Poland Strategies

[Kovax]

If you build at minimal training and volunteer army, then switch to specialist training and 3 year draft right before mobilizing, you can probably put a pretty decent set of ARM+2xMOT+AC (or ARM+MOT+2xAC) divisions together. Start mobilization around late July to bring all of those units up to full status and reasonable experience levels before GER declares war on you, because that's a LOT of IC/days needed to reinforce, even with the Initial Mobilization bonus. As you describe, getting foreign production licenses for the MOT and ARM could save a ton of Leadership.

Playing HUN, I've done some early expansion in several campaigns, taking over either YUG, ROM, or CZE by the end of 1936, then building up for the next 3 years. Poland has more than sufficient firepower to conquer CZE or ROM in late '36 or early '37 if you can exploit the "Prepare for War" decision to lower your Neutrality, plus build some threat in any neighboring country with a rival ideology, ideally in your target country. Attacking CZE has the dual advantage of denying GER the extra IC, Leadership, and Manpower from CZE, and giving you 2 years to do something with it yourself. That should be more than sufficient time to replace whatever Manpower you lose in the fight with the added manpower from the annexed territories. The down side would be the initial lost production in order to trigger "Prepare for War" (you need to get under 30 effective IC, through a combination of reduced production laws and some Dissent to lower productivity), and then you'll probably want to remain mobilized, rather than disband your army and lose half of the Manpower and not get the reinforcement bonus (given upon initial mobilization) when you RE-mobilize in 1939.

Mobilize, declare war, and hit them hard with half of your army while the other half drives ahead to encircle large groups BEFORE they can fully mobilize. Once cut off, mobilization will run them out of supply in a few days (-50% out of supply penalty), and they still won't be at full strength (reduced firepower), making them easy prey to eliminate from the map. Just be aware that building Threat may allow countries of rival ideologies to pass more aggressive production laws, and lower their Consumer Goods demand due to reduced Neutrality, making them harder opponents to deal with later. Note that only the HIGHEST perceived source of threat matters for that. As a small fascist country, you can really screw over the Axis by building Threat yourself and making FRA, UK, SU, and the various smaller Allied and Commintern countries significantly harder for GER to deal with. I like that in this game, actions have consequences, not always obvious.

An alliance with HUN is a possibility if there's a high enough Threat to lower their Neutrality, but that normally doesn't happen unless the player builds up a LOT of Threat, or runs them him(or her)self and enacts "Prepare for War". To complicate matters further, they won't ally with you if you've taken their cores in CZE or ROM. If you go that route, try selling them some Energy at the start, a few units at a time, to build up Relations. Multiple small deals are preferable to one large one for Relations, but a big up-front sale will net you the highest profit.

There's more than one way to game the system, and taking on GER with Poland is probably going to require abusing a few exploits.

 

[Rascal Nag]

Won't lie, you should make an AAR about this... make it sort of like that Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow where he keeps "respawning" after he dies.

I've thought about it, but I probably would opt to find a winning strategy (if I can) and then build an AAR out of that if possible. I don't think I could do that sort of AAR justice; keeping up the sort of time loop feel would be very tough, particularly since I've never done one before.

Playing HUN, I've done some early expansion in several campaigns, taking over either YUG, ROM, or CZE by the end of 1936, then building up for the next 3 years. Poland has more than sufficient firepower to conquer CZE or ROM in late '36 or early '37 if you can exploit the "Prepare for War" decision to lower your Neutrality, plus build some threat in any neighboring country with a rival ideology, ideally in your target country.

Well, I've been playing with the self imposed rule of no ahistorical wars unless I can really find justification for it (like the time I invaded Lithuania since they were harboring retreating Germans soldiers). I know I can defeat Germany by leveraging early wars, even an early war with Germany itself with no other declarations since I've done this before, way back in 2015:

This was by DoWing on them ASAP in 1936 after upgrading my cavalry to LARM and adding a few support brigades to my infantry divisions. But I wanted the extra challenge of, I guess without a better way of putting it, winning WW2 itself as Poland, rather than making my own war.

If you build at minimal training and volunteer army, then switch to specialist training and 3 year draft right before mobilizing, you can probably put a pretty decent set of ARM+2xMOT+AC (or ARM+MOT+2xAC) divisions together. Start mobilization around late July to bring all of those units up to full status and reasonable experience levels before GER declares war on you, because that's a LOT of IC/days needed to reinforce, even with the Initial Mobilization bonus. As you describe, getting foreign production licenses for the MOT and ARM could save a ton of Leadership.

