A New Reich: Dies Irae

[m.a.g.u.s]

Well, after my recent playthrough of vanilla HOI3 as Germany, a veritable cakewalk, UK isles taken over, Soviet Union completely annexed, Romania, Bulgaria (conquered), the Balkans and Greece given to Italy, Norway puppeted, Sweden puppeted, fall of france and the lowlands of course, Switzerland conquered, hungary, finland, and Slovakia being the only European allies kept (minors just bog down supply lines IMO, but used hungary to help guard against an angry soviet union over dishonoring the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (to my disappointment they didn't seem to much mind, even kept trading with me, so I awaited the july 1st 1940 breaking date though I was prepared whilst in france in may of 1939), Slovakia of course have no choice in the matter if you wish to pursue events-hoping this changes in dies irae, I miss the hoi2 event split with hungary-anyways, all of this done by December of 1940, really by the end of august 1940, but as I refused to do a paradrop of an unguarded UK port and a quick conquer, I had waited until my carriers had finished and the soviet union annexed where I could honestly challenge the British Navy in the channel and by that time had 5 transport planes and 5 groups of paratroopers to hasten a victory of a truly guarded port-ANYWAYS! It was a cakewalk, I felt cheated as I veritably walked over the entire world (sinkiang being my greatest of enemies greedily snatching up ex-soviet territory that german troops were just too far from), so I then loaded up the USA which I had declared war on October 1st of 1940 and to my disappointment they had only a few hundred manpower close to 400 I think and I was soon to be prepared with 9 carriers and advanced light cruisers, destroyers, and heavy cruisers and a veritable massive army with basically nothing to do due to bad supply lines in reaching india (Italy had yet to take suez but since my recent capture of the british isles were closing in on it.) Never the less, I was only awaiting a more capable transport fleet (I had only 12) for my massive army to carry them via Iceland and Greenland to land in newfoundland then onto Washington D.C. where the USA would soon have been crushed. I ended the game asking what's the purpose in finishing, the USA will stand no chance in stopping my landing and certainly no chance of stopping my massive light panzer and motorized army half of which weren't even truly needed to defeat the soviet union, but were built anyways as I was pretending as much as possible this was a human player on the receiving end of my armies, aircraft, and navy. So then I said to myself, well I have never ever been able to figure out how to get dies irae working and I did pay for it, so why not figure it out. Now here I sit january 16th of 1936, the german OOB sorted through, logistics wizards applied at every order of battle except field marshal where von Kluge at skill 5 with his winter attrition bonus sits commanding all my armies. The Reich's aims here are simple, see how much success of the vanilla war I can repeat in this mod, so....

January 16, 1936

Mein Fuhrer has begun to challenge the treaty of Versailles, the oppressed Third Reich on January 6th, 1936 has made the world aware of intentions by militarizing the Rhineland. The Fuhrer has seemingly sunk the entire reich's coal production into an unsustainable trade off for money, he has explained to me through a complex bargaining system of sell high and buy cheap he shall fix every aspect of the german economy, using the massive german industry to supply the world with weapons, bullets, and food stuffs to pay for all these things, I remain doubtful but already materials rarely seen in Germany are on the rise, the fuhrer has explained petrol will constantly be in doubt if the Wehrmacht cannot succeed in fueling itself via the capture of external oil and fuel reserves. Mein Fuhrer is currently producing our countries maximum capacity in supplies, he has made it clear, these are the guns and butter, a very large stockpile is needed in the whereabouts of 70k to 80k tons before he will pursue his massive industrialization campaign where he has planned some 51 industries to be built. He has stated these will not all be finished but due to consumer demands being nil he shall apply the entire german industry to increase his economic endeavors, using supplies solely from stockpile, it has all sounded very complex and the papers explaining it stack high for the cabinet to study and review, from what I have seen so far of it, I do not expect it will fail and see more than 40+ industries being finished by the turn of march or april of 1937. There is nearly no technological research being done at this time, the fuhrer has stated until march/april 1st of 1936 only the light panzer and carrier technologies are under development, the rest of the german staff shall be put into the diplomatic forefront of the world and into a vast intelligence network where the main goals will be raising the threat of the British empire, lowering the unity of the soviet union, and strengthening the socialist party in both Austria and the Czechoslovakia.

