The Bloodiest War I've ever seen by far - Axis vs USSR (And I am the damn neutral responsible)

[Adolf - Finite War]

v1.9.3 I want to try out consolidating all of the Americas as democratic USA. Historical Focuses on, Ironman.

Usual Buildup but shortly after Germany goes to War with Poland I declare War on Canada since they decline me my Alaskanesian corridor (see the parallel to Germany wanting a corridor to Danzig? - of course they wanted much more in the end so escalating that border conflict was a way for further conquests, just like in my case.)

So the years go by...
Towards the end of 1944 Britain was already gaining footholds in mainlaind Europe and I didn't want to have to invade the mess a british victory over the Axis would create. Germany's War against the USSR wasn't going too great from the start as they did advance but they also suffered about the same casualties as the USSR, even slightly higher ones in the beginning so a German collapse was a concern.

that I don't bring my A-game conquering Canada, the Caribean, South America and finally in early 1945 Great Britain probably helped the Allies survive quite a bit longer.

(only Mexico and some Latin American Nations had the good sense to become my puppets)

Anyway I am able to get all of the American Possessions (the warscore was something like:
30% USA, 25% Germany, 25% Italy, 10% Japan - not too sure on that one, ~10% others.

And the years go by, how long will this war last?...:

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1950-JAN-04, five years passed and the frontline stayed about there with the Romanian forces just short of Stalingrad. The Soviet forces however refuse to capitulate.

It takes about one and a half years for the front to start moving again millions more die on both sides guess who's on the move?:

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Once the front is moving it's over relatively quickly - though surprises still do happen.:

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In the end there's peace - but what did it cost?

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The final? score - I am only 3rd but then again I only lost 600k (which is still 50% more than the US did in RL according to a quick google search) good thing that chess taught me how deal with the fact that a human simply can't compete with an AI.

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And that's how the New World Order looks like.:

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Side note: there's twins amongst the Japanese puppets and one seems evil (having war goals against his master).:

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Japan did finish the war with China around the time the Allies capitulated +/- a year and their losses weren't horrendous either between 1 and 2 mil didn't keep exact track there. Since I annexed and released the Philipines as a free state they ended in that conflict too that's how I kept the US out of that war.
(I guess they couldn't help their fascist neighbours on the other side of the USSR directly for the longest time - having other focuses and imperial stuff to do.)

I'll continue the game for a while, maybe I am in for another surprise? - I have had plenty of time to prepare so I am not too worried.

 

[Darksworthyone]

I think this shows how op Germany is, Like its impossible to have that much man power irl!

 

[Adolf - Finite War]

I think this shows how op Germany is, Like its impossible to have that much man power irl!

Still a pretty big fall from what she used to be or rather a Rise of Russia - as not too long ago Barbarossa tended to be over in a year or two. Makes me look forward to playing as Germany but I might hold off till the next update since it will focus on that front.

btw after war it's time for

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civil war, I doubt the communists can expect a quick revenge from that one though.:

 

[Soviet_Mercader]

Every country in HOI4 is able to field more manpower and divisions than historically would have been possible.

In my experience if you want Germany to completely run out of troops with them on scraping the barrel you need to do about 40 million casualties to them. Considering the May 17th 1939 census of Germany and it's already occupied territories (Austria/Sudetenland/Memel), counted 79,375,281 total population. That would mean my most recent Soviet play through would have killed 1 out every 2 German citizens regardless of age/sex/occupation/etc.

So the Soviets in this game only made it halfway there by causing almost 20 million casualties. And that's not even taking into account all of Germany's allies. It looks like the Soviets were fighting against the entirety of Europe including Spain and Britain. Germany certainly did the heavy lifting but they had plenty of help. And the end date for the war was October 25th 1951. Pretty much after you've run out of both techs and focusses and the AI is just grinding away until the end.

 

[Adolf - Finite War]

Every country in HOI4 is able to field more manpower and divisions than historically would have been possible.

In my experience if you want Germany to completely run out of troops with them on scraping the barrel you need to do about 40 million casualties to them. [...]