This is an intriguing idea. I would probably opt for One year draft though since it gives 25% better manpower generation but the increase in IC cost doesn't scale in line with that, so it's still quite affordable. Doing the math, pre-rotation that'd net me about 510-520 manpower, which is enough for 40 INF INF ART ART/AT divisions and 10 ARM MOT MOT AC (or 10 ARM MOT AC AC) for 462 or 479 manpower, probably enough cushion to make it even with rotation. I'd probably be done with all the support divisions sometime in 1937 and though I wouldn't be able to start ARM/MOT any sooner, I could still do it in 2 runs rather than 3 for yet more time. Upgrades would be cheap, and I could probably have everything done well in advance so I could switch to three year draft for maybe even up to the final year before war, giving me more of a manpower cushion. I'd definitely have spare IC, which I could use to build forts or provincial AA if it'd be worth it, or even some INTs, if I can spare the leadership, or buy some from a suitable power. I'd like to see how my current strategy which still uses 3 year goes first, though.

 

[Kovax]

The problem with switching to 3 year draft any significant length of time before you mobilize is that you won't get the 50% cost reduction for your initial mobilization on the difference between volunteer and 3 year. That's potentially a LOT of IC days for free; that difference will be built at full price unless you set the individual brigades not to receive reinforcements until mid-1939. The down side of using the lower draft laws is the lower Manpower gain. You can either juggle the laws to have more Manpower or more IC, but not both. License-built Armor in quantity and a bit more Artillery just might be worth the reduced Manpower.

 

[Mortal Phoenix]

If I'm correct about how supplies work, if you surround the capital, but not capture it, then the enemy's units should slowly loss supply. When they run out of supply, they won't be able to launch attacks (they will be able to defend and move into ally controlled territory), and they will lose organization. If you hold the surrounding provinces long enough, then Germany should fall. I hope this helps.

Edit: I also wonder if dropping paratroopers at key points would help you create pockets that you can surround and destroy their units.

 

[Kovax]

If I'm correct about how supplies work, if you surround the capital, but not capture it, then the enemy's units should slowly loss supply. When they run out of supply, they won't be able to launch attacks (they will be able to defend and move into ally controlled territory), and they will lose organization. If you hold the surrounding provinces long enough, then Germany should fall. I hope this helps.

Edit: I also wonder if dropping paratroopers at key points would help you create pockets that you can surround and destroy their units.

Cutting off supplies would be a valid option, but there's quite a bit of supply already in the system that would need to drain, so it might take a couple of weeks until most of the army even begins to feel the shortage. Once they're completely out of supply, they cannot launch an attack, only move between controlled provinces. I recall something to the effect that bombing the infrastructure of the adjacent provinces surrounding a capital has no effect on supply, but occupying those provinces should still stop anything from getting through. If you actually take the capital, the supply hub moves to another location.

Paratroopers have been used to take undefended VP locations behind the lines, but there's no practical way to supply them if the enemy has air superiority. That supply issue would NOT hold true for a paratrooper raid on the capital, since the enemy capital should already hold enough supplies for your paratroopers to live on for decades, if not centuries. The problems with that are: 1 - you have to get past the enemy air force; and 2 - researching paratroopers and transport planes puts a serious demand on already strained Leadership for a mid-sized country like Poland. It's a perfectly valid option for GER, the UK, the US, and the SU, maybe ITA and JAP, but beyond that, you probably can't spare the Leadership without crippling the rest of your army.

 

[Mortal Phoenix]

Cutting off supplies would be a valid option, but there's quite a bit of supply already in the system that would need to drain, so it might take a couple of weeks until most of the army even begins to feel the shortage. Once they're completely out of supply, they cannot launch an attack, only move between controlled provinces. I recall something to the effect that bombing the infrastructure of the adjacent provinces surrounding a capital has no effect on supply, but occupying those provinces should still stop anything from getting through. If you actually take the capital, the supply hub moves to another location.

Paratroopers have been used to take undefended VP locations behind the lines, but there's no practical way to supply them if the enemy has air superiority. That supply issue would NOT hold true for a paratrooper raid on the capital, since the enemy capital should already hold enough supplies for your paratroopers to live on for decades, if not centuries. The problems with that are: 1 - you have to get past the enemy air force; and 2 - researching paratroopers and transport planes puts a serious demand on already strained Leadership for a mid-sized country like Poland. It's a perfectly valid option for GER, the UK, the US, and the SU, maybe ITA and JAP, but beyond that, you probably can't spare the Leadership without crippling the rest of your army.

