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General ARMA 1.1 Germany tips, please!

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Mar 9, 2001
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Hello all,

I've read a lot of AAR's and the HOI II Wiki, but I want to ask these questions before I start another game; I've played 4 campaigns and lost them all, so I want to make sure I'm doing this right!

1- Will air wings consisting of nothing but Tactical Bombers with Escort attachments be enough to damage Soviet and French troops, or should I mix them with Fighters or Interceptors for defense?

My strategy is to use Tac Bombers to attack ground troops exclusively. My Interceptors will be patrolling areas where ground troops may not necessarily be close to...the Interceptors are playing defense, of course.

In other words, I hope it's safe to leave Tac Bombers to fend for themselves and attack so long as they have Escorts attached.

2- I never used Militia before. I read about the defense benefits, but should I use them in offensive measures? I will use them mixed with Infantry to protect against Soviet counterattacks in the future, but I am a little nervous about using them to initiate attacks.

3- I always annex the Balkans; is it better to ally with them? I'd rather annex them, obviously.

4- Anti-Air and Radar province improvements: how many, if any should I build? Do I need Infantry in the provinces for the improvements to work?

5- What options for the following should I choose to play a "fair" or realistic game?

Full IC Takeover
Diplomacy Can Start War
Tech Team Take Over

6- I'd prefer to never fight the US...I'm just looking to knock out Russia as fast as possible, as well as the UK. From there, I want to annex Turkey, Ireland, and all of the immediate minors. Invading the US seems a bit much right now.

7- Very basic question, but what is the difference between a Level 4 air base, and a Level 10 airbase?
Thanks in advance!
 
Quick answers...

1- Don't mix! 4 of a kind for best results.
2- Try some games without them. Read this. Proceed as you wish.
3- Better ally HUN ROM BUL and use their divisions with mil. control.
4- Don't build - have 3-4 INT near your IC rich provinces. No"workers" needed.
5- None of the above. Try Normal / Aggressive level.
6- As soon as you are sure that you can fire Bitter peace event with USSR, focus on your navy and transfer some divisions to the West... hit DC asap. Good luck.
7- I will take long to explain, take a look here
 
1) Definitely keep your air wings pure. They work much better that way. That said, you will need escort fighters, and your int and fighters need to be on air superiority. Also watch your air wings. Ground attack and interdiction eat up TACs and CAS a LOT faster in Arma than in DD.

2) Never really saw the point in militia. Some people swear by them though. I would use them as rear area beach guards and mobile partisan killers (though there are better units for it - Cavalry being my favorite)

3) All depends on your style of play. I play with full IC takeover and hate allies, so I always annex all the Balkan bubbas. This also gives me some opportunities to give my units more experience and something to do while I wait for my preferred Barbarossa start time (late May 41) Other people like the allies there. In Arma, partisan activity decreases over time, so the hit to your TC long term in somewhat neglible.

4) First off, you don't need infantry there for them to work. Also, radar is somewhat a waste of IC. It gives a small bonus to fighters fighting in THAT province. Still worth researching as it helps the radar brigades on your naval units. Provincial AA I have a love-hate relationship with. I like to build it, but it's not the most effective in the world. The best effect (and it's a good one) is I build level 10 on my ports holding my ships, and the RAF or USAF never come after them due to the flak threat. Otherwise, I've never gotten a lot of bang for buck on AA, but it's still cool. Just don't throw down a huge IC investment on it. Flak walls don't work, I've tried. Still worth researching though, as it helps the stats on your naval AA brigades though.

5) Most consider tech team takeover and IC takeover somewhat gamey and unrealistic. I agree IC takeover is really gamey (to an extent - we can get really deep into a historical discussion here - but let's not), but it is a LOT of fun to have the full unhampered industrial resources of Europe at your disposal. 18 CVs in parallel anyone? :) The tech team takeover is only gamey depending on who you play. Sounds like you're playing as Germany. That being the case - you won't even notice the other tech teams since yours are so good. I occasionally use a captured one for flavor, but that's about it (except for Niels Bohr from Denmark - GREAT nuclear research.

