Tea and crumpets supremacy - HPP coop AAR

[SKOTy]

Hello and welcome to my third AAR!

This one will be a bit different from the others you may see in the AARland as this will be COOPERATIVE one. A friend of mine, smetson, has recently bought Hearts of Iron 3 and we spend some time playing together so we've decided to write an cooperative AAR. We will be playing as Allies majors (I will tell you a dirty secret - I've never played Allies so far). I will be playing France with tag switch to USA once France is defeated and smetson will be playing as United Kingdom.
Once Axis is dealt with, we will engage in conflict with Soviet Union and 3rd world war.

I will do a little modding in order to give Axis and Commies chance - I will mainly increase IC and IC efficiency for AI and members of non-allies faction as smetson is still learning HOI3 and has never played HPP before so hard difficulty may be hard

I will update this thread with our current house rules and modifications once modding is complete and we are open to your suggestions.

Style of the AAR will be exactly the same how you know it, gameplay with a lot of screenshots.

 

[SKOTy]

Road to war

Chapter 1: France, first half of 1936
Chapter 2: UK, first half of 1936
Chapter 3: France, road to war
Chapter 4: UK, race for carriers


2nd World war

Chapter 5: France, war!
Chapter 6: UK, Going on the Offensive
Chapter 7: France, Saar offensive
Chapter 8: France, Operation Le Baguette
Chapter 9: UK, Naval Maneuvers
Chapter 10: France, race against the time

 

[SKOTy]

House rules:

I will play as France and when France gets defeated I will tag switch to USA
USA will join the fray at the moment their neutrality reaches point where they can declare war on Germany or after Pearl Harbor
smetson will play as UK all the time
other rules are based on common sense, no gamey stuff etc.


Modifications:

all AI controlled countries (with exception of USA) receive following:

global_ic = 0.15
global_resources = 0.15
supply_consumption = -0.15
supply_throughput = 0.15
naval_base_efficiency = 0.15
global_manpower_modifier = 0.15

countries that are members of Comintern will receive following bonuses:

global_ic = 0.15
global_resources = 0.35
global_manpower_modifier = 0.15
industrial_efficiency = 0.15

members of Axis have following bonuses:

global_ic = 0.25
global_resources = 0.5
global_manpower_modifier = 0.25
industrial_efficiency = 0.25

Extra resources will hopefully allow Axis members to be resource independent


Also France will receive 5%. 10% and 20% penalty to land organization and organization it has at least 5%, 10% and 20% surrender progress.

TBD: Give France some initial penalty to combat to ensure it gets defeated, decay of NU for France when it has some land occupied.

 

[Ikarases]

I'm pretty sceptical that you'd fail as France even in SP, but we'll see how it goes

 

[SKOTy]

I'm pretty sceptical that you'd fail as France even in SP, but we'll see how it goes

I've already tried the mods and I've ... failed so don't worry

 

[SSmith]

I've already tried the mods and I've ... failed so don't worry

I was thinking the same as Ikar but here's hoping you've made it hard enough!

 

[smetson]

Pretty excited to do this. Hopefully I won't mess up with the navy, that was hardest so far

 

[SKOTy]

I have a question for you modding folks, i would like to add a triggered modifier which will decrease French combat efficiency based on surrender progress, but I don't know if it's possible to decrease combat efficiency somehow or whether it is hardcoded in difficulty setting. Other option would be to decrease land organization of French to make sure I will fail (in my test game I've failed even without these things I'd like to add).

 

[Belgiumruler]

subbed

 

[SSmith]

You could go with some variation of these effects that I copied from one of the Soviet purge modifiers...

org_regain = -0.5
land_organisation = -0.35

I made a quick scan of the file but I didn't spot anything that would directly affect combat efficiency.

 

[sebas379]

Interesting AAR, if you manage to aoid a deadlock early on this could get interesting I think.

You could go with some variation of these effects that I copied from one of the Soviet purge modifiers...

org_regain = -0.5
land_organisation = -0.35

I made a quick scan of the file but I didn't spot anything that would directly affect combat efficiency.

And then maybe tie them to a sort of For the Motherland type event that triggers at X surrender progress. that ought to do it, right?
There is no way to lower attack or defence values of troops? Like the way techs upgrade stats, but then the other way round using a modifier?

 

[SKOTy]

You could go with some variation of these effects that I copied from one of the Soviet purge modifiers...

org_regain = -0.5
land_organisation = -0.35

I made a quick scan of the file but I didn't spot anything that would directly affect combat efficiency.

I was thinking about something similar as I did full scan for things like combat_efficiency and nothing was found. So I guess I will give French org_regain and land_organization penalty based on surrender progress like sebas379 suggested.

 

[SSmith]

I was thinking about something similar as I did full scan for things like combat_efficiency and nothing was found. So I guess I will give French org_regain and land_organization penalty based on surrender progress like sebas379 suggested.

Sounds good to me and should get the job done.