I was able to land Paratroopers as Poland, but the German tanks just did a 180 and blasted right through. Using Paratroopers isn't an option.

I did a test and found that by surrounding a capital, it takes about 30 days for most enemy units to run out of supplies. While they are units that are supplied,their range is limited as they can't leave the province without slowly running out of supply. Given that Rascal Nag was able to reach the Capital, and last from September 1st, 1939 to March of 1940, it seems possible for him to be able to surround the Capital and hold until then.

The video I linked is from Hearts of Iron 4, but I think he could use these tactics to help him win. For example, giving up selective territory in order to retake them and surround the enemy unit that occupies it.

Another option would be to fight on a narrow front. For example, putting most of their troops into blasting their way to the Capital, and slowly give up their own land in the hopes that they can delay them long enough to win.

 

[themousemaster]

The statement about bombing provinces capital-adjacent is correct. Both a capital, AND the provinces immediately adjacent to it, always have an infra rating of "MAX". However, if you go 1 more out from there, you can log-bomb a circle around the capital.

 

[Rascal Nag]

Given that Rascal Nag was able to reach the Capital, and last from September 1st, 1939 to March of 1940, it seems possible for him to be able to surround the Capital and hold until then.

This is probably the easiest way to do it. Important to note that most of my divisions were at 50-60% strength by that point, so holding would certainly be rough, although doable. Certainly an exploit of the relative simplicity of the game's supply system, though.

I could probably get there faster if I finally tried the 40 INF INF ART AT, 10 HQ INF ART AT, 10 MOT MOT MOT AC army compared to the AA employing version from that run that had no AC. Other possibilities would be to future tech my infantry along with that to get a bit more of an edge. My ideal army would be 40 INF INF ART AT, 10 HQ INF ART AT and 10 ARM MOT AC AC (ARM from the French, or maybe even the Germans if I align to them instead), but it just doesn't seem to fit in my IC budget. Though I was being less productive than I could have been since I mistakenly though Mixed Industry was better for me - it's not; at Poland's IC levels, CPO is better. Still, that alone probably doesn't cut it for building 50 ART, 50 AT, 10 ARM, 10 MOT and 20 AC instead of the 50 ART, 40 AT, 19 AA, 30 MOT of the build where I reached Berlin.

Another idea, to go to the extreme of Kovax's suggestion of keeping my recruitment law low (1 year draft probably) and training at minimal, would be to build 25 ARM MOT AC AC and 25 INF INF ART AT. A whole army's worth of ARM would be a potent force if I can run into any Germans without AT, though to be honest they have quite a bit of AT, so that reduces its effectiveness some. But it would definitely take advantage of low softness and give me more maneuverability and potential for encirclements and overruns.

 

[Kovax]

If you go that route, you probably want to switch from 1 year draft (or volunteer army) to 3 year draft, switch from Minimal training to Specialist, and simultaneously mobilize, several months before the start of the war. That will give you some time to boost your Officer Ratio a little bit, while still benefitting from the Initial Mobilization bonus, which is a HUGE factor to consider. Even better, a pre-emptive strike right before Germany mobilizes its own troops might give you around a 1-2 week window of advantage until the German troops come up to full strength.

 

[Mortal Phoenix]

This is probably the easiest way to do it. Important to note that most of my divisions were at 50-60% strength by that point, so holding would certainly be rough, although doable. Certainly an exploit of the relative simplicity of the game's supply system, though.

I could probably get there faster if I finally tried the 40 INF INF ART AT, 10 HQ INF ART AT, 10 MOT MOT MOT AC army compared to the AA employing version from that run that had no AC. Other possibilities would be to future tech my infantry along with that to get a bit more of an edge. My ideal army would be 40 INF INF ART AT, 10 HQ INF ART AT and 10 ARM MOT AC AC (ARM from the French, or maybe even the Germans if I align to them instead), but it just doesn't seem to fit in my IC budget. Though I was being less productive than I could have been since I mistakenly though Mixed Industry was better for me - it's not; at Poland's IC levels, CPO is better. Still, that alone probably doesn't cut it for building 50 ART, 50 AT, 10 ARM, 10 MOT and 20 AC instead of the 50 ART, 40 AT, 19 AA, 30 MOT of the build where I reached Berlin.

