"How the heck do you play this game?!" A simple tutorial AAR

[Ironhead 5]

A note however. I noticed in late 1937 or so that my IC was lagging behind yours quite a bit, and couldn't work it out at first. It seems that (at least for me) the game wouldn't activate all the factories unless I would still be in the green for all my resources. I had thousands of rares and oil in the bank, but it wouldn't touch them, at least until I sent the USSR some supplies to push my income up some. This was incredibly confusing to me particularly as I couldn't find a single ledger page that would describe how many factories I owned and how many of each resource I needed. It might be worth mentioning this in your guide, as I had traded myself so that I was giving away oils and rares rather than leaving enough positive income to use for future factories.

Duly noted, and when I redeploy from Iraq (only a few short weeks now ) I will be sure to update this thread with the points you bring up.

For now, I will point out that the number of factories you own is the same as your "base" IC, which is the middle number on the three-tiered fraction in the top right of the main screen. (that is, it is the number of factories you have until you start conquering foreign lands, at which points a fraction of their factories add to your IC... but what really matters isn't factories anyway, but IC, so the base IC is your measure of factories... and your adjusted IC, the first number of the three-tiered fraction, is what really matters - that is what your resources have to feed).

I cannot figure out what the problem was with your game, in regards to your IC problem. Even if you are losing resources each day, your IC will not suffer as long as you have a surplus pool of those resources. If your resources got down to zero, AND you were in the red, then it would affect IC - but not until then.

Did you make all the necessary minister changes and research the machine tools technologies? Were you playing on Normal? (playing on higher difficulty levels reduces the player's IC and boosts the AI's IC). Were you building additional factories in 1936 and 1937?

 

[Entsuropi]

Same settings, and I was building the factories as you said, did the same research and chose the same ministers/sliders. But once I got more income then my IC shot up a good 20 or 30 points, which I can only assume was the game 'activating' the factories. It all worked out fine in the end, though my plane productions were rolling off the line later than yours were.

The only other point I can remember about the guide up to the Fall of Poland was that I was slightly confused about where to put all the TAC and CAS wings, so it could be helpful to have a bulletpoint list showing the bases and wings.

 

[Ironhead 5]

The only other point I can remember about the guide up to the Fall of Poland was that I was slightly confused about where to put all the TAC and CAS wings, so it could be helpful to have a bulletpoint list showing the bases and wings.

Yes, that has been mentioned before. I will go back and edit in the appropriate bases and wings, as soon as I get home from Iraq.

 

[AndonSage]

Captain Ironhead 5,

First, thank you very much for your service to our country!

Second, thank you very much for writing this tutorial AAR. I've had three Paradox games for a year now (HoI2, CK/DV and EU3), and am just now able to understand HoI2 thanks to your brilliant tutorial I'll have to search for this same kind of AAR for the other two games, hehe. Now if only HoI2 wouldn't lock up occasionally in Vista 64-bit...

For reference, I'm playing HoI2/DD/ARM ver 1.2. I'm currently at the beginning of Sept, 1937.

I do have a few comments and questions...

1. I had the same problem as previously mentioned, with activating factories. My Energy was in negative daily change due to my helping Nationalist Spain when they came asking for help. I had to cancel some trades to get it to positive daily change before the factory would come online, even though I have over 20k stored Energy. I don't know if this problem is due to the version of the game I'm playing, or what, but you might want to mention this in one of the first few lessons, in case other people have this problem. My current daily change in Energy, Metal and Rare Materials can support another 10 factories coming online, and I've got 28 factories coming online between November and March, which means I'll have to do some trading with Supplies, or cancel some Oil trades, just to get them activated.

2. Speaking of factories, when we have things happen (events, research, minister changes, etc.) that increase our IC, and you recommend spending it on factories, you didn't mention at that time that we would be stopping factory building in Dec 1937. Because we originally queued up 2 factories in the initial factory build, I was queuing up 2 factories in the additional builds, so now I have some factories that won't be finished until 1938. Of course, I can cancel the second build once the first finishes, but since I didn't read about the factories ending in Dec '37 until I got to that section, I have some that I don't want to cancel because of the IC that's already been expended on them. The last one I don't want to cancel will finish up in March '38, though. You just might want to add a line to one of the first sections to not queue up factory builds that will go past Dec '37.

You also might want to mention how many total factories to build. It wasn't until somewhere around Jan '37 that I realized I was behind in the number of factories I was building. I had been using IC on Supplies with which to trade. In the end, though, I'll have two more factories than you did, although it wasn't intentional.

