Great tutorial. Thank you for taking the time to better explain the game. I'm saving the entire tutorial to a Word doc for reference.
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that should be invaluable for future players. I do have it all as Word docs, but without pics or format, so it's no use to anyone but me. Thanks for that.
and welcome.
I have a question to ask of my readers.
The new chapter has been written, spanning the first half of 1936. In it, I have given clear and precise instructions on what to do when techs finish, but only in a general manner.
If you prefer it, I could go over each tech in detail, but that would entail pretty much writing the same basic sentence over and over again.
which has your preference? Should I guide you every step of the way of should I give you some "homework"?
Let me know.
I'll post it on tuesday evening, so post your answer.
The new chapter has been written, spanning the first half of 1936. In it, I have given clear and precise instructions on what to do when techs finish, but only in a general manner.
If you prefer it, I could go over each tech in detail, but that would entail pretty much writing the same basic sentence over and over again.
which has your preference? Should I guide you every step of the way of should I give you some "homework"?
Let me know.
I'll post it on tuesday evening, so post your answer.
I think if you go over the general ideas behind the techs, it would be enough.
What do you mean by general manner, if you gave them out to be clear and precise?
What do you mean by general manner, if you gave them out to be clear and precise?
Basically, what I say it the Chapter is: if a tech shows a future date after having been researched, end the research unless I tell you otherwise.
If a tech finished to show the current year or earlier, continue it.
only prioritize those techs I tell you.
If a tech finished to show the current year or earlier, continue it.
only prioritize those techs I tell you.
Some recommendations on the research path to take would probably be useful, but the explanation of the actual mechanics should hopefully only be needed once. I think it is probably worth warning people that the multi-level techs will automatically be placed back at the bottom of the queue - which can be bad if you don't notice!
A general idea would be fine, after all...we don't want you to have to quit your job
to finish the tutorial...lol
to finish the tutorial...lol
So, some quick questions.
When does it make sense to scrap ships? After they are 2 levels behind the current ones or 3 levels? Or never?
What ships should be built in the future? CVs? BBs? Subs? Light Cruisers? Destroyers? What is preferable BB or Heavy Cruisers?
What ships should be used as screens for BBs and what ships should be used for CVs?
How many screens for a BB or a CV?
Also, once I research CV training doctrines, will they ever be available to use by ships that were built before those doctrines were developed?
When does it make sense to scrap ships? After they are 2 levels behind the current ones or 3 levels? Or never?
What ships should be built in the future? CVs? BBs? Subs? Light Cruisers? Destroyers? What is preferable BB or Heavy Cruisers?
What ships should be used as screens for BBs and what ships should be used for CVs?
How many screens for a BB or a CV?
Also, once I research CV training doctrines, will they ever be available to use by ships that were built before those doctrines were developed?
I think this is written a bit... misleading. Just write something like "For every fighter wing after the first, fighters receive a stacking 10 % penalty. Bombers get a 10 % penalty for each wing, even the first."
I personally never scrap ships. Outdated ones can always be used for escorting transports or to control sea lanes that are not threatened by a major naval power.
Ships to be built in the future depends on your plans. If you dont want to invade the US, Battleboats and destroyers will do fine for Germany. Otherwise go for CV.
ALWAYS use destroyers as screens for BB. It makes a HUGE difference to CL. In naval combat, especially when you have BB, positioning is the ONE thing that makes the difference between a loss and victory. Positioning (and closing up to an enemy fleet when combat has started) is affected by average speed. If your average speed is higher than the enemies, you have a positioning advantage, which means that you very often will be in firing range with your BB. Even if the enemies have CV. When you use CL, your average speed will ALWAYS be lower than the one of a CV + CL enemy fleet. But with DD + BB, your average speed is much higher than the one of a CV + CL fleet. The one advantage a CV has above the BB is the range, but when you can close the range with your BB due to better average speed of your fleet, the enemy CV is toast. BBs are all about damage, and the way naval battle works in this game, they are only viable when combined with destroyers once the enemy has CV. The reason for DD over CL is not just speed, but numbers. If a fleet has more than 10 hull points, it gets a malus on positioning. BBs have 4 hull, CLs have 1 hull, DD have 0.5 hull. So when you have a fleet consisting of 2 BB + escorts, you could use 2 CL without getting the malus, or 4 DD. As DD are faster than CL, you have a higher accumulated speed due to better speed AND higher number, which in return gives your whole fleet a better average speed. So to say, 4 DD make up the bad speed of 2 BB way better than 2 CL could, and serve better in terms of Anti-Air and general escort duty just because of higher number.