Another idea, to go to the extreme of Kovax's suggestion of keeping my recruitment law low (1 year draft probably) and training at minimal, would be to build 25 ARM MOT AC AC and 25 INF INF ART AT. A whole army's worth of ARM would be a potent force if I can run into any Germans without AT, though to be honest they have quite a bit of AT, so that reduces its effectiveness some. But it would definitely take advantage of low softness and give me more maneuverability and potential for encirclements and overruns.

It also doesn't help that Germany's generals range from level 2-5 at this point, their territorial pride is active and at +10.00% to their combat, and they have the Blitzkrieg event active which means their movement speed is now +20.0%, organisation regain rate is +20.0%, and their Soft Attack is +20.0%.

On paper, I'm thinking that anti-tank should counter tank destroyers because anti-tank does hard attack, but itself is soft. Tank destroyers, on the other hand,do hard attack, but themselves are hard. And, yeah, the AT and Tank destroyers the Germans have on the Polish border is pretty crazy as they are at least 30 of them.

I've been trying to think of some wacky ideas to overcome this problem. Like, MAYBE, if the Polish are able to get a heavy tank to 2/12 of 1939 (at least the armor) on the tech tree, the heavy tank would be strong enough that the Germans couldn't penetration its armor, and you would have a mobile fortress to use against them. And then, use Cavalry and their nearly 6km speed to rush in and capture the province before the enemy units are able to retreat to the province. I can only see this working, because the AI tends to put most of their troops on the enemy's border.

(The images of where I let the game run from Jan 1st, 1936 to September 1st of 1939 so I can see what troops and tech levels Germany has by September 1st, 1939).

 

[Wraith11B]

I'm rather bothered that they altered the build strategy of the AI back in the day. It used to be that the AI would almost only ever use artillery, bypassing basically any other formation. Now the AI basically almost only uses AT/AC in the formations, which are further useless, given that most nations don't deploy that much armor.

 

[Kovax]

I've been trying to think of some wacky ideas to overcome this problem. Like, MAYBE, if the Polish are able to get a heavy tank to 2/12 of 1939 (at least the armor) on the tech tree, the heavy tank would be strong enough that the Germans couldn't penetration its armor, and you would have a mobile fortress to use against them.

The problem with that is it would require MOST of your Leadership: 3 levels of 4 techs to unlock Medium Armor, then another 2 levels to unlock Heavy, plus the tech to enable each type. That's something like 22 techs just to reach HARM, and then you'll want at least one additional level of armor for it. There won't be much left over for anything else. I'd content myself with a handful of license-built ARM if I can get it, and limit research to one or two doctrines for it, just to bring their ORG up a bit.

 

[Mortal Phoenix]

The problem with that is it would require MOST of your Leadership: 3 levels of 4 techs to unlock Medium Armor, then another 2 levels to unlock Heavy, plus the tech to enable each type. That's something like 22 techs just to reach HARM, and then you'll want at least one additional level of armor for it. There won't be much left over for anything else. I'd content myself with a handful of license-built ARM if I can get it, and limit research to one or two doctrines for it, just to bring their ORG up a bit.

I did it myself, and found it isn't possible. Yeah, I can research to Heavy tank, but I don't have the time to even build the heavy tank.

 

[Phili]

This is probably a stupid question but what about using CAV instead of MOT in some divisions to give cheaper divisions of LARM+2CAV+AC or a SPAT+CAV+AC mix?

 

[Kovax]

This is probably a stupid question but what about using CAV instead of MOT in some divisions to give cheaper divisions of LARM+2CAV+AC or a SPAT+CAV+AC mix?

Cheaper, but with less hitting power and considerably slower.

First, CAV with a few upgrades tend to move at around 5 mph or a fraction higher, while MOT go 8 or 9. The CAV will slow down the entire division, while MOT will probably be the fastest brigade in the division.

The second issue is that MOT uses Infantry techs, while CAV requires its own techs to remain current, and starts at slightly lower base numbers in several aspects. If you've already got MOT, there's no point in CAV unless you're patrolling remote backwater areas with low Infrastructure, where the higher supply needs of MOT become an issue.

 

[Mortal Phoenix]

(Germany, Slovakia, and Hungary were taken out. I could've won sooner, but I just wanted to see when France would get involved and how long it would take for them to take out Germany. I helped take out Hungary, and France took out Slovakia before I could).

 

[Rascal Nag]

(Germany, Slovakia, and Hungary were taken out. I could've won sooner, but I just wanted to see when France would get involved and how long it would take for them to take out Germany. I helped take out Hungary, and France took out Slovakia before I could).