6) Invading the US is not as hard as it sounds. Your initial plan sounds good to me. To get a fleet, research light carriers and Super heavy BBs, and keep up with your naval doctrines (which suck, but will work). After you've gotten Bitter Peace, start building a fleet. You can't match US doctrine but the CVLs allow the SHBBs to close with and do serious damage to the US fleets. You will want a lot though as it will be kinda bloody. You could also try cruizergs or DDzergs (basically LOTs of either type). Then simply take a couple different routes; The northern route is Iceland - Greenland, Newfoundland, Canada / NE US. The central route is Azores to Bermuda to US east coast.

You will find that the US does not do a great job of defending itself, preferring to send its armies on wild adventures across the globe (I remember fighting US divisions in Archanglsk a couple times). That said, if you slow your attack or are new, the US can put together enough of a fight to make it fun. The size of the nation really opens up maneuver opportunities you won't get anywhere else. Personally, I think the maneuver campaign in the US is more fun than Barbarossa.

7) basically, the bigger the airbase the more aircraft can be based there without org regain penalties. If you stack a bunch of aircraft on a small base, they will regain org much slower than at a larger airbase.
 
All the questions answered for you, I'll just add a little bit on a couple of them.

Kintaro said:
1- Will air wings consisting of nothing but Tactical Bombers with Escort attachments be enough
Click to expand...

Unless you know the enemy fighter coverage is very low or non existant I would recommend a fighter sweep, and once they have engaged the enemy sufficiently to put them into repair or weakness, send in the escorted tacs.

Kintaro said:
4- Anti-Air and Radar province improvements: how many, if any should I build? Do I need Infantry in the provinces for the improvements to work?
Click to expand...

As Germany I don't think radars would be worth your while as most of your defensive dogfights will be over land, and a land radar only covers the province it is in. Coastal radars also cover adjacent sea zones, so is worth it for such as UK covering the channel as there will be a LOT of dogfights there (if UK I tend to just start building one at a time from mid 1936 onwards, when one is built, pick another province and build one there so the ic cost isn't really noticeable and does add flavour)

Kintaro said:
7- Very basic question, but what is the difference between a Level 4 air base, and a Level 10 airbase?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

I think the very basic answer is that if you have 6 damaged planes in a lvl 4 base means that 2 of them wont repair until one of the others is done repairing. But the link given by someone else is probably a better read. I never like to go too much into the maths of games, as I enjoy the flavour as much as the winning and losing.
 
Battlecruisers are the best German naval unit either in 36 when you build Scharnhorst Class or in 41 when you need to build a fleet to invade the USA. The Other way into the USA is Via Brazil as the AI doesn't defend that stretch of ocean very will.

Last time I tried a German naval game I think I sunk most of the RN and USN for the loss of a handul of BC and I sunk the Japanese fleet for good measure. Main advantage is you don't need to research new ship types just BC and CL or lvl V BC and CL in 1940 or so and build them early 41.
 
Thanks for the great feedback, everyone!

I'm still reading AAR's, but I don't want all the answers, just general tips...if that makes sense.

The militia issue is the only undecided matter...by all accounts, they are great for defense, but it just seems "wrong" to mix them with Infantry on assaults.

:D
 
1.) Personally I mix in some interceptors and fighters. You can still run alot of usefull missions with a wing made up of int and tacs even with short range, against the SU. If circumstances and your strategy allow you to build any strats I STRONGLY advise it. Even a couple have a big effect, especially on smaller nations.