3. How many stored resources is enough? I'm apparently doing a lot more trading in my game than you did in your AAR, although I didn't notice this until Oct '36. You can see how much I have in the last SCW screen shot below. I think I probably traded too many Supplies for Oil, but not sure.

4. The Spanish Civil War: While the Republicans won very quickly in your game, in mine it's still going on, and it looks like the Nationalists will win. I don't know if it's because of my version of the game that it has lasted this long, or it's because when Nationalist Spain would ask for trades, I'd give it to them. Anyway, I was wondering if you could include something in your AAR that says what to do if the Nationalists win Here's how the war is going (click on picture for a larger version):

Feb 8, 1937


Jun 30, 1937


Aug 3, 1937

 

[Ironhead 5]

First, thank you very much for your service to our country!

Second, thank you very much for writing this tutorial AAR. I've had three Paradox games for a year now (HoI2, CK/DV and EU3), and am just now able to understand HoI2 thanks to your brilliant tutorial I'll have to search for this same kind of AAR for the other two games, hehe.

You're welcome! I recommend the "Bohemia for Beginners" AAR for CK - it too is a beginner's walkthrough tutorial.

1. I had the same problem as previously mentioned, with activating factories. My Energy was in negative daily change due to my helping Nationalist Spain when they came asking for help. I had to cancel some trades to get it to positive daily change before the factory would come online, even though I have over 20k stored Energy. I don't know if this problem is due to the version of the game I'm playing, or what, but you might want to mention this in one of the first few lessons, in case other people have this problem. My current daily change in Energy, Metal and Rare Materials can support another 10 factories coming online, and I've got 28 factories coming online between November and March, which means I'll have to do some trading with Supplies, or cancel some Oil trades, just to get them activated.

I am totally mystified, and I cannot figure out why you need a positive trade balance to "activate" factories. I will edit in a comment about this issue, though.

2. Speaking of factories, when we have things happen (events, research, minister changes, etc.) that increase our IC, and you recommend spending it on factories, you didn't mention at that time that we would be stopping factory building in Dec 1937. Because we originally queued up 2 factories in the initial factory build, I was queuing up 2 factories in the additional builds, so now I have some factories that won't be finished until 1938. Of course, I can cancel the second build once the first finishes, but since I didn't read about the factories ending in Dec '37 until I got to that section, I have some that I don't want to cancel because of the IC that's already been expended on them. The last one I don't want to cancel will finish up in March '38, though. You just might want to add a line to one of the first sections to not queue up factory builds that will go past Dec '37.

I'll edit in a comment for that, as well. If you queue up a serial run of factories - or anything - it doesn't spend IC on the subsequent facotry until the first one in the series is finished. So cancelling a serial run immediately after a series comes off the line does not waste IC.

3. How many stored resources is enough? I'm apparently doing a lot more trading in my game than you did in your AAR, although I didn't notice this until Oct '36. You can see how much I have in the last SCW screen shot below. I think I probably traded too many Supplies for Oil, but not sure.

There is no upper limit - later in the game, after you have overrun several enemy capitals, you will have a glut of resources, and you really couldn't trade them away fast enough. So if you have too many resources, don't sweat it - just start cancelling those trades where you give away supplies for resources.

4. The Spanish Civil War: While the Republicans won very quickly in your game, in mine it's still going on, and it looks like the Nationalists will win. I don't know if it's because of my version of the game that it has lasted this long, or it's because when Nationalist Spain would ask for trades, I'd give it to them. Anyway, I was wondering if you could include something in your AAR that says what to do if the Nationalists win

Each game, the Nationalists have about a 50% chance of winning. Trading with them does not have anything more than a negligible influence on their chances of winning. If the Nationalists win, little about Germany's game changes. The only possible aberration is that Germany can try to entice Nat Spain to join the Axis, in which case Nat Spain (or you) can capture Gibraltar and open up the Mediterranean to your U-boats. I will edit this in.

 

[AndonSage]

My game crashed again, so figured I'd take this time for a couple more comments and questions

I was wondering what can cause my National Relationship with Japan to go down. I had been up to +61 but now I'm down to +50. I'm only at Jan 1, 1938 (the game crashed on Jan 2 while I was setting up the Air Base production run) and not fighting anyone. I'm thinking it's due to my trading with Nationalist China who is currently at war with Japan, but I don't know for sure. I couldn't find anything in the manual about this. I'm also trading with Japan, btw.

