions isn't very satisfactionary neither...
 
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