2.)I would advise building as few militia as possible. Supply/oilwise garrisons are much more efficient. In this campaign I cover Europe with alot of garrisons, with a small number of militia to support their antipartisan activities scattered around. For coastal defense I try to have a good amount of inf, less garrisons and mil. I save garrisons and the small number of militia for contintental europe antipartisan shit. As Germany I wouldn't even consider putting them in my actual army. As Germany thats totally unnecesarry and a waste of resources. The SU can win by outproducing you in outdated militia and INF units. However Germany wins by having great tactics, combined arms, and up to date armies. The IC/time spent producing militia + the supplies/possibly oil it costs to maintain, is much better spent on other units (whether its land, air, or sea).

3.) Idk what your skill/experience is. For someone who has a lot of experience and has done this campaign before I'd say go ahead and annex them. If this is one of your first Germany campaigns where your trying to go long term and conquer the world, you really will need those troops they offer. Hungary, Romania, and yugo are all 30-40+ divisions each by 42, bulgaria is another 20-30. Its tough to pass down, and down the road you can always chew them up. Plus they offer a buffer against SU invading the German mainland. But don't expect their troops to fight as good as yours...

4.) Here's the deal... If you pull of a sealion which is very doable by 42, you will have almost no AA worries. THe alllies won't have any bases to attack you if you conquer British Mainland. This is the best way to get rid of all allied bombers. If that is not an option then I always buildup radar and AA in germany/France. Others will give you better answers to the exact numbers you need. Make sure to keep researching AA and radar technology, its well worth it. Plus I always throw AA on my garrisons and militia that are in areas subject to allied raids. Some would advise against it, but I do it to make up for lack of an adequate airforce. If you sacrifice some planes and buildup your navy a bit with some nice BB's and any CV's you can afford, then you will be able to conquer british isles. Some consider it gamey, but regardless its very possible. You will just have to play a cat and mouse game with your navy and the british navy, if you engage them to much or too long theyll obliterate your navy. The longterm payoff for knocking out the british isles early is HUGE.

5.) Full IC Takeover- OFF
Diplomacy Can Start War- OFF. Turning it on will create some great fireworks and an interesting game. But for realism you certainly must leave it off.
Tech Team Take Over- If your going for realism in this campaign I'd say turn it off. I leave it on alot of my campaigns, and turn it off for others. For Germany 36 I'll usually leave it on until I annex most of the European countries. Your gonna end up using almost alwyas German tech teams anyways. I just do it to get a couple decent naval techs, Germany has great techs overall.

6.) Ofcourse everyone as Germany does not want to fight the US. Your strategy is sound and solid, stick to it. Problem is USA usually end up in the allies sometime in 43-45, if not sooner. The only option is to not fight the allies, which isn't always doable as its tough to go through Russia without going thru Poland. As Germany 36 I just assume I'll be at war with USA. My mindset is that I will conquer and secure Eurasia and Africa. If I'm able to reach that point then the USA won't be able to do anything to me. Fight them on your terms, not theirs. Their navy will chew you up. Usually as Germany one cannot afford to invest in a supreme Kriegsmarine till late in the game. Also keep in mind the USA may decide to declare war on you regardless of whether or not they are in the allies. One of the previous posters was right, in that invading the USA isn't as hard as it sounds. Problem is it takes time and precious IC to create the navy, convoys, and airforce you need for that initial invasion. Influencing USA, guaranteeing their independence, getting a non-aggression pact early in the game if possible, are all things I do to them so I can improve my relations with them. If the USA is at -200 relations with you, they're alot more likely to DOW or enter allies against you. Than if they're relations are at +200 with you.

Once I secure Eurasia/Africa I start closing in on the USA. I start a war in Canada, intending to get bogged down. Then I get a foothold in central America somewhere and start working my to mexico. They will ally with US and I get bogged down in Central Mexico. After this I then flood the west coast, alaska, florida, and the east coast with troops. The USA craps its pants, all its fronts collapse, and you swallow North America.