If the problem is due to trading with Nationalist China, you might want to add a list of countries that shouldn't be traded with at the beginning of the AAR.

Another thing I forgot to mention in my first post, is the amount of money you were accumulating. I happened to notice that your amount was much higher than what I had at the same date, so I did some trades to get money. I haven't read very far ahead in the AAR, but I think you'll be using the money for Influencing Nations, is that correct? I might have missed directions about accumulating money earlier, but if not, you might want to add a line about trying to accumulate a certain amount per day, or hitting a certain amount by a particular date.

You're welcome! I recommend the "Bohemia for Beginners" AAR for CK - it too is a beginner's walkthrough tutorial.

Thanks, I'll be sure to look for that. Once I finish your AAR, hehe

I am totally mystified, and I cannot figure out why you need a positive trade balance to "activate" factories. I will edit in a comment about this issue, though.

The only thing I can think of is that it's due to the version of the game I'm using, ARM 1.2. If Entsuropi sees this, maybe he can list which version he was playing.

So cancelling a serial run immediately after a series comes off the line does not waste IC.

Yeah, I canceled most of the extras, but I'd already put months of IC into two others.

So if you have too many resources, don't sweat it - just start cancelling those trades where you give away supplies for resources.

Yeah, I'll be able to do that in March '38 when my last factory finishes. I need to keep a small positive daily change until then. What I'm wondering is, at least until my last factory finishes on Mar 6, if it's better to maintain a 0 Supply change with IC, and put less in Upgrades, or if it's better to let my Supply go down and put more in Upgrades. In the AAR, you say to maintain a 0 Supply balance ("Allocate just enough IC to supplies to bring us out of the red and into the white") at the beginning of 1938, and my Supply is already about half (5k) of what you have (10k) at the beginning of 1938. I don't know if that will be a problem in the future.

One of the things I've learned is to keep trades separated into Resources used for IC (Energy, Metal, Rare Materials), Oil, Supplies, and Money. That way, if I need to cancel a trade for Oil to get the Supplies or Resources back, I'm not also canceling something else like a Resource or Money at the same time.

I was going to take a screenshot after my Jan 2, 1938 adjustments, but since the game crashed, here's my production just before all of the factories completed near the end of the year. Those daily changes will be down to almost 0 by the end of the year. Click on the picture for larger images.

Production screen: Nov 25, 1937

If the Nationalists win, little about Germany's game changes. The only possible aberration is that Germany can try to entice Nat Spain to join the Axis, in which case Nat Spain (or you) can capture Gibraltar and open up the Mediterranean to your U-boats. I will edit this in.

Thanks I'm surprised that Republican Spain won so quickly in your game. In my game, Nationalist Spain is moving slow, but steady...

Oct 3, 1937


Dec 3, 1937


Jan 1, 1938

 

[AndonSage]

That factory activation problem is getting more strange... I didn't have the problem for the factories I built in Jan and Mar 1938! I was running a negative daily change, and decided to wait until the Austrian Anschluss (which for me happened on Mar 18) to do any more trades, in case that would bring my resource daily changes to positive. However, the factories activated anyway! So I really have no idea why the factory activation problem happens or doesn't happen

The Manchukuo event happened on Feb 9, 1938 for me. There were a couple of other events that happened, and I'm just wondering if they have any big significance. I didn't have to make any choices for them.

Feb 13, 1938: Japan went with Compensation must be paid to the Americans in Panay Incident
Feb 13, 1938: USA had Panay Incident

Feb 15, 1938: Japan had The Nanjing Massacre
Feb 15, 1938: Nationalist China had The Nanjing Massacre
Feb 15, 1938: USA had The Nanjing Massacre

Mar 2, 1938: Soviet Union went with Purge the traitors! in The Great Officer Purge Begins

I don't suppose there is a listing of all the Events anywhere, with an explanation of what happens with each one?

Nationalist Spain finally won their war on Mar 3, 1938. On Mar 8, I got an event "The Condor Legion returns home victorious! happened to us." The effects are:

• Relation with Nationalist Spain: +30
• Manpower: +5
• National dissent is changed by -1
• Gain a blueprint technology 'Combat Unit Destruction Doctrine'
• Gain a blueprint technology 'Hunt & Destroy Groups Doctrine'

Will either of those blueprints come in handy later? I don't know if we'll be researching those doctrines. Are those doctrines even useful for Germany at any point?