Amazing! What kind of composition and strategy did you use? Also, if you play until 42, it would be interesting to see if the Soviets do their auto declaration of war still. Would be a fun round 2 to try!

 

[Mortal Phoenix]

Amazing! What kind of composition and strategy did you use? Also, if you play until 42, it would be interesting to see if the Soviets do their auto declaration of war still. Would be a fun round 2 to try!

When I played as France and took out the Axis powers before 1942, the Soviets did declare war on Poland. However, as long as Germany has not been conquered, then the Soviets will not declare war on Poland (Not sure if it changes if the other Axis members are still alive) I'm still officially at war, because the other Axis members (Italy and Japan) are alive. When I played as France, I built strategic bombers and nukes, and dropped them on Moscow, and then they surrendered. I assume that as Poland, I could do the same. It would be pretty boring I assume. XD (I'm worn out from both my France campaign and trying to beat this Polish challenge that I'm going to pass for the time being).

So, I tried nearly a dozen attempts trying to figure out a way to win. The way I tried to win is very simple, but it worked.

On Jan 1st I change the political leaders (1.) I have the minister in charge that increase my political leadership, and (2.) I have the minster that increases attack reinforcement. I delete all MTN, CAV, ships, airforce, and I delete all commands except for one Theater and attach all my 111 inf brigade to it. I also have all my units move back to Warsaw. Next, I have the Field Marshal have the highest level with old guard and logistics wizard. I pick Old Guard as he isn't going to gain as much experience anyway, and I need as many experienced generals with traits as possible to overcome Germany's better generals. Next, I put all my leadership points into espionage and change the priority to increase the national unity of Poland. The reason I do that is that I've had bad luck in which my national unity dropped below 70%, and I couldn't change my law to something better. I put all my IC into production except the bare minimum into consumer goods so dissent doesn't increase. Pretty much, none of my units get supplies, upgrades, or reinforcements. I also click on the HQ theater and change it so it will not be reinforced from here on, even when the rest of my units will be reinforced when I mobilize. Finally, I put 15 infantry brigades and a handful of ATs into my production queue (I want just enough IC into produce units as I can, but not too many as it involves a research trick. I do infantry and ATs first, as their cost to upgrade is far less than ART). My main goal is to produce an army size of 62 divisions that are inf+inf+art+at. Anyone who has played as Poland should be calling foul on this, as Poland doesn't produce enough manpower, even at three-year-draft, to fill out 62 divisions of inf+inf+art+at, but I will explain that later when I talk about research. As I mentioned before, there is a research trick. Pretty much, it takes 84 days for inf, art, and at to upgrade. Normally, I would do 62 art, 62 at, and 15 inf in that order. The reason is that art takes so much IC to produce unlike art and inf. However, it also costs a lot to upgrade art compared to inf and at.

0.10 (inf with one tech). .40 with 4 tech. .66 tech increase for art. .39 for at.
40.92 IC for Art (62), 12.4 IC for Inf (124), 24.18 IC (62)

Pretty much, researching a single tech of art and upgrading it all the way to current tech takes a lot of IC and time (IC cost does go down when you upgrade to the next time, but it doesn't appear to change the speed at which you upgrade). My trick involved putting inf, at, and art into my production queue, and when I researched something, any unit that is currently not being produced would be removed from the queue, and then put back in. By doing that trick, all the new units I put into the queue would be at the current tech level without me having to spend IC to upgrade them. I would have to spend IC to upgrade them for future tech and wait 84 days for them to acquire this new tech, but it would help decrease IC usage and time.