The german cabinet is thusly composed, mein fuhrer has explained that he will strengthen the conscription laws until march or april of 1938 increasing the german manpower reserves where he will then switch to a volunteer army and build massive amounts of reserve panzer and motorized divisions equipped with engineer and a new unheard of mobilizied artillery brigade until he can view the worlds reactions to german claims. He will remain consumer product orientated until he is thusly 100% sure the world will pursue war, he foresees his claims on a polish railway through danzig being challenge in early 1939. He prospected mid march he will have moved into a mixed industry and near mandatory draft laws. The german Luftwaffe will also be increased massively before this time in the form of interception planes and a new unheard of multi-role plane, capable of both air superiority and bomb running missions. A special OPs theatre has also been planned that will consist of 14 marines and 18 engineer brigades, with advanced carrier aircraft, transport ship and plane, and a theoretical concept of 15 paratrooper air divisions to be completed as industry and time allows. The Kriegsmarine will receive little to no attention except in technological advances pursuing more formidable ships that mein fuhrer hopes will challenge allied navies more efficiently. Our entire cabinet remains extremely doubtful of these outlandish claims, and some have even secretly, very secretly, begun to question the mindset of the fuhrer, upon which the fuhrer has stated, by January of 1941 the third Reich shall Stretch from the Western French port of Brest to the Eastern Soviet port of Vladivostok. We shall see, Mein Fuhrer.

 

[m.a.g.u.s]

July 4th, 1936

Mein Fuhrer has accomplished it. As the Americans gather and the fuhrer watches an impressive display of American fireworks and independence, the Germans are celebrating a new and different kind of independence. One of economic freedom, country mobilization for defense, and an industrial program to rival the greatest powers on this Earth.

Research is proceeding at max capacity, many theories are being applied to lead the way into new technological advances that will impress and awe this world, advancements into a new type of warfare are being made, our fuhrer along with a theorist by the name of Erich Von Manstein have been discussing the former Schlieffen plan of a hostile France. This plan not only details the swift surrender of the French by invading the lowland countries of Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg thusly encircling and cutting supplies to the highly fortified maginot defense line. They are also going to great lengths to completely redefine modern warfare by sending highly mobile armored divisions well in advance of infantry which will no longer be used for the purpose of attacking but of helping to secure the territory our highly mobile and powerful armored divisions are able to secure, these armored attacks will supposedly keep our troops safe from machine gun and artillery fire by being too armored for French guns to penetrate and too fast moving to properly sight and devastate with conventional artillery. Manstein has even proposed the fixation of an armored machine gun turret inside the armored division itself making for a highly mobile armored turret, these ideas though were rejected outright by our fuhrer, him stating that he foresaw a change in tactics from allied armies once this new type of warfare was brought to the forefront of the world, these mobile "turrets" weakening the integrity of our armored divisions shells, thus making them more vulnerable to high powered fire from counter attack. It all remains thoroughly beyond a small time minister like myself, though I am privy to the highly top secret plans, if this journal was even found, there is no doubt, I would be executed immediately and forthright.

Mein Fuhrer's intelligence program proceeds much better than anticipated, many, many spies were hired and trained for operations in the world abroad, much more than was initially thought. The fuhrer has warned us though, that our budget is at it's limit and there will be not many more spies trained, if any at all. Our leadership is to be focused on advancing the technological capabilities of our nation, and later we will be forced to divert nearly all available aspects to the hiring and training of new officers to lead what our fuhrer is foreseeing will be a mighty mighty Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, maybe even more mighty than was originally conceived. As of this moment though, the fuhrer keeps stressing, I wish peace, the diplomatic annexation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, our former territory of a railway to east Prussia, and finally our Germanic speaking peoples in the lands of Alsace bordering the french! Peace to be achieved through the prospect of military might and industrialization, I care not if the world loves Germany, so long as they fear Germany and understand the prospects of war are futile and will only lead to more hardship and loss. Heil Mein Fuhrer! Heil! Peace and prosperity for the Germanic peoples!