Alright, never get Heavy Cruisers as Germany. They are fast, they are strong for the cost, but they can't take enough damage to survive a prolonged battle and they simply lack the range of a BB. When your Heavy Cruisers would be forced to fight enemy BBs, they are toast. BBs outgun them due to superior range. It is possible that Heavy Cruisers get sunk before getting into firing range, and even if they get in range, the enemy BB can pack way more of a punch than the Cruisers could. Heavy Cruisers are somewhat good in the Baltic, but they will never stand a chance against the Royal Navy, or the navy of any major naval power, so only use them vs minor powers, if at all.
Number of screens... easy. 2 BB + 4 DD for your BB fleets, 2 CV + anything between 2 - 4 CL for CTF.
The game handles doctrines as upgrades that are immediately available for every affected unit. By "immediately" I mean, at 00:00 the day after finishing the tech. So when you research a new doctrine, all units affected get the bonus 24 hours later.
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I'm looking at the hulls for BBs and it says 1.8, is this an error? You mentioned 4 hull points, so I'm wondering. Or could this be a change in FTM? And destroyers are showing up as 1.1. Just an FYI.
In SF, BBs had 4 hull and DDs had 0.5. A fleet's stacking limit was 15.
In FtM, the numbers have changed. BB now have 1.5 to 1.8 depending on the tech level of the BB's armour, DDs have a base hull of 1 (again modified by its armour tech). most of Conch' explanation is correct. While I agree that heavy cruisers, in-game, are a failed design, when combined with Battlecruisers and light cruisers, the ships' firing ranges are closer together, meaning when you get within range of an enemy fleet, you might find all your ships firing, while the enemy's destroyers might just be out of range of their guns. (for what it's worth, in real life, heavy cruisers were used as screens mostly by the UK and the US).
there's never any real reason to scrap old ships. obsolete ships can be used to escort transport fleets or for coastal patrol duty.
the most powerful capital ship is the CV. period. just be careful to give their CAGs time to reorg after a battle. most experienced players try to build twice the number of cags they need. this way they can rotate the ones that are out of org with fresh ones. it should be noted, however, that Cvs, for Germany, require quite a big effort in terms of research time.
Thank you for the answer, just an FYI, you might wish to include this, "Airfields only get upgraded if you select them from the province selection que" and building airfields in the normal que, means that only new lvl. 1 fields can be built. I found this out the "old fashioned" way. 
Did they really change the hull in FTM so drastically? In my current Germany game, I play without navy (just some u-boats) so I can't check this myself atm. But that would mean you could create some large Battle Fleet (10 - 12 ships, including 3-4 BB) without having the hull penalty. Maybe I'll try that tonight, but I can't really believe it.
1.8 for a BB 1.1 for a DD. So 1BB+2DD=4 hull. And really, that an interesting statement:
Why can't you believe it? Do you think I'm being dishonest, just to cause you pain and suffering?
[Teasing you a bit in a friendly, like way.]Nah, they really did change it, but thank you for the info you did give, since it still gives me a heads up on what the HULL limits are in a fleet and how to do things correctly and to pay attention to such things.
Thanks for the heads up on this, where are the CAGs kept to regenerate their org?
you can rebase CAGs to normal airbases now and use them as "light naval bombers". their real strength is still very much CAG duty (protecting the CV they serve on and attacking enemy ships)
Thank you for the answer, just an FYI, you might wish to include this, "Airfields only get upgraded if you select them from the province selection que" and building airfields in the normal que, means that only new lvl. 1 fields can be built. I found this out the "old fashioned" way.
oops. sorry about that. I knew I forgot something there. not the first time, probably not the last.
Chapter 12: January, 7th to may, 31st, 1936.