After that, I then speed up the game until I reach Jan 2nd, 1936. On this day, I go to the trading section of the game, and sell fuel to the nation's with the highest income who lack fuel. Jan 2nd of 1936 is the only day, as far as I'm aware, in which you can do it. Usually it is the USA and UK who have the most money and need fuel or USA and the Soviet Union. Either way, I sell 23 fuel to the USA and 7 fuel to either UK or the USSR. The reason I sell 30 total fuel is that Poland will produce a max of 30 fuel per day. With so much income coming in, by Jan 3rd, 1936, I can change my industry law to the lowest law, which decreases my industry. By decreasing my industry I'm able to trigger the "prepare for war" event and start decreasing my neutrality. After that, I keep a close eye on how many spies are being produced, my income, and my neutrality. When I have 10 spies in espionage, I then put all my leadership into research. I research education, agriculture, 4 infantry techs, the radio tech tree (I have to research 3 radio techs, and once I do, my units get radios. With radios, it improves my combat by 10.0%), both AT and ART techs, the doctrines which increase org and morales for INF, ART, and AT, and I research the land doctrine that decreases the times between my attacks. I don't have enough leadership to research them all, so I focus on education, agriculture, the 4 infantry techs, radio, both AT and ART techs, and one of the land doctrines I've mentioned. Once my tech upgrades past 1936, I then focus on my other techs that I have listed. Normally researching education and agriculture isn't a good idea for a nation like Poland as the return isn't that great compared to a major nation like Germany. However, I'm going to need all the juice I can get out of Poland, so I figure getting a little extra in leadership and manpower might just be enough (by the time it is 1939, my leadership is 10.44 and my manpower is 5.3 per month) If my neutrality is low enough, I switch to the best law (so I'm in diplomacy and the moment it drops below 70 neutrality, I switch to the best law I can). If my neutrality isn't low enough at this time, I change my training law to minimum and change from state press to free press. The reason I changed the training law to minimum, even though I'm going for three-year-draft, has to do with the fact that units without supply, will decrease in size. Normally, using three-year-draft, minimum training, and then switching to mobilizing and specialist training isn't a good idea. However, by the time I mobilize most of my troops in 1939, they will be in similar size to troops produced with volunteer law. So most of my units will be around 13.33% experienced when I switch over to specialist training and I mobilizing them in 1939.

So, pretty much, I have my game plan in place from Jan 1st, 1936 to the middle of 1938 or whenever I have finished producing all my units. I don't trade with other nations unless they send me a request to trade, as that helps free up my leadership instead of being tied down to diplomacy. Whenever I have leadership left over, and all my techs are for the next or the following year, I put my leadership into officers so I can increase my officer ratio. My goal is 140% officer ratio, which I will achieve on August 31, 1939. Normally I don't overlevel. However, based on tests I've done, there are two techs that I can overlevel, and that's ART and AT. The reason I can overlevel them, at least when it comes to them going from 1940 to 1942 tech, is that I produce so much ART and AT and they both count as the same practicals, that I can research the tech well below 1939 is over. However, I don't overlevel them until I know it will not delay increasing my officer ratio to 140%. The German AI never reaches 140%, so reaching that gives me a leg up against Germany. Around 1938 I start overleving them, once I have spare leadership left over to overlevel them. In 1938, I also research one level for combat medicine and first aid. The percent is small, but given I'm dealing with margins, I'm going to need all I can get. In my run, I was able to get them around June of 1939 and start putting some of my IC into upgrading my units. By the summer or fall of 1938, I should have built all my units at this point, so I put the IC I have left into upgrading my units. In November of 1938, the current party of OZN should lose to the Social Conservative Party. I have to change my ministers again afterwards. I change the minister to decrease consumer goods IC by -2.5% during both peacetime and war, I have the minister that increases leadership, and I put in place the minister that increases the attack reinforcement. In Jan 1st, 1939, is when I switch my training law over to specialist, move my troops to my border with Germany and Czech (soon to be Slovakia and puppet to Germany), put IC into supplies, and start reinforcing my units...but I don't mobilize just yet! The reason I do this is that if I have no troops along my border and my troops aren't supplied by March of 1939, then Germany will declare war on me or the Allies. It screws up the game. I reinforcement my units so it cuts down on time and IC to mobilizing my units. The Allies do other to join the Allies in March of 1939. I do decide to join, but I didn't join on one test and I still joined the Allies when Germany declared war on me. In all future tests, I decide to join the Allies on March of 1939, to ensure it doesn't screw with the game in some way. My consumer goods does go up when I join the Allies, but because I have -2.5% on consumer goods during peacetime, it isn't that bad. I have about 6.67 IC in consumer goods during this time. I also put all the Generals that have logistical wizard into my army to decrease the amount of supplies I need to produce.

After I've overleveled on ART, AT, have one level of tech on both combat medicine and first aid, along with radios, inf tech at 1940, and all my land doctrines at 1940, I put the remain leadership I have into officer ratio. I should be gaining about 52.2 officers per day with my setup. I need 34,860 officers (including 100 officers for the HQ) to reach 140%. In July of 1939, I mobilizing my units. I put all my IC into mobilizing them, except consumer goods and supplies...unless I have excess supplies that I can afford to lose supplies for a least a month. I do it in July of 1939 as there have been times in which the IC needed to mobilizing my army at max strength is larger than the IC I have, so doing it in advance ensures my units will be fully strengthen by September 1st, 1939. I won't have enough manpower at this time for my units to be at full strength, by September 1st, 1939, I will have an extra 6 manpower in my pocket. IC use will drop off quickly, and I then put the rest into upgrading my units and some into supplies (again, if I can afford it). It would take until sometime in October of 1939 or even until November of 1939 for my divisions to fully upgrade.