7.) idk

For 36 and 37 (or atleast part of it) you should be building up your Industrial Capacity, producing few troops. As Germany I'm always trigger happy and just want to invade everyone. But I've found waiting for all the events to play out, Anschuluss, annexation of Czecho, getting Polish national provinces, memel, etc., is well worth it. I like to do sealion before I invade SU. Then goto war with SU 42/43. Waiting until 44 to go to war with SU is a very very bad idea, youll prob get clobbered. I really don't like going to war with them in 43 for that matter.

Get Portugal, Nationalist Spain, and Argentina in your alliance. You can get all of them with no cheats, assuming you have the money to influence them. They don't like to join your alliance as much when your at war with allies and have high belligerence.

One final note: Nukes are well worth the investment. It makes conquering the USA so much easier, along with Sealion if you haven't launched it yet. Once you get nukes everyone is your bitch. Also V1 and V2s are great for invading USA. You can place them in Airbases outside the USA and seriously mess up the USA's IC, and supply efficiency during your initial invasion. But I've launched most of my succesful invasions of USA without them, however they are a big help.
 
Thanks so much, Gadz13!

I still pretty much suck at this game (I need to work on managing my battles more efficiently) and I've had the idea of playing an Axis UK just for fun.

I appreciate your feedback.

Just one last question for now: is it possible to defeat the Soviets as Germany without using encirclements? The last time I invaded the Soviets, my encirclement strategy was shredded, and my troops became encircled, instead of the other way around.

I know I'll use your suggestions in the future.
 
is it possible to defeat the Soviets as Germany without using encirclements? The last time I invaded the Soviets, my encirclement strategy was shredded, and my troops became encircled, instead of the other way around.
Click to expand...

It is possible but i think the conventional wisdom is to use encirclements. Maybe you can beat SU back to Moscow or Stalingrad. But your gonna have to deal with a bigger army in the marshes and tundra of Siberia and central asia. That can be a pain if you haven't encircled them earlier. If you get overagrressive with encirclements you will get burnt eventually and lose units. Next time around play it more conservativley. There's nothing wrong with going for a safe encirclment of 2-5 units, instead of going for the riskier encirclment of 20 units. Youll get it sometimes but not all the time. I'd do encirclements but be a bit cautious and do it when you know you have a good shot, not just doing it everytime you can. Whenever I have encirclements I direct all of my airforce in the region to bombing that province.

Also keep in mind SU has endless supply of Manpower and lots of IC. They produce alot of INF, especially late in the game when germany has manpower struggles. Encircling their divisions acts a sort of equalizer or balancer for you, because if they have less or equal divisions than you then your technology and tactics will dominate even more.

A common mistake I make is being way to aggressive against SU for the first year or two of the war. Because if your overagressive then you drain alot more manpower over time. Your winning battles yes, but theyll be harder down the road cuz u have less manpower. Ive gotten bitterpeace with Manpower shortage, but it is never pretty. Especially if your fighting a two front war. Its tempting to smash them as much as you humanly can. And I know you can fight lots of battles agianst SU, recover quickly and keep on the offensive. But keep in mind the unneccesarry manpower you spend in battles.

Good luck!
 
Barbarossa only takes on average around 3 months and maybe a year or 2 on very hard. You can easily smash them without encirclements by.

1. Large amounts of CAS used on retreating troops. Requires a bit of micromanagement.
2. Large amounts of panzers using over run.

Germany can actually field around 40-50 panzer divisions for Barbarossa and you can rush 41 Panzers in inf by 1939/early 40. To overrun you attack an enemy province but you dont use simaltaneous arrival. Your fast units such as Panzers and mech infantry seize the province and immediately advance into the province the retreating AI stack is retreating to. You can usually beat them there and destroy whole stacks of Soviet units in the Ukraine this way. If you "herd" the Soviets units into kill ones like that you can really shred the red army to pieces espicialy when combined with limited encirclement and CAS.
 
Zardnaar said:
Barbarossa only takes on average around 3 months and maybe a year or 2 on very hard. You can easily smash them without encirclements by.