We’re back trying to take the world by storm. There’s a lot to do and never enough time, so let’s get started, shall we?
Remember how we started the tutorial selling supplies to the US and buying resources from the Soviets? Well, now we’re going to do the exact opposite.
Pauze the game at midnight on the 8th of january and go to the diplomacy screen. This time we’re selling about 30 supplies to the Soviets (they can’t afford much more) and buying 10 metal and 15 rares from the USA. The extra 5 rares are there just to get us to “very likely”.
While we’re pauzed, send the entire 1. Armee to Darmstadt as shown in the picture. Our plan with this army is to get it to at least 18 infantry divisions by the end of the year so that they can take up position along the French border. A single fort manned by 6 combat brigades is usually enough to make the AI think twice before doing something stupid. We’ll be using that exact same trick to prevent the UK from launching suicidal amphibious invasions later on, using the militia we’re creating as we speak.
Let the game run for a day. Pauze again the 9th. This time we’re going to go on a little shopping spree.
Buy 15 rares from the UK. Yes, I know the will be our enemies in 3 years time. But they’re not yet and they’re the third largest producer of rare materials in the world. If you want to buy big, you go to the big guys.
If Italy has not offered to sell some of its rares on its own yet, now is a perfect time to buy 20 rares from them. (In your game, it could be a little less, you should leave them at least 10 for their own uses).
Let the game run until the 15th. Pauze and head back to the diplomacy screen. This is the killer deal:
Buy 50 metal and 10 rares from the Soviet Union.
Buy 50 metal and 15 rares from the United States.
If everything goes according to plan, we’ll be set for the rest of the game practically. If not, keep trying until they bite. Just make sure you have 3 diplomacy points left on the 17th.
On the 17th, select Italy in the diplomacy screen and begin influencing them. I know, they don’t really need a lot of pushing. They’ll come on their own accord. But I don’t like leaving things to chance.
By the 20th, most of our reinforcements should be done. Transfer the wasted IC to production and start building 1 interceptor.
Open the “brigade attachments” folder under the division folder. Here we can build single brigades that we can later add to whatever division still has place for it. Find the artillery brigade and start building 2 artillery. You’ll notice we’re a little over our production IC. Just grab some from the supplies slider; one of the reasons I always try to keep it high enough.Unpauze the game.
Near the end of the month, more reinforcements should be done. We’re going to use those for some public works.
If you’ll take a look at the infrastructure mapmode, you’ll notice a bunch of provinces in east Germany that have a darker shade of green than the rest. They only have 80% infrastructure. We’re going to try taking all of them to 100% before the war starts. They take a long time to build, so it’s best to start early. Find the province of Wolgast. Click twice on its infrastructure. Go to the production screen and you’ll find we’ve added a serial build of 2 infrastructure to our queu.
The spanish Civil War is not bound to happen at a given date in HOI3. I’ve seen it start on the 3rd of January, 1936 and last a stunning full 3 days (!!), I’ve seen it begin late 1937 and last until I’m allready preparing for Barbarossa. The provinces each side occupies also varies, so there’s absolutely no certainty who will win. In my case, the war began on the 7th of february. When it does, go to the diplomacy screen. You’ll find a new decision has become available: intervention in the Spanish Civil War. The only effects are improved relations with Nationalist Spain and worsening relations with Republican Spain, so there’s no reason not to take it. Go to the diplomacy screen and click the Spanish Civil War-Intervention checkbox.
One day later, we have 10 spies in Austria. Set them to “support our party”. BE SURE NOT TO MISTAKE IT FOR “SUPPORT RULING PARTY” ONE LINE HIGHER UP!! One of the requirements for the Anschluss (the peaceful annexation of Austria) is that the Austrian NSDAP must have a high enough org or popularity. If we play our cards right, we can hasten it to occur in 1937, almost a year before the real Germans did. This means about 15 to 18 extra IC, extra MP, extra LS.
The price, however, is to increase our threat almost a year early as well, but it is one well north paying.