Around August of 1939, I change my generals. Now, before I get into changing generals, I will state how I used to do things.

I used to put two divisions per province in the center and southern border of Germany and Slovakia. Pretty much, I would concede land to the Germans and Slovakians, for protection beyond a river (except the land near Slovakia as Germany doesn't deploy enough troops to breakthrough nor attempts an attack near that section of the front). The Germans didn't attack when I had this formation setup, and when they did, I was able to retreat in good order and launch a counterattack to regain the lost province (So, there would be Province A, and Province A borders both Province B and C, which are beyond it and away from the Germans. When the Germans occupy Province A, I'm able to attack from both Province B and C, and regard it). I also used to put one division on Danzig, and keep putting one division as I went around East Prussia, and then switch to 3 divisions once my units weren't behind the river. Finally, I would put 5 divisions in three provinces that are in the top north and west of my border with Germany (pretty much, the province that is to the left of Danzig that border the sea, and the two other provinces directly below it).

Normally, I would have my troops along Eastern Prussia to push through as quickly as they could across the plains and forest (I would avoid attacking across forts and rivers unless the unit was attempt to break out of an encirclement or to pin them in place from escaping). In the meantime, I would use those 5 stacks of units I mentioned before, and I would push westward as quickly as I could (I would attack with 4 divisions to avoid the overstacking penalty, and then a division on either of the provinces would then send one division as support, so I can defeat the German divisions on the province. There has been times in which the Germans send their battlecruisers to provide shore bombardments, so be warned!) By the time my troops reached the river Oder (the river that is near Berlin), I have defeated the divisions in East Prussia and I rushed my divisions to the west as soon as possible to reinforce the attack. However, by the time I rushed by units from East Prussia to Oder River, the momentum has been lost. The Germans were able to reinforce their position behind the Oder River, and I couldn't break through. I needed more troops, because the fighting from East to West had weaken my divisions strength and org, that they were too weak to break through. I could make good time and reach the river Oder by September 23rd of 1939, and crush the remain German divisions in the East Prussia during that time, but it didn't make a difference. I tried sending over some divisions that weren't needed to finish off East Prussia a little sooner, but that only produced marginal benefits, but not the goal of surrounding and holding Berlin itself. I even tried splitting the divisions and sending some to the Westward push after East Prussia fell, and sending troops down south to attack a salient that formed when I conceded land to the Germans. The latter produced better results, as I did encircle more German units, but I was on a strict time limit. In March of 1940, Germany would produce heavy tank, and by April 1st in 1940, its org would be at 100%. Germany producing a heavy tank was game over for me.

So I decided to change things up this time. I decided to, at the last minute, go with a different plan. I decided to do what I suggested should've been done to surround Berlin. I wanted to crush the German divisions in East Prussia, as it would free up units against Germany, and I wasn't confident my units could fight them 1:1, as I saw success against the Germans when I was attacking them at least 4:1 or even 4:2. However, after nearly a dozen attempts, I couldn't think of any other options at this point. I figured that if this didn't work, then it was simply beyond my ability.


So this is what I did to win. I would still concede land to the Germans, and I would still have units on each province bordering East Prussia. However, I created a thin defence. The South and Center would have only one division, that division would have a general with the defensive trait, they wouldn't be reinforced if they lost troops over the course of the war, and they were to fight into they were forced to retreat. In the North, I would also have a thin defensive thin surrounding East Prussia. Again, I would only have one division per province, each division would get a general with the defensive trait, and they wouldn't get reinforced if they lost troops. The reason I did this is that I needed all the manpower I needed for my push westward. With all my freed up units, I put them in the three provinces and put divisions in a fourth province directly below that one. These divisions would have the best generals without the old guard trait. First, I would give them generals that had high level and offensive as their trait, then I would look into Battlemaster, Engineer, and finally Fortbuster. Finally, I would give them generals who had the highest level and a trait (so defensive or logistics wizard, usually). These divisions would be prioritized for upgrades. Finally, I requested the Allies to send troops to Danzig. My army was prepared for war.

