hendriks said:
I have never seen a 1100 IC for Germany at the start of Barbarossa, what is he playing on, super easy?
I suggest he plays a game with all settings on very hard, AI on agressive and CORE difficulty option C (gimme all), I have never gotten the IC in 1941 above 500 for Germany with those settings playing more or less historical, after industrial poly-tech (+5% IC) and initial USSR successes it usually runs between 550 - 600. Getting +200 infantry divisions + 34 tank etc means you either haven't spend any IC on research or your strenght of those units are really low.....
I consider myself an extreme veteran of the german-russo war and let me tell you, the 0.63 on all hardest settings IS challenging (because of the lack of MP, low IC and "expensive" techs). SU really has to be "taken" in 1942, letting them run into '43 will spell definite doom for Germany.
Actually Hendriks that game was on normal/normal, as my first game of 0.63 I felt seeing what the default difficulty and settings would yield would be a good result.
As to 1100 IC its rediculously easy to get, at least in normal. In 36' research should be geared towards theoretical techs in art, int, armor, industry also research in basic electromechanical computers with the next theorectical tech falling on afterwards. By Jan 37 you should be researching basic tanks and two steps up of industry and artillery. Replace frick with the man of the people minister, for additional man-power and reduced CG requirements. Side note: kill all the naval units you dont need them and the ~40IC drain for multiple years is a bad idea.
By march 38 when the aunschluss happens you should be able to begin back filling key techs guns, ammo, field guns, tank techs basic dive bombers and basic multirole fighters. Always upgrade the units you inherit from the austrians. Now is the time to begin massive unit construction, infantry only at this point. You should be able to get somewhere around 60 extra divisions in the field by the time the munich accords roll around.
With the sudetenland in your hands you get the late war experience tech immeditaly research divisonal reorg. That should take you about 130 days or around the first of feb 39. Hence forth only use the lower manpower waffen-ss divisions and always upgrade your current infantry to waffen-ss as time allows, you dont get a manpower rebate /sigh however in the future when they take cassulties they are much cheaper manpower wise to reinforce. In march 39 when the end of czech event fires split czech with hungary. By 1 jan 39 you should have basic 40 or basic 50 research completed and construction started on about 10 divisions. You should also have about 10 divisions of '44 volksturm motorised in the works. You should also have about 9-18 wings of stukas ready by 1 jun 39.
Invade poland on 1 july 39 or 1 aug 39 at the very most. When the MR pact fires choose no deals, the soviets never get so angry they DOW you immediately so /shrug. Cherry pick the polish VP provinces and garrision the eastern front with a series of FM with 9 infantry divisions on the front with the soviets, this will lead to the soviet front AI trying to get numarical superiority against you as a result just trickle in more infantry as they are constructed these leads to a positive AI feedback loop where he keeps reinforcing the frontier.
As soon as the poles are finished pull your 14 armor divisions back to the west, the three you start with the one the austrians have and the 10 you constructed. If you attacked the poles in Jul you should be facing the nederlanders in early aug at the latest smash them flat. DOW belgium and proceed to flaten everything trickeling 1 unit infantry behind your panzer blitz to hold the french from rallying behind your lines. When Vichy fires choose conquest. The huge thing is to keep rolling in france never slow down always stage your armor with a unit waiting to exploite the break through of the lead elements then rest the lead element and allow the exploiter to attack next, thus regaining org. Once all of continental france aside from the maginot has fallen ~ 1 nov 39 pound the maginot with aircraft tell you can finish them off.
Next step is to hit the Spanish, doesnt matter if they are republican or nationalist they are the weak spot in europe. you need 27 disvisions of infantry to garrision iberia, 3 per beach. Wait tell 1 apr 40 to launch this attack. Finishing spain will take about 3 months do to the crappy infastructure but thats ok. Meanwhile spilt your tank forces and dive bombers and simultaneously attack spain and yugo and annex both. DOW POR and take lisbon and camp 3 infantry there.
At this point you have germany, austria, sudtenland, memel, france, lux, neth, belg, spain, yugo and poland you should be getting ~30 manpower a month by mid 40. At this point you switch to frick as minister of security and jump to about 900 IC at which point you start on a major refit of the Heer concentrating on armor and artillery techs by 1 jan 41 you should have improved 70 or 80 mm researched. If in 41 you have been concentrating on the industrial tree you should finish the tree off for another 25%IC. In may of 41 as your new tanks hit the line prep in beograd for the invasions of hungary, romania and bulgaria simultaneously.
Garrisoning the balkans requires 18 infantry divisions so having them ready in the strategic redeploy box is a must. Once the armor seize the provinces necessary annex, hungary, romania, and bulgaria ~ 14 to 21 days max. Strategically redeploy the infantry to the beaches and move the armor up to the bessarbian frontier, you have bessarbia do to the no deals with the bolshiviks. About 1 Jun 41 DOW soviets if they havent DOW you already blitz the south.
Now here is the kicker do to the way the front AI works the soviets will be very leery of removing too many troops from the eastern german/soviet front so the winter war should with luck still be dragging on, especially since you have traded the Finns all the land doctrines you have and setup a resource and supply convoy to them from elbing. Even a couple of waffen-ss divisions with antitank and antiair brigades sent there will make the soviets bleed for months on end.
I know this is very long and filled with lots of what people already do but the thing to remember is the key to german victory is that they must be the sole european power. I go so far as to DOW Italy and invade them as well once you finish off the swiss. Leave the greeks and turks tell you have the soviets on their knees though, the same with latvia lithiuania and estonia.
BTW my tanks where 34 hard 33 soft 20 something defense 80mm improved mediums with engineer brigades at the launch of Barbarossa.
