German Infrastructure

[von Kluge]

I was wondering (johan or team) if the German Infrastructure in certain provinces would be much higher than those of say Britain or France? I think this would be the only way to represent the German railway system and the huge impact it made on both Fronts (after the collapse of Russia some Eastern Front divisions were transfered to the Western after only 2 days worth of time)with this system of railways Germany could get troops to and from where ever the pleased at a significantly higher rate of time and speed than any other European country at the time could muster. Well, again not a game-killer but something that could add a little bit to the strategy and over-all correctness of the game.

 

[unmerged(15579)]

It would certainly give the Germans one of the advantages they had IRL. I think the infrastructure would be somewhere around 70, whereas the other European nations have their infrastructure around 45-50.

 

[Allenby]

Surely you should judge infrastructure on its merits.

If western parts of Germany are going to have infrastructure around 70 then surely parts of Britain should have that too.

I think the way the BEF was mobilised was just as impressive - the Germans hadn't really realised that the BEF had landed at France, and were rather surprised when they bumped into them in Belgium.

 

[StephenT]

Equally impressive was the way the French quickly and stealthily transferred an entire Army from Alsace-Lorraine to Paris, catching the Germans by surprise in the Battle of the Marne.

Basically, the German rail advantage took the folllowing forms:

It's quicker to get from Metz to Warsaw if you can go by train, than if you have to go a roundabout route by sea. This is simply the benefit of interior lines, and nothing to do with any supposed superiority of German rail networks.

The Germans had spent 20 years planning out their mobilisation strategy in fine detail, with every train's route and timetable specified to the minute. That meant that within a day or so of mobilisation being ordered, the entire German Army was on the borders ready for action. However, this was strictly a one-time-only deal; the plan was incredibly rigid (notoriously so). I'm not sure how you could represent this in HoI, other than by using a "mobilisation" event to make a bunch of German divisions appear out of nowhere right on the Belgian border, while similar French and Russian events materialise their divisions scattered through the country. (This event would be instead of the manpower-bonus events discussed before).

Finally, the German province nearest Belgium (Aachen?) did have a number of major rail lines and stations built by the Government for military purposes, so would warrant an infrastructure equal to a fully-urbanised priovince, even though in reality it was quite rural. Otherwise, Germany's rail network was no better or worse than that of Britain, France, Belgium, Northern Italy or the eastern USA.

 

[unmerged(16020)]

A wartime event that increases all the infrastructure of Germany temporarily for two weeks maybe?

 

[Shadow Knight]

How much of a difference does having infra above 34. I was under the impression it was a slight movement bonus, but not enough really to matter.

But I would say for Western Europe (England, France, and Germany) would have a base of 50 in all provinces, with the more industrialized areas having higher depending on its IC rating.

EX) IC value => 5 then infra = 50
IC value = 6-7 infra = 60
IC value = 8-9 infra = 70
IC value = 10-12 infra = 80
IC value = 13-15 infra = 90
IC value < 15 infra = 99 (also the case for capitals)

 

[Shadow Knight]

Originally posted by StephenT

I'm not sure how you could represent this in HoI, other than by using a "mobilisation" event to make a bunch of German divisions appear out of nowhere right on the Belgian border, while similar French and Russian events materialise their divisions scattered through the country. (This event would be instead of the manpower-bonus events discussed before).

I was wondering about that, while I posted those total MP numbers I was wondering if the player would have to build the units or they would appear with the total MP for those units deducted from the first mobilization event.

 

[StephenT]

Originally posted by shdwknightx
I was wondering about that, while I posted those total MP numbers I was wondering if the player would have to build the units or they would appear with the total MP for those units deducted from the first mobilization event.

The trouble with making them build the units is that they would be waiting 3 months, or whatever, for them to appear!

Basically, there were three sections to each army: the peacetime regulars (who would start already in the game on 1 Jan '14); the reserves who had civilian jobs but were called back to the colours in August '14; and the masses of new volunteers who joined up, but would need months or even years of training before they were ready for action.

The last category is best represented by extra manpower, as you'd planned. How to account for the reserves is another question. I can think of two solutions:

a) As I suggested before, using a whole load of add_division events. I'm guessing the units would start with zero organisation, so would take a few days to become combat-ready, but that's no big problem.

b) Start the game with all the reserve divisions already on the map, but with only 5% strength (or whatever) to represent cadres. This way, we still give each country the big manpower boost (and extra supplies) on mobilisation, and they presumably use most of this manpower to replenish all the units to full strength. We'd need to test whether the AI can cope with this, or if it would try to launch attacks with just the cadre units, or disband them all on 2 January, or something equally daft...

 

[Shadow Knight]

I like option a) the best, it doesn't burden the AI with hordes of weak units that it may be tempted to declare war early with.

However b) does give the advantage of letting the player know their initial capability/strength for when war is declared.

Well I guess that is what beta-testing is for.