Note that the Anschluss can be achieved by doing nothing. In early 1938, Austria will get a "political turmoil" that paves the way for the decision as well
One sidenote: the data collected by spies, invariably, is a little “off”. Most of the time, the numbers are too low. So if you’re not noticing anything in, say, 2 months, feel free to load from a saved game as Austria and take a look at their political screen. Mousing over their NSDAP should provide you with a tooltip saying spies are supporting it (that would be us). Don’t save when you do this, because the AI will have changed your OOB in our abscence! (admittedly, this is gamey, if not outright cheating)
Stay in the intelligence screen for a moment and change the priority for France to level 2. We’re only going to level 2 because it’s more important to us right now that Austria stays fully infiltrated. Leave them at “no mission” to protect them from La Securitée.
Let the game run at high speed for about a month. When France has 10 German spies, change their assignment to counterespionage.Then give the UK priority 2 as well. See how we’re doing this? By focusing on one nation at a time, we ensure that we can get to work there sooner. Otherwise, we would have had to wait half a year before we could get any work done.
On the 11th, the destroyer that was in the production queue from the start is finished. Attach it to the Kriegsmarine and start building 2 more artillery brigades.
One week later, the sub is finished. Attach it to the II. Unterseebootflotte.
Create one more artillery brigade and spend the rest to increase infrastructure to 10 in the following provinces: Gollnow, Greifffenberg and kolberg.
Adjust the sliders as needed, keeping in mind to have CG at +0.05 above need.
On the 7th of April, change the mission for the spies in France to “disrupt National Unity”. We’ll continue doing this for the next 4 years, thereby making certain that they will never get their National Unity (much) above 50.
Set the spies in the UK to counterespionage once we have 10 of them and put the Soviet Union at priority 2.
Around the 17th, our first militia is finished. Deploy it in the port of Emden, rename it Marine-Schützen-Division. Create a corps for it, that we will call “I. Sicherungskorps”. Then give that corps an army, renaming that one “1. Reserve Armee” and attaching it to heeresgruppe B. The plan is to have 8 such divisions before the show starts, 2 in each of 4 ports liable to risk UK invasions: Emden, Wilhelmshaven, Hamburg and Kiel. We then have to create about 40 more to cover all the ports in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. (just to let you know I’m not kidding about having a lot of work) before invading them in spring of 1940.
Anyway, make sure you give it a level-1 Old guard as commander, as well as its corps and army (Level-1 Logistics wizards would be my choice for the latter two).
Start a new milita division before unpauzing.
Near the end of april our research is starting to finish. As it does, here is what I want you to do:
When any tech is researched, go to the research screen.
If it is a green tech (the ones that can be researched multiple times), it is important to know that these are not closed when finished. In stead, they are added to the bottom of the queu to be researched again later on.
If the tech’s date has only become the current year (i.e. 1936), just let it run at the bottom of the queu.
However, when the new date is ahead of time (e.g. it’s now a 1938 tech in 1936), shut it down manually. You can either double-click the tech itself to close it, or you can go to the bottom of the queu to click the red “x” to close it.
Incidentally, a new projected end date (projected because theoretical knowledge degrades as well as practical ones) can be seen there as well, so in your own games, you could decide to let it run, prioritize it, or shut it down, based on the strategy you have in mind.
I will let you know which techs to prioritize and why when we get to them. Some techs require other stuff to be researched first. The game will let you know when a new tech has become available, like so:
This example is from a little further down the road as clearly shown from the date at the top. It tells us that we can start researching medium tank brigades. Be sure not to press enter before reading the description!
And of course, I’ll be there the whole way to giude you as well.
On the 22nd, our first infantry division is finished. Pauze the game and attach it to 1. Armee, specifically to one of the Armeekorps with only 3 divisions. The idea is to have 4 corps of 4 divs each and 1 corps of 2 divs for a total of 18 divs. Remember to give it a commander with Defensive Doctrine and/or Fortress buster traits.
Start training a new infantry division before unpauzing, adjusting the sliders as needed.
On the 28th, all 4 basic infantry techs are done. We can now research two more techs:
Infantry: mountain warfare equipment and arctic warfare equipment.
Notice they are golden techs (only need to research it once)? So you might wander, “why bother? They only give us 1% reduction.”