BTW, I had two screens pop up for the Austrian Anschluss event. You only mentioned one screen in that section of the AAR. The second screen just had an Ok button. The effects were Manpower +300, National Dissent -10 and 1 move towards Hawk Lobby. I figure the two screens go together, but just wanted to make sure.

I was hoping you could let me know if I'm going to have any problems with Supply down the road... I'm posting a screenshot of my Production screen from Mar 24, six days after the Anschluss. The Austrian armies are still on their way to Salzburg. The infantry you see in the Production screen was being produced by Austria, and it's '36 Infantry and will be done in a couple months, so I left it to build.

Production screen: Mar 24, 1938 (Click on the picture for a larger version)


Thanks for your help

 

[Ironhead 5]

I was wondering what can cause my National Relationship with Japan to go down. I had been up to +61 but now I'm down to +50. I'm only at Jan 1, 1938 (the game crashed on Jan 2 while I was setting up the Air Base production run) and not fighting anyone. I'm thinking it's due to my trading with Nationalist China who is currently at war with Japan, but I don't know for sure. I couldn't find anything in the manual about this. I'm also trading with Japan, btw.

Your relationships with most other countries will, by default, drift toward 0 unless you do something to keep relations strong - such as by allying with them. Trading with them will also help relations, but only to a maximum of +50 - which is what you are seeing with Japan. Trading with Nat China has no influence on your relationship with Japan.

What I'm wondering is, at least until my last factory finishes on Mar 6, if it's better to maintain a 0 Supply change with IC, and put less in Upgrades, or if it's better to let my Supply go down and put more in Upgrades. In the AAR, you say to maintain a 0 Supply balance ("Allocate just enough IC to supplies to bring us out of the red and into the white") at the beginning of 1938, and my Supply is already about half (5k) of what you have (10k) at the beginning of 1938. I don't know if that will be a problem in the future.

Don't be afraid to let your supply go red if you think you need to; however, upgrades are not urgent in 1938. So while it is "okay" to go red in supplies, there is no pressing need just yet. For the convenience of not having to keep checking your supply stockpile, I recommend going just barely into the white.

The Manchukuo event happened on Feb 9, 1938 for me. There were a couple of other events that happened, and I'm just wondering if they have any big significance. I didn't have to make any choices for them.

Feb 13, 1938: Japan went with Compensation must be paid to the Americans in Panay Incident
Feb 13, 1938: USA had Panay Incident

Feb 15, 1938: Japan had The Nanjing Massacre
Feb 15, 1938: Nationalist China had The Nanjing Massacre
Feb 15, 1938: USA had The Nanjing Massacre

Mar 2, 1938: Soviet Union went with Purge the traitors! in The Great Officer Purge Begins

Those are the events for other countries. They have no tangible bearing on your game. I had included them in the types of messages to "pause and pop-up" when we set message settings, because I think they add a little historical flavor and provide a little background for what every other nation is doing.

I don't suppose there is a listing of all the Events anywhere, with an explanation of what happens with each one?

There is! If you can read C++ programming code. It is in the program file that your game is saved to - most likely My Computer -> Local Disk -> Program Files -> Paradox Entertainment -> Doomsday -> db -> events. All the files in this folder are the event scripts for each event. DO NOT make changes - it will screw with the events in your game!

Nationalist Spain finally won their war on Mar 3, 1938. On Mar 8, I got an event "The Condor Legion returns home victorious! happened to us." The effects are:

• Relation with Nationalist Spain: +30
• Manpower: +5
• National dissent is changed by -1
• Gain a blueprint technology 'Combat Unit Destruction Doctrine'
• Gain a blueprint technology 'Hunt & Destroy Groups Doctrine'

Will either of those blueprints come in handy later? I don't know if we'll be researching those doctrines. Are those doctrines even useful for Germany at any point?

Congrats! That is a nice event, if only for those blueprints. The techs for those blueprints are for CAS aircraft, which you definitely need early in the game. However, here's the rub - those are 1941 techs you now have blueprints for. Right around 1941, you should be getting away from CAS, and using more TAC. So there is a slim benefit here - because you have the blueprints, it is worth researching those techs, to improve your existing CASs. But if you didn't have the blueprints, it wouldn't be worth researching those techs.

I was hoping you could let me know if I'm going to have any problems with Supply down the road... I'm posting a screenshot of my Production screen from Mar 24, six days after the Anschluss. The Austrian armies are still on their way to Salzburg. The infantry you see in the Production screen was being produced by Austria, and it's '36 Infantry and will be done in a couple months, so I left it to build.