So the Soviets in this game only made it halfway there by causing almost 20 million casualties. And that's not even taking into account all of Germany's allies. It looks like the Soviets were fighting against the entirety of Europe including Spain and Britain. Germany certainly did the heavy lifting but they had plenty of help. And the end date for the war was October 25th 1951. Pretty much after you've run out of both techs and focusses and the AI is just grinding away until the end.

You must be really patient and have incredibly incompetent Allies - I remember my Soviet game which was a while back and with 20 mil Germans dead where I had the race to Berlin since at that point DDay was well underway. The game was historical and ended at a historicly plausible date in '45, of course the SU only took like 1 mil casualties in that case if even that many.

I let the game run for another 2 years but even though Japan has war goals against Italy nothing's happening - they probably now own something the Emperor wants in the far east. So peace? Also interesting that all the neutral nations like Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, Turkey and Tibet (even though a war goal from the now independent Manchukuo looms over it) are still around even Finnland didn't dare enter another war.

 

[Soviet_Mercader]

You must be really patient and have incredibly incompetent Allies

I didn't have any of the normal Allies. It was not on historical. America went communist and ended up split up into 3 separate nations (I have no idea how the AI managed this, but we all know the AI peace deal logic in this game is weird at the best of times). Britain went fascist so they joined Germany. France went communist, but fell to the Germans long before I was ready for a war. The Spanish civil war was won by the fascists so they joined Germany as well. I did ally China though. So all I had was just a giant org wall of tens of millions of Soviet and Chinese infantry divisions positioned in various fort lines stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. I also helped China defeat Japan so all of our combined forces could hold off the Germans and their allies in Europe. Whenever the Germans broke through one line of forts/men there was always another waiting and ready.

I did mainly do this as an experiment to see how many casualties Germany could sustain before simply running out of men. And considering the AIs habit of throwing its divisions against fortified lines of troops it only took until 1948 for them to run out of men. I did not plan on going on the offensive at all, and focussed entirely on defensive techs and defensive unit templates and just let the AI grind away.

 

[Simon_9732495]

In my experience if you want Germany to completely run out of troops with them on scraping the barrel you need to do about 40 million casualties to them.

Hm?
Scraping the barrel gives 25% recruitable population.
Why 40 mio and not 20mio (80*0,25)?
(With mobile warfare manpower bonus maybe 80*0,3 = 24mio)

 

[aantia]

Wow, I'd say democracy is doomed with the Nazis stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but with something like 20% of all Europeans dead they'll be crippled for a full generation. Very cool AAR.

 

[Soviet_Mercader]

Hm?
Scraping the barrel gives 25% recruitable population.
Why 40 mio and not 20mio (80*0,25)?
(With mobile warfare manpower bonus maybe 80*0,3 = 24mio)

The 80 million number I mentioned is from the German census of 1939 in real life. The core population of Germany listed on the hoi4 wiki for 1936 is only 65.54 million.

I do not know where Germany was able to come up with 40 million manpower for all the casualties I caused. Maybe since the war dragged on for so long they were able to build enough compliance in occupied Europe to raise the amount of non-core manpower they were getting? Even the monthly population gain struggles to explain where they got an additional 15 million men.

 

[Adolf - Finite War]

I do not know where Germany was able to come up with 40 million manpower for all the casualties I caused. Maybe since the war dragged on for so long they were able to build enough compliance in occupied Europe to raise the amount of non-core manpower they were getting? Even the monthly population gain struggles to explain where they got an additional 15 million men.

I wonder too - even in this US-game I gain only ~8k per month from population growth I can't imagine that Germany gets much more so over 9 years that would only amount to 864k men. Germany likely also had a lot of men dying to resistance till the got it under control.
Now Himmler increases the noncore-manpower gain and with him as advisor a dozen volunteer divisions can be raised but that too together only amounts to maybe 200-400k and that's a very generous estimate.

Most likely the AI cheats.

Btw half a decade has passed since the peace treaty of Vladivostok.

Guess what city is the first to be christened by nuclear fire?

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That's not all though - decolonization won't happen in this word however.:

I don't know how to narrate the next picture

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