Seeking opinions on this NF order for Germany...

[Dalwin]

Even though I am primarily concerned with MP, efficiency is efficiency and this applies equally to SP. I am looking at a more or less historical early game instead of any radical departure.

1.)Looking at the infrastructure in Germany I decided that most of he areas I would like to improve fall into the 4 states that get maxed out by the Autobahn NF. I like to run this one first and build 2 infra in East Prussia at the same time. After that I am done building infra until I need to improve supply in Russia (if that ever happens).

2.)Naval rearmament. 3 NIC is a lot for Germany and I don't build many of these so the sooner the better.

3.)Rhineland (that should allow me to have 2 ministers appointed already, probably Guderian and Funk in that order with the industry researcher to be 3rd)

4&5)Army innovation and Soviet tank treaty.

6,7&8)Westwall and the 2 industrialization NFs. I could easily run Anschluss before the second industrialization but I will let Austria develop the land for one more cycle. They might do something useful with it and might build another unit or two. This will more or less get me maxed on CIC until the annexations begin.

9)Anschluss

10? Here is a branch point where I am undecided. One option is to rush to finishing the Czechs. I understand if I give them more time they may develop the land further, but the sooner the factories are mine the sooner they will start building what I want and gaining efficiency. (Note this is the same logic used in wanting Anschluss before the tech slot. More efficient factories going into 1939 is a good thing.)

The second option is to rush to the extra tech slot.

Somewhere between 9 and above I can also work in the other 2 free NIC but I am thinking they wait until after the research slot and Czechs.

Thoughts?

 

[Fulmen]

For 10-30 player MP games:

1) Rush to Industrial 2

2) Tank Treaty

3) Tech slot

4) Rhineland around early 1938 unless there's a rule forcing you to do it in 1936. If there's such a rule, do it 1st focus and then proceed as normal and Anschluss some time in 1938 depending on WT.

Never do the naval stuff. Useless even if you go U-Boat spam compared to e.g. Aircraft Production for 70 days.

 

[Dalwin]

For 10-30 player MP games:

1) Rush to Industrial 2

2) Tank Treaty

3) Tech slot

4) Rhineland around early 1938 unless there's a rule forcing you to do it in 1936. If there's such a rule, do it 1st focus and then proceed as normal and Anschluss some time in 1938 depending on WT.

Never do the naval stuff. Useless even if you go U-Boat spam compared to e.g. Aircraft Production for 70 days.

I guess you also find the free forts from Westwall to be useless since your suggested order sacrifices those.

In our last few games we have seen a big difference between the Axis having no viable navy after mid 1940 and them having retained a reasonable threat of potential invasion. I don't build a lot of NIC manually but 3 of them for a 70 day investment early on is still a good deal in my opinion. If you only consider the naval one later and have built a lot of aircraft factories by then (as you probably will have done) then I can also see your logic.

 

[Fulmen]

I guess you also find the free forts from Westwall to be useless since your suggested order sacrifices those.

Yes.

Delaying Rhineland for as long as feasible (usually early-'38) is done because it keeps half the British colonies' focuses locked as well as Shadow Factories for England. Also no Early Mob for a long time (even longer if JAP is not forced to attack CHI).

EDIT: This is obviously not as important if there's no Commonwealth minors.

In our last few games we have seen a big difference between the Axis having no viable navy after mid 1940 and them having retained a reasonable threat of potential invasion. I don't build a lot of NIC manually but 3 of them for a 70 day investment early on is still a good deal in my opinion. If you only consider the naval one later and have built a lot of aircraft factories by then (as you probably will have done) then I can also see your logic.

A competent Allied team can never lose the naval war. A navy heavy Axis (esp. with SWE) will force ENG to actually research some naval techs but ultimately they're resources wasted that could've been used on tanks and CAS.

Which is 3x more important if Germany lacks a fighter farm aka player Hungary, which I assume to be the case in your games.

You can still have ITA focus on FTR while GER does its usual CAS-only build, but you'll end up with far fewer FTR than in a full game.

 

[Dalwin]

I think some of our different viewpoints are caused by the different formats in which we play. You said you play with 10-20 players. I am guessing that means single session games and rarely going below speed 3. There is nothing wrong with any of that of course, but it does change the game somewhat.

We play with 6 players so only the majors minus France are covered. We take anywhere from 5-10 weekly sessions to finish a game and we will slow to speed one when the fighting is heavy. This slower style takes more patience than some players have, but our group likes it a lot.