True, but that is 1% less attrition for EVERY German division ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, that finds itself in those circumstances. Believe me, that is a lot of MP saved, considering where we’re going in ’41.
On the 30th, a “random” event happens to me. Most of them are nasty, some plain annoying and only 1 or 2 helpful.
Here is what I do.
When you have a choice, always go for the option that has the direct dissent hit. For instance, some give you a choice between increasing your CG needs by 10% for 3 weeks and taking a direct +3 dissent. Always go for the +3 dissent hit. All you have to do is transfer all IC from production to CG. It will be done in a matter of days. Much better not to produce anything for 4 days than to miss out on 10 to 25 IC for 3 weeks (unless, of course, time is of the essence).
Another nasty one is the Parliamentary Scandal. There are 2 varieties. One gives a CG hit and an LS penalty. A Leadership penalty can be circumvented by transferring all your LS from currently unimportant sliders to the other, more important sliders. For us, that would be research, diplomacy and spies. The tooltip will tell you when it ends. The event’s effects will also be shown in a tooltip over your flag for the duration.
The other version kills one of your ministers more or less at random. With this last one, you have a choice: either select another minister with the same traits, go with what you have left or reload. I have had games where I lost Hitler (!) to this event. Pretty neat, when you want to go ahistorical. But since we are following history, reload if this event causes you to loose someone you can’t easily replace. (Von Blomberg, for instance, is unique in his supply bonus until 1937 or ’38)
If it’s the start of a new month (and your autosave is set to monthly) and you really can’t be bothered with it, just reload the game. It may be gamey, but we can’t see what you’re doing at home. Fun overrides rules in this case.
In this case, I am given no say in the matter. I loose 10% LS for 3 weeks. Bummer.
On the 9th of may, go to the intelligence screen.
Set your spies in the UK to “increase threat”, the ones in France, if you haven’t done so yet, to disrupt National Unity, and the ones in the Soviet Union to counterespionage.
Remember to stop researching stuff that’s ahead of time.
On the 11th, the UK ended the trade deal (buying energy) with me. If they do, check your monetary gain to see if the reduced income will hurt you. If it does, try to trade with someone. (the Soviets are always looking for supplies) About +5$ would be sufficient for the most urgent needs.
Our first artillery brigade has finished on the same day. There are three major ways of deploying them:
The first is deploying it somewhere on the map, far away from any battlefronts, move the division that’s meant to have it to that same province and merge the two. This is the safest method if the division is in combat when the brigade is finished. It is also what the Germans did in real life, which is why there were more SS-divisions in Arnhem than there should have been during operation Market Garden.
The second is by clicking on the brigade in the deployment queu, and in the follow-up window click on the target division. Fastest method if your army is small.
The third is new to FtM. Sf players will not be able to do this, unfortunately. Click the alert icon at the top of the screen. Then click the theater and open the OOB browser by clicking the left-hand side of the unit card. You can now drag the brigade where you want it to go. Incidentally, you can even do this if the division in question has no land connection to your capital (such as the ones in East Prussia). This is my preferred method if there are a lot finishing on the same day.
Attach the brigade to any infantry division and start a new artillery brigade in the production screen.
On the 16th, we have a new interceptor. Attach it to the I. Fliegerkorps and build a new one.
Also on the 16th, the last of our Light tank techs finishes. Go to the research screen and begin research of:
Armour: Medium Tank Brigade.
Find it at the bottom of the research queu and click the double arrow pointing upwards, prioritizing it as it is of major importance to Germany.
On the 31st, another interceptor finished building. Deploy it to Wilhelmshaven and rename it “II. Fliegerkorps”. Begin building another interceptor.
Our accumulated practicals from various sources has given us enough of a discount by now that we can afford to begin building a new artillery brigade. Do so now.
Then go to the intelligence screen. Increase threat in the Soviet Union to begin making Romania nervous. find Romania itself and chance its priority to level 2 as well.
I’m going to finish the chapter here. There’s plenty to keep you busy for the next couple of days. See you next time!
We’re back trying to take the world by storm. There’s a lot to do and never enough time, so let’s get started, shall we?