 

[sebas379]

I havent touched dies irae yet either and had a similar experience with Germany. Once you understand the game you are unstoppable. This sounds like an interesting setup, good luck!

 

[m.a.g.u.s]

April 8th, 1937

As mein fuhrer predicted, 41 industries were successfully finished. Also the fuhrer was given a choice near the end of October 1936 called the 4 year plan proposed by hermann goering, ideals were proposed that sounded interesting mainly the increasing of german resources, but then the fuhrer grew angry, slamming his hand upon the table demanding something permanent, something that would reach farther than 4 years, resources would only increase the german stockpile of money. A heavy industrial emphasis was chosen, this gave an added 5 industries (permanent) and a 10% increase in both production and the efficiency of their output until 1940. All in all some very hard lessons were learned in the year, most pointedly oil is an extremely hard resource to produce successfully...during peace my fuhrer tells us. Rare materials though rising at a pace where the fuhrer feels comfortable, he would still like to be able to find more, but due to the veritable embargo imposed on Germany by the UK, there are none other to be found in all the world. Finally, there is to be a base of at least 500 reichsmark to be kept at all times, the olympics of 1936 temporarily bankrupting the german peoples. So, in the end, the year 1936 ended with 46 extra industry being added to the german industrial base and a transport ship being half finished, stockpiles of supply are near maximum again once the network reorganizes itself, the nationalist Spanish just announced victory and a successful annexation of the republican division of spain (much to our fuhrer's surprise and relief). Mein fuhrer decided as well that the foreign minister Ribbentrop would not be appointed exactly jan 1 and has come to regret this decision worrying the socialist party strength in Austria will meet with a few delays and annexation will not come as soon as would otherwise if Ribbentrop had been actively working sooner. On the positive side, Italy has just secretly signed into the pact of steel. The german spy network was instantly put into work helping to increase the strength of our own party in germany through the Italian peoples. The fuhrer has outlined this years production plans stating this will be another year of a massive industrialization policy. He has informed the staff that he will also begin prepping our industries and the practicality of mass production by producing some engineers, traditional artillery, light panzers, motorized divisions, transport flotilla, and a transport plane at half production or worse.

Most interesting to note was the amount of choices offered to mein fuhrer, he has chosen the jagdpanther to prep our industries, he urged our other ministers to read the fine print of the designs, stressing to them that we live in a geographically diverse world and this panzer though boasting the most power, will be inefficient on terrain not suited to it's capabilities. Von Manstein and himself have chosen this panzer for their theoretical designs stating this will be the "spearhead". The leading charge and the first to make contact with the enemy. Thusly he has chosen to complete a battle group composed of 15 of these Jagdpanthers that he has rightly named the hussars. if room is found in industrial capacity he will eventually create a second group called the "deaths head (hussars)". These will devastate the plains he and manstein theorizes in both northern and southern Russia. But for practicality and simplicity purposes, he will be using a different type of light panzer forming much softer units with motorized and engineer aid. He is thusly by far rushing the world into the development of a specialized mobile artillery in hopes of giving them more firepower to bring against the enemy. He has seemingly written an entire book on his plans and has told our cabinet, 1 step at a time. Rushing technology past the world's capability is not the wisest of policies. All will be made clear in the future and finalizing of our OOB. Finally, mein fuhrer has authorized specialized mountain corps equipped with engineer brigades to be planned for future development, mobile and efficient via specialized corps. He has been stressing to our cabinet, though we will work on outflanking maneuvers, we must be able to hold solid lines in any given circumstance. I personally am glad the planning is up to him and not myself. Heil Mein Fuhrer.