You'll be fine. As a rule of thumb, supply should not be a problem, because you can always put more IC into supply production. The trade-off is what you CAN'T build later in the game because you have to spend more IC on supplies. However, if you have fewer supplies now because you are already putting that IC to use in developing your combat power, then you are doing just fine. You will have that much more power when you need it, so you won't need to rob Peter to pay Paul when it comes to allocating IC for supplies later.

 

[AndonSage]

Thanks for the reply

Your relationships with most other countries will, by default, drift toward 0 unless you do something to keep relations strong - such as by allying with them.

Ah! I was under the assumption that relations would not drop unless I did something to make the country mad. This clears Japan up. However, I'm not sure why Italy dropped from +72 down to -27 somewhere between Feb 19, 1938 and April 1, 1938. The Anschluss was only supposed to affect it by -10. And Hungary went from +94 to +31 (Anschluss affect -5). I'm trading with both, so I would have thought the worse that Italy could get was +40, and Hungary +45.

For the convenience of not having to keep checking your supply stockpile, I recommend going just barely into the white.

Alrighty.

If you can read C++ programming code... ...DO NOT make changes - it will screw with the events in your game!

Actually, I do (I was a programmer for over 20 years before my nerve disorders put me on Long-term Disability), and I won't

So there is a slim benefit here - because you have the blueprints, it is worth researching those techs, to improve your existing CASs. But if you didn't have the blueprints, it wouldn't be worth researching those techs.

Would you suggest where I might insert the research for those techs, in your list of tech research, please? I figure since I got a good Event, I might as well take advantage of it

However, if you have fewer supplies now because you are already putting that IC to use in developing your combat power, then you are doing just fine. You will have that much more power when you need it, so you won't need to rob Peter to pay Paul when it comes to allocating IC for supplies later.

Ok, cool Since this is my first game of HoI2, I don't know what's coming up down the road, and I probably worry too much, hehe

 

[KLorberau]

Capt,

Hope all is well with you....are you back in the good ole USA yet? Looking forward to your AAR continuing....it is the best tutorial out there.....ever....

Thanks for everything,

Klorberau

 

[Ironhead 5]

Would you suggest where I might insert the research for those techs, in your list of tech research, please? I figure since I got a good Event, I might as well take advantage of it

Before you research Advanced Destroyer, in autumn 1941, research those two air doctrine techs.

Hope all is well with you....are you back in the good ole USA yet?

Not yet... my flight is scheduled to leave Iraq tomorrow though!

 

[unmerged(105771)]

wOOt! It's gonna be good to have you back mate.

 

[Nathan Madien]

wOOt! It's gonna be good to have you back mate.

Yes, it will be.

I have a question about Nationalist Spain. I am playing the 1938 scenario as Nationalist Spain and just won the Spanish Civil War in November 1938. My question is should I try to join the Axis? If so, when would be the best time? What could I do as a member of the Axis aside from capturing Gibraltar?

 

[Mico94]

i'm glad that you're back.

 

[AndonSage]

Before you research Advanced Destroyer, in autumn 1941, research those two air doctrine techs.

Check!

my flight is scheduled to leave Iraq tomorrow though!

Yay! Please be sure to post here when you can, so we know you made it home safe

As slow as I'm playing this tutorial AAR, due to trying to understand everything as it happens, I'll probably get done with Russia just in time for the British Invasion... um, that has something to do with the Beetles, right? :rofl:

I finally installed HoI2/DD/ARM on my older computer (P4 3GHz, 2GB RAM, HD 3850 AGP 512MB video card), which is running Windows XP, and copied over the saved game. It's nice not having to worry about when the game is going to lock up. I look forward to HoI3 working on this Vista 64-bit computer, though

 

[Ironhead 5]

I have a question about Nationalist Spain. I am playing the 1938 scenario as Nationalist Spain and just won the Spanish Civil War in November 1938. My question is should I try to join the Axis? If so, when would be the best time? What could I do as a member of the Axis aside from capturing Gibraltar?

First, the 1938 scenario is designed as a multi-player scenario. It is slightly less historically accurate, but it is more balanced to give everyone a fighting shot at winning in a multi-player environment. I don't think any of the significant changes will affect Nat Spain, however.

That said, here are a few things you could look forward to if you join the Axis:

1. Take out Gibraltar (it is one of your national provinces).
2. Invade France from the soft underbelly of the Pyrenees when Germany attacks through the Ardennes.
3. Conquer Portugal (just for the hell of it -- so you can unite the Iberian peninsula).