 

[SKOTy]

So far my proposals for the modifiers are:

mp_boost_ai = {
  potential = {
    ai = yes
    not = {faction = allies}
    not = {tag = USA}
  }
  trigger = {
  }
  
  global_ic = 0.15
  global_resources = 0.15
  supply_consumption = -0.15
  supply_throughput = 0.15
  naval_base_efficiency = 0.15
  global_manpower_modifier = 0.15
}

mp_boost_axis = {
  potential = {
    faction = axis
  }

  trigger = {
  }
  
  global_ic = 0.25
  global_resources = 0.5
  global_manpower_modifier = 0.25
  industrial_efficiency = 0.25
}

mp_boost_commies = {
  potential = {
    faction = comintern
  }

  trigger = {
  }
  
  global_ic = 0.15
  global_resources = 0.35
  global_manpower_modifier = 0.15
  industrial_efficiency = 0.15
}

And I will nerf France with modifier that will give 5, 10 and 20% land_organization and org_regain penalty at 5%, 10% and 20% surrender score. Any thoughts on this?

 

[SSmith]

And I will nerf France with modifier that will give 5, 10 and 20% land_organization and org_regain penalty at 5%, 10% and 20% surrender score. Any thoughts on this?

The global modifiers look good. Is your intention to reduce the French penalty as the surrender progress increases because that would make more sense to me than the way you've written it. Also don't you think those surrender scores are a bit low?

 

[SKOTy]

The global modifiers look good. Is your intention to reduce the French penalty as the surrender progress increases because that would make more sense to me than the way you've written it. Also don't you think those surrender scores are a bit low?

I wanted to simulate that in the beginning of the war troopers were fresh but after taking some loses they've lost their will to fight. The starting % of the modifier may be of course be subjects of change and I will probably put some modifier for France which will reduce the org_regain and land_organization even without any VP captured to make it easier for the AI to make initial breakthrough as it is possible to sit behind the rivers in north France and just defend.

Also I was thinking about decay of NU while at war and if some VPs are captured.

 

[SSmith]

OK, I see where you're going with that. There are triggered modifiers that contain e.g. "national_unity = -1.00" as an effect (see "disheartened_king", "paris_surrounded" and "losing_morale"). As it's a modifier I assume it represents a constant draining of NU although I don't exactly how it's calculated.

 

[Ikarases]

OK, I see where you're going with that. There are triggered modifiers that contain e.g. "national_unity = -1.00" as an effect (see "disheartened_king", "paris_surrounded" and "losing_morale"). As it's a modifier I assume it represents a constant draining of NU although I don't exactly how it's calculated.

I think it's also influenced by ministers, events and other modifiers which multiply it by the given percentage, e.g. fractured government

 

[SKOTy]

After some troubles with mod (game crashing on creating quad) we've managed to hold a session yesterday which lasted till July 1936 so no interesting stuff, but expect an first update coming soon.

I've also updated house rules and modifications section.

 

[SKOTy]

1. France, first half of 1936

In the beginning of the game I've decided to change some ministries, two biggest changes in cabinet were appointing prince of terror as a security minister as man of the people is not available. This will help me in dealing with some minor radical parties. Another change was promoting Leon Victor Bourgaois to chief of the army for the reduced supply consumption.

Spy prioroties: Boosting NU with a bit of counterespionage. If France has to endure some time France has to be united.

Most leadership is now used on establishing espionage base in the homeland and on some crucial industrial research. After spybase is completed research of infantry and tanks will begin to bring it to the latest tech levels.
As for doctrines I've decided to follow the historical path so I've chosen firepower concept as infantry doctrine, infantry support role as a tank doctrine and grand battle plan as operational doctrine.

All units are being redeployed to the homeland for upgrades and reorganization. E.g. all cavalry will be upgraded to armor brigades. You can see a mountaineer corps departing to border with Italy which will be guarded by this corps.

Second London naval conference. We've decided to follow the historical path and signed the treaty.

In early April 1936 Spanish civil war has begun. The outcome of this war is not predictable.

Production queue: You can see that most of IC is dedicated to upgrades of units and construction of additional support brigades. A bit of IC is also spent on one battlecruiser and few light cruisers which were in progress when the game started (however I've canceled construction of light cruisers which were in the queue but had no progress at all).

Italy annexes Ethiopia, worrying move from them.

Outcome of 1936 election. Good thing is that democratic parties were able to create a cabinet without any help of either right or left wing.

France has sent a brigade of volunteers to Spain. It is our duty to fight for freedom of democracy!

Garrisons of Maginot line is already in the place. Maginot line will be manned with 2 corps of 3x INF and 1x SUP(H) as the line is literately impenetrable.

Plans for defense in the north if Germans will ever try to execute Schlieffen plan once again. A fall back line mostly behind rivers will be created to hold the ground and to launch counterattacks.
Provinces marked by yellow color offer only one axis of the attack on them so they will be the ones easiest defended. The ones which will be most dangerous to defend are marked by red or are not behind river. Heavy armor divisions will be surely placed there and I am thinking also about building some forts there as it suits French historical approach.
Defenses of this line will consist of cheaper 3xINF, 1xSUP(H) divisions, more expensive 2xINF,1xSUP(H),1xIST with more firepower and amored divisions (1xARM,2xMOT,1xSUP(T)).