Remember how we started the tutorial selling supplies to the US and buying resources from the Soviets? Well, now we’re going to do the exact opposite.
Pauze the game at midnight on the 8th of january and go to the diplomacy screen. This time we’re selling about 30 supplies to the Soviets (they can’t afford much more) and buying 10 metal and 15 rares from the USA. The extra 5 rares are there just to get us to “very likely”.
While we’re pauzed, send the entire 1. Armee to Darmstadt as shown in the picture. Our plan with this army is to get it to at least 18 infantry divisions by the end of the year so that they can take up position along the French border. A single fort manned by 6 combat brigades is usually enough to make the AI think twice before doing something stupid. We’ll be using that exact same trick to prevent the UK from launching suicidal amphibious invasions later on, using the militia we’re creating as we speak.
Let the game run for a day. Pauze again the 9th. This time we’re going to go on a little shopping spree.
Buy 15 rares from the UK. Yes, I know the will be our enemies in 3 years time. But they’re not yet and they’re the third largest producer of rare materials in the world. If you want to buy big, you go to the big guys.
If Italy has not offered to sell some of its rares on its own yet, now is a perfect time to buy 20 rares from them. (In your game, it could be a little less, you should leave them at least 10 for their own uses).
Let the game run until the 15th. Pauze and head back to the diplomacy screen. This is the killer deal:
Buy 50 metal and 10 rares from the Soviet Union.
Buy 50 metal and 15 rares from the United States.
If everything goes according to plan, we’ll be set for the rest of the game practically. If not, keep trying until they bite. Just make sure you have 3 diplomacy points left on the 17th.
On the 17th, select Italy in the diplomacy screen and begin influencing them. I know, they don’t really need a lot of pushing. They’ll come on their own accord. But I don’t like leaving things to chance.
By the 20th, most of our reinforcements should be done. Transfer the wasted IC to production and start building 1 interceptor.
Open the “brigade attachments” folder under the division folder. Here we can build single brigades that we can later add to whatever division still has place for it. Find the artillery brigade and start building 2 artillery. You’ll notice we’re a little over our production IC. Just grab some from the supplies slider; one of the reasons I always try to keep it high enough.Unpauze the game.
Near the end of the month, more reinforcements should be done. We’re going to use those for some public works.
If you’ll take a look at the infrastructure mapmode, you’ll notice a bunch of provinces in east Germany that have a darker shade of green than the rest. They only have 80% infrastructure. We’re going to try taking all of them to 100% before the war starts. They take a long time to build, so it’s best to start early. Find the province of Wolgast. Click twice on its infrastructure. Go to the production screen and you’ll find we’ve added a serial build of 2 infrastructure to our queu.
The spanish Civil War is not bound to happen at a given date in HOI3. I’ve seen it start on the 3rd of January, 1936 and last a stunning full 3 days (!!), I’ve seen it begin late 1937 and last until I’m allready preparing for Barbarossa. The provinces each side occupies also varies, so there’s absolutely no certainty who will win. In my case, the war began on the 7th of february. When it does, go to the diplomacy screen. You’ll find a new decision has become available: intervention in the Spanish Civil War. The only effects are improved relations with Nationalist Spain and worsening relations with Republican Spain, so there’s no reason not to take it. Go to the diplomacy screen and click the Spanish Civil War-Intervention checkbox.
One day later, we have 10 spies in Austria. Set them to “support our party”. BE SURE NOT TO MISTAKE IT FOR “SUPPORT RULING PARTY” ONE LINE HIGHER UP!! One of the requirements for the Anschluss (the peaceful annexation of Austria) is that the Austrian NSDAP must have a high enough org or popularity. If we play our cards right, we can hasten it to occur in 1937, almost a year before the real Germans did. This means about 15 to 18 extra IC, extra MP, extra LS.
The price, however, is to increase our threat almost a year early as well, but it is one well north paying.