When Germany triggered the "Danzig or War" event, I clicked to accept war. I then attacked West. I would have 4 divisions attack a German division, and then have 4 divisions support that attack. I rushed westward as fast as I could. As I advanced, I put down two divisions along the southern river (I think it connects to the Oder River) to prevent the Germans from stopping my advance. I would also do my best to avoid over stacking and synchronizing the marching of my units so they would all appear at the same location at the same time, to prevent the Germans from recapturing the province. With so many units, and the speed of my attack, I was able to cross the river Oder with plenty of divisions that were strengthened and had nearly full org. I quickly tried going to surround Berlin, but I had to attack on a long right hook so I could punch through. The provinces directly to the bottom and left of Berlin were captured left, as Germans had divisions there to prevent the encirclement of their capital. I remember the Germans attacking to breakout of the encirclement, with the percent being pretty high, but as my org was high still, I was able to bring divisions up to attack into Berlin and more divisions were sent to reinforce the divisions currently under attack. After their breakout failed, I quickly pushed outward to establish two rings of defensives around Berlin, to prevent the Germans from simply connecting only one province, and reconnecting the supply line to the rest of the German army. My memory of all the steps are a blur, but I have a save file on October 17th of 1939 for when I surrounded Berlin with two rings of defensives. I did push a bit westward still, as there were some German divisions there that were attacking me, and I had to attack into Berlin whenever Germany deployed a divisions, but be careful not to actually take Berlin.

In the East, when Polish land was, German divisions in East Prussia weren't attacking the thin defense, but the German divisions that were in the South and Center were. I didn't pay attention too closely to the East, as I was micromaning the attack in the West, but the Germans did push deep into Polish land. I did keep two divisions on Danzig as I was unsure if that would hold, but as the Germans got closer to Warsaw, I quickly moved them down to protect it. As I wasn't playing too closely to the fighting, A decent portion of my Polish army was cut off and surrounded. I was able to retreat back two Polish divisions to Warsaw, to strengthen its defense. As I had been increasing my national unity since day 1, I would have to lose all my victory points before I would surrender to the Germans. The provinces that connected my supplies to my troops in Germany were so thin, that the Germans only needed to capture one province, and I would be out of supplies too! It would create this funny picture of both Polish and German armies being out of supplies, and forever being in stalemate, unable to finish the other one off. However, I attacked with the divisions I did have over there, and I prevented the Germans from cutting off the only province connecting Warsaw to the rest of my army. I did tag over to Germany a few times to see the condition of their supplies. In late October, supply issues were minor; On November 17th, supply issues were worst, but some units still had supply from local areas (this was true for German units that were bordering the French); by December almost all German troops lacked supplies and were losing org; by Jan of 1940, their org was nothing and French troops were now advancing into Germany. I sat back as Poland and watched as the French marched into Germany with little resistance. As Poland, I captured the port near Denmark that had a victory point, and then, once all other victory points had been captured, I captured Berlin. With that, Germany was finished. At some point Hungary was in the war, as Germany was defeated, their troops were cut off and quickly destroyed. French and Polish troops punched on Slokvia, and their surrendered, and by July 30th, 1940, Hungary surrendered too. Thus, bringing this challenge to a close.

 

[Kovax]

Nice work. The satisfaction of pulling something like this off is far better than some cakewalk campaign where you steamroll weaker opponents, and is good enough for "bragging rights".

 

[Rascal Nag]

I would have never thought to leave East Prussia unconquered, seems like the logical choice but there you go flipping that whole idea on its head! On the one hand it surprises me, but on the other hand, it does not surprise me that the solution surprised me, if that makes sense ! Now I kind of wonder if the build can be even further optimized - would it be possible to hold the line firmly and dissuade German incursions while East Prussia is captured, and then reposition troops into the configuration you employed with those big stacks? With the aid of the freed up troops from East Prussia into the configuration you set out for to repeat your push for Berlin, maybe it would allow an even greater numerical advantage if it can be done fast enough. The fastest I've ever managed to get East Prussia conquered was September 15th when I used 10 French armored divisions to break through;, but using only infantry I've managed to do it by the beginning of October. Probably could be faster as I don't think I was microing things in any special way.

Maybe I'll try it, seeing that it's possible for real now rather than suspecting it makes me want to give it another go after honestly burning out for a bit lol. Also, maybe it would be possible to spare some spies to support OZN? I think they technically allow you to retain more IC, but I guess it hangs on whether that holds true still or not when you join the Allies. Maybe the Consumer Goods minister PLS provides wins out in that scenario.