You will have to garrison your beaches - the Brits like to land in Iberia. But additional forces can be sent to the Eastern front, and help Germany tame the Russian bear, or they can be sent to Africa, to help conquer British-controlled Egypt and seize the Suez Canal. If you hold Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean will be completely cut off - it becomes an Axis lake!

 

[AndonSage]

I forgot to ask a question earlier...

After consolidating the Austrian Infantry in Salzburg, and sending two 3-Division groups each to Saarbrucken, Stuttgart, and Freiburg, I had one Infantriedivision left over. I've put Lt. General Fohrenbach (Log Wiz, Old Guard) in charge of the command (I figured I might as well save on supplies while the command was just sitting around), and when the Infantriedivision that was being built by Austria completed, I assigned it to that command. So now I'm wondering what to do with this two-division Infantry command. Where will it be of the most use later?

Also, in case it matters, there was only one Austrian Mountain division, which is on it's way to Breslau.

 

[Ironhead 5]

After consolidating the Austrian Infantry in Salzburg, and sending two 3-Division groups each to Saarbrucken, Stuttgart, and Freiburg, I had one Infantriedivision left over. I've put Lt. General Fohrenbach (Log Wiz, Old Guard) in charge of the command (I figured I might as well save on supplies while the command was just sitting around), and when the Infantriedivision that was being built by Austria completed, I assigned it to that command. So now I'm wondering what to do with this two-division Infantry command. Where will it be of the most use later?

Also, in case it matters, there was only one Austrian Mountain division, which is on it's way to Breslau.

Austria sometimes has varying numbers of divisions; and sometimes they have an odd INF or MTN. I am a bit of a perfectionist, and I hate seeing 1- or 2-division corps floating around the battlefield, so what I usually do is build an additional INF or MTN (or whatever is needed) to bring the corps up to full 3-division strength. The IC cost is generally affordable, and can be debited from the IC dedicated to supply.

And then, once it is at full-strength, I either put it on the French border, unless that border already has 4x corps in each province, in which case I send it to the Polish front.

 

[AndonSage]

And then, once it is at full-strength, I either put it on the French border, unless that border already has 4x corps in each province, in which case I send it to the Polish front.

Alrighty, I'll get the corps to 3 divisions and send it to Stuttgart. With two corps each in Saarbrucken, Stuttgart and Freiburg, placing it in Stuttgart lets it help the two provinces on each side, if necessary.

I've gotten further along in your AAR, so time for more questions...

1) I moved the fleets in Kiel and Konigsberg to Wilhelmshafen per instructions. However, II. Unterseebootsflotte still has it's Navalbase set to Kiel. Do I need to Rebase the fleet in Wilhelmshafen, or is it ok with Kiel as it's Navalbase? Your instructions for the fleets not in Wilhelmshafen said "Next, click on the provinces of Konigsberg and Kiel to highlight the naval units there, and order them to Wilhelmshafen," so I just did a right-click on the Wilhelmshafen province, which apparently moves them, but doesn't rebase them. The Baltische Flotte doesn't have this problem because it got merged with the Kriegsmarine fleet.

2) In Lesson 11: January-June 1938, you say:

Assign all submarines to III. Unterbootsflotte until it has at least 18 subs in it (manually promoting our commander as necessary to ensure he has the command capability for all those subs), and then assign additional subs to a new sub fleet, named "IV. Unterseebootsflotte."

I ran into a bit of a problem since I hadn't read ahead to the end of Lesson 13: January-August 1939. The only Naval Commanders with the Sea Wolf trait at the start of the game are:
Rear Admiral von Nordek (Skill 3)
Rear Admiral Wolf (Skill 2)
Rear Admiral Assmann (Skill 2)
Rear Admiral Sobe (Skill 1)
Rear Admiral Claasen (Skill 1)

Rear Admiral von Nordek (which is the one you recommend first) can be promoted to Admiral and still have Skill 1, however Wolf and Assmann would end up with Skill 0 being promoted to Admiral, and Sobe and Claasen can't even be promoted to Admiral. After I filled up von Nordek's III. Unterseebootsflotte with 18 subs, I promoted Wolf to Admiral for 18 subs in IV. Unterseebootsflotte. I realized when I filled up Wolf's command that I was going to run out of Sea Wolf Commanders for 18-sub fleets. I figured that you must handle this situation at some point, so I read ahead in the lessons, and saw this in Lesson 13:

We are still churning out lots of subs, and continue to deploy these to Wilhelmshafen in large sub fleets commanded by Sea Wolf leaders. Karl Doenitz becomes available in 1939, and we can manually promote him to Grand Admiral to command a fleet of 30 subs.