Note that the Anschluss can be achieved by doing nothing. In early 1938, Austria will get a "political turmoil" that paves the way for the decision as well
One sidenote: the data collected by spies, invariably, is a little “off”. Most of the time, the numbers are too low. So if you’re not noticing anything in, say, 2 months, feel free to load from a saved game as Austria and take a look at their political screen. Mousing over their NSDAP should provide you with a tooltip saying spies are supporting it (that would be us). Don’t save when you do this, because the AI will have changed your OOB in our abscence! (admittedly, this is gamey, if not outright cheating)
Stay in the intelligence screen for a moment and change the priority for France to level 2. We’re only going to level 2 because it’s more important to us right now that Austria stays fully infiltrated. Leave them at “no mission” to protect them from La Securitée.
Let the game run at high speed for about a month. When France has 10 German spies, change their assignment to counterespionage.Then give the UK priority 2 as well. See how we’re doing this? By focusing on one nation at a time, we ensure that we can get to work there sooner. Otherwise, we would have had to wait half a year before we could get any work done.
On the 11th, the destroyer that was in the production queue from the start is finished. Attach it to the Kriegsmarine and start building 2 more artillery brigades.
One week later, the sub is finished. Attach it to the II. Unterseebootflotte.
Create one more artillery brigade and spend the rest to increase infrastructure to 10 in the following provinces: Gollnow, Greifffenberg and kolberg.
Adjust the sliders as needed, keeping in mind to have CG at +0.05 above need.
On the 7th of April, change the mission for the spies in France to “disrupt National Unity”. We’ll continue doing this for the next 4 years, thereby making certain that they will never get their National Unity (much) above 50.
Set the spies in the UK to counterespionage once we have 10 of them and put the Soviet Union at priority 2.
Around the 17th, our first militia is finished. Deploy it in the port of Emden, rename it Marine-Schützen-Division. Create a corps for it, that we will call “I. Sicherungskorps”. Then give that corps an army, renaming that one “1. Reserve Armee” and attaching it to heeresgruppe B. The plan is to have 8 such divisions before the show starts, 2 in each of 4 ports liable to risk UK invasions: Emden, Wilhelmshaven, Hamburg and Kiel. We then have to create about 40 more to cover all the ports in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. (just to let you know I’m not kidding about having a lot of work
) before invading them in spring of 1940.Anyway, make sure you give it a level-1 Old guard as commander, as well as its corps and army (Level-1 Logistics wizards would be my choice for the latter two).
Start a new milita division before unpauzing.
Near the end of april our research is starting to finish. As it does, here is what I want you to do:
When any tech is researched, go to the research screen.
If it is a green tech (the ones that can be researched multiple times), it is important to know that these are not closed when finished. In stead, they are added to the bottom of the queu to be researched again later on.
If the tech’s date has only become the current year (i.e. 1936), just let it run at the bottom of the queu.
However, when the new date is ahead of time (e.g. it’s now a 1938 tech in 1936), shut it down manually. You can either double-click the tech itself to close it, or you can go to the bottom of the queu to click the red “x” to close it.
Incidentally, a new projected end date (projected because theoretical knowledge degrades as well as practical ones) can be seen there as well, so in your own games, you could decide to let it run, prioritize it, or shut it down, based on the strategy you have in mind.
I will let you know which techs to prioritize and why when we get to them. Some techs require other stuff to be researched first. The game will let you know when a new tech has become available, like so:
This example is from a little further down the road as clearly shown from the date at the top. It tells us that we can start researching medium tank brigades. Be sure not to press enter before reading the description!
And of course, I’ll be there the whole way to giude you as well.
On the 22nd, our first infantry division is finished. Pauze the game and attach it to 1. Armee, specifically to one of the Armeekorps with only 3 divisions. The idea is to have 4 corps of 4 divs each and 1 corps of 2 divs for a total of 18 divs. Remember to give it a commander with Defensive Doctrine and/or Fortress buster traits.
Start training a new infantry division before unpauzing, adjusting the sliders as needed.
On the 28th, all 4 basic infantry techs are done. We can now research two more techs:
Infantry: mountain warfare equipment and arctic warfare equipment.
Notice they are golden techs (only need to research it once)? So you might wander, “why bother? They only give us 1% reduction.”
True, but that is 1% less attrition for EVERY German division ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, that finds itself in those circumstances. Believe me, that is a lot of MP saved, considering where we’re going in ’41.
