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unmerged(53569)

Second Lieutenant
Feb 3, 2006
161
0
So my first sealion as Germany in DD was about the most messy affair I have ever been a part of in the HOI universe. Playing Hard 36 CG.....

Assaulting in August of 1940 I assembled a massive naval, land and airforce:

70 odd surface ships mostly level 4 including 5 CV and 5 BB plus a Nat. Spain allied fleet of 14 ships and of course my 9 transports

60 subs

60 infantry, 2 HQ, 3 Marines, 9 armor, 3 mot the latter two types all brigaded with sp art

12 TAC, CAS and INT plus 4 NAV

I made major sacrifices in pre-war production with long serial runs of ships. I was running big supply deficits for three years and constantly hanging by a thread to get the above. I used MC, good tactics, and groud attacks to take France and Poland with minimal forces because I had little to work with. You can't get Vichy with Destroyers....Needless to say I wasn't about to just lose all that work by being stupid.

So for sealion I watched the weather. I sent my INT on air superiority over the water, I sent the TAC, CAS and NAV on naval bombing missions. I placed my subs in screening positions in Waddenzee and the Wash. I placed my 30 ship main battle fleet in a screening position in the East English Channel. I used the remaining ships to protect my transports. Basing from Ghent I amphib assaulted Dover and played it all on slow speed. I swear I did everything in my power to keep my ships, planes and troops alive. In short, I was almost perfect.

The results....well I occupied the home islands, but they were garrisoned big time. I destroyed over 50 enemy divisions on the island and it took 3 months to take it up to Scapa flow. I sunk 1 CV, 2 BB, 3 CL in the process and probably decimated the Allied air forces by occupying their bases.

But I lost....

40 subs
all but 11 ships, including all my BB, CV, and transports and the entire Spanish fleet

4 CAS, 8 INT, 1 TAC

8 infantry divisions and an Armor division which went to the bottom of the Channel. 1 HQ bombed to oblivion by ground attack missions.

What a price! I had high doctrines and patience, and it still was one hell of a fight. Now Sealion is more like it should be, almost a suicide mission.

So, all I can say is the UK in DD is NOT the pushover it once was. Folks, don't try this at home. An enjoyable if expensive experience. Now I fear I will not be able to Barbarrossa any time soon :(
 
and the entire Spanish fleet

...its not the first time something like that has happened.

Very nice, I think the AI is a bit more rigorous...
 
In my current game it was the other way round. The Brits didn't even guard Portsmouth! No garrison, no div to push me back into the sea! And the Royal Navy didn't ever show up to blow my 2 CV/2 BB/... task force to the ground of the sea, only two tiny british destroyers continously tried to block my invading force, really pathetic. I could mop up the entire British isles with 1 panzer corps, 1 bergsjäger corps and 1 infantry army. The Luftwaffe was nearly non-existant.
It was hard/normal, Germany 1936. Took the british Isles in 1940.
 
I experienced both. Tried sealion in late '40 but failed spectacularly! Lost 30 ships, guarded with fighter-cover (2x4 groups, all upgraded to improved fighter). Also had 12 cas (also improved) to aid against the RN. My fleet consisted of all lvl4 ships. 2cv, 3cvl, 5ca, 5cl, 3dd and 12 tp. They crushed me! Not ONE ship survived. And they didn't use their whole navy neither, as i was fighting in the channel against 28 ships with my starting navy. Also, i probably wouldn't have made if i had gotten my troops in shore. They had 6 divisions in a lot of provinces, so they could probably defeat the remaining forces.

Since I did not have any useful ships left, i did barbarossa i '41, bitter peace fired in october, and i started building a new navy, now level 5. After having constructed 18 carriers (2 transport-fleets and a killer-fleet) and of course lots of ca and cl, i had another go in late '42. To my disappointment, the whole RN (except for i think ~10 old ships) had rebased to singapore to fight the japs. Not to mention that they only had like 7 divisions left to defend the island! Intelligence screen told me they had almost 50 divisions. Its probably just a balance-thing.
 
Got turned back in July 1940 (lost one transport fleet to a CV group). Second attempt (4 transports + 2 destroyers x 2) arrived in Norfolk (undefended) and then proceeded to beat up on the 2 infantry divisions and the HQ division the AI had thought sufficient to leave up in Edinburgh.

Gibraltar has a garrison of 40 divisions though. :)

Settings Normal/Normal. Vichy in November 1939.
 
I think the AI needs a bit of tweaking. A certain base level of troops have to be maintained in Europe no matter what happens elsewhere. Any excess over that base level can be sent to other theaters.

The AI needs to understand that.
 
Almost the exact same thing happend to me I managed to get 21 divisions to britian though until the fall wesurburg event fried and i got 12 more to britian and eventully won