When I read that, it hit me that there are probably even more commanders available in 1939, so I refrained from promoting Assmann until I got to Jan 1, 1939 and could check out any new commanders. These are the additional commanders in 1939:
Rear Admiral Donitz (Skill 5)
Rear Admiral Frick (Skill 4)
Rear Admiral Krause (Skill 2)
Rear Admiral von Stosch (Skill 2)
Rear Admiral von Heimburg (Skill 2)

So 1939 gives us two commanders who can be promoted to Grand Admiral and still have Skill > 0!

And now I finally get to the questions... :rofl:

2a) Should I go ahead and make two 30-sub fleets with Donitz and Frick, or leave Frick with an 18-sub fleet? With the original two fleets, plus the two 18-sub fleets I already have, plus Donitz and Frick, that will be a total of six Unterseebootsflottes, which matches the number of zones you have listed for Convoy Raiding.

2b) All remaining Sea Wolf Commanders are max Skill 2. Is it ok to promote them to Admiral with Skill 0 for more 18-sub fleets? Or will there be additional Sea Wolf Commanders in 1940 with higher Skill?

2c) The six Convoy Raiding zones you list are:

• Irish Sea
• Grand Banks
• North Atlantic
• Cap St. Vincent
• Portuguese Coast
• Cape Finisterre

The instructions say to send I. Unterseebootsflotte to the Irish Sea, but doesn't specify which fleets for the additional zones. I would assume we would want our largest sub fleets in the most active zones, but since I haven't played this game before, I don't know which zones those are. Which two are the busiest?

2d) I. Unterseebootsflotte is only one out-dated sub. Is it really going to do any damage?

2e) II. Unterseebootsflotte is only three slightly out-dated subs. Is it really going to do any damage?

2f) The Grand Banks zone is all the way over by Newfoundland in Canada! Is that in range of even the Type IX-class subs?

3) In a prior message, you responded to me:

If the Nationalists win, little about Germany's game changes. The only possible aberration is that Germany can try to entice Nat Spain to join the Axis, in which case Nat Spain (or you) can capture Gibraltar and open up the Mediterranean to your U-boats.

Seeing as this is my first game, and I'm following your AAR, I doubt I want to try running Nationalist Spain. However, I'm thinking it would be neat to see what Nationalist Spain does as part of the Axis. If I get them into the Axis, what's the chance they will take Gibraltar? Also, would they try taking French provinces while I'm fighting France? I'm not sure I'd want them doing that

4) The main problem with the air bases and wing assignments is that what you wrote doesn't match the picture of all the Air Units. I spent a couple hours trying to figure it all out, and made notes, but am still verifying for accuracy, so will post something about it later.

Thanks again for all your help! I really think Paradox should have you do a tutorial for HoI3, like what Bruce Geryk did for Dominions 3

Well hopefully you've made it home safely by now, and can spend time with your family

 

[Ironhead 5]

1) I moved the fleets in Kiel and Konigsberg to Wilhelmshafen per instructions. However, II. Unterseebootsflotte still has it's Navalbase set to Kiel. Do I need to Rebase the fleet in Wilhelmshafen, or is it ok with Kiel as it's Navalbase? Your instructions for the fleets not in Wilhelmshafen said "Next, click on the provinces of Konigsberg and Kiel to highlight the naval units there, and order them to Wilhelmshafen," so I just did a right-click on the Wilhelmshafen province, which apparently moves them, but doesn't rebase them. The Baltische Flotte doesn't have this problem because it got merged with the Kriegsmarine fleet.

2a) Should I go ahead and make two 30-sub fleets with Donitz and Frick, or leave Frick with an 18-sub fleet? With the original two fleets, plus the two 18-sub fleets I already have, plus Donitz and Frick, that will be a total of six Unterseebootsflottes, which matches the number of zones you have listed for Convoy Raiding.

2b) All remaining Sea Wolf Commanders are max Skill 2. Is it ok to promote them to Admiral with Skill 0 for more 18-sub fleets? Or will there be additional Sea Wolf Commanders in 1940 with higher Skill?

2c) The six Convoy Raiding zones you list are:

• Irish Sea
• Grand Banks
• North Atlantic
• Cap St. Vincent
• Portuguese Coast
• Cape Finisterre

The instructions say to send I. Unterseebootsflotte to the Irish Sea, but doesn't specify which fleets for the additional zones. I would assume we would want our largest sub fleets in the most active zones, but since I haven't played this game before, I don't know which zones those are. Which two are the busiest?