P.S. In regards to german intelligence, we have decided to completely back down from the intelligence aspect, proceeding with military parades in the capital and public shows of strength in the Wehrmacht where our secret plans remain in the study of what Mein Fuhrer has termed naval power projection, planning to use forward leading carrier aircraft backed by technologically advanced heavy and light cruisers supported by destroyer flotilla only closing in for battle after the carrier planes have de-organized themselves and more powerfully equipped enemy fleets. What was interesting to note here was our intelligence reports from the British Empire, they were producing nothing at all but escort and convoy flotilla where our fuhrer stated that our endeavors will be working to dash to pieces the men who are arming themselves to defy the kriegsmarine, those armed for battle and challenging superiority of naval sea lanes. We will produce submarines only when and if the sea is most assuredly lost to the Reich.

 

[m.a.g.u.s]

I havent touched dies irae yet either and had a similar experience with Germany. Once you understand the game you are unstoppable. This sounds like an interesting setup, good luck!

when windows 10 suddenly restarts midgame on slow speed with no warning given, mein fuhrer expresses his thoughts.

 

[sebas379]

Interesting, so these jagdpanthers are frontli e unt tank destroyers, rather than support units like normal td, cool. I wonder how theyll perform. Probably very good against tanks but useless against infantry?

 

[guillec87]

subbed!

 

[m.a.g.u.s]

Interesting, so these jagdpanthers are frontli e unt tank destroyers, rather than support units like normal td, cool. I wonder how theyll perform. Probably very good against tanks but useless against infantry?

Well, from what I gather, these are just regular supped up tanks, actually boasting 6 soft attack compared to the regular light tank 4, they suffer what seems to be a 10% efficiency deficit across the board though from the light tank. I could be wrong, but I am basing the judgement off the strength being 3,000. They have another jagdpanzer with 1,000 strength and this seems to have completely replaced the Special Artillery as Germany cannot even build special artillery, I found out the hard way after rushing to acquire it, but have made the adjustments now, just ended up with some rushed technology light panzers before I realized they turned the special artillery off for Germany. Anyways, after realizing this, I did build regular light panzers, but I geared production more toward this tank after I realized Germany couldn't build vanilla SP Art. This jagdpanther does increase artillery practical as well which I didn't notice right away either, they don't increase amour practical at all, but in contrast, the jagdpanzer brigades increase amour and not artillery, I dunno, it worked out in the end, I was able to build more than vanilla if you ask me due to events adding some 8-10 extra IC and giving an extra 10% to IC efficiency.

 

[m.a.g.u.s]

November 1, 1938

Mein Fuhrer has gathered the entire Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe in the capital for a grand military parade before preparing to completely deploy to the front. The world has been threatening and considering war due to the annexation of Austria on November 17th of 1937 and the more recent annexation of part of Czechoslovakia. Our Fuhrer has stated secretly to our committee on Jan 1, 1939 he shall demand the full annexation of Czechoslovakia. Our nation was awed and amazed at this display of military might, the newly constructed multirole fighters were of particular interest to most of the Reich and the rest of the world. We only question our Fuhrer about the amount of officers that will be required to properly manage this massive army. Our fuhrer assures us though that he is well aware of this seemingly monumental error and the plans to correct it have been considered from day 1, many military academies are sitting ready to be opened once the world has made it's decision regarding the Reich's claims on territory that rightly belongs to the german peoples. New laws will be enacted if the decisions made by other nations are not favorable to a peaceful world that require the german peoples to attend these academies.

Mein Fuhrer assures us that Germany has the most modern army in the entire world and little to no technological advancements will need be made soon, studying an advanced aero engine, some combined arms doctrines, airborne infantry, and maybe a couple other unforeseen technologies.