On the 30th, a “random” event happens to me. Most of them are nasty, some plain annoying and only 1 or 2 helpful.
Here is what I do.
When you have a choice, always go for the option that has the direct dissent hit. For instance, some give you a choice between increasing your CG needs by 10% for 3 weeks and taking a direct +3 dissent. Always go for the +3 dissent hit. All you have to do is transfer all IC from production to CG. It will be done in a matter of days. Much better not to produce anything for 4 days than to miss out on 10 to 25 IC for 3 weeks (unless, of course, time is of the essence).
Another nasty one is the Parliamentary Scandal. There are 2 varieties. One gives a CG hit and an LS penalty. A Leadership penalty can be circumvented by transferring all your LS from currently unimportant sliders to the other, more important sliders. For us, that would be research, diplomacy and spies. The tooltip will tell you when it ends. The event’s effects will also be shown in a tooltip over your flag for the duration.
The other version kills one of your ministers more or less at random. With this last one, you have a choice: either select another minister with the same traits, go with what you have left or reload. I have had games where I lost Hitler (!) to this event. Pretty neat, when you want to go ahistorical. But since we are following history, reload if this event causes you to loose someone you can’t easily replace. (Von Blomberg, for instance, is unique in his supply bonus until 1937 or ’38)
If it’s the start of a new month (and your autosave is set to monthly) and you really can’t be bothered with it, just reload the game. It may be gamey, but we can’t see what you’re doing at home. Fun overrides rules in this case.
In this case, I am given no say in the matter. I loose 10% LS for 3 weeks. Bummer.
On the 9th of may, go to the intelligence screen.
Set your spies in the UK to “increase threat”, the ones in France, if you haven’t done so yet, to disrupt National Unity, and the ones in the Soviet Union to counterespionage.
Remember to stop researching stuff that’s ahead of time.
On the 11th, the UK ended the trade deal (buying energy) with me. If they do, check your monetary gain to see if the reduced income will hurt you. If it does, try to trade with someone. (the Soviets are always looking for supplies) About +5$ would be sufficient for the most urgent needs.
Our first artillery brigade has finished on the same day. There are three major ways of deploying them:
The first is deploying it somewhere on the map, far away from any battlefronts, move the division that’s meant to have it to that same province and merge the two. This is the safest method if the division is in combat when the brigade is finished. It is also what the Germans did in real life, which is why there were more SS-divisions in Arnhem than there should have been during operation Market Garden.
The second is by clicking on the brigade in the deployment queu, and in the follow-up window click on the target division. Fastest method if your army is small.
The third is new to FtM. Sf players will not be able to do this, unfortunately. Click the alert icon at the top of the screen. Then click the theater and open the OOB browser by clicking the left-hand side of the unit card. You can now drag the brigade where you want it to go. Incidentally, you can even do this if the division in question has no land connection to your capital (such as the ones in East Prussia). This is my preferred method if there are a lot finishing on the same day.
Attach the brigade to any infantry division and start a new artillery brigade in the production screen.
On the 16th, we have a new interceptor. Attach it to the I. Fliegerkorps and build a new one.
Also on the 16th, the last of our Light tank techs finishes. Go to the research screen and begin research of:
Armour: Medium Tank Brigade.
Find it at the bottom of the research queu and click the double arrow pointing upwards, prioritizing it as it is of major importance to Germany.
On the 31st, another interceptor finished building. Deploy it to Wilhelmshaven and rename it “II. Fliegerkorps”. Begin building another interceptor.
Our accumulated practicals from various sources has given us enough of a discount by now that we can afford to begin building a new artillery brigade. Do so now.
Then go to the intelligence screen. Increase threat in the Soviet Union to begin making Romania nervous. find Romania itself and chance its priority to level 2 as well.
I’m going to finish the chapter here. There’s plenty to keep you busy for the next couple of days. See you next time!
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I hope my new spacing between paragraphs creates less of a "wall of text", which is unavoidable given the type of AAR.
Why Austria? What I mean is, what is the goal? What are we attempting to achieve and why? The details if you could, Misterbean, so that we know what will happen if we do achieve those goals before you do, for example.
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