1. Large amounts of CAS used on retreating troops. Requires a bit of micromanagement.
2. Large amounts of panzers using over run.

Germany can actually field around 40-50 panzer divisions for Barbarossa and you can rush 41 Panzers in inf by 1939/early 40. To overrun you attack an enemy province but you dont use simaltaneous arrival. Your fast units such as Panzers and mech infantry seize the province and immediately advance into the province the retreating AI stack is retreating to. You can usually beat them there and destroy whole stacks of Soviet units in the Ukraine this way. If you "herd" the Soviets units into kill ones like that you can really shred the red army to pieces espicialy when combined with limited encirclement and CAS.
Click to expand...

I agree with everything you just said BUT 40-50 panzer divisions???? That's a LOT of tanks and a some serious strain on TC and oil. The most armor I've ever used is 8 corps of 3 divisions each, so 24 panzer divisions. Then, I also build about 30-36 motorized and about 24 mech too, so maybe the numbers add up.

Another note on armor, in my mind, it's simply not worth building an armor division without giving it SParty. Gives you a nice punch when you need it.

Building notes aside, the longest I've ever had a Barbarossa last was a year (May 41 - May 42). That was primarily because I like to encircle a BP province, drive deep into Siberia (up to Tanna Tuva), liberate all the SU asian republics, and, if possible, annex and liberate Tanna Tuva and Mongolia. Yes, this causes some dissent, but I role play the great military parade event, because in my mind, the volk of germany don't really care if I set up a puppet government in Kazakhstan.
 
Most of the time I actually don't do bitter peace and push on to Vladivostok. After awhile it doesn't require that many divisions if you have properly done encirclements. and it allows you to attack allied Asia, and get oil. By that point though I have sealion done. Although I definitley see and have played with the benefits from Bitter Peace.
 
Hello all,

I tried to use "The Amphibious Option: Spain" technique found on the Wiki page. I DOW against Republican Spain, parked my transports and other ships right off the coast of Republican Spain, and gave the order for my INF troops to attack, but no luck.

My troops had a ETA of when to attack, the ETA deadline would pass, and my troops would never leave their transports. The ETA would change to the next day, and nothing would happen.

I created extra convoys and kept the "auto manage" option on, too.

I did look at the menu for the troops, and I did see that they were out of supply (?).

Thanks in advance.
 
Disregard that last post, I re-loaded and now I can invade!

Attacking Republican Spain makes things a lot more interesting!

The Wiki guide recommends only 9-18 divisions, but that number seems low. The war in Spain also gets chaotic; if I beat down the Republicans too much, than the Nationalists take provinces that I want. This is also the same if I hold back too much.

Just to test things out, I DOW on the Nationalists while at war with the Republicans, and my belligerence level shot up to 42!

How high can my belligerence level get without a war by the Allies? I'm trying to get away with as much as I can before the "War or Danzig" event.

Any other suggestions regarding Spain will be appreciated.
 
The key to Spain is to end it quick fast and in a hurry. High belligerence only works in 36 and maybe 37 due to the slider positions of most of the allies. So, commit as many divisions as necessary to kill everyone there FAST. Remember, Hitler increases your belligerence by something like 1 a month every month you're at war.

Another technique that works, but takes a lot longer, is to improve relations with Nat. Spain, ally with them, then come to their aid in the war. This *might* reduce your belligerence for this, but I honestly can't remember. This also has the benefit of allowing you to mil control the Nat. Spanish divisions requiring you to send less troops. However, the downside is, by the time Nat. Spain feels like allying with you, they can be nearly dead.
 
ecnan02 said:
I agree with everything you just said BUT 40-50 panzer divisions???? That's a LOT of tanks and a some serious strain on TC and oil. The most armor I've ever used is 8 corps of 3 divisions each, so 24 panzer divisions. Then, I also build about 30-36 motorized and about 24 mech too, so maybe the numbers add up.