2d) I. Unterseebootsflotte is only one out-dated sub. Is it really going to do any damage?

2e) II. Unterseebootsflotte is only three slightly out-dated subs. Is it really going to do any damage?

2f) The Grand Banks zone is all the way over by Newfoundland in Canada! Is that in range of even the Type IX-class subs?

3) Seeing as this is my first game, and I'm following your AAR, I doubt I want to try running Nationalist Spain. However, I'm thinking it would be neat to see what Nationalist Spain does as part of the Axis. If I get them into the Axis, what's the chance they will take Gibraltar? Also, would they try taking French provinces while I'm fighting France? I'm not sure I'd want them doing that

4) The main problem with the air bases and wing assignments is that what you wrote doesn't match the picture of all the Air Units. I spent a couple hours trying to figure it all out, and made notes, but am still verifying for accuracy, so will post something about it later.

1. Hmm, yes, that should be a rebase order. Good catch - I will edit that in.

2a. As a general rule of thumb, you don't want to manually promote leaders just so they can command more units. The added benefit of having more units under their command is usually canceled out by the lost benefit of having those skill level bonuses kick in during battles (especially when the extra units can just be put under someone else's command, and they can still participate in the battle). This rule does not apply to submarine commanders, however - because your sub fleets will be avoiding battle as much as possible, and will be making their money by sinking transports. So yes, you can manually promote Frick to grand admiral, if you want, and you have the subs to give to him. Remember, though, that throughout the u-boat campaign you're going to have damaged subs that you will need to trade out and station at Wilhelmshafen for repairs. So you may have full 30-sub fleets out there at first, but after a year or two they will be down to about 75% strength in numbers of subs, due to attrition.

2b. By 1940, it is almost too late. You will sink more British transports in the first year of war than you will for the rest of the war. I recommend just commissioning those sub fleets with the leaders you have in 1939, and letting them build up experience.

2c. In my experience, the largest numbers of sunk transports come from Grand Banks and Cap St Vincent. However, Cap St Vincent will see plenty of British naval activity (due to it being the entrance to the Mediterranean) so you will be constantly having to order your subs to retreat from some engagement they get themselves into.

2d. No, not really, but only because of its limited range. It can only get out so far, and so it can't really threaten the busy sealanes. It can, however, serve as a useful reconnaissance tool, keeping tabs on the traffic going through the English Channel. It will be sunk eventually; don't grieve over it too much.

2e. Yes, it will sink a few transports in the Irish Sea (it, too, has limited range, so the Irish Sea is about the end of its leash). However, the Irish Sea tends to see lots of naval action, so these subs, too, will be sunk eventually.

2f. Yes, if they are based out of Wilhelmshafen. And the Grand Banks is a target-rich environment for your subs, too!

3. Nat Spain will take Gibraltar on their own, although if you want to send your own soldiers in their to help them you can - Gibraltar, being a mountain province, takes a long time to subdue, so it is good experience for your generals. I don't think I have ever seen them invade southern France on their own, and I think that's because they are programmed not to accept invitations to join the Axis until 1941. Frnce should be subjugated by then.

4. I'm not entirely sure exactly what you are referring to, but remember - especially with the use of the air wings - that the instructions in this tutorial are guidelines. There really isn't a strict prescription for how to use your air wings - just wherever your ground forces need them, really. In one of the lessons I detail how to conduct a "blitz" of England. The blitz was nice for historical flavor, and it did hurt the UK a bit, but it really wasn't worth the amount of time I spent clicking and unclicking different air wings to give them fresh orders every few days. But I included it as an example of what you can do. So too with the use of the air wings - just make sure you have a few of them around, ready to lend air support to the ground forces, and you'll be fine. It would be impossible for anyone to predict how your campaigns will go, so it is impossible to predict when or where you will need air forces, but if you build them, and you have them based near your borders, they will be there when you are ready to invade.

Well hopefully you've made it home safely by now, and can spend time with your family

No such luck, unfortunately. I don't know what it is with the Air Force, but they always manage to disappoint me. This time around, it turns out that they didn't have a plane available confused, so they delayed us 24 hours. Now it is raining, so it looks like we'll be delayed another 12 hours or so. I have made 0% progress - I am still sitting in a bare CHU on Camp Liberty, in Baghdad.