The only thing that was alarming in the political forefront was the forced resignation of the chief of army werner von blomberg. Goring remains the armament minister though some are rightly questioning his capabilities to perform in this office, he remains by Hitler's command, ensuring germany continues receiving the benefits from the earlier chosen 4 year plan, increasing both production and production efficiency by 10%. Things are going phenomenal in Germany and mein fuhrer predicts another swift victory over any enemy who dares defy german claims, the soviet unity though is quite high and if our fuhrer does decide for a complete annexation, we can only wonder just how far german panzers will be forced to march. This largely being due to the death of 100+ spies much to my fuhrer's frustration and surprise, but adjustments were made and though he will admittedly admit it was a bad decision, what is done is done. We are nearly ready mein fuhrer, we will launch a blitzkrieg that will devastate this entire world if war is the path to be chosen by the western allies.

Mein Fuhrer has a surprise brewing especially for them.

 

[m.a.g.u.s]

Interesting, so these jagdpanthers are frontli e unt tank destroyers, rather than support units like normal td, cool. I wonder how theyll perform. Probably very good against tanks but useless against infantry?

anyways, this is basically my standard unit forming what will become the main punch from the Wehrmacht, the soft attack is 3 higher than if you were to put a light panzer in there instead. I believe myself much stronger than in vanilla and foresee the soviets standing not much of a chance as I will probably dishonor the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and hit them as soon as the game allows me to. But as I understand it., the soviets and myself will be dual attacking Poland, it isn't just giving them Poland, they actually have to march and take parts of it. I am HOPING this will initiate an instant declaration of war capability from the soviets or myself as I believe that's what would happen if the germans dishonored, but we shall see, I will be prepared for virtually any outcome though highly more defensive before spring of 1940 and not just an all out assault, though tbh, I estimate that will be happening by the summer of 1939 as well were war to start between us, I dunno, if I were playing the soviets vs myself, I'd surely be asking the allies what they're planning lol. if war does break out though, I will sorely miss the ability to break the pact and build up some infrastructure supply lines which is the main reason I will break it anyways. <- and airbases as well, forgot about that, pretty important though I do build strat bombers as Germany, still need the ability to bring my multiroles closer, I usually keep my interceptors to keep a handle on the british, but who knows, when I make all these build schemes, I ask myself what I could do against myself as the other country.

 

[guillec87]

you need a LOOOOOT of tons of officers

 

[m.a.g.u.s]