Another note on armor, in my mind, it's simply not worth building an armor division without giving it SParty. Gives you a nice punch when you need it.

Building notes aside, the longest I've ever had a Barbarossa last was a year (May 41 - May 42). That was primarily because I like to encircle a BP province, drive deep into Siberia (up to Tanna Tuva), liberate all the SU asian republics, and, if possible, annex and liberate Tanna Tuva and Mongolia. Yes, this causes some dissent, but I role play the great military parade event, because in my mind, the volk of germany don't really care if I set up a puppet government in Kazakhstan.
Click to expand...

In this scenario Germany just spams Panzers all with SPA. No mot or mech inf and probably not much in the way of inf either.X8 or X10-12 arm production any left over IC inf. Give Hungary Slovakia in 38 and build your army after rushing 41 inf and arm and ruch the production lines as well.
 
Zardnaar said:
In this scenario Germany just spams Panzers all with SPA. No mot or mech inf and probably not much in the way of inf either.X8 or X10-12 arm production any left over IC inf. Give Hungary Slovakia in 38 and build your army after rushing 41 inf and arm and ruch the production lines as well.
Click to expand...

Cool, never tried that, but I may have to give it a go sometime.
 
Yeah basically you skip the IC invested into having to upgrade your units. I'm trying it now and got lucky with blueprints for 39 inf from a random event and had them researched in 37 and started rushing 41 inf. Poland and France are going to be interesting with 36 inf and the Hungarian Army to do the dirty work. Leave around 10IC left over for supplies and stockpile rares and oil pre war. I'm trying X4 lines of factories with my initial buiild and reinvesting the IC into more factories.
 
A short summary for GER vs UK after beating FR and RU

As Germany I used naval bombers to control the northern sea and atlantic as soon as I have conquered France.
These bombers are cheaper than building big ships and faster to build. But before that I had to regain air supremacy over Western Europe.
My navy was constantly pumping submarines, ready to catch all convois. I placed 1 sub on each area to find out where the UK and US fleets take their route.
For ground control I don't give a single IC to tanks. Mechs are cheaper, faster to build and if you research fast enough they are stronger, too.
You need to research them anyways if you want air cavalry. I did so and used them to take the last parts of russia in no time as well as the land based attack from the north to the British divisions in India.
I didn't bother with London in the first place. I kept building subs and some transports in parallel and gathered strong forces on all European coasts. Remember: I still weakened their navy by air attacks.
Sure I could have invaded London, but I didn't want to waste my armies in the sea by meeting the royal navy. ;-)
The UK tried to ship their armies to India. And what surprise: German subs everywhere.
After a while my mechs from russia rushed through arabia and split into two army groups: africa and asia. The Africa group was strong enough to enter Egypt and hunt the British army to the cap. The Asia group then finally met my air cavalry in India and joined them to make way to Indochina and Indonesia.
From there on it was a jump to Australia.
By this time UK was really weakend because their stream of supply from the colonies was cut down to almost zero and trade with other nations became hard.
Sure they fought each submarine, but in the end I produced so many I could walk from Hamburg to New York without getting wet toes.
You get it: London was almost ready. To finish them off I focused on bombers and rockets. I crippled their air defence, infrastructure, harbours and air bases. Then I sent in my fighters to attack the ground units and fired all rockets. My transports filled with well experienced armies simultaneously landed on all eastern coast, protected by naval bombers, subs and ships flanking north and south.

As you can see I have some basic rules for my games:
- It's not necessary to build all types of units every time.
- Don't invade by sea if you can't arrive and/or beat the defenders.
- Focus on your present target and prepare for the next
- Gain air supremacy to constantly send in bombers every where.
- Spam the seas with all subs you have and get rid of these ridiculous convois, transports, ships.
- Distract the enemy and lure him to areas where you want him to be. Never let him decide the next battle field.
- Research fast and focused.
 
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