you need a LOOOOOT of tons of officers

it works, I have tested it, by the turn of 1940 the whereabouts of November or December of 1939, officer percent will be 90-100% depending on how much technology you sacrifice, in my case will be nearly 100%. You start mid march or thereabout of 1939 moving into the highest officer law attainable, putting the last finishing touches on all your 1938 techs and the others will all be 1940 tech, sacrifice any naval, anything and everything that doesn't have to do with land forces and sacrificing all but air superiority. It works, I am quite sure and not a veteran of many many hoi3 MP games, but a veteran of many many many hoi2 MP games. This strategy would have done exactly what hitler predicted in all my previous MP experiences and hence, why I was so initially proud of it ! It's then I honestly sat down and considered what I had said earlier about playing myself vs myself as the soviet union. I came to the final conclusion, simply put, no matter what Germany does, victory is not possible vs the soviet union using this tactic (in vanilla). This under the pretense of course, we fought this battle once, where you snagged Poland from me and I returned with a declaration of war vs Germany then lost horribly as truly, I wasn't prepared at this time and you were. The key here is what I learned from other MP players, they scream GAMEY, EXPLOIT, CHEATER! When you use the volunteer army and the benefits it gives by allowing you to build reserve units so cheaply, even upgrade them for massively less IC, and the eventual switching training laws and giving them all 15% experience as well. I was on board with them at first, agreeing, this did sound gamey and exploitive, but then as I said, I honestly sat down for a couple hours tonight and went through the gameplay as the soviet union, who also has this option of volunteer army and cheap units, the clincher is though, it's not best employed like Germany in the prewar, I would spend the prewar years or most of them anyways, I didn't actually put this to a thorough, thorough test in the highest possible law I could enact and the training of officers, reasons for this being the low level leadership the soviets have and how they cannot quickly build officers as Germany can. Anyways, without getting all hugely technical and writing a separate AAR about the soviet union and resisting this blitzkrieg, the bottom line is, "HEY! YOU STOLE POLAND FROM ME! YOU SUCK!" but a declaration of war shouldn't follow this, instead you should move every available troop you have to the frontlines, as outdated as they all will be and through game mechanics, Germany cannot initiate a declaration of war until the second changing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Right before this point, you'd simply strat deploy nearly your entire armed forces to do what was a traditional tactic in hoi2 and hide behind the river that stretches basically across the entire country of the soviet union, concentrating most of your forces in a northern deployment and protecting Moscow, while ensuring Leningrad and Smolensk to Moscow do not fall at all costs, forcing a traditional and historic battle, where you will be in strictly defensive formations while Germany basically cannot cope with the amount of IC and manpower arrayed against it from all it's enemies. Soviet Union can now be in a state of volunteer army, building massive amounts of infantry and tanks, though probably outdated, sheer numbers from the events and the manpower you will receive will eventually claim the day and do not forget the bid here was eliminate the soviets before this scenario ever came to happen, western allies on your western front, soviet on the east. Understanding that I could do all this to myself from the soviet perspective makes it a one time "ha! gotcha!" plan. And in the reality of this, the basic and simple fact of manpower, I would do: landforts along the entire eastern german front, attacking Romania to continue the line, then concentrating the entire german effort on seizing control of sea lanes or of opening enough possibilities with the kriegsmarine you can stave off the second endgame, the crisis of a collapsing economy, maybe even a surprise "ha! gotcha to the classic industry building americans" cuz hey pretty much from day 1 even though a Molotov-Ribbentrop pact is signed and held up to it's letter, the soviet player on the other end is fully expecting this is only a nonaggression pact, Germany can never expect the soviets will never ever declare war on them . This brings to mind the old "unholy alliance" scenario of hoi2. Germany's entire strength is basically secrecy if you ask me and back to my original reason for writing this entire paragraph, all the rules players enforce on a MULTIPLAYER game, I don't see they're needed at all, from what I had seen in the past, all they're basically doing is ensuring Germany will lose and the allies will be victorious, and thusly in the past, I played nothing but the UK and never lost a single game as long as Germany didn't bowl down the soviets, which again usually didn't happen due to "I know for a fact until may or june of 1941 germany cannot attack me, so I am not even going to be ready for war until that date." I was usually told, nope, you're wrong, nope, nope, nope, the rules are needed etc, so I'd just back down and play the allies . Wasn't ever hardly a problem cuz people liked playing axis so much. Anyways, due to paradox hopping on board with steam and my game being from gamers gate, I can't even play MP if I wanted to, so I am basically just killing time, cuz it's as I stated in my very first post and I knew it all along, here is my battle plan vs the PC, I'll draw a big complex map for you. -------> forward and win cuz truthfully vs the computer, you just make 1 major breakthrough their frontline with not even half of the panzers and mobile units I have built and their entire frontline will redeploy to keep it encircled and not marching freely into territory, basically weakening their entire front where you can push them slowly but surely, province by province all the way to Moscow (and this only happening if you decided not to turn the breakthrough around and encircle), i'll take the screenshots and draw up how I did it all though, can't promise that Dies Irae isn't gonna throw in some wildcard I didn't foresee though, like for instance making danzig war impossible until sept 1 1939, my main goal here is speed


Edit: All that^^ is cuz basically, playing the AI means I would never need all these troops so the need for all these officers would be irrelevant. my airforce and navy would be much larger and unstoppable by the AI. I've actually had a few games where I just build big zoos of the other nations and see if I can get them to do what I want heh. Wars like USA vs Mexico, or allying of brazil/argentina and have them become the ruler of south America. I like to practice for MP games, hence not just cranking it up to very hard difficulty, I have a few times though edited the AI with massive amounts of resources, manpower, and IC. This lets me keep the amount of IC etc I would have in an MP game. that's what this is all about, fighting my imaginary foes .